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Terence M. Yhip · Bijan M. D. Alagheband
The Practice
of Lending
A Guide to Credit Analysis
and Credit Risk
The Practice of Lending
Terence M. Yhip • Bijan M. D. Alagheband
The Practice
of Lending
A Guide to Credit Analysis
and Credit Risk
Terence M. Yhip Bijan M. D. Alagheband
University of the West Indies McMaster University and
Mississauga, ON, Canada Hydro One Networks Inc.
Toronto, ON, Canada
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the
whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or
information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does
not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective
laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are
believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors
give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions
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and institutional affiliations.
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
v
vi Preface
risk consistently to be able to price and capitalise the risk. This second point
leads to the question of what tools are available in the risk assessor’s analyti-
cal toolbox.
To begin let us introduce the criteria-based approach to credit risk rating.
It conforms to the AIRB approach of a two-dimensional credit-rating system.
The criteria-based method belongs to a class of models called expert-judgement
and it amounts to constructing a scorecard of a borrower’s risk profile. The
advantage of such hybrid models, compared to purely statistical models
(which we will also discuss), is their ability to process a large volume of quan-
titative and qualitative information in a structured format, namely, the score-
card. This book equips the reader with the principles and the techniques to
build such a scorecard from scratch—information that is not available in
books and articles in current circulation. We provide a practical application in
rating a (fictional) passenger airline. To summarise the important features of
the criteria-based approach are the following:
• Increased objectivity: We cannot get away from the fact that credit risk assess-
ment and risk rating are opinions. Much of the information is qualitative,
for example, management quality, so that subjectivity cannot be avoided.
The challenge for the credit analyst is to minimise bias. We claim that the
risk criteria approach will not eliminate subjectivity but it will reduce it
because ultimately the selected criteria are subject to validation.
• Risk rating consistency and replicability: Within a portfolio, the ratings
assigned by analysing the same set of borrower information should be the
same, irrespective of who is performing the risk assessment. Across portfo-
lios, all rated counterparties are subject to a single or standard rating scale.
• Flexibility and transparency: A model is a simplification of reality and
therefore cannot capture every detail. Still, accuracy in the risk rating must
take precedence because a risk rating is a principal component in credit
decisions, pricing, and the capitalisation of risk. Therefore, there needs to
be sufficient flexibility that allows the user to override or modify model
results with the benefit of additional material information. In this book, we
discuss the override functionality and the safeguards for risk rating integrity.
• Customisation: Every industry has its own set of risks and we show that the
criteria-based approach is perfectly suited for customisation.
how to (a) test the theories on real data for companies and countries, (b)
improve the fitted equations, and (c) interpret and apply the regression results.
This book attempts to bridge this knowledge gap. Part II of this book presents
material that makes it easier for beginners to gain proficiency in using
these tools.
This book is organised in three parts. Part I, “The Criteria-Based Approach
to Credit Assessment and Credit Risk Rating” presents the methodology, the
techniques, and specific expert-judgement models. Our objective is that by
the end of Part I, with all the practical examples, one would be able to apply
the tools and the techniques to design a Borrower Risk Rating (BRR) score-
card for any industry that one examines.
Chapter 1, “Credit Analysis and Credit Management”, is an overview of
the big themes that readers can expect in the book. This chapter starts with a
discussion on creditworthiness. We include a discussion on information
asymmetry and the problems they cause in lending and credit rating. We out-
line the loan underwriting process, review “Five Cs” method of credit analysis,
and introduce “The Criteria-Based Approach to Credit Analysis”. This chap-
ter discusses loan administration in the context of managing credit risk.
Chapter 2, “Financial Statements Analysis”, introduces financial ratio anal-
ysis and reviews the important ratios used in credit analysis. This chapter
serves as a refresher on how to read financial statements, calculate, and inter-
pret financial ratios. It gives a detailed discussion on off-balance sheet liabili-
ties and presents methods to capitalise such obligations in the section,
“Off-balance Sheet Debt”. The importance of accurate financial disclosures is
discussed. Financial ratios by themselves are not a perfect tool, so we look into
its limitations under “Uses and limitations of Ratio Analysis”.
