ers to our coast?" Rency,
after describing the poetry and literature of ancient Erinn as perhaps
the most cultivated of all Western Europe, adds, that Ireland "counted a
host of saints and learned men, venerated in England[191] and Gaul; for
no country had furnished more Christian missionaries." It is said that
three thousand students, collected from all parts of Europe, attended
the schools of Armagh; and, indeed, the regulations which were made for
preserving scholastic discipline, are almost sufficient evidence on this
subject.

The discussions of the Irish and English ecclesiastics on the time of
keeping of Easter, with their subsequent decision, and all details
concerning domestic regulations as to succession to office and church
lands, are more properly matters for elucidation in a Church History,
for which we reserve their consideration.

[Illustration: ANCIENT ADZE, FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE ROYAL IRISH
ACADEMY.]

[Illustration: CROSS AT FINGLAS.]

FOOTNOTES:

[169] _Blefed_.--The name _Crom Chonaill_ indicates a sickness which
produced a yellow colour in the skin.

[170] _Sanctuary_.--This may appear a severe punishment, but the right
of sanctuary was in these ages the great means of protection against
lawless force, and its violation was regarded as one of the worst of
sacrileges.

[171] _Oak_.--Dr. Petrie mentions that there were stones still at Tara
which probably formed a portion of one of the original buildings. It was
probably of the Pelasgian or Cyclopean kind.

[172] _Hour_.--Petrie's _Tara_, p. 31.

[173] _Tuathal_.--Very ancient authorities are found for this in the
_Leabhar Gabhala_, or Book of Conquests.

[174] _Mill_.--"Cormac, the grandson of Con, brought a millwright over
the great sea." It is clear from the Brehon laws that mills were common
in Ireland at an early period. It is probable that Cormac brought the
"miller and his men" from Scotland. Whittaker shows that a water-mill
was erected by the Romans at every stationary city in Roman Britain. The
origin of mills is attributed to Mithridates, King of Cappadocia, about
seventy years B.C. The present miller claims to be a descendant of the
original miller.

[175] _Identical_.--First, "because the _Lia Fail_ is spoken of by all
ancient Irish writers in such a manner as to leave no doubt that it
remained in its original situation at the time they wrote." Second,
"because no Irish account of its removal to Scotland is found earlier