Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/202

 166 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE time in illuminating manuscripts; that is, in decorating them with colored initials, border designs, and illustrations. The Celtic peoples of the British Isles were restless in the fifth and sixth centuries, partly owing, no doubt, to the race migrations that were in process all over Europe. Many na- tives of Britain, driven first by the Picts and Irish and then by the Saxons, crossed the Channel to the peninsula of Brittany. Among them monks were prominent, and some of these were Irish. About 500 there had been a great mi- gration of Irish tribes, called "Scots," from North Ireland to Scotland, where they founded the Kingdom of Dalriada. Here about 565 came from Ireland St. Columba (521-597), who had changed his name from Wolf to Dove in token of I his conversion. He founded a monastery upon the island of Iona, and then passed on to preach the Gospel among the heathen Picts. Other Irish monks went north to such distant islands of the sea as the Shetlands, Hebrides, Ork- neys, and even Iceland. From Iona they spread their faith southward among the heathen Angles who had invaded Northumbria. Here the center of monastic and missionary activity was at Lindisfarne, on the east coast, under the lead of Aidan about 635. Meanwhile Columban (543-615) had wandered to east- ern Gaul — much of Austrasia was still pagan — and had St. Colum- founded monasteries in the Vosges Mountains iHsh^t- where his ri g° rous RuJ e was enforced. Columban sions on the did not believe in sparing the rod, and a monk who failed to say "Amen" after the grace at meals received six blows, while a monk caught speaking alone with a woman received two hundred. He did not, however, forbid the reading of classical literature and was well versed himself in Greek mythology and poetry. When he was driven from Luxeuil in the Kingdom of Burgundy by Brunhilda, as before mentioned, he entered the country of the Alamanni, but was banished thence in turn because of his violent attacks upon their heathen temples and idols. Then he pushed on into Italy and built a monastery in the ! Apennines, where he dwelt until his death. But his work