THE FAIRY MAIDEN’S CHANT TO PRINCE CONNLA.I.A land of youth, a land of rest,A land from sorrow free;It lies far off in the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea.A swift canoe of crystal bright,That never met mortal view—We shall reach the land ere fall of night,In that strong and swift canoe:We shall reach the strandOf that sunny land,From druids and demons free;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!II.A pleasant land of winding vales, bright streams, and verdurous plains,Where summer all the live-long year, in changeless splendour reigns;A peaceful land of calm delight, of everlasting bloom;Old age and death we never know, no sickness, care, or gloom;The land of youth,Of love and truth,From pain and sorrow free;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!III.There are strange delights for mortal men in that island of the west;The sun comes down each evening in its lovely vales to rest:And though far and dimOn the ocean’s rimIt seems to mortal view,We shall reach its hallsEre the evening falls,In my strong and swift canoe:And evermoreThat verdant shoreOur happy home shall be;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!IV.It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair;It will guard thee from the druids, from the demons of the air;My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that western shore,Where thou and I in joy and love shall live for evermore:From the druid’s incantation,From his black and deadly snare,From the withering imprecationOf the demon of the air,It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair:My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that silver strandWhere thou shalt reign in endless joy, the king of the Fairy-land![2]
THE FAIRY MAIDEN’S CHANT TO PRINCE CONNLA.
I.A land of youth, a land of rest,A land from sorrow free;It lies far off in the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea.A swift canoe of crystal bright,That never met mortal view—We shall reach the land ere fall of night,In that strong and swift canoe:We shall reach the strandOf that sunny land,From druids and demons free;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!II.A pleasant land of winding vales, bright streams, and verdurous plains,Where summer all the live-long year, in changeless splendour reigns;A peaceful land of calm delight, of everlasting bloom;Old age and death we never know, no sickness, care, or gloom;The land of youth,Of love and truth,From pain and sorrow free;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!III.There are strange delights for mortal men in that island of the west;The sun comes down each evening in its lovely vales to rest:And though far and dimOn the ocean’s rimIt seems to mortal view,We shall reach its hallsEre the evening falls,In my strong and swift canoe:And evermoreThat verdant shoreOur happy home shall be;The land of rest,In the golden west,On the verge of the azure sea!IV.It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair;It will guard thee from the druids, from the demons of the air;My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that western shore,Where thou and I in joy and love shall live for evermore:From the druid’s incantation,From his black and deadly snare,From the withering imprecationOf the demon of the air,It will guard thee, gentle Connla, of the flowing golden hair:My crystal boat will guard thee, till we reach that silver strandWhere thou shalt reign in endless joy, the king of the Fairy-land![2]
HOW THE IRISH PEOPLE LIVED AS CHRISTIANS.
It is not our business here to tell how the Irish were converted to Christianity; for this has been already related in our Histories of Ireland. Whether St. Patrick was born in Gaul or in Scotland, we know at any rate that he brought with him to Ireland, to aid him in his great work, a number of young Gauls and Britons whom he had ordained as priests. But soon after his arrival he began to ordain natives also, whom he had converted; so that the hard work of travelling through the country, and preaching to the people, was for some time in the beginning done by foreigners and Irishmen. But as time went on the missionaries were chiefly native-born. St. Patrick loved the Irish people; and he was continually praying that God would bestow favours on them. And his prayers were answered; for, after the Apostolic times, there never were more devoted or more successful missionaries than those who preached the Gospel in Ireland, and there never were people who received theFaith more readily than the Irish, or who practised it after their conversion with more piety and earnestness.
An old Irish writer who lived about twelve hundred years ago tells us that the saints of Ireland who lived, and worked, and died before his time were of “Three Orders.” “The First Order of Catholic saints”—says this writer—“wereMOST HOLY: shining like the sun.” They were 350 in number, all bishops, beginning with St. Patrick. For more than thirty years they were led by their great master, with all his fiery and tireless energy; and the preachers of this order continued for a little more than a century. They devoted themselves entirely to the home mission—the conversion of the Irish people—which gave them quite enough to do.
“The Second Order was of Catholic Priests”—continues the old writer—“numbering 300, of whom a few were bishops. These wereVERY HOLY, and they shone like the moon.” They lasted for a little more than half a century.
The priests of this Second Order were chiefly monastic clergy—that is to say, monks—and during their continuance monasteries were founded everywhere through Ireland. Though there were monks and monasteries here from the time ofSt. Patrick, they began to spread much more rapidly after the foundation of the great monastery of Clonard in Meath, by St. Finnen or Finnian—one of the Second Order of saints—about the year 527. It was the monks belonging to this Order, and their successors, who preached the Gospel in foreign lands with such amazing success, as will be told inChapter VII.
The monks and students in these establishments led a busy and happy life; for it was a rule that there should be no idleness. Everyone was to be engaged at all available times in some useful work. Some tilled the land around and belonging to the monastery—ploughing, digging, sowing, reaping—and attended to the cattle; some worked as carpenters, tailors, smiths, shoemakers, cooks, and so forth, for the use of the community. Some were set apart to receive and attend to travellers and guests, who were continually coming and going: to wash their feet, and prepare supper and bed for them. Many were employed as scribes, to copy and ornament manuscript books; while others made beautiful crosiers, brooches, chalices, crosses, and other works of metallic art; and the most scholarly members were selected to teach in the schools. Besides this, all had their devotions to attend to, which were frequent and often long.
The Third Order of Irish saints consisted of about 100 priests, of whom a few were bishops: “these wereHOLY, and shone like the stars”; and they lasted a little more than three-quarters of a century. They were all hermits, living either singly or in monasteries in remote lonely places. Even when they lived together in numbers they were still hermits, spending their time in prayer and contemplation, each in his own little cell; and they never met together, or had any communication with each other, except at stated times, when all assembled in the little church for common worship, or in the refectory for meals.
We know that there were nuns and convents in Ireland from St. Patrick’s time, but they increased and multiplied, and flourished more than ever during and after the time of the greatest nun of all—St. Brigit of Kildare.