Chapter 3, “The Criteria-Based Approach to Credit Assessment and Credit
Risk Rating”, introduces the methodology for designing a consistent, trans-
parent, and replicable risk rating system. We guide the reader through each
step in the section, “The Framework of Credit Risk Assessment”, thus laying
the theoretical foundations of an industry-specific scorecard. In the section,
“Assembling the Risk Criteria on a Scorecard”, this chapter presents the
framework of the criteria-based approach, and the building blocks consisting
of Risk Criteria, Risk Factors, weights, and Descriptors. We show how to
apply the principles and concepts in a computer spreadsheet.
Chapter 4, “The Building Blocks of Credit Analysis and Credit Risk
Rating”, takes the reader into the practical details of a credit risk scorecard.
We achieve this result by applying the general principles outlined in Chap. 3
to each building block. We look at Country and Sovereign Risk, Industry
viii Preface
xi
Contents
xiii
xiv Contents
Index441
List of Figures
xxi
xxii List of Figures
Fig. 7.7 Regulatory capital to risk weighted assets. (Source: Federal Reserve
Economic Data) 337
Fig. 7.8 Normal curve of total capital ratios for all banks in the world 339
Fig. 8.1 Prediction with probit model 355
Fig. 8.2 Cumulative logit vs. cumulative normal 357
Fig. 8.3 Predictions of logit and probit models 372
Fig. 8.4 Shift in the distribution of credit scores 378
Fig. 9.1 Cross-border lending (US dollars, trillion). (Source: BIS
Consolidated Banking Statistics) 384
Fig. 9.2 Sovereign defaults (US$ millions). (Source: Bank of Canada,
CRAG)385
Fig. 11.1 NPLs and LLR to Gross Loans for all US banks 432
List of Tables
Table 1.1 National regulators of the financial system of the United States,
the United Kingdom, and Canada 8
Table 1.2 RBC internal ratings map 16
Table 1.3 Transaction request template for commercial banking 24
Table 1.4 A checklist of covenants to protect the interests of the lender 29
Table 2.1 Income statement and common-sized income statement 57
Table 2.2 Balance sheet ($ mm) 70
Table 2.3 Statement of cash flows ($ mm) 71
Table 2.4 Symmetrical effects of using financial leveraging 78
Table 2.5 Capital and operating leases ($ mm) 85
Table 2.6 Estimating PV of operating lease payments 87
Table 2.7 Finding IRR from capital lease 88
Table 2.8 Implicit interest rate on L-T debt 88
Table 2.9 The effects of operating lease adjustments, 2015 ($ mm) 90
Table 3.1 Mapping between rating category, letter grade, and composite
numeric score 101
Table 3.2 BRR scorecard template 110
Table 3.3 EBITDAR margin descriptors 112
Table 3.4 Summary of scorecard calculations 114
Table 3.5 Definitions of financial predictor variables 122
Table 4.1 GDP per capita growth (annual) 128
Table 4.2 Porter’s five forces and their effects on competition in the
industry132
Table 4.3 Historical growth rate in earnings by industry (global) 139
Table 4.4 Industry correlation with GDP 143
Table 4.5 Comparison between low and high operating leverage 146
Table 4.6 Net property, plant, and equipment to total assets (global) 147
Table 4.7 Summary of S&P industry risk assessment 150
xxiii
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who live in common, under an abbot, imitating the life of the
apostles. Second, Anchorites, who, after they have been instructed
and educated in monasteries, withdraw into the deserts. The authors
of this order were St. Paul the hermit and St. Anthony. And third, the
Sarabaites, who pretended to retire from the world, and joined
themselves together by two or three in a company, to live after their
own humour, not being subject to any man. He looks upon these but
as a corruption of the monastic state rather than a distinct order. He
adds to these a fourth sort of monks, made of those who, not being
able to endure the monastic life in a convent, retreated alone into
certain cells to live more at liberty, but praises the second as the
most perfect. In his nineteenth conference, an abbot called John,
who had been an anchorite and had entered a monastery, is asked
which of the two orders was to be preferred, and replies that he
thought the life of the cœnobites best for those who were not
absolutely perfect, and shows that none but those who have attained
to a degree of eminent perfection are capable of living the life of a
hermit.[439] Another of these ancient fathers, Nilus, who had betaken
himself to a solitary life in the desert of Sinai, and died about the
