【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 foreigner. To this Sedulius replied that since he was an Irishmanof the ancient race of Milesius, he was in fact a nativeSpaniard. This argument so thoroughly convinced his opponentsthat they allowed him to be installed in the bishop39。s palace atOreto. In sum, the period that ended in Ireland with the invasion ofthe Scandinavian tribes in the eighth century is nothing but anunbroken record of apostleships, and missions, and martyrdoms.King Alfred, who visited the country and left us his impressionsof it in the verses called 39。The Royal Journey39。, tells us in thefirst stanza: I found when I was in exile In Ireland the beautiful Many ladies, a serious people, Laymen and priests in abundanceand it must be admitted that in twelve centuries the picture hasnot changed much。 although, if the good Alfred, who found anabundance of laymen and priests in Ireland at that time, weretogo there now, he would find more of the latter than the former. Anyone who reads the history of the three centuries that precede the ing of the English must have a strong stomach,because the internecine strife, and the conflicts with the Danesand the Norwegians, the black foreigners and the whiteforeigners, as they were called, follow each other socontinuously and ferociously that they make this entire era averitable slaughterhouse. The Danes occupied all the principalports on the east coast of the island and established a kingdomat Dublin, now the capital of Ireland, which has been a greatcity for about twenty centuries. Then the native kings killedeach other off, taking wellearned rests from time to time ingames of chess. Finally, the bloody victory of the usurper BrianBoru over the nordic hordes on the sand dunes outside the wallsof Dublin put an end to the Scandinavian raids. TheScandinavians, however, did not leave the country, but weregradually assimilated into the munity, a fact that we mustkeep in mind if we want to understand the curious character ofthe modern Irishman. During this period, the culture necessarily languished, butIreland had the honour of producing the three great heresiarchsJohn Duns Scotus, Macarius, and Vergilius Solivagus. Vergiliuswas appointed by the French king to the abbey at Salzburg andlater was made bishop of that diocese, where he built acathedral. He was a philosopher, mathematician, and translator ofthe writings of Ptolemy. In his tract on geography, he held thetheory, which was subversive at that time, that the earth wasround, and for such audacity was declared a sower of heresy byPopes Boniface and Zacharias. Macarius lived in France, and themonastery of St. Eligius still preserves his tract De Anima, inwhich he taught the doctrine later known as Averroism, of whichErnest Renan, himself a Breton Celt, has left us a masterfulexamination. Scotus Erigena, Rector of the University of Paris,was a mystical pantheist, who translated from the Greek the booksof mystical theology of Dionysius, the pseudoAreopagite, patronsaint of the French nation. This translation presented to Europefor the first time the transcendental philosophy of the Orient,which had as much influence on the course of European religiousthought as later the translations of Plato, made in the time ofPico della Mirandola, had on the development of the profaneItalian civilization. It goes without saying that such aninnovation (which seemed like a lifegiving breath resurrectingthe dead bones of orthodox theology piled up in an inviolablechurchyard, a field of Ardath) did not have the sanction of thePope, who invited Charles the Bald to send both the book and theauthor to Rome under escort, probably because he wanted to havethem taste the delights of papal courtesy. However, it seems thatScotus had kept a grain of good sense in his exalted brain,because he pretended not to hear this courteous invitation anddeparted in haste for his native land. From the time of the English invasion to our time, there is aninterval of almost eight centuries, and if I have dwelt rather atlength on the preceding period in order to make you understandthe roots of the Irish temperament, I do not intend to detain youby recounting the vicissitudes of Ireland under the foreignoccupation. I especially will not do so because at that timeIreland ceased to be an intellectual force in Europe. Thedecorative arts, at which the ancient Irish excelled, wereabandoned, and the sacred and profane culture fell into disuse. Two or three illustrious names shine here like the last fewstars of a radiant night that wanes as dawn arrives. According tolegend, John Duns Scotus, of whom I have spoken before, thefounder of the school of Scotists, listened to the arguments ofall the Doctors of the University of Paris for three whole days,then rose and, speaking from memory, refuted them one by one。Joannes de Sacrobosco, who was the last great supporter of thegeographical and astronomical theories of Ptolemy, and PetrusHibernus, the theologian who had the supreme task of educatingthe mind of the author of the scholastic apology Summa contraGentiles, St. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the keenest and most lucidmind known to human history. But while these last stars still reminded the European nationsof Ireland39。s past glory, a new Celtic race was arising,pounded of the old Celtic stock and the Scandinavian,AngloSaxon, and Norman races. Another national temperament roseon the foundation of the old one, with the various elementsmingling and renewing the ancient body. The ancient enemies mademon cause against the English aggression, with the Protestantinhabitants (who had bee Hibernis Hiberniores, more Irishthan the Irish themselves) urging on the Irish Catholics in theiropposition to the Calvinist and Lutheran fanatics from across thesea, an