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 LIBRARY 
 
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THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
THE 
 
 REMAINS OF St, PATRICK, 
 
 APOSTLE OF IRELAND, 
 
 THE CONFESSIO AND EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 
 ftranslatcb into (^nrjltsTj 33Ianfc Fcrsr, 
 
 with 
 i 
 
 A DISSERTATION ON THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS CONTAINED 
 
 IN THE "TRIAS TIIAUMATURGA " AND " BOOK OF ARMAGH," 
 
 ETC. 
 
 BY 
 
 SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON, LL.D., 
 
 President of the Royal IrisJt Academy. 
 
 DUBLIN: 
 
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 94, 95 & 96 Middle Abbey Street. 
 
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 5 York Street, Coyent Garden. 
 
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 LOAN STACK 
 
PRHbfl 
 
 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS 
 
 13 Y 
 
 Sir Samuel Ferguson, LL.D. 
 
 
 
 THE CONFESSIO AND EPISTLE TO COROTICUS. 
 
 323 
 
The Publishers of this cheap edition of Sir Samuel 
 Ferguson's works beg to announce that they have 
 taken steps to ensure the copyright in America and 
 elsewhere, and that any infringement of it will be 
 jyanishable by law. 
 
5 2>efcicatc tbts ^Sooft 
 
 TO 
 
 FOUR FRIENDS, MUCH ESTEEMED AND VALUED BY ME 
 
 AS WELL AS EY HIM WHOM I DEPLORE. 
 
 THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN 
 
 AND 
 
 THE BISHOP OF MEAXH, 
 
 WHOSE APPRECIATION OF THIS, ALMOST THE LATEST WORK 
 
 OF MY HUSBAND'S LIFE, HAS ENCOURAGED ME 
 
 TO RE-PUBLISH IT ; 
 
 AND ALSO TO 
 
 THE BISPIOP OF DOWN, CONNOR AND DROMORE 
 
 AND 
 
 THE REV. ROBERT KING, 
 
 WHOSE LEARNED AND DELIGHTFUL WORKS HAVE INTERESTED 
 
 ME FROM EARLY YOUTH IN THE HISTORY OF OUR 
 
 IRISH SAINTS. 
 
 TO THEIR 
 
 LONG AND TRIED FRIENDSHIP, AS WELL AS TO THEIR 
 
 WRITINGS, I AM INDEBTED FOR MUCH OF THE 
 
 HAPPINESS OF MY LIFE. 
 
 M. C. FERGUSON. 
 
 20 North Great George's Street, Dublin, 
 August, 1 888. 
 
Introduction, 
 
 I haye to thank the Council of the Royal Irish Academy 
 for the permission kindly accorded to me to re-publish 
 my husband's last contribution to the Transactions of that 
 learned body, of which he was President at the time of 
 his death. 
 
 The Patrician Documents was the title that Sir Samuel 
 Ferguson gave to these papers ; they consisted of his 
 translation into English blank verse, of the Confessio and 
 the Coroticus Epistle, which are admitted by scholars to be 
 authentic writings of St. Patrick himself, and to have 
 come down to us from the fifth century of our era. The 
 Patrician Documents included dissertations upon these, 
 and on the lives published by Colgan in his Trias 
 Thaumaturga, as well as an examination into the collec- 
 tions in the Book of Armagh and elsewhere, not accessible 
 to Colgan, who wrote in the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. 
 
 To the ordinary reader without pretension to scholar- 
 ship, nor specially interested in the controversies of 
 these early days, the chief attraction of these writings 
 of St. Patrick will be the revelation they afford of the 
 man himself ; of his character, motives, and springs of 
 action ; of what he aimed at and what achieved. They 
 furnish what may be fairly described as the great mission- 
 ary Saint's autobiography. 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 His family were of good condition. "I was born 
 noble, my father a Decurio." That father, Calpliurn, was 
 not only a Roman official, but was also an ecclesiastic, 
 a deacon, the son of a presbyter, Potitus, and resided 
 on a farm at " Bannow of Tabernia," which the narrative 
 implies to have been in insular Britain, and within the 
 Roman Province, bounded by the wall of Agricola, 
 between the estuaries of the Clyde and Forth. The 
 wall restored in the second century by the Emperor 
 Antoninus Pius, was the defence of the civilized and chris- 
 tianized Britons against the incursions of the Picts and 
 Scots. 
 
 The birthplace of St. Patrick has not been recorded 
 by himself, but later biographers state it to have been 
 called Nemthor, otherwise Ail-clyde. Ail-clyde has 
 been identified with Dumbarton on the Clyde, the 
 western terminus of the Roman Wall. Saint Patrick 
 tells us that he was carried captive to Ireland, in the 
 sixteenth year of his age, doubtless in one of the piratical 
 expeditions of the Pagan Scoti, or Irish, and was there 
 sold into slavery. It was his hapless fate to herd the 
 cattle of his master on the mountain of Slemish, in the 
 present county of Antrim. Here, friendless and alone, 
 he passed six years in want and hardship, but with leisure 
 for reflection. Although in his boyhood a member of 
 a, Christian family, the future Apostle of the Irish was 
 ignorant of God, and estranged from his Commandments; 
 but now the Lord, pitying his youth and ignorance, 
 visited and consoled him, turning his heart to Him, so 
 that he attained the " touch and apprehension " of his 
 God, and was prepared to confess Him before men. Saint 
 Patrick speaks of himself as unlearned and ignorant, and 
 the debased Latin in which he writes — which was common 
 at the time in Western Europe — intermixed as it is with 
 
INTRODUCTION. xi 
 
 Irish idioms, makes his language in many places very 
 obscure ; yet he was versed in Holy Scripture, and 
 quotes freely from the sacred writings. His humility, 
 his grateful acknowledgments of the Divine mercy 
 bestowed on him, and his earnest zeal for the salvation 
 of souls, are expressed repeatedly in his Confessio. 
 
 " With fear and reverence, 
 Faithful in heart and uncomplainingly, 
 I serve this people, to whom the charity 
 Of Christ assigns me for my rest of life, 
 If I be worthy, that with humble heart 
 And truthful lips, I teach it, in the faith 
 And measure of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 Behoves me, therefore, fearless of rebuke 
 Or danger, that I do set forth the gift 
 And everlasting consolation 
 Of God ; and fearlessly declare His name 
 Abroad where'er I be ; . . . 
 
 But, herding daily here, 
 And often in the day saying my prayers, 
 Daily there more and more did grow in me 
 The fear of God. And holy fear and faith 
 Increased in me, that in a single day 
 Tve said as many as a hundred prayers, 
 And in the night scarce fewer ; so that oft 
 In woods and on the mountain I've remained, 
 And risen to prayer before daylight, through snow, 
 Through frost, through rain, and yet I took no ill, 
 Nor was there in me then aught slow as now, 
 For then the Spirit of God within me burned," 
 
 He tells that in his childhood he had been estranged 
 from God, and remained in death and unbelief, till 
 chastised by hunger, nakedness, and enforced toil in 
 Ireland. 
 
 "Yet these were rather boons to me, because 
 So chastened by the Lord, I now am made 
 What once was far from me, that I should care 
 Or labour for the weal of others 
 Who then took no thought even for myself." 
 
X U INTRODUCTION. 
 
 At last the opportunity of escape presented itself. It 
 was borne in on his mind that he should leave the master 
 whose bondman he had been. Dreams, visions, or an in- 
 ward voice, in which Saint Patrick firmly believed, and 
 throughout his career frequently referred to, whispered 
 that he should see his home again. 
 
 " I heard the voice, 
 And this is what it said : ' Behold, thy ship 
 Is ready,' but the ship lay nowise near, 
 But nigh two hundred miles off, and where I 
 Had never been before, and no man knew. 
 So, thereupon, I turned myself to flight, 
 Leaving the man whom I had served six years, 
 And by the help of God, who showed me well 
 The way to go, nought dreading, found the ship." 
 
 In this vessel he embarked, and after trying experi- 
 ences, during a journey of sixty days, found himself 
 " once more amongst the Britons," with his family, who 
 received him with affectionate warmth, and entreated him 
 never again to leave them. 
 
