THE BEGINNINGS OF CLASSICAL LEARNING

Hitherto our study has been limited to a discussion of native Irish culture influenced but slightly from the outside. Here the attempt is made to trace the beginnings of classical learning. In this connection it is worth noting that Ireland occupies the unique position of being the only part of the Celtic world that was not brought under the sway of Roman arms. The consequence is that she is one of the very few nations of Western Europe whose civilization was free to develop along native lines. Yet it must not be supposed that Ireland remained completely aloof from the Graeco-Roman culture to which the world owes so much.[27] The great difference between Ireland and the other Celtic countries such as Britain and Gaul lies in this: in Gaul the combined forces of Roman arms and Roman culture wiped out almost every trace of native culture, the same is true of the greater part of Britain.[28] In Ireland, on the other hand, Roman learning was introduced in a peaceful manner (at least as early as the fifth century, as will be shown later). Now as we have seen native learning was already developing along national lines, the result was that not only did the native learning continue to flourish unchecked by the arrival of the new learning but the former actually received a fresh impulse,[29] while classical learning was cultivated to an extent that is without parallel in contemporary Europe.[30]

The precise way in which letters reached Ireland and the causes which led to “that remarkable outburst of classical learning towards the close of the sixth century”[31] are matters on which most writers express themselves vaguely, or assume that certain ill-defined influences emanating from Britain or Gaul somehow reached her shores, but at what time or by what means they have not been able to determine.

The introduction of classical learning as well as of Christianity is popularly ascribed to St.Patrick whose missionary work began 432A.D. This opinion though widespread will not stand a critical examination. It is true, however, that St.Patrick is the first person whose name is associated with the introduction of classical learning of whom it can be said that the writings ascribed to him are really his. In the Book of Armagh (completed c. 806 A.D.) there is a document called his “Confession,” or apology which was copied by the scribe Torbach from the original.[32] Although the “Confession” and other writings attributed to St.Patrick may be admitted as genuine, it must not be assumed that the learning for which Ireland became famous during the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries could have been the result of his labours.[33] Most people who have read St.Patrick’s writings will admit that he makes no claim to be a scholar but on the contrary he has a very humble opinion of himself and reminds us frequently of his ignorance of letters. As Bury says,[34] “His Latin is as ‘rustic’ as the Greek of St.Mark and St.Matthew,” and Whitley Stokes infers from his writings that he knew no Greek.[35] In this respect St.Patrick was no worse than many of his famous contemporaries and successors, for example—his Latin is no more ‘rustic’ than that of Gregory of Tours who lived a century later. Indeed St.Patrick’s claim to fame rests on higher grounds than those of classical scholarship. He was a preacher and organizer rather than a man of letters. He was a homo unius libri but with that book, the Christian Scriptures, he was extraordinarily familiar.[36] Yet some writers have attributed the introduction of learning and even of the Roman alphabet to St.Patrick. It is true that in the Tripartite Life there are frequent statements that he wrote Abgitoria (usually translated Alphabets) for his noble or bardic converts.[37] It is very probable that these do not mean alphabets, as is usually supposed, like that on the pillar stone of Kilmakedar in Kerry,[38] but elementa, the A B C of the Christian Doctrine. This explanation seems justified by the words Abgitir Crabaid glossed initium fidei in a WÜrzburg MS.[39] In the Tripartite occur the words, Aibgitir in Crabaid—translated the Alphabet of Piety—where a specimen is given of a work so entitled.[40] For these and other reasons which will be stated presently the weight of evidence is against attributing to St.Patrick the introduction of the Roman alphabet or any liberal measure of classical learning.

