THE IRISH BETTER PREPARED TO RECEIVE CHRISTIANITY THAN
OTHER NATIONS.
The introduction of Christianity gave Europe a power over the
world which pagan Rome could not possess. All the branches of
the Japhetic family combined to form what was with justice and
propriety called Christendom. Ireland, by receiving the Gospel,
was really making her first entry into the European family; but
there were certain peculiarities in her performance of this
great act which gave her national life, already deviating from
that of other European nations, a unique impulse. The first of
those peculiarities consisted in her preparation for the great
reception of the faith, and the few obstacles she encountered in
her adoption of it, compared with those of the rest of the world.
Providence wisely decreed that redemption should be delayed
until a large portion of mankind had attained to the highest
civilization. It was not in a time of ignorance and barbarism
that the Saviour was born. The Augustan is, undoubtedly, the
most intellectual and refined age, in point of literary and
artistic taste, that the world has ever seen. A few centuries
before, Greece had reached the summit of science and art. No
country, in ancient or modern times, has surpassed the acumen of
her philosophical writers and the aesthetic perfection of her
poets and artists. Rome made use of her to embellish her cities,
and inherited her taste for science and literature.
But art and literature embody ideas only; and, as Ozanam says so
well: "Beneath the current of ideas which dispute the empire of
the world, lies that world itself such as labor has made it,
with that treasure of wealth and visible adornment which render
it worthy of being the transient sojourn-place of immortal souls.
Beneath the true, the good, and the beautiful, lies the useful,
which is brightened by their reflection. No people has more
keenly appreciated the idea of utility than that of Rome; none
has ever laid upon the earth a hand more full of power, or more
capable of transforming it; nor more profusely flung the
treasures of earth at the feet of humanity . . . .
"At the close of the second century . . the rhetorician
Aristides celebrated in the following terms the greatness of the
Roman Empire: 'Romans, the whole world beneath your dominion
seems to keep a day of festival. From time to time a sound of
battle comes to you from the ends of the earth, where you are
repelling the Goth, the Moor, or the Arab. But soon that sound
is dispersed like a dream. Other are the rivalries and different
the conflicts which you excite through the universe. They are
combats of glory, rivalries in magnificence between provinces
and cities. Through you, gymnasia, aqueducts, porticoes, temples,
and schools, are multiplied; the very soil revives, and the
earth is but one vast garden!'
"Similar, also, was the language of the stern Tertullian: `In
truth, the world becomes day after day richer and better
cultivated; even the islands are no longer solitudes; the rocks
have no more terrors for the navigator; everywhere there are
habitations, population, law, and life.'
"The legions of Rome had constructed the roads which furrowed
mountains, leaped over marshes, and crossed so many different
provinces with a like solidity, regularity, and uniformity; and
the various races of men were lost in admiration at the sight of
the mighty works which were attributed in after-times to Caesar,
to Brunehaud, to Abelard!"
It was in the midst of those worldly glories that Christ was
born, that he preached, and suffered, that his religion was
established and propagated. It found proselytes at once among
the most polished and the most learned of men, as well as among
slaves and artisans; and thus was it proved that Christianity
could satisfy the loftiest aspirations of the most civilized as
well as insure the happiness of the most numerous and miserable
classes.
But we must reflect that the advanced civilization of Greece and
Rome was in fact an immense obstacle to the propagation of truth,
and, what is more to be regretted, often gave an unnatural
aspect to the Christianity of the first ages in the Roman world--
a half-pagan look--so that the barbarian invasion was almost
necessary to destroy every thing of the natural order; that the
Church alone remaining face to face with those uncouth children
of the North, might begin her mission anew and mould them all
into the family called "Christendom." "Christianity," to
quote Ozanam again, "shrank from condemning a veneration of the
beautiful, although idolatry was contained in it; and as it
honored the human mind and the arts it produced, so the
persecution of the apostate Julian, in which the study of the
classics had been forbidden to the faithful, was the severest of
its trials. Literary history possesses no moment of greater
interest than that which saw the school with its profane
--that is to say pagan--traditions and texts received into the
Church. The Fathers, whose christian austerity is our wonder,
were passionate in their love of antiquity, which they covered,
as it were, with their sacred vestments. . . . By their favor,
Virgil traversed the ages of iron without losing a page, and, by
right of his Fourth Eclogue, took rank among the prophets and
the sibyls. St. Augustine would have blamed paganism less, if,
in place of a temple to Cybele, it had raised a shrine to Plato,
in which his works might have been publicly read. St. Jerome's
dream is well known, and the scourging inflicted upon him by
angels for having loved Cicero too well; yet his repentance was
but short-lived, since he caused the monks of the Mount of
Olives to pass their nights in copying the Ciceronian dialogues,
and did not shrink himself from expounding the comic and lyric
poets to the children of Bethlehem."
We know already that nothing of the kind existed in Ireland when
the Gospel reached her, and that there the new religion assumed
a peculiar aspect, which has never varied, and which made her at
once and forever a preeminently Christian nation.
Among the Greeks and Romans, literature and art, although
accepted by the Church, were nevertheless deeply impregnated
with paganism. All their chief acts of social life required a
profession of idolatry; even amusements, dramatic
representations, and simple games, were religious and
consequently pagan exhibitions.
We do not here speak of the attractions of an atheistic and
materialist philosophy, of a voluptuous, often, and demoralizing
literature and poetry, of an unimaginable prostitution of art to
the vilest passions, which the relics of Pompeii too abundantly
indicate.
But apart from those excesses of corruption and unbelief, which,
no doubt, virtuous pagans themselves abhorred, the approved,
correct, and so-called pure life of the best men of pagan Rome
necessitated the contamination of idolatrous worship. Apart from
the thousand duties, festivals, and the like, decreed or
sanctioned by the state, the most ordinary acts of life, the
enlisting of the soldier, the starting on a military expedition,
the assumption of any civil office or magistracy, the civil
oaths in the courts of law, the public bath, the public walk
almost, the current terms in conversation, the private reading
of the best books, the mere glancing at a multitude of exterior
objects, constituted almost as many professions of a false and
pagan worship.
How could any one become a Christian and at the same time remain
a Greek or a Roman? The gloomy views of the Montanist Tertullian
were, to many, frightful truths requiring constant care and self-
examen. For the Christian there were two courses open--both
excesses, yet either almost unavoidable: on the one side, a
terrible rigorism, making life unsupportable, next to impossible;
on the other, a laxity of thought and action leading to
lukewarmness and sometimes apostasy.