 The desire to win souls to God, and in especial those of 
 the people among whom he had lived as a slave, over- 
 powered in the missionary saint the love of home and 
 friends and personal ease. Ho was prepared to endure 
 persecutions, and for the good of others forfeit his " own 
 patrician grade." That privilege of birth he was ready 
 to renounce for the benefit of others. "What," he ex- 
 claims, 
 
 " Was it then without God's promises, 
 Or in the body only, that I came 
 To Ireland ? Who compelled me ? Who me bound 
 In spirit that I should no more behold 
 Kindred or early friend ? Whence came the sense 
 Inspiring me with pity for the race 
 That once were my own captors ? " 
 
INTRODUCTION. Xlll 
 
 Saint Patrick has himself answered these questions. 
 He believed that he was specially summoned to his mis- 
 sionary work in Ireland in a dream which he thus 
 records : 
 
 "Ina night vision, I beheld a man 
 Coming as 'twere from Ireland. Victor he. 
 Innumerable letters bore he ; one 
 He gave to me to read. I read one line, 
 4 The voices of the Irish,' so it ran. 
 And while I read methought I beard the cry 
 Of them that by the wood of Focluth dwell, 
 Beside the western ocean, saying thus, 
 ' Come, holy youth, and walk amongst us. Come ! ' 
 All with one voice. It touched me to the heart, 
 And I could read no more, and so awoke. 
 Thank God at last who, after many years, 
 Has given to them according to their cry ! " 
 
 Like the great Apostle of the Gentiles, he, of the Irish, 
 "was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Saint 
 Patrick also resembled St. Paul in the assured conviction 
 that he was divinely appointed to be a witness for Christ, 
 called on to preach Him among the heathen. " /send 
 thee," was the commission of Jesus, " to open their eyes, 
 and to turn them from darkness to light." The parallel 
 is very close. The conversion of both these apostles was 
 independent of the intervention of human instrumenta- 
 lity. These eminently successful evangelists unhesitat- 
 ingly obeyed their call to missionary work, and could 
 alike exclaim, " I do not frustrate the grace of God." 
 
 " Therefore unwearied thanks I render Him 
 Who kept me faithful in temptation's hour, 
 That I to-day should live to offer up 
 Myself a living sacrifice to Him, 
 My Saviour, my Preserver. Well may I 
 Say, Lord, what am I ? or my calling what r 
 That with such favour, with such aid divine, 
 Thou hast environed and uplifted me, 
 As daily I amongst the Gentiles rise 
 
x iv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Higher and higher, whilst I glorify 
 
 Thy name where'er I be. Whate'er befalls, 
 
 Happy or wretched, good or ill, the same 
 
 I deem, and equally for it thakn Thee 
 
 With thanks perpetual, for that Thou hast shown 
 
 Him, the most sure, indubitable One, 
 
 In whom I may believe for ever, Him 
 
 Who will for ever hear me. So, too, I, 
 
 In these last days, though ignorant, may dare 
 
 Address me to a work so holy — good, 
 
 So wondrous, as may even make parity 
 
 'Twixt me and thern, who, He Himself foretold, 
 
 Should bear His joyful message, witnessing 
 
 Him to all people, ere the world should end." 
 
 This is the true missionary spirit: " Freely ye have re- 
 ceived, freely give," and was fully evidenced in Saint 
 Patrick's life and work. " Lo I still spend, and still will'. 
 further spend, happy if He, who can, shall yet allow that 
 for your sakes I even may spend my soul." 
 
 The same yearning love for his converts which charac- 
 terised St. Paul, marks also the personality of Saint 
 
 Patrick. 
 
 " But never, never let me lose the flock 
 He pastures by me in earth's outland here ! 
 God grant me that ! and that I persevere 
 In faithful witness to my journey's end." 
 
 And yet his heart often turned with longing to the- 
 friends from whom he was separated and to his father's 
 house. "Sure 'twere sweet to see one's country and one's 
 kin again." "I declare in truth," adds Saint Patrick, at 
 the close of the Covfessio, " before my God and His most 
 holy angels, that I never had any object, save the gospel 
 and His promises, for returning to that people from 
 whom so hardly I escaped before." 
 
 " And now beseech all them that do believe 
 And fear the Lord, whoe'er they be, shall deign 
 Look on this writing or receive the same, 
 Which, sinner Patrick, I the much-unlearned, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 Have writ in Ireland, that no man may say 
 My ignorance it was dictated aught, 
 If any aught of good be therein seen, 
 Such as may pleasure God ; but rather deem, 
 For certain, that it doth proceed from Him. 
 And this is my confession ere I die." 
 
 The Epistle to Coroticus, which bears internal evidence 
 of having been written by the author of the Confessio, has 
 also been translated by Sir Samuel Ferguson into English 
 blank verse. It is an indignant letter, written to a British 
 prince of that name, who had sold into slavery, to the> 
 apostate Picts and Scots, certain captives, Christian men 
 and women, for whose release the writer earnestly 
 pleads. "It also," observes its translator, "like the Con- 
 fessio, uses some expressions not consonant to the Latin, 
 but to the Celtic idiom, as though the writer in both 
 conceived his thoughts in some form of Celtic speech and 
 expressed them in Latin. ... In the Confessio the 
 inner nature of the writer is seen throughout. In the 
 Coroticus he is seen in his relations with an external 
 world of wrong and suffering, against which he struggles 
 with the grief and indignation any pastor might experi- 
 ence whose flock had been made the prey of lawless 
 violence. Still there breathes through its reproaches 
 and words of technical objurgation a lofty sentiment and 
 energy of imagination which Avould make any prose 
 translation inadequate to its full reproduction." 
 
 This, the oldest document in British history, shows in 
 fresh light the noble, fearless, yet tender and loving per- 
 sonality of the great Apostle of Ireland. He thus con- 
 cludes his letter : 
 
 " I now beseech His servant, whosoe'er 
 Shall set him forth to be the carrier 
 Of these my letters, that he suffer none 
 Abstract them privily, but have them read 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Before all peoples publicly, yea, read 
 In presence of Coroticus himself. 
 
 May God inspire them that they think at length. 
 Of Him, and, even late although it be, 
 .Repent them of the wickedness they've done. 
 Manslayers of their brethren in the Lord 
 They have been. May they yet repent, and free 
 Their captive baptized women ; so that yet 
 They may themselves deserve to live in God 
 And have eternal safety. Now be peace 
 To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen." 
 
 Sir Samuel Ferguson, in his Preface, gives the reason 
 for his selection of the form which he adopted in these 
 translations. "A literal prose translation," he writes, 
 " reflecting all the discontinuances and hesitancies of the 
 original, would indeed repel most readers from the neces- 
 sary task of collecting the general sense and bearing of 
 the whole piece, and would scarcely at all realize the in- 
 tense pervading fervour and, however obstructed in its 
 utterance, the characteristic effusiveness of the original. 
 To convey these in English prose would require some- 
 thing more in the nature of a free paraphrase, which 
 would not be an acceptable constituent in a critical essay. 
 "What appears to me a less repellent and more exact form 
 in which to present the piece, as combining literalness 
 with suitability for the expression of that fervent and 
 effusive feeling which underlies its broken Latinity, is a 
 close version in English blank verse." How he has per- 
 formed the difficult task to which he applied himself, I 
 shall leave to others to state. In the touching funeral 
 address delivered by the Archbishop of Dublin in St. Pat- 
 rick's Cathedral, on the 12th August, 1886, His Grace, 
 Lord Plunket, said, with reference to this work : 
 
 " I have spoken of our dear brother as a sciiolak. He 
 was a man of general culture and of varied learning ; but, 
 as we all know, his chief eminence was attained in the 
 
IXTItODUCTIOX. Xvii 
 
 department of antiquarian research. . . I have 
 spoken of him as a roET. . . . He had the passion 
 and fire of the genuine poet, tempered at the same time 
 by great tenderness and purity. . . . There is, how- 
 ever, among his poems, or rather his poetical translations, 
 one legacy which we who meet together in this cathedral 
 ought specially to prize — I mean the last paper which he 
 read before the Eoyal Irish Academy upon ' Patrician 
 Documents ' — a paper containing a wonderfully beautiful 
 translation of those works which all learned men attri- 
 bute, as genuine, to the great founder of Christianity in 
 tbis land. This translation is one that we must all 
 treasure ; and we should all thank God that, before our 
 dear brother was taken from us, he left us such a legacy." 
 At the first stated general meeting of the Eoyal Irish 
 Academy held subsequently to Sir Samuel Ferguson's 
 decease, his successor in the presidential chair, the Eev. 
 Dr. Haughton, F.T.C.D., observed, in reference to this 
 work: " In the department of antiquities, we have had 
 from our late president the translation of the Patrician 
 Documents into his own graceful and attractive Anglo- 
 Irish, of which he was so complete a master — a transla- 
 tion which must draw and win students of other branches 
 of knowledge who would otherwise have cared little for 
 Saint Patrick and his literary memorials. . . . He 
 (Sir Samuel Ferguson) devoted his life to the effort to 
 win for Ireland, if possible, both in literature and 
 science, the first place. His ideas are perhaps best ex- 
 pressed in his own words : 
 
 " ' The man aspires 
 
 To link his present with his country's past, 
 And live anew in knowledge of his sires. 
 
