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[Illustration: ANCIENT IRELAND, shewing the Ancient Schools and Principal
Territorial Divisions before the Anglo-Norman Invasion.

_Sealy, Bryers & Walker, Lith., Dublin._]

  INSULA SANCTORUM ET DOCTORUM

  OR,

  IRELAND'S ANCIENT SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS

  BY THE MOST REV. JOHN HEALY, D.D., LL.D., M.R.I.A.,
  BISHOP OF CLONFERT; COMMISSIONER FOR THE PUBLICATION
  OF THE BREHON LAWS; EX-PREFECT OF THE DUNBOYNE
  ESTABLISHMENT, MAYNOOTH COLLEGE.

  SIXTH EDITION.

  DUBLIN:
  SEALY, BRYERS & WALKER,
  86 MIDDLE ABBEY STREET.
  M. H. GILL & SON,
  50 UPPER O'CONNELL STREET.
  LONDON: BURNS & OATES, LIMITED,
  28 ORCHARD STREET, W., AND 63 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C..
  NEW YORK, CINCINNATI AND CHICAGO:
  BENZIGER BROTHERS.

  1912.

  PRINTED BY
  SEALY, BRYERS AND WALKER,
  MIDDLE ABBEY STREET,
  DUBLIN.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

Some smaller inaccuracies in the previous Editions have been corrected in
this Edition; but no other changes have been made.

  ✠ JOHN HEALY, D.D.,
    Bishop of Clonfert.

  MOUNT ST. BERNARD,
    _October, 1902_.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

The FIRST EDITION of this work has been very favourably received both by
the critics and by the public. It was exhausted nearly twelve months ago;
but other engrossing occupations left the author little time to revise the
text and prepare a new edition. In this SECOND EDITION many errors of the
press have been corrected; several explanatory notes have been added, and
some few inaccuracies have been rectified. Maps of the Aran Islands and
Clonmacnoise have been inserted, and the _Index_ has been greatly
enlarged. It is hoped also, that the lower price of the present edition
will bring it within the range of a wider circle of readers, and still
further carry out the author's purpose of vindicating and enlarging the
just renown of Ireland's ancient Saints and Scholars.

  ✠ JOHN HEALY, D.D.

  MOUNT ST. BERNARD,
    _Easter, 1893_.

PREFACE.

In the following pages it has been the author's purpose to give a full and
accurate, but at the same time, as he hopes, a popular account of the
Schools and Scholars of Ancient Ireland. It is a subject about which much
is talked, but little is known, and even that little is only to be found
in volumes that are not easily accessible to the general reader. In the
present work the history of the Schools and Scholars of Celtic Erin is
traced from the time of St. Patrick down to the Anglo-Norman Invasion of
Ireland. The first three centuries of this period is certainly the
brightest page of what is, on the whole, the rather saddening, but not
inglorious record, of our country's history. It was not by any means a
period altogether free from violence and crime, but it was certainly a
time of comparative peace and security, during which the religious
communities scattered over the island presented a more beautiful spectacle
before men and angels, than anything seen in Christendom either before or
since. It is an epoch, too, whose history can be studied with pleasure and
profit, and in which Irishmen of all creeds and classes feel a legitimate
pride.

It has been questioned, indeed, if the Monastic Schools of this period
were really so celebrated and so frequented by holy men, as justly to win
for Ireland her ancient title of the INSULA SANCTORUM ET DOCTORUM--the
Island of Saints and Scholars. The author ventures to hope that the
following pages will furnish, even to the most sceptical, conclusive
evidence on this point. It has been his purpose to show not merely the
extent, the variety, and the character of the studies, both sacred and
profane, pursued in our Celtic Schools, but also the eminent sanctity of
those learned men, whose names are found in all our domestic
Martyrologies.

Perhaps the most striking feature in their character, speaking generally,
was their extraordinary love of solitude and mortification. They loved
learning much, it is true; but they loved God and nature more. They knew
nothing of what is now called civilization, and were altogether ignorant
of urban life; but still they had a very keen perception of the grandeur
and beauty of God's universe. The voice of the storm and the strength of
the sea, the majesty of lofty mountains and the glory of summer woods,
spoke to their hearts even more eloquently than the voice of the preacher,
or the writing on their parchments.

The author has sought throughout to put all the information, which he
could collect in reference to his subject, in a popular and attractive
form. At the same time he has spared no pains to consult all the available
authorities both ancient and modern; and he has always gone to the
original sources, whenever it was possible to do so. He does not pretend
to have avoided all mistakes in matters of fact, nor to be quite free from
errors in matters of opinion. But he can say that he has honestly done his
best to make the study of this portion of our Celtic history interesting
and profitable to the general reader. And there is no doubt that the study
of the holy and self-denying lives of our ancient Saints and Scholars will
exercise a purifying and elevating influence on the minds of all, but more
especially of the young; will teach them to raise their thoughts to higher
things, and set less store on the paltry surroundings of their daily life.

With the single exception of Iona, which may be considered as an Irish
island, this volume deals only with our Monastic Schools at home. Irishmen
founded during this period many schools and monasteries abroad; but it
would require another volume to give a full account of those monasteries
and their holy founders.

There are many friends to whom we owe thanks for assistance; but we have
reason to believe that they would prefer not to have their names mentioned
in this preface.

In conclusion, we have only to add, that these pages have not been written
in a controversial spirit; because in our opinion little or nothing is
ever to be gained by writing history in a spirit of controversy, which
tends rather to obscure than to make known the truth. It is better from
every point of view to let the facts speak for themselves; and hence not
only in quoting authorities, but also in narrating events, we have, as far
as possible, reproduced the language of the original authorities.

A few of the papers here published have appeared in the _Irish
Ecclesiastical Record_, but they are now presented in a more popular form.

  ✠ JOHN HEALY, D.D.

  PALMERSTON HOUSE, PORTUMNA,
    _May, 1890_.

[Gaelic]

"May the tongue of Sage and Saint be lasting."

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER I.                                                          PAGE

  STATE OF LEARNING IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK.

  I.--THE DRUIDS                                                         1
    Learning of the Druids                                               1
    Religious Worship                                                    2
    Sacrifice of Human Victims                                           3
    Worship of the Elements                                              3
    Enchantments                                                         4
    Acquaintance with Letters                                            4
    Sun-Worship                                                          5

  II.--THE BARDS                                                         7
    The Files                                                            7
    The Ollamh-Poet                                                      7
    Historic Poet                                                        8
    Neidhe                                                               9
    Ollioll Olum                                                        10
    Ossian                                                              10

  III.--THE BREHONS                                                     11
    Office of Brehon thrown open to all possessing necessary
        qualifications                                                  11
    Morann                                                              12
    Their Course of Instruction                                         12

  IV.--THE OGHAM ALPHABET                                               13
    Inscribed Stones                                                    13
    Invention of the Ogham                                              14
    Letters of the Ogham Alphabet                                       15

  CHAPTER II.

  IRISH SCHOLARS BEFORE ST. PATRICK.

  I.--CORMAC MAC ART                                                    16
    Battle of Magh Mucruimhe                                            17
    Fenian Militia                                                      18
    Finn Mac Cumhail                                                    19
    Feis of Tara                                                        19
    _The Teach Miodhchuarta_                                            21
    Writings ascribed to Cormac                                         23
    _Saltair of Tara_                                                   23
    Schools at Tara                                                     23
    _Book of Aicill_                                                    25
    Death of Cormac                                                     26
    Torna Eigas                                                         28

  II.--SEDULIUS                                                         29
    Evidence of Irish Birth                                             29
    Religious Training                                                  32
    Writings of Sedulius                                                35
    _Carmen Paschale_                                                   36
    _Elegiac Poems_                                                     37

  III.--CAELESTIUS AND PELAGIUS                                         39
    Caelestius not an Irishman                                          39
    Pelagius of British Birth, but of Scottish Origin                   40
    No evidence to show that Caelestius was either a Briton or
        Scot--His Character                                             41

  CHAPTER III.

  LEARNING IN IRELAND IN THE TIME OF ST. PATRICK.

  I.--ST. PATRICK'S EDUCATION                                           43
    Life at Marmoutier                                                  44
    St. Germanus of Auxerre                                             46
    Patrick accompanied Germanus on his journey to Britain, A.D. 429    48
    St. Patrick in the Island of Lerins                                 49
    St. Patrick commissioned by St. Celestine to Preach the Gospel
        in Ireland                                                      50

  II.--ST. PATRICK'S LITERARY LABOUR IN IRELAND                         50
    Arrival in Ireland                                                  50
    He lights the Paschal Fire                                          51
    Miraculous Destruction of the two Chief Druids of Erin              51
    Patrick burns the idolatrous books at Tara and overturns the
        idols in Leitrim                                                52

  III.--ST. PATRICK REFORMS THE BREHON LAWS                             52
    The _Senchus Mor_                                                   52
    Commission of Nine                                                  53
    Benignus                                                            54
    Church Organization                                                 55
    Friendly Alliance with the Bards                                    57
    Church Music                                                        58
    St. Patrick accompanied by Bishops and Priests in his Mission to
        Ireland                                                         59
    Synod of Patrick, Auxilius and Iserninus                            60
    Holy See Supreme Judge of Controversies                             60
    Duties of Ecclesiastical Judges and Kings                           61
    Oral Instruction communicated by St. Patrick to his Disciples
        during Missionary Journeys                                      62
    Books used by St. Patrick                                           63
    Elements, or "Alphabets" of Christian Doctrine                      63
    Equipment of the young Priest beginning his Missionary Work         64
    Patrick's Household                                                 65
    Patrick's Artificers                                                66

  CHAPTER IV.

  THE WRITINGS OF SAINT PATRICK AND OF HIS DISCIPLES.

  I.--ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION                                          67
    Evidence in favour of its authenticity                              68
    The Saint's motive in writing it                                    69
    Patrick's parents in Britain                                        71
    Patrick met opposition in preaching the Gospel in Ireland           72

  II.--THE EPISTLE TO COROTICUS                                         73

  III.--THE LORICA, OR THE DEER'S CRY                                   75

  IV.--SECHNALL'S HYMN OF ST. PATRICK                                   77
    Secundinus                                                          77
    Sechnall, son of Patrick's sister, Darerca                          79
    Sechnall's father                                                   79

  V.--THE HYMN _Sancti Venite_                                          80
    St. Sechnall the first Christian Poet in Erin                       81

  VI.--ST. FIACC OF SLETTY                                              81
    Fiacc receives _grade_ or orders                                    83
    He founds two Churches                                              83
    Fiacc's _Metrical Life of St. Patrick_                              85

  VII.--THE SAYINGS OF SAINT PATRICK                                    87

  VIII.--THE _Tripartite Life of St. Patrick_                           88
    Its date and authorship                                             89

  CHAPTER V.

  IRISH MONASTIC SCHOOLS IN GENERAL.

  I.--GENERAL VIEW OF AN IRISH MONASTERY                                91
    Monasticism always existed and always will exist in the Church      92
    St. Martin of Tours, the Father of Monasticism in Gaul              93

  II.--THE BUILDINGS                                                    94
    Cells of the Monks                                                  95
    Monastic Hospitality                                                96

  III.--DISCIPLINE                                                      97
    The Abbot                                                           98
    The Monastic Family                                                 99
    The Rule                                                            99
    Food                                                               101
    Ordinary Dress                                                     102

  IV.--THE DAILY LABOUR OF THE MONASTERY                               102
    Religious Exercises                                                103
    Study                                                              103
    Writing                                                            104
    Manual Labour                                                      104
    Church Furniture                                                   105

  V.--THE THREE ORDERS OF IRISH SAINTS                                 106

  CHAPTER VI.

  SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.