In the time of St. Patrick, and for long afterwards, the churches were small, because the congregations were small; and they were mostly of wood, though some were of stone. We have, in fact, the ruins of little stone-and-mortar churches still remaining in many parts of the country, built at various times during the four or five centuries after St. Patrick. In the eleventhand following centuries, however, large and grand churches were built, the ruins of which still remain all over the country.
Near many of the monasteries the monks began to erect tall Round Towers in the beginning of the ninth century, as a protection against the Danes. They were built with several stories, each story lighted by one little window, and reached by a ladder inside. The door was small, and was usually ten or twelve feet from the ground. The moment word was brought that a party of Danish marauders were approaching, the monks took refuge in the tower with all their valuables and a good supply of large stones, and barred the door and windows strongly on the inside, so that it was impossible to get at them during the short time the robbers were able to stay. In fact the Danes were generally afraid of their lives to approach too close to these towers; for if one of them ventured near enough, a big stone, dropped by one of the monks from a height of sixty or seventy feet, was likely enough to come down right on his skull and make short work of him. We have still remaining many of these old towers.
There was a spring well beside every monastery, either that, or a stream of pure water. Thefounder never selected a site till he had first ascertained that a well or a stream was near. These fountains served the double purpose of baptising converts and of supplying the communities with water. In most cases they were named after the founders, and retain their names to this day. It has been already stated how the early missionaries often took over the wells the pagans had worshipped as gods, and devoted them to Christian uses.
We have now Holy Wells in every part of Ireland, and it is with good reason we call them so, for they preserve the memory, and in most cases the very names, of those noble old missionaries who used the crystal water to baptise their converts. We ought to make it a point, so far as lies in our power, to take care of these holy wells, and to keep them neat and clean, and in all respects in a becoming condition; and also to preserve their old names as our fathers handed them down to us. If there could be such a thing as grief in heaven, an old Irish missionary would certainly feel grieved to look down on the little well he loved, and used, and blessed, now lying unnoticed and neglected.
St. Patrick used consecrated bells in celebrating the Divine Mysteries, and in nearly all otherreligious ceremonies, and the custom has descended through fifteen centuries to this day. The bells used by the early saints were small handbells, made of iron dipped in melted bronze; but three or four hundred years after St. Patrick’s time people began to make them of a better material—bronze melted and cast in moulds. We are told that St. Patrick left a little iron bell in every church he founded; and, to supply the great number he required for this purpose, he kept in his household three smiths whose sole business from morning till night was to make iron bells. The very bell he himself used in his ministrations—commonly called “The Bell of the Will”—may now be seen in the National Museum in Dublin—the most venerable of all our early Christian relics. Beside it in the same glass-case stands a beautiful and costly shrine, made by an accomplished Irish artist about the year 1100, to cover and protect it, by order and at the expense of Donall O’Loghlin, king of Ireland.
It was usual for the founders of churches to plant trees round the buildings. These “Sacred Groves,” as they were called, were subsequently held in great veneration, and it was regarded as a desecration to cut down one of the trees, or even to lop off a branch.
HOW IRELAND BECAME THE MOST LEARNED COUNTRY IN EUROPE.
In old pagan times, long before the arrival of St. Patrick, there were schools in Ireland taught by druids. And when at last Christianity came, and was spreading rapidly over the land, those old schools were still held on; but they were no longer taught by druids, and they were no longer pagan, for teachers and scholars were now all Christians.
But as soon as St. Patrick came, a new class of schools began to spring up; for he and the other early missionaries founded monasteries everywhere through the country, and in connexion with almost every monastery there was a school. These were what are called monastic or ecclesiastical schools, for they were mostly taught by monks; while the older schools, being taught by laymen, were called lay schools.
In lay schools was taught what might be called the native learning—the learning that had grown up in the country in the course of ages. It consisted mainly of the following subjects:—To read and write the Irish language; Irishgrammar, and rules of poetical composition—a very extensive and complicated subject; geography and history, especially the topography and history of Ireland; and a knowledge of the poetry, and of the historical and romantic tales of the country: while a great many of the schools were for professions—special schools of law, of medicine, of poetry, of history and antiquities, and so forth. In these last the professional men were educated.
These lay schools, being now within the Christian communion, were not abolished or discouraged in any way by St. Patrick or his successors. They were simply let alone, to teach their own secular learning just as they pleased. They continued on, and were to be found in every part of Ireland for fourteen centuries after St. Patrick’s arrival, down to a period within our own memory; but of course greatly changed as time went on. In later times they were much more numerous in Munster than in the other provinces; and they taught—and taught well—classics and mathematics; and often both combined in the same school. I was myself educated in some of those lay schools; and I remember with pleasure several of my old teachers: rough and unpolished men most ofthem, but excellent, solid scholars, and full of enthusiasm for learning—enthusiasm which they communicated to their pupils. In some respects indeed they resembled the rugged, earnest, scholarly Irishmen of old times, who travelled through Europe to spread religion and learning, as described atpp. 54, 55, farther on. But the famine of 1847 broke up those schools, and in a very few years they nearly all disappeared.
But our business here is mainly with the early monastic schools, which became so celebrated all over Europe. Before going farther it is well to remark that these schools also continued, and increased and multiplied as time went on. They held their ground successfully—as the lay schools did—during the evil days of later ages, when determined attempts were made, under the penal laws, to suppress them; and at the present day they are working all over the country quite as vigorously as in days of yore.
To notice all the monastic schools of old that attained eminence would demand more space than can be afforded here. So we must content ourselves with mentioning the following, all of which were very illustrious in their time:—Bangor (Co. Down), Lismore (Co. Waterford), Clonmacnoise, Armagh, Kildare, Clonard (Meath),Clonfert (Galway), Durrow (King’s Co.), Monasterboice (near Drogheda), Rosscarbery (Co. Cork), and Derry. Besides these, at least twenty-five others, all eminent, are specially mentioned in our old books. Most of these colleges were working, not in succession, but all at the same time, from the sixth century downwards. When we bear in mind that there were also, during the whole period, the lay schools, which, though smaller, were far more numerous—scattered all over the country—we shall have some idea of the universal love of learning that existed in Ireland in those days, and of the general spread of education. No other nation in Europe could boast of so many schools and colleges in proportion to size and population.
