r of the Towns--Arrival of
Sitric--Death of Nial Glundubh--The Circuit of Ireland--Malachy the
Second--Entries in the Annals.

[A.D. 693-926.]

Very few events of any special interest occur between the commencement
of the seventh century and the Danish invasion. The obituaries of
ecclesiastics and details of foreign missions, which we have already
recorded, are its salient points. The wars of the Saxon Heptarchy and
the Celtic Pentarchy almost synchronize, though we find several Irish
kings influenced by the examples of sanctity with which they were
surrounded, and distinguished for piety, while Charlemagne pronounces
their neighbours a perfidious and perverse race, worse than pagans.
There can be no doubt that Charlemagne's high opinion of the Irish was
caused by the fact, that so many of the heads of his schools were of
that nation, which was then in the vanguard of civilization and
progress. The cloister, always the nursery of art, the religious, always
the promoters of learning, were pre-eminent in this age for their
devotion to literary pursuits. In the present work it is impossible to
give details of their MSS. still preserved, of their wonderful skill in
caligraphy, still the admiration of the most gifted, and of the
perfection to which they brought the science of music; but I turn from
this attractive subject with less regret, from the hope of being soon
able to produce an Ecclesiastical History of Ireland, in which such
details will find their proper place, and will be amply expanded.[192]
The revolution of social feeling which was effected in Ireland by the
introduction of Christianity, is strongly marked. Before the advent of
St. Patrick, few Irish monarchs died a natural death--ambition or
treachery proved a sufficient motive for murder and assassination; while
of six kings who reigned during the eighth and ninth centuries, only one
died a violent death, and that death was an exception, which evidently
proved the rule, for Nial was drowned in a generous effort to save the
life of one of his own servants.

The fatal pestilence, already recorded, did not appear again after its
severe visitation, which terminated in 667. In 693 Finnachta Fleadhach
(the Hospitable) commenced his reign. He remitted the Boromean Tribute
at the request of St. Moling, and eventually abdicated, and embraced a
religious life. In the year 684, Egfrid, the Saxon King of
Northumberland, sent an army to Ireland, which spared neither