Insula Sanctorum Et Doctorum Or Ireland's Ancient Schools And Scholars

SANCTORUM ET DOCTORUM OR, IRELANDS ANCIENT SCHOOLS AND SCHOLARS. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE FIRST EDITION of this work has been very favourably received both by tho 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. Haps of tho Aran Islands and Olonmacnoise have been inserted, and the Index 1ms boon greatly enlarged. It is hoped also, that tho lower price of tho present edition will bring it within tho rango of a wider circle of readers, and still further carry out the authors purpose of vindicating and enlarging the just renown of Irelands ancient Saints wad Scholar, to AHM JOHN HBALY, DJX Jfefcr, PBEFAOE. Ix the following pages it has been the authors 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 subjert 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 countrys history. It was not by any means a period altogether free from violence and crime, but it was certainly a time of comparativepeace 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 INSTJLA SANCTORUM ET DOCTORUM the Island of Saints and Scholars. The author ventures to hope that the following pages ivill 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, botl sacred and profane, pursued in our Celtic Schools, but also PREFACE, Vll 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 Gtod and nature more...