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Ireland and the Making
of Britain
as they are, form but a very small fraction of what existed
even as late as the sixteenth century. What remains is
merely what escaped destroyers bent on the destruction
of everything. If for example it is remarked that Irish
manuscripts in Latin of the ninth century are numerous,
while Irish manuscripts in Latin of the tenth century are
rare, it does not follow that there were not a large number
of Irishmen writing in Latin in the tenth as well as in
the ninth century. It only follows that of the ninth cen-
tury manuscripts more escaped the destroyer than of the
tenth century manuscripts. If it is remarked that despite
the medieval Irish knowledge of Greek the documentary
evidences of that knowledge should be more conspicuous
on the Continent than in Ireland, it does not followthatthe
Irish abroad were better Greek scholars than Irishmen
in Ireland, it only follows that the Hiberno-Greek manuscripts
abroad escaped the destruction to which they would
have been doomed in Ireland. If it is a matter for comment
that the Anglo-Saxons, despite their continued bar-
barism, produced an ecclesiastical historian like Bede,
while the Irish, despite their superior and sustained cul-
ture, did not, it does not follow that there were not Irish
ecclesiastical historians. That there were not such appears
in the highest degree improbable. 1 We only know
that whether one Irish Bede or more existed the proba-
bilities are that his works would have been destroyed.
The literary monuments that escaped the Danes in Ireland
were later destroyed by the English in so far as they
were able to discover them. We have historical narratives
in Ireland belonging both to the seventh and eighth cenlAdamnan
(624-703) is said to have written an historia Hibernorum ab
origine ad sua tempora, mentioned by Ward, Vita Rumoldi, p. 218, Lovan,
1662. There were numerous other kinds of histories. In the "Annals of
Ulster" we read at the year 439, "Chronicon magnum scriptum est"; at 467.
"sio in libro Cuanach inveni"; at 482, "ut Cuana scripsit"; at 507, "Secundum
librum Mochod."
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