Open [38.2 MB]

"High Scholars of the Western World"
or strain, intellectual or otherwise. 1
It sought simply for
retirement, rest, peace, recollection, contentment, simplic-
ity, the condition of communing with God and waiting
for the end. The woes and iniquity of the fallen em-
pire had indeed convinced men that there was nothing
more to be done for it; it was simply a case of sauve
qul pent,
and earnest men as a result turned their back
on the world to come. This
upon it and fixed their eyes
was the spirit of early continental monachism, and as the
monasteries were henceforth the only places where there
was any attempt at education at all, an age that was truly
dark settled on Europe. 2
While asceticism in Ireland was highly esteemed,
asce'ticism did not inhibit intellectual culture. On the
contrary wisdom, learning, mental development, were
ardently sought after by these very ascetics. "They drew
back from no inquiry; boldness was on a level with faith,"
says Montalembert. "Their strength lay in those exercises
of pure reason which go by the name of philosophy or
wisdom," remarks Newman. They were "proficient be-
yond all comparison in the world's wisdom," in the words
of the ninth century "Monk of St. Gall." They were
"celebrated for their philosophical knowledge" (sophia
clari) remarks another ancient writer. In their own
estimation given in the Irish Annals they were the "high
scholars of the western world," philosophers "without
equals this side of the Alps," and "vessels full of all the
of their time."
wisdom and knowledge
1 Thus the rule of St. Benedict forbade a Benedictine to own a book or a
pen, and provided only two hours a day for reading-, and that pious reading.
2 The general belief that the Benedictines, who were the only "rivals" of
the Irish monks in the period under review, were learned men is totally
erroneous. No branch of the Benedictines making learned studies their aim
existed till the establishment of the Maurists in the seventeenth century.
Men like Mabillon and Montfaucon have given the Benedictines their modern
reputation for learning, but in the early medieval period the Benedictines
were far from remarkable for culture. The work of the Irish monks has in
large part been credited to them.
47