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CHRISTIANITY.
The Second Order: Monastic Clergy.
Rise of Monasticism.--About the middle of the sixth century a great monastic
religious movement took its rise, mainly from the monastery and college
of Clonard, founded by St. Finnen about the year 527.
Ancient baptismal font of Clonard: three feet high; still preserved in
the church there. (From Wilde's Boyne and Blackwater). Not a vestige of
any old building remains on the site of this great monastery.
Soon after his settlement here, great numbers of disciples, attracted
by his learning and holiness, gathered round him. Under him were educated
and trained for monastic and missionary work many of the most illustrious
fathers of the Irish Church, including the "Twelve Apostles of Erin":*
so that St. Finnen, who was a bishop, is called "a doctor of wisdom,
and the tutor of the saints of Ireland in his time." These men, going
forth from Clonard in all directions, founded, in imitation of their master
Finnen, numerous monasteries, schools, and colleges, which subsequently
became famous throughout all Europe. And now new life and vigour were
infused into the Irish missionary Church; and the work oi Patrick and
his companions was carried on with renewed zeal and wonderful success.
The influence of the druids was finally broken down, though they still
lingered on, but obscurely and feebly, for many generations. Then also
arose the zeal for preaching the Gospel in foreign lands, that gave rise
to that vast emigration of Irish missionaries and scholars spoken of farther
on.
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