Aldfrith's Qualifications as a Patron of Literature 297 



lish students as Germany for several decades attracted Americans. 

 The classical passage on the subject is the following from Bede, 

 who is speaking of the period from 651 to 664^: 



Many, both of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English 

 people, were there at that time, who, in the days of Bishops Finan and 

 Colman, forsaking their native island, resorted thither, either for the 

 sake of divine studies or of a more continent life; and, while some of 

 them presently devoted themselves to a monastic existence, others chose 

 rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master's cell 

 to another. The Irish willingly received them all, and took care to 

 supply them gratis with food, books to read, and instruction. 



Aldhelm, in his first letter to Aldfrith, speaks of the shiploads 

 of students going and returning, and compares them to bees in 

 search of honey- ; being not a little piqued, though he had him- 

 self received the elements of learning from the Irish Mailduf,^ 

 because the superiority of the Canterbury school was not suf- 

 ficiently recognized.* 



Besides Aldfrith's attainments in Biblical interpretation, and 

 in so much of the liberal arts as was imparted by the Irish scholars, 

 there is one acquisition of the highest importance that he made- 

 he learned to write Irish poetry. Two passages from Adamnan's 

 Life of Columha, written soon after Aldfrith had ascended the 

 throne.^ will serve to illustrate the composition and recitation of 

 poetry among the Irish of the preceding century and more. The 

 first of these refers to a time subsequent to the death of King 

 Oswald in 642, and runs as follows*^ : 



By some poems composed in the Irish language in praise of the same 

 blessed man [Oswald], and by the commemoration of his name, certain 

 wicked men . . . were saved from the hands of their enemies, who 

 in the night had surrounded the house in which they were singing 

 these hymns. They safely escaped through the flames, the swords, and 

 the spears. . . . Nor is it in one place or on one occasion only that 

 the same is known to have happened, but even at different times and 

 places, in both Ireland and Britain. 



^Eccl. Hist. 3^27; cf. Plummer 2. 196, 72; Healy, p. 590. 



* Giles, p. 92. 



' Giles, p. 339. 



* Giles, p. 94. 



' Cf . Reeves, pp. cliv, civ. 

 " Reeves, p. 6 (i. i). 



