INTRODUCTION 
Ireland became quite literally “the island of saints 
and of scholars,” and those desiring an education 
flocked to it from nearly every part of Europe 
coming even from the distant shores of the Medi- 
terranean. Not long after their conversion the 
Irish scholars went out as missionaries, spread the 
doctrine of Christianity and diffused the light of 
scholarship and civilization all over the west of 
Europe. 
There was supreme need of their work. The 
Romans were in utter decadence. The barbarous 
invaders of Roman territory from the north had 
come down to the peninsula to take first the vices 
and as is always the case when an unsophisticated 
people comes into intimate contact with one more 
highly civilized, only long afterwards the virtues 
of the civilization which they threatened at first to 
destroy completely. This decivilizing effect was felt 
not only in Italy but practically everywhere in 
Roman territory. In the midst of it the Irish came 
to do their part in saving and promoting civilization. 
They had just gone through a period of intensive 
cultural development for several centuries in which 
they had created a great literature,—what we know 
as the ancient Irish sagas,—second only to that of 
the Greek in absolute originality and display of 
knowledge of the basic elements of human nature. 
On this had been grafted Christianity with its civil- 
izing and cultural influences and the foundation of a 
series of schools which in their primitive enthusiasm 
for learning and for the opportunity to diffuse it,