It has also been suggested[41] that some of the Britons or Gauls who accompanied St.Patrick brought these studies to Ireland, but Meyer thinks this most improbable and dismisses the idea that any missionaries whether Gallic or British introduced classical learning into Ireland. The origin of that deep culture embracing not only the classical authors but also grammar, metrics, and other sciences such as astronomy he would attribute to a much broader and deeper influence.[42]

Basing his argument on a document found among Zimmer’s papers, Meyer contends that the seeds of classical learning were sown in Ireland during the first and second decades of the fifth century by Gallic scholars who fled their own country owing to the invasion of the latter by the Goths and other barbarians.[43] The same explanation seems to have occurred to De Jubainville, for he says: “La culture des lettres classiques et latins a cessÉ en Gaule depuis la conquÊte germanique au cinquiÈme siÈcle; l’Irlande qu’À cette Époque n’a pas encore envahie les barbares des contrÉes situÉes À nord-ouest de la Gaule, paraÎt avoir donnÉ asile aux hommes d’Étude chassÉs de la Gaule par les armes et la domination sauvage des Burgundes, des Wisigoths et des Francs.”[44] To Meyer, however, we owe the development of this theory. He quotes from a sixth century entry in a Leyden MS. This note states that owing to a barbarian invasion “all the learned men fled from Gaul, and in transmarine parts, i.e. in Ireland and wherever they betook themselves, brought about a great advancement of learning to the inhabitants of these regions.”[45] This theory is supported by a passage in St.Patrick’s “Confession”[46] where evidently replying to the attacks of certain rhetoricians who were hostile to him, the saint exclaims: “You rhetoricians who know not the Lord hear and search who it was that called me up, fool though I be, from the midst of those who call themselves wise and skilled in the law and mighty orators and powerful in everything.”[47] Meyer maintains that the reference is to the pagan rhetoricians from Gaul whose arrogant presumption founded on their own learning made them regard with disdain the illiterate apostle of the Scots. His few and forcible epithets well describe the type of rhetorician common in Gaul.

If Meyer’s theory is correct, and it seems the most tenable that has been advanced, then we may conclude that Ireland derived her classical learning from Gaul when Gallic scholarship was at its best. This would explain the excellence of the Latin and the acquaintance with Greek which, as we shall show, was exhibited by the Irish scholars who visited the Continent from the time of Columbanus (543–615) to that of Johannes Scottus Eriugena (c. 810–c. 875).

The more one examines this subject the more he is inclined to accept this theory which gets over the difficulty of assuming that the Irish obtained their classical learning from Britain where as Zimmer has shown there was not any classical learning wide and profound enough to produce such results;[48] nor were the High Schools of Gaul a quiet place for learning in the fifth century[49] though Colgan would have us believe—we know not on what authority—that St.Patrick sent St. Olcan to Gaul to study sacred and profane learning so that he might return to Ireland to establish “publicas scholas.”[50]

There is nothing improbable in supposing that these rhetoricians should flee to Ireland for safety just as refugee Christians fled to the same island from the persecutions of the Emperor Diocletian more than a century before St.Patrick’s time.[51] Indeed Ireland was well known to Roman geographers, though their ideas of its location were rather inaccurate. Tacitus informs us that Ireland is situated between Spain and Britain,[52] a conception which points to direct communication with the Empire. The same author further informs us that the harbours of Ireland were well known to merchants through trade and commerce.[53] As the researches of Mr. George Coffey and Mrs. Greene have shown, intercourse and commerce between Ireland and Gaul had been constant and regular for centuries before the fifth.[54] There were even Gallic mercenaries in the service of Irish kings during the early centuries of our era.[55] Moreover, Irishmen at this time were familiar figures on the Continent. Amongst these may be mentioned Mansuetus, Bishop of Toul about 350A.D.[56] There can be little doubt that Sedulius, the great Christian poet, author of Carmen Pascale, was an Irishman.[57] Sedulius, sometimes called Sedulius the Elder (to distinguish him from another Sedulius who was at Compostella in the eighth century and still another Sedulius who was at LiÈge in the ninth), flourished between 423–450A.D.[58] His work treating of the chief events recorded in the Old and New Testament was “the first Christian Epic worthy of the name.”[59] Dr. Sigerson by a scholarly analysis[60] of the verse structure traces the influence of the Irish school of prosody referred to in the previous chapter. Though Sedulius wrote in Latin and followed the classical forms of verse, yet he infused into them certain characteristics of Irish poetry, such as systematic alliteration, assonance and rhyme—qualities that reveal the Gael.

