Transcriber’s Notes:

• A number of obvious typos have been corrected. Except for these corrections, the spelling and punctuation of the book have not been changed.
• In the source book there are 539 footnotes numbered by chapter, so that footnote number 1 is the first footnote in each chapter. In this e-book the footnotes and their markers have been renumbered from 1 to 539 thus giving each footnote a unique marker.
• All the footnotes have been moved to the end of the book.
• The cover image contains a photograph, taken by the transcriber, of the remains of one of the two round towers on the old monastic site of Clonmacnoise on the eastern bank of the River Shannon in County Offaly.

THE EARLY IRISH
MONASTIC SCHOOLS

THE
EARLY IRISH
MONASTIC SCHOOLS

A STUDY OF IRELAND’S CONTRIBUTION
TO EARLY MEDIEVAL CULTURE

BY

HUGH GRAHAM, M.A.

Professor of Education, College of St. Teresa,
Winona, Minnesota, U.S.A.

DUBLIN
THE TALBOT PRESS LIMITED
85 TALBOT STREET
1923

PRINTED IN IRELAND
AT
THE TALBOT PRESS
DUBLIN

TO
IRISH TEACHERS

WHO,
TRUE TO THE TRADITIONS OF THEIR RACE,
SERVE HUMANITY IN MANY LANDS
BY LIVES CONSECRATED TO
RELIGION AND LEARNING

PREFACE

The aim of the present study is to give within reasonable limits a critical and fairly complete account of the Irish Monastic Schools which flourished prior to 900 A.D.

The period dealt with covering as it does the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries is one of the most obscure in the history of education. In accordance with established custom writers are wont to bewail the decline of learning consequent on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and then they pass on rapidly to the Renaissance in the fifteenth; a few, however, pause to glance at the Carolingian Revival of learning in the ninth century and to remark parenthetically that learning was preserved in Ireland and a few isolated places on the fringe of Roman Civilization, but with some notable exceptions writers as a class have failed to realise that as in other departments of human knowledge there is a continuity in the history of education. The great connecting link between the Renaissance and the Graeco-Roman culture which flourished in Western Europe during the early centuries of our era is the Irish Monastic Schools. Modern research clearly points to the conclusion that the history of these schools is in reality a chapter in the history of education in Western Europe. While we do not claim that the Irish schools were the sole factor in the preservation and transmission of letters during the Early Middle Ages we are certainly convinced that they played a leading part. The cumulative evidence which we submit amply warrants this conclusion.

The many tributes of a complimentary nature which scholars have bestowed on the work of the Irish Monastic Schools would indicate that the importance of their influence has not been overlooked; yet it seems to us that their real aim and character have not always been clearly understood. In a certain respect these schools were unique: they were neither purely classical schools of the type that flourished in Gaul in the fourth century, nor were they mere theological seminaries such as existed in certain parts of Britain and the Continent that lay outside the Irish sphere of influence. The peculiar character of the Irish monastic school would appear to be the result of the harmonious combination of three distinct elements: 1, Native Irish Culture; 2, Christianity; 3, Graeco-Roman Culture. We believe that this conception of Irish monastic culture furnishes the key to a proper understanding of the real significance of Irish scholarship during the Early Middle Ages. No study of Irish monastic schools which neglected to give due consideration to the potent influence of each of these three constituents would be adequate even if it were intelligible. The force of this conviction which is the result of a prolonged and critical examination of all the relevant material to hand has determined the form which the present study has assumed.

The first and second chapters are not merely introductory: they are fundamental. In the first chapter we discuss the question of a pre-Christian and pre-classical native Irish culture. The second chapter is devoted to an examination of that difficult problem, the beginnings of classical learning in Ireland—a matter on which modern research has thrown considerable light. As the school was so intimately connected with the monastic system it was necessary to devote a special chapter to an examination of the more salient features of Irish monasticism which differed in many ways from Continental monasticism. Here we are impressed with the fact that the native Irish ideals blended with those of Christianity so as to give the Irish monastic life a peculiarly national character which was ever reflected in the educational aims and ideals of the Irish monk even when his missionary zeal carried him far from the environment of his native land. In the fourth chapter the attempt is made to determine the precise relation which existed between the Irish monastic school and the general educational situation not only in Ireland and Britain but in Western Europe from 650 to 900 A.D. Those three great centres of intellectual life in every Irish monastery—the school room, the scriptorium and the library—are treated in the fifth chapter. The particular function of each and its relation to the others is described while their combined influence, whether of a contemporary or permanent nature, has been noticed. The all-important question of the nature of the curriculum has been critically examined in the sixth chapter. Finally, a chapter is given to a discussion of the scope of Irish scholarship and its significance in Mediæval Culture.

While a work of this nature can scarcely claim to be original and the acknowledgments are too numerous to recount, yet the grouping is new and not unfrequently facts have been presented from a new angle. Source material has been consulted where possible. The results of previous investigation have been freely used, but even as often happened when we have arrived at conclusions which have been anticipated by other writers, we have maintained quite as critical and independent an attitude as when we ventured to challenge certain popular opinions and to make such generalizations as the result of our own study seemed to warrant. In some instances, however, this study has carried us into fields of inquiry where we have no credentials, but in these cases as in every other where we have used secondary authorities acknowledgment is always made in the foot-notes.

In various ways we have endeavoured to condense a good deal of information into a limited space. For example, to avoid repetition we give frequent cross references to important topics dealt with in different parts of this study. Again, instead of attempting the bewildering and impossible task of giving an account of individual schools we have given a list of the more important ones and merely referred to particular schools as occasion demanded in order to illustrate certain points of primary importance. For similar reasons all attempts at biographical accounts of Irish scholars have been studiously avoided. Such references as have occasionally been made were necessary in carrying out our general plan which was to deal with the Irish monastic school as an educational institution. Of course it would have served no useful purpose to ignore completely those men whose acknowledged scholarship was the best testimony of the character of the instruction available in the schools in which they themselves studied and taught.

A word might be said with reference to the proportion of space occupied by the different topics. The plan invariably followed has been to give a minimum of space to any topic which is treated fairly fully elsewhere in some accessible work. On the other hand no topic which appeared to be an integral part of the general plan has been omitted and such topics as have been inadequately treated elsewhere have here received fuller consideration.

While quite conscious of the limitations of our treatment, it is hoped that by pointing out many supplementary sources of information we have done something to smooth the path of other investigators who may wish to explore those portions of the same field which lay outside the scope of our present inquiry.

The author wishes to express his sincere thanks to the following: to Dr. Fletcher H. Swift, Professor of the History of Education in the University of Minnesota, for his sympathetic interest in the subject and for his advice and guidance; to Rev. Laurence P. Murray, M.R.I.A., Principal of St. Brigid’s Irish College, Omeath, Co. Louth, for the use of his excellent Irish library and for helpful suggestions and criticisms of the earlier chapters; to Rev. Dr. Peter Guilday, Professor of History in the Catholic University of Washington, D.C., for reading the MS. and for his advice and encouragement; to Mr. Patrick O’Daly of the Talbot Press for seeing the work through the press and for painstaking proof-reading; and finally to the publishers for turning out the work in an attractive and scholarly form.

COLLEGE OF ST. TERESA,
WINONA, MINNESOTA, U.S.A.,
Lá Fhéile Pádraig, 1923.

CONTENTS

“The ages which deserve an exact enquiry are those times (for such there were) when Ireland was the School of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.”

—Extract from a letter written by Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709–1780) to Charles O’Connor (1710–1791), published in Edward O’Reilly’s Irish Writers, pp. i., ii. Dublin, 1770.

“Le peuple monastique des temps barbares, le peuple missionare, et destiné à apporter la lumière de la foi et de la science dans les ténèbres croissantes de l’Occident, c’est le peuple Irlandais dont on connait mieux les malheurs que les services et dont on n’a pas assez étudié l’étonnante vocation.”

—Ozanam, Frederic. La Civilisation Chrétienne chez les Francs, Ch. 4.

Roddet in cach cill caid

Etir tir is tuinnd is traig

Foglaim ecnai crabud De

Lubair cretra commairge.

—From a poem attributed to Flann Fine, the Irish name of Aldfrith, King of Northumbria (d. 704 A.D.), who studied in Ireland.

Text in Eriu, viii., p. 67.  Translation, p. 71.

This stanza is written in Old Irish, a language that can be read today by only a small number of scholars. The following translation, which is not in the source book, was made by Paul Walsh who published the entire poem in Eriu.

There were yielded in every holy church,

on land and water and beach,

learning of wisdom, piety to God,

ecclesiastical duty, relics, and protection.

Here is the stanza in modern Irish orthography.

Tuilleadh Feasa ar Éirinn óigh

Do chruinnigheasa ó scoith-seanóir;

Beag mo stuaim, gidh mór mo ghrádh

Ar an oileán uasal, Eire áin.

An t-Ughdar.

THE
EARLY IRISH MONASTIC
SCHOOLS

CHAPTER I

CIVILIZATION AND LEARNING IN IRELAND IN
PAGAN TIMES

The precise state of civilization and learning in Ireland in pre-Christian times is difficult to determine owing to the fact that there is no native contemporary evidence of a documentary nature, while the references in the works of foreign writers are few in number and generally vague in character. Fortunately, however, there are a few sources of information which have been made available by the laborious and scholarly researches of generations of investigators. The principal of these sources are:

1. Archæology.
2. The so-called Brehon Laws.
3. Early Irish Literature.
4. Foreign Testimony.
5. Ogam Inscriptions.

A brief survey of the evidence supplied by each of these may be helpful in determining the nature and extent of Irish pagan culture.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL EVIDENCE:

Archæological research shows that Ireland was inhabited from very early times though it is impossible to fix the exact chronological limit of the earliest colonization. Passing over the beginnings of civilization which are exemplified by the crude implements and other remains of the Stone Age, we note that in the Bronze Age when the art of working metals had been discovered the existing specimens of the work of these ancient craftsmen point to a relatively advanced stage of civilization. Indeed, an examination of the discoveries of this period amply justifies the statement that “in point of wealth, artistic feeling and workmanship, the Irish craftsmen of the Bronze Age surpassed those of Britain.”[1] The doyen of prehistoric chronology, Dr. Oscar Montelius of Stockholm, having studied the antiquities of the British Isles, gave the result of his labours in a memoir published in 1918.[2] This work is now the standard authority on this subject. Dr. Montelius divides the Bronze Age into five periods. In the first period he includes the Transitional Period where copper was in use (Copper period) which he places between the middle of the third and the beginning of the second millenium, B.C. One of the greatest living Irish archæologists, Mr. George Coffey, while agreeing with the Scandinavian as to the division into five periods, would not place the first period so early as has been suggested by Dr. Montelius, but agrees that the first period ended between 2000 B.C. and 1800 B.C. Both writers would place the end of the fifth period, that is, the end of the Bronze Age about 350 B.C. Thus we may consider the Irish Bronze Age as extending approximately from 2000 B.C. to 350 B.C. Mr. Coffey in one of his valuable works gives numerous illustrations representative of each period.[3] The originals are nearly all in the National Museum, Dublin, where Mr. Coffey is the official Keeper of Irish Antiquities. A notable feature of the finds of this period is the abundance and variety of the gold ornaments. The collection of gold ornaments of Irish workmanship is the largest in the British Isles being twelve or thirteen times more than that in the British Museum.[4] Possibly, this is but a small fraction of the entire output of the Irish artists of pagan times; for many Irish gold ornaments have been discovered in Scandinavia and in Western Europe not to speak of many finds which never enter a museum.[5]

From such material remains it would appear to be a legitimate deduction that even at this early age the Irish were skilled craftsmen and acquired by some means at least an elementary and industrial and technical education and that they were already cultivating the æsthetic. Art was developing on distinctly national lines, yet the country was not isolated. There must have been direct communication with the Continent; for Mr. Coffey has traced Aegean and Scandinavian influence in the incised ornament of the New Grange group[6] and Iberian influence on some of the later type of bronze ornaments.[7]

THE BREHON LAWS:

The laws of a country dealing as they do with man in his relations to his fellow-man and society in general are always an important indication of the state of civilization attained by the race which has evolved them. In this connection a valuable source of information on the social condition and state of culture attained by the pagan Irish is the native code of laws, generally styled the Brehon Laws, but more correctly termed the Féineachas. According to a generally accepted tradition these laws were revised and codified in 438 A.D. by a committee of nine appointed by King Laoghaire at the suggestion of St. Patrick. The committee consisted of three kings (Laoghaire, High King of Ireland; Corc, King of Munster; and Daire, King of Cairnach); three saints (St. Patrick, himself, St. Benin and St. Cairnech); and three learned men (Ross, Dubhthach and Feargus).[8] These laws grew up with the people from the very beginning of society and took cognisance of them from every point of view. They professed to regulate domestic and social relations of every kind, as well as professions, trades, industries, occupations and wages.[9] As laws they are too minute; but this defect renders them valuable to the student who is interested in the social conditions of the period during which they were evolved. As a recent commentator[10] has remarked: “The rigorously authentic character of these laws relating to, and dealing with the actual realities of life and with institutions and a state of society nowhere else revealed to the same extent; the extreme antiquity both of the provisions and the language in which they were written, and the meagreness of Continental material illustrative of the same things endow them with exceptional archaic, archæological and philological interest.” The development of such a comprehensive and detailed code of laws must have been the work of many generations of lawmakers and suggest a relatively high degree of native culture. In this connection one is inclined to quote the emphatic declaration of Dr. George Sigerson who has won honours both as a litterateur and as a scientist. He says: “I assert that, biologically speaking, such laws could not emanate from any race whose brains had not been subject to the quickening influence of education for many generations.”[11] In other words, such a code of laws can be accounted for only on the assumption of a high degree of culture as a racial heritage of the nation which evolved them.

EVIDENCE FROM EARLY IRISH LITERATURE:

There are many passages in the oldest Irish literature, both secular and religious, which state that the Irish had books before the introduction of Christianity. In a memoir[12] of St. Patrick written in the seventh century Muirchu Maccu Machteni relates how during the contest of the saint with the druids—the learned men of the time—the High King Laoghaire proposed that one of St. Patrick’s books and one belonging to the druids should be cast into the water to see which would come out uninjured—a kind of ordeal. Here it will be noticed that Muirchu’s statement embodies a tradition which was old in the seventh century. The same story is told in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick.[13] Both the Irish bardic tales and the oldest existing lives of St. Patrick agree in stating that he found in the country both literary and professional men—all pagans—druids, poets and antiquarians or historians,[14] as well as an elaborate code of laws.[15]

Although no Irish document has been preserved which dates earlier than the seventh century, there is ample intrinsic evidence that the earliest existing documents were copied from manuscripts which go back a century or two earlier and these again may have recorded the traditions of a still earlier period. Authorities are agreed that after the establishment of Christianity in the fifth century the Irish scholars committed to writing not only the laws, bardic historical poems, &c. of their own time, but those which had been preserved from earlier times whether traditionally or otherwise.[16] In a subsequent chapter reference will be made to a common practice of the Irish monks, namely that of making marginal and interlinear glosses on the classical writings they were studying, copying, or teaching. For the present it is sufficient to note that even in the case of the earliest of the seventh century glosses the written language was fully developed and cultivated, with a polished phraseology and an elaborate and systematic grammar having well established forms for its words and for all its rich inflections. To the linguistic student it is inconceivable how much a complete and regular system of writing could have developed in the period which had elapsed from the introduction of Christianity in the fifth century until the general spread of Christian learning in the seventh. Such a period would be much too short, especially when it is recollected that early Irish literature had its roots not in Christianity but in the native learning which was the main, and almost the sole, influence in developing it. This consideration points clearly to the conclusion that native learning was carefully and systematically cultivated before the introduction of Christianity.

Again, Irish poetry owes its development solely to the Lay Schools.[17] It had complicated prosody—with numerous technical terms[18] all derived from the Irish language. These vernacular terms used in Irish grammar contrast strikingly with the terms used to designate the offices and ceremonies of Christianity which were almost all derived from Latin.[19] All this would go to prove that Irish prosodial rules and technical terms, and of course Irish poetry itself, were fully developed before the introduction of Christianity.

FOREIGN TESTIMONY:

At least one foreign writer bears witness of the fact that the pagan Irish possessed books. A Christian philosopher of the fourth century (some would place him as early as the second or third) whose name is Aethicus of Istria wrote a Cosmography of the World in which he states that on leaving Spain he hastened to Ireland where he spent some time “examining their books” (eorum volumina volvens).[20] Aethicus is not by any means complimentary. He calls the Irish sages unskilled and uncultivated teachers, but he speaks of the Spaniards in a similar strain. Possibly not understanding the Irish language he regarded all learning outside of Greece and Rome as barbarous and beneath notice. However, his statement proves that when he visited Ireland there were books at least a century before St. Patrick’s advent; it also shows that he found them in such abundance that he spent some time in examining them.

OGAM INSCRIPTIONS:

The point has now been reached when it is necessary to discuss the kind of writing used in pagan times. As has been stated, none of the books of pre-Christian Ireland are now extant, so evidence as to the kind of writing in use must be sought elsewhere. In the absence of books the coinage of a country has often given valuable information in this connection. In the case of Ireland, however, this source of information is lacking; for though metals were worked from very early times and gold was plentiful no trace of a native coinage has been found. Luckily there remain in the stone inscriptions the clearest proofs that the ancient Irish practised a peculiar kind of writing called Ogam.

DESCRIPTION OF OGAM:

Ogam or Ogham was a species of writing the letters of which were a combination of short lines and points on, and at both sides of, a middle or stem line called a flesc. In the specimens still remaining this Ogam writing is almost entirely confined to stone inscriptions, the groups of lines and points running along two adjacent sides of a stone with the angular edge for the flesc. The arrangement may be understood from a simple diagram.[21]

The above diagram shows the Ogam alphabet arranged in four groups. A few other characters are occasionally used. It will be noted that crude as this device for writing is, it is applied with considerable skill and is framed with much ingenuity. The simpler sounds are represented by simpler letters than the more complex. Letters in frequent use like the vowels are the easiest to form. The arrangement of the vowels is different from that used in the Latin and English alphabets but corresponds to the more scientific arrangement adopted by modern phoneticians. It is worth noting that the characters in group (ii) stand for the initial sounds of the Old Irish words for one, two, three, four, five, in the order given.

The question of Ogam writing has occupied the attention of many antiquarians and though some of the theories projected by the earlier investigators have been rejected as untenable our knowledge of Ogam at the present time is fairly definite but somewhat limited. It was once thought that Ogam was a cryptic alphabet, but many of the inscriptions have been read by means of the above key which is to be found in the Book of Ballymote. Owing to the fact that a few of the later Ogams have been found with duplicates in Roman letters they have been deciphered independently. As to the distribution of these Ogam inscribed stones it is worthy of note that in Ireland they are found chiefly in the south-west, and in Britain they are confined to those parts where it is known the Irish Gael had settled.[22] Owing to the lack of criteria for dating certain sound-changes in the Irish language it is impossible in the present stage of our knowledge to assign definite chronological limits to these Ogam inscriptions.[23] Mr. Quiggin in his account of Ogam[24] asserts that the earlier inscriptions cannot be later than the fifth century and if pagan they may be a century or two earlier. All Ogam inscriptions with accompanying Roman letters he would assign to a later period than 500 A.D. with the sole exception of the bilingual inscription of Killen Cormac (Cillin Cormac) which is believed to be earlier than 500 A.D.[25] Over three hundred Ogam inscriptions have been found and where they have not been injured or defaced they can generally be interpreted.

Heroes and druids in the older epics are represented as making constant use of Ogam letters, sometimes inscribing them on wooden staves. The state of civilization depicted in these ancient poems and prose narratives seems to belong mainly to pre-Christian Ireland.

There is some difference in opinion as to the means whereby the Irish discovered the use of letters. One thing is certain, the Ogam alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet. Some think that the Irish first became acquainted with the Roman alphabet through direct trade with the Continent, but it is more probable as MacNeill has shown[26] that this knowledge was acquired from the Romanized Britons from the first or second century onward. But how or why they invented the Ogam alphabet instead of using the Roman letters, or else Greek ones like the Gauls, is a profound mystery. There can, however, be no doubt that the Ogam alphabet at whatever time invented, is the peculiar possession of the Irish Gael and is to be found only where he had his settlements.

SUMMARY:

From the preceding discussion we may safely conclude:

1. That long before the Christian era the Ancient Irish had developed many useful arts and were skilled and artistic craftsmen.

2. That they had a code of laws that was well suited to the state of society that then existed, and that with slight alterations it was well adapted to meet the requirements of the higher civilization of Christianity. (A corroboration of this view is the well-known fact that at a much later date many of the Anglo-Norman settlers abandoned their own code of laws and adopted the Brehon Code to which they became as much attached as the Irish themselves).

