# Quote — Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilization

> A century after the death of Patrick... there were few Romans left in western Europe. [By the mid sixth century] the whole subtle substructure of Roman political organization and Roman communication has vanished. In its place have grown the sturdy little principalities of the Middle Ages, Gothic illiterates ruling over Gothic illiterates, pagan or occasionally Arian—that is, following a debased, simpleminded form of Christianity in which Jesus was given a status similar to that of Mohammed in Islam.

- Author: [Thomas Cahill](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill.md)
- Book: [How the Irish Saved Civilization](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Cahill#How_the_Irish_Saved_Civilization_(1995)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/a-century-after

## More from this book

> Never interested in impressive edifices, Irish monks preferred to spend their time in study, prayer, farming—and, of course, copying. ...a little hut for each monk... a refectory and kitchen; a scriptorium and library; a smithy, a kiln, a mill, and a couple of barns; a modest church—and they were in business.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/never-interested-in-impressive.md)

> Beowulf grappling with the monstors was a type of Christ grappling with Satan.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/beowulf-grappling-with.md)

> For a century and a half—from the middle of the fifth century to the end of the sixth—there had been... no formal communication between Rome and the Christians of Britain, nor had there been any between Rome and Ireland...

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-cahill/how-the-irish-saved-civilization/for-a-century.md)