The last few weeks will be devoted to independent research.

Introduction

1. What is Cahill’s thesis?

2. According to Cahill, why have historians overlooked Celtic and Catholic contributions to the

preservation of Western Civilization?

Chapter One

1. Why did Rome fall? (Consider Augustine, Petrarch, Gibbon, & Machiavelli)

2. What led to the external pressure on the empire?

3. How does Ausonius represent internal weakness?

4. What are the other internal weaknesses?

5. What are the lessons for America? Do you agree?

Chapter Two

1. What are some of the tangible effects of a world in chaos?

2. Augustine is seen as "the last great classical man..." and Cahill identifies three influences on his work:

Virgil, Cicero, and Plato. What aspect of Roman Civilization does each of these three represent?

3. Cahill argues that the literature of classical civilization was saved but the spirit was lost. What took its

place?

4. What is Cahill’s view of episcopal authority?

5. What are Augustine’s contributions (as the "first medieval man") and what position did he take in

response to Pelagius and the Donatists?

Chapter Three

1. Who were the Celts?

2. What does the Tain reveal about the pre-Christian Irish character? What is valued? What about the role

of women?

3. How can the culture be described? (Social structure)

Chapter Four

1. How is St. Patrick’s Breastplate an example of the "bright side" of Christianity? How does it represent

a uniquely Irish Christianity?

2. How is Patrick contrasted with Augustine?

3. What are the main events in Patrick’s story?

Chapter Five

1. What difficulties would Patrick have faced in converting the Celts, that missionaries within the Roman

Empire would not have faced at this time?

2. Cahill identifies three aspects of the Irish consciousness that Patrick was able to tap into in his

missionary activity. One is the "subconscious fear of death", the second is that reality id "arbitrary" and

"fluid" and the third is that "the impassive godhead demands" blood for the sins of the people. A) What

examples does Cahill use to illustrate these aspects of the Irish consciousness? B) How does Patrick

transform these through Christianity?

Chapter Six

1. Consider St. Edmund Campion’s description of the Irish. Does it still ring true?

2. What is "Green Martyrdom"? What model did the Irish use? Into what did it evolve? How does the

story of Kevin of Glendalough illustrate this evolution?

3. What was the Irish monks’ response to non-Christian texts?

4. What insights into the scribal mind can we gain from the poem about Pangur Ban?

5. What influences are seen in the development of Irish script and ornamentation?

6. What is a codex? What materials were used?

7. What is the story of Columcille, his exile and his establishment of Iona?

8. Beginning on page 171, Cahill discusses the unique development of Christianity in Ireland.

a. What distinguished Irish Catholicism from Roman Catholicism?

b. Why did such differences exist and persist?

9. Iona is seen as the first step in reintroducing classic civilization to Europe. Explain White Martyrdom

and Columcille’s legacy.

10. Provide an example of Columbanus’ "swaggering behavior".

11. What is Columbanus’ legacy?

12. What is the legacy of the Irish exiles?

Chapter Seven

1. What was discussed at the Synod of Whitby? Who were the participants?

2. What examples does Cahill give to support the idea of Carolingian reliance on Irish scholarship?

3. What forces have threatened or destroyed Irish cultural leadership and Irish identity? Is there hope of

an Irish cultural rebirth?

4. "Perhaps history is always divided into Romans and Catholics," writes Cahill. What does he mean?