EFFECT OF THE EASTER CONTROVERSY ON EDUCATION:
The Irish monks who visited the Continent, as well as the adherents of the Roman usage in Britain, advocated and even urged the necessity of conforming to the Continental practices, but their compatriots did not yield without a struggle. As we have shown, certain parts of Britain in which the Celtic Church held sway were even more reluctant to give up the traditional usages. So far as the general interests of education are concerned this controversy had a somewhat harmful effect. It diverted the attention of scholars from matters of greater moment and created a certain prejudice against those Irish teachers who were not prepared to give up the cherished customs of the founders of their monasteries. For example, after the Synod of Whitby in 664 A.D. when Celtic usage was abolished, St. Colman and a number of Anglo-Saxon followers retired from Lindisfarne and founded a monastery on Inisbofinn, an island off the west coast of Ireland. It must not, however, be assumed that the Irish influence in England ceased with the departure of St. Colman and his followers. At the Synod of Whitby some of the most vigorous advocates of the Roman usage were Irishmen, while amongst the Anglo-Saxons there were many champions of the Celtic usage.[131] For at least thirty years after the Synod of Whitby the Irish influence was felt. A native ministry having been trained the Irish monks had accomplished their work.[132] In one respect the Easter controversy had a good effect on learning. It led to a careful study of the computation and astronomy and created the necessity of becoming familiar with all the classical and ecclesiastical literature which was calculated to throw any light on that vexed question. The consequence of this study was that the Irish monks became the greatest astronomers of the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries. It is enough to read the Paschal Epistle of Cummian Fada (d. 661)[133] or the famous letter of Dungal who in 810 A.D. was asked by Charles the Great to explain the double eclipse of the sun which was supposed to have occurred in that year,[134] to be convinced of the superiority of their scholarship.