FOREIGN STUDENTS IN IRELAND:
The fame of the Irish monastic schools of the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries attracted a large number of students from foreign lands. To these the Irish monks extended freely the benefits of education which during this period were not available in their own less favoured lands.
The Felire of Aengus[230] which according to linguistic and other internal evidence was written as early as the seventh century[231] mentions various nationalities who have died in Ireland: Romans, Gauls, sometimes called Franks, monks of Egypt, and Saxons (more correctly Angles). The well-known stone inscription “VII Romani” in the churchyard of St. Brecan in Arranmore[232] testifies to this day of presence of Romans. It is also known that in times of persecution Egyptian monks fled to Ireland.[233] In this same calendar of Aengus mention is made of seven Egyptian monks who died in one place. Scattered through the Lives of Irish Saints there are innumerable passages recording the arrival and departure of foreign pilgrims or students, or noting their residence or death. Thus we hear of Britons, including a British bishop, at Clonfert; of British monks at Rahen, Lynally, Taghmon, Clonard, Ferns, and Tallaght; of a British priest at Hare Island in Lough Ree; of British “peregrini” at Tullach Bennan. We even know the names of many British saints who studied or resided in Ireland: Cadoc under St. Mocuda at Lismore, Gildas, Carantoc, Cybi, Petroc, and Sampson.[234] Aldhelm, bishop of Shereboree (705–707 A.D.) in a letter to Eadfrid, bishop of Lindisfarne, states that “fleet loads” of Angles went to Ireland.[235] A passage in Bede corroborates Aldhelm’s testimony. Speaking of the ravages of the Yellow Plague in 664 A.D. Bede says: “This pestilence did no less harm in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there at the time who in the days of the Bishops Finan (651–661) and Colman (661–664), forsaking their native island retired thither either for the sake of divine studies, or a more continent life: and some of them presently devoted themselves to monastic life; others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going from one master’s cell to another. The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food as well as to furnish them with books to read and their teaching all gratis.”[236] The bishop Finan and Colman who are referred to by Bede were respectively the second and third abbots of Lindisfarne.
After the Synod of Whitby (644 A.D.) Colman and his English adherents who refused to adopt the Roman usage with regard to the date of Easter and the form of tonsure retired to a small island called Inisbofinn off the coast of Mayo and there founded a monastery about 667 A.D. A little later Colman founded another monastery on the mainland which he placed in charge of his English companions and disciples. As late as 730 A.D. at least this monastery was occupied by English monks and was named by the Irish “Mayo of the Saxons.”[237] We know too that one of the divisions of Armagh was called “Trian Saxon” or the Saxon’s Third from the great number of English students inhabiting it, and we learn incidentally that in the eighth century seven streets in a town called Kilbally near Rahen in King’s Co. were wholly occupied by Galls, or foreigners.[238]
Among the foreign students there were sometimes princes. Of the more illustrious of these we may mention Oswald (d. 642) and Ailfrid (d. 704), kings of Northumbria, and Dagobert II. (d. 679) king of France, all of whom were educated in Ireland. Owing to one of those wars so common in England in the seventh century Oswald, son of King Ethelfrid of Northumbria, had to seek refuge in Ireland when he was fifteen years old. He was educated in a monastery and became a Christian. On regaining his kingdom he sought the aid of the monks of Iona to convert his heathen subjects. In 635 A.D. St. Aidan arrived in Northumbria and founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne which was destined to become the Iona of the North of England.[239] Ailfrid, another Northumbria king, spent his schooldays in Ireland. While there he was called the Irish Flann Fina (literally Fina’s Flann) from his mother Fina who was an Irish princess. There is still extant a very ancient Irish poem[240] which he composed in praise of Ireland. He would appear to have got a very good education; for Aldhelm in dedicating to him an epistle on Latin prosody congratulates him on having been educated in Ireland.[241] After the death of King Sigibert his little son, who eventually became Dagobert II., was brought by Didon, bishop of Pointers, to Ireland to be educated. This was done at the command of Grimoald, Mayor of the Palace.[242] The greatest of English missionaries, Wilibrord (657–739) was educated in Ireland where he spent thirteen years. With twelve companions, some of them Irish, and other English whom he selected from the Irish schools, he set sail for Friesland and converted that country to the Christian faith.[243] As Alcuin says so tersely, Britain gave him birth but Ireland reared and educated him. (“Quem tibi iam genuit fecunda Britannia mater doctaque nutrivit studiis sed Hibernia sacris.”)[244] Bede mentions other Anglo-Saxon missionaries who in addition to Wilibrord received their training in Irish schools; of these the most familiar names are Victbert and Hewald.[245] Agilbert, a native of Gaul, after spending some time in Ireland studying the Scriptures, was appointed bishop of the West Saxons in 650 A.D. and later occupied the episcopal see of Paris.[246] Other distinguished students were the Angles, Chad and Egbert. Bede tells us that Egbert spent a long time in exile in Ireland studying the Scriptures.[247] Apparently the prestige of the Irish schools continued to draw many students from England even after the establishment of schools in their own country; for we find Aldhelm (d. 709 A.D.) writing in a somewhat bitter mood to three young men who had just returned from the Irish schools: “Why does Ireland pride herself on such a priority that such numbers of students look there from England, as if upon this fruitful soil there were not abundance of Argivi didasculi (or Greek masters), to be found fully capable of solving the deepest problems of religion and satisfying the most ambitious of students.”[248] Zimmer looks upon the reluctance of Aldhelm to acknowledge the superiority of the Irish monastic schools as an additional testimony in their favour.[249]
There are some grounds for believing that Alcuin whose name is intimately connected with the Carolingian revival of learning studied in Ireland, probably in Clonmacnoise. Meyer,[250] Joyce,[251] and Healy,[252] do not hesitate to claim him as a student of Clonmacnoise. Turner[253] thinks it more probable that he was a student of the school of York (in which case he came under Irish as well as Roman influence[254]) but regards him as representative of Irish rather than English scholarship. The opinion that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise is based on a letter[255] which is evidently one of a series written by Alcuin to Colchu (d. 792 A.D.), Fer-leighinn, or Headmaster of the school of Clonmacnoise. This Colchu was a very distinguished scholar and teacher. There is no evidence that he ever left Ireland, but his name was well known on the Continent. The general opinion of his contemporaries was that “no one in any age or any country was equal to him in learning, or equal to him in sanctity.”[256] In this letter, which is of a very cordial nature, Alcuin styles Colchu his holy father and speaks of himself as his son. The writer complains that for some time past he was not deemed worthy to receive any of those letters so precious in his sight, and concludes by saying he is sending a messenger with presents from himself and King Charles (Charlemagne) to Clonmacnoise and other Irish monasteries.[257] Dr. Healy points out that some of these gifts are of such a nature as to suggest that Alcuin had a personal knowledge of the needs of Irish monasteries.[258]
No doubt, further research would reveal many other instances of foreign students who sought in Ireland and there were freely given the education which was not available in their own lands. In summarising the conclusions which we believe are justified by the facts presented in this chapter we would say:
1. That both the monastic schools and the bardic schools were so intimately connected with the native Irish social system that they were not antagonistic but rather complementary to each other.