Ireland is also credited with the doubtful honour of having given birth to Pelagius and his associate Caelestius.[61] Both flourished in the beginning of the fifth century. Zimmer contended that Pelagius was an Irishman,[62] but Healy shows that he was a British monk of Irish origin.[63] Healy also endeavours to prove that the assumption that Caelestius was an Irishman is based on a misconception.[64] Against this view we must place Meyer’s opinion. The latter asserts that whether Pelagius was an Irishman or not “his faithful henchman, Caelestius, he of the plausible tongue, certainly was.”[65] The weight of evidence seems to point to the conclusion that one or other, if not both, of these heresiarchs was Irish or at least of Irish descent. Enough was written to show that some Irish families at least were in reach of a classical literary education and were prompt to grasp it even before the middle of the fifth century.[66] Hence we cannot attribute the introduction of classical learning to St. Patrick as has been so often asserted. Nor can we attribute to St. Patrick the introduction of Christianity itself. According to Zimmer there were missionaries at work in the third century in the southern part of Ireland.[67] It would seem, however, that Zimmer makes too sweeping a statement when he says that Ireland was a Christian land before the fifth century; for, as MacCaffery has pointed out, the Irish Hero Tales which were taken down about the beginning of the eighth century represent the life of the first, second and third centuries and paint the social life as unaffected by Christianity.[68] That there were some Christians in Ireland before the time of St. Patrick there can be no doubt. Bede distinctly states that Palladius, the predecessor of St. Patrick, was sent by Pope Celestine to the Irish who believed in Christ—“_ad Scottos in Christum credentes_.”[69] Here it should be pointed out that the word _Scoti_ or _Scotti_ wherever it occurs in writings prior to the tenth century means the _Irish_, and the Irish alone, the inhabitants of Scotia Major (Ireland). Later the term was extended to include the Irish colony in North Britain (Scotia Minor). Eventually the name was still further extended to include the inhabitants of the whole country now called Scotland.[70]