[24]

     The motto of the University of Oxford.

       [25]

     Tacitus.

       [26]

     St. John of Beverley.

    Page xxxvi

   .

    The Irish Mission in England during the seventh century was one of the great things of history.

   The following expressions of Dr. von Döllinger respecting the Irish Church are more ardent than any I have ventured to use:—

   'During the sixth and seventh centuries the Church of Ireland stood in the full beauty of its bloom. The spirit of the Gospel operated amongst the people with a vigorous and vivifying power: troops of holy men, from the highest to the lowest ranks of society, obeyed the counsel of Christ, and forsook all things that they might follow Him. There was not a country in the world, during this period, which could boast of pious foundations or of religious communities equal to those that adorned this far distant island. Among the Irish the doctrines of the Christian religion were preserved pure and entire; the names of heresy or of schism were not known to them; and in the Bishop of Rome they acknowledged and venerated the Supreme Head of the Church on earth, and continued with him, and through him with the whole Church, in a never interrupted communion. The schools in the Irish cloisters were at this time the most celebrated in all the West.... The strangers who visited the island, not only from the neighbouring shores of Britain, but also from the most remote nations of the Continent, received from the Irish people the most hospitable reception, a gratuitous entertainment, free instruction, and even the books that were necessary for the studies.... On the other hand, many holy and learned Irish

   men left their own country to 

 Prev. P 28/36 next