Bearing in mind what was written on the subject in the first
three ages of Christianity, not only by Tertullian, but by most
orthodox writers, St. Cyprian, Lactantius, Arnobius, and the
authors of many Acts of martyrs, we may easily understand how
the doctrines of Christianity stood in danger of never taking
deep root in the hearts of men surrounded by such temptations,
themselves born in paganism, and remaining, after their
conversion, exposed to seductions of such an alluring character.
Therefore this same "high civilization," as it is called, in the
midst of which Christianity was preached, was a real danger to
the inward life of the new disciple of Christ.
How could it be otherwise, when it is a fact now known to
all, that, even at the beginning of the fifth century, Rome was
almost entirely pagan, at least outwardly, and among her highest
classes; so that the poet Claudian, in addressing Honorius at the
beginning of his sixth consulship, pointed out to him the site of
the capitol still crowned with the Temple of Jove, surrounded by
numerous pagan edifices, supporting in air an army of gods; and
all around temples, chapels, statues, without number--in fact, the
whole Roman and Greek mythology, standing in the City of the
Catacombs and of the Popes!
The public calendars, preserved to this day, continued to note
the pagan festivals side by side with the feasts of the Saviour
and his apostles. Within the city and beyond, throughout Italy
and the most remote provinces, idols and their altars were still
surrounded by the thronging populace, prostrate at their feet.
If in the cities the new religion already dared display
something of its inherent splendor, the whole rural population
was still pagan, singing the praises of Ceres and of Bacchus,
trembling at Fauns and Satyrs and the numerous divinities of the
groves and fountains. Christianity then held the same standing
in Italy that in the United States Catholicity holds to-day in
the midst of innumerable religious sects.
This is not the place to show how far the paganism of Greece and
Rome had corrupted society, and how complete was its rottenness
at the time. It has been already shown by several great writers
of this century. Enough for our purpose to remark that even some
Christian writers, of the age immediately succeeding that of the
early martyrs, showed themselves more than half pagans in their
tastes and productions. Ausonius in the West, the preceptor of
St. Paulinus, is so obscene in some of his poems, so thoroughly
pagan in others, that critics have for a long time hesitated to
pronounce him a Christian. How many of his contemporaries
hovered like him on the confines of Christianity and paganism!
When Julian the apostate restored idolatry, many, who had only
disgraced the name of Christian, openly returned to the worship
of Jupiter and Venus, and their apostasy could scarcely be cause
for regret to sincere disciples of our Lord.
In the East the phenomenon is less striking. Strange to say,
idolatry did not remain so firmly rooted in the country, where
it first took such an alluring shape; and Constantinople was in
every sense of the word a Christian city when Rome, in her
senate, fought with such persistent tenacity for her altars of
Victory, her vestals, and her ancient worship.
Yet there, also, Christian writers were too apt to interfuse the
old ideas with the new, and to adopt doctrines placed, as it
were, midway between those of Plato and St. Paul. There were
bishops even who were a scandal to the Church and yet remained
in it. Synesius is the most striking example; whose doctrine was
certainly more philosophical than Christian, and whose life,
though decorous, was altogether worldly. The history of Arianism
shows that others besides Synesius were far removed from the
ideal of Christian bishops so worthily represented at the time
by many great doctors and holy pontiffs.
Such, in the East as well as in the West, were the perils
besetting the true Christian spirit at the very cradle of our
holy religion.
Nor was the danger confined to the mythology of paganism, its
literature and poetry. Philosophy itself became a real stumbling-
block to many, who would fain appear disciples of faith, when
they gave themselves up to the most unrestrained wanderings of
human reason.
The truth is, that Greek philosophy, divided into so many
schools in order to please all tastes, had become a wide-spread
institution throughout the Roman world. The mind of the East was
best adapted to it, and those who taught it were, consequently,
nearly all Greeks. Cicero had made it fashionable among many of
his countrymen; and although the Latin mind, always practical to
the verge of utilitarianism, was not congenial to utopian
speculations, still, as it was the fashion, all intellectual men
felt the need of becoming sufficiently acquainted with it to be
able to speak of it and even to embrace some particular school.
Those patricians, who remained attached to the stern principles
of the old republic, became Stoics; while the men of the corrupt
aristocracy called themselves, with Horace, members of the
"Epicurean herd." Hence the necessity for all to train their
minds to scientific speculation, converted the Western world
into a hot-bed of wild and dangerous doctrines.
In the opinion of some Eastern Fathers of the Church, Greek
philosophy had been a preparation for the Gospel, and could be
made subservient to the conversion of many. Thus we find St.
Justin, the martyr, all his life long glorying in the name of
philosopher, and continuing to wear, even after his conversion,
the philosopher's cloak so much derided by the scoffer, Lucian.
Still, despite this very respectable opinion, we can entertain
no doubt, in view of what happened at the time and of subsequent
events, that philosophy grew to be a stumbling-block in the path
of Christianity, and originated the worst and most dangerous
forms of heresy; that it sowed the seed, in the European mind,
of all errors, by creating that speculative tendency of
character so peculiar to most branches of the Japhetic race.
Persian Dualism, and, as many think, Pantheistic Buddhism, which
were then flourishing in Central and Eastern Asia, infected the
Alexandrian schools, and impressed philosophy with a new and
dreamy character, which became the source of subsequent and
frightful errors. The Neo-Platonism of Porphyry and Plotinus was
intended, in the minds of its originators, to lay a scientific
basis for polytheism; and, in Jamblichus finally, became an open
justification of the most absurd fables of mythology.
But, though this might satisfy Julian and those who followed him
in his apostasy, it could not come to be an inner danger to the
Church. With many, however, it assumed a form which at once
engendered the worst errors of Gnosticism; and Gnosticism was,
at first, considered a Christian heresy; so that a man might be
a pantheist, of the worst kind, and still call himself Christian.
St. John had foreseen the danger from the beginning, and it is
said that he wrote his gospel against it because the doctrine
openly denied the divinity of Christ. But the sect became much
more powerful after his death, and allured many Christians who
were disposed, from a misinterpretation of some texts of St.
Paul on the struggle between the flesh and the spirit, to
embrace a system which professed to explain the origin of that
struggle.
The Alexandrian Gnosticism failed to excite in the minds of the
holy monks of the East that aversion which we now feel for its
tenets, inasmuch as it did not openly anathematize the
Scriptures of the Old Law, nay, even preserved a certain outward
respect for them, on account of the multitude of Jews living in
Alexandria, and particularly because the open system of Dualism,
which afterward came from Syria and in the hands of Manes
established the existence of two equal and eternal principles of
good and evil, found no place in the teachings of Valentinus and
his school.
