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Lineaments in the Conspectus
royal coronation in Great Britain, where the Irish ceremonies
came into universal use. "The Irish," says Col-
lins, "colonized Scotland, gave it a name, a literature and
a language, gave it a hundred kings, and gave it Chris-
tianity."
Aidan familiarized the English of the north with the
solemn melody of the Roman chant, and music and as-
tronomy were among the subjects taught by the Irish
monks at Glastonbury. Foillan and Ultan, on crossing
from Bamborough to Flanders, were asked by Gertrude
of Nivelles to instruct her nuns in psalmody, while the
music school of St. Gall, under Moengal, was "the wonder
and the delight of Europe." St. Gall itself became
known as "the intellectual center of the German world,"
as Bobbio, founded by Columbanus, was long "the light
of northern Italy." Baoithin, successor of Columcille
at lona, "had no equal this side of the Alps in his knowl-
edge of sacred scripture and the profundity of his science."
Adamnan, abbot also of lona, and "high scholar
of the western world," has left us in his exquisite life of
Columcille "one of the most important pieces of hagiology
in existence" moreover "the most complete piece of
biography that all Europe can boast of, not only at so early
a period, but even through the whole Middle Ages," in
the opinion of Pinkerton. 1
Fursa's marvelous visions, says Ozanam, inspired
Dante. Johannes Scotus Eriugena ranked with Dante,
Chrysostom and Albertus Magnus; no more puissant or
original thinker appeared in the long tract between Augustine
and Aquinas. Clemens and "Albinus" were "incomparably
skilled in human learning and in the
Scriptures." Tutilo or Tuthail of St. Gall was at once
* Enquiry, Pref. vol. 1, p. xlviid (Edinb., 1814).
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