Many of the monastic colleges had very large numbers of students. In Clonard there were 3,000, all residing in and around the college; and Bangor founded by St. Comgall, and Clonfert founded by St. Brendan the Navigator, had each as many. And there were various smaller numbers—2,000, 1,500, 1,000, 500—down to fifty.
The students were of all classes—rich and poor—from the sons of kings and chiefs down to the sons of farmers, tradesmen, and labourers; young laymen for general education, as well asecclesiastical students for the priesthood. All those who had the means paid their way in everything. But there were some who were so poor that they could pay little or nothing: and these ‘poor scholars’ (as they afterwards came to be called) received teaching, books, and often food, all free. But most of even the poorest did their best to pay something; and in this respect it is interesting to compare the usages of those long past times with some features of the college life of our own days. In some of the present American universities there is an excellent custom which enables very poor students to support themselves and pay their college fees. They wait on their richer comrades, bring up the dishes, etc., from the kitchen for meals, and lay the tables: and when the meal is over, they remove everything, wash up dishes and plates, and put them all by in their proper places. In fact, they perform most of the work expected from ordinary servants. For this they receive food and some small payment, which renders them independent of charity.
And the pleasing feature of this arrangement is, that it is not attended with any sense of humiliation or loss of self-respect. During study and lecture hours these same young men, havingput by aprons and napkins, and donned their ordinary dress, are received and treated on terms of perfect equality by those they have served, who take on no airs, and do not pose as superiors, but mix with them in free and kindly intercourse as fellow-students and comrades.
All this was anticipated in Ireland more than a thousand years ago; for a similar custom existed in some of the old Irish colleges. The very poor students often lived with some of their richer brethren, and acted as their servants, for which they received food and other kinds of payment. Many of these youths who served in this humble capacity subsequently became great and learned men, as indeed we might expect, for boys of this stamp are made of the best stuff; and some of them are now famed in our records as eminent fathers of the ancient Irish Church.
The greatest number of the students lived in houses built by themselves, or by hired workmen—some, mere huts, each for a single person; some, large houses, for several: and all around the central college buildings there were whole streets of these houses, often forming a good-sized town.
Where there were large numbers great care was taken that there should be no confusion or disorder. The whole school was commonly divided intosections, over each of which was placed a leader or master, whose orders should be obeyed: and over the whole college there was one head-master or principal, usually called aFer-leginn, i.e., ‘Man of learning’: while the abbot presided over all—monastery and college. The Fer-leginn was always some distinguished man—of course a great scholar. He was generally a monk, but sometimes a layman; for those good monks selected the best man they could find, whether priest or layman.
I suppose those who are accustomed to the grand universities and colleges of the present day, with their palatial buildings, would feel inclined to laugh at the simple, rough-and-ready methods and appliances of the old Irish colleges. There were no comfortable study rooms, well furnished with desks, seats, and rostrums: no spacious lecture halls. The greater part of the work, indeed, was carried on in the open air when the weather at all permitted. At study time the students went just where they pleased, and accommodated themselves as best they could. All round the college you would see every flowery bank, every scented hedgerow, every green glade and sunny hillock occupied with students, sitting or lying down, or pacing thoughtfully, each withhis precious manuscript book open before him, all poring over the lesson assigned for next lecture, silent, attentive, and earnest.[3]
Then the little handbell tinkled for some particular lecture, and the special students for this hurried to their places, and seated themselves as best they could—on chair, stool, form, stone, or bank, and opened their books. These same books, too, were a motley collection—some large, some small, some fresh from the scribe, some tattered and brown with age: but all most carefully covered and preserved; for they were very expensive. You now buy a good school copy of some classical author for, say, half-a-crown: at that time it would probably cost what was equivalent to £2 of our present money.
Then the master went over the text, translating and explaining it, and whenever he thought it necessary questioned his pupils, to draw them out. After this he had to stand the cross-fire of the students’ questions, who asked him to explain all sorts of difficulties: for this was one of the college regulations. There were no grammars,no dictionaries, no simple introductory lesson books, such as we have now. The students had to go straight at the Latin or Greek text, and where they failed to make sense, the master stepped in with his help. And in this rugged and difficult fashion they mastered the language.
Yet it was in rude institutions of this kind that were educated those men whose names became renowned all over Europe, and who—for the period when they lived—are now honoured as among the greatest scholars and missionaries that the world ever saw.
The great Irish colleges were, in fact, universities in the full sense of the word, that is to say, schools which taught the whole circle of knowledge: they were, indeed, in a great measure the models on which our present universities were formed. The Latin and Greek languages and literatures were studied and taught with success. In science the Irish scholars were famous for their knowledge of Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, Music, Geography, and so forth. And they were equally eminent in sacred learning—Theology, Divinity, and the Holy Scriptures.
The schools proved their mettle by the scholars they educated and sent forth: scholarswho astonished all Europe in their day. Sedulius of the fifth century (whose name is still represented by the family name Shiel), an eminent divine, orator, and poet, travelled into France, Italy, Greece, and Asia, and composed some beautiful Latin hymns, which are still used in the services of the Church. ‘Fergil the Geometer’ went in 745 from his monastery of Aghaboe in Queen’s County to France, where he became famous for his deep scientific learning, and where he taught publicly—and probably for the first time—that the earth is round, having people living on the other side. John Scotus Erigena (‘John the Irish-born Scot’) of the ninth century taught in Paris; he was the greatest Greek scholar of his time, and was equally eminent in Theology. St. Columbanus of Bobbio (in Italy), a Leinsterman, a pupil of the college of Bangor, proved himself, while in France and Italy, a master of many kinds of learning, and was one of the greatest, most fearless, and most successful of the Irish missionaries on the Continent.
