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CHAPTER XXI
IRISH TUTELAGE OF ENGLAND
I. Irish Influence, More than Roman, Potent Among English. 2. Theodore
and "Molossian Hounds" at Canterbury. 3. Irish Plant Arts
and Industries in England. 4. By the Time of Bede and Alcuin.
5. Irish Scholars and King Alfrid. 6. Irish Literati Before and
After Dunstan.
i. IRISH INFLUENCE, MORE THAN ROMAN, POTENT
AMONG ENGLISH
TO some it has appeared that the Irish tutelage of
England came to an end with the Synod of Whitby
and the withdrawal of Colman and his associates.
The truth is that Irish preceptors continued their work in
England and English students continued to go to school
in Ireland almost without let-up until after the French
conquest. The Irish foundations in England, swallowed
up one after another by the engulfing barbarism with its
reiteration of sporadic outbreaks, in the intermittent
periods of calm saw new founders amid the ruins carrying
on in the face of heavy discouragement the work of
regeneration. The influence of the Irish missionaries over
the aborigines of the country continued as powerful almost
as that of the native rulers. The Easter question had only
a fraction of the importance that has been attached to it.
Ireland outside of Columcille's country, as Bede observes
and as the Paschal letter of Cummian 1
bears evidence,
yielding to the admonition of the Apostolic See, had
already conformed to the Roman usage and canonical
i Migne LXXXVII, cols. 969, 978, Epistola de controversia paschali.
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