Open [38.2 MB]

evelations,
The Irish Kingdom of Scotland
or whose work results in the foundation of
great institutions that endure for centuries.
In the Ireland of the sixth century we feel ourselves in
the presence of the phenomena of some such crisis. Had
we the full literature of Ireland or even so much of it
as has been proportionately spared in other countries, we
would probably find therein a manifestation of the human
spirit with few parallels in history. But even the precious
fragments left to us give clear indications of what we have
lost, as stray pieces of Greek sculpture or Egyptian ma-
sonry indicate the proportions of the statue, or temple, to
which they belonged.
In the case of Ireland we note a sudden grouping of
men who from one cause or another by the magic of
their personality or the strength of their intellect or by
the prestige acquired through the establishment of great
institutions, or the initiation and guidance of great movements
set influences in motion that gather momentum even
after their deaths. The sixth century in Ireland was
indeed prolific in great men. Towering above them all
we may gaze with studious eyes on the mighty Columcille,
a figure for all its strangeness as familiar and human as
any during the whole Middle Ages. Almost contem-
poraneous with him is Columbanus, the most energetic
and scholar-like character in the Europe of his day, whose
work on the Continent proved as fateful and fruitful as
the work of Columcille in Ireland. In the early years
of both of them the "Twelve Apostles of Erin," in whose
company Columcille is numbered, lived in the land.
Ciaran 1 who founded Clonmacnois, Finnian who founded
* Ciaran Is credited in bardic compositions with the first literary recension
of the Tain. The Leabar na h'Uldre or Book of the Dun Cow, the oldest
bigr book In the Irish tongue, which also contains much Illadic literature,
including the Tain, is said to have been made from the skin of the dun
cow that provided the student Ciaran with milk, but is probably copied from
a book so made.
105