During the time between the departure of the Romans and the coming of the Saxons, the conversion of Scotland and Ireland was begun by the Celts. Ninian, son of a British chief, after having a foreign education, established a community at Whithorn in Scotland; while a youth named Patrick, stolen from the Clyde by the slave traders, after being taught in the schools of Tours, Auxerre and Terins, was, in due time, consecrated Bishop of the Irish. Accompanied by twelve friends, he landed where Wicklow now stands, in 432, and, after meeting with much encouragement, established the See of Armagh. All this missionary work may thus be attributed to British initiative as it is obvious the See of Rome had little, if any, share therein. Adverse times fell upon the British Church with the arrival of the Jutes in 449, the Saxons in 477, and finally the Angles in 547. The Britons were driven westward, fearful destruction fell on the church, and Paganism reigned again in Britain. But, though scattered abroad, the Celts continued their missionary work--established cathedrals and monastic foundations in Wales, _i.e._ Llandaff, A.D. 500, Bangor and St David’s, 540, and St Asaph, 570, Sees which have had a continuous succession of bishops to the present day. St Finian of Clonard established communities in Ireland; St Columba landed in Scotland in 565 and founded a monastic house at Iona; and in West Wales (Cornwall and Devonshire), Christian teaching was promoted. A recent writer--F. H. Homes Dudden in _Gregory the Great_--says-- “The Welsh Church at this time was essentially a monastic church, its whole organisation being built up round the monasteries. Its bishops were members, usually abbots, of monastic establishments, and they seem to have been non-diocesan. Its clergy also were attached to the monasteries, built on monastic land, served by monastic clergy, and called after the saint by whom the monastery was founded.... Further, the constitution of this monastic church was essentially tribal.... Every great monastic establishment was a sort of spiritual clan, in which the abbot was chieftain, the officials represented the heads of the tribal families, and the monks were the tribesmen.... Thus, just as secular Wales consisted of groups of tribesmen clustering round powerful lay chieftains, so ecclesiastical Wales consisted of groups of tribesmen clustering round a few great monasteries founded by important saints.”