DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0061
IONA, OR ICOLMKILL.
49
and ridiculed by La&antius. For this Virgilius was denounced as
a heretic by Boniface, the archbifhop of the German churches.
Another of thefelrifh miflionaries in the ninth century, John
Scotus Erigena, fettled at the court of Charles the Bald, trans-
lated the works of Dionyfius the Areopagite, and, what was
ftill more extraordinary, in his work, “Margarita Philofophiae,”
firft broached the fyftem of phrenology, revived by Gall a
thoufand years afterwards, either with or without the knowledge
of Erigena’s theory. In a copy of this work depofited in the
libraries of Oxford or Cambridge, it is faid that the human fkull
is mapped out into different organs, fimilar to thofe of Gall.
Another of thefe extraordinary men, Claude Clement, more
commonly called Claude or Claudius of Turin, in the ninth
century founded the Univerfity of Paris ; and his friend John
Scott, called Albinus, founded that of Pavia. Claude became
bifhop of Turin, where he lived till the year 839, forty-feven
years after he quitted Ireland, having had to maintain an
arduous conflict with Rome againft its errors, the worfhip of
images, the interceffion of faints, etc. “ If thofe,” he faid,
“ who have forfaken idols, worfhip the images of the faints,
then they have not forfaken idols, but changed their names.
Whether thou painteft thy walls with figures of St. Peter and
St. Paul, or of Jupiter and Saturn, neither are the latter gods,
nor the former apoftles.” Claude’s countrymen, Sedulius,
became bifhop of Greta, and Donatus of Fiefole ; and modern
travellers have been aftonifhed amid the valleys of the Vaud
to hear airs of Scottifh pfalmody, which had no doubt been
planted there by thefe early apoftles of Britain.
Calling to mind the memory of this early race of devoted
men, members of the ifland church of Iona, or of the mother of
Iona, Bangor, we tread the defolate ftones of thefe ruined fhrines
with an exalted pleafure. From this wafte fea-wildernefs what
H
49
and ridiculed by La&antius. For this Virgilius was denounced as
a heretic by Boniface, the archbifhop of the German churches.
Another of thefelrifh miflionaries in the ninth century, John
Scotus Erigena, fettled at the court of Charles the Bald, trans-
lated the works of Dionyfius the Areopagite, and, what was
ftill more extraordinary, in his work, “Margarita Philofophiae,”
firft broached the fyftem of phrenology, revived by Gall a
thoufand years afterwards, either with or without the knowledge
of Erigena’s theory. In a copy of this work depofited in the
libraries of Oxford or Cambridge, it is faid that the human fkull
is mapped out into different organs, fimilar to thofe of Gall.
Another of thefe extraordinary men, Claude Clement, more
commonly called Claude or Claudius of Turin, in the ninth
century founded the Univerfity of Paris ; and his friend John
Scott, called Albinus, founded that of Pavia. Claude became
bifhop of Turin, where he lived till the year 839, forty-feven
years after he quitted Ireland, having had to maintain an
arduous conflict with Rome againft its errors, the worfhip of
images, the interceffion of faints, etc. “ If thofe,” he faid,
“ who have forfaken idols, worfhip the images of the faints,
then they have not forfaken idols, but changed their names.
Whether thou painteft thy walls with figures of St. Peter and
St. Paul, or of Jupiter and Saturn, neither are the latter gods,
nor the former apoftles.” Claude’s countrymen, Sedulius,
became bifhop of Greta, and Donatus of Fiefole ; and modern
travellers have been aftonifhed amid the valleys of the Vaud
to hear airs of Scottifh pfalmody, which had no doubt been
planted there by thefe early apoftles of Britain.
Calling to mind the memory of this early race of devoted
men, members of the ifland church of Iona, or of the mother of
Iona, Bangor, we tread the defolate ftones of thefe ruined fhrines
with an exalted pleafure. From this wafte fea-wildernefs what
H