'* Patrick being acipiainted with the language and customs of the Irish peoi)lo, as a consequence of his early captivity, gathered them about him in large assemblies at the beat of a kettle-drum, and told the story of Christ
so as to move their hearts. Having taught them to read, he encouraged the importation of useful books from England and France. He established cloisters after the fashion of the times, which were really mis- sionary schools for educating the people in the knowl- edge of the Gospel, and for training a native ministry and missionaries; and he claims to have baptized many thousands of people. . . .
" ' The people may not have adopted the outward pro- fession of Christianity, which was all that, perhaps, in the first instance they adopted, from any clear or intel- lectual appreciation of its superiority to their former religion ; but to obtain from the people even an outward profession of Christianity was an important step to ulti- mate success. It secured toleration, at least, for Chris- tian institutions. It enabled Patrick to plant in every tribe his chiurches, schools, and monasteries. He was permitted, without opposition, to establish among the half-pagan inhabitants of the country- societies of holy men, whose devotion, usefulness, and piety soon pro- duced an effect upon the most barbarous and savage hearts. This was the secret of the rapid success attrib- uted to Patrick's preaching in Ireland. The chieftains were at first the real converts. The baptism of the chieftain was immediately followed by the adhesion of the clan. The clansmen pressed eagerly around the missionary who had baptized the chief, anxious to re- ceive that mysterious initiation into the new faith to which their chieftain and father had submitted. The requirements preparatory to baptism do not seem to have been very rigorous; and it is, therefore, not im- probable that in Tirawley, and other remote districts, where the spirit of clanship was strong, Patrick, as he himself tells us he did, may have baptized some thou- sands of men.' . . .
" When this zealous missionary' died, about the year 493, his disciples, who seem all to have been natives of Ireland — a native ministry — continued his work in the same spirit. The monasteries became at length so nu- merous and famous that Ireland was called Insula Sanc- torum, the ' Island of Saints.' It gives a wrong idea of I these institutions to call them monasteries, or to call j their inmates monks. ' They were schools of learning and abodes of piety, uniting the instruction of the col- lege, the labors of the workshop, the charities of the hospital, and the worship of the Church. They orig- inated partly in a mistaken view of the Christian life, and partly out of the necessity of the case, which drove Christians to live together for mutual protection. The missionary spirit, and consequent religious activity, pre- vailing in the Irish monasteries, preserved them for a long time from the asceticism and mysticism incidental to the monastic life, and made them a source of blessing to the world.' The celibacy of the clergy was not en- joined in those times. INIarried men were connected with the cloisters, living, however, in single houses. The Scriiitures were read, and ancient books were col- lected and studied. The missions which went forth from these institutions, as also those from England and Wales, are frequently called 'Cuklee' missions. See Cui.nKES and Iona.
" The names of Columba and Columbanus are famil- iar to the readers of ecclesiastical history. Both were Irish missionaries, and both were from the institulion at Bangor, in Ireland. Colimiba's mission was to the Picts of Scotland, and was entered upon at the age of forty- two, in the year 5G.3. This was thirteen hundred years ago, and about seventy years after the time of Patrick. He was accompanied by twelve associates, and was the founder of the celebrated monastery on Iona, an island situated on the north of Scotland, now reckoned one of ' the Hebrides. This school, which had an enduring '] fame, became one of the chief lights of that age. Con- ' tinning thirty-five years under Columlia's management, it attained a high reputation for Biblical studies and ! other sciences; and missionaries went from it to the I northern and southern Picts of Scotland. an<l into Eng-
MISSIONS
351
MISSIONS