But even this frightful Syrian Gnosticism, which gave to the
principle of evil an origin as ancient and sacred as that of God
himself--Manicheism barefaced and radically immoral--so
repugnant to our feelings, so monstrous to our more correct
ideas, bore a semblance of truth for many minds, at that time
inclined toward every thing which came from the East. We know
what a firm hold those doctrines took on the great soul of
Augustine, who for a long time professed and cherished them.
Rome, under the pagan emperors, had received with open arms the
Oriental gods and the philosophy which endeavored to explain
their mythology; and many gifted minds of the third and fourth
centuries lost themselves in the contemplation of those
mysteries which from out Central Asia spread a lurid glare over
the Western world.
This first danger, however, was warded off by the writings of St.
Ignatius of Antioch, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of
Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, St. Epiphanius, Theodoret, and
others, long before the time of St. Augustine, the last of them.
Gnosticism was prevented from any longer imparting a wrong
tendency to Christian doctrines, and it died out, until restored
during the Crusades to revive in the middle ages in its most
malignant form.
But at the very moment of its decline, philosophy entered the
Church; almost to wreck her by inspiring Arius and Pelagius. The
teachings of the first were clearly Neo-Platonic; of the second,
Stoic: and all the errors prevalent in the Church from the third
to the sixth century originated in Arianism and Pelagianism.
In Plato, as read in Alexandria, Arius found all the material
for his doctrine, which spread like wild-fire over the whole
Church. Many things conspired to swell the number of his
adherents: the ardent love for philosophy so inherent in the
Eastern Church, to the extent of many believing that Plato was
almost a Christian, and his doctrines therefore endowed with
real authority; the natural disposition of men to adopt the new
and a seeming rational explanation of unfathomable mysteries;
the apparent agreement of his doctrine with certain passages of
Scripture, where the Son is said to be inferior to the Father;
but chiefly the satisfaction it afforded to a number of new
Christians who had embraced the faith at the conversion of
Constantine on political rather than conscientious grounds, and
who were at once relieved of the supernatural burden of
believing in a God-man, born of a woman, and dying on a cross.
Faith reduced to an opinion; religion become a philosophy; a
mere man, let his endowments be what they might, recognized as
our guide, and not overwhelming us with the dread weight of a
divine nature; all this explains the historic phrase of St.
Jerome after the Council of Rimini, "The world groaned and
wondered to find itself Arian."
Any person acquainted with ecclesiastical history knows how the
Church of Christ would have surely become converted into a mere
rational school, under the pressure of these doctrines, were it
not for the promises of perpetuity which she had received.
We know also what a time it took to establish truth: how many
councils had to meet, how many books had to be written, the
efforts required from the rulers of the Church, chiefly from the
Roman pontiffs, to calm so many storms, to explain so many
difficult points of doctrine, to secure the final victory.
And, after all had been accomplished, there still remained the
root of the evil engrafted in what we call the philosophical
turn of mind of the Western nations--that is to say, in the
disposition to call every thing in question, to seek out strange
and novel difficulties, to start war-provoking theories in the
midst of peace, to aim at founding a new school, or at least to
stand forth as the brilliant and startling expounder of old
doctrines in a new form, in fine to add a last name to the list,
already over-long, of those who have disturbed the world by
their skill in dialectics and sophism.
Pelagius followed Arius, and his errors had the same object in
view in the long-run, to strip our holy religion of all that is
spiritual and divine.
In the time of St. Augustine and St. Jerome, there existed among
Christians an extraordinary tendency to embrace all possible
philosophical doctrines, even when directly opposed to the first
principles of revealed religion; and, within the Church, the
danger of subtilizing on every question connected with well-
known dogmas was much greater than many imagine.
From the previous reflections we may learn how difficult it was
to establish, in pagan Europe, a thoroughly Christian life and
doctrine; and that, after society had come to be apparently
imbued with the new spirit, it was still too easy to disturb the
flowing stream of the heavenly graces of the Gospel. This
resulted, we repeat, from causes anterior to Christianity, from
sources of evil which the divine religion had to overcome, and
which too often impeded its supernatural action. In fact, the
ecclesiastical history of those ages is comprised mainly in
depicting the almost continual deviations from the straight line
of pure doctrine and morality, and the strenuous efforts
assiduously made by the rulers of the Church against a never-
ceasing falling away.
Having taken this glance at the early workings of Christianity
through the rest of the world, we may now turn fairly to the
immediate subject we have in hand, and trace its course in
Ireland. From the very beginning we are struck by the
peculiarities--blessed, indeed--which show themselves, as in all
other matters, in its reception of the truth. The island,
compared with Europe, is small, it is true; but the heroism
displayed by its inhabitants during so many ages, in support of
the religion which they received so freely, so generously, and
at once, in mind as well as heart, marks it out as worthy of a
special account; and, from its unique reception and adherence to
the faith, as worthy of, if possible, a natural explanation of
such action beyond the promptings of Divine grace, since its
astonishing perseverance, its unswerving faith, form to-day as
great a characteristic of the nation as they did on the day of
its entry into the Christian Church.
We proceed to examine, then, the kind of idolatry which its
first apostle encountered on landing in the island, and the ease
with which it was destroyed, so as to leave behind no poisonous
shoots of the deadly root of evil.
In order to understand the religious system of Ireland previous
to the preaching of the Gospel, we must first take a general
survey of polytheism, if it can be so called, in all Celtic
countries, and of the peculiar character which it bore in
Ireland itself.
Of old, throughout all countries, religion possessed certain
things in common, which belonged to the rites and creeds of all
nations, and were evidently derived from the primitive
traditions of mankind, and, consequently, from a true and Divine
revelation. Such were the belief in a golden age, in the fall
from a happy beginning, in the penalty imposed on sin, which
gave a reason for great mundane calamities--the Deluge chiefly--
the memory of which lived in the traditions of almost every
nation; in the necessity of prayer and expiatory sacrifice; in
the transmission of guilt from father to son, expressed in all
primitive legislations, and to this day preserved in the Chinese
laws and customs; in the existence of good and bad spirits,
whence, most probably, arose polytheism; in the hope of the
future regeneration of man, represented in Greece by the
beautiful myth of Pandora's box; and, finally, in the doctrine
of eternal rewards and punishments.
Each one of these strictly true dogmas underwent more or less of
alteration in its passage through the various nations of
antiquity, but was, nevertheless, everywhere preserved in some
shape or form.
