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,