year 451, writes a treatise upon the question whether the life of the
Anchorites, or Hermits, whom he also calls Hesycasts, or Quietists,
who dwell in solitude, is to be preferred before the life of those
religious who dwell in cities, and states that this is a question about
which the judgment of spiritual men is much divided. Those who
prefer the religious who live in communities in cities before the
anchorites, say that they have more worth because they meet with
more opposition; whereas those who live in solitude being quiet and
not subject to temptations, have not so much virtue; to which Nilus
replies that there are as many temptations in solitude as in cities,
and that the reason why some persons argue so is because they
regard outward sins only, not considering that there are infinite
temptations and spiritual sins which encounter us as well in privacy
as in cities; and he therefore supports the opinion that the solitary life
is the higher form of the religious life.[440] Isidore of Seville, too, in the
seventh century, distinguishes between the different kinds of monks,
and says that the Cœnobites are they that live in common, like those
in the days of the apostles, who sold their goods and had all things in
common; the Hermits, they that withdraw into desert places and vast
solitudes in imitation of Elias and John the Baptist, delighting, with a
wonderful contempt of the world, in total solitude; and the
Anchorites, they who, having perfected themselves in cœnobitical
life, shut themselves up in cells apart from the aspect of men,
inaccessible to all, and living in the sole contemplation of God.[441]
But Bede, who was a Benedictine monk, seems also to regard the
life of an anchorite as a higher form of religious life, when in his
History he says of Cudberct on his retiring to the island of Farne,
that, ‘advancing in the merits of his devout intention, he proceeded
even to the adoption of a hermit life of solitary contemplation and
secret silence;’ and, in his Life, that ‘he was now permitted to ascend
to the leisure of divine speculation, and rejoiced that he had now
reached the lot of those of whom we sing in the Psalm, The saints
shall go from virtue to virtue; the God of Gods shall be seen in
Sion.’[442]
The preference for this mode of life, as the highest form of a
religious life that could be attained, seems to have arisen from an
overstrained interpretation of some passages of Scripture. Thus
Bede, in the beginning of his Life of Cudberct, tells us that he ‘would
hallow its commencement by quoting the words of the prophet
Jeremiah, who, in lauding the state of the perfection of the anchorite,
says, “It is good for a man who hath borne the yoke from his youth;
he shall sit alone and keep silent, because he shall raise himself
above himself.”’[443] But the preference of the solitary life as the
highest form of asceticism seems to have been mainly founded upon
two passages in the New Testament. One is that passage in the
Epistle of St. James in which he winds up his exhortation by saying,
‘Pure religion and undefiled, before God and the Father, is to visit the
widows and fatherless in their affliction, and to keep himself
unspotted from the world;’ or, as a literal rendering of the old Latin
version would be, ‘Pure and immaculate religious service towards
God and the Father is this, to visit the infants and widows in their
tribulation, and to keep oneself immaculate from this world.’[444] By an
overstrained interpretation of this passage it was assumed that a
person could only keep himself immaculate from the world by
withdrawing himself from it altogether, and from all association with
his fellow-creatures, except in works of benevolence to those in
distress; and that this was a form of religion peculiarly acceptable to
God and the Father. The other passage is that in the First Epistle of
St. Peter, where it is said, ‘But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show
forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His
marvellous light; which in times past were not a people, but are now
the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, but now have
obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.’[445]
And this was interpreted to mean that those who passed their lives in
mortifying the body and praising God by singing the psalter, in living
in this world as strangers from all society and as pilgrims to a better
world, were a peculiar people and entitled to call themselves the
people of God.