3. That native learning was actively cultivated and systematically developed before the introduction of Christianity.

4. That there was a learned class called druids who were the priests, teachers, poets, historians and judges. (The same man in early times combined in himself all these functions, but in later times there was a tendency to specialize).

5. That the Pagan Irish had a knowledge of letters and that they wrote their learning or part of it in books and cut Ogam inscriptions on stone and wood, but how they obtained this knowledge we have no certain means of determining.

CHAPTER II

THE BEGINNINGS OF CLASSICAL LEARNING

Hitherto our study has been limited to a discussion of native Irish culture influenced but slightly from the outside. Here the attempt is made to trace the beginnings of classical learning. In this connection it is worth noting that Ireland occupies the unique position of being the only part of the Celtic world that was not brought under the sway of Roman arms. The consequence is that she is one of the very few nations of Western Europe whose civilization was free to develop along native lines. Yet it must not be supposed that Ireland remained completely aloof from the Graeco-Roman culture to which the world owes so much.[27] The great difference between Ireland and the other Celtic countries such as Britain and Gaul lies in this: in Gaul the combined forces of Roman arms and Roman culture wiped out almost every trace of native culture, the same is true of the greater part of Britain.[28] In Ireland, on the other hand, Roman learning was introduced in a peaceful manner (at least as early as the fifth century, as will be shown later). Now as we have seen native learning was already developing along national lines, the result was that not only did the native learning continue to flourish unchecked by the arrival of the new learning but the former actually received a fresh impulse,[29] while classical learning was cultivated to an extent that is without parallel in contemporary Europe.[30]

The precise way in which letters reached Ireland and the causes which led to “that remarkable outburst of classical learning towards the close of the sixth century”[31] are matters on which most writers express themselves vaguely, or assume that certain ill-defined influences emanating from Britain or Gaul somehow reached her shores, but at what time or by what means they have not been able to determine.

The introduction of classical learning as well as of Christianity is popularly ascribed to St. Patrick whose missionary work began 432 A.D. This opinion though widespread will not stand a critical examination. It is true, however, that St. Patrick is the first person whose name is associated with the introduction of classical learning of whom it can be said that the writings ascribed to him are really his. In the Book of Armagh (completed c. 806 A.D.) there is a document called his “Confession,” or apology which was copied by the scribe Torbach from the original.[32] Although the “Confession” and other writings attributed to St. Patrick may be admitted as genuine, it must not be assumed that the learning for which Ireland became famous during the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries could have been the result of his labours.[33] Most people who have read St. Patrick’s writings will admit that he makes no claim to be a scholar but on the contrary he has a very humble opinion of himself and reminds us frequently of his ignorance of letters. As Bury says,[34] “His Latin is as ‘rustic’ as the Greek of St. Mark and St. Matthew,” and Whitley Stokes infers from his writings that he knew no Greek.[35] In this respect St. Patrick was no worse than many of his famous contemporaries and successors, for example—his Latin is no more ‘rustic’ than that of Gregory of Tours who lived a century later. Indeed St. Patrick’s claim to fame rests on higher grounds than those of classical scholarship. He was a preacher and organizer rather than a man of letters. He was a homo unius libri but with that book, the Christian Scriptures, he was extraordinarily familiar.[36] Yet some writers have attributed the introduction of learning and even of the Roman alphabet to St. Patrick. It is true that in the Tripartite Life there are frequent statements that he wrote Abgitoria (usually translated Alphabets) for his noble or bardic converts.[37] It is very probable that these do not mean alphabets, as is usually supposed, like that on the pillar stone of Kilmakedar in Kerry,[38] but elementa, the A B C of the Christian Doctrine. This explanation seems justified by the words Abgitir Crabaid glossed initium fidei in a Würzburg MS.[39] In the Tripartite occur the words, Aibgitir in Crabaid—translated the Alphabet of Piety—where a specimen is given of a work so entitled.[40] For these and other reasons which will be stated presently the weight of evidence is against attributing to St. Patrick the introduction of the Roman alphabet or any liberal measure of classical learning.

It has also been suggested[41] that some of the Britons or Gauls who accompanied St. Patrick brought these studies to Ireland, but Meyer thinks this most improbable and dismisses the idea that any missionaries whether Gallic or British introduced classical learning into Ireland. The origin of that deep culture embracing not only the classical authors but also grammar, metrics, and other sciences such as astronomy he would attribute to a much broader and deeper influence.[42]

Basing his argument on a document found among Zimmer’s papers, Meyer contends that the seeds of classical learning were sown in Ireland during the first and second decades of the fifth century by Gallic scholars who fled their own country owing to the invasion of the latter by the Goths and other barbarians.[43] The same explanation seems to have occurred to De Jubainville, for he says: “La culture des lettres classiques et latins a cessé en Gaule depuis la conquête germanique au cinquième siècle; l’Irlande qu’à cette époque n’a pas encore envahie les barbares des contrées situées à nord-ouest de la Gaule, paraît avoir donné asile aux hommes d’étude chassés de la Gaule par les armes et la domination sauvage des Burgundes, des Wisigoths et des Francs.”[44] To Meyer, however, we owe the development of this theory. He quotes from a sixth century entry in a Leyden MS. This note states that owing to a barbarian invasion “all the learned men fled from Gaul, and in transmarine parts, i.e. in Ireland and wherever they betook themselves, brought about a great advancement of learning to the inhabitants of these regions.”[45] This theory is supported by a passage in St. Patrick’s “Confession”[46] where evidently replying to the attacks of certain rhetoricians who were hostile to him, the saint exclaims: “You rhetoricians who know not the Lord hear and search who it was that called me up, fool though I be, from the midst of those who call themselves wise and skilled in the law and mighty orators and powerful in everything.”[47] Meyer maintains that the reference is to the pagan rhetoricians from Gaul whose arrogant presumption founded on their own learning made them regard with disdain the illiterate apostle of the Scots. His few and forcible epithets well describe the type of rhetorician common in Gaul.

If Meyer’s theory is correct, and it seems the most tenable that has been advanced, then we may conclude that Ireland derived her classical learning from Gaul when Gallic scholarship was at its best. This would explain the excellence of the Latin and the acquaintance with Greek which, as we shall show, was exhibited by the Irish scholars who visited the Continent from the time of Columbanus (543–615) to that of Johannes Scottus Eriugena (c. 810–c. 875).

The more one examines this subject the more he is inclined to accept this theory which gets over the difficulty of assuming that the Irish obtained their classical learning from Britain where as Zimmer has shown there was not any classical learning wide and profound enough to produce such results;[48] nor were the High Schools of Gaul a quiet place for learning in the fifth century[49] though Colgan would have us believe—we know not on what authority—that St. Patrick sent St. Olcan to Gaul to study sacred and profane learning so that he might return to Ireland to establish “publicas scholas.”[50]

There is nothing improbable in supposing that these rhetoricians should flee to Ireland for safety just as refugee Christians fled to the same island from the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian more than a century before St. Patrick’s time.[51] Indeed Ireland was well known to Roman geographers, though their ideas of its location were rather inaccurate. Tacitus informs us that Ireland is situated between Spain and Britain,[52] a conception which points to direct communication with the Empire. The same author further informs us that the harbours of Ireland were well known to merchants through trade and commerce.[53] As the researches of Mr. George Coffey and Mrs. Greene have shown, intercourse and commerce between Ireland and Gaul had been constant and regular for centuries before the fifth.[54] There were even Gallic mercenaries in the service of Irish kings during the early centuries of our era.[55] Moreover, Irishmen at this time were familiar figures on the Continent. Amongst these may be mentioned Mansuetus, Bishop of Toul about 350 A.D.[56] There can be little doubt that Sedulius, the great Christian poet, author of Carmen Pascale, was an Irishman.[57] Sedulius, sometimes called Sedulius the Elder (to distinguish him from another Sedulius who was at Compostella in the eighth century and still another Sedulius who was at Liège in the ninth), flourished between 423–450 A.D.[58] His work treating of the chief events recorded in the Old and New Testament was “the first Christian Epic worthy of the name.”[59] Dr. Sigerson by a scholarly analysis[60] of the verse structure traces the influence of the Irish school of prosody referred to in the previous chapter. Though Sedulius wrote in Latin and followed the classical forms of verse, yet he infused into them certain characteristics of Irish poetry, such as systematic alliteration, assonance and rhyme—qualities that reveal the Gael.

Ireland is also credited with the doubtful honour of having given birth to Pelagius and his associate Caelestius.[61] Both flourished in the beginning of the fifth century. Zimmer contended that Pelagius was an Irishman,[62] but Healy shows that he was a British monk of Irish origin.[63] Healy also endeavours to prove that the assumption that Caelestius was an Irishman is based on a misconception.[64] Against this view we must place Meyer’s opinion. The latter asserts that whether Pelagius was an Irishman or not “his faithful henchman, Caelestius, he of the plausible tongue, certainly was.”[65] The weight of evidence seems to point to the conclusion that one or other, if not both, of these heresiarchs was Irish or at least of Irish descent.

