IRISH SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMEN, OF THE MIDDLE AGES. Christianity was introduced into Ireland in the 4th century and, after, the year 432, the date of the arrival of Saint Patncic, spread with extraordinary 'ra pidity. Within the generation after the death of the Apostle, monastic schools were founded with a view toward providing the people with a native ministry. The oldest and at the same time one of the most famous of these schools was founded in 450 at Armagh, the site of the religious metropolis of Ireland. Toward the end of the 5th and during the following cen turies' several colleges were established, the most celebrated being Noendrum, founded by Saint Mochua, Louth, by Saint Moctha, and Kildare, by Saint Brigit, in the 5th century; Clonfert, founded by Saint Brendan the Navi gator Clonard, by Saint Finnian, called °Magis ter Sanctorum Clonmacnois, by Saint Ciaran, Arran, by Saint Enda, Bangor, by Saint Comgall, Glendalough, by Saint Kevin, in the 6th; and Lismore, founded by Saint Carthage, in the 7th century.
These communities were in reality little vil lages or Christian colonies, consisting simply of a collection of stone huts gathered around one or more diminutive churches. Each com munity was under the authority and guidance , of some man remarkable for holiness or learn ing or both. , While their chief function was doubtless originally religion, each establishment had one or more schools appended to it, wherein and science were blended asrhaps never before nor since. The love of atnong the early Christian Irish 'was intense, and no nation ever devoted itself to the things of the soul with so much ardor. There is not a life of an Irish saint that does not praise his love of learning. In the words of an 11th century writer, Ireland had become "virorum doctissimorum officinam,° a workshop of learned men.
These schools were intended for two classes of students —monks and laymen. The schools for the latter were really public schools to which the sons and sometimes the daughters, not only of the rich and noble but also of the poor and strangers, were admitted. The Ven erable Bede gives eloquent testimony to the generosity of the Irish in providing students with free tuition, board and even the necessary manuscripts. Legal provision was made for secular teaching, and after the Convention of ' Druimceat in 890 the public schools were organ ized on a new and better basis, and ation, rights, obligations and number of the professors were fixed by law. There were also
bardic schools and professional schools of law' and a traditional medicine, with the result that education was more widespread in early Chris tian Ireland than elsewhere in those days in Europe, and at least a certain amount of learn ing was almost as much a part of the training of an Irish chief or warrior as of an ecclesiastic.
Considerable information as to the regime of the early Irish schools is to be had in the lives of Irish saints. From them we learn that instruction was mostly oral and conducted in the open air, as far as possible. At first the teaching was in the hands of the founder him self or the superior of the monastery, but when the educational system became better organized it was delegated to a speeial officer called •in Irish fer legind. The students took notes wax tablets or, if more permanency was de-., sired, on parchment.
The studies embraced in general those known on the Continent as the trivium and the quadrivium, in other words the seven liberal sciences, though the courses of instruction no doubt differed according to the, profession, which the student intended to follow, stress being laid in all the schools upon the principles of Christian doctrine, genealogy and the history, legends and lore of Ireland. Some of the pupils of those schools were distinguished for their knowledge of geometry and also of phi losophy • Dicuil the Geographer had been edu cated at Clonmacnois; Colgu, who came from the same school, was the master of Alcuin, the most distinguished scholar _ of his time in Europe. The dispute about the paschal com putation and the determination of the other, movable feasts and cycles gave the Irish schol ars the occasion to show the extent of their learning and their knowledge mathematics , and astronomy, which was amazing for the time. Many of the most distinguished men of science and religion also cultivated poetry and wrote hymns "ad canendum digna," as in the case of Saint Columbanus. The study of music and the illumination of manuscripts were also fos tered, not only in Ireland but also in the Irish establishments on the Continent. In those two arts the Irish had no superiors. The Gall music school, for example, an Irish foun dation in Switzerland, became the most famous in Europe. Much attention was also given to the more or less pastime studies, such as swim ming, the handling of arms and horsemanship, and a game resembling chess, called fidchell.