These men, and scores of others that we cannot find space for here, spread the fame of their native country everywhere. It was no wonder that the people of Great Britain and the Continent, when they met such scholars, all from Ireland,came to the conclusion that the schools which educated them were the best to be found anywhere. Accordingly, students came from all parts of the known world, to place themselves under the masters of these schools. From Germany, France, Italy, Egypt, came priests and laymen, princes, chiefs, and peasant students—all eagerly seeking to drink from the fountain of Irish learning. And let us bear in mind that in those days it was a far more difficult, dangerous, and tedious undertaking to travel to Ireland from the interior of the European Continent, than it is now to go to Australia or China. But even in much greater numbers than these came students from Great Britain. An English writer of that period, who was jealous of the Irish schools and in very bad humour with his countrymen for coming to them, is nevertheless forced to admit that Englishmen came to Ireland “in fleetloads.” In our Histories of Ireland we have read of the real Irish welcome they received—as recorded by the Venerable Bede and by others—and how the Irish, not only taught them, but gave them books and food for nothing at all! It was quite a common thing that young Englishmen, after they had learned all that their own schools were able to teach them, came to Ireland to finish their education.
The more the students crowded to the Irish schools, whether from Ireland itself or from abroad, the more eagerly did the masters strive to meet the demand, by studying more and more deeply the various branches of learning, so as to equal or excel the scholars of other countries. Then Ireland became the most learned country in Europe, so that it came at last to be known everywhere as ‘The Island of Saints and Scholars.’
HOW IRISH MISSIONARIES AND SCHOLARS SPREAD RELIGION AND LEARNING IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES.
Towards the end of the sixth century the great body of the Irish were Christians, so that the holy men of Ireland were able to turn their attention to the conversion of other people. Then arose an extraordinary zeal for spreading religion and learning in foreign lands; and hundreds of devoted and determined missionaries left our shores. There was ample field for their noble ambition. For these were the Dark Ages, when the civilisation and learning bequeathed by old Greece and Rome had been almost wiped out of existence by thebarbarous northern hordes who overran Europe; and Christianity had not yet time to spread its softening influence among them. Through the greater part of England and Scotland, and over vast regions of the Continent, the teeming populations were fierce and ignorant, and sunk in gross superstition and idolatry, or with little or no religion at all.
To begin with the Irish missionary work in Great Britain. The people of Northern and Western Scotland, who were solidly pagan till the sixth century, were converted by St. Columkille and his monks from Iona, who were all Irishmen; for Iona was an Irish monastic colony founded by St. Columkille, a native of Tirconnell, now Donegal.
In the seven kingdoms of England—the Heptarchy—the Anglo-Saxons were the ruling race, rude and stubborn, and greatly attached to their gloomy northern pagan gods. We know that the kingdom of Kent was converted by the Roman missionary St. Augustine; but Christianity made little headway outside this till St. Aidan began his labours among the Northumbrian Saxons. Aidan was an Irishman who entered the monastery of Iona, from which he was sent to preach to the Northumbrians on the invitation oftheir good king, Oswald. He founded the monastery of Lindisfarne, which afterwards became so illustrious. He was its first abbot; and for thirty years it was governed by him and by two other Irish abbots, Finan and Colman, in succession. He and his companions were wonderfully successful, so that the people of the large kingdom of Northumbria became Christians. Not only in Northumberland but all over England we find at the present day evidences of the active labours of the Irish missionaries in Great Britain.
Whole crowds of ardent and learned Irishmen travelled on the Continent in the sixth, seventh, and succeeding centuries, spreading Christianity and secular knowledge everywhere among the people. On this point we have the decisive testimony of an eminent French writer of the ninth century, Eric of Auxerre, who himself witnessed what he records. In a letter written by him to Charles the Bald, king of France, he says:—“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?” And other foreign evidences of a like kind might be brought forward.
These men, on their first appearance on the Continent, caused much surprise, they were sostartlingly different from those preachers the people had been accustomed to. They travelled on foot towards their destination in small companies, generally of thirteen. They wore a coarse outer woollen garment, in colour as it came from the fleece, and under this a white tunic of finer stuff. The long hair behind flowed down on the back: and the eyelids were painted or stained black. Each had a long stout walking-stick: and slung from the shoulder a leathern bottle for water, and a wallet containing his greatest treasure—a book or two and some relics. They spoke a strange language among themselves, used Latin to those who understood it, and made use of an interpreter when preaching, until they had learned the language of the place.
Few people have any idea of the trials and dangers they encountered. Most of them were persons in good position, who might have lived in plenty and comfort at home. They knew well, when setting out, that they were leaving country and friends probably for ever; for of those that went, very few returned. Once on the Continent, they had to make their way, poor and friendless, through people whose language they did not understand, and who were in many places ten times more rude and dangerous in those agesthan the inhabitants of these islands: and we know as a matter of history, that many were killed on the way. But these stout-hearted pilgrims were prepared for all this, and looking only to the service of their Master, never flinched. They were confident, cheerful, and self-helpful, faced privation with indifference, caring nothing for luxuries; and when other provisions failed them, they gathered wild fruit, trapped animals, and fished, with great dexterity and with any sort of next-to-hand rude appliances. They were somewhat rough in outward appearance: but beneath all that they had solid sense and much learning. Their simple ways, their unmistakable piety, and their intense earnestness in the cause of religion caught the people everywhere, so that they made converts in crowds.
A great French writer, Montalembert, speaks of the Irish of those days as having a “Passion for pilgrimage and preaching,” and as feeling “under a stern necessity of spreading themselves abroad to combat paganism, and carry knowledge and faith afar.” They were to be found everywhere through Europe, even as far as Iceland and the Faroe and Shetland Islands. Europe was too small for their missionary enterprise. Many were to be found in Egypt; and as early as the seventhcentury, three learned Irish monks found their way to Carthage, where they laboured for a long time and with great success.
Wherever they went they made pilgrimages to holy places—places sanctified by memories of early saints—and whenever they found it practicable they were sure to make their way to Rome, to visit the shrines of the apostles, and obtain the blessing of the Pope.
The Irish “passion for pilgrimage and preaching” never died out: it is a characteristic of the race. This great missionary emigration to foreign lands has continued in a measure down to our own day: for it may be safely asserted that no other missionaries are playing so general and successful a part in the conversion of the pagan people all over the world, and in keeping alight the lamp of religion among Christians, as those of Ireland.