Ireland is also credited with the doubtful honour of having given birth to Pelagius and his associate Caelestius.[61] Both flourished in the beginning of the fifth century. Zimmer contended that Pelagius was an Irishman,[62] but Healy shows that he was a British monk of Irish origin.[63] Healy also endeavours to prove that the assumption that Caelestius was an Irishman is based on a misconception.[64] Against this view we must place Meyer’s opinion. The latter asserts that whether Pelagius was an Irishman or not “his faithful henchman, Caelestius, he of the plausible tongue, certainly was.”[65] The weight of evidence seems to point to the conclusion that one or other, if not both, of these heresiarchs was Irish or at least of Irish descent.

Enough was written to show that some Irish families at least were in reach of a classical literary education and were prompt to grasp it even before the middle of the fifth century.[66] Hence we cannot attribute the introduction of classical learning to St.Patrick as has been so often asserted. Nor can we attribute to St.Patrick the introduction of Christianity itself. According to Zimmer there were missionaries at work in the third century in the southern part of Ireland.[67] It would seem, however, that Zimmer makes too sweeping a statement when he says that Ireland was a Christian land before the fifth century; for, as MacCaffery has pointed out, the Irish Hero Tales which were taken down about the beginning of the eighth century represent the life of the first, second and third centuries and paint the social life as unaffected by Christianity.[68]

That there were some Christians in Ireland before the time of St.Patrick there can be no doubt. Bede distinctly states that Palladius, the predecessor of St.Patrick, was sent by Pope Celestine to the Irish who believed in Christ—“ad Scottos in Christum credentes.”[69] Here it should be pointed out that the word Scoti or Scotti wherever it occurs in writings prior to the tenth century means the Irish, and the Irish alone, the inhabitants of Scotia Major (Ireland). Later the term was extended to include the Irish colony in North Britain (Scotia Minor). Eventually the name was still further extended to include the inhabitants of the whole country now called Scotland.[70]

It has been necessary to go into some detail in order to refute a popular fallacy that it was due to the labours of St.Patrick that Ireland owes the introduction of Christianity as well as the beginnings of classical learning. However, as Professor Bury points out, the fact that the foundations of Christianity had been laid sporadically in certain parts of Ireland does not deprive St.Patrick’s mission of its eminent significance. He did three things: he organised the Christianity which already existed; he converted many districts which were still pagan, especially in the West; he brought Ireland into connection with the Church of the Empire and made it formally a part of universal Christendom.[71] While as has been shown he did not introduce classical learning, his indirect influence must have been considerable. The very fact that Latin was the ecclesiastical language of the new religion gave it an importance and a dignity. Besides St.Patrick and his fellow workers would naturally help to diffuse a knowledge of ecclesiastical Latin at least in every part of the island which Christianity reached,[72] but it must be remembered that Ireland was not a completely Christian land even at his death.[73] Paganism still lingered in many parts and its influence can be traced in the early native literature,[74] and even in the early Lives of the Irish Saints.[75] To complete the work which he did so much to promote as well as to supply the spiritual wants of the converted, a native ministry was essential. In order to equip such a ministry Christian schools had to be established. Unable to give proper attention to the instruction of these ecclesiastical students, St.Patrick after about twenty years’ peripatetic teaching established c. 450A.D. a school at Armagh of which St.Benin or Benignus was given charge. The primary aim of this school was to train subjects for the priesthood.[76] A knowledge of Latin and perhaps Greek were acquired. To supply the various churches with books there was a special house in which students were employed as scribes.[77]

From what has been said about the presence of Gallic scholars in Ireland we may infer that there were classical schools in existence in certain localities, but in the foundation of the School of Armagh we have the first recorded attempt at the organization of instruction in Christian theology and classical learning in Ireland. We append a list of other schools which the most reliable authorities ascribe to the latter half of the fifth century. It is doubtful whether these were really monastic schools at first for reasons that will be given in the next chapter. It is more likely that they were ecclesiastical seminaries during the time of the First Order of Saints (c. 440–534A.D.).[78]

The significance of these fifth century schools from the point of view of the present study lies in the fact that they were the precursors of the great monastic schools which sprang up in such numbers in the sixth century. We have good reason for believing that it was in these early schools and by the labours of Gallic scholars and their pupils that the foundations were laid of that classical scholarship that drew the eyes of Europe upon Ireland during the sixth, seventh and eighth and ninth centuries.

