“智者與圣人的寶島”(存儲版)

　　

【正文】 preached to the French and conductedextravagant funerals at the expense of the court. Fursey foundedmonasteries in five countries, and his feast day is stillcelebrated at Peronne, the place where he died in Picardy. Arbogast built sanctuaries and chapels in Alsace and Lorraine,and ruled the bishop39。s Inferno where his mentor points to one ofthe Celtic magicians tormented by infernal pains and says: Quel39。. I do not propose to give a plete history of the Irish churchin the first centuries of the Christian era. To do so would bebeyond the scope of this lecture, and, in addition, not overlyinteresting. But it is necessary to give you some explanation ofmy title 39。, tells us in thefirst stanza: I found when I was in exile In Ireland the beautiful Many ladies, a serious people, Laymen and priests in abundanceand it must be admitted that in twelve centuries the picture hasnot changed much。 she was sent by heradvisers. At that time, the English debacle in South Africa inthe war against the Boers had made the English army an object ofscorn in the European press, and if it took the genius of the twomandersinchief, Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener (both ofthem Irishmen, born in Ireland) to redeem its threatened prestige(just as in 1815 it took the genius of another Irish soldier toovere the renewed might of Napoleon at Waterloo), it also tookIrish recruits and volunteers to demonstrate their renownedvalour on the field of battle. In recognition of this fact, whenthe war was over, the English government allowed the Irishregiments to wear the shamrock, the patriotic emblem, on St.Patrick39。, and thisprobably is not a purely mystical concept. Do we not see that inIreland the Danes, the Firbolgs, the Milesians from Spain, theNorman invaders, and the AngloSaxon settlers have united to forma new entity, one might say under the influence of a local deity?And, although the present race in Ireland is backward andinferior, it is worth taking into account the fact that it is theonly race of the entire Celtic family that has not been willingto sell its birthright for a mess of pottage. I find it rather naive to heap insults on England for hermisdeeds in Ireland. A conqueror cannot be casual, and for somany centuries the Englishman has done in Ireland only what theBelgian is doing today in the Congo Free State, and what theNipponese dwarf will do tomorrow in other lands. She enkindledits factions and took over its treasury. By the introduction of anew system of agriculture, she reduced the power of the nativeleaders and gave great estates to her soldiers. She persecutedthe Roman church when it was rebellious and stopped when itbecame an effective instrument of subjugation. Her principalpreoccupation was to keep the country divided, and if a LiberalEnglish government that enjoyed the full confidence of theEnglish voters were to grant a measure of autonomy to Irelandtomorrow, the conservative press of England would immediatelybegin to incite the province of Ulster against the authority inDublin. She was as cruel as she was cunning. Her weapons were, andstill are, the batteringram, the club, and the rope。 sung in public without a storm of hisses, shouts, andshushes that made the solemn and majestic music absolutelyinaudible. But to be convinced of this separation, one shouldhave been in the streets when Queen Victoria entered the Irishcapital the year before her death. Above all, it is necessary tonotice that when an English monarch wants to go to Ireland, forpolitical reasons, there is always a lively flurry to persuadethe mayor to receive him at the gates of the city. But, in fact,the last monarch who entered had to be content with an informalreception by the sheriff, since the mayor had refused the honour.(I note here merely as a curiosity that the present mayor ofDublin is an Italian, Mr. Nannetti.) Queen Victoria had been in Ireland only once, fifty yearsbefore,l [nine years] after her marriage. At that time, the Irish(who had not pletely forgotten their fidelity to theunfortunate Stuarts, nor the name of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots,nor the legendary fugitive, Bonnie Prince Charlie) had the wickedidea of mocking the Queen39。s palace atOreto. In sum, the period that ended in Ireland with the invasion ofthe Scandinavian tribes in the eighth century is nothing but anunbroken record of apostleships, and missions, and martyrdoms.King Alfred, who visited the country and left us his impressionsof it in the verses called 39。 and later, after having undergone the invasions of theSpanish and Gaelic tribes, it was converted to Christianity bySt. Patrick and his followers, and again earned the title of39。 fianchi e cosi poco, Michele Scotto fu, che veramente Delle magiche frode seppe il gioco. In truth, it would take the learning and patience of aleisurely Bollandist to relate the acts of these saints andsages. We at least remember the notorious opponent of St. Thomas,John Duns Scotus (called the Subtle Doctor to distinguish himfrom St. Thomas, the Angelic Doctor, and from Bonaventura, theSeraphic Doctor) who was the militant champion of the doctrine ofthe Immaculate Conception, and, as the chronicles of that periodtell us, an unbeatable dialectician. It seems undeniable thatIreland at that time was an immense seminary, where scholarsgathered from the different countries of Europe, so great was itsrenown for mastery of spiritual matters. Although assertions ofthis kind must be taken with great reservations, it is more thanlikely (in view of the religious fervour that still prevails inIreland, of which you, who have been nourished on the food ofscepticism in recent years, can hardly form a correct idea) thatthis glorious past is not a fiction based