be considered, especially as we have seen that Virgilius elsewhere mentions the speech of his neighbours, the Basques. The other passage, in which he quotes a verse by one Bregandus Lugenicus, has been thought to contain an Irish tribal name. But strong collateral evidence is needed to bring this out of the category of Virgilius's ordinary mystifications.
We now approach the problem of the classical culture of Ireland. How, when, and whence did it come into being? Many generations of scholars have been contented to regard the mission of Patrick (in 430-460) as marking the accession of Ireland to the world of learning. It has been realised, indeed, that Patrick himself was no scholar, but he has been thought of as the parent of scholars, the progenitor of the great monastic schools which sprang up all over Ireland in the sixth century – Clonard (520), Clonmacnois (544), Clonfert (c. 550), Bangor (c. 560). Before Patrick (or at least before Palladius), it has been commonly believed, Ireland, lying outside the sphere of Roman political influence, was also untouched by Roman culture. A readjustment of this view has become necessary. Patrick was not the Apostle of Ireland in the sense that before he landed there were no Christians in the island. Apart from such results as may have attended the obscure mission of Palladius (whom Zimmer would identify with Patrick), there were pre-Patrician churches and pre-Patrician saints. It would indeed be strange, if at a time when Christianity was highly organised and flourishing both in Britain and in western Gaul – countries in active intercourse with Ireland – there had been no sporadic evangelisation, no formation here and there of small Christian communities. As a matter of fact there are in the undoubted writings of Patrick allusions to existent Christianity, and in particular to men who, we gather from Patrick's language, possessed a higher degree of culture than he did. There is, too, a persistent tradition (though the documents which contain it are not of the earliest) that certain saints, Ailbe, for instance, and Declan, were in Ireland before Patrick.
Into the precise value of this tradition I cannot attempt to inquire; to do so would be to exaggerate its importance for our purpose. I should be giving the impression that missionary enterprise was the sole factor in bringing the learning of the Continent into Ireland. This would be a mistake. We have seen that stress has been laid in recent years by Zimmer upon the commercial relations which undoubtedly linked the island with Gaul, as well as with Britain; while yet more recently, attention has been called to a definite statement by an anonymous writer, evidently of Gaul, such as has not been hitherto producible to the effect that in the early years of the fifth century an exodus of scholars from the Continent took place under the pressure of barbarian invasion, which affected the area under consideration.
The Huns, says our new authority, began that devastation of the whole