 No rootless colonist of alien earth, 
 
 Proud, but of patient lungs and pliant limb ; 
 
 A stranger in the land that gave him birth, 
 The land a stranger to itself and him.' " 
 
 b 
 
XV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On the same occasion Robert Atkinson, Esq., LL.D., 
 Secretary of Council, observed of Sir Samuel Ferguson : 
 " The love for antiquarian studies animated him down 
 to the last year of his life, from his first paj)er, published 
 in January, 1838, to his last work on the ' Patrician 
 Documents,' 1885 — a work which gives us the measure 
 alike of the intimacy of his acquaintance with the story 
 of Ireland's Apostle and of his mastery over the riches 
 and beauty of the English tongue." 
 
 About the same time the Bishop of Meath addressed 
 the following letter to the editor of a Dublin news- 
 paper : — 
 
 SIR SAMUEL FERGUSON'S LATEST WORK. 
 
 TO THE EDITOE OF THE IRISH TIMES. 
 
 Sir, — In echoing- the sentiments of deep regret you have 
 well expressed on Sir Samuel Ferguson's death, I wish to take 
 the opportunity of calling the attention of the public to what 
 I believe was the last literary work of his life — it is the trans- 
 lation into verse of the "Remains of St. Patrick." It gives, 
 in a most remarkable manner, a more comprehensible and a 
 juster representation, especially of the " Confession," than 
 any prose translation could do. 
 
 It is, so far as I know, accessible only in the Transactions of 
 the Royal Irish 'Academy. May I express a hope that that 
 learned and scientific body will allow this most remarkable 
 work to be published by itself in such a manner as to become 
 available for use to the general public. 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 C. P. Meatii. 
 
 It may be of interest to mention in connection with 
 this, almost the latest literary work of his life, that Sir 
 Samuel Ferguson's thoughts more than half a century 
 before, had been directed to the history and experiences 
 of Saint Patrick. In his early manhood the personality 
 of the great Apostle of Ireland had impressed itself on 
 his imagination, and in a story written, almost in his 
 boyhood, The Return of Clanehoy, and recently re-published 
 
INTRODUCTION. XIX 
 
 in the first Series of his Hibernian Nights' Entertainments, 
 the characters introduced are taken to the mountain of 
 Slemish, and discourse of the captivity of the Saint, and 
 its results. 
 
 A youthful scion of the house of O'Neill, accompanied 
 by his tutor, is described as having forded the river 
 Bann, and ridden forward in advance of his attendants 
 towards the hills to the north of Connor ; here O'Xeill 
 pulls rein, and addresses his companion : 
 
 "Ho, Loughlin, these are brave mountains ! they look 
 not like other hills ; they are broad-swelling, and rolled 
 together like a wave of the sea, or an army of good war- 
 riors ! How name you that great one that rises over all 
 like the ship among the waves, or the king's presence on 
 the ridge of battle ? " 
 
 " That," answered the Erenach, "is the great Mount 
 Slemish. We shall be on its summit ere sunset, and I 
 shall then show thee the whole land of Dalaradia from 
 Mourne to Eathlin." 
 
 They pursued their way along the vale of Broughshane 
 through thick woods that for a time hid everything else 
 from their view, and were almost under the western 
 precipices of Slemish before they beheld its huge wedge- 
 like bulk piercing the blue sky overhead. 
 * * * * 
 
 Rounding the southern shoulder of Slemish, our tra- 
 vellers came upon a fountain, springing out of the green 
 sward, beside a great stone which seemed to have come 
 down at one bound from the brow of the precipice above, 
 for it was sunk halfway in the earth, and overhanging, 
 as if arrested by the depth of the first dint it had made 
 in the soil. 
 
 Under this they halted. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " Is not this a strange and solemn scene, Prince ? " said 
 the Erenach. " This lonely hollow at our feet, this black 
 rock on which we stand, these w r ooded wildernesses all 
 around, and that solitary well-spring in the midst, rising 
 unwearied and silent, and sliding down the same smooth 
 path from century to century ! Knowest thou who 
 wandered amid these woods and mountains, climbed those 
 rocks, and drank of these blessed waters eight centuries 
 ago ? " 
 
 "I know not," said O'Neill, "unless perhaps a herd 
 of wild boars or a troop of wolves." 
 
 " Oh, holy and blessed Patrick !" exclaimed the Erenach, 
 " was it for this that the visions came to thee by night, 
 and the voice of the unborn infants of Erin crying out of 
 the forest for redemption, that the scene of thy prayer 
 and fasting should be deseited and forgotten, that the 
 people of thy choice should be made vagabond like Cain!" 
 
 " Nay," said O'Neill, " I knew not that the good saint 
 had been a mountaineer of Dalaradia." 
 
 "Knowest thou not the song of Fiech of Sliebtha ?" 
 said the Erenach. 
 
 "From beginning to end," answered O'Neill; "I 
 learned it of Callough Moyle, my grandfather's bard." 
 
 " What says he in his 16th and l*7th stanzas ?" said his 
 preceptor. 
 
 O'Neill repeated the Irish of the following : — 
 
 "By the fountain that never knows drought or decrease, 
 He nightly sang an hundred psalms 
 In service of the King of Angels, 
 Then went he to sleep on the hare rock, 
 His covering round about a damp mantle, 
 His pillow of rest, the hark of the forest tree." 
 
 " And what sayeth his own epistle, when he tells how 
 the love of God increased within him day by day in his 
 captivity ? " questioned the Erenach. 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXI 
 
 O'Neill paused for an instant to recollect, then repeated 
 the passage — " Etiam in sylvis etmonte manebam, et ante 
 lucem excitabar ad orationem, per nivem, per gelu, per 
 pluviam ; et nihil niali sentiebam, neque ulla pigritia erat 
 
 in me." 
 
 " You look now upon these woods," cried theErenach 
 "this is that mountain, and yonder well-spriog is that 
 fount ! Hear me, Prince, we stand on the most blessed 
 ground in Europe, in the cradle of the Church, in the 
 nursery of kingdoms, in the very womb and navel of 
 western Christendom! for here it was, even in this wild 
 and lonely rock of Slemish, that God raised up the re- 
 claimer of the Pagan, and here I make a vow, and I call 
 these hills and waters and these eternal rocks to be 
 perpetual witness against me, that through good and 
 evil, through honour and dishonour, through life and 
 death, I will devote myself to the sacred cause of this 
 thy thrice blessed land's recovery." 
 
 O'Neill stood apart, astonished and in silence, while 
 the other knelt and prayed ; and neither spoke, till at 
 length the Erenach having risen, the Prince turned 
 himself again to the wonders at his feet. 
 
 Fifty years and upwards of a studious life had passed 
 ere Sir Samuel Ferguson again turned his mind to the 
 elucidation of Saint Patrick's history. How he worked 
 and how he laboured that he might preserve the story of 
 the dear ancestral Island, this book as well as many- 
 other products of his pen will testify. In the prose portion 
 of this work he entered fully into critical inquiries as to 
 the date and credibility of the various lives of St. Patrick 
 which have come down to us from the sixth and subse- 
 quent centuries. 
 
