The members of Bardic Order became so numerous and exacting in their demands as to arouse widespread dissatisfaction with the result that the complete abolition of the Order was contemplated. Owing to the timely intervention of St. Columba reform was substituted for abolition. At the Convention of Drum-Ceata in 573 A.D. St. Columba who had received part of his own education in a Bardic School pleaded the cause of the bards with such success that the whole system of public secular education was reorganized. The scheme was devised by the chief poet (_ard-ollamh_) of Ireland, Dallan Forgaill. There was to be a chief school or college for each of the five provinces; and under these were several smaller schools, one for each _tuath_ or district. They were all endowed with lands and all those persons who needed it received free education in them. The heads of these schools were _ollamhna_ doctors of literature and poetry, and were all laymen.[201] There was now a great tendency towards specialization. Many schools became noted for the excellency of their teaching in particular branches of learning according to the individual tastes or bent of mind of the teachers or the traditions of the several schools. These subjects whether Law, History, Antiquities, Poetry, etc. were commonly taught by the same family for generations.[202] EDUCATION OF LAYMEN: It has sometimes been asserted that in early times learning in Ireland was confined to ecclesiastics, but this assertion is quite erroneous. We have shown that there were numerous facilities afforded laymen both for a professional and a general education. Nearly all the professional men, physicians, lawyers (Brehons), poets, builders, and historians were laymen; lay tutors were employed to teach princes; and in fact laymen played a very important part in the diffusion of knowledge and in building up that character for learning that rendered Ireland famous in former times.[203] A glance through Ware’s _Irish Writers_, or O’Reilly’s _Irish Writers_, or Hyde’s _Literary History of Ireland_ or Miss Hull’s _Text Book of Irish Literature_ is enough to convince the most sceptical on this point.[204] RELATION OF THE LAY SCHOOL TO THE MONASTIC SCHOOL: