THE RELATION OF THE IRISH MONASTIC SCHOOLS
TO THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL SITUATION (550–900A.D.):
The wide distribution of Irish monastic schools throughout Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany, and even Italy, was discussed in the previous chapter. Reference was also made to the numerous Irish missionaries who going abroad were regarded as “representative of a higher culture than was then to be found on the Continent.”[195] Here we shall consider the general educational situation in Ireland with a view to determine the causes which produced results of such moment to the spread of Christianity and to restoration of learning.
During the sixth, seventh and eighth centuries the greater part of Britain and Europe was in a state of turmoil consequent on the barbarian invasion while Ireland escaped the ravages such an invasion entails. During this period of relative domestic peace Ireland was an oasis in the educational desert of Europe; then, if ever, she deserved to be styled “the school of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and literature.”[196] In bringing about this desirable state of affairs, no doubt, the monastic schools took a leading part, but there were other contributory factors the chief of which was the lay schools whose relation to the monastic will now be touched upon very briefly. We shall also endeavour to determine the extent to which education prevailed among the different classes of society—and finally we shall discuss the question of the admission of foreign students to Irish monastic schools.
DUAL SYSTEM OF SCHOOLS:
The schools of ancient Ireland were of two classes, lay and ecclesiastical. The ecclesiastical or monastic schools as we have seen were of Christian origin, and were conducted by monks. The lay, or secular, schools existed from a period of unknown antiquity, and in pagan times were taught by druids. The monastic schools were celebrated all over Europe during the Middle Ages: the lay schools though playing an important part in spreading learning at home are not so well known.
These two classes of schools are quite distinct all through the literary history of Ireland, and without conflicting with each other worked contemporaneously from the sixth to the nineteenth century.[197]
LAY SCHOOLS:
As we are mainly interested in the monastic schools we shall deal with the lay schools only so far as is necessary to explain the general educational situation in Ireland during the period we have chosen. Originally pagan and taught by druids these lay schools held their ground after the general spread of the new faith, but were now taught by Christian ollamhna or doctors, laymen who took the place of the druid teachers of earlier times.[198]
The aim of these schools at first was apparently to prepare a limited number of men as brehons or judges, and filÍ or poets, and senachidhe or historians. In very early times the same man performed two or more of these offices. In later times there was a tendency to specialization. A lay college generally comprised three distinct schools. We are told that Cormac MacAirt, King of Ireland (254–277A.D.) founded three schools, one for the study of Military Science, one for Law and one for General Literature.[199] It would appear that schools of this last type developed into the “Bardic Schools” in which were taught poetry, history, and vernacular literature in general. The law schools and military schools were evidently exclusively professional, whereas the “Bardic Schools” were attended by those seeking admission to the Bardic Order and others desiring a liberal education.[200]
RE-ORGANIZATION OF BARDIC SCHOOLS:
The members of Bardic Order became so numerous and exacting in their demands as to arouse widespread dissatisfaction with the result that the complete abolition of the Order was contemplated. Owing to the timely intervention of St.Columba reform was substituted for abolition. At the Convention of Drum-Ceata in 573A.D. St. Columba who had received part of his own education in a Bardic School pleaded the cause of the bards with such success that the whole system of public secular education was reorganized. The scheme was devised by the chief poet (ard-ollamh) of Ireland, Dallan Forgaill. There was to be a chief school or college for each of the five provinces; and under these were several smaller schools, one for each tuath or district. They were all endowed with lands and all those persons who needed it received free education in them. The heads of these schools were ollamhna doctors of literature and poetry, and were all laymen.[201]
There was now a great tendency towards specialization. Many schools became noted for the excellency of their teaching in particular branches of learning according to the individual tastes or bent of mind of the teachers or the traditions of the several schools. These subjects whether Law, History, Antiquities, Poetry, etc. were commonly taught by the same family for generations.[202]
EDUCATION OF LAYMEN:
It has sometimes been asserted that in early times learning in Ireland was confined to ecclesiastics, but this assertion is quite erroneous. We have shown that there were numerous facilities afforded laymen both for a professional and a general education. Nearly all the professional men, physicians, lawyers (Brehons), poets, builders, and historians were laymen; lay tutors were employed to teach princes; and in fact laymen played a very important part in the diffusion of knowledge and in building up that character for learning that rendered Ireland famous in former times.[203] A glance through Ware’s Irish Writers, or O’Reilly’s Irish Writers, or Hyde’s Literary History of Ireland or Miss Hull’s Text Book of Irish Literature is enough to convince the most sceptical on this point.[204]
RELATION OF THE LAY SCHOOL TO THE MONASTIC SCHOOL:
Though differing in aim, both the lay school and the monastic school were so closely related to the social system that there does not appear to have been any actual antagonism between them. They were to a large extent complementary. As an instance of the friendly relations which obtained between the ecclesiastics and the lay school we might cite the fact, already referred to, that St. Columba pleaded the cause of the bards. St. Columba himself had practical experience of the bards as teachers. We are told that after he had spent some years at the monastic school of Finnian of Movilla and having been ordained deacon he placed himself under the instruction of an aged bard called Gemman.[205] Nor did his monks in the severe and pious solitude of Iona lose their love for their national poetry. On one occasion it is recorded they inquired from the saint why he did not ask an Irish poet who visited Iona to recite a poem for them after the sermon—a question that did not scandalize the saint in the least.[206] We know also that much of the pagan literature was preserved by monastic scribes, and some of the finest Old Irish poems that have been discovered were written by monks on the margin of MSS. they were copying.[207] These examples are given for the purpose of removing a false impression that there was a clear cut line of demarcation between the study of native and classical literature. As a learned French Celticist writes: “On aurait tort de croire qu’en Irelande il y eÛt entre les savants addonÉs aux lettres classiques oÙ À la thÉologie, alors leurs inseparable associÉe,—et les gens des lettres vouÉs À la culture de la littÉrature nationale, la ligne de sÉparation presque infranchissable qu’on remarque pendant le moyen Âge sur le continent.”[208]
On the other hand many laymen attended Monastic schools at some period of their lives not only to get religious instruction but to get a wider general education.[209] Besides laymen were sometimes professors in the monastic schools, and even occupied the important position of Fer-leighinn or Principal of a monastic school, for example Flann Mainistrech (d. 1056A.D.), a layman and the most learned scholar in Ireland of his time, was appointed Fer-leighinn of Monasterboice. About a century earlier the lay ollamh, Mac Cosse, held a similar position in the great school of Ros-Ailithir, now Ros Carbery, in Cork.[210]
Owing to the increasing popularity of the monastic schools and the appointment of laymen as professors in monastic schools there was a tendency to introduce into the Bardic school some of the subjects which attracted lay students to monastic schools. St.Bricin’s College at Tomregan (recte Tuaim Drecain) near Ballyconnel in Cavan, founded in the seventh century, though having an ecclesiastic for Principal was typical of the lay schools. It had one school for law, one for classics, and one for poetry and general Gaelic learning. Each school was under a special druimcli, or head professor,[211] corresponding apparently to a Dean in a modern university.
HOME EDUCATION AND FOSTERAGE:
Thus far we have dealt with literary and professional education. It remains to add a few words in regard to what may be called home education. This education was partly literary and partly technical in nature, and differed according to the age, sex, and social position of the child.