Enough was written to show that some Irish families at least were in reach of a classical literary education and were prompt to grasp it even before the middle of the fifth century.[66] Hence we cannot attribute the introduction of classical learning to St. Patrick as has been so often asserted. Nor can we attribute to St. Patrick the introduction of Christianity itself. According to Zimmer there were missionaries at work in the third century in the southern part of Ireland.[67] It would seem, however, that Zimmer makes too sweeping a statement when he says that Ireland was a Christian land before the fifth century; for, as MacCaffery has pointed out, the Irish Hero Tales which were taken down about the beginning of the eighth century represent the life of the first, second and third centuries and paint the social life as unaffected by Christianity.[68]

That there were some Christians in Ireland before the time of St. Patrick there can be no doubt. Bede distinctly states that Palladius, the predecessor of St. Patrick, was sent by Pope Celestine to the Irish who believed in Christ—“ad Scottos in Christum credentes.”[69] Here it should be pointed out that the word Scoti or Scotti wherever it occurs in writings prior to the tenth century means the Irish, and the Irish alone, the inhabitants of Scotia Major (Ireland). Later the term was extended to include the Irish colony in North Britain (Scotia Minor). Eventually the name was still further extended to include the inhabitants of the whole country now called Scotland.[70]

It has been necessary to go into some detail in order to refute a popular fallacy that it was due to the labours of St. Patrick that Ireland owes the introduction of Christianity as well as the beginnings of classical learning. However, as Professor Bury points out, the fact that the foundations of Christianity had been laid sporadically in certain parts of Ireland does not deprive St. Patrick’s mission of its eminent significance. He did three things: he organised the Christianity which already existed; he converted many districts which were still pagan, especially in the West; he brought Ireland into connection with the Church of the Empire and made it formally a part of universal Christendom.[71] While as has been shown he did not introduce classical learning, his indirect influence must have been considerable. The very fact that Latin was the ecclesiastical language of the new religion gave it an importance and a dignity. Besides St. Patrick and his fellow workers would naturally help to diffuse a knowledge of ecclesiastical Latin at least in every part of the island which Christianity reached,[72] but it must be remembered that Ireland was not a completely Christian land even at his death.[73] Paganism still lingered in many parts and its influence can be traced in the early native literature,[74] and even in the early Lives of the Irish Saints.[75] To complete the work which he did so much to promote as well as to supply the spiritual wants of the converted, a native ministry was essential. In order to equip such a ministry Christian schools had to be established. Unable to give proper attention to the instruction of these ecclesiastical students, St. Patrick after about twenty years’ peripatetic teaching established c. 450 A.D. a school at Armagh of which St. Benin or Benignus was given charge. The primary aim of this school was to train subjects for the priesthood.[76] A knowledge of Latin and perhaps Greek were acquired. To supply the various churches with books there was a special house in which students were employed as scribes.[77]

From what has been said about the presence of Gallic scholars in Ireland we may infer that there were classical schools in existence in certain localities, but in the foundation of the School of Armagh we have the first recorded attempt at the organization of instruction in Christian theology and classical learning in Ireland. We append a list of other schools which the most reliable authorities ascribe to the latter half of the fifth century. It is doubtful whether these were really monastic schools at first for reasons that will be given in the next chapter. It is more likely that they were ecclesiastical seminaries during the time of the First Order of Saints (c. 440–534 A.D.).[78]

The significance of these fifth century schools from the point of view of the present study lies in the fact that they were the precursors of the great monastic schools which sprang up in such numbers in the sixth century. We have good reason for believing that it was in these early schools and by the labours of Gallic scholars and their pupils that the foundations were laid of that classical scholarship that drew the eyes of Europe upon Ireland during the sixth, seventh and eighth and ninth centuries.

IRISH SCHOOLS IN THE FIFTH CENTURY

For a discussion of the chronology of SS. Declan, Ibar, Ailbe and Ciaran the Elder, see Power, Rev. Patrick, Lives of SS. Declan and Mocuda, pp. xix–xxii, Irish Texts Series.

[1a.] Conyngham, D. P., Irish Saints and Martyrs, p. 540. Conyngham relies mainly on Walter Harris’s ed. of Ware’s Monasticon Hiberniae and Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. [1b.] Unknown. [1c.] St. Patrick’s death, see Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 2; St. Mell’s op. cit. p. 117.

For the various dates assigned to St. Patrick’s death, see Healy, John. Life and Writings of St Patrick, pp. 635–7. Bury, J. B. op. cit. p. 206 places his death as early as 461 A.D., while the Annals of the Four Masters, I., pp. 154–6 give the traditional date as 493 A.D. Modern scholars are inclined to accept one of the earlier dates as the more probable.

[2a.] Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541. [2b.] Unknown. [2c.] Power P., op. cit. pp. xix–xxii.

[3a ]and [3b.] Healy, John, Ireland’s Saints and Scholars, p. 114 gives 455 A.D. as the date of foundation, the Four Masters give 457 A.D. I, p. 142. Bury, J. B., places the date of foundation as early as 444 A.D. op. cit. p. 154. [3c.] See Note 1c above.

[4a], [4b], and [4c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 182. See also Healy, John, for an account of the School of St. Enda. op. cit.

[5a] and [5b]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 538. [5c]. See Note [1c] above.

[6a], [6b] and [6c]. For this and other monasteries see Article by (Rev.) Laurence P. Murray, Monasteries of County Louth, in the Louth Journal of Archaeology, I, pp. 22–36.

[7a]. See Healy’s account of this school, op. cit. [7b]. Unknown.

[7c]. The Annals of Ulster, sub anno 526 record St. Ailbe’s death, but see Note [2c] above.

[8a], [8b], and [8c]. Healy, John, op. cit. 161.

[9a], [9b], and [9c]. Healy, John, op. cit. p. 132, gives 527 A.D. as the date of foundation. The Chronicon Scottorum gives 510 A.D.; but this is evidently too late, as St. Brigid died in 525 A.D., according to the Chronology in Miss Hull’s Early Christian Ireland, introductory pages. St. Conlaeth died in 519 A.D. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 133. The same author places the date of her birth at 453 A.D., so it is fair to assume that the date of the foundation of this school is 487 A.D. and not 467 A.D.

[10a], [10b], [10c]. Murray, L. P., ibid.

[11]a and [11]b. Reeves, Wm., Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, p. 10; [11]c. Reeves, Wm., op. cit. p. 138.

[12]a, [12]b, and [12]c. Founded by St. Patrick according to the tradition accepted by Conyngham, op. cit. p. 540, and others, but more probably at a later date by St. Comgall, d. 601 A.D. See Reeves’ Ecc. Antiq., p. 70.

[13a], [13]b, and [13]c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 540.

[14a], [14b], and [14c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 539.

[15a], [15b], and [15c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 538.

[16a], [16b], and [16c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 539.

This list does not claim to be complete. The above dates agree with those given by the most careful authorities. The four saints whose names are marked (*) are usually called the pre-Patrician Saints. Their chronology is very difficult. Some authorities place them as early as the fourth century and some as late as the sixth.

CHAPTER III

IRISH MONASTICISM

As the organization of the Irish monastic schools was so intimately connected with the Irish monastic system it is impossible to form a clear idea of the character, aims, curriculum, or the scope of scholarship of these schools without some reference to Irish monasticism and its relation to other types of monasticism.

Monasticism in general is a system of living that owes its origin to those tendencies of human nature which are summed up in the words mysticism and asceticism. Mysticism may be defined as the efforts to give effect to the craving for union with the Deity even in this life; and asceticism, as the effort to give effect to the hankering after an ever progressive purification of the soul, and an atoning for sin by the renunciation and self-denial of things lawful.[79] These two tendencies would appear to be inseparable from humanity, because though not always called into activity, they are always liable to be invoked, and in all ages and among all peoples they have frequently asserted themselves.[80] In one form or another monasticism had appealed to people of various countries long before it became associated with Christianity. In the early years of Christianity monasticism took a definite shape in Syria, Egypt and Armenia. From Egypt and Syria it was brought to Rome about the middle of the fourth century by Athanasius, the great champion of the Divinity of Christ; by Honorius, the founder of the island monastery of Lerins; and by Cassian whose “Institutes” were a kind of manual for all the earlier monasteries of the West.[81]

As to the origin of Irish Monasticism opinions are divided: some have ascribed it to an Eastern origin, while others insist that it can be directly traced to Gaul. The most commonly accepted view is that of Mr. Willis Bund[82] which ascribes to it a purely indigenous development. As such general statements are at best but partly true and utterly fail to give an adequate idea of the characteristics of Irish monasticism we propose to examine the subject in the light derived from such native sources of information as:

1. The Irish Monastic Rules,[83]
2. The Lives of the Early Irish Saints,[84]
3. Ecclesiastical History, and
4. Social and Political History.

From the first and second sources we shall learn much about the spirit of monastic life, its ideals, obligations, and daily routine. From the third and fourth sources, and incidentally from the other two, we learn much about the relation which existed between the monastery and the community in which it was located.

An examination of Irish Monastic Rules, so far as they have come down to us, reveals the fact that they are not identical with any Eastern or Western Code. In the general severity of their regulations they are found, on comparison, to resemble the former rather than the latter. It was doubtless this austerity that caused the Irish Rules to give way eventually before the milder Rule of St. Benedict.[85] It is possible, however, that the ideas and literature of Gallic and Egyptian monasticism may have influenced to some extent the development of Irish monasticism.[86]

Whether Irish monasticism was of native origin or not there can be little doubt that British monasticism exercised a very potent and direct influence on its development. In an Irish document which is generally accepted as historical, we are informed that there were Three Orders of Saints.[87] The First Order flourished c. 440–534 A.D. Many of the saints in this Order lived in the time of St. Patrick. They were all bishops and founders of churches. Their number was 350 and included Britons, Romans, Franks and Scots. The Second Order (534–572 A.D.) was made up of few bishops and many priests: they numbered 300. Unlike the First Order these refused the services of women separating them from their monasteries. They received a Mass from SS. David, Gillas, and Docus the Britons. The Third Order consisted of holy priests and a few bishops. The number of this Order was 100; they dwelt in desert places living mainly on herbs and water; they depended upon alms and possessed no private property.

The Second Order interests us especially as in all probability the monasteries owe their origin to its members. Whether St. Patrick actually founded monasteries is uncertain. We know that he spent some years at Lerins, the island monastery of the Mediterranean, but his life was too full of missionary labours to have time for the foundation and government of monasteries.[88] In strong contrast with the First Order who were mainly foreigners, the Second Order of Saints were all natives of Ireland. However, they came under the influence of British monasticism in two ways. We have seen above that three British or Welsh saints visited Ireland during this period, and indeed so did several others.[89] Of equal importance is the fact that several Irish saints visited Britain about this time. In South Wales there were two centres of attraction, Llancarvon under St. Cadoc and Menevia under St. David.[90] St. Finnian of Clonard, “the tutor of the Saints of Erin,” was a pupil of St. Cadoc at Llancarvon, as was St. Cainnech. Maedoc was a pupil of St. David’s, as were Modomnoc and Scuithin, while we hear of Finnian of Clonard, Declan, Bairre and Senan as visitors there.[91] The saints of the North of Ireland tended to gravitate towards a monastery in the territory of the Niduari Picts, sometimes called Strathclyde, in the South-west of Scotland. This monastery was called Whitern (Rosnat in Irish sources). Among the Irish saints who visited Whitern are SS. Enda, Tighernach, Eoghan of Ardstraw and Finnian of Movilla.[92]

INFLUENCE OF CLONARD MONASTERY:

About the middle of the sixth century a great monastic movement took rise from the monastery established at Clonard by Finnian c. 525 A.D.[93] Under him were trained for missionary work many of the most illustrious fathers of the Irish church including the “Twelve Apostles of Erin,”[94] viz. Ciaran of Seir, Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, Columba (Colum Cille), Brendan of Clonfert, Brendan of Birr, Columba or Colman of Terryglass, Molaise of Devenish, Canice of Aghaboe, Ruadan of Lorrha, Mobi of Glasnevin, Sinnel of Cleenish, and Ninnidh or Nennius of Inishmacsaint.[95] According to another authority, the names of Finnian of Clonard, Finnian of Movilla, and Comgall of Bangor are substituted for those of Ciaran of Seir, Molaise of Devenish, and Sinnel of Cleenish.[96] The remaining nine names occur in both lists. These men going forth in all directions founded numerous monasteries and schools which afterwards became famous throughout Europe.[97] St. Columba (Colum Cille) styled in an old record “Monasteriorum Pater et Fundator” is said to have founded 300 monasteries. Even allowing for the poetic imagination of the early chronicler, it is significant that Reeves in his investigations was able to compile a list of at least 90 monasteries founded by, or dedicated to, this saint. Of this number 37 were located in Ireland, 32 amongst the Scots (of Alba) and 21 amongst the Picts, i.e. 53 in the country now called Scotland.[98] It was mainly through the efforts of these saints that Ireland was completely converted to the Christian faith.[99] It would appear that after St. Patrick’s death the druids recovered some of their former influence and exerted themselves to the utmost to retard and limit the spread of the new faith.[100] Thanks to the zeal and energy of the saints of this Second Order the influence of the druids was completely broken down, though the druids still lingered on obscurely and feebly many generations.[101]

When monasticism became general in the sixth century most, if not all, of those ecclesiastical seminaries which we have listed as being founded in the fifth century, became monastic schools. Some of them such as the School of Armagh attained a high degree of excellence ranking with Clonard, Bangor, and the other great schools which date from the sixth century. We give a list of the better-known monastic schools which were founded during the sixth and seventh centuries, the most famous being printed in CAPITALS. These schools were all established in Ireland by Irishmen, who, as far as we have been able to discover, received their own education for the most part in schools already in existence in Ireland. This list makes no pretence to completeness. According to the calculations of Sir James Ware the number of famous schools in Ireland amounted to 164.[102] Another writer[103] gives the names of 168 monasteries founded prior to 900 A.D. Even this list is incomplete. We have checked this latter list for Co. Louth with one compiled by a recent reliable investigator[104] with the result that 19 or 20 should be credited to Co. Louth whereas there are only 2 out of the 168 so accredited. Similarly, we find only 4 monasteries ascribed to St. Columba while, as we have shown, Reeves found 37 monasteries in Ireland whose foundation is accredited to this energetic saint. As we have reason to believe that all these monasteries had schools, we can easily see how abundant were the facilities for acquiring such an education as these schools provided.

MONASTIC SCHOOLS FOUNDED IN IRELAND
BETWEEN 500 AND 700 A.D.

[1a]. Warren, F. E., op. cit. pp. 14, 15. [1b]. Unknown. [1c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 268. ibid. Joyce, P. W. Short History of Ireland, p. 180, gives (517–600).

[2a]. Plummer, Charles, op. cit. I, p. lxxix. [2b]. Joyce, P. W., Concise History of Ireland, p. 82. [2c]. Revue Celtique, XXX, p. 113.

[3a], [3b], [3c]. Plummer, C., op. cit. I, xlii.

[4a], [4b], [4c]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541.

[5a], [5b]. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541. [5c]. op. cit. p. 132.

[6a], [6b], [6c]. Joyce, P. W., Con. Hist. of Ir., p. 92.

[7a], [7b], [7c]. Healy, John, Ireland’s Ancient Schools and Scholars, p. 404, but Plummer, C., op. cit. I, lxx, gives 603 A.D. as the date of St. Fintan’s death.

[8a], [8b], [8c]. Plummer, C., op. cit. p. I, xxiv.

[9a], [9b], [9c]. Joyce, P. W., Con. Hist, of Ir., p. 92; Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 329.

[10a]. Plummer, C., op. cit. I, p. lxiv. [10b]. Chronicles give no date, ibid. [10c]. Dalton, Canon, Hist. of Ireland, I, 71.

[11a], [11b], [11c]. Healy, John, op. cit. p. 160.

[12a], [12b], [12c]. Plummer, C., op. cit. I, p. lxxiv.

[13a], [13b], [13c]. Hull, Eleanor, Early Christian Ireland, Chronological Table; Dalton, Canon, op. cit. I, p. 62.

[14a], [14b], [14c]. Reeves, Wm., Ecclesiastical Antiquities, p. 138.

[15a], [15b], [15c]. Reeves, Wm., Adamnan’s Vita Columbae, p. 276; Warren, F. E., op. cit. pp. 14, 15.

[16a], [16b], [16c]. Warren, F. E., op. cit. pp. 14, 15.

[17a], [17b], [17c]. Plummer, C., op. cit. I, p. xxxiii; Joyce, P. W., Concise History of Ireland, p. 92.

[18a], [18b], [18c]. Warren, F. E., op. cit. pp. 14, 15; Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541.

[19a], [19b], [19c]. Reeves, Wm., Adamnan, p. 276.

[20a], [20b], [20c]. Plummer, C., op. cit. I, p. lxxix; Joyce, P. W., op. cit. p. 92.

[21a], [21b], [21c]. Joyce, P. W., op. cit. p. 81; Dalton, op. cit. I, p. 74.

[22a], [22b], [22c]. Macalister, R. A. S., Muiredach, Abbot of Monasterboice. Introduction, Murray, L. P., op. cit.

[23a], [23b], [23c]. Chronicon Scottorum, p. 104; Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 543.

[24a], [24b], [24c]. Reeves, Wm., Ecclesiastical Antiquities, p. 138.

[25a], [25b], [25c]. Joyce, P. W., Concise Hist. of Ireland, p. 92.

[26a], [26b], [26c]. Joyce, P. W., ibid.; Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541.

[27a], [27b], [27c]. Reeves, Wm., Adamnan, p. 279.

[28a], [28b], [28c]. Joyce, P. W., op. cit. p. 81.

[29a], [29b], [29c]. Warren, F. E., op. cit. pp. 14, 15; Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 542.

[30a], [30c]. Healy, John, op. cit. p. 160. [30b]. Date of the foundation is uncertain. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 543 states that it was founded in the Fifth Century.

EDUCATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ORGANIZATION
OF THE IRISH CHURCH.

From what has been said about the spread of monasticism in Ireland in the sixth century it is evident that the whole organization of the Church in Ireland was being placed on a monastic basis. The importance of this type of organization from an educational standpoint will be evident when we recall the actual condition of society at this particular period. Closely related to the monastic character of the Irish Church was its missionary character. How far reaching the influence of the Irish Monastic Church was, can be judged from a brief survey of the distribution of Irish monasteries in Britain and on the Continent. A list of 122 monasteries founded by Irish monks in Scotland, in England and on the Continent was collected by Colgan in a lost work of which the index has been preserved and printed.[105] Another writer has shown that Ireland sent 115 missionaries into Germany, 45 into France, 44 into England, 36 into Belgium, 25 into Scotland and 13 into Italy.[106] According to the testimony of Jonas, biographer of Columbanus, about 620 missionaries went into Bavaria from Luxeuil, the headquarters of the missionary work of Columbanus. No doubt, some of these were natives of Gaul, but there must have been many Irish amongst them. Miss Stokes gives the names of 63 missionaries who in the seventh century spread the Columban Rule from Luxeuil.[107] In the light of these facts we see how just is the judgment of Green, the English historian, when he declared that as the Irish Church overflowed its own territorial limits and invaded the Continent of Europe, it was for a time doubtful whether the monastic ideal of Christendom would come from a Celtic or from an Italian source, whether it would be represented by the Rules of SS. Columba and Columbanus, or that of St. Benedict.[108]

IMPOSSIBILITY OF COMPILING A COMPLETE LIST
OF MONASTIC SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS:

The number of monastic schools and scholars given in the preceding section though at first sight somewhat startling is really an under-estimate. This assertion is based on the following considerations:—

1. The desire which prevailed in the early centuries of Christianity to imitate even the accidental features of the Apostolic system naturally suggested the adoption of the number twelve in the adjustment of missionary societies. Thus we find it recorded that in Clonard the “Twelve Apostles of Erin” were educated. St. Columba set out about 562 A.D. with twelve companions to convert the Picts. St. Columbanus with twelve brethren left Ireland about 612 to undertake his great missionary work on the Continent. St. Killian was the chief of a company of twelve who founded a monastic institution in Würzburg. St. Eloquius, disciple of St. Fursa, with twelve companions whose names are preserved, propagated the Gospel in Belgium.[109] Thus except in the case of the founders of monasteries there is a very natural tendency to overlook the other workers, sometimes their names are not even recorded.

2. During the Danish incursions of the ninth and tenth centuries many of the Irish monasteries were destroyed and the monks went to Europe and set up monasteries wherever they settled. Sometimes they carried their books with them, but more frequently their libraries were burned or “drowned” by the pagan invaders who hated Christianity and learning, thus the Irish Annals and other documents are very defective as a means of supplying the necessary data for the compilation of a tolerably complete list.[110]

3. Even when the names of Irish missionaries are recorded in Continental MSS. there is often a difficulty in recognising an Irish name in its Continental dress. Many of the Irish monks who went abroad were “re-christened,” sometimes Biblical names like Joseph or Isaias were adopted, or the Irish name was latinized to make it more euphonious to Continental ears. Hence we find Moengal figuring as Marcellus, just as Maelmuire appears as Marianus and Mylerius, Maelmeadhog as Malachy, Giolla Iosa and even Cellach become Gelasius, Giolla an Coimded figures as Germanus, Tuathal as Tutilo, Domnall or Donal as Donatus, Aed as Aidan and Hugh, Siadhal as Sedulius, Cellach sometimes became Gall, while others chose to remain anonymous or describe themselves vaguely as Exul, or Hibernicus, or Scottus. In the Continental libraries there are many MSS. in Irish script and the scribes have concealed their identity in the vague manner just described.[111]

4. Naturally there were many others whose work was teaching rather than writing, consequently there is no record in such cases. Columba and Columbanus were lucky in having biographers but many others were less fortunate.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF IRISH MONASTIC SCHOOLS:

We give a partial list of the better-known monastic institutions which were at one and the same time advance posts of civilization and centres of Christian learning. Many of these date from that great period of Irish missionary activity, the seventh century.

