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"High Scholars of the Western World"
Laymen figured among the most illustrious of the Irish
was, it would
schoolmen. Johannes Scotus Eriugena 1
seem, a layman. So was Flann "most famous among the
many writers, one of the most learned men in Europe in
philosophy, literature, history, poetry and science," professor
of the college of Monasterboice, several of whose
poems as well as his Book of Annals are preserved. Then
there was Mugeor Ua More, father of the celebrated St.
Malachy, "chief lector of divinity of this school (Armagh)
and of all the rest of Europe," as the Annals of
the Four Masters call him. "It is not the least striking
circumstance in those dreary times," notes Cardinal New-
man, "that in an age when even kings and great men often
could not read, professors in the Irish colleges were some-
times men of noble birtK. St. Malachy's father, though a
member of a family of distinction, as St. Bernard tells us,
was a celebrated professor of Armagh. History records
the names of others similarly eminent, both by their de-
scent and by their learning. It is impossible not to ad-
mire and venerate a race which displayed such inex-
love of science and letters." 2
tinguishable Apart from the
monks, the average Irish layman was well educated. "The
national tradition of monastic and lay schools preserved
to Erin, what was lost in the rest of Europe, a learned
class of laymen. Culture was as frequent and honorable
in the Irish chief or warrior as in the cleric." 3
To the monasteries and schools were attached teach
scripta or scriptoria and libraries, furnished with waxen
1 1 use the form Eriugena because it is etymologically correct and because
it was one of the forms used by Johannes himself. Its meaning is "born in
Ireland" "Eriu" being the most ancient form of the Gaelic name of Ireland
known. John was known to his contemporaries chiefly as "John the Irishman"
(Johannes Scotus). The form "Johannes Scotus Erigena" is not earlier than
the seventeenth century.
2 Historical Sketches, III. 279-80.
3 Airs. Alice Stopford Green, "Irish Nationality."
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