[642] “If you do any good beyond what is commanded by God, you will gain for yourself more abundant glory, and will be more honored by God than you would otherwise be,” was the teaching of the Church respecting the meritoriousness of ascetic practices. Cf. Newman Smyth, Christian Ethics (1892), p. 313.
[643] The “Dialogue” is of course a purely literary creation of some monk. Oisin was not a contemporary of St. Patrick.
[644] J. H. Simpson, Poems of Oisin (1857), pp. 42 ff. We have reproduced only a small part of the poem.
[645] History of European Morals, 3d ed., vol. ii, p. 34.
[646] Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (1908), vol. ii, p. 252.
[647] Cf. Dante, Inf. xiii.
[648] See above, pp. 175, 215.
[649] Ireland was foremost in this missionary movement because she was so given over to the monastic spirit. See Montalembert, The Monks of the West (1861), vol. ii, p. 397.
[650] According to Westermarck (The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas (1906), vol. i, pp. 565–569) charity took the place of sacrifice in the primitive cults, and for this reason became such a prominent religious duty in all the higher faiths.
[651] Montalembert, The Monks of the West (1861), vol. i, pp. 397 f.