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In the course of three or four centuries from the time of St. Patrick, Ireland became the most learned country in Europe: and it came to be known by the name now so familiar to us-Insula sanctorum et doctorum, the Island of saints and scholars.*

In these great seminaries all branches of knowledge then known were taught: they were, in fact, the models of our present universities; and besides those persons preparing for a religious life, great numbers of young men, both native and foreign, the sons of kings, chiefs, and others, attended them to get a good general education. Laymen who distinguished themselves as scholars were often employed as professors in the monastic schools. One of the most eminent of the professors in the college of Monasterboice was "Flann of the Monastery," a layman of the eleventh century, several of whose poems, as well as his Book of Annals, are preserved. But some few schools were purely lay and professional:-for Law, Medicine, Poetry, or Literature; and these were taught generally by laymen.

At these colleges, whether clerical or lay, they had various degrees, as there are in modern universities. The highest was that of Ollave or Doctor; and there were ollaves of the several professions; so that a man might be an ollave poet, an ollave historian, an ollave builder, &c.; just as we have now doctors of law, medicine, literature, and music. The full course for

*The most celebrated of the monastic schools were those of Clonard (in Meath), Armagh, Bangor (in Down), Cashel, Mungret near Limerick, Downpatrick, Ross-Ailithir now Rosscarbery (in Cork), Lismore, Glendalough, Clonmacnoise, Monasterboice near Drogheda, Clonfert (in Galway), Glasnevin near Dublin, Emly in Munster, and Begerin a little below Wexford. But there were many others. See also note, page 81.

an ollave was twelve years: the lower degrees had shorter periods. Men of learning were held in great estimation and much honoured. They had many valuable allowances and privileges: and an ollave sat at table next to the king or chief.

Great numbers of Irishmen went to teach and to preach the Gospel in Great Britain, Wales, and Scotland. The Picts of Scotland, who then occupied the greatest part of the country, were converted by St. Columba and his monks from Iona; and the whole western coasts of England and Wales abound in memorials of Irish missionaries. The monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, which became so illustrious in after ages, was founded in 634 by Aidan an Irish monk from Iona; and for thirty years after its foundation it was governed by him and by two other Irish bishops, Finan and Colman, in succession. So we see that Mr.

Lecky had good reason for his statement that "England owed a great part of her Christianity to Irish monks who laboured among her people before the arrival of Augustine."

Whole crowds of ardent and learned Irishmen travelled to the Continent, spreading Christianity and general knowledge among people ten times more rude and dangerous in those ages than the inhabitants of these islands.

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What, says Eric, a well-known French writer of the ninth century, "what shall I say of Ireland, who despising the dangers of the deep, is migrating with almost her whole train of philosophers to our coasts." Irish professors and teachers were in those times held in such estimation that they were employed in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain and the Continent. And Irish teachers of music were quite as eminent and as much sought after as those of literature and philosophy,

as has been already stated (page 16). We know that Charlemagne, who was crowned emperor of the West, A.D. 800, held the learned men from Ireland in great respect, and often invited them as guests to his table; and half a century later, Johannes Scotus Erigena, i. e. John the Irish Scot, the greatest scholar of his day, was on terms of affectionate intimacy with Charles the Bald, king of France. To this day in many towns of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, Irishmen are venerated as patron saints. Nay, they found their way even to Iceland; for we have the best authority for the statement that when the Norwegians first arrived at that island, they found there Irish books, bells, crosiers, and other traces of Irish missionaries.

For four or five hundred years after the time of St. Patrick, the monasteries were unmolested; and learning was cultivated within their walls. In the ninth and tenth and the beginning of the eleventh century, science and art, the Gaelic language, and learning of every kind, were brought to their highest state of perfection. But a change for the worse had set in. The Danish inroads broke up most of the schools and threw everything into disorder. Then the monasteries were no longer the quiet and safe asylums they had been-they became indeed rather more dangerous than other places, so much did the Danes hate them-and learning and art gradually declined in Ireland. There was a revival in the time of Brian Boru; but this too was arrested by the troubles of the Anglo-Norman Invasion.

CHAPTER XIII.

FROM LAEGAIRE TO THE DANES.

(A.D. 463-637.)

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AEGAIRE, it will be remembered, was son of Niall of the Nine Hostages. At the time of his sudden death (page 64), his son Lewy was only a child and could not be elected king (page 44). So the throne was taken by king Dathi's son Olioll Molt, who was at that time the most powerful prince of the reigning family, though he was not of the Hy Neill. But after the lapse of many years, when Lewy grew up to be a man, he was determined to win back the crown for himself and for his own immediate kindred and collecting a great army he defeated and slew Olioll Molt in a battle fought at a place called Ocha near Tara in Meath, and took possession of the throne. This great battle proved decisive; for after that date, for five centuries without a break, that is, from Lewy to Malachy II., the Hy Neill gave kings to Ireland, sometimes through the northern branch and sometimes through the southern.

A.D. 483

From the cliffs of Antrim, on any clear day, you can see the blue hills and headlands of Scotland, forming a long line on the distant horizon. The Irish, or Gaels, or Scots, of Ulster, from the earliest ages, were in the habit of crossing over in their currachs to this lovely

looking coast; and some carried on a regular trade with Alban, as Scotland was then called, and many settled there and made it their home. Scotland was inhabited at that time by a people called the Picts, who often attempted to expel the intruders; but the Irish held their ground, and as time went on they occupied more and more of the western coast and islands. Nearly three hundred years before the time we are now treating of, a leader named Reuda or Riada [Reeda], a grandson of Conn the Hundred-Fighter, and first cousin of Cormac Mac Art, settled among the Picts with a large following of Ulster fighting men and their families. From this Riada all that western district in Scotland was called Dalriada (Riada's portion): and there was an Irish Dalriada, also named from him, comprising the northern part of Antrim. Our own ancient Irish writers tell us all about this colony; but we are not dependent on their testimony only; for the most distinguished of the early English historians, the Venerable Bede, has given the same account of this leader Reuda in his Ecclesiastical History. (See also page 63.)

A.D. 503

The greatest of all these colonisations of which we have any detailed historical account, took place in the reign of the present king Lewy, under the command of Fergus, Angus, and Lorne, brothers of Murkertagh Mac Erc, who some years later succeeded Lewy as king of Ireland, and who was the first Christian Ard-ri. Riada and his followers were pagans; but these three brothers and their people were all Christians. They appear to have met with little or no opposition; and being joined by the previous settlers, they took possession of a large territory, which was formed into a kingdom, of which Fergus, or Fergus Mac Erc as he is generally called, was the

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