THE CONVERSION OF IRELAND

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The civilization, art, letters, which had fled before the sword of the English conquerors, returned with the Christian faith."

20. The Conversion of Ireland; Iona. Christianity, it must be borne in mind, held its place among the British Celts whom the pagan Saxons crowded slowly westward. The struggle with the invaders was at its height when a zealous priest, Patricius by name, better known as St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, crossed over to the island as a missionary of the Cross.

Never did any race receive the Gospel with more ardent enthusiasm. The Irish or Celtic Church sent out its devoted missionaries into the Pictish highlands, into the forests of Germany, and among the wilds of Alps and Apennines.2 Among the numerous religious houses founded by the Celtic missionaries was the famous monastery established A.D. 563 by the Irish monk St. Columba, on the little isle of Iona,

FIG. 3.1

THE RUINS OF IONA. (After an old drawing)

"That man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force upon the plain of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of Iona.". DR. JOHNSON, A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland

just off the Pictish coast. Iona became a most renowned center of Christian learning and missionary zeal, and for almost two centuries was the point from which radiated light through the darkness of the surrounding heathenism. Fitly has it been called the Nursery of Saints and the Oracle of the West.3

2 These Irish missionaries were not merely the representatives of Christianity. "They were instructors in every known branch of science and learning of the time, possessors and bearers of a higher culture than was at that period to be found anywhere on the Continent, and can surely claim to have been the pioneers, to have laid the corner stone of western culture on the Continent, the rich results of which Germany shares and enjoys to-day, in common with all other civilized nations."ZIMMER, The Irish Element in Mediaval Culture, p. 130.

8 In Southern Germany (now Switzerland) the Irish monk Gallus established (A.D. 613) the celebrated monastery of St. Gall, which at a later time became one of the chief seats of learning in Central Europe.

21. Rivalry between the Roman and the Celtic Church; The Council of Whitby (A.D. 664). - From the very moment that Augustine touched the shores of Britain and summoned the Welsh clergy to acknowledge the discipline of the Roman Church, there had been a growing jealousy between the Latin and Celtic churches, which had now risen into the bitterest rivalry and strife. So long had the Celtic Church been cut off from all relations with Rome, that it had come to differ somewhat from it in the matter of certain ceremonies and observances, such as the time of keeping Easter and the form of the tonsure.*

With a view to settling the quarrel, Oswy, king of Northumbria, who thought that "as they all expected the same kingdom of

FIG. 4.

THE RUINS OF WHITBY. (From a photograph by the author) heaven, so they ought not to differ in the celebration of the divine mysteries," called a synod composed of representatives of both parties, at the monastery of Whitby. The chief question of debate, which was argued before the king by the ablest advocates of both churches, was the proper time for the observance of Easter. The debate was warm, and hot words were exchanged. Finally, Wilfrid, the speaker for the Roman party, happening to quote the words of Christ to Peter, "To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven," the king asked the Celtic monks if these words were really spoken by Christ to that apostle, and upon their admitting that they were, Oswy said: "He being the

4 In the Roman tonsure the top of the head was shaven, in the Celtic the front part only.

LITERATURE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

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doorkeeper, . . . I will in all things obey his decrees, lest when I come to the gates of the kingdom of heaven, there should be none to open them."

The decision of the prudent Oswy gave the British Isles to Rome; for not only was all England soon won to the Roman side, but the churches and monasteries of Wales and Ireland and Scotland came in time to conform to the Roman standard and custom. "By the assistance of our Lord," says the pious Latin chronicler," the monks were brought to the canonical observation of Easter and the right mode of the tonsure."

One important result of the Roman victory was the hastening of the political unity of England through its ecclesiastical unity. The Celtic Church, in marked contrast with the Latin, was utterly devoid of capacity for organization. It could have done nothing in the way of developing among the several Anglo-Saxon states the sentiment of nationality. On the other hand, the Roman Church, through the exercise of a central authority, through national synods and general legislation, overcame the isolation of the different kingdoms and helped powerfully to draw them together into a common political life.

A

22. Pagan and Christian Literature of the Anglo-Saxons. strong side light is cast upon our ancestors' change of religion by two famous poems which date from the Anglo-Saxon period of our literature. One of these, called Beowulf, was composed while our forefathers were yet pagans, and probably before they left the Continent; the other, known as the Paraphrase of the Scriptures, was written soon after their conversion to Christianity.