Anchorites called They thus came to the conclusion that a
Deicolæ or God- solitary life passed in devotion and self-
worshippers. mortification, accompanied by acts of
benevolence to the sick and bereaved, was a ‘cultus’ or ‘religio’
peculiarly acceptable to God and the Father; and hence they were
called, if they did not call themselves so, Deicolæ, or God-
worshippers, in contrast to Christicolæ, the name applied in a
general sense to all Christians, and, in a narrower application, to
monks leading a cœnobitical life. Thus in the Life of St. Anthony,
written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, who introduced
monachism into the Western Church, and translated into Latin by
Evagrius, a priest of Antioch, in the year 358, we find it stated that
‘the neighbours and the monks whom he often visited, seeing St.
Anthony, called him a Deicola, and, indulging in the expression of
natural affection, they loved him, some as a son, others as a
brother.’[446] Again, Martinus, a bishop, who terms himself Scotus, or
a native of Ireland, writing to Miro, king of Gallicia, in the sixth
century, probably about the year 560, regarding ‘the rules of an
honest life,’ says that he will not urge him to follow ‘those more
arduous and perfect rules which are practised by a few very
excellent Deicolæ.’[447] Columbanus, too, in his second instruction or
sermon to his monks, says, ‘Whosoever, therefore, willeth to be
made a habitation for God, let him strive to become lowly and quiet,
that not by glibness of words, nor by suppleness of body, but by the
reality of his humility he may be recognised as a Deicola; for
goodness of heart requireth not the feigned religion of words;’[448] and
a disciple of Columbanus, who followed out this life after his master
had been driven out of Luxeuil with his monks, retired to a solitary
spot called Luthra in the midst of a forest, now Lure in the district of
Besançon, ‘But his virtues having attracted religious men to him from
all quarters, he formed a community of monks and erected two
oratories; and, after governing his monastery for several years, he
appointed one of his disciples abbot in his stead, and again withdrew
to a solitary cell, where he devoted himself to divine contemplation
till his death about 625. This man bears no other name in the
calendars than Deicola, and his memory is still held in high
estimation by the people of that country, who call him Saint Die.’[449]
Anchorites called We find, too, these solitaries also called the
the people of God. people of God. In the ancient Life of St. Patrick
written by Probus, he tells us that, after Patrick had passed four
years with St. Martin of Tours, where he was trained in monastic life,
an angel appeared to him and said, ‘Go to the people of God, that is,
to the hermits and solitaries, with naked feet, and live with them, that
you may be tried for some time; and he went into a solitude, and
remained with the hermits eight years.’[450]
The conception of this ‘cultus’ of God is well expressed in a
passage of Simeon of Durham, who, in his History of the Kings,
under the year 781, says, some 250 years after, of a certain Dregmo,
in the territory of the church at Hexham, that ‘he greatly feared God
and diligently devoted himself, as far as his means allowed, to the
exercise of works of charity, leading a life in all respects apart from
the customs of his countrymen—a man of remarkable simplicity and
innocence, and of profound devotion and reverence towards the
saints of God; on which account his neighbours held him in great
honour, and called him a true God-worshipper.’[451]
In the seventh century attempts were made by several councils to
bring the solitaries more under the monastic rule. By the fifth canon
of the Council of Toledo, held in 646, it was provided that ‘well-
instructed monks alone should be allowed to live separate from a
cloister as recluses, and become the trainers of others in the higher
forms of ascetic life. Those recluses and wanderers who are
unworthy must be brought within a cloister, and in future no one must
be devoted to this highest form of the ascetic life, as a recluse, who
had not first been trained in a monastery to the knowledge and
practice of the monastic life.’[452] By the Council of Trullo, held in 692,
it was provided, by canon 41, that those who would live separate in
their own cells must have first passed three years in a monastery,
and that any one who has once withdrawn himself to a solitary cell
must not again leave it; and by canon 42 that, as there are hermits
who come to the towns in black clothing and long hair, and associate
with secular persons, it is ordered that such persons shall be
tonsured and enter a monastery, wearing the monastic dress. If they
will not do this, they must be expelled from the town.[453]
