199 



period, originated in a wish to assimilate his history with that of 

 Moses ; a simple ambition which Nennius indeed avows.* 



The results of Saint Patrick's preaching are less obscure. It threw 

 a sudden illumination over the islaaid, the curious flocked in from 

 every quarter, and went back to their families converts and proselytes. 

 Episcopal jurisdictions were marked out, and prelates and clergymen 

 were commissioned, in numbers sufficient for the labours of religious 

 controversy and spiritual direction. Ecclesiastical schools were every 

 established. "The country was filled with bishops, priests, and reli- 

 gious houses ; the monks dispersed themselves into every corner, and 

 no place was more celebrated for the sanctity and learning of its 

 several monastic orders. The retreats, which they pitched upon, they 

 cleared and cultivated with their own hands, they fasted and prayed 

 without intermission, and preached even more by their example than 

 their precept. Hence, the name of the sacred island, or the island of 

 saints, was given to it."-f- It has been justly remarked, that this 

 " quick and easy reception of Christianity in Ireland, is an unequivo- 

 cal proof, not only of the liberal and tolerating spirit of the religion it 

 supplanted, but also of enlightened civilization and charitable for- 

 bearance certainly without parallel in the early records of the Chris- 

 tian world ;".]; and Giraldus himself admits, that in the retrospect of 

 centuries, the saints of the island were all confessors, and not one a 

 martyr.§ It was also the natural result of the mild and conciliating 



* " Quatuor modis sequantur Moyses et Patritius. Primo id est, angelo sibi coUoquente in 

 rubo igneo; secundo, in monte xl. noctibus jejunavit ; tertio, similes fuerunt aetata cxx. annis ; 

 quarto, sepulchrum illius non invenitur, sed in occulto humatus est nemine sciente." — Hist. 

 Britt c 61. 



t Warner's History of Ireland, vol. 1. p. 85. J O'Flaherty's Isles of Aran, p. 39. 



§ " Omnes sancti terrae istius confessores sunt et nallus martyr, quod in alio regno Chris- 

 tiano difficile erit inveniri." — Top. Hib. Dist. 3. c. 29. The same commendation is also set 

 forth in the " Speculum Regale." 