Beowulf is an epic poem which tells of the exploits of an heroic Viking, Beowulf by name, who delivers the people from a terrible monster that feasted upon sleeping men. It is alive with the instincts of paganism, and is a faithful reflection of the rough heathen times in which it had birth. Every passage displays the love of the savage for coarse horrors and brutal slaughters. Thus it runs: "The wretched wight seized quickly a sleeping warrior, slit him unawares, bit his bone-locker, drank his blood, in morsels swallowed him; soon had he all eaten, feet

and fingers." Before another can be made a victim Beowulf closes with the monster. "The hall thundered, the ale of all the Danes and earls was spilt. Angry, fierce were the strong fighters, the hall was full of din. It was great wonder that the wine-hall stood above the warlike beasts, that the fair earth-house fell not to the ground." Such was the gleeman's song which delighted our Saxon forefathers as they drank and caroused in their great mead halls.

In striking contrast with the pagan hero poem stands the Pharaphrase, the first fruits in English literature of the mission of Augustine. This consists of Bible stories retold in verse. These metrical paraphrases, it is now believed, were composed, in the main, between the seventh and the tenth century by different poets, who seem to have been disciples or imitators of a certain monk of Whitby, named Cædmon, upon whom, according to a beautiful legend transmitted to us by the Venerable Bede, the gift of song had been miraculously bestowed, and who, though he could neither read nor write, turned into sweet verses, as they were recited to him, many of the graphic tales of Holy Writ. In these compositions is reflected in a wonderful manner the revolution in thought and feeling and in aim and purpose of life which the reception of Christian teachings and doctrines, in place of their earlier beliefs and ideas, wrought in the pagan conquerors of Britain.

23. The Conversion of Germany. - The conversion of the tribes of Germany was effected by Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Frankish missionaries, and the sword of Charlemagne (sec. 74). The great apostle of Germany was the Saxon Winfrid, better known as St. Boniface. During a long and intensely active life he founded schools and monasteries, organized churches, preached and baptized, and at last died a martyr's death (A.D. 753). Through

5 Bede the Venerable (about A.D. 673-735) was a pious and learned Northumbrian monk, who wrote, among other works, an invaluable one entitled Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum," The Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation." The work recites, as its central theme, the story of how our forefathers were won to the Christian faith. We are indebted to Bede for a large part of our knowledge of early England.

THE CONVERSION OF RUSSIA

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him, as says Milman, the Saxon invasion of England flowed back upon the Continent.

The Christianizing of the tribes of Germany relieved the Teutonic folk of Western Europe from the constant peril of massacre by their heathen kinsmen, and erected a strong barrier in Central Europe against the advance of the waves of Turanian paganism and Mohammedanism which for centuries beat so threateningly against the eastern frontiers of Germany.

24. The Conversion of Russia. Vladimir the Great (d. 1015) was the Clovis of Russia. This ruler, according to the account of the matter that has come down to us, having had urged upon his attention the claims of different religions, sent out envoys to make investigation respecting the relative merits of Mohammedanism, the Jewish religion, and Latin and Greek Christianity. The commissioners reported in favor of the religion of Constantinople, having been brought to this mind by what seemed to them the supernatural splendors of the ceremonials that they had witnessed in the great Church of St. Sophia.

Vladimir caused the great wooden idol of the chief god of his people to be hurled into the Dnieper, and his subjects to be baptized in its waters by the Christian priests. This act of Vladimir marks the real beginning of the evangelization of Russia (988).

That the Slavic tribes should have come under the religious influence of Constantinople instead of under that of Rome had far-reaching consequences for Russian history. This circumstance cut off Russia from sympathy with the Catholic West and shut her out from all the civilizing influences that accompanied Latin Christianity.

25. Christianity in the North. The progress of Christianity in the North was slow; but gradually, during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, the missionaries of the Church won over all the Scandinavian peoples. One important effect of their conversion was the checking of those piratical expeditions which during all the centuries of their pagan history had been constantly putting out from the fiords of the Northern peninsulas and vexing every shore to the south.