A.D. 747. Such attempts, however, seem to have had
Order of Secular little effect, and the next century was to see the
Canons instituted. Anchorites and Recluses, who lived apart from
the monastic rule, and practised what they considered the highest
form of asceticism, and the secular clergy, who had never come
under the monastic rule, but were subject only to the general canon-
law of the church, brought more together, a tendency to which
indeed had probably already manifested itself in the end of the
previous century, which the forty-second canon of the Council of
Trullo was designed to check. For though nothing could be more
opposed in spirit, than the secular life of the ordinary clergy on the
one hand and the ascetic life of the anchorites on the other, forming,
as it were, the opposite poles of the ecclesiastical system, yet they
had one feature in common—that both lived separately, in opposition
to the cœnobitical life of the monks. The new institution which thus
brought them together was that of the secular canons, founded by
Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, in the year 747. His rule was at first
intended for his clergy of Metz alone, with a view of leading them to
adopt a more regular life in the ecclesiastical sense of the term. This
rule consists of thirty-four chapters. By the third he directs that the
canon clerics shall live together in a cloister, and shall all sleep in
one dormitory, with the exception of those to whom the bishop shall
give permission to sleep separately in their own dwellings within the
cloister; that no woman or layman is to enter the cloister without an
order from the bishop, the archdeacon, or the ‘primicerius’; that they
shall eat in the same refectory, that laics shall only be allowed to
remain in the cloister as long as they have work, and that those living
separately within the cloister must live alone and have no other cleric
with them. By the ninth chapter he enjoins them to perform the bodily
labours in common as well as in private. By the thirty-first he enjoins
his clerics to give to the church what real property they have,
retaining the income only, but gives them leave to reserve to
themselves their moveable property, for almsgiving, and to dispose
of it as they please by their wills.[454]
Deicolæ brought The object of this rule was certainly to bring the
under canonical secular clergy of this town to live a cœnobitical
rule. life, but with such relaxations as would both allow
it to be considerably modified towards certain of the body, and to
permit the recluses, though not expressly named, to be included
within it; but the new canonical life became so popular, that the rule
was revised and enlarged, so as to adapt it to the state of the clergy
generally, and enable it to be extended over the whole church. This
revised rule consists of eighty-six chapters. By the thirteenth it is
provided that within the cloisters there shall be dormitories,
refectories, cellars and other habitations; that all shall sleep in one
dormitory, living as brethren in one society, except those to whom the
bishop shall give leave to sleep separately on separate couches in
their own dwellings in the cloister, with seniors among them to watch
over them; and that no female or laic shall enter the cloister. Chapter
thirty-nine bears that, as there is an evil zeal of bitterness which
separates from God and leads to destruction, so there is a good zeal
which separates from vice and leads to God and eternal life:
therefore they ought to exercise zeal with the most fervent love, as
servants of God (Servi Dei). The eighty-first chapter, however, deals
directly with the Deicolæ, with the view of bringing them under the
canonical rule. It consists of ‘the epistle of a certain Deicola, sent in
the name of Christ to the priests and clerics for their instruction and
exhortation;’ and it is addressed ‘to the beloved priests in the
churches of Christ, the bishops and all the clergy therein
everywhere, and their servants, and to all the Deicolæ living in the
whole world.’[455] He begs of them that, ‘living justly, piously and
holily, they should show a good example to others, and live with soul,
heart and body under the canonical rule.’ He exhorts ‘all clerics
under them to give humble obedience, and endeavour to fulfil the
canonical rule without murmuring, serving the Lord willingly; seeing
that every man ought to be subject to the higher powers and those
put over them, how much more should they, as servants of God
(Servi Dei), humbly obey their provosts?’ He finally exhorts them to
be mindful ‘of the canonical rules, and to have their precepts always
before their eyes.’[456] By the General Council held at Aix-la-Chapelle
in 816 and 817, this canonical rule was adopted, and a number of
canons were passed to give effect to it, with some modifications.
