A.'s contributions to literature were few, and,
in comparison with his extraordinary learning, comparatively unimportant.
He wrote upon _Cardinal Wolsey_ (1877) and _German Schools of History_
(1886). He was extremely modest, and the loftiness of his ideals of
accuracy and completeness of treatment led him to shrink from tasks which
men of far slighter equipment might have carried out with success. His
learning and his position as a universally acknowledged master in his
subject were recognised by his appointment in 1895 as Professor of Modern
History at Cambridge. Perhaps his most valuable services to historical
literature were his laying down the lines of the great _Cambridge Modern
History_, and his collection of a library of 60,000 vols., which after
his death was purchased by an American millionaire and presented to Lord
Morley of Blackburn, who placed it in the University of Cambridge.
ADAMNAN, ST. (625?-704).--Historian, _b._ in Donegal, became Abbot of
Iona in 679. Like other Irish churchmen he was a statesman as well as an
ecclesiastic, and appears to have been sent on various political
missions.
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