commonly known as the
Brehon Law. Principles had by long usage been wrought into the fabric of
the Brehon Laws which were in flat contradiction to St. Patrick's
teaching of the New Way. Instead of fiercely denouncing the whole
system, he talked with the chief jurists and heralds,--custodians of the
old system,--and convinced them that changes in their laws would give
effect to more humane and liberal principles. They admitted the justice
of his view, and agreed to a meeting between three great chieftains or
kings, three Brehons or jurists, and three of St. Patrick's converts, to
revise the whole system of law, substituting the more humane principles,
which they had already accepted as just and right. These changes were
made and universally applied; so that, without any violent revolution,
without strife or bloodshed, the better way became the accepted law. It
would be hard to find in all history a finer example of wisdom and
moderation, of the great and worthy way of accomplishing right ends.

We have seen the great Messenger himself founding monasteries, houses of
religious study, and churches for his converts, on land given to him by
chieftains who were moved by his character and ideals. We can judge of
the immediate spread of his teaching if we remember that these churches
were generally sixty feet long, thus giving room for many worshippers.
They seem to have been built of stone--almost the first use of that
material in Ireland since the archaic days. Among the first churches of
this type were those at Saul, at Donaghpatrick on the Blackwater, and at
Armagh, with others further from the central region of St. Patrick's
work. The schools of learning which grew up beside them were universally
esteemed and protected, and from them came successive generations of men
and women who worthily carried on the work so wisely begun. The tongues
first studied were Latin and Irish. We have works of very early periods
in both, as, for instance, the Latin epistles of St. Patrick himself,
and the Irish poems of the hardly less eminent Colum Kill. But other
languages were presently added.

[Illustration: Valley of Glendalough and Ruins of the Seven Churches.]

These schools and churches gradually made their way throughout the whole
country; some of the oldest of them are still to be seen, as at
Donaghpatrick, Clonmacnoise and Glendalough. Roofed with stone, they are
well fitted to resist the waste of time. An intense spiritual and m