LIVES OF EMINENT LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MEN. ST. COLUMBA. (521-597.) THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY AND OF THIS celebrated missionary has a place in the present work, not because he was a saint, but because of the influence he exercised over the civilisation of Scotland, and even of Northumbria, that is, of all the English counties north of the Humber and the Mersey. In this, as in many other instances to be hereafter adduced, our business is with the subject rather than the man in other words, the former alone has led to the selection; and for that reason we shall have often to insert matter that, were the individual only concerned, might justly be deemed extraneous. But even of the individual, no characteristic features, provided they bear a genuine impress, shall be omitted; for so closely allied is the person with the action, - often no less so than cause with effect, that the description of the one must frequently be indispensable to the knowledge of the other. Though the introduction of Christianity into North Scotland and Northumbria is the most prominent result of St. Columba's labours, we should never lose sight of the fact that they led, in a degree nearly equal, to the civilisation of those regions. The missionary of the middle ages was not merely the preacher, or the administrator of the sacraments; he was the herald of literature, of science, and of human improvement in every shape. To every monastery or cathedral a school was immediately attached, and the children of the more reputable pagans were invited to attend. Parents on whom religious considerations were lost were yet profoundly impressed by the superior knowledge of the missionary; and resolved that their sons should acquire the useful arts, even at the risk of conversion to the new faith. Barbarians as they were, they were sufficiently alive to the improvements introduced by the missionary in reference to those arts, especially to architecture, agriculture, mechanical inventions, surgery, and medicine. Hence it was that after the arrival of St. Augustine in Britain, so great a change was effected in the manners, habits, and condition of the people. By the rule of St. Benedict the practice of agriculture was binding on the monks; and we know that it was equally so, whatever the precise rule to which they were subjected, on the monastic missionaries of Ireland: no wonder, therefore, that in these islands so necessary an art should flourish beyond all former precedent. The most barren districts – and such invariably were those conferred on the church even exhibited a fertility which at first struck the natives with astonishment, but which immediately gave way to emulation. Plentiful harvests were observed to rise from the fens of Lincolnshire, and to wave on the desert coast of Northumberland, which had hitherto bid defiance to cultivation. In architecture the improvement was no less obvious; while the roads constructed through the deepest marshes, and the bridges thrown over the most rapid streams, attested these laudable results confined to Britain. The bio- The Christian religion was introduced into Ireland 432. by St. Patrick, in the year 432. It has, indeed, been asserted by some modern writers, that the Gospel had flourished in the island before the arrival of that missionary; and one proof adduced is, that Pelagius and his disciple Celestius were both Hiberni-Scoti, or Irishmen. But this would be no proof, even assuming that they were Irishmen ; for both passed their Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica (passim). Lingard, Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 144, &c. Europe during the Middle Ages (CAB. CYC.), vol. iv. p. 6. Mabillon, Acta SS. Ordinis S. Benedicti, Præ'atio ad Sæculum iii. (De Litterarum Studiis per Benedictinos in Germania; necnon De Cultu Soli Germanici per Benedictos). Johnson, Journey to the Western Isles. |