  I.--THE SCHOOLS OF ARMAGH                                            110
    Emania                                                             111
    Daire                                                              111
    Patrick founds Armagh                                              112
    Ecclesiastical Buildings at Armagh                                 113
    St. Benignus                                                       114
    Death of Benignus                                                  116
    The _Book of Rights_ attributed to Benignus                        116
    The School of Armagh, primarily a great Theological Seminary       117
    The _Moralia_ of St. Gregory the Great                             117
    Gildas the Wise                                                    118
    His _Destruction of Britain_                                       119
    English Students at Armagh                                         119
    Churches and Schools of Armagh burned and plundered between
        A.D. 670 and 1179                                              120
    Imar O'Hagan                                                       121
    The _Book of Armagh_                                               122
    The Mac Moyres                                                     124

  II.--THE SCHOOL OF KILDARE                                           125
    St. Brigid                                                         125
    St. Mathona                                                        126
    St. Ita                                                            127
    St. Brigid born at Faughart                                        128
    Events of her marvellous history                                   129
    Brigid's religious vows                                            130
    Brigid founds Kildare                                              130
    Brigid the "Mary of Ireland"                                       131
    Monastery of Men at Kildare                                        132
    St. Conlaeth                                                       132
    St. Ninnidhius                                                     132
    Great Church of Kildare                                            133
    Six Lives of St. Brigid                                            133
    St. Brogan Cloen                                                   134
    Cogitosus                                                          135
    Round Tower of Kildare                                             138
    Perpetual fire of Kildare                                          138
    Art of Illumination in the Monastic Schools of Kildare             139
    The _Book of Leinster_                                             140

  CHAPTER VII.

  MINOR MONASTIC SCHOOLS OF THE FIFTH CENTURY.

  I.--THE SCHOOL OF NOENDRUM                                           141
    St. Mochae                                                         141
    St. Colman of Dromore                                              143
    Mochae of Noendrum enchanted for 150 years by the song of a
        Blackbird                                                      144

  II.--THE SCHOOL OF LOUTH                                             145
    St. Mochta                                                         145
    School founded                                                     147
    The Druid Hoam                                                     147
    _Book of Cuana_                                                    149

  III.--THE SCHOOL OF EMLY                                             149
    St. Ailbe                                                          149
    Pre-Patrician Bishops in Ireland                                   150
    Life of St. Ailbe of Emly                                          151
    Ailbe preached the Gospel in Connaught                             152
    Life of St. Declan                                                 153
    Sts. Ciaran, Ailbe, Declan, and Ibar yield subjection and
        supremacy to Patrick                                           153
    Difficulties against the authenticity of the Lives of St.
        Ciaran, St. Declan, and St. Ailbe                              155

  IV.--ST. IBAR                                                        155
    Beg-Eri                                                            156
    School of Beg-Eri                                                  157
    Beg-Eri no longer an Island                                        158

  V.--EARLY SCHOOLS IN THE WEST OF IRELAND                             159
    College at Cluainfois                                              160
    School of St. Asicus of Elphin                                     161

  CHAPTER VIII.

  SCHOOLS OF THE SIXTH CENTURY.

  THE MONASTIC SCHOOL OF ST. ENDA OF ARAN.

  I.--LIFE OF ST. ENDA OF ARAN                                         163
    Monastic Character of the Early Irish Church                       163
    Family of St. Enda                                                 164
    His Sister, St. Fanchea                                            165
    He goes to Candida Casa                                            167
    Goes to Aran                                                       169

  II.--THE ISLES OF ARAN                                               169
    Aran Mor                                                           170

  III.--PAGAN REMAINS IN THE ISLES OF ARAN                             172
    Dun Ængusa                                                         173
    Dun Conchobhair                                                    175
    These Islands in ancient times the stronghold of a Warrior Race    176

  IV.--CHRISTIAN ARAN OF ST. ENDA                                      177
    The Curragh Stone                                                  177
    Enda founded his First Monastery at Killeany                       177
    Scholars of St. Enda                                               178
    Columba and Ciaran at Aran                                         179
    The Life of Enda and his Monks, simple and austere                 180

  V.--ANCIENT CHURCHES IN ARAN                                         181
    Churches in Townland of Killeany                                   181
    Telagh-Enda                                                        182
    The "Seven Churches"                                               182
    The Tomb of St. Brecan                                             183
    The _Septem Romani_                                                184
    Ruins at Kilmurvey                                                 185
    _Tempull na-Cheathair-Aluinn_                                      186

  CHAPTER IX.

  THE SCHOOL OF ST. FINNIAN OF CLONARD.

  I.--PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS                          188
    The First Christian Schools                                        188
    Schools of the Pagans                                              189
    Episcopal Schools                                                  190
    School founded by John Cassian near Marseilles                     190
    Monastery of Lerins                                                192

  II.--ST. FINNIAN OF CLONARD                                          193
    Finnian's birth                                                    194
    Goes to Britain                                                    195
    Dubricius                                                          196
    St. David                                                          196
    Cathmael                                                           197
    Finnian returns to Erin                                            198

  III.--THE SCHOOL OF CLONARD                                          199
    Scholars of Clonard                                                201
    Instruction altogether oral                                        202
    Knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures                                 203
    "Tutor of the Saints of Ireland"                                   203
    Remains at Clonard                                                 205
    St. Aileran the Wise                                               206

  CHAPTER X.

  THE SCHOOL OF CLONFERT.

  I.--ST. BRENDAN OF CLONFERT                                          209
    Fostered by St. Ita                                                211
    Brendan's progress in learning under St. Erc                       211
    Seminary at Cluainfois                                             212
    Brendan's Rule                                                     213
    St. Brendan's Oratory on the summit of Brandon Hill                214
    Brendan's Voyages                                                  215
    He goes to Britain                                                 217
    The Cursing of Tara                                                218
    He founds the Monastery of Inchiquin                               219
    Founds Clonfert                                                    220
    Death of Brendan                                                   221

  II.--ST. MOINENN                                                     222
    St. Fintan                                                         224
    The Abbot Seanach Garbh                                            225
    St. Fursey                                                         226
    Birth of Fursey                                                    227

  III.--ST. CUMMIAN THE TALL, BISHOP OF CLONFERT                       228
    Birth of Cummian                                                   229
    Pupil of St. Finbar                                                230
    Cummian and King Domhnall                                          232
    Paschal Controversy                                                233
    The Irish Usage                                                    234
    Main charge brought against the Irish                              235
    A National Synod at Magh Lene                                      236
    Cummian's _Paschal Epistle_                                        237
    He appeals to the authority of the Church                          238
    Quotes the Synodical Decrees of St. Patrick                        239
    The _Liber de Mensura Poenitentiarum_                              240

  IV.--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF CLONFERT                                  242
    Turgesius and the Danes                                            242
    Old Cathedral of Clonfert                                          243

  CHAPTER XI.

  THE SCHOOL OF MOVILLE.

  I.--ST. FINNIAN OF MOVILLE                                           245
    His Boyhood and Education                                          246
    Candida Casa                                                       246
    Finnian at Candida Casa                                            247
    He goes to Rome                                                    248
    Returns to Ireland and founds a School at Moville                  249
    Columcille's Copy of St. Finnian's Psaltery                        251
    The _Cathach_                                                      252
    St. Finnian's _Rule_                                               253
    His Death                                                          254
    The _Hymn of St. Colman_                                           255

  II.--MARIANUS SCOTUS                                                 256

  CHAPTER XII.

  THE SCHOOL OF CLONMACNOISE.

  I.--ST. CIARAN OF CLONMACNOISE                                       258
    Clonmacnoise                                                       258
    St. Ciaran at the School of Clonard                                259
    He goes to Aran                                                    260
    Visits St. Senan at Scattery                                       261
    Founds Churches at Isell Ciaran and Hare Island, and the
        Monastery at Clonmacnoise                                      261
    Origin of the Diocese of Clonmacnoise                              262
    Death of St. Ciaran                                                263
    Festival of St. Ciaran                                             264
    The Eclais Beg                                                     265

  II.--THE RUINED CHURCHES AT CLONMACNOISE                             266
    Round Tower                                                        267
    O'Rourke's Tower                                                   268
    De Lacy's Castle                                                   269
    Inscribed Tombstones                                               269

  III.--THE SCHOLARS OF CLONMACNOISE                                   270
    Grants to the School of Clonmacnoise                               271
    Colgan, or Colgu the Wise                                          272
    Alcuin                                                             272
    The Ferleginds                                                     273
    The _Prayer of St. Colgu_                                          273
    _Scuap Chrabhaigh_                                                 274
    Plundered by the Danes                                             274
    Felim Mac Criffan                                                  275

  IV.--ANNALISTS OF CLONMACNOISE                                       276
    Tighernach                                                         276
    _Chronicon Scotorum_                                               278
    Gilla-Christ O'Maeileon                                            279
    _Annals of Clonmacnoise_                                           279

  V.--THE "LEABHAR-NA-H-UIDHRE"                                        280
    Conn-na-m-Bocht                                                    280

  VI.--DICUIL, THE GEOGRAPHER                                          281
    The _De Mensura Orbis Terrarum_                                    281
    His Learning                                                       284
    Irish Pilgrimage to Jerusalem                                      285
    The "Barns of Joseph"                                              286
    Dicuil's reference to Iceland                                      287
    Love of the Ancient Irish Monks for island solitudes               288
    Iceland and the Faroe Isles occupied by Irish Monks prior to
        discovery of these islands by the Danes                        289
    Dicuil's testimony that Sedulius was an Irishman                   290

  CHAPTER XIII.

  THE COLUMBIAN SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.

  I.--ST. COLUMBA'S EDUCATION                                          291
    St. Columba, a typical Celt                                        291
    Early History                                                      292
    Goes to the School of St. Finnian at Moville                       294
    Columba at the School of Clonard                                   295
    Columba at Glasnevin                                               296
    He returns to his native territory                                 297

  II.--COLUMBA FOUNDS DERRY                                            298
    Columcille's original Church                                       298
    Personal description of Columba                                    299

  III.--THE SCHOOLS OF DURROW AND KELLS                                301
    Columba founded the Monastery of Durrow                            301
    Interesting incidents                                              302
    Cormac Ua Liathain                                                 303
    The _Book of Durrow_                                               304
    Ancient remains at Durrow                                          305
    Assassination of De Lacy                                           306

  IV.--THE FOUNDATION OF KELLS                                         306
    King Diarmait                                                      306
    St. Columba's House                                                308
    Round Tower of Kells                                               309
    _Book of Kells_                                                    309
    This MS. caused the Battle of Cuil-Dreimhne                        310
    Columba's departure from Derry                                     312
    Port-a-Churraich                                                   314

  CHAPTER XIV.

  THE COLUMBIAN SCHOOL IN ALBA.

  I.--IONA                                                             315
    Columba settles in Iona                                            316
    Reilig Odhran                                                      317
    Columba's Monasteries                                              318
    Scribes in Iona                                                    319
    Rule in Iona                                                       319

  II.--COLUMBA PROTECTS THE BARDS                                      320
    Threatened destruction of the Bards                                320
    Convention of Drumceat                                             321
    Columba's defence of the Bards                                     322
    The Bardic Schools                                                 323

  III.--DEATH OF COLUMBA                                               324

  IV.--WRITINGS OF COLUMBA                                             326
    _The Altus Prosator_                                               327
    _In te Christe_                                                    328
    _Noli Pater_                                                       328
    Irish Poems attributed to Columcille                               329
    Columba's Prophecies                                               329

  V.--LIVES OF COLUMCILLE                                              330

  VI.--OTHER SCHOLARS OF IONA                                          331
    Baithen                                                            331
    Death of Baithen                                                   333
    Laisren                                                            333
    Seghine                                                            333
    Suibhne                                                            334
    Cuimine the Fair                                                   334

  VII.--ADAMNAN, NINTH ABBOT OF HY                                     335
    Greek Tongue taught in the School of Hy 1170 years ago             336
    Adamnan's Birth                                                    336
    His Parentage                                                      337
    King Finnachta                                                     337
    Adamnan goes to Iona                                               338
    _Vita Columbae_                                                    339
    Adamnan introduces the new Paschal observance into Ireland         341
    Dispute between Adamnan and Finnachta                              342
    Canon of Adamnan                                                   342
    Death of Adamnan--relics transferred to Ireland                    343
    Adamnan's writings                                                 344
    _De Locis Sanctis_                                                 344
    Expulsion of the Columbian Monks by the Pictish King Nectan        345
    The "Gentiles" make their first descent on the Hebrides            346
    Martyrdom of St. Blaithmac                                         347
    The _Rule of Columba_                                              347

  CHAPTER XV.