They begin with the 114th canon. The 117th canon provides that
each bishop must see that the cloister in which his clerics live is
enclosed with a strong wall; the 120th, that those clerics who
possess property of their own and an income from the church shall
receive from the community their daily food only, with a share of the
oblations. Those who have no private means are entirely supported
and clothed. By the 135th, the boys and youths who are educated in
the canonry shall be well cared for and instructed, be placed under a
senior canon and dwell together in the upper floor of a house. By the
141st, each bishop must provide a hospital for the poor and
strangers, and each cleric shall give the tenth of what he received for
its support. By the 142d, canons are allowed to have separate
dwellings, and proper places shall be provided for the aged and the
sick within the canonry; and by the 144th, women must not enter the
dwellings and the cloister, with the exception of the church.[457]
Deicolæ in the In the early English Church we find the name
Saxon Church. Deicola in a Saxon form applied to a community
of solitaries. We find it stated in the Peterborough MS. of the Anglo-
Saxon Chronicle, in the year 655, that ‘Peada, king of the Mercians,
and Oswiu, the brother of King Osuald, came together and said that
they would rear a monastery to the glory of Christ and the honour of
St. Peter; and they did so, and gave it the name of Medeshamstede,’
now Peterborough. In 657 the monastery was finished, and
consecrated by Deusdedit, archbishop of Canterbury, in the
presence of King Wulfhere, the brother and successor of King
Peada, and his earls and thanes. There were also present four
bishops, and Wilfrid, who was then only a priest; and the king
endowed it. Then ‘the abbot desired that he would grant him that
which he would desire of him, and the king granted it to him. “I have
here,” he said, “God-fearing monks, who would pass their lives in an
anchoretage, if they knew where. But here is an island, which is
called Ancarig,” now Thorney Isle, “and I will crave this—that we may
there build a monastery to the glory of St. Mary, that they may there
dwell who may desire to lead their lives in peace and in rest.”’ The
king accordingly grants the request, and endows this monastery
also.[458] The expression Gode-frihte, or God-fearing, here applied to
these anchorite monks, is obviously the Saxon equivalent of Deicola.
In the following century the canonical rule was introduced into
England, as we find in a legatine synod held in Northumberland, in
the year 787, that by the fourth canon bishops are required to take
care that all canons live canonically, and all monks or nuns regularly
—that is, according to monastic rule;[459] and that the title of God-
worshippers passed down to the canon clerics, at least to those who
lived separately, appears from this, that, when King Athelstan was on
his march against the Scots in 936, he halted at York, and there
besought of the ministers of St. Peter’s church, who were then called
Colidei, to offer up their prayers on behalf of himself and his
expedition. They are said to be ‘men of holy life and honest
conversation, then styled Colidei, who maintained a number of poor
people, and withal had but little whereon to live.’ ‘It would appear,’
says Dr. Reeves, ‘that these Colidei were the officiating clergy of the
cathedral church of St. Peter’s at York in 946, and that they
discharged the double function of divine service and eleemosynary
entertainment;’[460] in other words, they were canon clerics, and the
name Colidei is merely an inversion of that of Deicolæ. Those of
Canterbury we find called in a charter by King Ethelred, in 1006,
cultores clerici, or cleric God-worshippers, the word Dei being
evidently implied.[461]
Anchoretical life in In the early Monastic Church of Ireland, this
Ireland and tendency to prefer a solitary life, as a higher form
Scotland. of the religious life, developed itself at a very
early period. It seems to have assumed two different aspects. One
when the abbot or one of the brethren of the monastery retired for a
time to a separate cell, for solitary prayer, or for penitential exercises,
during which time he held no intercourse with the other inmates of
the monasteries. The cells adopted for this purpose were usually
those primitive dwellings called by the Irish Clochans, built of
unmortared stone, with walls of great thickness, circular in shape,
with a dome-shaped roof, somewhat of a beehive form, and hence
often called beehive cells. When used for such retirement they were
called Carcair, or prison cells. Thus, in an old poem attributed to
Cuimin of Coindeire, he says of Enda, who founded the monastery
on the principal of the Arann Isles:—