Irishmen were equally active in spreading secular knowledge. Indeed the two functions were generally combined; for it was quite common to find a man a successful missionary, while at the same time acting as professor in a college, or as head of some great seminary for general education. Irish professors and teachers were in those times held in such estimation thatthey were employed in most of the schools and colleges of Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the Continent was indeed due in no small degree to those Irish missionaries. It was enough that the candidate for an appointment came from Ireland: he needed no other recommendation.
When learning had declined in England in the ninth and tenth centuries, owing to the devastations of the Danes, it was chiefly by Irish teachers it was kept alive and restored. In Glastonbury especially, they taught with great success. We are told by English writers that “they were skilled in every department of learning sacred and profane”; and that under them were educated many young English nobles, sent to Glastonbury with that object. Among these students the most distinguished was St. Dunstan, who, according to all his biographers, received his education, both Scriptural and secular, from Irish masters there.
As for the numerous Continental schools and colleges in which Irishmen figured either as principals or professors, it would be impossible, with our limited space, to notice them here. A few have been glanced at in the last chapter; and I will finish this short narrative by relatingthe odd manner in which two distinguished Irishmen, brothers, named Clement and Albinus,[4]began their career on the Continent.
One of the historians of the reign of Charlemagne, who wrote in the ninth century, has left us the following account of these two scholars:—When the illustrious Charles began to reign alone in the western parts of the world, and literature was almost forgotten, it happened that two Scots from Ireland came over with some British merchants to the shores of France, men incomparably skilled in human learning and in the Holy Scriptures. Observing how the merchants exhibited and drew attention to their wares, they acted in a similar fashion to force themselves into notice like the others. They went through the market-place among the crowds, and cried out to them:—“If there be any who want wisdom (i.e., learning), let them come to us, for we have it to sell.” This they repeated as they went from place to place, so that the people wondered very much; and some thought them to be nothing more than persons half crazed.
Strange rumours regarding them went round,and at length came to the ears of King Charles; on which he sent for the brothers, and had them brought to his presence. He questioned them closely, using the Latin language, and asked them whether it was really the case that they had learning; and they replied—in the same language—that they had, and were ready, in the name of God, to communicate it to those who sought it with worthy intentions. Then the king asked what payment they would expect, and they replied:—“We require proper houses and accommodation, pupils with ingenious minds and really anxious to learn; and, as we are in a foreign country where we cannot conveniently work for our bread, we shall require food and raiment: we want nothing more.”
Now at this very time King Charles was using his best efforts to restore learning, by opening schools throughout his dominions, but found it hard to procure a sufficient supply of qualified teachers. And as he perceived that these brothers were evidently men of real learning, and of a superior cast in every way, he joyfully accepted their proposals. Having kept them for some time on a visit in his palace, he finally opened a great school in some part of France—probably Paris—for the education of boys of allranks of society, not only for the sons of the highest nobles, but also for those of the middle and low classes, at the head of which he placed Clement. He also directed that all the scholars should be provided with food and suitable habitations: it was in fact a great free boarding-school, founded and maintained at the expense of the king. As for Albinus, he sent him to Italy, with directions that he should be placed at the head of the important school of the monastery of St. Augustine at Pavia. And these schools are now remembered in history as two great and successful centres of learning belonging to those ages.
HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH WROTE DOWN ALL THEIR LITERATURE, AND HOW BOOKS INCREASED AND MULTIPLIED.
Printing was not invented till the fifteenth century, and before that time all books had of course to be written by hand.
According to our native records the art of writing was known to the pagan Irish, and thedruids had books on law and other subjects, long before the time of St. Patrick. Besides these home evidences, which are so numerous and strong as hardly to admit of dispute, we have the testimony of a learned foreigner, which is quite decisive on the point. A Christian philosopher of the fourth century of our era, named Ethicus of Istria, travelled over the three continents, and has left a description of his wanderings, in what he calls a ‘Cosmography’ of the World. He visited Ireland more than a hundred years before the arrival of St. Patrick; and he states that he found there many books, and that he remained for some time in the country examining them. So far then as Ethicus records the existence of Irish books in the fourth century, he merely corroborates our own native accounts.
The pagan Irish books were, of course, written in the Irish language; but as to the nature or shapes of the letters, or the form of the writing, or how it reached Ireland, on these points we have no information, for none of the old books remain. The letters used in these books could hardly have been what are known as Ogham characters, for these are too cumbrous for long passages.
Ogham was a species of writing, the letters of which were formed by combinations of short linesand points, on and at both sides of a middle or stem line. Nearly all the Oghams hitherto found are sepulchral inscriptions. Great numbers of monumental stones are preserved with Ogham inscriptions cut on them, of which most have been deciphered, either partially or completely. They are in a very antique form of the Irish language; and while many were engraved in far distant pagan ages, others belong to Christian times.
But whatever characters the Irish may have used in times of paganism, they learned the Roman letters from the early Roman missionaries, and adopted them in writing their own language during and after the time of St. Patrick: which are still retained in modern Irish. These same letters, moreover, were brought to Great Britain by the early Irish missionaries already spoken of (p. 52), from whom the Anglo-Saxons learned them; so that England received her first knowledge of the letters of the alphabet—as she received most of her Christianity—from Ireland. Formerly it was the fashion to call those letters Anglo-Saxon: but now people know better. Our present printed characters—the very characters now under the reader’s eye—were ultimately developed from those old Irish-Roman letters.
After the time of St. Patrick, as everythingseems to have been written down that was considered worth preserving, Manuscripts accumulated in the course of time, which were kept in monasteries and in the houses of professors of learning: many also in the libraries of private persons. The most general material used for writing on was vellum or parchment, made from the skins of sheep, goats, or calves. To copy a book was justly considered a very meritorious work, and in the highest degree so if it was a part of the Holy Scriptures, or of any other book on sacred or devotional subjects. Scribes or copyists were therefore much honoured. The handwriting of these old documents is remarkable for its beauty, its plainness, and its perfect uniformity; each scribe, however, having his own characteristic form and style.