At what precise epoch did mankind begin wrongfully to interpret
these primitive traditions? When did the worship of idols arise
and become universal? No one can tell precisely. All we know for
certain is, that a thousand years before Christ idolatry
prevailed everywhere, and that even the Jewish people often fell
into this sin, and were only brought back by means of punishment
to the worship of the true God.
But if error tainted the whole system of worship among nations,
it differed in the various races of men according to the variety
of their character. Ferocity or mildness of manners, acuteness
or obtuseness of understanding, activity or indolence of
disposition, a burning, a cold, or a temperate climate, a
smiling or dreary country, but chiefly the thousand differences
of temper which are as marked among mankind as the almost in-
finite variety of forms visible in creation, gave to each
individual religion its proper and characteristic types, which
in after-times, when truth was brought down from heaven for all,
imparted to the universal Christian spirit a peculiar outward
form in each people, an interior adaptation to its peculiar
dispositions, destined in the Divine plan to introduce into the
future Catholic Church the beautiful variety requisite to make
its very universality possible among mankind.
To enter into details on the Celtic religion would carry us
beyond due limits. The question as to whether the ancient Celts
were idolaters or not still remains undecided, though in France
alone more than six hundred volumes have been written on the
subject. Julius Caesar believed that they were worshippers of
idols in the same sense as his own countrymen; but he probably
stood alone in his opinion. Aristotle, Pythagoras, Polyhistor,
Ammianus Marcellinus, considered the Druids as monotheist
philosophers. Most of the Greek writers agreed with them, as did
all the Alexandrian Fathers of the Church in the third and
fourth centuries.
Among the moderns the majority leans to a contrary opinion;
nevertheless, many authors of weight, distinguishing the public
worship of the common people from the doctrine of the Druids,
assert the monotheism of this sacerdotal caste. Samuel F. N.
Morus particularly, who, with J. A. Ernesti, was esteemed the
master of antiquarian scholarship in Europe during the last
century, maintains, in his edition of the "Commentaries" of
Caesar, that "human beings, as well as human affairs, fortunes,
travels, and wars, were thought by the Celts to be governed and
ruled by one supreme God, and that the system of apotheosis,
common to nearly all ancient nations, was totally unknown in
ancient Gaul, Britain, and the adjacent islands."
The ancient authorities concurring with these conclusions are so
numerous and clear spoken that the great historian of Gaul,
Amedee Thierry, thinks that such a pure and mystic religion,
joined to such a sublime philosophy, could not have been the
product of the soil. In his endeavor to investigate its origin,
he supposes that it was brought to the west of Europe by the
Eastern Cymris of the first invasion; that it was adopted by the
higher classes of society, and that the old idolatrous worship
remained in force among the lower orders.
The unity and omnipotence of the Godhead, metempsychosis, or the
doctrine and the transmigration of soul --not into the bodies of
animals, as it obtained and still obtains in the East, but into
those of other human beings--the eternal duration of existing
substances, material and spiritual, consequently the immortality
of the human soul, were the chief dogmas of the Druids,
according to the majority of antiquarians.
If this be true, then it can be said boldly that, with the
exception of revealed religion in Judea, which was always far
more explicit and pure, no system can be found in ancient times
superior to that of the Druids, more especially if we add that,
in addition to religious teaching, a whole system of physics was
also developed in their large academies. "They dispute," says
Caesar, "on the stars and their motions, on the size of the
universe and of this earth, on the nature of physical things, as
well as on the strength and power of the eternal God."
To bring our question home, what were the religious belief and
worship of the Irish Celts while still pagans? Very few positive
facts are known on the subject; but we have data enough to show
what they were not; and in such cases negative proofs are amply
sufficient.
It was for a long time the fashion with Irish historians to
attribute to their ancestors the wildest forms of ancient
idolatry. They appeared to consider it a point of national honor
to make the worship of Erin an exact reflex of Eastern, Grecian,
or Roman polytheism. They erected on the slightest foundations
grand structures of superstitious and abominable rites. Fire-
worship, Phoenician or African horrors, the rankest idol-worship,
even human sacrifices of the most revolting nature, were,
according to them, of almost daily occurrence in Ireland. But,
with the advancement of antiquarian knowledge, all those
phantoms have successively disappeared; and, the more the
ancient customs, literature, and history of the island are
studied, the more it becomes clear that the pretended proofs
adduced in support of those vagaries are really without
foundation.
In the first place, there is not the slightest reason to believe
that the human sacrifices customary in Gaul were ever practised
in Ireland. No really ancient book makes any mention of them.
They were certainly not in vogue at the time of St. Patrick, as
he could not have failed to give expression to his horror at
them in some shape or form, which expression would have been
recorded in one, at least, of the many lives of the saint,
written shortly after his death, and abounding in details of
every kind. If not, then, during his long apostleship, we may
safely conclude that they never took place before, as there was
no reason for their discontinuance prior to the propagation of
Christianity.
There was a time when all the large cromlechs which abound in
the island were believed to be sacrificial stones; and it is
highly probable that the opinion so prevalent during the last
century with respect to the reality of those cruel rites had its
origin in the existence of those rude monuments. After many
investigations and excavations around and under cromlechs of all
sizes, it is now admitted by all well-informed antiquarians that
they had no connection with sacrifices of any kind. They were
merely monuments raised over the buried bodies of chieftains or
heroes. Many sepulchres of that description have been opened,
either under cromlechs or under large mounds; great quantities
of ornaments of gold, silver, or precious stones, utensils of
various materials, beautiful works of great artistic merit, have
been discovered there, and now go to fill the museums of the
nation or private cabinets. Nothing connected with religious
rites of any description has met the eyes of the learned seekers
after truth. Thus it has been ascertained that the old race had
reached a high degree of material civilization; but no clew to
its religion has been furnished.
As to fire-worship, which not long ago was admitted by all as
certainly forming a part of the Celtic religion in Ireland, so
little of that opinion remains to-day that it is scarcely
deserving of mention. There now remains no doubt that the round
towers, formerly so numerous in Ireland, had nothing whatever to
do with fire-worship. For a long time they were believed to have
been constructed for no other object, and consequently long
prior to the coming of St. Patrick. But Dr. Petrie and other
antiquarians have all but demonstrated that the round towers
never had any connection with superstition or idolatry at all;
that they were of Christian origin, always built near some
Christian church, and of the same materials, and had for their
object to call the faithful to prayer, like the _campanile_ of
Italy, to be a place of refuge for the clergy in time of war,
and to give to distant villages intimation of any hostile
invasion.
