215 



bury,* previously called Inglebome, where, about the year 676, 

 he instructed the English youth in classic literature ;•!• and that some 

 ecclesiastics of the same country, extended their charitable labours 

 even to Iceland, may be inferred from the remarkable tradition pre- 

 served in the Antiquitates Celto-Scandinavige, (p. 14,) relative to 

 the discovery of Iceland by the Norwegians. J 



Enlarging the sphere of their proselytism, they founded the most 

 flourishing schools of Christian Europe, and to them the world is in- 

 debted for the introduction of scholastic divinity, and the application 

 of philosophic reasoning to illustrate the doctrines of theology, as 

 Benedict, a writer of the eighth century, has mentioned, and Mosheira 

 recorded.! ^^^j ^^o are conversant with the literature of the conti- 

 nent, encounter perpetual acknowledgments for the benefits con- 

 ferred on its kingdoms by Irish ecclesiastics. Hence, Jonas, in his 

 Life of Saint Kilian,ll says, " Scotia, quae et Hibernia dicitur, insula est 

 maris oceani, fecunda quidem glebis, sed sanctissimis clarior viris; ex 

 quibus Columbano gaudet Italia, Gallo ditatur Alemania, Kiliano 

 Teutonica nobilitatur Francia ;" and Camden still more extends the 

 eulogy.** Italy was not more indebted to ColuBftbanus than to Fri- 



-l-i. ^^J ,.,. p r. ,.,. 



• See William of Malmsbury, lib.l. c. 2. f Holland's Camden, p. 242. 



j " Antequam Islandia a Norwegis inhabitaretur, ibi homines fuerant quos Norwegi Papas 

 vocant, qui religionem Christianam profitebantur, et ab occidente per mare advenisse credun- 

 tur, ab iis enim relicti Hbri Hihernici, nolae et litui et res adhuc plures reperiebantur, &c." 



§ Eccl. Hist. vol. 2. p. 51. n. and century eighth. 



II Edit. tom. 4. Antiq. Lect. H. Canisii. p. 629. 



** "Patricii discipuli tantos progressas in re Christiana fecerunt, ut subsequenti aetate 

 Hibernia Sanctorum patria diceretur, et Scoticis in Hibernia et Britannia monachis nihil 

 sanctius nihil eruditius fuerit ; et in universam Europam sanctissimorum virorum examina 

 emiserunt; quibus Luxovium Burgundiae, Bobiense Italis, Herbipolis Franconise, S. Grallus 

 Helvetiae, Malmesburia, Lindisfama, et quamplura alia in Britannia monasteria originem 

 debent suam. Ex Hibernia enim fuerunt Celsus Sedulius presbyter, Columba, Columbanus, 

 Colmannus, Aidanus, Gallus, Kilianus, Maidulphus, Brendanus, et alii plures vitse sancti- 

 tate et doctrina inclyti." — Britannia, p. 730. 