In addition to the usual literary education the sons of the chiefs were instructed in archery, swimming, and chess-playing,[212] while the daughters were taught sewing, cutting-out and embroidery. The sons of chiefs were also taught horsemanship. The children of the wealthy class were often put to fosterage and the foster father was held responsible for the instruction in these branches for neglect of which he was punished by a fine of two-thirds the fosterage fee. The Brehon Law clearly defines the relation between the teacher and pupil in the following words:
“The social position that is considered between the foster-pupil and his foster-father is that the latter is to instruct him without reserve, and to prepare him for his degree, and to chastise him without severity; to feed and to clothe him while he is learning his lawful profession unless he obtains it (food and clothing) from another person. On the other hand, the foster son is to assist his tutor in poverty, and support his old age, and to give him the honour price of the degree for which he is being prepared, and all the gains of his art while he is earning it, and the first earning of his art after he has left the house of his tutor; and moreover the literary foster father has power of judgment and proof and witnesses upon his foster son as the father has upon his son.”[213]
In the case of children who were put to fosterage the parents were apparently left to their own discretion as to the training of their children in their own homes. In such a case the instruction was of the more or less technical type that all must master to a greater or less extent in order to discharge the ordinary duties of life.[214]
Notwithstanding the facilities afforded by the numerous lay and monastic schools the great body of the people were probably neither able to read or write, yet they were not uneducated. They had an education of another kind, reciting poetry, historical tales, and legends, or listening to recitation in which all took delight. In every hamlet there was one or more amateur reciters. This practice of listening to the recitation of stories and poems was then as general as the reading of newspapers and story-books is at the present day.[215] Anyone acquainted with the social life of the Irish-speaking peasantry even in modern Ireland and has listened to a story told, or poem recited, by a seanchaidhe (raconteur) will realise that this was true education, a real exercise for the intellect and a refined source of enjoyment. Taking education then in the broad sense we see that the great body of the Irish people in these early times were really educated.
EDUCATION OF WOMEN:
We have ample evidence that education in ancient Ireland was not confined to men. As we have already seen, the Brehon Laws made provision for the education of girls as well as for that of boys. In a convent established by St.Brigid (d. 525A.D.) at Kildare we are told that St.Mel was employed to instruct herself and her nurse,[216] and the history of that school would lead us to infer that it compared not unfavourably with some of the great monastic schools. St.Brendan of Clonfert (d. 577A.D.) when a child about one year old was placed in fosterage in the convent of St.Ita at Killeedy, Co. Limerick, where he remained for five years. This young saint always looked upon St. Ita as his foster mother and often had listened to her counsels.[217] On one occasion she advised him not to study with women lest some evilly disposed person might revile him.[218] We may safely infer from this that it was not unusual for young children to receive the rudiments of education from the nuns, but that by the time they reached the age of six or more probably seven years[219] they were sent to the monastic school. Moreover, St.Ita’s words of advice clearly suggest that education was provided for girls but that except in the case of children of pre-adolescent age she was decidedly opposed to co-education. Unlike St.Brendan and some other saints, St.Columbanus was not put to fosterage and his childhood’s days were spent in his father’s home under his mother’s care.[220] His latest and best biographer informs us that he received his earliest literary education from an elderly lady who lived near his parent’s home.[221] One of the First Order of Saints named Mugint founded a school in Scotland to which girls as well as boys were admitted.[222] It is evident likewise that the Irish missionaries in Northumbria did much for the education of women. Among the more noteworthy convents or monasteries for women that owe their origin to Irish missionaries were St.Bees, Coldingham, Streanshalch or Whitby which are all referred to by Bede.[223] It was in this last-named monastery and by the enlightened patronage of Abbess Hilda that the earliest Anglo-Saxon poet, Caedmon, was encouraged in his efforts.[224] That women were sometimes accomplished scribes is quite probable. In an old record we are informed that in the sixth century King Branduff’s mother had a writing style (delg graiph), so that she must have practised writing on waxen tablets,[225] this being spoken of in old MSS. as a common practice among ladies.[226]
There is not sufficient evidence to justify the assertion that girls were admitted as students to monastic schools, though we read that one of the daughters of the King of Cualann was sent to Clonard to learn to read her Psalms (in Latin),[227] and Plummer thinks that women taught in this school.[228] Probably there was a separate school for women. From what we know of the Second Order of Saints to which St.Finnian, the founder of Clonard, belonged we cannot believe that co-education would be likely to receive any sanction as a desirable practice in a monastic school. On the other hand, with Mugint and the other saints of the First Order such a practice may possibly have been quite usual; for “strong in faith they feared not the breath of temptation.”[229]
Many other instances of educational facilities for women might be adduced, but enough has been said to prove the position for which we have been contending, namely, that though education was not universal nor compulsory there was ample facilities for all to acquire a liberal education. That a very large proportion of both sexes availed themselves of this privilege there can be no reasonable doubt.
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN IRELAND:
The fame of the Irish monastic schools of the seventh, eighth and ninth centuries attracted a large number of students from foreign lands. To these the Irish monks extended freely the benefits of education which during this period were not available in their own less favoured lands.