 " These Secondary Evidences," he writes, " consist of 
 the seven lives published by Colgan in his Trias Thauimi- 
 
XXU INTRODUCTION. 
 
 turga, and of the collections in the Book of Armagh not 
 accessible to him, supplemented by the valuable matter 
 lately restored to them from the Royal Library of Brussels, 
 by the Bev. Edward" Hogan, in his ' Docunienta de Sco. 
 Patricio.' " 
 
 The earliest of these is known as the "Fiacc Metrical 
 Life, " certainly later in date than A.D. 565, as it alludes 
 to the abandonment of Tara, which had been for some 
 GOO years the seat of regal power in Ireland, but was 
 deserted in the sixth century after Christ. It is written 
 in Irish, ' ' a very archaic example of the language, and 
 is composed in rhymed verse." This Sir Samuel has 
 rendered in couplets, following the text and translation, 
 printed by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his " Goidelica." 
 
 Lives II., III., IV. in the Trias Thaumaturga, ascribed 
 by Colgan, to Patrick junior, Benignus, and Eleran the 
 Wise, bear internal evidence of being of later compo- 
 sition than the Annotations of Tirechan, in the Book of 
 Armagh. This MS., now in the Library of Trinity 
 College, Dublin, is a small vellum quarto, the writing of 
 which is ascribed to Ferdomnach, who died A.D. 844. 
 In its pages he requests the prayers of its readers — Pro 
 ferdomnaclio ores. The manuscript is inferred on other 
 grounds to have been penned in the year 807. The 
 notices it contains of St. Patrick are considered by that 
 eminent scholar, Dr. Beeves, now Bishop of Down and 
 Connor, to be the oldest and most authentic now in 
 existence. The Book of Armagh is not only the source 
 from whence other biographies borrow, but it has pre- 
 served earlier traditions and preceding literature ; such, 
 for example, as the so-called Dicta Patricii, and the 
 Gonfessio which Tirechan quotes as the writing of St. 
 Patrick himself, calling it scriptio sua, The same vener- 
 able manuscript contains also what is known as the 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXU1 
 
 Midrcliu Life. Of this portion of the Book of Armagh, 
 some chapters are missing ; these have been recently re- 
 covered from a vellum MS. life of St. Patrick, in the Eoyal 
 Library at Brussels, which as mentioned above, has been 
 carefully compared by the Rev. E. Hogan, S.J., with the 
 Armagh Codex, as it proved to be a perfect twelfth century 
 copy of the Muirchu Life in the Book of Armagh, and 
 to contain the missing chapters from the older manuscript. 
 
 The fifth and sixth Lives, ascribed by Colgan to Probus 
 and Jocelyn, date from about the tenth century, and 
 yield in interest and value to the seventh Life known as 
 the Tripartite with its duplicate in Irish. "This," writes 
 Sir Samuel Ferguson, " is the most copious repertory of 
 all ; and from the fact that the first elements of almost 
 all its matter may be found in the Book of Armagh, either 
 recorded at length or indicated in the rough index to 
 names of persons and places at the end of Tirechan in 
 that collection, there can be little doubt that whatever 
 be the date of its compilation in its present form, most of 
 its substance is drawn from traditions, which were current 
 before the compilation of the Armagh Codex. It may, 
 therefore, be of an authority equal to that of any of the 
 antecedent Lives." 
 
 Sir Samuel Ferguson enters at length upon the inter- 
 esting yet complex inquiries suggested by these "Lives" 
 and "Documents," and discusses their points of agree- 
 ment and of difference as amongst one another, as well 
 as their date and comparative value', and points out the 
 immense difficulty of attempted reconcilements of the 
 details given in these " Secondary Evidences " with the 
 facts recorded by Saint Patrick himself in the " Primary 
 Evidences " — namely, the Confessio and Epistle to Coroticus. 
 He has marshalled these authorities with the utmost 
 clearness of statement, the result, no doubt, of his legal 
 
Xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 training, wide knowledge of the subject, love of truth, 
 and candour of mind. He thus sums up his labours : 
 
 " The evidences, it is believed, are here somewhat more 
 systematically marshalled. ... To judge of these 
 elements of opinion, it was necessary that both sets of 
 evidence should be before the reader, and they are now, it 
 is believed for the first time, presented in one catenation." 
 
 The prose portion of his work is, in short, a judicial 
 summing up of evidence by a clear and competent judge. 
 But the reader must undertake the responsibilities of the 
 intelligent juryman. This is a task from which some may 
 shrink, and for such it may be desirable to attempt some 
 elucidation of these disputed points. 
 
 The reader, familiar with the legends derived from later 
 sources and the controversies grounded thereon, as to 
 whether Saint Patrick visited Gaul, Lerins, Rome, &c, 
 and received his commission from St. Germanus of 
 Auxerre, or Bishop Amathorex, or Pope Ctdestine him- 
 self, will do well to observe that the Confessio and Epistle 
 to Coruticus afford no data on which to decide these 
 questions. They contain but a casual allusion to Gaul 
 and none whatsoever to Italy, nor are any of the above- 
 named personages alluded to. The writer dwells, in the 
 Confessio, on his attachment to his Irish converts and 
 unwillingness to leave them, even although 
 
 ) 
 
 <; 'T\vere sweet 
 To see one's country and one's kin again ; \ 
 Or farther yet proceeding, even to Gaul, 
 To see the brethren, and the faces see 
 Of my Lord's saints, God knows I were right glad ! 
 But in the Spirit am bound ; and He declares 
 I were God's recreant did I leave them so. 
 Moreover, truth it is, I would not lose 
 The fruit of all my labour, well begun. 
 Yet 'tis not I determine, but my Lord, 
 He who commanded I should hither come, 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 That here I should fulfil mv rest of days 
 In serving them, and so methinks I shall." 
 
 So that it seems almost implied that the apostle did not 
 elect to leave Ireland, and this is the only passage in these, 
 his undoubted writings, in which he refers to the possi- 
 bility of a visit to Gaul. But he does refer to a second 
 captivity subsequent to the six years of slavery from 
 which he escaped in the ship which bore him from 
 Ireland. He minutely describes the journey : 
 
 " We forthwith sailed, and in a three days' run 
 We took the land ; and eight and twenty days 
 We crossed a desert after, where our food 
 Failed, and keen hunger fell upon us all." 
 
 In answer — as Saint Patrick believed — to his prayer, a 
 drove of swine crossed their path, on which they fed. 
 They also found wild honey in the wood. On that same 
 night Saint Patrick suffered from, nightmare — a not un- 
 natural result of the abundant meal of swine's flesh and 
 honey partaken of under the circumstances recorded, but 
 deemed by the sufferer to be a visitation of Satan, who, 
 as " I lay sleeping, fell on me, as a mighty mass of rock 
 might fall." But on his calling " Helias " with all his 
 might, he saw the sun rise in the heavens, and adds : 
 
 11 I think 
 'Twas Christ my Lord who gave my cry for help, 
 And sent His succour." 
 
 And then, quoting from St. Matthew's Gospel, " It is not 
 ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh 
 in you," goes on to state : 
 
 " Whereby again 
 I suffered bondage after many years. 
 Continuing till this day, from that first night." 
 
 Sir Samuel Ferguson is of opinion that the " bondage " 
 Saint Patrick " suffered " was a spiritual bondage. " It 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was the first occasion," he writes, "on which he had 
 experienced what he conceived to be the presence of an 
 indwelling coercer of his will, to obedience to whose 
 promptings all his subsequent life was to be conformed." 
 This explanation seems fully warranted by the context, 
 for in no other sense could the saint be described as en- 
 during captivity " continuing till this day from that first 
 night." He proceeds with his narrative, covering a 
 period of two months, and concludes this portion of his 
 personal history with the statement : 
 
 " On the very night 
 Following the sixtieth day, the Lord me freed 
 Out of their hands. . . . And so once more, 
 These few years passed, I found myself at home 
 Amongst the Britons, with my family." 
 
 It must also be borne in mind that the very earliest of 
 the " Secondary Evidences " dates from nearly two centu- 
 ries after Saint Patrick's death. The " Lives," as we 
 have said, were compiled during a period which ranges 
 from the sixth to the eleventh century. Their statements, 
 which embody the traditions of an uncritical age, are 
 often contradictory. The chief motive of their compilers 
 was religious edification. A vast mass of mirabilia, 
 investing the memory of the saint with powers he was 
 far from claiming for himself, gradually grew up, obscur- 
 ing the acts and the character of the central figure — a 
 man noble from his modesty, simplicity, disinterestedness, 
 and singleness of aim. 
 
