THE RELATION OF THE IRISH MONASTIC SCHOOLS
TO THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL SITUATION (550–900 A.D.):
The wide distribution of Irish monastic schools throughout Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany, and even Italy, was discussed in the previous chapter. Reference was also made to the numerous Irish missionaries who going abroad were regarded as “representative of a higher culture than was then to be found on the Continent.”[195] Here we shall consider the general educational situation in Ireland with a view to determine the causes which produced results of such moment to the spread of Christianity and to restoration of learning.
During the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries the greater part of Britain and Europe was in a state of turmoil consequent on the barbarian invasion while Ireland escaped the ravages such an invasion entails. During this period of relative domestic peace Ireland was an oasis in the educational desert of Europe; then, if ever, she deserved to be styled “the school of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.”[196] In bringing about this desirable state of affairs, no doubt, the monastic schools took a leading part, but there were other contributory factors the chief of which was the lay schools whose relation to the monastic will now be touched upon very briefly. We shall also endeavour to determine the extent to which education prevailed among the different classes of society—and finally we shall discuss the question of the admission of foreign students to Irish monastic schools.
DUAL SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS:
The schools of ancient Ireland were of two classes, lay and ecclesiastical. The ecclesiastical or monastic schools as we have seen were of Christian origin, and were conducted by monks. The lay, or secular, schools existed from a period of unknown antiquity, and in pagan times were taught by druids. The monastic schools were celebrated all over Europe during the Middle Ages: the lay schools though playing an important part in spreading learning at home are not so well known.
These two classes of schools are quite distinct all through the literary history of Ireland, and without conflicting with each other worked contemporaneously from the sixth to the nineteenth century.[197]
LAY SCHOOLS:
As we are mainly interested in the monastic schools we shall deal with the lay schools only so far as is necessary to explain the general educational situation in Ireland during the period we have chosen. Originally pagan and taught by druids these lay schools held their ground after the general spread of the new faith, but were now taught by Christian ollamhna or doctors, laymen who took the place of the druid teachers of earlier times.[198]
The aim of these schools at first was apparently to prepare a limited number of men as brehons or judges, and filí or poets, and senachidhe or historians. In very early times the same man performed two or more of these offices. In later times there was a tendency to specialization. A lay college generally comprised three distinct schools. We are told that Cormac MacAirt, King of Ireland (254–277 A.D.) founded three schools, one for the study of Military Science, one for Law and one for General Literature.[199] It would appear that schools of this last type developed into the “Bardic Schools” in which were taught poetry, history, and vernacular literature in general. The law schools and military schools were evidently exclusively professional, whereas the “Bardic Schools” were attended by those seeking admission to the Bardic Order and others desiring a liberal education.[200]