The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-03-26

ed manuscript books. Saint Brigid, the
exile Saint Columbia, and host of
other teachers led lives of boundless
zeal and activity, so that, before the
final destruction of the Roman Empire,
we find it's classical tradition, as well
as its Christian learning, firmly rooted
in Irish soil.
Other countries of Western Europe
shared this culture and enlightenment,
but it was soon to be annihilated by
the hordes of warning and all-destroy-
ing barbarians. No real invasion came
to Ireland, until the Norman conquest
extended thither in the twelfth cen
fury from England. The raids of the
Norsemen in the ninth century were
but temporary, and did no very lasting
harm. Churches We're destroyed, man.
uscripts were burned; men, women
and children We're carried away into
captivity among the Northern tiords;
but the real spiritual life of the people
continued unbroken in Ireland, and
the studies of the schools We're diligent-
ly prosecuted. Fresh hands renewed
the manuscripts. while the prisoners
sowed the seed Of religion among their
captors, molding them to Christian
ideals, rather than submitting to pagan
barbariSm.
Such, however, was not the case
with Roman Europe, of which Ireland
had never been Il part. Here, fierce
and successive onslaughts of savages
wiped away all traces of learning,
classical and Christian. The Roman
Empire fell, swallowed up by the greed
of the northern barbarians. Gaul was
overrun by the Franks, Spain and Italy
by the Cloths, Nandals and Lombards;
Britain by the Angles, SaNons and
Danes, while Picts and Scandinavians
devastated the Scottish lowlands.
Austria was laid waste by the Aston
Huns and Magyars; Russia and Ger
army, with the Scandinavian high
lands We're still pagan. Thus all Eu-
rope was submerged under Il deluge of
heathenism, and the old Latin culture
was swept away The tradition of an
Gent Greece still fingered at Constants
nople, benlnd the wall of the Balkans.
but it had no influence at all on the
northern nations beyond the wall. Ire
land WAS. therefore, the one sheltered
spot, the ark of safety for the old wis
dom and beauty of classical days. Ire
land was the bridge over the dark
ages; and as soon as the tide of heather
invasion sackened, teachers began to
cross the bridge, carrying the nascent
nations of modern Europe the culture,
learning and inspirations which were
to mold these nations into what they
are today.
From the coming of Patrick, on
through the incursions of the Norsemcn
in the ninth century, the progress OF
scholarship in Ireland was marvellous
and unbrOken. And with the incur
sions of the Norsemen, which broke up
the even course of the nations develop
ment, and forced it's energies into new
channels, the special period of the mis-
sions began. Starting with the first
foreign settlement under Saint Column
ba, in the island of Iona off the coast
of Scotland, in the century after Pat
rick, we can trace the stream of teach
ers who went forth to all parts of Eu-
rope, down to the time of Johannes
Scotlls Erigcna, friend of Alfred the
Great, and even later.
Columbia did not go to Iona of his
own free will, but as the result of trou-
bles ut home. which drove him into
exile. Once there, however, he set
about sowing the seed of Christianity
among the warlike Picts. Schools and
religious colleges were founded, and Il
new center Of learning, similar to those
in Ireland. sprang up. This new cen
ter in it's turn was to send out teachers
to England and the Continent. Thus
by successive stages, Britain, Belgium,
northern, central and southern Gaul,
the countries beyond the Rhine, Swift
zerland and Austria, and even Italy
itself were visited by Irish monks, who
carried with them in their hearts and
in their books the material which was
to civiliZe this new barbarian Europe.
Not only did they work along classical
and religious lines, but students of
music, painting, and decorative arts of
all kinds brought their contribution.
We read Of the greatness and glory of
the court Of Charlemagne. Where did
he get his artists, his teachers, his
poets, his musicians? In most cases
from Ireland 1t became a proverb
that whoever knew Greek was either
an Irishman or the pupil of an Irish
man.
Charlemagne sent for these learned
and gifted Irishmen, and induced them
by all possible means to remain at his
court. While this great monarch was
gathering Irish scholars to found the
universities Of Paris and Pavia, almost
contemporaneously in England, Johan.
nes Scotus Erigena was called upon by
Alfred the Great to lay the founda lions
of classical learning at the new uni.
versity of Oxford. These men were oil
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