The fact in the life of St. Patrick, when he appeared before the
court of King Laeghaire, upon which so much reliance is placed
as a proof of the existence of fire-worship, is now of
proportionate weakness. It seems, to judge by the most reliable
and ancient manuscripts, that, after all, the kindling of the
king's fire was scarcely a religious act.
McGeoghegan, whose history is compiled, from the best-
authenticated documents, says: "When the monarch convened an
assembly, or held a festival at Tara, it was customary to make a
bonfire on the preceding day, and it was forbidden to light
another fire in any other place at the same time, in the
territory of Breagh."
This is all; and the probable cause of the prohibition was to do
honor to the king. Had it been an act of worship, Patrick, in
lighting his own paschal-fire, would not only have shown
disrespect to the monarch, but in the eyes of the people
committed a sacrilege, which could scarcely have missed mention
by the careful historians of the time.
But the proof that we are right in our interpretation of the
ceremony is clear, from the following passage, taken from the
work of Prof. Curry on "Early Irish Manuscripts:" "We see, by
the book of military expeditions, that, when King Dathi-- the
immediate predecessor of Laeghaire on the throne of Ire- land--
thought of conquering Britain and Gaul, he invited the states of
the nation to meet him at Tara, at the approaching feast of
Baltaine (one of the great pagan festivals of ancient Erin) on
May-day.
"The feast of Tara this year was solemnized on a scale of
splendor never before equalled. The fires of Lailten (now called
Lelltown in the north of Ireland) were lighted, and the sports,
games, and ceremonies, were conducted with unusual magnificence
and solemnity.
"These games and solemnities are said to have been instituted
more than a thousand years previously by Lug, in honor of Lailte,
the daughter of the King of Spain, and wife of MacEire, the
last king of the Firbolg colony. It was at her court that Lug
had been fostered, and at her death he had her buried at this
place, where he raised an immense mound over her grave, and
instituted those annual games in her honor.
"These games were solemnized about the first day of August, and
they continued to be observed down to the ninth century"-
therefore, in Christian times-and consequently the lighting of
the fires had as little connection with fire-worship as the
games with pagan rites.
A more serious difficulty meets us in the destruction of Crom
Cruagh by St. Patrick, and it is important to consider how far
Crom Cruagh could really be called an idol.
With regard to the statues of Celtic gods, all the researches
and excavations which the most painstaking of antiquarians have
undertaken, especially of late years, have never resulted in the
discovery, not of the statue of a god, but of any pagan sign
whatever in Ireland. It is clear, from the numerous details of
the life of St. Patrick, that he never encountered either
temples or the statues of gods in any place, although occasional
mention is made of idols. The only fact which startles the
reader is the holy zeal which moved him to strike with his
"baculus Jesu" the monstrous Crom Cruagh, with its twelve "sub-gods."
In all his travels through Ireland-and there is scarcely a spot
which he did not visit and evangelize-St. Patrick meets with
only one idol, or rather group of idols, situated in the County
Cavan, which was an object of veneration to the people. Nowhere
else are idols to be found, or the saint would have thought it
his duty to destroy them also. This first fact certainly places
the Irish in a position, with regard to idolatry, far different
from that of all other polytheist nations. In all other
countries it is characteristic of polytheism to multiply the
statues of the gods, to expose them in all public places, in
their houses, but chiefly within or at the door of edifices
erected for the purpose. Yet in Ireland we find nothing of the
kind, with the exception of Crom Cruagh. The holy apostle of the
nation goes on preaching, baptizing, converting people, without
finding any worship of gods of stone or metal; he only hears
that there is something of the kind in a particular spot, and he
has to travel a great distance in order to see it, and show the
people their folly in venerating it.
But what was that idol? According to the majority of expounders
of Irish history, it was a golden sphere or ball representing
the sun, with twelve cones or pillars of brass, around it,
typifying, probably, astronomical signs. St. Patrick, in his
"Confessio," seems to allude to Crom Cruagh when he says: "That
sun which we behold by the favor of God rises for us every day;
but its splendor will not shine forever; nay, even all those who
adore it shall be miserably punished."
The Bollandists, in a note on this passage of the "Confessio,"
think that it might refer to Crom Cruagh, which possibly
represented the sun, surrounded by the signs of the twelve
months, through which it describes its orbit during the year.
We know that the Druids were, perhaps, better versed in the
science of astronomy than the scholars of any other nation at
the time. It was not in Gaul and Britain only that they pursued
their course of studies for a score of years; the same fact is
attested for Ireland by authorities whose testimony is beyond
question. May we not suppose that a representation of mere
heavenly phenomena, set in a conspicuous position, had in course
of time become the object of the superstitious veneration of the
people, and that St. Patrick thought it his duty to destroy it?
And the attitude of the people at the time of its destruction
shows that it could not have borne for them the same sacred
character as the statue of Minerva in the Parthenon did for the
Greeks or that of Capitoline Jove for the Romans. Can we suppose
that St. Paul or St. Peter would have dared to break either of
these? And let us remark that the event we discuss occurred at
the very beginning of St. Patrick's ministry, and before he had
yet acquired that great authority over the minds of all which
afterward enabled him fearlessly to accomplish whatever his zeal
prompted him to do.
Whatever explanation of the whole occurrence may be given, we
doubt if we shall find a better than that we advance, and the
considerations arising from it justify the opinion that the
Irish Celts were not idolaters like all other peoples of
antiquity. They possessed no mythology beyond harmless fairy-
tales, no poetical histories of gods and goddesses to please the
imagination and the senses, and invest paganism with such an
attractive garb as to cause it to become a real obstacle to the
spread of Christianity.
Moreover, what we have said concerning the belief in the
omnipotence of one supreme God, whatever might be his nature, as
the first dogma of Druidism, would seem to have lain deep in the
minds of the Irish Celts, and caused their immediate
comprehension and reception of monotheism, as preached by St.
Patrick, and the facility with which they accepted it. They were
certainly, even when pagans, a very religious people; otherwise
how could they have embraced the doctrines of Christianity with
that ardent eagerness which shall come under our consideration
in the next chapter? A nation utterly devoid of faith of any
kind is not apt to be moved, as were the Irish, perhaps beyond
all other nations, at the first sight of supernatural truths,
such as those of Christianity. And so little were they attached
to paganism, so visibly imbued with reverence for the supreme
God of the universe, that, as soon as announced, they accepted
the dogma.
The simple and touching story of the conversion of the two
daughters of King Laeghaire will give point and life to this
very important consideration. It is taken from the "Book of
Armagh," which Prof. O'Curry, who is certainly a competent
authority, believes older than the year 727, when the popular
Irish traditions regarding St. Patrick must have still been
almost as vivid as immediately after his death.
