The Irish standard., 1905-12-23

His mothers brother had also been a
Roman officer who abandoned that ca
reer and became the great and famous
Bishop. St Martin Of Tours.
Great Britain was then a Kettle
country undergoing the slow process
of being Romanized. Patrick though
born among the Kelts was Roman
but a Roman who lisped the Keltic
tongue from childhood. His mother
taught him all that a youthful Chris.
ttan ought to be for she was a devout
admirer Of that famous other mother
who won the great Constantine to the
religion Of the Crucifled. We can we'll
imagine Patrick as a youth beinr
shown the little inn at York where
st. Helena was born. We can picture
his wonder at being told that the inn.
keepers daughter had become the wife
OF one Roman Emperor and tho nae&har
Of another, and Of that wondrous Cross
that the great Constantine saw in the
armament before he himself had be.
come a Christian.
Before st. Patrick died, and be-
fore an Angle or a Saxon or a Jute
had set foot in Romanized Kettle Bril-
tain. Ireland had become the island of
saints and scholars. The fame Of her
learning and plcty had penetrated the
ends of the earth, and students ffocked
to her shores from all lands to drink
deep draughts at her sacred fountains
OF piety and learning. Her schools at
Lismore and Clonmacnoise and Ban.
gor were the first great universities of
the world, and that long before Oxford
or Paris had emerged from the womb
of time.
Read the story of those golden days
of Ireland, as told by Venerable Beda,
l1ngland's first and best historian, or
In Montalemberts Monks of the
West" and you will learn how
ancient Ireland took the poor scholars
of Europe to her heart and gave them
open-handed hospitality and homes
and books Of learning and art, and
asked In return naugrt but gratitude.
Anglo-Saxon England's most illustri-
Gus son Alcuin learned all he knew of
art and literature and science on the
banks of the Shannon. When he re-
turned to Northumbria he found the
language of the court was Irish and
not Saxon, and when he set out on
his travels through Europe, 1t was to
the great Irish school at Bobbio in
Italy that he hastened for further
knowledge and enlightenment.
1t was there that Charlemagne found
him and secured his services for his
court as teacher and instructor.
In course of time Alcuin had impaired
all he knew to the Emperor who
thirsted for more, and 1t was then
that Clement, the most illustrious
scholar in Europe, was summoned to
his court Clement was an Irish monk
whose profound scholarship and
native wit was the marvel of his age,
and he 1t was and not Alcuin who
aided Charlemagne in the foundation
throughout his empire of schools and
seminaries. Alcuin's influence waned
at court while Clements became su.
preme, and it is to be feared that
Alcuin headed many cabal and many
an intrigue against Irish influence in
Europe. Clement and the illustrious
st. Virgilius, Bishop Of Ausberg, were
teaching among other things, the ro-
tundity of the earth. An atlas and
letter press of the Seventh Century,
period now in the Royal Irish academy
shows that the knowledge Of the
earth's rotundity was then we'll known
in Ireland.
Alcuin used all his influence with st.
Boniface, the illustrious apostle Of
Germany to convince him that the
teaching of the earth's rotundity was
heresy, and st. Virgilius was sum-
moned to Rome to explain his teach.
ing to the Pope.
The Pope was thoroughly satisfied
and translated the Irish Bishop vir-