The Felire of Aengus[230] which according to linguistic and other internal evidence was written as early as the seventh century[231] mentions various nationalities who have died in Ireland: Romans, Gauls, sometimes called Franks, monks of Egypt, and Saxons (more correctly Angles). The well-known stone inscription “VII Romani” in the churchyard of St.Brecan in Arranmore[232] testifies to this day of presence of Romans. It is also known that in times of persecution Egyptian monks fled to Ireland.[233] In this same calendar of Aengus mention is made of seven Egyptian monks who died in one place. Scattered through the Lives of Irish Saints there are innumerable passages recording the arrival and departure of foreign pilgrims or students, or noting their residence or death. Thus we hear of Britons, including a British bishop, at Clonfert; of British monks at Rahen, Lynally, Taghmon, Clonard, Ferns, and Tallaght; of a British priest at Hare Island in Lough Ree; of British “peregrini” at Tullach Bennan. We even know the names of many British saints who studied or resided in Ireland: Cadoc under St.Mocuda at Lismore, Gildas, Carantoc, Cybi, Petroc, and Sampson.[234] Aldhelm, bishop of Shereboree (705–707 A.D.) in a letter to Eadfrid, bishop of Lindisfarne, states that “fleet loads” of Angles went to Ireland.[235] A passage in Bede corroborates Aldhelm’s testimony. Speaking of the ravages of the Yellow Plague in 664A.D. Bede says: “This pestilence did no less harm in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English nation were there at the time who in the days of the Bishops Finan (651–661) and Colman (661–664), forsaking their native island retired thither either for the sake of divine studies, or a more continent life: and some of them presently devoted themselves to monastic life; others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going from one master’s cell to another. The Scots willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with food as well as to furnish them with books to read and their teaching all gratis.”[236] The bishop Finan and Colman who are referred to by Bede were respectively the second and third abbots of Lindisfarne.
After the Synod of Whitby (644A.D.) Colman and his English adherents who refused to adopt the Roman usage with regard to the date of Easter and the form of tonsure retired to a small island called Inisbofinn off the coast of Mayo and there founded a monastery about 667A.D. A little later Colman founded another monastery on the mainland which he placed in charge of his English companions and disciples. As late as 730A.D. at least this monastery was occupied by English monks and was named by the Irish “Mayo of the Saxons.”[237] We know too that one of the divisions of Armagh was called “Trian Saxon” or the Saxon’s Third from the great number of English students inhabiting it, and we learn incidentally that in the eighth century seven streets in a town called Kilbally near Rahen in King’s Co. were wholly occupied by Galls, or foreigners.[238]
Among the foreign students there were sometimes princes. Of the more illustrious of these we may mention Oswald (d. 642) and Ailfrid (d. 704), kings of Northumbria, and Dagobert II. (d. 679) king of France, all of whom were educated in Ireland. Owing to one of those wars so common in England in the seventh century Oswald, son of King Ethelfrid of Northumbria, had to seek refuge in Ireland when he was fifteen years old. He was educated in a monastery and became a Christian. On regaining his kingdom he sought the aid of the monks of Iona to convert his heathen subjects. In 635A.D. St.Aidan arrived in Northumbria and founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne which was destined to become the Iona of the North of England.[239] Ailfrid, another Northumbria king, spent his schooldays in Ireland. While there he was called the Irish Flann Fina (literally Fina’s Flann) from his mother Fina who was an Irish princess. There is still extant a very ancient Irish poem[240] which he composed in praise of Ireland. He would appear to have got a very good education; for Aldhelm in dedicating to him an epistle on Latin prosody congratulates him on having been educated in Ireland.[241] After the death of King Sigibert his little son, who eventually became Dagobert II., was brought by Didon, bishop of Pointers, to Ireland to be educated. This was done at the command of Grimoald, Mayor of the Palace.[242] The greatest of English missionaries, Wilibrord (657–739) was educated in Ireland where he spent thirteen years. With twelve companions, some of them Irish, and other English whom he selected from the Irish schools, he set sail for Friesland and converted that country to the Christian faith.[243] As Alcuin says so tersely, Britain gave him birth but Ireland reared and educated him. (“Quem tibi iam genuit fecunda Britannia mater doctaque nutrivit studiis sed Hibernia sacris.”)