St. Patrick and his attendants being assembled at sunrise at the
fountain of Clebach, near Cruachan in Connaught, Ethne and
Felimia, daughters of King Laeghaire, came to bathe, and found
at the well the holy men.
"And they knew not whence they were, or in what form, or from
what people, or from what country; but they supposed them to be
fairies--_duine sidhe_--that is to say, gods of the earth, or a
phantasm.
"And the virgins said unto them: 'Who are ye, and whence are ye?'
"And Patrick said unto them: 'It were better for you to confess
to our true God, than to inquire concerning our race.'
"The first virgin said: `Who is God?
"'And where is God?
"'And where is his dwelling-place?
"'Has God sons and daughters, gold and silver?
"'Is he living?
"'Is he beautiful?
"'Did many foster his son?
"'Are his daughters dear and beauteous to men of this world?
"'Is he in heaven or on earth?
"'In the sea?--In rivers?--In mountainous places?--In valleys?
"'Declare unto us the knowledge of him?
"'How shall he be seen?-How shall he be loved?-How is he to be found?
"'Is it in youth?-Is it in old age that he is to be found?'
"But St. Patrick, full of the Holy Ghost, answered and said:
"'Our God is the God of all men-the God of heaven and earth-of
the sea and rivers. The God of the sun, and the moon, and all
stars. The God of the high mountains, and of the lowly valleys.
The God who is above heaven, and in heaven, and under heaven.
"'He has a habitation in the heavens, and the earth, and the sea,
and all that are thereon.
"'He inspireth all things. He quickeneth all things. He is over
all things.
"'He hath a Son coeternal and coequal with himself. The Son is
not younger than the Father, nor the Father older than the Son.
And the Holy Ghost breatheth in them. The Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, are not divided.
"'But I desire to unite you to a heavenly King inasmuch as you
are daughters of an earthly king. Do you believe?'
"And the virgins said, as of one mouth and one heart: Teach us
most diligently how we may believe in the heavenly King. Show us
how we may see him face to face, and whatsoever you shall say
unto us we will do.'
"And Patrick said: 'Believe ye that by baptism you put off the
sin of your father and your mother?'
"They answered him, 'We believe.'
"'Believe ye in repentance after sin? 'We believe . . .' etc.
"And they were baptized, and a white garment was put upon their
heads. And they asked to see the face of Christ. And the saint
said unto them: 'Ye cannot see the face of Christ except ye
taste of death, and except ye receive the sacrifice.'
"And they answered: 'Give us the sacrifice that we may behold
the Son our spouse.'
"And they received the eucharist of God, and they slept in death.
"And they were laid out on one bed-covered with garments -and
their friends made great lamentations and weeping for them."
This beautiful legend expresses to the letter the way in which
the Irish received the faith. Nor was it simple virgins only who
_understood_ and _believed_ so suddenly at the preaching of the
apostle. The great men of the nation were as eager almost as the
common people to receive baptism: the conversion of Dubtach is
enough to show this.
He was a Druid, being the chief poet of King Laeghaire--all
poets belonging to the order. After the wife, the brothers, and
the two daughters of the monarch, he was the most illustrious
convert gained by Patrick at the beginning of his apostleship.
He became a Christian at the first appearance of the saint at
Tara, and immediately began to sing in verse his new belief, as
he had formerly sung the heroes of his nation. To the end he
remained firm in his faith, and a dear friend to the holy man
who had converted him. How could he, and all the chief converts
of Patrick, have believed so suddenly and so constantly in the
God of the Christians, if their former life had not prepared
them for the adoption of the new doctrine, and if the doctrine
of monotheism had offered a real difficulty to their
understanding? There was, probably, nothing clear and definite
in their belief in an omnipotent God, which is said to have been
the leading dogma of Druidism; but their simple minds had
evidently a leaning toward the doctrine, which induced them to
approve of it, as soon as it was presented to them with a solemn
affirmation.
In order to elucidate this point, we add a short description of
the labors and success of this apostle.
In the year 432, Patrick lands on the island. By that time, some
few of the inhabitants may possibly have heard of the Christian
religion from the neighboring Britain or Gaul. Palladius had
preached the year before in the district known as the present
counties of Wexford and Wicklow, erected three churches, and
made some converts; but it may be said that Ireland continued in
the same state it had preserved for thousands of years: the
Druids in possession of religious and scientific supremacy; the
chieftains in contention, as in the time of Fingal and Ossian;
the people, though in the midst of constant strife, happy enough
on their rich soil, cheered by their bards and poets; very few,
or no slaves in the country; an abundance of food everywhere;
gold, silver, precious stones adorning profusely the persons of
their chiefs, their wives, their warriors; rich stuffs, dyed
with many colors, to distinguish the various orders of society;
a deep religious feeling in their hearts, preparing them for the
faith, by inspiring them with lively emotions at the sight of
divine power displayed in their mountains, their valleys, their
lakes and rivers, and on the swelling bosom of the all-
encircling ocean; superstitions of various kinds, indeed, but
none of a demoralizing character, none involving marks of
cruelty or lust; no revolting statues of Priapus, of Bacchus, of
Cybele; no obscene emblems of religion, as in all other lands,
to confront Christianity; but over all the island, song,
festivity, deep affection for kindred; and, as though blood-
relationship could not satisfy their heart, fosterage covering
the land with other brothers and sisters; all permeated with a
strong attachment to their clan-system and social customs. Such
is an exact picture of the Erin of the time, which the study of
antiquity brings clearer and clearer before the eyes of the
modern student.
Patrick appears among them, leaning on his staff, and bringing
them from Rome and Gaul new songs in a new language set to a new
melody. He comes to unveil for them what lies hidden, unknown to
themselves, in the depths of their hearts. He explains, by the
power of one Supreme God, why it is that their mountains are so
high, their valley so smiling, their rivers and lakes teeming
with life, their fountains so fresh and cool, and that sun of
theirs so temperate in its warmth, and the moon and stars,
lighted with a soft radiance, shimmering over the deep obscurity
of their groves.
He directs them to look into their own consciences, to admit
themselves to be sinners in need of redemption, and points out
to them in what manner that Supreme God, whom they half knew
already, condescended to save man.
Straightway, from all parts of the island, converts flock to him;
they come in crowds to be baptized, to embrace the new law by
which they may read their own hearts; they are ready to do
whatever he wishes; many, not content with the strict
commandments enjoined on all, wish to enter on the path of
perfection: the men become monks, the women and young girls nuns,
that is to say, spouses of Christ. In Munster alone "it would
be difficult," says a modern writer, Father Brenan, "to form an
estimate of the number of converts he made, and even of the
churches and religious establishments he founded."
