from England, as if upon this fruitful soil there were not abundance of _Argivi didasculi_ (or Greek masters), to be found fully capable of solving the deepest problems of religion and satisfying the most ambitious of students.”[248] Zimmer looks upon the reluctance of Aldhelm to acknowledge the superiority of the Irish monastic schools as an additional testimony in their favour.[249] There are some grounds for believing that Alcuin whose name is intimately connected with the Carolingian revival of learning studied in Ireland, probably in Clonmacnoise. Meyer,[250] Joyce,[251] and Healy,[252] do not hesitate to claim him as a student of Clonmacnoise. Turner[253] thinks it more probable that he was a student of the school of York (in which case he came under Irish as well as Roman influence[254]) but regards him as representative of Irish rather than English scholarship. The opinion that Alcuin studied at Clonmacnoise is based on a letter[255] which is evidently one of a series written by Alcuin to Colchu (d. 792 A.D.), Fer-leighinn, or Headmaster of the school of Clonmacnoise. This Colchu was a very distinguished scholar and teacher. There is no evidence that he ever left Ireland, but his name was well known on the Continent. The general opinion of his contemporaries was that “no one in any age or any country was equal to him in learning, or equal to him in sanctity.”[256] In this letter, which is of a very cordial nature, Alcuin styles Colchu his holy father and speaks of himself as his son. The writer complains that for some time past he was not deemed worthy to receive any of those letters so precious in his sight, and concludes by saying he is sending a messenger with presents from himself and King Charles (Charlemagne) to Clonmacnoise and other Irish monasteries.[257] Dr. Healy points out that some of these gifts are of such a nature as to suggest that Alcuin had a personal knowledge of the needs of Irish monasteries.[258] No doubt, further research would reveal many other instances of foreign students who sought in Ireland and there were freely given the education which was not available in their own lands. In summarising the conclusions which we believe are justified by the facts presented in this chapter we would say: 1. That both the monastic schools and the bardic schools were so intimately connected with the native Irish social system that they were not antagonistic but rather complementary to each other.