  THE LATER COLUMBIAN SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.

  I.--KELLS HEAD OF THE COLUMBIAN HOUSES                               348
    Kells pillaged by the Danes                                        348
    The Cathach                                                        348

  II.--MARIANUS SCOTUS                                                 349
    _Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul_                         351

  III.--THE LATER SCHOOL OF DERRY                                      352
    The Ua Brolchain                                                   352
    St. Maelisa O'Brolchain                                            353
    Flaithbhertach O'Brolchain                                         354
    The Abbot of Derry resolves to renovate his monastery and
        collects funds for the purpose                                 355
    Synod of the Clergy of Ireland convened at Bri Mac Taidgh in
        Laeghaire                                                      356
    See of Derry established                                           357

  IV.--GELASIUS                                                        358
    His name of _Mac Liag_                                             358
    Gelasius becomes Abbot of Derry,                                   359
    He reforms the morals of clergy and people                         359
    Synod of Kells                                                     360
    Synod of Mellifont                                                 361
    Synod of Brigh Mac-Taidgh                                          361
    Synod of Clane                                                     362
    Gelasius consecrates St. Laurence O'Toole                          362
    Death of Gelasius                                                  363

  CHAPTER XVI.

  THE SCHOOL OF BANGOR.

  I.--ST. COMGALL OF BANGOR                                            364
    Birth and parentage                                                365
    Comgall enters the Monastery of Fintan                             366
    He visits Clonmacnoise, and receives the priesthood                367
    Description of Bangor                                              367
    St. Columba visits Comgall at Bangor                               368
    The fame of Comgall attracts crowds to Bangor                      369
    Death of Comgall                                                   370

  II.--ST. COLUMBANUS                                                  370
    His early life                                                     371
    Goes to Cluaninis and places himself under the care of Sinell      372
    He enters Bangor                                                   372
    Preaches the Gospel in Gaul                                        373
    He buries himself in the depths of the forest                      373
    Increase of Disciples                                              374
    Founds a monastery at Luxeuil                                      375
    Columbanus and his Irish Monks banished from Luxeuil               376
    They establish themselves at Bregentz                              376
    He founds the Monastic Church of Bobbio                            378
    Death of Columbanus                                                378
    His writings                                                       379
    The _Bobbio Missal_                                                380
    The _Antiphonarium Benchorense_                                    381

  III.--DUNGAL                                                         381
    Theologian, astronomer and poet                                    381
    Dungal was an Irishman                                             382
    Probably educated in the School of Bangor                          382
    Dungal goes to France                                              382
    His Letter to Charlemagne on the two solar eclipses said to have
        taken place in A.D. 810                                        383
    He opens a school at Pavia                                         385
    The last struggle of Western Iconoclasm                            385
    The _Libri Carolini_                                               386
    Synod of Frankfort                                                 386
    The Council of Nice                                                387
    The Paris Conference                                               388
    Claudius of Turin                                                  389
    _Dungali Responsa contra perversas Claudii Taurinensis Episcopi
        Sententias_                                                    390
    Character of Dungal's writings                                     391
    His death                                                          392

  IV.--ST. MALACHY                                                     393
    Sketch of his life                                                 393
    He rebuilds the monastery at Bangor                                394
    Becomes Bishop of Connor                                           394
    Founds the _Monasterium Ibracense_                                 395
    Malachy transferred to the Primatial See                           395
    Difficulties in Armagh                                             395
    Malachy honoured at Rome by Pope Innocent III.                     396
    Death at Clairvaux                                                 397

  CHAPTER XVII.

  THE SCHOOL OF CLONENAGH.

  I.--ST. FINTAN                                                       398
    Churches founded round the base of the Slieve Bloom mountains      398
    Clonenagh                                                          398
    Fintan's _Rule_                                                    401
    St. Comgall a pupil of the School of Clonenagh                     402
    Miracles of St. Fintan                                             403
    Fintan, "Father of the Irish Monks"                                404

  II.--ST. ÆNGUS                                                       404
    A _Ceile De_                                                       405
    He leads a solitary life                                           405
    Dysert-Enos                                                        406
    Penitential Exercises                                              407
    Ængus arrives at Tallagh                                           407
    _Martyrology of Tallagh_                                           408
    _The Felire_                                                       409
    Fothadh-na-Canoine                                                 410
    Invocation of the Saints                                           411
    The _Saltair-na-Rann_                                              412
    Opinions of Dr. Stokes with regard to the writings of Ængus        412
    Death of Ængus                                                     413

  CHAPTER XVIII.

  THE SCHOOL OF GLENDALOUGH.

  I.--ST. KEVIN                                                        414
    Sketch of his Life                                                 414
    Kevin is placed under the care of St. Petroc                       415
    He goes to Glendalough                                             416
    Description of Glendalough                                         417
    St. Kevin's Bed                                                    418
    Tempull-na-Skellig                                                 419
    Glendalough, a Seminary of Saints and Scholars                     420
    Kevin meets Columba, Comgall and Canice at the hill of Uisnech     421
    Death of Kevin                                                     421
    Writings attributed to Kevin                                       422

  II.--RUINS AT GLENDALOUGH                                            422
    The Cathedral                                                      423
    St. Kevin's Kitchen                                                423
    Our Lady's Church                                                  424
    Trinity Church                                                     424
    Kevin's Yew Tree                                                   425

  III.--ST. MOLING                                                     425
    St. Moling                                                         426
    Teach Moling                                                       426
    Moling becomes Bishop of Ferns                                     427
    Remission of the Cow-Tax                                           428
    Writings attributed to St. Moling                                  429
    Glendalough ravaged by the Danes                                   429
    "Gilla-na-naomh Laighen"                                           430

  CHAPTER XVIII.--(_continued_).

  THE SCHOOL OF GLENDALOUGH.

  ST. LAURENCE O'TOOLE                                                 432
    His Parentage                                                      433
    He goes to Glendalough                                             434
    Lorcan as a Student                                                435
    He is placed at the head of St. Kevin's Great Establishment        436
    Consecrated Archbishop of Dublin                                   437
    Synod of the Irish Prelates at Clane                               437
    He reforms the Clergy                                              437
    His Spirit of Mortification and Prayer                             438
    Dermott McMurrough and Maurice Fitzgerald attack Dublin            440
    He stimulates the slothful king, Rory O'Connor, to action          441
    Laurence O'Toole attends a General Council in Rome, and secures
        many privileges for the Church in Ireland                      443
    He travels to England in the interests of Rory O'Connor the
        discrowned king                                                444
    Detained a prisoner in the monastery of Abingdon                   444
    His death                                                          445
    Canonization                                                       446

  CHAPTER XIX.

  SCHOOLS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY.

  I.--THE SCHOOL OF LISMORE, ST. CARTHACH                              447
    He visits the School of Bangor                                     448
    He founds a monastery at Rahan                                     449
    "Effugatio" of Carthach from Rahan                                 450
    He founds Lismore                                                  453
    Retires from community life to prepare for death                   454
    Miracles                                                           454
    _Rule of Carthach_                                                 455

  II.--ST. CATHALDUS OF TARENTUM                                       457
    _The Life of St. Cathaldus_                                        457
    His Birth-place                                                    458
    A Student at Lismore                                               460
    He becomes a bishop                                                461
    See of Rachau                                                      462
    Pilgrimage to Jerusalem                                            462
    Taranto                                                            463
    Cathaldus endeavours to reform the licentious inhabitants of
        Taranto                                                        463
    His death at Taranto                                               464
    Invention of the Saint's Relics                                    464

  III.--OTHER SCHOLARS OF LISMORE                                      465
    St. Cuanna                                                         465
    St. Colman O'Leathain                                              467
    Aldfrid, King of Northumbria                                       468

  IV.--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF LISMORE                                   466
    Lismore ravaged by the Danes                                       469
    Scenery at Lismore                                                 471
    Inscribed stones                                                   472
    The Crozier of Lismore                                             472
    _The Book of Lismore_                                              473

  CHAPTER XX.

  THE SCHOOLS OF DESMOND.

  I.--THE SCHOOL OF CORK                                               475
    St. Finbarr                                                        476
    Gougane Barra                                                      478
    Cork in A.D. 1600                                                  480
    Death of St. Finbarr                                               482
    His character                                                      483
    Assassination of Mahoun                                            484
    Giolla Aedha O'Muidhin                                             486

  II.--ST. COLMAN MAC UA CLUASAIGH                                     487
    Pestilence in Ireland                                              487
    St. Colman's Hymn                                                  488

  III.--THE SCHOOL OF ROSS                                             490
    St. Fachtna                                                        490
    _Geographical Poem_ of Mac Cosse                                   494

  IV.--THE SCHOOL OF INNISFALLEN                                       495
    St. Finan the Leper                                                496
    St. Finan Cam                                                      497

  V.--THE ANNALS OF INNISFALLEN                                        500
    Maelsuthain O'Cearbhail                                            500
    Curious anecdote of Maelsuthain                                    502
    _Annals of Innisfallen_                                            503
    Description of Innisfallen                                         505

  CHAPTER XXI.

  THE SCHOOLS OF THOMOND.

  I.--THE SCHOOL OF MUNGRET                                            506
    St. Nessan                                                         507
    St. Munchin                                                        508
    Mungret plundered by the Danes                                     510
    "The Learning of the Women of Mungret"                             511

  II.--THE SCHOOL OF INISCALTRA                                        513
    Island of Iniscaltra                                               513
    St. Columba of Terryglass                                          513
    Death of St. Columba                                               515
    St. Caimin                                                         517
    Round Tower of Iniscaltra                                          519
    St. Caimin's Church                                                519
    Sculptured stones                                                  520
    Iniscaltra ravaged by the Danes                                    521

  III.--OTHER MONASTIC SCHOOLS OF THOMOND                              522
    St. Brendan of Birr                                                522
    St. Cronan of Roscrea                                              523
    _Book of Dimma_                                                    524

  CHAPTER XXII.

  LATER SCHOOLS OF THE WEST.

  I.--ST. COLMAN'S SCHOOL OF MAYO                                      527
    The Easter Controversy                                             527
    Inisboffin                                                         531
    Death of Colman                                                    533

  II.--ST. GERALD OF MAYO                                              534
    Life of St. Gerald                                                 534
    Adamnan promulgates the celebrated "Lex Innocentiae"               537
    Date of St. Gerald's Death                                         537

  III.--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL OF MAYO                       538
    Cele O'Duffy                                                       539

  IV.--THE SCHOOL OF TUAM                                              540
    St. Jarlath                                                        541
    "Meadow of Retreat"                                                542
    St. Brendan visits St. Jarlath's School at Cluainfois              543
    St. Jarlath founds Tuam                                            544

  CHAPTER XXII.--(_continued_).

  CELTIC ART IN THE WESTERN MONASTERIES DURING THE REIGN OF
    TURLOUGH O'CONNOR.

  I.--THE O'DUFFYS                                                     547

  II.--CELTIC ART AT CLONMACNOISE                                      550
    The Ollamh-builder                                                 551
    Gobban Saer                                                        551
    _Religh-na-Cailleach_                                              552
    Crosses and Architectural Ornaments in Sculpture at Tuam and
        Cong                                                           554
    Turlough rebuilds the Cathedral of Tuam                            557
    The Abbey of Cong                                                  558
    The Cross of Cong                                                  560
    The Chalice of Ardagh                                              562
    The Shrine of St. Manchan                                          564

  CHAPTER XXIII.

  IRISH SCHOLARS ABROAD

  I.--ST. VIRGILIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF SALZBURG                            566
    Country of St. Virgilius                                           566
    Accusations against Virgilius                                      569
    Doctrine of the Antipodes                                          570
    Virgilius, the Apostle of Carinthia                                572
    Discovery of the Tomb of Virgilius                                 573

  II.--SEDULIUS, COMMENTATOR ON SCRIPTURE                              574
    Writings of Sedulius                                               574

  III.--JOHN SCOTUS ERIGENA                                            576
    Born in Ireland                                                    576
    Patronised by Charles the Bald                                     579
    His _Liber de Prædestinatione_                                     581
    Alleged Errors about the Real Presence                             583
    His Translation of the Pseudo-Dionysius                            584
    His Treatise _De Divisione Naturae_                                586
    This Book condemned A.D. 1225                                      587
    His Death                                                          588

  IV.--FOREIGN SCHOLARS IN IRELAND                                     589
    College of Slane                                                   590
    Dagobert, a Pupil of Slane                                         590
    Egbert in Ireland                                                  591
    Studies in Connaught                                               592
    St. Chad in Connaught                                              593
    St. Willibrord in Ireland                                          594
    Agilbert, Bishop of Paris, in Ireland                              595

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  GAEDHLIC SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS OF ANCIENT ERIN.

  I.--ORGANIZATION OF THE GAEDHLIC PROFESSIONAL SCHOOLS                597
    The Learned Professions in Erin                                    598
    Degrees in Poetry, in Law, in History                              600

  II.--SCHOOL OF TUAIM DRECAIN                                         602
    Three Schools at Tuaim Drecain                                     602
    Cennfaeladh, Professor in all the Faculties                        604

  III.--CORMAC MAC CULLINAN                                            605
    Disert-Diarmada                                                    605
    Cormac, King of Cashel                                             607
    Not Bishop of Cashel                                               609
    Cashel then a Royal Dun                                            610
    Battle of Ballaghmoon                                              611

  IV.--WRITINGS OF CORMAC MAC CULLINAN                                 612
    _Psalter of Caiseal_                                               613
    Cormac's _Glossary_                                                612

  CHAPTER XXIV.--(_continued_).

  I.--GAEDHLIC SCHOLARS OF THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CENTURIES             614
    Amergin Mac Awley                                                  615
    Dallan Forgaill                                                    616

  II.--GAEDHLIC SCHOLARS OF THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES              617
    Maelmura of Fathan                                                 617
    Flann Mac Lonan                                                    618
    Eochaid O'Flinn                                                    619

  III.--GAEDHLIC SCHOLARS OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY                      620
    Mac Liag                                                           620
    His writings                                                       623
    Cuan O'Lochain                                                     624
    The Monastery of Buite                                             625

  IV.--DISCIPLINE OF THE LAY COLLEGES                                  628
    Relations between pupils and Teachers laid down in the _Senchus
        Mor_                                                           629
    Corporal punishment sometimes inflicted                            630

CHAPTER I.

STATE OF LEARNING IN IRELAND BEFORE ST. PATRICK.

  "The wrath of Crom spoke in the storm,
    The blighted harvests felt his eye;
  The cooling shower, the sunshine warm,
    Answered the Druid's plaintive cry."
                              --_T. D. McGee._

It is not our purpose to discuss at length the state of learning and
civilization in Ireland before the coming of St. Patrick. It is a question
about which much difference of opinion exists even amongst learned men. A
few remarks, however, on this subject will enable the reader to understand
more clearly the literature and history of the Christian Schools of
Ancient Ireland.

It is admitted by all that whatever learning existed in Erin during the
pagan period of her history, was the exclusive possession of certain
privileged classes amongst the Celtic tribes. They may be included in the
three great orders, so familiar to the students of our ancient
history--the Druids, Bards, and Brehons. We shall offer a few brief
observations about each of these highly privileged classes.[1]

I.--THE DRUIDS.

In Ireland, as in all the Celtic nations, the Druids were priests and
seers, and frequently poets and judges also, especially in the earliest
periods of our history. We know from Cæsar that their learning, at least
in Gaul, consisted for the most part in rather fanciful theories about the
heavenly bodies, the laws of nature, and the attributes of their pagan
deities. These doctrines, like their religious tenets, were not committed
to writing, but were handed down by oral tradition; for they wished above
all things to keep their knowledge to themselves, and to impress the
common people with a mysterious awe for their own power and wisdom. It has
been said[2] by some writers that druidism was a philosophy rather than a
religion; but this statement cannot be admitted against the express
testimony of Cæsar,[3] who must have often seen the Druids both in Gaul
and Britain. He asserts[4] most distinctly that they attended to religious
worship, offered sacrifice both in public and in private, and also
expounded omens and oracles. Cæsar's statement in this single sentence
offers a text for our observations. We must bear in mind what he says of
the Druids of Gaul, as well as of the British Druids; because it is quite
evident that the Druids of the three great Celtic nations about this
period had practically the same religion. He says that they had exclusive
charge of public worship, sometimes even offered human sacrifice; and we
shall show, notwithstanding O'Curry,[5] that they did the same in Ireland
also. A similar long course of instruction, generally extending to twenty
years, was required for their disciples in Ireland as in Gaul. As judges,
too, the Druids enforced their decisions by a kind of social
excommunication, which few people dared to despise. It is curious how the
Celtic races, even to this day, have recourse to similar excommunications,
both in things social and political. The Druids of Gaul were subject to an
Arch-Druid, who was, like the Jewish High Priest, elected for life. But
above all, the Druids of Gaul taught the immortality of the soul, as also
its transmigration, and appeared most anxious to inculcate these doctrines
on all their disciples. This is the one saving doctrine of druidism, which
thus prepared the way for Christianity.

There were Druids amongst all the Celtic tribes of France, Britain, and
Ireland. The British Druids in the time of Cæsar were very famous both as
priests and scholars; so that it was customary for the young Druids of
Gaul to be sent over to Britain to finish their education in the colleges
of the British Druids. Their chief establishment was in the Island of
Anglesey, anciently called Mona; so at least it is called by Tacitus,
although Cæsar seems to give that name to the Isle of Man. During the
period immediately preceding the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, it
seems highly probable that Mona was occupied by a colony of the Irish
Celts. It is certain, at least, that very frequent and friendly
intercourse took place between Ireland and Anglesey, from which it may be
safely inferred that if the druidism of Anglesey was not of Irish origin,
Irish as well as Gaulish Druids were certainly educated in that island.

The Druids worshipped not in temples made with hands. As in Palestine, and
many Eastern countries, these pagan priests conducted their religious
services in 'groves' and 'high places' under the shade of the spreading
oaks, from which some writers derive their name--_derw_ being the Celtic,
not the Greek name for oak. Hence this tree was sacred in their eyes;
their dwellings were surrounded with oak groves, whose dark foliage threw
a sombre and solemn shade over the rude altars of unhewn stone on which
they offered their sacrifices. The yew, blackthorn, and quicken were also
regarded as sacred trees, at least by the Irish Druids, who made their
divining rods in some cases from the yew, but oftener from oaken boughs.
The mystic ogham characters were also cut by the Druids on staves made
from the yew, at least so we are informed in some of our oldest Irish
tales.[6]

Our knowledge of Irish druidism is derived chiefly from incidental
references in the old romantic tales, and also in the _Lives of the
Saints_, and especially in the _Lives of St. Patrick_, who came into
direct antagonism with their entire system. It is certain that in other
countries the Druids sometimes offered human victims in sacrifice; and
there is some evidence that the same custom, although, perhaps, more
rarely, prevailed in Ireland. There is a passage in the _Book of
Leinster_,[7] which expressly states that the Irish used to sacrifice
their children to Crom Cruach, or more correctly, Cenn Cruaich, the great
gold-covered idol of Magh Slecht, on the borders of Cavan and Leitrim.
Hence it was called the Plain of Slaughter, and the sight of the foul idol
so excited the righteous zeal of St. Patrick that he smote it deep into
the earth with a blow of his crozier. We also know from the Saint's
"Confession" that the Irish to whom he preached the Gospel, had previously
worshipped idols and unclean things,[8] which goes to prove that
idol-worship was a part of the druidical ritual in Ireland.

There is no doubt also that the worship of the elements was a part of the
druidical religion. Their most terrible oaths were sworn on the Sun and
the Wind; and it was confidently believed that the perjurer could never
escape the vengeance of these mighty elements. The account given in the
_Tripartite_ of St. Patrick's interview with the daughters of King
Laeghaire by Cliabach Well, on the slopes of Cruachan, shows that the
worship of fairy gods, or elves, was a part of the druidical religion; and
the same is expressly stated in the very ancient metrical Life of the
Apostle, by St. Fiacc of Sletty.[9]

It is evident also not only from Cæsar's statement, but also from several
passages in our earliest extant writings, that one of the principal
functions of the Druids was to act as haurispices, that is, to foretell
the future, to unveil the hidden, to pronounce incantations, and ascertain
by omens lucky and unlucky days. Hence we always find some of them living
with the king in his royal rath; they are not only his priests, but still
more his guides and counsellors on all occasions of danger or emergency.
King Laeghaire had at Tara Druids and enchanters, who used to foretell the
future by their druidism and heathenism;[10] and they announced the coming
of the _tailcend_, or shaven-crown, that is St. Patrick, long before his
arrival. They were powerful in charms and spells. They could bring snow on
the plain, but could not, like Patrick, take it away; they could cover the
land with sudden darkness, but could not, like him, dispel it. They were
powerful for evil, but not for good; they could with the charm called the
'Fluttering Wisp,' strike their unhappy victim with lunacy, or afflict him
by the elements; they would even promise to make the earth swallow him up,
as they said it would swallow St. Patrick when he was preaching on the
banks of the Moy in Tyrawley. Their incantations, too, were in some
instances not only wicked, but filthy and unclean,[11] and as such were of
course strictly prohibited by St. Patrick.

The Druids of Gaul, although unwilling to commit their doctrines to
writing, were acquainted with the use of the Greek letters. The British
Druids of Anglesey were even more learned; and we must infer that the
Irish Druids possessed a similar culture. They had 'books,'[12] when St.
Patrick met them at Tara; and two of them were entrusted with the
education of the king's daughters at Cruachan. They were also skilled in
medicine, and possessed a knowledge of healing herbs; they discoursed to
their disciples on the nature of things,[13] and had some knowledge of
astronomy. Thus vested with mysterious and supernatural powers, and
possessed of an esoteric learning, that was exclusively their own, the
Druids were held in great reverence and fear. "Tara was the chief seat of
the idolatry and druidism of Erin,"[14] but we also find them at Cruachan
in Connaught, and at Killala beyond the Moy[15]--both royal seats of the
kings of that province. They accompanied the kings in their journeys and
were present sometimes on the field of battle.[16] They were generally
dressed in white, but wore an inner tunic to which reference is sometimes
made. It is probable that one or more of them abode in the Raths of all
the great nobles, who claimed to be _righs_, or kinglets, in their own
territories. They were sworn enemies of Christianity, and frequently
attempted to take St. Patrick's life by violence or poison. In the remote
districts of the country some of them remained for several centuries after
the island generally became Christian; and to this day we can find traces
of ancient druidism in the superstitions of the people.

Their New Year's Day was about the 10th of March, and was deemed holy as
the great day on which they cut the mistletoe from the sacred oak. The
first of May was kept as a festival in honour of the Sun-God; and probably
gave origin to that custom of lighting fires in honour of the god, which
was afterwards transferred to the eve of the 24th of June, in order to do
honour to St. John.

St. Patrick in his _Confession_ clearly refers to this sun-worship as an
idolatrous practice prevalent amongst our pagan forefathers. "That sun,"
he says, "which at His bidding we see rising daily for our sake will never
reign, and its splendour will not last for ever; but those who adore it
will perish miserably for all eternity." The great November festival
called Samuin, seems to have been held especially in honour of the _side_,
or fairy-gods, who dwelt in the bosom of the beautiful green hills of
Erin, and were supposed to hold high revel throughout all the land on
November Eve. But the Druids had influence even with these gods of the
hills; and we are told that when Edain, the lovely queen of royal Tara,
was stolen away from her husband, and hidden in the Land of Youth under
Bri Leith, near Ardagh, in Longford, she was restored to her home and her
husband by the mighty magic of Dallan the Druid.

We find reference made to the Druids as present with every colony that
came to Erin, which shows at least that the old bards and chroniclers
regarded them as an essential element of the nation. They were endowed
with lands for their maintenance, and enjoyed special privileges and
immunities, like the Bards and Brehons. But, as they were the priests of a
false and idolatrous religion, it was sought as far as possible to remove
every trace of their existence from the minds of the people; and hence
after the revision of the Brehon Laws in the time of St. Patrick, we find
all reference to the Druids, their rights, and their privileges, entirely
expunged from that ancient code. Accordingly we know nothing about the
Irish Druids, except what may be gathered from such accidental references
as those to which we have already referred.

II.--THE BARDS.

Under this term we include both poets and chroniclers that is, the
_Fileadh_ and the _Fer-comgne_.[17] Sometimes history and poetry are
represented as distinct branches of learning in ancient Erin; it is
certain, however, that in pre-Christian times, and long after the
introduction of Christianity, the chronicler made poetry the medium of
preserving and communicating to posterity both the genealogical and
historical records of his tribe or clan. It is true, indeed, that the
Introduction to the _Senchus Mor_ makes a careful distinction between the
chronicler and the poet. "Until Patrick came, only three classes of
persons were permitted to speak in public in Erin: a Chronicler to relate
events and to tell stories; a Poet to eulogise and to satirize; a Brehon
to pass sentence from precedents and commentaries." It is added that since
Patrick's arrival, each of these professions is subject to his censorship;
and it is noteworthy that no reference at all is made to the Druids after
Patrick came to Erin, and this Brehon Code came to be purified. The
commentator on the _Senchus_ also notes that for a long time the
judicature had belonged to the poets alone, that is, from the time of
Amergin, the first poet-judge, down to the time of the Contention at
Emhain Macha between the two Sages, Ferceirtne and Neidhe. The language
which the poets spoke on that occasion was so obscure, that the chieftains
could not understand what had passed between the rival Sages. It was
therefore ordained by Conchobhar (Connor) and his chieftains, that
thenceforward the poets should be deprived of that exclusive privilege
which they had hitherto enjoyed, and made too exclusive; and that the men
of Erin in general should be entitled to have their proper share in the
judicature. This dim tradition clearly represents a protest against the
technical language of an exclusive and privileged class, who, for their
own purposes, sought to keep secret their traditionary lore. Thus it came
to pass that thenceforward the profession of the judge and poet became
quite distinct, and the judge assumed the post of official chronicler and
keeper of the records of his tribe.

The function of the Bard, or poet, afterwards was 'to eulogize and to
satirize;' and in this more restricted sense of the word the term poet or
Bard is frequently employed in Christian times. We know, however, that as
a matter of fact all our historical documents down to the tenth century
are written in poetry, that is, in a certain metre and rhythm, which would
help to preserve these compositions even without the aid of writing for
the benefit of posterity; that is to say, the Chronicler was also a poet.

The _File_, or poet in the more restricted sense of the word, soon became
a pest and a nuisance. He was willing enough to eulogize when he expected
liberal rewards; but if he were disappointed in his hopes, or if from any
other cause he wished to inflict the lash of his satire on any person, he
never spared the poisoned shafts of his flashing wit. Hence Cormac Mac
Cullinan, who knew the tribe well, derives _File_, the old Irish word for
poet, from _fi_, poison, and _li_, brightness; because in eulogy the poet
is bright, but in satire he is venomous. The poets were extortionate, too,
in exacting rewards for their eulogistic verses, so that the order came to
be more feared than loved, and at length incurred the danger of
extinction, as we shall see further on. Hence, too, it is expressly
ordained in the _Senchus Mor_ that the poet who demands an excessive
reward, or claims an amount to which he is not entitled, or composes
unlawful satire, is to be deprived of half his 'honour price' for the
first and second offence, and of his full honour price, or social status,
for the third. Among the four dignitaries of a territory who might be
degraded, besides the false-judging king, the stumbling bishop, and the
unworthy chief, was the fraudulent poet, who demanded an exorbitant reward
for his compositions.

No man was qualified to become Chief-poet, or Doctor in
Poetry--'Ollamh-poet'--who was not able to compose an extempore stanza on
any subject proposed to him. And the way in which it is done is this:
"When the poet sees the person or thing before him he makes a verse at
once with the ends of his fingers, or in his mind without studying, and he
composes and repeats at the same time."[18] This, however, was after the
reception of the New Testament in the time of St. Patrick. "Before
Patrick's time the poet placed his (divining) staff upon the person's
body, or upon his head, and found out his name, and the name of his father
and mother, and discovered every unknown thing that was proposed to him in
a minute or two or three." But St. Patrick abolished these profane rites
amongst the poets when they believed, for they could not be performed
without offering to idol gods, and thenceforward he made the profession
pure.[19]

The chief duty of the Historic Poet, or Chronicler, was to register the
genealogies of the men of Erin, and to recite lays of battle, and rhymed
stories or tales of Courtships, Voyages, Cattle-spoils, Sieges,
Slaughters, and other moving incidents by field and flood. The
Ollamh-poet, or Doctor of Poetry, was required by law to spend at least
twelve years in careful preparation for his final degree, and to have
prepared for public recitation seven times fifty tales or stories of the
character already indicated. He was also required to be perfectly familiar
with the pedigrees of the principal families, their topographical
distribution, the synchronisms of remarkable events both at home and
abroad, and the etymologies of names in Erin. He was besides required to
know the artistic rules of poetry, and to have a knowledge of the seven
kinds of verse and their various metres. It is evident that these manifold
accomplishments required long and careful study; and the necessity of this
training explains, what many persons think incredible, the wonderful
accuracy of our ancient historical and genealogical records, which the
evidence of facts now proves to be on the whole undoubtedly authentic and
trustworthy documents.

In the _Book of Ballymote_ there is a long list of great historians and
poets, who flourished in ancient Ireland; many of them, however, are now
known only by name. All our ancient records point to the fact that the
Tuatha de Danaan, who colonized this country before the Milesians, were a
people of considerable civilization. Their royal family seems to have
possessed great culture. Daghda, the king, and his wife the Great
Queen--Mor Rigan--are both represented as distinguished poets, who
flourished more than 1,000 years before Christ. Diancecht, the royal
physician, was also a distinguished judge and poet; his daughter, the
princess Etan, was a poetess; and her son was no less remarkable for
poetic talent. About the same period flourished the poet Ogma, the
traditional inventor of the Ogham alphabet.

The Milesians cultivated poetry with equal zeal. We have already referred
to the poet-judge, Amergin, and we are told that a poet called Cir, and a
harper named Ona, were amongst the first Milesian colonists. After the
conquest of the country by the brothers Heber and Heremon, it was resolved
to cast lots for the possession of these distinguished bards. The poet
fell to Heremon and the harper to Heber, whence it came to pass that the
Northerns were, in after times, distinguished for poetry; but the gift of
music remained with their Southern brothers.

There is still extant[20] a curious genealogical poem attributed to Conor
of the Red-Brows (about B.C. 6) which O'Curry seems to have regarded as
genuine. But the most remarkable remnant of pre-Christian literature, if,
indeed, it can be regarded as such, is the Dialogue of the two Sages,
which is attributed to the reign of Conor Mac Nessa, king of Ulster, about
the period of the birth of Christ. These two sages were Ferceirtne, the
royal poet of Emania, and Neidhe, son of Adhna, the predecessor of
Ferceirtne in the Chair of Poetry. The young Neidhe, after completing his
education at home, went to Scotland, where he still further pursued his
studies. Upon learning the death of his father he returned home, and
happening to find the chief poet's chair just then empty by the temporary
absence of the Professor Ferceirtne, who had succeeded his father, he put
on the poet's Gown which he found lying on the chair, and sat down himself
in state in the vacant seat. Thereupon Ferceirtne returned, and finding
his place occupied, asked in poetic phrase who was the distinguished
stranger upon whom rested the splendour of the poet's Gown. Neidhe
answered him in language as poetic as his own, and thereupon began the
famous Dialogue, in which the rival poets displayed all their various
accomplishments in literature, history, and druidism. The victory was
finally gained by the youthful Neidhe, who proved himself fully worthy of
his father's Chair; but with modest condescension he yielded the place to
the elder Ferceirtne, and consented to become his pupil and destined
successor. The language of the Dialogue shows its great antiquity; but the
frequent allusions, although only by way of prophecy to Christian usages,
throw grave doubt, on its authenticity.

Learning is said to have greatly flourished in Erin during the reign of
Conor Mac Nessa. He was certainly a bountiful benefactor to the poets;
and, when their numbers and avarice raised loud complaints against them in
other parts of the country, he invited the whole tribe to his own kingdom
of Ulster, where he entertained them hospitably for seven years.

Ollioll Olum, that is Ollioll the Sage, was, as his name implies, a
learned poet, who flourished from A.D. 186 to 234. He is said to have
written several poems of great merit, three of which, according to
O'Curry, are still preserved in the _Book of Leinster_. It is said also
that Finn Mac Cumhaill was a poet as well as a warrior; and several poems
are attributed to him in our ancient books.

He was at least the father of Erin's greatest poet--from him and "Graine
of the golden hair the primal poet sprung." Finn flourished during the
later heroic period, which corresponds to the third century of the
Christian era. Ossian, or more properly Oisin, his son, is the Homer of
Gaedhlic song, whose name and fame have floated down to us on the stream
of time from those far distant and misty ages. Many poems still extant are
attributed, and perhaps justly, to the grand old warrior Bard of Erin. The
publications of the Ossianic Society have done much to make the history of
the heroic period familiar to modern readers. More than one of our Irish
poets,[21] too, have, with the quick ear of genius, caught up the faint
echo of Ossian's song, and once more attuned the harp of Erin to the
thrilling melodies of her heroic youth. Once more the Fenian heroes begin
to tread the hills of fame, and the spirit of Ossian's vanished muse, like
the quickening breath of spring, is felt over all the land.

  Ossian! two thousand years of mist and change
    Surround thy name--
  Thy Fenian heroes now no longer range
    The hills of fame.
  The very name of Finn and Goll sound strange--
    Yet thine the same,
  By miscalled lake and desecrated grange,
    Remains, and shall remain.

  The Druid's altar and the Druid's creed
    We scarce can trace;
  There is not left one undisputed deed
    Of all your race,
  Save your majestic song, which hath their speed
    And strength and grace,
  In that sole song they live and love and bleed,
    It bears them on through space.
                                        --_T. D. M'Gee._

III.--THE BREHONS.

They formed the third of the learned and specially privileged Orders in
ancient Erin. During the pre-Christian period the customary laws, by which
the Celtic tribes were governed, were formulated in brief sententious
rhymes. These rhythmical maxims of law were at first transmitted orally,
but afterwards in writing from each generation of Poets to their
successors. For up to the first century of the Christian era the Files or
Poets had not only the custody of the laws, but also the exclusive right
of expounding them to the people, and pronouncing judgments both civil and
criminal. Even when the King himself undertook to adjudicate, the File was
his official assessor, and the royal judge was guided by his advice in the
administration of justice. The Poets were exceedingly jealous of this
great privilege, and in order to exclude outsiders from any share in the
administration of the law they preserved the archaic legal formula with
the greatest secrecy and tenacity.

But as we have already seen, this jealous spirit over-reached itself, and
in the reign of Conor Mac Nessa the men of Erin resolved to deprive the
Poets of this exclusive privilege, and throw open the office of Brehon to
all who duly qualified themselves by acquiring the learning necessary to
enable them to discharge its duties.

It was after the office was thus thrown open to men of talent and industry
that some of those ancient judges flourished in Erin, whose names and
decisions are spoken of with the greatest reverence in the _Senchus Mor_.
"It was," we are there told, "Sen, son of Aighe, who passed the first
judgment respecting Distress at a territorial meeting held by the three
noble tribes who divided this island." This points to legislation on the
subject of Distress formulated at a tribe-assembly by a great jurist, and
then solemnly ratified by popular consent. The gloss on this text adds
that Sen was of the men of Connaught, and that the meeting was held at
Uisnech in Westmeath. Another distinguished judge was Sencha, son of
Ailell, on whose face three permanent blotches appeared whenever he
pronounced a false judgment. Connla Cainbrethach (of the Fair Judgments)
was the chief legal doctor of Connaught; he excelled the men of Erin in
wisdom, for he was "filled with the grace of the Holy Ghost."[22] He it
was who said that it was God, and not the Druids, who made the heavens,
and the earth, the sun and the moon and the sea. This seems to imply that
Connla was wise and courageous enough to reject the philosophy, and
probably also the worship of the Druids. The Light had already arisen in
the east, and the first faint dawnings of Christianity were beginning to
illumine the horizon of Erin. Morann, another great judge, who flourished
during the first century of our era, wore a chain around his neck, and if
ever he pronounced a false judgment the chain tightened around his neck;
but it began to expand again, when he came to speak what was just and
true. These and other great judges of the same period appear to be
undoubted historical characters, whose wisdom and learning, hallowed by
the reverence of ages, appeared to their successors to be in some way
divinely inspired. They were, it is true, at the time without the light of
Revelation to guide them, but as the gloss says, the grace of the Holy
Ghost would not be wanting to help men, who were striving according to
their conscience to be just and good.

Cormac Mac Art, of whose writings we shall presently speak, did much to
encourage the systematic study of law amongst the Brehons. He appears to
have been the first who reduced to writing the traditional legal maxims of
the Brehon's court, and thus may be regarded as the author of the earliest
Code of Laws in pagan Ireland. This great work was afterwards purified and
perfected in the time of St. Patrick, when the _Senchus Mor_, as it is now
known, was first compiled.

These three Orders of Druids, Bards, and Brehons were, as we have seen,
close corporations, invested with many privileges, and communicating a
professional knowledge for the most part by oral instruction to their
disciples. This course of instruction was very long and elaborate,
sometimes extending to a period of twenty years. It included, as in more
modern times, various steps or degrees of learning, the highest of which
always was that of Ollamh or Doctor, whether in law, poetry, or divinity.
The ordinary course was twelve years, and each year's work seems to have
been as carefully fixed as in a modern college or university. A great
portion of the work, after the purely elementary studies, consisted in
getting off by rote either the bardic tales, or legal maxims with their
leading cases, or historical poems and genealogies. This included a very
perfect knowledge of topography, chronology, and family history.
Versification of a very artificial and complicated character was also a
portion of the programme. Besides the students had undoubtedly, at least
in pre-Christian times, some kind of 'secret' language known only to the
initiated. It would seem as if each profession or school had its own
peculiar Oghamic alphabet, the key of which was known only to themselves;
but in this matter we have no certain knowledge, and are left almost
entirely to pure conjecture. Hereafter we shall see that the legal
relations between the professor and his pupils were definitely
ascertained, and are laid down in that portion of the Brehon Code which
deals with the Law of Social Connections.

IV.--THE OGHAM ALPHABET.

We shall see presently, when treating of the literary history of Cormac
Mac Art, that the use of letters, and most probably of Roman letters, was
quite common in Erin before the coming of St. Patrick. Besides the Roman
alphabet there was, however, an earlier and ruder alphabet, which seems to
have been used in Erin even in the pre-historic times. This is called the
Ogham alphabet which has had a very strange and curious history. It is a
singular fact that all knowledge of the Ogham alphabet, as well as of the
existence of any inscriptions written in its peculiar characters, had for
a considerable period completely disappeared from the minds of Irish
scholars. Yet the Ogham score was all the time contained in the _Book of
Ballymote_,[23] and the key to its interpretation also. Inscribed stones
too were thrown about unnoticed in various parts of the country down to
the year 1820, when Mr. John Windele discovered the first inscription in
the co. Cork.

Since that time no less than 200 inscribed stones have been discovered in
various parts of the country, but especially in the South and West; and
Irish scholars have directed their attention to decipher and explain these
mysterious and time-worn lines. Twenty-two stones inscribed with similar
characters have been found in Wales and Devonshire, that is in the South
and West of England, and ten in Scotland. Almost all these inscriptions
have been examined by the late Mr. Brash of Cork, a most painstaking and
accurate investigator, who has published the result of his labours in a
very interesting work on the subject.[24] His conclusions may be briefly
summed up as follows[25]:--

The inscriptions have been invariably found on pillar stones and flags,
and are nearly all of a sepulchral character. The lettering is in a style
peculiar to the Gaedhlic race, and represents a very ancient dialect of
the Gaedhlic language. The inscribed stones are found only in those
districts, where the Gaedhils are known to have established themselves;
and the mode of forming the characters and formulating the inscriptions is
the same in Ireland, in Wales, and in Scotland. He asserts, moreover, that
no Ogham monument hitherto discovered bears any trace of any Christian
formula, or any symbol of Christian hope;[26] that any such symbols when
found upon an Ogham stones, are manifestly of later date than the original
inscription; and that the allusions in our ancient MSS. to the Ogham mode
of writing have reference only to pre-Christian times. He thinks too that
the Ogham mode of writing was not invented in Ireland, but carried to this
country by a colony that landed on our south-western shores, and moved
gradually from West to East, and thence across the Channel to Wales. He
adds that in all probability this colony came originally from the East,
then settled for some time in Egypt, and migrated thence to
Spain--conclusions that are all in conformity with the common traditional
account of the advent of the Milesian race to this country, as contained
in our own ancient Books.

The invention of the Ogham is attributed in bardic history to Ogma, son of
Elathan, a prince of the Tuatha de Danaans, that people whom all our
national traditions represent as a more cultured race than any of the
other colonies that took possession of this island in primitive times. The
most singular fact connected with the Ogham inscriptions is their
geographical distribution. They are in Ireland almost all confined to the
South and West, and to those parts of Wales and England that could be most
easily reached from the South of Ireland. The few inscriptions found
elsewhere in Ireland are only found in those places, to which we have
reason to know that families from the South-West migrated in early times.
This certainly would seem to indicate that an immigrant colony landed
somewhere in Kerry; and gradually diffusing themselves through the country
carried this archaic form of writing along with them; but either they
never succeeded in occupying the whole country, or before the occupation
of the remoter parts they gradually gave up the Ogham, and adopted a form
of writing more suitable for general use, but not so well adapted for
brief permanent inscriptions in stone. Mr. Brash has declared that no
Oghams of a Christian character have yet been discovered, nor is there any
coeval reference to any Christian symbols on the Ogham pillar-stones, a
fact which, if true, clearly proves that all the Oghams date from Pagan
times. In most cases they are sepulchral inscriptions of the briefest
character, merely giving the name of the deceased and the name of his
father with, in a few instances, one or two short laudatory epithets.

The letters of the Ogham alphabet are divided into four groups of five
letters each, twenty in all. Taking the angular edge of the upright pillar
to be represented by a straight line the following is the score:--

Besides these we find a few dipthongal symbols, but apparently of later
date:--

The line on which the letters are written is nearly always the rectangular
line on the left hand side of the upright flag, facing the spectator. The
inscription begins below at the left hand corner, and is read upwards, but
sometimes it is continued downwards on the right hand angular line of the
pillar on the same face. The vowels are generally not much larger than
points on the very angle of the stone, or very short lines cutting the
angular line; the consonants are much longer scores drawn to the left or
to the right of the angular line as the word requires; the last five
scores are longer lines across the angular line and oblique to it.[27]

From various references in our ancient MSS. it appears that the Oghams
were written not merely on stones, but also on rods and tablets of wood,
which could be easily tied up in bundles and carried from place to place.
A letter written to a friend might thus consist of a bundle of rods, duly
marked and numbered. The bark of trees, being easily notched, was probably
used for the same purpose, and thus even before the introduction of
parchment and Roman letters, there would be no want of writing materials.
There is no evidence that before the introduction of Roman letters there
was any other kind of alphabet in use except the Ogham. But as the Druids
of Gaul, in the time of Cæsar, were acquainted with the use of the Greek
letters, why should not the 'more learned' Druids of Britain and Ireland
be familiar with the Greek or Roman alphabet? It will be seen in the next
chapter that there is every reason to conclude that at least after the
Roman occupation of Britain, they were quite familiar with Roman letters
and Roman writing.

CHAPTER II.

IRISH SCHOLARS BEFORE ST. PATRICK.

  "Crom Cruach and his sub-gods twelve,"
    Said Cormac, "are but carven treene;
  The axe that made them, haft and helve,
    Had worthier of our worship been."
                                  --_Ferguson._

We are frequently told that before the time of St. Patrick the Irish were
an utterly barbarous people like the North American Indians. They had of
course an unwritten language, but neither scholars, learning, nor even
letters. Vague statements of certain Roman writers are cited in proof of
these assertions--we shall appeal to the evidence of facts. The Roman
writers of that period knew far less of ancient Ireland than even we do at
present. It was beyond the sphere of their knowledge, as well as of their
empire. But as a matter of fact the statements of Roman historians, so far
as they go, tend to prove that a considerable amount of civilization
existed in Erin during the time of the Roman occupation of Britain; and in
proof of this statement it is quite enough to examine the history of
Cormac Mac Art.

I.--CORMAC MAC ART.

The reign of Cormac Mac Art furnishes, perhaps, the most interesting
chapter in the history of pre-Christian Ireland. He may be regarded with
justice as the greatest king that ever reigned in ancient Erin. He was, as
our poets tell us, a sage, a judge, and a scholar, as well as a great
prince and a skilful warrior. His reign furnished, indeed, many rich
themes for the romantic poets and story-tellers of subsequent ages, in
which they greatly indulged their perfervid Celtic imagination. But the
leading facts of his reign are all within the limits of authentic history,
and are provable by most satisfactory evidence.

Cormac was the son of Art the Solitary, or the Melancholy, as he is
sometimes called, and was grandson of the celebrated Conn the
Hundred-Fighter. Hence he is sometimes called Cormac O'Cuinn, as well as
Cormac Mac Art. His father was slain about the year A.D. 195, in the great
battle of Magh Mucruimhe where, as at the battle of Aughrim in the same
county, a kingdom was lost and won. Magh Mucruimhe was the ancient name of
the great limestone plain extending from Athenry towards Oranmore; and the
spot where King Art was killed has been called Tulach Art even down to our
own times. It was between Oranmore and Kilcornan, and close to the
townland of Moyvaela.[28] The victor in this great battle was Lughaidh,
surnamed Mac Con, who had been for many years a refugee in Britain, and
now returned with the king of that country and a host of foreigners to
wrest the kingdom from Art, who was his maternal uncle. The flower of the
chivalry of Munster perished also on that fatal field; for the seven sons
of Ollioll Olum who had come to assist King Art, their mother's brother,
were slain to a man on the field or in the rout that followed.

Fortunately for young Cormac, the king's son, he was just then at
fosterage in Connaught, probably with Nia Mor, who was his cousin, and one
of the sub-kings of the province at that time. So Mac Con, the usurper,
found no obstacle to prevent him assuming the sovereignty of Tara; and we
are told that he reigned some 30 years, from A.D. 196 to 226.

Meantime young Cormac was carefully trained in all martial exercises, as
well as in all the learning befitting a king, until he came to man's
estate. Then he came to Tara in disguise, and according to one account,
was employed in herding the sheep of a poor widow, who lived close to
Tara, when some of the sheep were seized for trespassing on the queen's
private green or lawn. When this case of trespass was brought before the
king in his court on the western slope of the Hill of Tara, he adjudged
that the sheep should be forfeited for the trespass. "No," said Cormac,
who was present, "the sheep have only eaten of the fleece of the land, and
in justice only their own fleece should be forfeited for that trespass."
The bystanders murmured their approval, and even Mac Con himself cried
out--"It is the judgment of a king"--for kings were supposed to possess a
kind of inspiration in giving their decisions. Then immediately
recognising Cormac, whom he knew to be in the country, he tried to seize
him on the spot. But Cormac leaped the mound of the _Claenfert_, and not
only succeeded in effecting his escape, but also in raising such a body of
his own and his father's friends, that he was able to drive the usurper
from Tara. Mac Con fled to his own relatives in the South of Ireland,
where he was shortly afterwards killed, at a place called Gort-an-Oir,
near Cahir, in the Co. Tipperary.

So Cormac, disciplined in adversity, came to the throne in the year A.D.
227, according to the Four Masters.[29] During the earlier years of his
reign he was engaged in continual wars with the provincial kings, who had
yet to learn that Cormac was their master in fact as well as of right. We
are told that he fought no less than fifty battles against these turbulent
kings to vindicate his own position as High King of Erin. The accurate
Tighernach furnishes us with brief notices of those various battles
against the refractory sub-kings. In one year he fought three battles
against the Ultonians. In another he fought four times against the
Momonians. The Leinster King, Dunlaing, taking advantage of Cormac's
absence from Tara, attacked the royal rath itself, and wantonly
slaughtered thirty noble maidens with their attendants--thirty for
each--who lived in a separate building on the north-western slope of Tara.
Cormac promptly avenged this awful massacre by invading Leinster, and
putting to death twelve sub-kings of that province; and besides he
increased and enforced the payment of the ancient Borumean or cow-tribute
imposed by his predecessors on the same province. The Ultonians, however,
were his most inveterate foes; and twice, it seems, they succeeded in
"deposing" him, that is, in driving him for some months from Tara. At
length, however, the king gained a complete victory over his northern
rivals, with the aid of Tadhg, a grandson of Ollioll Olum, and his Munster
auxiliaries. Cormac rewarded the Munster hero by giving him, as he had
promised, as much of the territory of Meath as Tadhg could drive round in
his chariot from the close of the battle till sunset. The veteran hero,
spent with loss of blood and battle-toil, still contrived to drive his
chariot round a district extending from Duleek to the Liffey, which was
afterwards called Cianachta--the land of Cian's descendants. Tadhg's
father was Cian, son of Ollioll Olum, hence the name.

Cormac, now undisputed master of his kingdom, took measures to preserve
the public peace and secure the prosperity of his dominions. He was the
first, and we may say also, the last king of Erin, who maintained a
standing army to check the arrogance of his turbulent sub-kings. This
Fenian militia was, it is said, modelled after the Roman legions, which
Cormac might have seen, or heard of at that time in Britain. They were
quartered on the people in winter; but in summer they lived on the
produce of the chase, and gave all their leisure to martial exercises. By
this means they became most accomplished in all feats of arms, so that the
fame of these Fenian heroes has come down to our own time in the living
traditions of the people. The celebrated Finn Mac Cumhail was their
general--a poet too, it was said, he was, and a scholar, as well as a
renowned warrior. Ossian, the hero-poet, was his son; and the brave and
gentle Oscar, who fell in the fatal field of Gabhra, was his grandson.

We are also told that Cormac kept a fleet on the sea for three years, and
doubtless swept away the pirate ships of Britain and the islands, that
used to make descents from time to time on the eastern coasts of Ireland.

But it is with the literary history of King Cormac's reign we are most
concerned, and to this we invite the special attention of the reader. His
first work was to re-establish the ancient Feis of Tara.

Tara even then had been the residence of the High Kings of Erin from
immemorial ages. Slainge, the first king of the Firbolgs, was its reputed
founder; and all the kings of that colony, as well as of the Tuatha De
Danaan and Milesian race, had usually dwelt on the same royal hill. Ollamh
Fodhla, one of the most renowned kings in the bardic history, "reigned
forty years and died in his own house at Tara." It is said that this king
was the first who convened the great Feis of Tara to legislate in solemn
assembly for all the tribes of Erin. O'Flaherty adds that the same ancient
monarch founded a "Mur Ollamhan," or college of learned doctors at Tara;
but Petrie could find no authority for this statement except the term "Mur
Ollamhan," which might, however, simply mean the _mur_, or fortified house
of Ollamh Fodhla himself.

During the shadowy period that follows down to the Christian era, we hear
little of Tara even in bardic history. An undoubtedly historical king,
Tuathal Teachtmar, about the year 85 of the Christian era, took a portion
of each of the four provinces to make a mensal demesne for the High King
of Tara. He convened the states of the kingdom, too, on the royal hill in
solemn assembly, and induced the assembled kings and chiefs to swear by
all the elements that they would always yield obedience to the princes of
his own race.

The Feis of Tara, then, was in existence before the time of Cormac; but it
was seldom convened, and had almost fallen into disuse. Cormac it was,
who made arrangements for the regular meetings of that great parliament of
the nation, and provided adequate accommodation for the assembled
notables. Here we are on firm historic ground and can enter into more
minute details with security.

The object of this Feis of Tara was mainly three-fold.[30] First, to enact
and promulgate what was afterwards called the _cain_-law, which was
obligatory in all the territories and tribes of the kingdom, as
distinguished from the _urradhus_, or local law. Secondly, to test and
sanction the Annals of Erin. For this purpose each of the local Seanachies
or historians brought in a record of the notable events that took place in
his own territory. These were publicly read for the assembly, and when
duly authenticated were entered on the great record of the King of Tara,
called afterwards the "Saltair of Tara." Thirdly, to register in the same
great national record the genealogies of the ruling families, to assess
the taxes, and settle all cases of disputed succession among the tribes of
the kingdom. Too often this was done by the strong hand; but it was
Cormac's idea to fix the succession, as far as possible, according to
definite principles amongst the ruling families. The absence of a strong
central government to enforce this most wise provision was one main cause
of the subsequent distracted state of the kingdom.

This great national assembly, convened for these purposes, met once every
three years. The session continued for a week, beginning the third day
before, and ending the third day after November day. When so many
turbulent chieftains, oftentimes at feud amongst themselves, met together,
it was necessary to keep the peace of Tara by very stringent regulations,
enforced under the most rigorous penalties. It is to Cormac's prudent
forethought we owe these regulations, which were afterwards inviolably
observed as the law of Tara. Every provincial king and every sub-king had
his own fixed place allotted to him near the High King by the marshals of
Tara; and every chief was bound to take his seat under the place where his
shield was hung upon the wall. Brawling was strictly forbidden, and to
wound another was a capital crime.

In order to provide suitable accommodation for this great assembly, Cormac
erected the _Teach Miodhchuarta_, which was capable of accommodating
1,000 persons, and was at once a parliament house, banquet hall, and
hotel. We have two accounts of this great building, as well as of the
other monuments at Tara, written about nine hundred years ago--one in
poetry, the other in prose. The statements made by these ancient writers
have been verified in every essential point by the measurements of the
officers of the Ordnance Survey, who were enabled from these documents to
fix the position and identity of all those ancient monuments at Tara.

"The _Teach Miodhchuarta_," says the old prose writer in the
_Dinnseanchus_, "is to the north-west of the eastern mound. The ruins of
this house--it was even then in ruins--are situate thus: the lower part to
the north, and the higher part to the south; and walls are raised about it
to the east and to the west. The northern side of it is enclosed and
small; the lie of it is north and south. It is in the form of a long
house, with twelve doors upon it, or fourteen, seven to the west and seven
to the east. This was the great house of a thousand soldiers."[31] We
ourselves have lunched on the grass-green floor of this once famous hall;
and we can of our own knowledge testify to the accuracy of this ancient
writer. The openings for the doors can still be traced in the enclosing
mound; and curiously enough, one is so nearly obliterated that it is
difficult still to say whether there were six or seven openings on each
side. The building was seven hundred and sixty feet long, and originally
nearly ninety feet wide, according to Petrie's measurements. There was a
double row of benches on each side, running the entire length of the hall.
In the centre there was a number of fires in a line between the benches,
and over the fires was fixed a row of spits depending from the roof, at
which a very large number of joints might be roasted. There is in the
_Book of Leinster_ a ground-plan of the building, and the rude figure of a
cook in the centre turning the spit with his mouth open, and a ladle in
his hand to baste the joint. The king of Erin took his place at the head
of the hall on the south surrounded by the provincial kings. The nobles
and officers were arranged on either side according to their dignity down
to the lowest, or northern end of the hall, which was crowded with
butlers, scullions, and retainers. They slept at night on the couches, but
not unfrequently under them.

The appearance of Cormac at the head of this great hall is thus described
in an extract copied into the _Book of Ballymote_ from the older and now
lost _Book of Navan_[32]:--

    "Beautiful was the appearance of Cormac in that assembly. Flowing and
    slightly curling was his golden hair. A red buckler with stars and
    animals of gold, and fastenings of silver upon him. A crimson cloak in
    wide descending folds around him, fastened at his neck with precious
    stones. A neck torque of gold around his neck. A white shirt with a
    full collar, and intertwined with red gold thread, upon him. A girdle
    of gold inlaid with precious stones was around him. Two wonderful
    shoes of gold, with golden loops, upon his feet. Two spears with
    golden sockets in his hands, with many rivets of red bronze. And he
    was himself besides symmetrical and beautiful of form, without blemish
    or reproach."

This might be deemed a purely imaginary description, if the collection of
antiquities in the Royal Irish Academy did not prove beyond doubt that
golden ornaments similar to those referred to in this passage were of
frequent use in Ireland. In the year 1810 two neck torques of purest gold,
the same as those described above, were found on the Hill of Tara itself,
and are now to be seen in the Academy's collection.

"Alas," says an old writer, "Tara to-day is desolate; it is a green grassy
land; but it was once a noble hill to view, the mansion of warlike heroes,
in the days of Cormac O'Cuinn--when Cormac was in his glory."

Everything at Tara, even its present desolation, is full of interest, and
reminds us of the days "when Cormac was in his glory." His house is there
within the circle of the great _Rath na Riogh_. The mound where he kept
his hostages may still be seen beside his Rath. The stream issuing from
the well _Neamhnach_, on which he built the first mill in Ireland for his
handmaiden, Ciarnaid, to spare her the labour of grinding with the quern,
still flows down the eastern slope of Tara Hill, and still, says Petrie,
turns a mill. Even the well on the western slope, beside which Cormac's
_cuchtair_, or kitchen, was built, has been discovered. The north-western
_claenfert_, or declivity, where he corrected the false judgment of King
Mac Con about the trespass of the widow's sheep may still be traced. The
Rath of his step-mother, Maeve, can be seen not far from Tara; and to the
west of the _Teach Miodhchuarta_ may be noticed _Rath Graine_, the sunny
palace of his daughter, the faithless spouse of Finn Mac Cumhail.

O'Flaherty tells us on the authority of an old poem found in the _Book of
Shane Mor O'Dugan_, who flourished about A.D. 1390, that Cormac founded
three schools at Tara--one for teaching the art of war, the second for the
study of history, and the third was a school of jurisprudence. It was,
doubtless, the first regular college founded in ancient Erin, and like the
school of Charlemagne, was within the royal palace. The fact is extremely
probable, especially as Cormac himself was an accomplished scholar in all
these sciences. This brings us to the literary works attributed to Cormac
Mac Art by all our ancient Irish scholars.

The first of these is a treatise still extant in manuscript entitled
_Teagusc na Riogh_, or _Institutio Principum_. It is ascribed to King
Cormac in the _Book of Leinster_ written before the Anglo-Norman Invasion
of Ireland. It takes the form of a dialogue between Cormac and his son and
successor, Cairbre Lifeachair; "and," says the quaint old Mac Geoghegan,
"this book contains as goodly precepts and moral documents as Cato or
Aristotle did ever write." The language is of the most archaic type; some
extracts have been translated and published in the _Dublin Penny Journal_.

A still more celebrated work, now unfortunately lost, the _Saltair of
Tara_, has been universally attributed to Cormac by Irish scholars.
Perhaps we should rather say it was compiled under his direction. "It
contained," says an ancient writer in the _Book of Ballymote_, "the
synchronisms and genealogies, as well as the succession of the [Irish]
kings and monarchs, their battles, their contests, and their antiquities
from the world's beginning down to the time it was written. And this is
the _Saltair of Tara, which is the origin and fountain of the histories of
Erin_ from that period down to the present time." "This," adds the writer
in the _Book of Ballymote_, "is taken from the _Book of Ua
Chongbhail_"--that is the _Book of Navan_--a still more ancient but now
lost work. Not only do the writer in the ancient _Book of Navan_, and the
copyist in the _Book of Ballymote_, expressly attribute this work to
Cormac, but a still more ancient authority, the poet Cuan O'Lochain, who
died in A.D. 1024, has this stanza in his poem on Tara:--

  "He [Cormac] compiled the _Saltair of Tara_,
  In that _Saltair_ is contained
  The best summary of history;
  It is the _Saltair_ which assigns
  Seven chief kings to Erin of harbours," &c., &c.

And it is, indeed, self-evident to the careful student of our annals that
there must have been some one ancient "origin and fountain" from which
the subsequent historians of Erin have derived their information--which
existing monuments prove to be quite accurate--concerning the reign of
Cormac and his more immediate predecessors in Ireland. The man who
restored the Feis of Tara, and who, as we shall presently see, was also a
celebrated judge and lawyer, was exactly such a person of forethought and
culture as would gather together the poets and historians of his kingdom
to execute under his own immediate direction this great work for the
benefit of posterity. Keating tells us that it was called the _Saltair of
Tara_ because the chief Ollave of Tara had it in his official custody; and
as Cormac Mac Cullinan's Chronicle was called the _Saltair of Cashel_, and
the Biblical Poem of Aengus the Culdee was called the _Saltair na Rann_,
so this great compilation was named the _Saltair of Tara_. This, as
O'Curry remarks, disposes of Petrie's objection that its name would rather
indicate the Christian origin of the book. The answer is simple--Cormac
never called the book by this name, as surely the compilers of the great
works known as the _Book of Ballymote_ or the _Book of Leinster_ never
called those famous compilations by their present names.

Cormac was also a distinguished jurist--of that we have conclusive
evidence in the _Book of Aicill_, which has been published in the third
volume of the Brehon Law publications. The book itself is most explicit as
to its authorship, and everything in the text goes to confirm the
statements in the introduction, part of which is worth reproducing here.

    "The place of this book is Aicill close to Temhair [Tara], and its
    time is the time of Coirpri Lifechair, son of Cormac, and its author
    is Cormac, and the cause of its having been composed was the blinding
    of the eye of Cormac by Ængus Gabhuaidech, after the abduction of the
    daughter of Sorar, son of Art Corb, by Cellach, son of Cormac."

The author then tells us how the spear of Aengus grazed the eye of Cormac
and blinded him.

    "Then Cormac was sent out to be cured at Aicill [the Hill of Skreen]
    ... and the sovereignty of Erin was given to Coirpri Lifechair, son of
    Cormac, for it was prohibited that anyone with a blemish should be
    king at Tara, and in every difficult case of judgment that came to him
    he [Coirpri] used to go to ask his father about it, and his father
    used to say to him, 'my son that thou mayest know' [the law], and 'the
    exemptions;' and these words are at the beginning of all his
    explanations. And it was there, at Aicill, that this book was thus
    composed, and wherever the words 'exemptions,' and 'my son that thou
    mayest know,' occur was Cormac's part of the book, and Cennfaeladh's
    part is the rest."

This proves beyond doubt that the greatest portion of this _Book of
Aicill_ was written by Cormac at Skreen, near Tara, when disqualified for
holding the sovereignty on account of his wound. It was a treatise written
for the benefit of his son unexpectedly called to fill the monarch's place
at Tara. The text, too, bears out this account. Cormac, apparently
furnished the groundwork of the present volume by writing for his son's
use a series of maxims or principles on the criminal law of Erin, which
were afterwards developed by Cormac himself, and by subsequent
commentators. That the archaic legal maxims so enunciated in the _Book of
Aicill_ were once written by Cormac himself there can be no reasonable
doubt; although it is now quite impossible to ascertain how far the
development of the text was the work of Cormac or of subsequent legal
authorities, who doubtless added to and modified the commentary, whilst
they left Cormac's text itself unchanged.

This _Book of Aicill_, the authenticity of which cannot, we think, be
reasonably questioned, proves to a certainty that in the third century of
the Christian era there was a considerable amount of literary culture in
Celtic Ireland. These works are still extant in the most archaic form of
the Irish language; they have been universally attributed to Cormac Mac
Art for the last ten centuries by all our Irish scholars; the intrinsic
evidence of their authorship and antiquity is equally striking--why then
should we reject this mass of evidence, and accept the crude theories of
certain modern pretenders in the antiquities of Ireland, who without even
knowing the language undertake to tell us that there was no knowledge of
the use of writing in Ireland before St. Patrick?

And is not such an assertion _a priori_ highly improbable? The Romans had
conquered Britain in the time of Agricola--the first century of the
Christian era. The Britons themselves had very generally become Christians
during the second and third centuries, and had, to some extent at least,
been imbued with Roman civilization. Frequent intercourse, sometimes
friendly and sometimes hostile, existed between the Irish and Welsh tribes
especially. A British king was killed at the battle of Magh Mucruimhe in
Galway, where Cormac's own father was slain. The allies of Mac Con on that
occasion were British. He himself had spent the years of his exile in
Wales. Captives from Ireland were carried to Britain, and captives from
Britain were carried to Ireland. Is it likely then that when the use of
letters was quite common in Britain for three centuries no knowledge of
their use would have come to Ireland until the advent of St. Patrick in
the fifth century of the Christian era?

There is an ancient and well founded tradition that Cormac Mac Art died a
Christian, or as the Four Masters say, "turned from the religion of the
Druids to the worship of the true God." It is in itself highly probable.
Some knowledge of Christianity must have penetrated into Ireland even so
early as the reign of Cormac Mac Art. It is quite a popular error to
suppose that there were no Christians in Ireland before the time of St.
Patrick. Palladius had been sent from Rome before Patrick "to the Scots,"
that is the Irish, "who believed in Christ." Besides that intimate
connection between Ireland and Britain, of which we have spoken, must have
carried some knowledge of Christianity, as well as of letters, from one
country to the other. King Lucius, the first Christian King of the
British, flourished quite half a century before the time of King Cormac.
Tertullian speaks of the Isles of the Britains as subject to Christ about
the time that Cormac's father, Art, was slain at Magh Mucruimhe. There was
a regularly organised hierarchy in England during the third century; and
three of its bishops were present at the Council of Arles in A.D. 314.

Nothing is more likely, then, than that the message of the Gospel was
brought from England to the ears of King Cormac; and that a prince, so
learned and so wise, gave up the old religion of the Druids, and embraced
the new religion of peace and love.

But it was a dangerous thing to do even for a king. The Druids were very
popular and very influential, and moreover possessed, it was said,
dreadful magical powers. They showed it afterwards in the time of St.
Patrick, and now they showed it when they heard Cormac had given up the
old religion of Erin, and become a convert to the new worship from the
East. The king's death was caused by the bone of a salmon sticking in his
throat, and it was universally believed that this painful death was
brought about by the magical power of Maelgenn, the chief of the Druids.

  "They loosed their curse against the king,
    They cursed him in his flesh and bones;
  And daily in their mystic ring
    They turned the maledictive stones.

  "Till where at meat the monarch sate,
    Amid the revel and the wine,
  He choked upon the food he ate
    At Sletty, southward of the Boyne."[33]

So perished A.D. 267, the wisest and best of the ancient kings of Erin.
Cormac, when dying, told his people not to bury him in the pagan cemetery
of Brugh on the Boyne, but at Rossnaree, where he first believed, and with
his face to the rising sun. But when the king was dead, his captains
declared they would bury their king with his royal sires in Brugh:--

  "Dead Cormac on his bier they laid;
    He reigned a king for forty years,
  And shame it were, his captains said,
    He lay not with his royal peers.

  "What though a dying man should rave
    Of changes o'er the eastern sea;
  In Brugh of Boyne shall be his grave
    And not in noteless Rossnaree."

So they prepared to cross the fords of Boyne and bury the king at Brugh.
But royal Boyne was loyal to its dead king; "the deep full-hearted river
rose" to bar the way; and when the bearers attempted to cross the ford,
the swelling flood swept them from their feet, caught up the bier, and
"proudly bore away the king" on its own heaving bosom. Next morning the
corpse was found on the bank of the river at Rossnaree, and was duly
interred within the hearing of its murmuring waters. There great Cormac
was left to his rest with his face to the rising sun, awaiting the dawning
of that Glory which was soon to lighten over the hills and valleys of his
native land.

Cormac Mac Art was not only himself a lover of letters, but seems to have
transmitted his own talents to his family. There is a very ancient poem in
the _Book of Leinster_, which has been published by O'Curry, and has been
attributed to Ailbhe, daughter of Cormac Mac Art. The language is of the
most archaic character, and the sentiments expressed are not inconsistent
with the origin ascribed to the poem in the _Book of Leinster_. Still
critics will be naturally sceptical as to the authenticity of the poem.
Meave (Meadhbh), step-mother of Cormac, who has given her name to Rath
Meave at Tara, is credited with being the author of a poem in praise of
Cuchorb, in which his martial prowess and numerous battles are duly
celebrated. This lady seems to have been decidedly 'blue' in her tastes,
for she built a choice house within her Rath, where the chief master of
every art used to assemble. She was amorous too, and "would not permit any
king to reign in Tara who did not first take herself as wife." Perhaps
there is some truth in the ancient and romantic story recorded in the same
_Book of Leinster_, that when Cuchorb was killed, she was sorrowful in
heart, and after they set up the grave stone of the fallen hero, she
chanted his death song in presence of the assembled warriors, who stood
around his grave.

Another pre-Patrician, if not pre-Christian poet, to whom some extant
poems have been attributed, was Torna Eigas, the bard of Niall of the Nine
Hostages. Niall died in A.D. 405, twenty-seven years before St. Patrick
came to preach in Erin; so that even if Torna Eigas, as Colgan thinks,
became a Christian, his training and inspiration must belong to the
pre-Christian times. If the works attributed to him are even substantially
genuine, they must have been interpolated by later copyists with Christian
references and Christian sentiments. O'Reilly mentions four poems as
passing under his name. The first is addressed to King Niall his patron,
and foster son. The second was designed to effect a reconciliation between
Niall and the foster child of the poet, King Corc of Munster, who, as we
shall see hereafter, certainly lived to become a Christian. In the third
the poet describes the pleasant life which he spent with these two kings,
his foster children, who lavished upon him alternately during his visits
their friendship and their favours. But the fourth is by far the most
interesting, for it describes the famous burying place of the Pagan kings
of Erin, Relig na Riogh, at Rath Cruachan in Connaught. It consists of
twenty-eight stanzas, and enumerates the great kings and warriors who
sleep on the hill of Royal Cruachan, ending with the valiant Dathi, whose
grave is marked by a red pillar stone, which stands there to-day, even as
it stood before St. Patrick crossed the Shannon to preach the Gospel to
Laeghaire's daughters on that famous hill. This poem has been published by
Petrie in his Essay on the _Antiquities of Tara Hill_.

The history of the valiant King Dathi is full of charm for our Celtic
poets, and several of them have sought, not unsuccessfully, to reproduce
the spirit of the original poem by Torna Eigas. Better than all others
poor Clarence Mangan tells in quite Homeric style:--

  "How Dathi sailed away--away--
    Over the deep resounding sea;
  Sailed with his hosts in armour gray,
    Over the deep resounding sea,
  Many a night and many a day;
    And many an islet conquered he,
  Till one bright morn, at the base
    Of the Alps in rich Ausonian regions,
  His men stood marshalled face to face
    With the mighty Roman legions....

  But:--  Thunder crashes,
          Lightning flashes,
    And in an instant Dathi lies
  On the earth a mass of blackened ashes.
    Then mournfully and dolefully
  The Irish warriors sailed away
    Over the deep resounding sea."

Reference is made in our ancient extant manuscripts to several 'Books' now
lost, which are said to have been written before the arrival of St.
Patrick in Ireland. It is unnecessary, however, to refer to those in
detail; because any statements about their character and origin can be
little better than mere conjecture. O'Curry names several of them, and
tells all that can possibly be known about them. The "Cuilmen" appears to
have been one of the oldest and most celebrated, because it contained the
great epic of ancient Erin known as the "Tain Bo Chuailnge." Another
famous ancient 'Book,' now lost, was the "Cin Droma Snechta," or the
Vellum Stave Book of Drom Snechta, as O'Curry translates it. It is quoted
in the _Book of Ballymote_, and in the _Book of Lecan_.

Another lost work, to which we have already referred, was the _Book of Ua