Page:The ancient Irish church.djvu/138

 It was the glory of the ancient Irish Church that she always prized the Word of God and taught it to her people. In this connection we cannot do better than quote from an old Irish treatise, said to have been written towards the close of the period we are now considering. 'One of the noble gifts of the Holy Spirit is the Holy Scripture, by which all ignorance is enlightened and all worldly affliction comforted; by which all spiritual light is kindled, by which all weakness is made strong. For it is through the Holy Scripture that heresy and schism are banished from the Church, and all contentions and divisions reconciled. It is in it well tried counsel and appropriate instruction will be found for every degree in the Church. It is through it the snares of demons and vices are banished from every faithful member in the Church. For the Divine Scripture is the mother and the benign nurse of all the faithful who meditate and contemplate it, and who are nurtured by it, until they are chosen children of God by its advice.'

Although the eighth century was in one sense uneventful, we are not to suppose that it was without its important changes. Foremost among them was the bringing of Armagh into prominence, and the decline of the influence of Iona and the Columban monasteries. Up to the present, when we have spoken of Church life, of missionary labour, of religious controversy, it has been mostly in connection with Iona and its dependent establishments. Armagh has not played the same important part.