Sometimes the scribes wrote down what had never been written before, that is, matters composed at the time, or preserved in memory; but more commonly they copied from other volumes. If an old book began to be worn, ragged, or dim with age, so as to be hard to make out and read, some scribe was sure to copy it, so as to have a new book easy to read and well bound up. Most of the books written out in this manner related to Ireland, as will be described presently; andthe language of these was almost always Irish; except in copies of the Roman classics or of the Scriptures, where Latin was used.
Books abounded in Ireland when the Danes first made their appearance, about the beginning of the ninth century; so that the old Irish writers often speak with pride of “the hosts of the books of Erin.” But with the first Danish arrivals began the woeful destruction of manuscripts, the records of ancient learning. The animosity of the barbarians was specially directed against books, monasteries, and monuments of religion: and all the manuscripts they could lay hold on they either burned or “drowned”—i.e., flung them into the nearest lake or river. Next came the Anglo-Norman Invasion, which was quite as destructive of native books, learning, and art as the Danish inroads, or more so; and most of the old volumes that survived were scattered and lost.
Notwithstanding all this havoc and wreck, we have still preserved a large number of old Irish books. The ornamented and illuminated copies of the Scriptures are described in the chapter on Art. We have also many volumes of Miscellaneous Literature in which are written compositions of all kinds, both prose and poetry, copied from older books, and written in, one after another, till thevolume was filled. Of all these old books of mixed compositions, the largest that remains to us is the Book of Leinster, which is kept in Trinity College, Dublin. It is an immense volume, all in the Irish language, written more than 750 years ago; and many of the pages are now almost black with age and very hard to make out. It contains a great number of pieces, some in prose and some in verse, and nearly all of them about Ireland:—histories, accounts of battles and sieges, lives and adventures of great men, with many tales and stories of things that happened in this country in far distant ages.
The Book of the Dun Cow is preserved in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin. It is fifty years older than the Book of Leinster, but not so large; and it contains also a great number of tales, adventures, and histories, all relating to Ireland, and all in the Irish language.
Two other great Irish books kept in Dublin are the Yellow Book of Lecan [Leckan] and the Book of Ballymote. These contain much the same kind of matter as the Book of Leinster—with pieces mostly different however—but they are not nearly so old. The Speckled Book, which is also in Dublin, is nearly as large as the Book of Leinster, but not so old. It is mostly onreligious matters, and contains a great number of Lives of saints, hymns, sermons, portions of the Scriptures, and other such pieces. All these books are written with the greatest care, and in most beautiful penmanship.
The five old books described above have been lately printed, in such a way that the print resembles exactly the writing of the old books themselves. The printed volumes are now to be found in libraries in several parts of Ireland, as well as in England and on the Continent; so that those desirous of studying them need not come to Dublin, as people had to do formerly. Another grand old book preserved in Dublin is the Book of Lecan. Besides these there are vast numbers of Irish manuscript books in Dublin and elsewhere, both vellum and paper, having no special names, all containing important and interesting pieces. There are also numerous books of law, of medicine, of science, genealogies, Lives of saints, sermons, and so forth, which on account of limited space cannot be described here.
Many people are now eagerly studying these books; and men often come to Ireland from France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Russia, and other countries, in order to learn the Irish language so as to be able to read them. But this requiresmuch study, even from those who know the Irish of the present day; for the language of these books is old and difficult.
HOW THE IRISH SCHOLARS COMPILED THEIR ANNALS.
Among the various classes of persons who devoted themselves to Literature in ancient Ireland, there were special Annalists, who made it their business to record, with the utmost accuracy, all remarkable events simply and briefly, year by year. The extreme care they took that their statements should be truthful is shown by the manner in which they compiled their books. As a general rule they admitted nothing into their records except either what occurred during their lifetime, and which may be said to have come under their own personal knowledge, or what they found recorded in the compilations of previous annalists, who had themselves followed the same plan. These men took nothing on hearsay: and in this manner successive annalists carried on a continued chronicle from age to age.
We have still preserved to us many books of native Annals. They deal with the affairs of Ireland—generally but not exclusively. Many of them record events occurring in other parts of the world; and it was a common practice to begin the work with a brief general history, after which the annalist takes up the affairs of Ireland.
There are many tests which prove the remarkable accuracy of the Irish Annals. For instance, their records of such occurrences as eclipses, comets, tides, and so forth, are invariably found to be correct. Indeed they could not be otherwise, for the good reason that the faithful chronicler noted down the events, each at the very time of its occurrence. If he waited for some future time, or noted down some event that had occurred years before, taking hearsay evidence, or calculating the time backwards as best he could, the chances were that there would be an error in the date.
A remarkable example occurs in the record of an eclipse of the sun ofA.D.664. At the present day astronomers can calculate to a minute the time of an eclipse occurring in that or any other year. But it was otherwise twelve centuries ago. Then the rules of calculationwere not quite correct, so that a person calculating backwards was pretty sure to be in error as to the exact time. The great English historian and scholar, the Venerable Bede, who wrote fifty or sixty years after the above-mentioned eclipse, was aware of the year (664), but had to calculate the day and the hour. The rule then in vogue led him astray, and accordingly his record of the date—the 3rd May—is two days wrong. In the Annals of Ulster the correct date—1st May, 664—is given, and even the very hour. This shows quite clearly that the event had been recorded by some Irish chronicler, who actually saw it and noted it down on the spot. We find numbers of records of this kind in our Annals, which, according to the accurate tests we are now able to apply, are all found to be correct.
Another remarkable instance of a similar kind deserves to be mentioned here. We have an old Irish book called “The War of the Irish with the Danes,” written early in the eleventh century, soon after the battle of Clontarf, in which that great battle is very fully described. In the course of his narrative the writer makes these very specific statements:—that the battle was fought on Good Friday, the 23rd April, 1014; that it commenced at sunrisewhen the tide wasfull in, and that it lasted the whole day till the tide was again at flood about the same hour in the evening, when the foreigners were routed. Moreover, the old historian puts in the time of high water, morning and afternoon, merely to explain why there was such terrible slaughter of the Danes in the evening; for on account of the full tide they were not able to reach their ships, which lay some distance out in the bay, whereas if it had been low water they might have waded out to them. Beyond that he was not in the least concerned about the time of high tide.
