Anglo-Saxon author, very partial to his own countrymen, of the inferiority of British civilization and religion at that early period. The necessary inference becomes the most corroborative evidence of the authenticity and veracity of the Irish annals in the first centuries, after that country had received the light of faith from the preaching and apostolic labours of St. Patrick. It amounts to the clearest evidence, not only of the superior state of civilization of Pagan Ireland, but also of the superior improvement, which the practice of christianity added to their political institutions. Upon this point, it is satisfactory to have the reflection and conclusions of a man of science, impartiality, and respect, to resort to *. "It appears, however, clear, that at a very early period, and at a time when the greater portion of Europe labored under the oppression of Gothic ignorance, Ireland became a celebrated scat of learning and religion. After the propagation of christianity, it was dignified with the title of Insula Sanctorum † or the Isle of Saints: so great was the number of holy men it produced in the fifth and two following centuries, and so many were the missionaries it sent forth to propagate the chris *Sir Richard Colt Hoare's Journal of a Tour through Ireland in 1806, Int. xxiv. Ireland continued to be called Insula Sanctorum for many centuries after the conversion of its inhabitants: Yet insula sacra was a very ancient name given to that kingdom, which appears from Avienus Festus, as quoted by Dean Swift, in the notes upon his verses on the sudden drying up of St. Patrick's well, near Trinity College, Dublin. Avienus flourished in the joint reigns of Gratian and Theodosius, about the year 379, and in his poem tian faith in other parts of the world. Hither, says an Irish historian*, the sciences fled for protection, and here their followers and professors were amply supported. The city of Armagh had no fewer than 7000 scholars studying at the same time within its university, although the kingdom contained several other academies equally celebrated, if not equally numerous." He then refers, as Lord Littleton had also done in his History of Henry II. to Venerable Bede, which it will be but justice to the historian, and satisfaction to the reader, to give in his own words, as the most flattering and dignified monument of national liberality, munificencé and grandeur, to be met with in the body of universal history, from the days of Feniusa Farsa †, the Scythian ancestor of the Milesians, to the present day. We premise, that, the time (A. D. 604) of which the venerable historian speaks De Oris Maritimis, has these words: Insula sacra et sic insulam dixere prisci; eamque laté Gens Hybernorum colit. The sacred island, and so the ancients called the island; and the Irish nation now fully inhabits it.-Rem. Jap. p. 403. * O'Connor's Dis. p. 204. †The Irish chroniclers say, that this great and learned prince, who with two others invented the use of letters, did about 240 years after the flood, found seminaries for learning the several languages of the earth, particularly the original Hebrew in Magh Seanair, which he invited the youth of the adjacent countries to frequent, and over which he continued himself to preside in person, particularly for the benefit of his son Niul; and when he had completed his education, the father, Feniusa Farsa, returned from Magh Seanair (Shinar) into his own country, Scythia, where he erected several seminaries upon the same footing for the edu cation of his Scythian youth,-Keat, p. 33. up to the death of St. Patrick (A. D. 400) fills but the short space of 144 years, during which Ireland, being both more remote from, and enjoying less intercourse with Rome (then the prime seat of western civilization) than Britain, and having received the christian faith about 150 years later, could not have acquired such a preeminent superiority over that and every other nation on the Continent, in learning, religion, and hospitality, unless before her conversion to christianity she had received from her ancestors, and still enjoyed, a more refined system of civil government, that had kept up the arts and sciences in a state of vigor and perfection unknown to any other country. For till that time, and for some centuries after, Ireland alone of all the kingdoms of Europe had remained untouched by the Roman arms, and unassailed by the Gothic hordes, which crushed and barbarized the Roman, and all other nations of Europe, and which spread over the western continent that general gloom of ignorance and superstition, which darkened the middle ages. Bede having described an eclipse of the sun, and the ravages of a mortiferous plague throughout Britain, in the same year (604) continues in these words *. of Ireland. But this plague ravaged Ireland also with the like Bede's honourable testimony fatal consequence. There were at that time many, both of the nobility and middle order of the English nation, who in the time of the Bishops Finan and *Bed. Eccl. Hist. 1. iii. c. xxvii. Coleman, having left their native island, had retired thither for the sake of applying to divine lecture, or practising a life of stricter observance; and some indeed immediately devoted themselves downright to a monastic life, whilst others by attending the different cells of the masters, were happy to advance themselves in their studies, all of whom the Scots received with the utmost cordiality, affording them not only gratuitous maintenance and instruction, but furnishing them also with books for their use." Ere we take leave of our venerable Saxon historian, it will not be improper to submit also to the British reader, his account of British gratitude to the Irish nation for their hospitality and munificence. Little surely did that venerable historian suspect, that his silence about the apostolic labors of St. Patrick, when writing the ecclesiastical annals of another country, would in after-ages be converted into an engine for robbing the Irish of the honor and protection of their apostle, to whose labours were owing those noble institutions of learning and piety, from which the ungrateful Anglo-Saxons had received such eminent advantages * "In the 684th year of Our Lord's incarnation, Ecfrid the king of the Northumbrians, having sent Bertus over to Ireland with an army, he most barbarously ravaged an unoffending nation, that had ever shewn the warmest friendship to the English, so that his destructive hand did not spare even churches and monasteries." * Bed. Ecc. Hist. 1. iv. c. 26. Bede and the Irish an nalists agree. Authority of Camb vor of Ireland. This passage in Bede confirms the authenticity of the Irish annals *, which agree in saying, that at this very time Ecfrid landed in Leinster, and committed hostilities for some time, during which the battle of Rathmore was fought, in which Cusmas. gach, the king of the Picts, and several of the Irish, were slain. After which Bertus returned to Britain laden with spoil. Bede further tells us, that the very next year, he wantonly and against the advice of bishop Cuthbert, made war against the Picts, by whom he was killed, and the greater part of his army slain through the just judgment of God. Bede observes, that in like manner the year before Ecfrid had not listened to the advice of the most reverend father Ecgbert, who had dissuaded him from invading Ireland (Scotia), which had never offended him. When we refer to the authority of Cambden, it den in fa- would be an insult upon the reader to throw into the opposite scale the illuminated triumvirate, Ledwich, Gordon, and Carr. Little partial as that real antiquarian is to Ireland †, he informs us, "That the Irish scholars of St. Patrick profited so notably in christianity, that in the succeeding age, Ireland was termed Sanctorum patria. Their monks so greatly excelled in learning and piety, that they sent whole flocks of most holy men into all parts of Europe, who were the first founders of Lixieu Abbey in Burgundy, of the Abbey of Bobie in Italy, of Wirtzburgh in Franconia, St. Gall in Switzerland, and of Malmes Keat, p. 45; and Pars. Rem. Jap. p. 403. + Hyb. |