 Still, the fact that St. Patrick received deacon's orders, 
 and consecration as a bishop, and would naturally require 
 study and instruction to qualify him for his work, gives 
 probability to the statements in these Secondary Evidences. 
 And yet there are passages in his writings that imply 
 that he lacked these qualifications, was unlearned and 
 
INTE.ODUCTIOX. XXVll 
 
 ignorant, yet considered himself sent by God, though 
 unrecognised by man. This is chiefly observable in his 
 " Coroticus " Epistle. 
 
 " I, Patrick — I, a sinner and unlearned, 
 Here in Hibernia constituted bishop, 
 Believe most surely that it is from God 
 I hold commission to be that I am, 
 A proselyte and pilgrim for His love, 
 Here amongst savage peoples. He who knows 
 All things, knows also if this be not so."' 
 
 It is certain that objections to himself, and questionings 
 as to his authority, had been made by " certain seniors r 
 who " opposed his mission " and held his function "in 
 small esteem." " Men much despise me," he said else- 
 where, and quotes the text, " A prophet hath no honour 
 in his own country." He does not ascribe this to malice 
 on their part, but meekly says : 
 
 " My wish did not commend itself to them, 
 Bv reason, I confess, of my defect 
 In learning." 
 
 All this obviously applies to " seniors," not in Gaul, but 
 in Britain. 
 
 Still more touching is his allusion to a sin of his youth 
 mourned and confessed by him, and, after the lapse of 
 thirty years of his " toilsome, hard episcopate," brought 
 up against him by those "seniors." The tone he us* sis 
 most pathetic : 
 
 " In my grief 
 And pain of mind, I to my dearest friend 
 Told what I in my boyhood, in one day, 
 Yea, in one hour had done : because as yet 
 I had not strength; I know not, Heaven knows, 
 If, at that time, I yet had fifteen years. 
 
XXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 But I rather grieve 
 For him, my dearest friend . . . my friend of friends, 
 To whom I did confide my very soul." 
 
 This unnamed friend seems to have been the one to 
 whom he owed his rank as bishop. The scene is still 
 Britain — not the Continent of Europe. His friend — 
 
 " In that debate, wherein I had not part, 
 Nor moved in it, nor was I then in Britain, 
 Had in my absence battled bravely for me. 
 Yea, he with his own mouth had said to me, 
 " Behold, thou art deemed worthy of the grade 
 Of bishop," though indeed unworthy I. 
 "Whence comes it then, that he should afterwards, 
 In presence of them all, both good and bad, 
 Thus publicly degrade me, and deny 
 What, unsolicited, of his own will, 
 He gladly had conceded me before ? 
 But God is over all : of this enough." 
 
 This Ecclesiastical Council, Synod, or Conference — 
 whatever may have been its title, seems to have had points 
 of resemblance with the one spoken of in the Epistle to 
 the Galatians, in which St. Paul — whose apostleship in 
 a somewhat similar way seems to have been called in 
 question, emphatically describes himself as " an Apostle 
 not of man, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and 
 God the Father," and adds, "When it pleased God to 
 reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among 
 the heathen ; immediately I conferred not with flesh and 
 blood." In like manner the Apostle of Ireland asserted 
 Jus direct and divine commission : 
 
 " Wherefore my thanks I render unto Him 
 Who in all things has been my Comforter, 
 That He impeded not my going forth 
 Whereon. I had resolved, nor stayed the work 
 Which my dear God had taught me I should do." 
 
INTRODUCTION. XXX 
 
 It seems apparent that the writings of St. Patrick him- 
 self give no countenance to the legends derived from the 
 "Lives." 
 
 The seventh, known as the "Tripartite," and dating 
 from the 11th century, has recently been edited, with 
 marvellous learning and rare erudition, by "Whitley 
 Stokes, Esq., D.C.L., in the Master of the Rolls series 
 Jlerum Britannicorum Medii Alvi Scriptores. The Irish 
 Tripartite had previously been translated by the dis- 
 tinguished Irish scholar, "W. H. Hennessy, Esq., M.R.I. A., 
 and published in Miss Cusack's "Life of St. Patrick." 
 
 In this, the latest work of Dr. Whitley Stokes, he gives 
 a summary of the legendary matter contained in these 
 "Lives," and in especial in the fifth Life, by Probus, as 
 follows : 
 
 "The kernel of fact in this story seems to be that Pat- 
 rick returned to Ireland on, or soon after, his ordination 
 as priest (say in a.d. 397), and without any commission 
 from Borne; that he laboured for thirty years in convert- 
 ing the pagan Irish, but met with little or no success ;| 
 that he attributed this failure to the want of episcopal 
 ordination and Roman authority ; that, in order to have 
 these defects supplied, he went back to Gaul (say in A.D. 
 427), intending ultimately to proceed to Pome ; that he 
 spent some time in study with Germanus of Anxerre ; 
 that, hearing of the failure and death of Palladius, who 
 had been sent on a mission to Ireland, by Pope Celesti- 
 nus in A.D. 431, he was directed by Germanus to take at 
 once the place of the deceased missionary ; that Patrick 
 thereupon relinquished his journey to Pome, received 
 episcopal consecration from a Gaulish bishop, Matorix, 
 and returned a second time to Ireland, about the year 
 432, when he was sixty years old, as a missionary from 
 the Gaulish Church, and supplied with Gaulish assistants 
 and funds for his mission." 
 
 The Secondary Evidences have been thus tabulated by 
 Dr. Whitley Stokes. The late Dr. Todd, in his " St. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Patrick Apostle of Ireland," and the late R,ev. J. Shearman, 
 in his " Loca Patriciana," with other authors, came to the 
 conclusion that there were two or more Patricks, and that 
 the Acta must be assigned to more missionaries in Ireland 
 than one. " It is plainly impossible," wrote Sir Samuel 
 Ferguson on this topic of the Secondary Evidences, " to 
 refer all these incidents, literally, as they stand recorded, 
 to a single actor. The reader must either reject such of 
 them as are too early and too late respectively, and refer 
 the residue to the Patrick of popular belief, or else accept 
 the alternative of allocating such of these as appear to 
 stand on an historical basis amongst several Patricks. 
 . . . With these aids a reasonably consistent account 
 of the Patrick of the Secondary Evidences, in his youth, 
 captivity, continental career, and Irish mission, might be 
 constructed. But if this portraiture be compared with 
 the Patrick of the Primary Evidences, amoral discrepancy, 
 to some minds more embarrassing than any difficulty of 
 date or person, has to be encountered. For, if the 
 characters presented in the one set of proofs and in the 
 other are to be reconciled, it must be by believing that a 
 conscientious missionary, following in the track of an 
 authorized predecessor, has arrogated to himself all the 
 credit of what had been accomplished by Palladius, if not 
 by Palladius and others ; and that a candid student, 
 educated in the best schools of the west of Europe, should 
 be found lamenting not only his want of learning, but his 
 want of the opportunities of acquiring it." 
 
 This moral difficulty remains, and is a formidable one. 
 Is it possible to conceive that the simple, honest, earnest 
 servant of God, and evangelizer of the Pagan Irish, whose 
 attractive personality stands revealed in his Autobio- 
 graphy, could have tacidly assumed for himself the credit 
 of other workers in the missionary field ? Let the reader 
 
INTRODUCTIOX. XXXI 
 
 bear in mind that the Primary Evidences — Lis script io 
 sua — are one or two hundred years earlier in date than 
 any of the "Lives," and six centuries older than the 
 " Tripartite " Life, and judge accordingly of their rela- 
 tive value as historic testimony. 
 
 It remains only to refer to the scholars in our own day 
 who have elucidated the early Christian history of Ire- 
 land. The theme is a wide one — too wide fully to enter 
 on here. Bat we may cite the honoured names of Petrie, 
 Todd, and Shearman — no longer with us : of Reeves, 
 Stokes, Hermessy, King, Olden, G. T. Stokes, in the 
 paths of historic research; of Edwin, Earl of Dunraven, 
 and Margaret Stokes, in art and architecture ; while in 
 literature D'Arcy M'Gee, D. F. McCarthy — no longer 
 with us — and Aubrey de Vere, happily still left to us, 
 have found poetic inspiration in the lives of Ireland's 
 Saints. 
 
