But in the same way that Knox unfortunately found it expedient to destroy many beautiful buildings, books, and customs of the Roman Catholic Church at the time of the Reformation, so the early Celtic Church in conflict with an ancient and debasing paganism felt it necessary, while tolerating many ancient customs and superstitions, to resist the leaven of heathenism in every shade and form, and thus even to ignore the compositions which breathed so freely its spirit and atmosphere. There is a high probability that the best minds felt the hardship of having to turn their backs upon the most beautiful of these literary products of their race. For example, in the “Dialogue of the Sages,” found in the Book of Lismore, it is recorded that St. Patrick himself felt rather uneasy at the delight with which he listened to the stories of the ancient Feinn, and feared it might be wrong in him to enjoy or show his appreciation of those pagan narratives, yet when he consulted his guardian angels, they not only assured him that there was no harm in listening to the tales, but even counselled him to have them written down in the words of ollamhs, “for,” said they, “it will be a rejoicing to numbers and to the good people to the end of time to listen to these stories.” The missionaries appear to have been too earnest and consistent in their struggle with the gnarled roots of paganism to indulge their taste in writing what they could not help admiring as tales of great literary beauty, and very fascinating. And so for two or three centuries, though the cultivation of writing and bardic compositions went steadily on, none of the ancient pagan products found patrons sufficiently literary to commit them to MSS. The new school followed a style and trend of its own, and in addition to endless transcribing, produced Latin prose works of its own, prominent among which may be mentioned St. Patrick’s _Confession_, and “Epistle to Coroticus,” Cummene’s and Adamnan’s _Lives of St. Columba_, Brendan’s _Navigatio_ or _Voyaging_, each of which have had a wide vogue throughout the Middle Ages, and since. Among its Gaelic contributions are many beautiful poems, some of ancient renown, on account of their theme or author, such as Dallan Forgaill’s _Amra Choluimcille_, St. Columba’s own numerous lyrics—that on Derry, on Cormac’s visit, his “Farewell to Ara,” all breathing love of nature and affection for home. Then we have the verses of Cennfaelad, who died in 678; Aengus the Culdee’s “Feilire,” or Calendar, about 800; the poems in the Monastery of St. Paul, Carinthia; and the verses in the Codex Boernerianus; the “Saltair na Rann,” about the year 1000, a collection of 162 poems in early middle Irish.