Above : Picture of St Columbanus

The monk, Dungal, who gained glory as a theologian, an astronomer and a poet was, like Columbanus, a pupil of the great school of Bangor. The same obscurity surrounds his early years as in the cases of Columbanus and John Scotus, and he does not emerge into fame until we find him already recognised as a notable personality in the French schools. He appears to have gone to France in the early years of the ninth century, attracted by the reputation which Charlemagne had gained as a patron of learning. In the year 811 he addressed a remarkable letter to Charlemagne on two solar eclipses which had taken place in the previous year. He seems at this time to have been a member of the community of St. Denis, and it may be inferred from the tone of his letter to the Emperor that he was intimate with him and was held in high esteem on account of his learning. While Dungal’s ex­planation of the eclipses is not scientifically correct in all points, it is, in the main, suffi­ciently accurate, and, considering the time at which it was written, it justifies the high estimation in which he was held as an astronomer. The letter also shows a wide acquaintance with the classical authors who had treated this subject, and proves that Dungal was one of the first Latinists of his age. An eulogy of Charlemagne, and certain smaller poems of Dungal that have been preserved are evidence that he was possessed of a fine classical taste. He is principally remembered, however, account of his famous controversy with Claudius, Bishop of Turin, on the subject of image worship. The Council of Nice had defined the position of the Church with regard to the use of images, but many of the bishops of France held heterodox views on the subject, and a controversy was carried on with much heat in the Frankish empire during the first quarter of the ninth century. Foremost amongst those who held heterodox views was Claudius of Turin, whose opinions concerning the use of images were similar to those which were afterwards held by the Calvinists and the English Puritans of the seventeenth century. Claudius went so far as to remove the crosses from his cathedral, and to break the images of the saints and the holy pictures on the walls. A friend, the Abbot Theodomir, wrote to Claudius reminding him how unworthy it was of a Christian bishop to insult the Cross of Christ, and to dishonour the images of the Saints and Martyrs. This letter only provoked a furious reply from Claudius, and it was the reply that induced Dungal to appear as a champion of orthodoxy, and to produce a treatise setting forth the doctrines of the Church on the whole matter. He was at the time residing at Pavia, and he tells us that many times since his arrival in Italy, he had just cause to complain when he saw the field of the Lord overgrown with tares, yet he held his peace with grief and pain. He could, however, do so no longer when he saw the Church distracted and fhe people seduced by deceivers. He sets out clearly the points at issue, and then proceeded to demolish the arguments of Claudius, and to prove the Catholic doctrine and practice, ” which for 820 years or more was followed by the blessed Fathers, by most religious princes, and by all Christian households.”

In his treatise Dungal shows a great knowledge of Sacred Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. It is composed in a Latin style, which is not excelled by any writer of the age, and Muratori says that it is remarkable both on accouni of the width of learning it discloses, and of the manner in which it is written. It fully achieved its purpose, and after Dungal’s vigorous refutation of Claudius, the Iconoclastic party in the Church were not afterwards heard of. By his able advocacy of the truth, Dungal rendered a signal service to the Church, and it is doubtful whether any ecclesiastic of his day could have discharged the task so well and so successfully.

Cardinal Newman pays him a well-deserved tribute in his description of the work which Irishmen did in passing on the tradition of civilisation to France. ” When,” he writes, ” the heretical Claudius of Turin exulted over the ignorance of the devastated churches of the Continent, and called the Synod of Bishops who summoned him to appear before them ‘a congregation of asses,’ it was no other than the Irish Dungal, a monk of St. Denis, who met and overthrew the presumptuous railer.”

Below : St. Denis Picture

Towards the end of his life, Dungal retired to the monastery that was founded by St. Columbanus at Bobbio, and to this monastery he be­queathed his books at his death. They were transferred to Milan by Cardinal Borromeo, and now form part of the Ambrosian Library. Amongst them is an Antiphonary which appears to have been in use in Bangor.

Another famous man of learning, Dicuil the Geographer, has left us in his treatise De Mensura Orbit Terrarum one of the most interesting and valuable monuments of Irish scholarship in the ninth century, a book which is in itself a sufficient proof of the culture of our native schools at that period. From a few incidental references which he makes to himself in this treatise he appears to have been trained at the great school of Clonmac-noise at the time when Suibhne was professor there, and to have subsequently visited the Irish foundations at Iona and the islands on the West of Scotland. He shows an acquaintance with the best authorities on his subject, including the Re­port of the Commissioners who were sent to survey the Roman Empire by the Emperor Theodosius, the Natural History of Plinius Secundus, the Geography of Caius Julius Solinus, and a little known work of Priscian. When writing of the Nile he tells us that he derived his knowledge of the canalisation of this river from the narrative of certain Irish clerics and laymen who had sailed up it for a long way on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem He gives the measurement of one of the Egyptian Pyramids which was supplied to him by his countryman Brother Fidelis. He also gives an interesting description of Iceland, and shows that it was known to Irish monks more than fifty years before the Danes or Norwegians discovered the island, a fact that is now admitted by scholars familiar with Icelandic literature and history. “A certain trustworthy monk” told him of the existence of the Faroe Islands, and how he had reached one of them by sailing for two summer days and one summer night in a vessel with two benches of rowers, and discovered that for almost a century there had dwelt on these islands hermits from Ireland. Dicuil goes on to say that lie had never found these islands mentioned by any pre­vious writer.