SCOTLAND:

Almost the whole of the country now called Scotland was converted to Christianity by Irish missionaries. With the foundation of the monastery of Iona in 563 A.D. by St. Columba, “pater et fundator monasteriorum,” began a period of great monastic activity in Britain. Reeves found that 63 monasteries were founded by or dedicated to St. Columba; of these 32 were in the territory occupied by the Scots and 21 were among the Picts.[112] Other important monasteries were Deer founded by St. Drostan, a disciple of St. Columba, Lismore founded by St. Moluag in 592 A.D., and Righ-Monadh or Kilrimont founded by St. Canice near the place where St. Andrew’s University is now located.[113] There were also numerous small monasteries on the islands round the Scottish coast.[114] The beneficent influence exercised by these foundations as civilizing and educational agencies is acknowledged by modern Scottish historians.[115]

ENGLAND:

Just as Iona was the great headquarters of monastic activity for Scotland, so Lindisfarne founded by the Irish St. Aidan in 635 A.D. became the base of operations for the Irish missionaries in the North of England, especially in Northumbria. At this time Northumbria was an extensive kingdom extending as far south as the Humber and into modern Scotland as far north as the Firth of Forth. To the influence of Aidan and other Irish monks we trace the foundation of Lindisfarne, Coldingham, Mailros, Lastingham, in Northumbria, Ripon and Streanshalch (now Whitby) in Yorkshire, Burgh Castle in Suffolk, St. Bees in Lancashire, Malmesbury among the West Saxons, Bosham or Bosanham in Sussex, and “Glastonbury of the Gael” in Somerset.[116] In most histories the missionary work of St. Augustine is grossly exaggerated and the important missionary and educational work of the Irish monks is either completely ignored or accorded an amount of space utterly out of proportion to its importance.[117]

IRISH FOUNDATIONS ON THE CONTINENT:

In Netherlands: Namur, Liège, Gueldres, Fosse, Haumont, Soignes.[118]

In France: Remiremont, Lure, Besançon, Poitiers (f. 511), Bezieres, Romain-Moutier, Brezille, Cusance, St. Ursanne, Fleury (f. 629), St. Riquier (f. 625), Jouarre, Reuil, Rébais (f. 634), Faremoutier, St. Maur-des-Fossés, Lagny, Montier-la-Celle, Caudabec, Hautvilliers, Montier-en-Der, St. Salaberga, Meaux, St. Saens, Fontennelle, Jumieges, Stavelot (f. 656), Corbie (f. 662), Anegray, Luxeuil (f. 599), Fontaines, Ferrières (f. 630), Peronne (f. 650) or Perrona Scottorum, Toul, Amboise, Beaulieu, Strasbourg, in addition to the countless and nameless Hospitalia Scottorum alluded to in the Capitularies of Charles the Bald in 846 A.D.[119]

In Germany and Switzerland: Hohenaug, Würzburg, Memmingen, Erfurt, Freyburg, Schuttern, Ettenheimünster, Mentz, Cologne, Nuremburg, Altomünster, Ratisbon or Regensburg, Constance, St. Gall (f. 614), Mont St. Victor, Bregens (f. 610), Reichenau, Seckingen.[120]

In Italy: Bobbio (f. 612), Taranto, Lucca, Faenza, Fiesole.[121]

RELATION OF THE IRISH MONASTIC CHURCH TO THE ROMAN CHURCH:

The preceding section will enable us to understand what an important influence from a religious, as well as from an educational, standpoint the Irish monastic system began to exercise throughout the West of Europe. The relation which existed between the Irish Church and the Roman Church has given rise to considerable polemic discussion. Indeed there are so many points in common between the Irish monastic church of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries and the British or Welsh church of the same period that both are often spoken of as the “Celtic Church” in contradistinction to the Roman Church. This distinction is based not on any essential difference of doctrine[122] but on certain differences of ritual, liturgy, and discipline. As we have shown the Irish monastic system extended far beyond the territorial limits occupied by the Celtic race. Hence when we refer to the Celtic Church we have in mind a widespread organization rather than a locality, and we emphasize differences of custom and not essentials of dogma. The differences that existed between the Roman Church and the Celtic Church with regard to the date of Easter and to the tonsure of the monks gave rise to an important controversy in the seventh century.[123]

THE CALCULATION OF EASTER:

Prior to the Council of Nice 325 A.D. the date of Easter in the nascent Celtic Church harmonized with that of the Roman Church. Owing, however, to isolation the Celtic Church had never adopted the various alterations and improvements which on astronomical—not on theological—grounds had been accepted by the Continental Church.[124]

THE TONSURE CONTROVERSY:

The Roman tonsure was formed by shaving the top of the head in a circle leaving a crown of hair around it. The Eastern tonsure, sometimes called the Pauline tonsure, was total. The Celtic tonsure was formed by shaving all the hair in front of a line drawn from ear to ear.[125] In the controversy of the seventh century the Roman party traced their form to St. Peter and attributed that of their opponents to Simon Magus.[126] The Irish form, ab aure ad aurem, existed in St. Patrick’s time[127] and was probably druidical in origin.[128]

These two questions, though in themselves of minor importance, gave rise to a controversy of many years’ duration. Eventually the Roman practice was adopted by the whole Celtic Church, but not without a struggle, some localities clinging tenaciously to the traditional usage long after the general acceptance of the Continental practice. The Southern Irish were the first to conform. Having received an admonition from Pope Honorius they convened a Synod about 630 A.D. and as a result of their deliberations decided to adopt the Roman usage. The North of Ireland held out much longer, being influenced by Iona and its dependent monasteries in Ireland.[129] The dates at which the different parts of the Celtic Church conformed with the Roman practice in regard to the celebration of Easter are given below.[130] Possibly the coronal form of tonsure was adopted at the same time.

YEAR.—DISTRICT AFFECTED BY THE CHANGE:[130]

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.

ORGANIZATION OF THE IRISH MONASTERY ON A TRIBAL BASIS:

In marked contrast with the other Western churches which were organized on a national and episcopal basis the Irish Church was tribal and monastic. This was quite natural. The conversion of the chieftain was followed by the conversion of the clansmen and a tribal character was thus given to the nascent church.[135] At an early date the Irish Church took a monastic form which accorded so well with the native social system. The abbot became chief of an ecclesiastical clan most of whose members were descended from the same common ancestor as the abbot himself. No wonder the native name for the monastic community was muintir, usually translated familia.[136] Even the successor of the abbot—the coarb, literally heir—could often claim lineal descent from the same chieftain as the abbot whom he succeeded. Of course, as the abbot was unmarried, there could be no direct lineal succession from the first abbot, but there was a succession in the manner indicated. There was thus a close resemblance between the succession of the abbot and that of the chieftain. The successor of the chieftain was not necessarily his son, but a member of the clan by whom he was selected on account of his personal fitness for the position. In the case of the monastery of Iona it has been noted that Columba and thirteen of his successors were descended from a common ancestor, an Irish chief named Conall Gulban.[137] The monastic family consisted of fratres: those of tried devotion were called seniores; those who were strong for labour were operarii fratres; and those under instruction were juniores, alumni, or pueri familiares. Besides the congregation—collectio—of professed members there were usually present peregrini, sometimes called proselyti, poenitentes, or hospites whose sojourn was of varied duration.[138]

The number of officers was relatively small, the more important being the abbot, the prior, the episcopus, the scriba, and the Erinach or Airchinneach. The abbot was the superior of the monastic family and frequently had several houses under his supreme control. He generally lived at the mother house. The branch houses were governed by local superiors called priors who were subject to removal by the abbot. There was also a prior at the mother house who assisted the abbot and took his place in administration when his superior was absent. The prior in this latter capacity is sometimes styled custos monasterii, sometimes oeconomus, and in the Irish Annals, Fertighis.[139]

An interesting fact in connection with the Irish monastic organization is that the abbot was not necessarily a bishop.[140] In matters of discipline and jurisdiction the abbot was supreme whether he was a bishop or not. But if he were not a bishop there were certain duties which he could not perform. The bishop (episcopus) as such and in virtue of his office performed such functions as administration of Confirmation and Holy Orders just as at present. Of course the abbot was frequently a bishop and consequently was vested with correspondingly increased powers.[141]

The abbot sometimes combined the office of scribe with his other duties. The special work of the scribe will be dealt with later; here it is sufficient to note that the office of scribe was held in such honour that we often find it recorded of a certain saint that he was an excellent scribe, while as if of secondary importance, it is added that he was an abbot, or bishop.[142]

The lands belonging to the monastery or church were usually managed by an officer called an erinach, or herenach (in Irish, Airchinneach). The erinach, who was usually a layman, first deducted his own stipend and gave the residue for the purposes intended—the support of the church, or the relief of the poor. It was generally understood to be the duty of the erinach to keep the church clean and in proper repair, and the grounds in order. There were erinachs in connection with nearly all the monasteries and churches.[143] Lay erinachs were usually tonsured.[144]

REVENUES AND MEANS OF SUPPORT.

The monasteries derived their means of support from a variety of sources, the chief being: Lands, Tithes, Fees and Dues, and Gifts.

By far the most important of all these means of support were the lands attached to the monastery. These lands, called Termon lands in Ireland, derived their name in all probability from the termini, pillar stones, or crosses set up to mark their boundaries within which there was right of sanctuary, and a freedom from the taxes and tributes of the secular chieftains.[145] These lands were tilled by the monks themselves and formed the staple support of the establishment.[146] It was a maxim in all the primitive monasteries that the monks support themselves by the labour of their own hands. The mendicant orders, who depended largely upon alms were a later institution, first introduced into Ireland about 1225 A.D.[147] The monastic lands were sometimes increased by special grants from kings, or chiefs. These special grants when added to the foundation grant sometimes made up an extensive territory.[148] When the lands became too large for the community to work, a portion of them was rented to tenants. Part of the duty of the erinach was to collect the rents and other tributes from the tenants.[149] Ordinarily the monastery was a self-supporting institution. The community produced everything they needed for food, clothing, and shelter. They owed little to society in general but society owed much to them.[150] There was no privileged class in these early monasteries. All who were physically fit had to take part in the manual labour, nor were the scribes or even the abbot exempt.[151]

In parts of the Senchus Mór,[152] one of the ancient books of law, it is prescribed as a duty of society to pay tithes, as well as to bestow alms and first fruits to the Church, but tithes were not generally nor regularly paid until after the Norman invasion in 1172 A.D.[153] Another subsidiary, but occasionally substantial, means of support was the dues paid by the tribe to the abbot for the performance of various religious functions.[154] The Brehon Laws lay down specifically the reciprocal obligations of the clergy and laity in this manner.[155] In this connection[156] it should be pointed out that owing to its position in the native social system “the Church in Ireland never became as in other lands by turns the servant, the ally, or the master of the State. It was the companion of the people, and an important element in the national life.”