 M. C. FERGUSON. 
 
 20 Xorth Great George's Street, Dublix, 
 August, 1888. 
 
THE 
 
 PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 I. The additional material recently supplied to Patrician 
 criticism invites to a review of the evidences, as they at 
 present stand, bearing on the principal questions which 
 have been raised regarding the writer of the Confessio 
 Patricii and the Coroticus Epistle ; namely, as respects — 
 («) his place of origin, (b) his career before entering on 
 his Irish mission, and (c) his epoch in time. 
 
 II. It is obvious, that in any general review of these 
 evidences, the Canfrssio and Coroticus, as purporting to 
 come from the hand of Patrick himself, ought to occupy 
 the first place and be considered in their entirety ; because 
 whatever, in subsequent evidences, may conflict either 
 with their general tenor, or with particular facts vouched 
 
10 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 by them, must be esteemed of less authority. As between 
 the two documents themselves, the Confessio, although 
 probably later in date, yet, as containing the record of the 
 earlier events in tho life of the writer, is given the pre- 
 cedence. 
 
 III. Assuming its authenticity, it is not only (next, 
 perhaps, to the Coroticus) the oldest document in British 
 history, but it affords a close and intimate view of the 
 nature and mental disposition of one of the greatest of 
 Christian missionaries. 
 
 IV. The texts used are those of the Book of Armagh 
 and of Fell, 1, in the Bodleian Library, very faithful 
 copies of which are to be found in the Appendix to Part 
 II. of the Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland. The 
 Bodleian text, as well as other exemplars used by "Ware 
 and the Bollandists, contains considerably more matter 
 than is to be found in the older transcript in the Book of 
 Armagh. But that transcript bears many internal evi- 
 dences of abridgment; and there is nothing in the more 
 copious matter of the other copies necessarily at variance 
 with it, so far as it has come down to us. The translation, 
 
THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 11 
 
 therefore, has been grounded on both, distinguishing 
 those parts not found in the Book of Armagh by technical 
 indications, but preserving the continuity of the united 
 texts. Both texts are more or less corrupt and defective — 
 the Bodleian one exceedingly so. In neither of them can 
 reliance be placed on the punctuation ; and the divisions 
 of sentences and paragraphs have to be adjusted to the 
 apparent contexture of the writer's thoughts. Most of 
 these blemishes have, no doubt, arisen from the careless- 
 ness of copyists; but the generally ungrammatical form 
 and inartificial sequences of the composition are due, I 
 would suppose, to the writer's imperfect knowledge and 
 difficult use of the Latin language, to which he himself 
 bears repeated testimony. 
 
 V. A literal prose translation, reflecting all the discon- 
 tinuances and hesitancies of the original, would indeed 
 repel most readers from the necessary task of collecting 
 the general sense and bearing of the whole piece, and 
 would scarcely at all realize the intense pervading fervor 
 and — however obstructed in its utterances— the charac- 
 teristic effusiveness of the original. To convey these in 
 English prose would require something more in the 
 
12 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 nature of a free paraphrase, which would not be an 
 acceptable constituent in a critical essay. What appears 
 to me a less repellent and more exact form in which to 
 present the piece, as combining literalness with suitability 
 for the expression of that fervent and effusive feeling 
 which underlies its broken Lalinity, is a close version in 
 English blank verse. That even rhymed English verse 
 may rival the closest prose in conciseness, we may see in 
 the "Essay on Man," the " Rdigio Laid," and other 
 poems in our language. Blank verse, untramelled by the 
 necessities of rhyme, holds to the word and thought still 
 closer. Indeed, no prose could, without affectation, 
 admit such closeness as is allowable and congenial to this 
 medium of translation. No translation, however, whether 
 prose or metrical, can dispense with the very words of 
 the original where questions of meaning are involved; 
 but these are as easy to be cited in foot notes, in the one 
 presentation of the general context as in the other. 
 
 VI. Translation from one language into another is 
 often like the natural process of freezing — the product 
 exceeding in bulk the producing material. But in English 
 translation from Latin, this need not be so. The number 
 
THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 13 
 
 of words must indeed be greater, but the whole verbal 
 bulk may be, and in the present instance will be 
 found to be, less. In the Latin, which expresses by 
 inflections what we in English accomplish by the use of 
 auxiliary particles, fewer words suffice, but these greatly 
 exceed their English equivalents "in syllabic length. Thus, 
 in the Latin version of the Lord's Prayer there are but 
 forty-nine words as against fifty-five in the English 
 version ; but the latter has only seventy-four syllables in 
 its fifty-five words as against one hundred and three 
 syllables in the forty- eight words of the former. 
 
 VII. A version from the Latin, keeping within these 
 limits, may be accepted as possessing the closeness of 
 literal prose ; and English blank verse need not exceed 
 them, and may yet retain enough of freedom to reflect an 
 original conceived with loftiness and energy. The version 
 of the Confessio here presented will be found to come 
 within the limits I have indicated. I believe it contains 
 nothing that is not found in the original, and omits 
 nothing of any materiality that is there found. It is a 
 long time since a communication so entirely within the 
 department of Polite Literature has been read before the 
 
14 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Academy; but in the intervals of scientific and antiquarian 
 discovery we shall not in any degree be outside our 
 privileged pursuits, or wanting in duty to the other 
 objects which they are designed to promote, if we occa- 
 sionally addict ourselves to what our fathers have, I may 
 be allowed to say, wisely designated the Litterce Human- 
 iores. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE "CONFESSIO" OF SAINT PATRICK. 
 
 [The passages ending with (A) are from the Armagh Codex ; 
 those ending with (B) are from the Bodleian.] 
 
 {Before A.J). 500). 
 
 I, Patrick, sinner, most unlearned of all 
 
 The Faithful, and of many most despised, 
 
 Had, for my father, Deacon Calphurn, son 
 
 Of Presbyter Potitus, of a place 
 5 Called Bannow of Tabernia, near whereto 
 
 He owned his country dwelling ; and 'twas there 
 
 I suffered capture, then not full sixteen. 
 I knew not the true God ; and, led away 
 
 Into captivity, w 7 ith thousands more, 
 10 Was brought to Ireland — fate too well deserved. 
 
 For we from God had far withdrawn ourselves ; 
 
 We kept not His commandments ; and our priests, 
 
 Who urged salvation on us, heeded not ; 
 
 And God upon us justly brought the wrath 
 15 Of His up-rousing, and dispersed us forth 
 
 Amongst the heathen, to the world's far end, 
 
 Here, where my Littleness may now be seen 
 
 'Mongst strangers; here, wdiere God set free the sense 
 
 Receptive in my heart of unbelief, 
 20 That, even late, I should recall my sins, 
 
 And turn myself with all my heart to Him, 
 
 The Lord, who did regard my Smallness then 
 
](> THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 With pity for my youth and innocence ; 
 Who, ere I knew Him, had me in His charge ; 
 
 25 Yea, ere I knew to choose 'twixt good and ill, 
 Admonished me and gave me consolation, 
 As father might a son. And, therefore, now 
 I will not hide, nor could I, were it fit 
 To hide, such boons, such graces, as my Lord 
 
 30 Has deigned me here in my captivity. 
 
 And this my poor return ; that having attained 
 The touch and apprehension of my God, 
 I should with high exalted heart, in face 
 Of all that lives below all skies, confess 
 
 3a That other God nor was, nor is, nor shall be, 
 Save but the Lord, the Father unbegotten, 
 Without beginning, out of whom proceeds 
 Every beginning ; He who in His hand 
 Holds all things as aforesaid ; and His Son 
 
 40 Our Lord Christ Jesus, who, we do confess, 
 Was with the Father ere the worlds began ; 
 Begotten of the Father spiritually, 
 In wise unspeakable, ere aught made was. 
 By Him were all things made, things visible 
 
 Ab And things invisible. He was made Man, 
 
 And, conquering death, returned again to heaven. 
 And God gives Him all power o'er every name 
 Of things in earth and heaven and things in hell, 
 That every tongue may own that Jesus Christ 
 
 50 Is Lord and God, in whom we do believe 
 
 And wait His coming when He shall be judge 
 Of living and of dead ; who shall repay 
 To each according to his deeds ; and He 
 It is who pours on us abundantly 
 
 *>5 The gift and comfort of the Holy Spirit 
 And certain hope of immortality ; 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 17 
 
 "Who makes the well-believing and obedient 
 Sons of the Father, co-heirs with Himself, 
 Christ, whom we do confess and do adore, 
 
 60 One God in Trinity of holy name. 
 
 Now He Himself has, by His prophet, said : 
 Call upon Me in tribulation? s day, 
 And 1 ivill free, and thou shalt sound My praise. 
 And said again : To show forth and confess 
 
 65 The works of God is very honourable. 
 
 Therefore, though but ill-taught in many things, 
 I would my brethren and my friends to know 
 What kind I am, and that they may behold 
 The very thought that rises in my soul. 
 