[244] Bede mentions other Anglo-Saxon missionaries who in addition to Wilibrord received their training in Irish schools; of these the most familiar names are Victbert and Hewald.[245] Agilbert, a native of Gaul, after spending some time in Ireland studying the Scriptures, was appointed bishop of the West Saxons in 650A.D. and later occupied the episcopal see of Paris.[246] Other distinguished students were the Angles, Chad and Egbert. Bede tells us that Egbert spent a long time in exile in Ireland studying the Scriptures.[247] Apparently the prestige of the Irish schools continued to draw many students from England even after the establishment of schools in their own country; for we find Aldhelm (d. 709 A.D.) writing in a somewhat bitter mood to three young men who had just returned from the Irish schools: “Why does Ireland pride herself on such a priority that such numbers of students look there from England, as if upon this fruitful soil there were not abundance of Argivi didasculi (or Greek masters), to be found fully capable of solving the deepest problems of religion and satisfying the most ambitious of students.”[248] Zimmer looks upon the reluctance of Aldhelm to acknowledge the superiority of the Irish monastic schools as an additional testimony in their favour.[249]
There are some grounds for believing that Alcuin whose name is intimately connected with the Carolingian revival of learning studied in Ireland, probably in Clonmacnoise. Meyer,[250] Joyce,[251] and Healy,[252] do not hesitate to claim him as a student of Clonmacnoise. Turner[253] thinks it more probable that he was a student of the school of York (in which case he came under Irish as well as Roman influence[254]) but regards him as representative of Irish rather than English scholarship. The opinion that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise is based on a letter[255] which is evidently one of a series written by Alcuin to Colchu (d. 792A.D.), Fer-leighinn, or Headmaster of the school of Clonmacnoise. This Colchu was a very distinguished scholar and teacher. There is no evidence that he ever left Ireland, but his name was well known on the Continent. The general opinion of his contemporaries was that “no one in any age or any country was equal to him in learning, or equal to him in sanctity.”[256] In this letter, which is of a very cordial nature, Alcuin styles Colchu his holy father and speaks of himself as his son. The writer complains that for some time past he was not deemed worthy to receive any of those letters so precious in his sight, and concludes by saying he is sending a messenger with presents from himself and King Charles (Charlemagne) to Clonmacnoise and other Irish monasteries.[257] Dr. Healy points out that some of these gifts are of such a nature as to suggest that Alcuin had a personal knowledge of the needs of Irish monasteries.[258]
No doubt, further research would reveal many other instances of foreign students who sought in Ireland and there were freely given the education which was not available in their own lands. In summarising the conclusions which we believe are justified by the facts presented in this chapter we would say:
1. That both the monastic schools and the bardic schools were so intimately connected with the native Irish social system that they were not antagonistic but rather complementary to each other.
2. That these two classes of schools exerted a mutual influence on each other: the aim of the monastic schools was frankly religious, yet owing to the influence of the bardic schools vernacular learning was not neglected; moreover, as we shall see later, the monks were led for a variety of reasons to study the writings of the classical authors; on the other hand, the bardic schools though mainly devoted to the cultivation of native learning followed the example of the monastic schools in introducing classical learning, thus widening their own curriculum.
3. That with the abundant facilities thus afforded there was ample opportunity for everyone who so desired to acquire liberal education in either a lay or ecclesiastical school.
4. That though education was not universal nor compulsory, the great body of the people without distinction of class or sex was not uneducated.
5. That the educational advantages enjoyed by the Irish in their native land were as freely extended to others irrespective of race or country.
6. That the educational influence of the Irish monastic schools reached Britain and the Continent in two ways: first, numerous students from foreign countries who studied in the schools of Ireland would on returning to their own country naturally endeavour to transmit the culture they had acquired during their residence in Ireland; secondly, still more important was the influence of the numerous bands of Irish missionaries who, as we have shown, established monasteries all over Western Europe and whose love of learning was equalled only by their zeal for Christianity.