Gifts, or voluntary offerings, were a further source of income, but a fluctuating one, depending largely on the location of the monastery, its reputation, the social condition of its patrons, and a variety of other accidental circumstances. Almost all persons who visited a monastery left something of value, if their means permitted. In early times the offerings, like other payments, were in ounces of gold or silver, or in kind. When Brian Boru visited Armagh in 1004 A.D. he laid on the great altar an offering of twenty ounces of gold, equivalent to $5000 or $7000 at the present day.[157]

THE BUILDINGS:

The monastery including the whole group of monastic buildings was generally, but not always, surrounded by a strong rampart, commonly circular or elliptical, after the manner of the homesteads of the laity. The enclosure with its bounding rampart was designated in Irish by various names. When the wall was of earth it was called a rath, or lios. If surrounded by a stone wall it was known as a caiseal or sometimes a cathair.[158] Sometimes the monks located themselves in a rath or lios surrendered by a friendly chief,[159] and sometimes the monks built the enclosure themselves.[160] So much was the rampart a feature of the Irish monastery that we find it in connection with the monasteries founded by Irish monks in foreign lands. A vallum monasterii is mentioned by Adamnan,[161] and Columbanus utilised the walls of the old Roman castrum to serve as the vallum for his monastery at Luxeuil.[162] The monastery proper was the space enclosed by the vallum and included the church or churches, the oratories, the refectory, the kitchen, the school, the armarium—a chamber for the preservation of books and literary apparatus, sometimes a special scriptorium, the hospice or guest house, the cells for the monks, and the officinae or workshops for the smith and the carpenter.[163] Outside of the vallum were the various other indispensable buildings connected with the monastery of which the storehouse and the mill are the most important. There was usually a byre for the cows situated in convenient pasture land. If the monastery was located inland there was a fish pond; or a convenient harbour, if near the sea. The various buildings occupied different situations according to local convenience.[164]

The structure of these early monasteries was of a simple and inexpensive character. Like the early Celtic churches, they were built at first of earth, wattles, or wood. It was not until the eighth century that stone buildings began to be substituted for wooden ones, as a protection against the ravages of the Danes.[165] The simplicity and temporary character of these early foundations would account for the quickness with which monastic cities sprang up as well as for the fact that comparatively few material remains of these monastic settlements are now to be seen. They are now remembered chiefly for the great spiritual and literary heritage which they were the means of transmitting.

They were of various sizes. Those planted on barren islands off the coast of Ireland and Scotland must have been small. In each of the great monasteries of Clonard, Bangor and Clonfert there were 3000, including probably both monks and students. St. Molaise had 1,500 at Mungret, St. Gobban had 1000 and so on down to the school of St. Mobi at Glasnevin with 50. This last number, fifty, seems to have been the usual number in the smaller monastic schools.[166]

DAILY LIFE IN AN IRISH MONASTERY:

The investigations of scholars in recent years brought to light several Rules[167] which were written by early Irish saints for the direction and guidance of their monks. These Rules were frequently referred to in ancient documents, but some historians doubted their existence until their discovery set all doubts aside and furnished another proof of the trustworthiness of Irish records. By comparing these Rules with the references in the Lives of the (Irish) Saints[168] to the domestic and religious discipline of the monks we are able to form a tolerably correct picture of the real character of monastic life in Ireland during the period under consideration. While these Rules are neither so elaborate nor so systematic as the famous Rule of St. Benedict, to which they eventually gave place, yet they enable us to realize the austere simplicity of Irish monasticism.

However they may differ in details these “Rules of the Irish Saints” are in agreement as to the character of the daily work. St. Columbanus thus tersely describes the work of an Irish monastery: “Ergo quotidie jejunandum est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie laborandum, quotidie est legendum.”[169] Fasting and prayer, labour and study were the daily task of the monk in every Irish monastery.

FASTING:

During the whole year Wednesday and Friday were fast days in Iona and no food was taken before noon unless some “troublesome guest”[170] rendered a dispensation desirable; for charity went before sacrifice in the old Irish Canon. During Lent and Advent only one meal was allowed and that was taken in the evening.[171] Though the custom of Iona was severe, it was mildness itself as compared with that of Bangor. Only one meal was allowed the whole year round and that not eaten until evening.[172] The quality of food in Bangor was inferior to that of Iona where, as Reeves has shown, the dietary consisted of bread (sometimes made of barley), milk, fish, eggs, and probably seal’s flesh. On Sundays and festivals the monks were sometimes allowed some additional luxury.[173] In Bangor, as later in Luxeuil, Anegray, and Bobbio the food apparently consisted of cabbage, pulse, flour mixed with water, a little portion of biscuit and fish.[174] Beer was sometimes allowed as a drink even by Columbanus,[175] but on the other hand St. Maelruan of Tallaght was such a strict disciplinarian that not only did he prohibit the use of beverage, but even music was forbidden.[176]

PRAYER:

A considerable portion of both day and night was given to the work of praising God. Eight times[177] a day did the monks attired in their white robes wend their way to the church for the great work of their life—the Opus Dei, the “Celebration of the Divine Praises.” Mass was generally celebrated at an early hour each morning before the labour of the day began. The ordinary Canonical Hours were chanted in choir—Matins and Lauds generally at midnight. The Divine Office was made up of the Psalms and Lessons from the Old and New Testament. The entire Psaltery appears to have been recited during the daily office at least at certain times of the year.[178] Sometimes the choir was divided into groups which in turn chanted the Divine Praises day and night without intermission. In the monastery of Tallaght the Gospels were read in the refectory at meal times, the Gospels being taken in turn, one for each season of the year.[179]

LABOUR:

We have referred to the obligation that was placed upon all members of the monastic community to engage on some kind of manual labour.[180] Tasks requiring special skill were assigned to monks who had a natural aptitude for such work. Thus the duties of carpenter, smith, and brazier were assigned to specially qualified monks.[181] Yet even the scribes and artistic craftsmen were required to spend part of their time at ordinary manual work.[182] The word laborare is used in a wider sense than our term manual labour. The Rule of St. Columba defines the term “work” in these words: “Work is divided into three parts: viz., thine own work, and the work of the place as regards its real wants; secondly, thy share of the brethren’s work; lastly, helping the neighbours by instruction, or writing, or sewing garments, or whatever labour they may be in want of.”[183] Never to be idle for one moment was the monastic ideal. Accordingly Adamnan represents his hero as unable “to pass the space of one hour without applying himself either to prayer or reading, or writing, or else some manual work.”[184]

STUDY:

In subsequent chapters we shall deal with the monks in their capacity as teachers and scribes. Here we shall refer briefly to their fourth task—legendum, reading or study. The study of the Sacred Scriptures was practised daily by the more learned members of the community, while the younger members learned by rote a portion of the Psalter each day until they could repeat the whole of it from memory. The story of how St. Columba when a tiny boy took up the Psalm where his tutor broke down is well known, while the numerous glosses on the Psalms and other portions of the Bible are convincing proofs of the intensive study of the Scriptures by these early monks.[185] Homilies or Lives of the Saints formed part of the sacred reading and we may reasonably suppose that the reading of the Gospels in the refectory during meal hours was a practice which was not confined to the monastery of Tallaght, nor was such reading limited to this particular time of the day. Indeed early Irish religious literature clearly points to a familiarity with the Holy Book.

OTHER PRACTICES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF IRISH MONASTIC LIFE: OBEDIENCE:

The ideal of prompt and unhesitating obedience to the commands of his superiors, so characteristic of the Irish monk, is one which cannot be understood apart from the Irish conception of Monasticism as “fighting for Christ.” In all things lawful the monk yielded prompt and unquestioning obedience and was ready to go to the ends of the earth if his superior should only speak the word. The conception that the monk should be a “miles Christi”[186] was particularly adapted to the native temperament. To the pagan ideals of “truth, courage, and strength” were added the Christian virtues of obedience to authority, self-sacrifice, and devotion to the welfare of mankind without distinction of race or country. With such ideals they bravely encountered all privations and dangers when they undertook their “peregrinatio pro Christo.” Humility was prized as a Christian virtue and was exemplified in many ways. The superiors though exacting prompt obedience and due respect from their monks were not tyrannical and led as strict and simple a life as the other members of the community.

There was no private property, all things were owned in common, and their wealth was limited to the means of supplying their few and simple wants. The members of the community exemplified their humility both in their demeanour towards their superiors and in dejection after sin.[187]

MORAL COURAGE:

Notwithstanding their humility these monks could, and did, show a high degree of moral courage when occasion demanded. This is shown by the action of St. Columba when he confronted the Irish King and the assembled chieftains at the Convention of Drumceat (575 A.D.).[188] Against great popular opposition he pleaded the cause of the Bardic Order and appealed for the freedom of the Irish colony in Scotland. In both cases success crowned his efforts. Still more daring was the action of St. Columbanus in his dealings with the Merovingian King, Theuderic, to whom he wrote a letter full of the bitterest reproaches and threatening to excommunicate him, if he did not immediately amend his sinful life. Thus did Columbanus draw upon himself not only the anger of the king but that of the crafty and cruel Brunechildis. Nothing daunted, however, he defied alike both their threats and violence. He adhered steadfastly to principle even though that adherence caused him to be driven from the kingdom of the Franks.[189]

SILENCE:

There was silence in the refectory during meals so that the reader could be distinctly heard, and silence was compulsory at other times also. Indeed, in their intercourse with each other the conversation of the monks was reserved at all times, but as regards their relation to society at large the objects of their system were too practical and their engagements too much characterized by common sense to impose any restraint in conversation but such as conduced to dignity and decorum.[190]

HOSPITALITY:

The monastery was usually located so as to be easily accessible to visitors for whom a special Hospice or Guest-house was provided. We have seen that when a guest arrived there was a relaxation of the fast—so strongly had the national characteristic of hospitality pervaded the monastic life.[191] Women, however, were rigidly excluded from the monastery.[192]

LOVE OF NATURE:

Another notable characteristic was the love of the monks for nature, animate and inanimate. This is shown in many ways, such as in the selection of the sites of their monasteries, and in their treatment of animals. Moreover, they often gave expression to their feelings for nature in verse, with the result that they are acknowledged to be pioneers in the field of “Nature Poetry” as well as in many other spheres of intellectual activity.[193]

Having regard to all the facts we have brought together Dr. Healy’s eloquent tribute to Irish monasticism appears to be amply justified. It is worth quoting:

“Fasting and prayer, labour and study are the daily task of the monks in every monastery. How well and unselfishly that toil was performed the history of Europe tells. The monks made roads, cleared the forests, and fertilised the desert. Their monasteries in Ireland were the sites of our cities. … They preserved for us the literary treasures of antiquity; they multiplied copies of the best and newest books; they illumined them with loving care. They taught the children of rich and poor alike; … they were the greatest authors, painters, architects since the decline of the Roman Empire. They were the physicians of the poor; they served the sick in their hospitals and in their homes. And when the day’s work was done in the fields or in the study, they praised God, and prayed for men who were unable or unwilling to pray for themselves. Ignorant and prejudiced men have spoken of them as an idle and useless race. They were in reality the greatest toilers, and the greatest benefactors of humanity the world has ever known.”[194]

CHAPTER IV

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]

RE-ORGANIZATION OF BARDIC SCHOOLS:

The members of Bardic Order became so numerous and exacting in their demands as to arouse widespread dissatisfaction with the result that the complete abolition of the Order was contemplated. Owing to the timely intervention of St. Columba reform was substituted for abolition. At the Convention of Drum-Ceata in 573 A.D. St. Columba who had received part of his own education in a Bardic School pleaded the cause of the bards with such success that the whole system of public secular education was reorganized. The scheme was devised by the chief poet (ard-ollamh) of Ireland, Dallan Forgaill. There was to be a chief school or college for each of the five provinces; and under these were several smaller schools, one for each tuath or district. They were all endowed with lands and all those persons who needed it received free education in them. The heads of these schools were ollamhna doctors of literature and poetry, and were all laymen.[201]

There was now a great tendency towards specialization. Many schools became noted for the excellency of their teaching in particular branches of learning according to the individual tastes or bent of mind of the teachers or the traditions of the several schools. These subjects whether Law, History, Antiquities, Poetry, etc. were commonly taught by the same family for generations.[202]

EDUCATION OF LAYMEN:

It has sometimes been asserted that in early times learning in Ireland was confined to ecclesiastics, but this assertion is quite erroneous. We have shown that there were numerous facilities afforded laymen both for a professional and a general education. Nearly all the professional men, physicians, lawyers (Brehons), poets, builders, and historians were laymen; lay tutors were employed to teach princes; and in fact laymen played a very important part in the diffusion of knowledge and in building up that character for learning that rendered Ireland famous in former times.[203] A glance through Ware’s Irish Writers, or O’Reilly’s Irish Writers, or Hyde’s Literary History of Ireland or Miss Hull’s Text Book of Irish Literature is enough to convince the most sceptical on this point.[204]

RELATION OF THE LAY SCHOOL TO THE MONASTIC SCHOOL:

Though differing in aim, both the lay school and the monastic school were so closely related to the social system that there does not appear to have been any actual antagonism between them. They were to a large extent complementary. As an instance of the friendly relations which obtained between the ecclesiastics and the lay school we might cite the fact, already referred to, that St. Columba pleaded the cause of the bards. St. Columba himself had practical experience of the bards as teachers. We are told that after he had spent some years at the monastic school of Finnian of Movilla and having been ordained deacon he placed himself under the instruction of an aged bard called Gemman.[205] Nor did his monks in the severe and pious solitude of Iona lose their love for their national poetry. On one occasion it is recorded they inquired from the saint why he did not ask an Irish poet who visited Iona to recite a poem for them after the sermon—a question that did not scandalize the saint in the least.[206] We know also that much of the pagan literature was preserved by monastic scribes, and some of the finest Old Irish poems that have been discovered were written by monks on the margin of MSS. they were copying.[207] These examples are given for the purpose of removing a false impression that there was a clear cut line of demarcation between the study of native and classical literature. As a learned French Celticist writes: “On aurait tort de croire qu’en Irelande il y eût entre les savants addonés aux lettres classiques où à la théologie, alors leurs inseparable associée,—et les gens des lettres voués à la culture de la littérature nationale, la ligne de séparation presque infranchissable qu’on remarque pendant le moyen âge sur le continent.”[208]

On the other hand many laymen attended Monastic schools at some period of their lives not only to get religious instruction but to get a wider general education.[209] Besides laymen were sometimes professors in the monastic schools, and even occupied the important position of Fer-leighinn or Principal of a monastic school, for example Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056 A.D.), a layman and the most learned scholar in Ireland of his time, was appointed Fer-leighinn of Monasterboice. About a century earlier the lay ollamh, Mac Cosse, held a similar position in the great school of Ros-Ailithir, now Ros Carbery, in Cork.[210]

Owing to the increasing popularity of the monastic schools and the appointment of laymen as professors in monastic schools there was a tendency to introduce into the Bardic school some of the subjects which attracted lay students to monastic schools. St. Bricin’s College at Tomregan (recte Tuaim Drecain) near Ballyconnel in Cavan, founded in the seventh century, though having an ecclesiastic for Principal was typical of the lay schools. It had one school for law, one for classics, and one for poetry and general Gaelic learning. Each school was under a special druimcli, or head professor,[211] corresponding apparently to a Dean in a modern university.

HOME EDUCATION AND FOSTERAGE:

Thus far we have dealt with literary and professional education. It remains to add a few words in regard to what may be called home education. This education was partly literary and partly technical in nature, and differed according to the age, sex, and social position of the child.

In addition to the usual literary education the sons of the chiefs were instructed in archery, swimming, and chess-playing,[212] while the daughters were taught sewing, cutting-out and embroidery. The sons of chiefs were also taught horsemanship. The children of the wealthy class were often put to fosterage and the foster father was held responsible for the instruction in these branches for neglect of which he was punished by a fine of two-thirds the fosterage fee. The Brehon Law clearly defines the relation between the teacher and pupil in the following words:

“The social position that is considered between the foster-pupil and his foster-father is that the latter is to instruct him without reserve, and to prepare him for his degree, and to chastise him without severity; to feed and to clothe him while he is learning his lawful profession unless he obtains it (food and clothing) from another person. On the other hand, the foster son is to assist his tutor in poverty, and support his old age, and to give him the honour price of the degree for which he is being prepared, and all the gains of his art while he is earning it, and the first earning of his art after he has left the house of his tutor; and moreover the literary foster father has power of judgment and proof and witnesses upon his foster son as the father has upon his son.”[213]

In the case of children who were put to fosterage the parents were apparently left to their own discretion as to the training of their children in their own homes. In such a case the instruction was of the more or less technical type that all must master to a greater or less extent in order to discharge the ordinary duties of life.[214]

Notwithstanding the facilities afforded by the numerous lay and monastic schools the great body of the people were probably neither able to read or write, yet they were not uneducated. They had an education of another kind, reciting poetry, historical tales, and legends, or listening to recitation in which all took delight. In every hamlet there was one or more amateur reciters. This practice of listening to the recitation of stories and poems was then as general as the reading of newspapers and story-books is at the present day.[215] Anyone acquainted with the social life of the Irish-speaking peasantry even in modern Ireland and has listened to a story told, or poem recited, by a seanchaidhe (raconteur) will realise that this was true education, a real exercise for the intellect and a refined source of enjoyment. Taking education then in the broad sense we see that the great body of the Irish people in these early times were really educated.

EDUCATION OF WOMEN:

We have ample evidence that education in ancient Ireland was not confined to men. As we have already seen, the Brehon Laws made provision for the education of girls as well as for that of boys. In a convent established by St. Brigid (d. 525 A.D.) at Kildare we are told that St. Mel was employed to instruct herself and her nurse,[216] and the history of that school would lead us to infer that it compared not unfavourably with some of the great monastic schools. St. Brendan of Clonfert (d. 577 A.D.) when a child about one year old was placed in fosterage in the convent of St. Ita at Killeedy, Co. Limerick, where he remained for five years. This young saint always looked upon St. Ita as his foster mother and often had listened to her counsels.[217] On one occasion she advised him not to study with women lest some evilly disposed person might revile him.[218] We may safely infer from this that it was not unusual for young children to receive the rudiments of education from the nuns, but that by the time they reached the age of six or more probably seven years[219] they were sent to the monastic school. Moreover, St. Ita’s words of advice clearly suggest that education was provided for girls but that except in the case of children of pre-adolescent age she was decidedly opposed to co-education. Unlike St. Brendan and some other saints, St. Columbanus was not put to fosterage and his childhood’s days were spent in his father’s home under his mother’s care.[220] His latest and best biographer informs us that he received his earliest literary education from an elderly lady who lived near his parent’s home.[221] One of the First Order of Saints named Mugint founded a school in Scotland to which girls as well as boys were admitted.[222] It is evident likewise that the Irish missionaries in Northumbria did much for the education of women. Among the more noteworthy convents or monasteries for women that owe their origin to Irish missionaries were St. Bees, Coldingham, Streanshalch or Whitby which are all referred to by Bede.[223] It was in this last-named monastery and by the enlightened patronage of Abbess Hilda that the earliest Anglo-Saxon poet, Caedmon, was encouraged in his efforts.[224] That women were sometimes accomplished scribes is quite probable. In an old record we are informed that in the sixth century King Branduff’s mother had a writing style (delg graiph), so that she must have practised writing on waxen tablets,[225] this being spoken of in old MSS. as a common practice among ladies.[226]

There is not sufficient evidence to justify the assertion that girls were admitted as students to monastic schools, though we read that one of the daughters of the King of Cualann was sent to Clonard to learn to read her Psalms (in Latin),[227] and Plummer thinks that women taught in this school.[228] Probably there was a separate school for women. From what we know of the Second Order of Saints to which St. Finnian, the founder of Clonard, belonged we cannot believe that co-education would be likely to receive any sanction as a desirable practice in a monastic school. On the other hand, with Mugint and the other saints of the First Order such a practice may possibly have been quite usual; for “strong in faith they feared not the breath of temptation.”[229]

Many other instances of educational facilities for women might be adduced, but enough has been said to prove the position for which we have been contending, namely, that though education was not universal nor compulsory there was ample facilities for all to acquire a liberal education. That a very large proportion of both sexes availed themselves of this privilege there can be no reasonable doubt.