 70 I not ignore the witness that my Lord 
 
 Doth witness by the Psalmist : They that speak 
 Lies shall ye lose ; nor, yet again, The mouth 
 That lies, shall lose his soul ; and our said Lord 
 Saith in the Gospel thus : The idle word 
 
 75 Men use, for it each soid that lives shall give 
 Account and reckoning at the Judgment Day. 
 So me with fear and trembling it behoves 
 To dread the doom of liars, in that same day 
 When none can draw aside or hide himself, 
 
 80 But all must yield account, yea, of the least 
 Of all their faults before the chair of Christ. 
 
 Wherefore long time I've had in mind to write, 
 But up to now abstained me ; for I feared 
 Lest I should fall in censure of men's tongues : 
 
 85 Because I have not read as others have, 
 Who, excellently versed in civic law* 
 
 *" Excellently versed in Civic law : " Qui optime itaque 
 jure et saeras literas utroque pari modo combiberunt, with the 
 annotation in margin Ineertus liber hie. 
 
 B 
 
18 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 And sacred letters, in a like degree, 
 Have never since their childhood changed their speech, 
 But rather made it perfecter by use ; 
 30 Whereas this speech and utterance of mine 
 Is here transformed into another tongue ; 
 And, by the savour of the style I use, 
 'Tis easy to be judged how I've been taught * 
 And trained in diction. As the Wise One saith, 
 95 Sense, knowledge, and the doctrine of the truth 
 Shoiu by the tongue. But what avails excuse 
 Beside the fact ? when here ye all may judge 
 The actual way in which, in my old age, 
 I strive at what, in youth, I never learned. 
 
 100 For then my sins obstructed. I was still, 
 When captured, but a lad, a beardless boy, 
 That knew not what to seek or what to shun. 
 Therefore to-day it shames me to disclose 
 My ignorance ; because I have not learned 
 
 105 With brevity and elegance of speech. 
 
 To treat deep things, as, how the Spirit moves 
 The soul's affections and the human mind. 
 But were it given me, as it is to some, 
 I would not long be slow to sing His praise, 
 
 110 Even though to some perchance in this I seem 
 
 Presumptuous, with my rude and stammering tongue. 
 Yet it is written that the stammering tongue. 
 Shall yet be sivift to speak the words of peace. 
 
 * " How I've been taught : " Sicut facile potest probari ex aline 
 [ex salivu] scripturae meae qualiter sum ego in sermonibus instructus 
 atque eruditus, would be nearer the drift of the original if 
 expressed : 
 
 " 'Tis easy to be judged what kind of school 
 I've been brought up in." 
 
 Sum ego = ta me, in the Irish. 
 
THE COXFESSIO. 19 
 
 How much the more, then, lies that charge on us 
 115 Who, Christ's Epistles, to the world's far ends 
 Bear word of His salvation ; not, indeed, 
 Learned words, but words of power writ in our hearts, 
 Not with pen-ink, but by the Spirit of God. 
 Yea and again that Spirit testifies 
 120 Unlearning also comes from the Most High. 
 
 Wherefore I, chief and first of the unlearned, 
 God's runaway, untaught, who nothing know 
 How to provide the morrow, surely know 
 This, that, before my happy humbling came, 
 125 I was as is a stone that, in deep mire, 
 
 Lies on the highway : and He came, who can, 
 And, in His pity, thence did lift me up 
 And set me on the wall-tox^. Therefore I 
 Will now be bold and eager-prompt to pay 
 130 The tribute of my praises to the Lord 
 
 Who has bestowed His everlasting boons 
 So great on me as pass the mind of man. 
 
 Wherefore all ye who fear the Lord, admire, 
 Both great and small ; and ye, ye great and learned, 
 135 Lords of the land, and Rhetoricians, 
 
 Hear aud enquire, who was it raised me up, 
 Me, foolish me, from midst of them esteemed 
 Wise men and law-learned, and in power of speech, 
 As in all else, prepotent, and inspired 
 110 Me, even me, the butt of this world's scorn, 
 Above the rest, to be what now I am 
 Here, whilst at least with fear and reverence 
 Faithful in heart and uncomplainingly 
 I serve this people, to whom the clarify 
 145 Of Christ assigns me, for my rest of life, 
 If I be worthy ; that, with humble heart 
 And truthful lips, I teach it, in the faith 
 
20 THE PATRICIAN" DOCUMENTS. 
 
 And measure of the Holy Trinity. 
 
 Behoves me, therefore, fearless of rebuke 
 
 150 Or danger, that I do set forth the gift 
 And everlasting consolation 
 Of God ; and fearlessly declare His name 
 Abroad where'er I be : that also, so, 
 After my death, I leave, as my bequest * 
 
 155 Amongst the children of my baptism, 
 
 These many thousands. Not, indeed, that I 
 Was worthy that my Lord his servant poor 
 Should so far favor, after all the toils, 
 The hardships heavy, and the captive years 
 
 160 Borne 'niongst this people ; — should bestow such grace 
 As, till I came to Ireland, t I nor knew 
 Nor ever hoped. But, herding daily here, 
 And often in the day saying my prayers, 
 Daily there more and more did grow in me 
 
 1()5 The fear of God. And holy fear and faith 
 Increased in me, that in a singla day 
 I've said as many as a hundred prayers, 
 And in the night scarce fower ; so that oft 
 In woods and on the mountain I've remained, 
 
 170 And risen to prayer before daylight, through snow, 
 Through frost, through rain, and yet I took no ill, 
 Nor was there in me then aught slow as now, 
 For then the Spirit of God within me burned. 
 And there it was, one night, in sleep, I heard 
 
 175 A voice that said to me : " Thou fastest well 
 
 * "Bequest:" Ex agallias ; the word divided so between 
 end of one line and beginning' of another. Exagalliae — 
 Du Canoe. 
 
 t " 'Till I came to Ireland 'J' quod ego in iuuentute mea nunquam 
 speraui neqae cogitaui sed postquam in hiberione deueneram : 
 where sed, as in line 231, post, seems to bo used in the sense 
 of the Irish acht=.uisi. 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 21 
 
 That soon shalt see thy land and home again." 
 Soon after which, again, I heard the voice, 
 And this is what it said : " Behold thy ship 
 Is ready," but the ship lay nowise near, 
 
 180 But nigh two hundred miles off, and where I 
 Had never been before, and no man knew. 
 So, thereupon, I turned myself to flight, 
 Leaving* the man whom I had served six years ; 
 And by the help of God, who showed me wellf 
 
 1S5 The way to go, nought dreading, found the ship. 
 But it, before I came, had left its place 
 And lay elsewhere. I craved to go on board. 
 My suit displeased the Master : with harsh speech 
 He answered me, " Thou shall not come with us." 
 
 190 Which when I heard, I left them there, to reach 
 My hut wherein I lodged, and as I went 
 Began to pray. Before my prayer was done, 
 I heard one of them calling after me, 
 " Come, for in faith we did receive thee ; come, 
 
 195 Make friendship with us in what way thou wilt." 
 And so, that day, 1 did make friends with them, 
 Out of God's fear, and for, besides, I hoped 
 To hear them yet say, " Come, in faith of Christ." 
 For Heathens were they. So I clave to them. 
 
 200 We forthwith sailed, and, in a three days' run, 
 W r e took the land ; and eight and twenty days 
 We crossed a desert, after : where our food 
 Failed, and keen hunger fell upon us all. 
 Then one day, said the Master thus to me, 
 
 * " Leaving the man:" intermisi hominem. "I separated 
 from the man," as if the thought expressed in this singular use 
 of inter mil to had been conceived in some form of the Irish 
 etar-scairim, that is, inter-separo. 
 
 t "Well," ad bonam, as in the Irish go maith. 
 
