200 Irish monastic scholarship, golden age of fixed oral forms governed by patterns in style and meter, and repetitions of words and sentence structures that facilitated memorization In addition a reciprocal relationship of compassion was fostered between teachers and students: Teachers corrected students without harshness and provided their physical sustenance (food and clothing), while students adopted a lifelong obligation to protect their teachers from poverty and support them in old age The conjunction of instructional method and empathetic teacher-student bonds supplied the necessary motivation for students to master a dizzying array of disciplines, including grammar, law, genealogy, history, astronomy, geography, and metrical composition After St Patrick converted the majority of Celts from the druid religion to Christianity and established monasteries to oversee each new believing community between 432 and 461, pagan schools were transformed into monastic schools, retaining the same teaching techniques and quality of humaneness between masters and pupils The biblical doctrine of Christian equality as sisters and brothers before God in spite of class distinctions introduced an element of democracy into education Although early medieval Ireland could by no means be identified as a democratic nation, the bishops established laws through which all people, women as well as men, could earn money to attend monastic schools regardless of the capacities of their families One such law stipulated that a child whose parents could not afford the expenses of a school could pay one’s way by waiting on the children of the wealthy, who were obliged to accept such service and finance the child’s education These laws fostered a demographic reversal from the pagan schools, such that most students at the monastic schools came from the lower and middle classes instead of the wealthy farmers and chieftains The 15 years of study were split into two segments: a five-year general education track, consisting of literature, history, law, and science, and an ensuing 10-year track for advanced students who wished to pursue the “Seven Orders of Wisdom.” Most students ceased education after the first five years, while those wishing to pursue either a career in the church, greater learning, or both proceeded to the Orders These included a comprehensive and detailed knowledge of the Bible, the essentials of Christian theology, mathematics, astronomy, and the three technicalities of written composition (grammar, criticism, and orthography) Since most graduates of the academic Seven Orders embraced their spiritual counterpart—holy orders—and later served as teachers themselves, the church procured a monopoly of Irish scholars while perpetuating its educational institution So many students were attracted to the monastic schools that there was not accommodation for them, and they were forced to erect huts outside the monastery walls Gathering out of doors, the teacher, who typically sat or stood on a knoll, alternated his reading, translating, and expounding from books in distinct memorizable forms— which students would learn by rote—with questions that assisted students in understanding what they recited In addition to the monks and nuns, students at the monastic schools worked for varying lengths in the scriptoria proportional to their level of training The beginner practiced with a metal-pointed stylus on long narrow tablets of yew wood coated with wax, which could be flattened clear and used repetitively After the copying was completed, the student bound the tablets together with a pivot pin at one end so they could be opened and closed like a fan The student then wound leather thongs around the tablets, leaving the ends of the cords dangling for use as a handle Skilled scribes made their reproductions on parchment (cow, sheep, or goat skin) and vellum (the younger and finer skin of these animals) They copied seated with the writing material resting on the knees or, if engaged in elaborate illumination, on a table For calligraphy the pen was a quill made from the wing of a goose, swan, or crow The inkstand was made from part of a cow’s horn, and the ink was composed of thick and time-defying liquid carbon—characters on the medieval codices are still piercingly black today Completed books were sheathed in leather, labeled, and on pegs on the walls of the monastery library The more precious, such as the renowned Book of Kells and Lindisfarne Gospels (both lovely illuminated manuscripts of the Gospels in Latin), were encased in elegantly tooled leather covers and decorated, jewel-encrusted containers The greatest legacy of the golden age lay in the missionary activity of its monastic scholars, who spent as much time teaching within the Irish schools as traveling abroad to share the humanity of their education with the Continent and the Christian Gospel with their pagan neighbors Irish philosophers, scientists, and classicists were sought after by the courts of Europe and returned to the West disciplines of learning that had been obscured during the “barbarian” centuries of cultural stagnation Under influences from Columba’s monastery, St Aidan (590–651) carried the Christian message to the Northumbrians of the northeast coast of England He became friends with the Anglo-Saxon ruler Oswald, who had spent time in exile among the Irish and grown attracted to the life of these Celtic Christians With Oswald’s cooperation, Aidan then journeyed to the people of Northumbria in 635 and founded a monastery on the island of Lind-