And so with all the other provinces of the island. The proof's
still stand before our eyes. For, as Prof. Curry justly remarks:
"No one, who examines for himself, can doubt that at the first
preaching in Erin of the glad tidings of salvation, by Saints
Palladius and Patrick, those _countless_ Christian churches were
built, whose sites and ruins mark so thickly the surface of our
country even to this day, still bearing through all the
vicissitudes of time and conquest the _unchanged names of their
original founders_."
According to the commonly-received opinion, St. Patrick's
apostleship lasted thirty-three years; but, whatever may have
been its real duration, certain it is that his feet traversed
the whole island several times, and, at his passing, churches
and monasteries sprang up in great numbers, and remained to tell
the true story of his labors when their founder had passed away.
Nor was it with Ireland as with Rome, Carthage, Antioch, and
other great cities of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Not the slaves
and artisans alone filled these newly-erected Christian edifices.
Some of the first men of the nation received baptism. We have
already spoken of the family of Laeghaire. In Connaught, at the
first appearance of the man of God, all the inhabitants of that
portion of the province now represented by the County Mayo
became Christians; and the seven sons of the king of the
province were baptized, together with twelve thousand of their
clansmen. In Leinster, the Princes Illand and Alind were
baptized in a fountain near Naas. In Munster, Aengus, the King
of Cashel, with all the nobility of his clan, embraced the faith.
A number of chieftains in Thomond are also mentioned; and the
whole of the Dalcassian tribe, so celebrated before and after in
the annals of Ireland, received, with the waters of baptism,
that ardent faith which nothing has been able to tear from them
to this day.
Many Druids even, by renouncing their superstitions, abdicated
their power over the people. We have mentioned Dubtach ; his
example was followed by many others, among whom was Fingar, the
son of King Clito, who is said to have suffered martyrdom in
Brittany; Fiech, pupil of Dubtach, himself a poet, and belonging
to the noble house of Hy-Baircha in Leinster, was raised by St.
Patrick to the episcopacy, and was the first occupant of the See
of Sletty.
Fiech was a regular member of the bardic order of Druids, a poet
by profession, esteemed as a learned man even before he embraced
Christianity; and during his lifetime he was, as a Christian
bishop, consulted by numbers and regarded as an oracle of truth
and heavenly wisdom.
Nevertheless, Patrick encountered opposition. Some chieftains
declared themselves against him, without daring openly to attack
him. Many Druids, called in the old Irish annals _magi_, tried
their utmost to estrange the Irish people from him. But he stood
in danger of his life only once. It was, in fact, a war of
argument. Long discussions took place, with varied success,
ending generally, however, in a victory for truth.
The final result was that, in the second generation after St.
Patrick, there existed not a single pagan in the whole of
Ireland; the very remembrance of paganism even seemed to have
passed away from their minds ever after; hence arises the
difficulty of deciding now on the character of that paganism.
After its abolition, nothing remained in the literature of the
country, which was at that time much more copious than at
present--nothing was left in its monuments or in the
inclinations of the people--to imperil the existence of the
newly-established Christianity, or of a nature calculated to
give a wrong bias to the religious worship of the people, such
as we have seen was the case in the rest of Europe.
May we not conclude, then, that Ireland was much better prepared
for the new religion than any other country; that, when she was
thus admitted by baptism into the European family, she made her
entry in a way peculiar to herself, and which secured to her,
once for all, her firm and undeviating attachment to truth?
She had nothing to change in her manners after having renounced
the few disconnected superstitions to which she had been
addicted. Her songs, her bards, her festivities, her
patriarchal government, her fosterage, were left to her,
Christianized and consecrated by her great apostle; clanship
even penetrated into the monasteries, and gave rise later on to
some abuses. But, perhaps, the saint thought it better to allow
the existence of things which might lead to abuse than violently
and at once to subvert customs, rooted by age in the very nature
of the people, some of which it cost England, later on,
centuries of inconceivable barbarities to eradicate.
As to what exact form, if any, the paganism of the Irish Celts
assumed, we have so few data to build upon that it is now next
to impossible to shape a system out of them. From the passage
of the "Confessio" already quoted, we might infer that they
adored the sun; and this passage is very remarkable as the only
mention anywhere made by St. Patrick of idolatry among the
people. If it was only the emblem of the Supreme Being, then
would there have been nothing idolatrous in its worship; and the
strong terms in which the saint condemns it perhaps need only
express his fear lest the superstition of the ignorant people
might convert veneration into positive idolatry. At all events,
there was not a statue, or a temple, or a theological system,
erected to or connected with it in any shape.
The solemn forms of oaths taken and administered by the Irish
kings would also lead us to infer that they paid a superstitious
respect to the winds and the other elements. But why should
this feeling pass beyond that which even the Christian
experiences when confronted by mysteries in the natural as well
as the supernatural order? The awe-struck pagan saw the
lightning leap, the tempest gather and break over him in
majestic fury; heard the great voice of the mighty ocean which
laved or lashed his shores: he witnessed these wonderful effects;
he knew not whence the tempests or the lightnings came, or the
voice of the ocean; he trembled at the unseen power which moved
them --at his God.
So his imagination peopled his groves and hill-sides, his rivers
and lakes, with harmless fairies; but fairy land has never
become among any nation a pandemonium of cruel divinities; and
we doubt much if such innocuous superstition can be rightly
called even sinful error.
In fact, the only thing which could render paganism truly a
danger in Ireland, as opposed to the preaching of Christianity,
was the body of men intrusted with the care of religion--the
Druids, the _magi_ of the chronicles. But, as we find no traces
of bloody sacrifices in Ireland, the Druids there probably never
bore the character which they did in Gaul; they cannot be said
to have been sacrificing priests; their office consisted merely
in pretended divinations, or the workings of incantations or
spells. They also introduced superstition into the practice of
medicine, and taught the people to venerate the elements or
mysterious forces of this world.
Without mentioning any of the many instances which are found in
the histories of the workings of these Druidical incantations
and spells, the consulting of the clouds, and the ceremonies
with which they surrounded their healing art, we go straight to
our main point: the ease and suddenness with which all these
delusions vanished at the first preaching of the Gospel --a fact
very telling on the force which they exercised over the mind of
the nation. All natural customs, games, festivities, social
relationships, as we have seen, are preserved, many to this day;
what is esteemed as their religion, and its ceremonies and
superstitions, is dropped at once. The entire Irish mind
expanded freely and generously at the simple announcement of a
God, present everywhere in the universe, and accepted it. The
dogma of the Holy Spirit, not only filling all--_complens omnia_-
- but dwelling in their very souls by grace, and filling them
with love and fear, must have appeared natural to them. Their
very superstitions must have prepared the way for the truth, a
change --or may we not say a more direct and tangible object
taking the place of and filling their undefined yearnings--was
alone requisite. Otherwise it is a hard fact to explain how,
within a few years, all Druidism and magic, incantations, spells,
and divinations, were replaced by pure religion, by the
doctrine of celestial favors obtained through prayer, by the
intercession of a host of saints in heaven, and the belief in
Christian miracles and prophecies; whereas, scarcely any thing
of Roman or Grecian mythology could be replaced by corresponding
Christian practices, although popes did all they could in that
regard. Nearly all the errors of the Irish Celts had their
corresponding truths and holy practices in Christianity, which
could be readily substituted for them, and envelop them
immediately with distrust or just oblivion. Hence we do not see,
in the subsequent ecclesiastical history of Ireland, any thing
to resemble the short sketch we have given of the many dangers
arising within the young Christian Church, which had their
origin in the former religion of other European nations.
In regarding philosophy and its perils in Ireland, our task will
be an easy one, yet not unimportant in its bearings on
subsequent considerations. The minds of nations differ as
greatly as their physical characteristics; and to study the
Irish mind we have only to take into consideration the
institutions which swayed it from time immemorial. They were of
such a nature that they could but belong to a traditional people.
All patriarchal tribes partake of that general character; none,
perhaps, so strikingly as the Celts.
People thus disposed have nothing rationalistic in their nature;
they accept old facts; and, if they reason upon them, it is to
find proofs to support, not motives to doubt them. They never
refine their discussions to hair-splitting, synonymous almost
with rejection, as seems to be the delight of what we call
rationalistic races. It was among these that philosophy was born,
and among them it flourishes. They may, by their acute
reasoning, enlarge the human mind, open up new horizons, and, if
confined within just limits, actually enrich the understanding
of man. We are far from pretending that philosophy has only been
productive of harm, and that it were a blessed thing had the
human intellect always remained, as it were, in a dormant state,
without ever striving to grasp at philosophic truth and raise
itself above the common level; we hold the great names of
Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and so many others, in too
great respect to entertain such an opinion.
Yet it cannot be denied that the excessive study of philosophy
has produced many evils among men, has often been subservient to
error, has, at best, been for many minds the source of a cold
and desponding skepticism.
No race of men, perhaps, has been less inclined to follow those
intellectual aberrations than the Celtic, owing chiefly to its
eminently traditional dispositions.
Before Christianity reached them, the intellectual labors of the
Celts were chiefly confined to history and genealogy, medicine
and botany, law, song, music, and artistic workings in metals
and gems. This was the usual _curriculum_ of Druidic studies.
Astronomy and the physical sciences, as well as the knowledge of
"the nature of the eternal God," were, according to Caesar,
extensively studied in the Gallic schools. Some elements of
those intellectual pursuits may also have occupied the attention
of the Irish student during the twelve, fifteen, or twenty years
of his preparation for being _ordained_ to the highest degree of
ollamh. But the oldest and most reliable documents which have
been examined so far do not allow us to state positively that
such was the case to any great extent.
In Christian times, however, it seems certain that astronomy was
better studied in Ireland than anywhere else, as is proved by
the extraordinary impulse given to that science by Virgil of
Salzburg, who was undoubtedly an Irishman, and educated in his
native country.
It is from the Church alone, therefore, that they received their
highest intellectual training in the philosophy and theology of
the Scriptures and of the Fathers. It is known that, by the
introduction of the Latin and Greek tongues into their schools
in addition to the vernacular, the Bible in Latin and Greek, and
the writings of many Fathers in both languages, as also the most
celebrated works of Roman and Greek classical writers, became
most interesting subjects of study. They reproduced those works
for their own use in the _scriptoria_ of their numerous
monasteries. We still possess some of those manuscripts of the
sixth and following centuries, and none more beautiful or
correct can be found among those left by the English, French, or
Italian monastic institutions of the periods mentioned.
During the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, the Irish
schools became celebrated all over Europe. Young Anglo-Saxons of
the best families were sent to receive their education in
Innisfail, as the island was then often called; and, from their
celebrated institutions of learning, numerous teachers and
missionaries went forth to England, Germany (along the Rhine,
chiefly), France, and even Switzerland and Italy.
Yet, in the history of all those intellectual labors, we never
read of startling theories in philosophy or theology advanced by
any of them, unless we except the eccentric John Scotus Erigena,
whom Charles the Bald, at whose court he resided, protected even
against the just severity of the Church. Without ever having
studied theology, he undertook to dogmatize, and would perhaps
have originated some heresy, had he found a following in Germany
or France.
But he is the only Irishman who ever threatened the peace of the
Church, and, through her, of the world. Duns Scotus, if he were
Irish, never taught any error, and remained always an accepted
leader in Catholic schools. To the honor of Erin be it said, her
children have ever been afraid to deviate in the least from the
path of faith. And it would be wrong to imagine that the
preservation from heresy so peculiar to them, and by which they
are broadly distinguished from all other European nations, comes
from dulness of intellect and inability to follow out an
intricate argumentation. They show the acuteness of their
understanding in a thousand ways; in poetry, in romantic tales,
in narrative compositions, in legal acumen and extempore
arguments, in the study of medicine, chiefly in that masterly
eloquence by which so many of them are distinguished. Who shall
say that they might not also have reached a high degree of
eminence in philosophical discussions and ontological theories?
They have always abstained from such studies by reason of a
natural disinclination, which does them honor, and which has
saved them in modern times, as we shall see in a subsequent
chapter, from the innumerable evils which afflict society
everywhere else, and by which it is even threatened with
destruction.
Thus, among the numerous and versatile progeny of Japhet one
small branch has kept itself aloof from the universal movement
of the whole family; and, in the very act of accepting
Christianity and taking a place in the commonwealth of Western
nations, it has known how to do so in its own manner, and has
thus secured a firm hold of the saving doctrines imparted to the
whole race for a great purpose--the purpose, unfortunately often
defeated--of reducing to practice and reality the sublime ideal
of the Christian religion.
The details given in this chapter on the various circumstances
connected with the introduction of our holy faith into Ireland
were necessarily very limited, as our chief object was to speak
of the nation's preparation for it. In the following we treat
directly of what could only be touched upon in the latter part
of this.