[65] This mark (7), in the Irish language, is an abbreviation for agus, i.e. and.
[66] The Annals of Inisfallen, also, p. 148, call them by the same name of Fiadh-Nemeadh.
[67] Rer. Hib. Scrip. Vet. iii. p. 527.
[68] Fidh-Nemeadh certainly admits of this interpretation, but in a very different sense from what its author had supposed.
[69] A German writer, contemporary with the Emperor Charles the Great, says of another Irishman named Clement, at a much later period, “That through his instructions the French might vie with the Romans and the Athenians. John Erigena, whose surname denoted his country (Eri or Erina being the proper name of Ireland), became soon (in the ninth century) after famous for his learning and good parts, both in England and France. Thus did most of the lights which, in those times of thick darkness, cast their beams over Europe, proceed out of Ireland. The loss of the manuscripts is much bewailed by the Irish who treat of the history and antiquities of their country, and which may well be deemed a misfortune, not only to them, but to the whole learned world.”
[70] Isidore of Seville, in the seventh century, says: “Scotia eadem et Hibernia,” that is, Scotia and Ireland are one and the same—an identity, however, of locality, not of signification. And Orosius of Tarracona, still earlier in the fifth century, avers that, “In his own time, Ireland was inhabited by the nations of the Scoti.” And were further evidence required as to the point, it would be found in the fact of one of our Christian luminaries, whose name was Shane, i.e. John, being called by the Latin historians indifferently by the epithets of Johannes Scotus and Johannes Erigena—the former signifying John the Irishman and the latter, John the Scotchman.
[71] The Scots first drove them from Ireland to what is now called Scotland, and the Picts afterwards chased them from the lowlands to the highland fastnesses.
[72] Henricus Antisiodrensis, writing to Charles the Bald, says: “Why need I mention all Ireland, with her crowd of philosophers?” “The philosophy and logic,” says Mosheim, a German historian, “that were taught in the European schools in the ninth century, scarcely deserved such honourable titles, and were little better than an empty jargon. There were, however, to be found in various places, particularly among the Irish, men of acute parts and extensive knowledge, who were perfectly well entitled to the appellation of philosophers.”
[73] Antiq. p. 108.
[74] Milton.