The Icelandic Canadian - 01.06.1963, Blaðsíða 16

14
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
SUMMER 1963
monastic and episcopal capital of
Northumberland, England, had direct-
literary relationship with Ireland.
Mention must be made of another
famous school founded by Irish monks
—namely .the Abby of St. Gall in
Switzerland. It was here that the Cel-
tic influence was most felt and endured
longest. Within its walls for centuries
sacred sciences were taught and classic
authors studied.
Many of the monks excelled as
musicians and poets. Giraldus Cam-
brensis (Gerald De Barri, 1146-1200),
who was a Welsh churchman and hi-
storian, visited Ireland in the latter
part of the 12th century as chaplain to
Prince John.Subsequently he wrote
two books Expugnatis Hibernica and
Topographia Hibernica. In the first
named he discourses about the remark-
able proficiency in music among the
Irish, saying that it far surpasses what
he has experienced in other countries.
There were also Bardic schools and
professional schools of law and tra-
ditional medicine, with the results
that education was more wide-spread
in early Christian Ireland than else-
where in these days in Europe, and at
least a certain amount of learning was
almost as much a part of the training
of an Irish chief or a warrior as of an
ecclesiastic. Swimming, the handling of
arms and horsemanship was taught.
The Venerable Bebe (673-735), gives
eloquent testimony to the generosity of
the Irish in providing students with
free tuition, board and even necessary
manuscripts. Legal provision was made
for secular teaching, and after the con-
vention at Druimceat, in 890 the public
schools were organized on new and
better basis, and the remuneration,
rights and obligations were fixed by
law.
Whole shiploads of students crossed
the Irish sea to pursue their education
in Ireland. Foreign students were .the
most numerous in the seventh and
eighth centuries. At that time the Eng-
lish regarded Ireland as the university
of Europe. The records show .that the
schools were well attended by the na-
tives as the foreigners. In fact any
man of consequence (“MaSur meS
monnum”), in Ireland, was educated
during the time the schools flourished
there. Three thousand students gather-
ed around St. Finnian, at Clonard, and
the Armach school was attended by
English students in such numbers that
it had a special system of teaching, and
for that purpose had special Saxon
quarters on the school grounds. Such
was the attraction of the excellent
teachers, the system of teaching and
the libraries, all of which was far in
advance of what was current elsewhere
in western Europe.
The School Towns
The school towns consisted of hun-
dreds of small, round, thatched stone
huts, for the students, and long houses
for the Abbot, Archbishops and the
bishops. Other churchmen and teachers
built higher up on the hillside. The
method of teaching was patterned after
.that of Aristotle, the Greek (384-322
B.C.), who taught his students outside
in the garden of Lycium. During the
period of teaching, the students sat on
the slope of a hill. They took notes
on wax tablets, or, if more perman-
ency was desired, on parchment.
Curriculum
The subjects taught in the ancient
schools of Ireland varied according to
the profession the student intended
to follow, stress being laid on the prin-
ciple of Christian doctrine, genealogy
and the history and legends of Ireland.
Other main subjects taught were geom-