in the days when murtough mac erca was in the high kingship of ireland , the country was divided between the old beliefs of paganism and the new doctrines of the christian teaching . part held with the old creed and part with the new , and the thought of the people was troubled between them , for they knew not which way to follow and which to forsake . the faith of their forefathers clung close around them , holding them by many fine and tender threads of memory and custom and tradition ; yet still the new faith was making its way , and every day it spread wider and wider through the land . the family of murtough had joined itself to the christian faith , and his three brothers were bishops and abbots of the church , but murtough himself remained a pagan , for he was a wild and lawless prince , and the peaceful teachings of the christian doctrine , with its forgiveness of enemies , pleased him not at all . fierce and cruel was his life , filled with dark deeds and bloody wars , and savage and tragic was his death , as we shall hear . now murtough was in the sunny summer palace of cletty , which cormac , son of art , had built for a pleasure house on the brink of the slow - flowing boyne , near the fairy brugh of angus the ever young , the god of youth and beauty . a day of summer was that day , and the king came forth to hunt on the borders of the brugh , with all his boon companions around him . but when the high - noon came the sun grew hot , and the king sat down to rest upon the fairy mound , and the hunt passed on beyond him , and he was left alone .
spread wider and wider through the land .
what did the new faith do every day ?
what did the new faith do every day ?