217 



they had learning for sale ; '* si quis sapientiae cupidus est, veniat ad 

 nos."* It is of their and their comates' exertions that Erricus Antisi- 

 dorensis expresses such grateful enthusiasm. -f* Such indeed was the 

 extent of the ecclesiastical foundations established by Irishmen in 

 France during this interval, that in the Council of Meaux, held in 

 845, it was decreed, that complaints should be made to the king, of 

 the ruin into which they were then latterly allowed to fall. " Le Roi 

 sera averti de la desolation des hopitaux, principalement de ceux des 

 Ecossois, c'est a dire des Hibernois, fondez en ce Roiaume par des 

 personnes pieuses de cette nation. "J 



*^ The cordial reception of these Irish ecclesiastics, and the easy 

 amalgamation of their rules with those of the continental monks, is, 

 as Doctor Lingard observes,§ a speaking evidence that in all points 

 of doctrine the Irish agreed with the Romish See. 



* Rossius Hist. Reg. Angl. p. 68. 



f " Quid Hiberniam memorem, contempto pelagi discrimine, pene totam cum grege philo- 

 sophorum ad littora nostra migrantem, quorum quisquis peritior est ultro sibi indicit exilium, 

 ut Solomoni sapientissimo famuletur ad votum ?" — Ad Carolum Calvum. 



t Fleury, Eccl. Hist. § Hist. Eng. vol. 2. p. 357. 



mm 

 VOL. XVI. FF a.fgoA.^^sH 