IRISH SCHOOLS IN THE FIFTH CENTURY

For a discussion of the chronology of SS. Declan, Ibar, Ailbe and Ciaran the Elder, see Power, Rev. Patrick, Lives of SS. Declan and Mocuda, pp. xix–xxii, Irish Texts Series.

1a.Conyngham, D. P., Irish Saints and Martyrs, p. 540. Conyngham relies mainly on Walter Harris’s ed. of Ware’s Monasticon Hiberniae and Lanigan’s Ecclesiastical History of Ireland. 1b.Unknown. 1c.St.Patrick’s death, see Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 2; St.Mell’s op. cit. p. 117.

For the various dates assigned to St.Patrick’s death, see Healy, John. Life and Writings of St Patrick, pp. 635–7. Bury, J. B. op. cit. p. 206 places his death as early as 461 A.D., while the Annals of the Four Masters, I., pp. 154–6 give the traditional date as 493 A.D. Modern scholars are inclined to accept one of the earlier dates as the more probable.

2a. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 541. 2b. Unknown. 2c. Power P., op. cit. pp. xix–xxii.

3a and 3b. Healy, John, Ireland’s Saints and Scholars, p. 114 gives 455 A.D. as the date of foundation, the Four Masters give 457 A.D. I, p. 142. Bury, J. B., places the date of foundation as early as 444 A.D. op. cit. p. 154. 3c. See Note 1c above.

4a, 4b, and 4c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 182. See also Healy, John, for an account of the School of St.Enda. op. cit.

5a and 5b. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 538. 5c. See Note 1c above.

6a, 6b and 6c. For this and other monasteries see Article by (Rev.) Laurence P. Murray, Monasteries of County Louth, in the Louth Journal of Archaeology, I, pp. 22–36.

7a. See Healy’s account of this school, op. cit. 7b. Unknown.

7c. The Annals of Ulster, sub anno 526 record St.Ailbe’s death, but see Note 2c above.

8a, 8b, and 8c. Healy, John, op. cit. 161.

9a, 9b, and 9c. Healy, John, op. cit. p. 132, gives 527 A.D. as the date of foundation. The Chronicon Scottorum gives 510 A.D.; but this is evidently too late, as St. Brigid died in 525 A.D., according to the Chronology in Miss Hull’s Early Christian Ireland, introductory pages. St.Conlaeth died in 519 A.D. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 133. The same author places the date of her birth at 453 A.D., so it is fair to assume that the date of the foundation of this school is 487 A.D. and not 467 A.D.

10a, 10b, 10c. Murray, L. P., ibid.

11a and 11b. Reeves, Wm., Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor, and Dromore, p.10; 11c. Reeves, Wm., op. cit. p. 138.

12a, 12b, and 12c. Founded by St.Patrick according to the tradition accepted by Conyngham, op. cit. p. 540, and others, but more probably at a later date by St. Comgall, d. 601A.D. See Reeves’ Ecc. Antiq., p. 70.

13a, 13b, and 13c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 540.

14a, 14b, and 14c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 539.

15a, 15b, and 15c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 538.

16a, 16b, and 16c. Conyngham, D. P., op. cit. p. 539.

This list does not claim to be complete. The above dates agree with those given by the most careful authorities. The four saints whose names are marked (*) are usually called the pre-Patrician Saints. Their chronology is very difficult. Some authorities place them as early as the fourth century and some as late as the sixth.