The tide comes in at any particular point of the coast about every 12 hours 25 minutes, and accordingly the hour changes from day to day, so that there might be a high tide at any hour of the twenty-four: but astronomers can now calculate the exact time of high tide for any day of the month at a particular place in any year, no matter how far back. Now, the question is, was the tide really at its height on the Clontarf shore at sunrise on that fatal morning?
Forty years ago, the Rev. Dr. Todd, who was then engaged in translating the old book mentioned above, in order to test the chronicler’s accuracy, put this question to the Rev. Dr. Haughton, a great science scholar, of TrinityCollege, Dublin:—At what time was there high tide in Dublin Bay on the 23rd April, 1014? After a laborious calculation, Dr. Haughton found that the tide was at its height that morning at half-past five o’clock, just as the sun was coming over the horizon, and that the evening tide was in at fifty-five minutes past five: a striking confirmation of the truth of this part of the narrative. It shows, too, that the account was written by or taken down from an eye-witness of the battle. Dr. Haughton’s calculation—every figure—may now be seen in Dr. Todd’s published book.
Little did the old annalist think, when penning his simple record, that after lying by unnoticed and forgotten on some obscure bookshelf for eight centuries, it was destined to be at last brought out under the broad light of science, and its accuracy fully tested and established.
There are several other ways of testing the truth of our annals. One is by comparing them with the testimony of foreign writers of good standing. Events occurring in Ireland in those early ages are not often mentioned by British or Continental writers. Indeed they knew very little about Ireland, which was, in those times, especially as regards the Continent, a very remoteplace. But whenever they do notice Irish affairs, it may be said that they are always in agreement with the native records.
In our Irish books we find accounts of events or customs, which some people—not knowing better—would be inclined to pronounce fabulous, but which we find recorded as sober history by certain great English and Continental historians. The colonisation of Scotland from Ireland, for instance, which was formerly doubted by many, is fully confirmed by the Venerable Bede. And to take another instance from the battle of Clontarf:—All the Irish chronicles state that a general rout of the Danes took place in the evening, and that there was an awful slaughter of them, for they were cut off from their fortress by the river Liffey, and from their ships by the high tide; while the infuriated Irish assailed them, front, flank, and rear. Now in the description of the battle by a Danish writer—the best possible authority in the case, as he had good reason to know what happened—there is a full confirmation of this. His record is simple and plain:—“Then flight broke out throughout all the Danish host.”
The more the ancient historical records of Ireland are examined and tested, the more their truthfulness is made manifest. Their uniformagreement among themselves, and their accuracy, as tried by various tests, have drawn forth the acknowledgments of the greatest Irish scholars and archæologists that ever lived.
The existing books of Irish Annals will be found described in our Histories of Ireland, and more fully in the two Social Histories of Ancient Ireland. Most of them have been published with translations. Here we must content ourselves with mentioning one, the Annals of the Four Masters, the most important of all. These were compiled in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal, by three of the O’Clerys, and by Ferfesa O’Mulconry, who are now commonly known as the ‘Four Masters.’ They began in 1632, and completed the work in 1636. The Annals of the Four Masters was translated with most elaborate and learned annotations by Dr. John O’Donovan; and it was published—Irish text, translation, and notes—in seven large volumes.
TheDinnsenchus[Din-shannahus] is a treatise giving the history and derivations of the names of remarkable hills, caves, raths, lakes, rivers, fords, and so forth. Another corresponding treatise for the names of noted Irish historical persons is called theCóir Anmann, meaning ‘fitness of names.’ Both have been translated and published.
HOW THE IRISH DERIVED AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION FROM HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES.
From the earliest date, the Irish people, like those of other countries, had Stories, which, before the introduction of the art of writing, were transmitted orally, and modified, improved, and enlarged as time went on, by successiveshanachies, or ‘storytellers.’ They began to be written down when writing became general: and it has been shown by scholars that the main tales assumed their present forms in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; while the originals from which they sprang were much older. Once they began to be written down, a great body of romantic and historical written literature rapidly accumulated, consisting chiefly of prose tales. They are contained in our old manuscripts, from the Book of the Dun Cow downwards.
The chief use of popular tales all the world over was—and is—to amuse. The storyteller recited the narrative for his audience, who listened because it gave them pleasure. But in Irelandthe native stories were turned to another important use:—they were made to help in educating the people in the manner explained farther on. Besides this use a large part of the History of Ireland is derived from the historic tales; and it is proper to remark here that the early histories of England, France, Germany, and other countries, as we find them now presented to us by the best and most reliable modern authors, are largely derived from similar sources.
The construction and arrangement of the tales were carefully studied by the Irish literary men of the olden time, and not more than their importance deserved. They were arranged in seventeen classes or groups, and in each group there were a number of individual stories. This grouping was a great help to the storyteller, who had to store up in his memory a large number of tales: for by having them in this manner, sorted as it were in parcels, he was enabled to call them up all the more readily—to put his hand on them, so to say—when he wanted them. ‘Voyages,’ for instance, formed one group, which included “The Voyage of Maeldune,” “The Voyage of St. Brendan,” “The Voyage of the Sons of O’Corra,” and many others. Another was ‘Tragedies,’ under which came “The Fate of the Children of Lir,” “TheFate of the Sons of Usna,” etc., etc. There were ‘Military Expeditions,’ ‘Courtships,’ ‘Cattle-raids,’ ‘Sieges,’ and so on, to the number of seventeen, each group with its own parcel of stories.
We have in our old books stories belonging to every one of these classes. The whole number now existing in manuscripts is close on 600: of which about 150 have been published and translated. But outside these, great numbers have been lost: destroyed during the Danish and Anglo-Norman wars.
Most of the Irish tales fall under four main cycles or periods of history and legend, which, in all the Irish poetical and romantic literature, were kept quite distinct.
First:—The Mythological Period, the stories of which are concerned with the mythical colonies preceding the Milesians, especially the Dedannans. The heroes of the tales belonging to this cycle, who are assigned to periods long before the Christian era, are gods, namely, the gods of the pagan Irish.
Second:—The Period of Concobar mac Nessa and his Red Branch Knights, who flourished in the first century. These Red Branch Knights were a sort of heroic militia, belonging to Ulster, mighty men all, who came every year to the palace of Emain to be trained in military science and featsof arms, residing for the time in a separate palace called Creeveroe or the Red Branch. Their greatest commander was Cuculainn, a demigod, the mightiest of all the Irish heroes of antiquity, whose residence was Dundalgan, now called the Fort of Castletown, near Dundalk. Others of these great heroes were Conall Kernagh, Laery the Victorious, Keltar of the Battles, Fergus mac Roy, and the three Sons of Usna—Naisi, Ainnle, and Ardan. They were in the service of Concobar or Conor mac Nessa, king of Ulster, who feasted the leading heroes every day in his own palace.
Third:—The Period of the Fena of Erin, belonging to a time two centuries later than the stories of the Red Branch. The Fena of Erin, who flourished in the time of King Cormac mac Art, in the third century, were a body of militia kept for the defence of the throne, very like the Red Branch Knights. Their most celebrated leader was King Cormac’s son-in-law, Finn, the son of Cumal—or Finn mac Coole, as he is commonly called—who of all the ancient heroes of Ireland is at the present day best remembered in tradition. We have in our old manuscripts many beautiful stories of these Fena, like those of the Red Branch Knights.
Fourth:—Stories founded on events that happened after the dispersal of the Fena (in the end of the third century). Many fine stories—nearly all of them more or less historical—belong to this Period.
The stories of the Red Branch Knights form the finest part of our ancient Romantic Literature. The most celebrated of all these is the Táin-bo-Quelnĕ, the epic or main heroic story of Ireland. It relates how Maive, queen of Connaught, who resided in her palace of Croghan, set out with her army for Ulster on a plundering expedition, attended by all the great heroes of Connaught. The invading army entered that part of Ulster called Quelna or Cooley, the territory of the hero Cuculainn, the north part of the present county Louth, including the Carlingford peninsula. At this time the Ulstermen were under a spell of feebleness, all but Cuculainn, who had to defend single-handed the several fords and passes, in a series of single combats, against Maive’s best champions. She succeeded in this first raid, notwithstanding Cuculainn’s heroic defence, and brought away a great brown bull—which was the chief motive of the expedition—with flocks and herds beyond number. At length, the Ulstermen, having been freed from the spell, pursued theraiders, and attacked and routed the Connaught army. The battles, single combats, and other incidents of this war, form the subject of the Táin, which consists of one main story, with about thirty shorter tales grouped round it.
Of the Cycle of Finn and the Fena of Erin we have a vast collection of stories. In these we read about Finn himself and his mighty exploits; about Ossian his son, the renowned hero-poet; about Oscar the brave and gentle, the son of Ossian; about Dermot O’Dyna, brave, honourable, generous, and self-denying, perhaps the finest hero of any literature; and many others. The Tales of the Fena, though not so old as those of the Red Branch Knights, are still of great antiquity.
Some of the Irish tales are historical,i.e., founded on historical events—history embellished with some fiction; while others are altogether fictitious—creations of the imagination, but always woven round historical personages. From this great body of stories it would be easy to select a large number, powerful in conception and execution, very beautiful, high and dignified in tone and feeling, many of them worthy to rank with the best literature of their kind in any language. The stories of the Sons of Usna,[5]the Childrenof Lir,[6]the Fingal Ronain, the Voyage of Maeldune,[6]The Voyage of the Sons of O’Corra,[6]Da Derga’s Hostel, The Pursuit of Dermot and Grania,[6]the Boroma, and the Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees[6]—all of which have been published with translations—are only a few instances in point. And it would be easy to name many others if our space permitted.
On the score of morality and purity the Irish tales can compare favourably with the corresponding literature of other countries; and they are much freer from objectionable matter than the works of many of those early English and Continental authors which are now regarded as classics. Of one large collection of Irish tales, the great Irish scholar Dr. Whitley Stokes, a Dublin man, says:—“The tales are generally told with sobriety and directness: they evince genuine feeling for natural beauty, a passion for music, a moral purity, singular in a mediæval collection of stories, a noble love of manliness and honour.” On the Irish Tales in general Dr. Kuno Meyer, a German, one of the greatest living Celtic scholars, justly remarks:—“The literature of no nation is free from occasional grossness; and considering the great antiquity of Irish literature, and theprimitive life which it reflects, what will strike an impartial observer most is not its license or coarseness, but rather the purity, loftiness, and tenderness which pervade it.”
The tales were brought into direct touch with the people, not by reading—for there were few books outside libraries, and few people were able to read them—but by Recitation: and the Irish of all classes, like the Greeks, were excessively fond of hearing tales and poetry recited. There were professional shanachies and poets whose duty it was to know by heart numerous old tales, poems, and historical pieces, and to recite them at festive gatherings for the entertainment of the chiefs and their guests: and every intelligent person was supposed to know a reasonable number of them by heart, so as to be always ready to take a part in amusing and instructing his company.
The tales of those times correspond with the novels and historical romances of our own day, and served a purpose somewhat similar. Indeed they served a much higher purpose than the generality of our novels; for in conjunction with poetry they were the chief agency in education—education in the best sense of the word—a real healthful informing exercise for the intellect.They conveyed a knowledge of history and geography, and they inculcated truthfulness, manliness, help for the weak, and all that was noble and dignified in thought, word, and action. Along with this, the greater part of the history, tradition, biography, and topography of the country, as well as history and geography in general, was thrown into the form of verse and tales, so that the person who knew a large number of them was well educated, according to what was required in those times. Moreover, this education was universal; for, though few could read, the knowledge and recitation of poetry and stories reached the whole body of the people. This ancient institution of story-telling held its ground both in Ireland and Scotland down to a period within living memory.