22 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 205 " "What, Christian, you who say your God is great, 
 Good, and Almighty, why not pray for us 
 Who perish here of hunger, where the face 
 Of men is hardly seen ? " Then I spoke thus 
 Before them all : " Turn ye your sinful hearts : 
 
 210 Convert you to the Lord my God, to whom. 
 Nought is impossible, that He, this day, 
 Send you whereof ye yet may eat your fill ; 
 For all things everywhere abound with Him." 
 God aiding, so it was. Behold, a drove 
 
 215 Of swine came on the road before our eyes. 
 Many they slew ; two nights we tarried there 
 Well nourished, and our dogs filled full : for they 
 Were semi-starved, and many left we there 
 Half dead beside the way. Then praise to God 
 
 220 All gave, and I much honour in their sight 
 Obtained, and thenceforward, abundantly 
 Fared we. Wild honey also in the wood 
 Found they, and offered of it, and one said, 
 " 'Tis sacrificial ; taste." I tasted none ; 
 
 225 For which, thank God. Ou that same night I lay 
 Sleeping, when Satan sorely troubled me, 
 As well I shall remember, for as long 
 As in this mortal body I shall be. 
 He fell upon me, as a mighty mass 
 
 230 Of rock might fall, so that in all my limbs 
 
 Remained not but so much* of power as brought 
 Into my mind the thought to cry, " Helias." 
 With which word in my mouth, I saw the sun 
 Rise in the heavens; and while I cried, " Helias," 
 
 235 With all my might, its radiance fell on me, 
 
 * "But so much :" et nihil membrorum praeualens sed unde 
 mihi ueuit in spiritum ut heliam uocarem. Sed=acht=znisi, as 
 in page. 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 23 
 
 And banished all my torpor : and I think 
 'Twas Christ, my Lord, who gave my cry for help, 
 And sent His succour. Even so, I hope, 
 'Twill be hereafter, in the dreadful day 
 
 240 Of my last pressure. And the Gospel says (A), 
 In that day testifies the Lord Himself, 
 The Spirit of the Father it is that speaks 
 Within you (B), not yourselves. (Whereby) again 
 I suffered bondage,* after many years 
 
 245 Continuing till this day, from that first night. 
 And so remained I in their company, 
 But heard the same voice I had heard before 
 Say, " Two full months shalt thou abide with them." 
 And so it was : for, on the very night 
 
 250 Following the sixtieth day, the Lord me freed 
 Out of their hands. He gave us food and fire, 
 Daily dry weather too, till, at the last, 
 Upon the tenth day, when we all arrived, — 
 Days eight and twenty in the desert spent, 
 
 255 As is above said f — there remained to us 
 
 * " Again I suffered bondage : " sicut in (Buangelio inquit 
 dominus non uos estis (A), qui loquimini sed spiritus patris uestri 
 qui loquitur in nobis et iterum post annos (B) multos adhuc capturam 
 dedi ea node prima (A). A passage of great obscurity, here 
 brought into the apparent sequence of the narrative by the 
 introduced "whereby." The subject, too long to discuss in a 
 note, is examined in par. xxix., post. 
 
 1* "As is above said:" node ilia sexagessima liberauit me 
 dominus de manibus eorum etiam in itlnere prceuidit nobis cibum 
 et ignem et siccitatem cotidie donee x. decimo die periunimus omnes 
 sicut super ias insimiaui xx. et viii. disertum iterfecimns et ea node 
 qua peruenimus, &c. To whichever antecedent the words of 
 reference sicut superius insinuaui relate, it is evident that the 
 twenty-eight days in the desert were part of one continuous 
 journey {post, xxx.), commencing at the Irish shore, and 
 ending at Patrick's home in Brittanis. The discrepancy in 
 numbers is, no doubt, due to errors of transcription. 
 
24 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 No morsel left of food ; and (so), * once more, 
 These few years passed, I found myself at liome 
 Amongst the Britons f with my family, 
 "Who all received me as they might a son, 
 
 260 And earnestly besought me, that at length 
 After these many perils I had borne, 
 I never more would leave them. 
 
 It was there 
 In a night vision I beheld a man 
 Coming as 'twere from Ireland. Victor he. 
 
 265 Innumerable letters bore he : one 
 
 He gave to me to read. I read one line, 
 ' ' The voices of the Irish,' ' so it ran. 
 And while I read, meth ought I heard the cry 
 Of them that by the wood of Focluth dwell, 
 
 270 Beside the Western Ocean, saying thus, 
 
 " Come, holy youth, and walk amongst us. Come ! " 
 All with one voice. It touched me to the heart, 
 And I could read no more ; and so awoke — 
 thank God at last who, after many years, 
 
 275 Ha^ given to them according to their cry ! 
 And, on another night, I know not, I, 
 God knows, if 'twas within me or without, 
 One prayed with words exceeding exquisite 
 I could not understand, till, at the close, 
 
 280 He spoke in this wise — " He who gave his soul 
 For thee, is He Avho speaks." I woke with joy. 
 And once I saw Him — praying, as it were 
 Within me, and I saw myself as though 
 
 * "So," introduced as "whereby," above. 
 
 + " Amongst the Britons : " in Britannis as in the Irish gloss 
 on Fiacc, in bretnaib. 
 
TIIE CONFESSIO. 25 
 
 Within myself, and over me, that is 
 
 285 Over the inner man, I heard Him pray- 
 Strongly with urgent groans, myself the while 
 Amazed, and wondering who should pray in me, 
 Till, at the very ending of his prayer, 
 He showed, a bishop.* I awoke and called 
 
 290 To memory what His apostle says — 
 
 The Spirit helps the weakness of our prayer ; 
 For when we pray, and know not as we ought 
 What to pray for, the Spirit Himself doth pray 
 For us with groanings inexpressible 
 
 295 Not to he put in words. And yet again, 
 
 The Lord our Advocate doth plead for us (A). 
 
 And when t some certain of my seniors came 
 Against my toilsome, hard episcopate, 
 And made impeachment of me for my sins, 
 
 o00 In that day truly I was tempted sore 
 To fall both now and everlastingly. 
 But the Good Lord, for His name's sake, did spare 
 His proselyte and pilgrim, so as I 
 Out of that treading-under came not ill 
 
 305 With stain and shame upon me. I pray God 
 It be not made occasion to themselves 
 
 "He showed, a bishop :" Sic efficiattis est ut sit episcopus. 
 It might be conjectured to be mistranscription for sic effatns est 
 ut sis episcopus ; but the internal presence of the great bishop of 
 souls seems more consistent with the context. 
 
 + " And when:" Et quando temptatus sum ab aliquantis 
 senioribus meis qui venerunt . . . contra laboriosutn episcopatum 
 meum. When ? "Where ? Whence did the seniors come ? and 
 was the episcopate prospective or subsisting ? The answers to 
 these questions depend in great measure on the terminus a quo 
 from which the thirty years, next mentioned, are to be 
 computed. 
 
26 THE PAT1UCTAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Of sin. They found me, after thirty years,* 
 To charge me with one word I had confessed 
 Before I was a deacon. In my grief 
 
 310 And pain of mind I to my dearest friend 
 Told what I in my boyhood, in one day, 
 Yea, in one hour had done : — because as yet 
 I had not strength : I know not, Heaven knows, 
 If, at that time, I yet had fifteen years. — 
 
 315 I had not yet believed the living God 
 
 Even from my childhood; but remained in death 
 And unbelief till sore chastised I was 
 By hunger, nakedness, and enforced toil 
 Daily in Ireland, — for I came not here 
 
 320 Self-sent — until, indeed, I almost sank. 
 
 Yet these were rather boons to me, because, 
 So chastened by the Lord, I now am made 
 What once was far from me, that I should care 
 Or labour for the weal of others, I 
 
 325 Who then took no thought even for myself. 
 
 On whicn same day when these my elder ones 
 Eebuked me (B), in a vision of the night, 
 I saw a script against me,f and no name 
 
 * "After thirty years : " Post annos triginta invenerunt me. If 
 the terminus a quo be referred to the commission of the fault, 
 invenerunt must be read as in the sense of moral detection, which 
 is difficult. If read as in the ordinary sense of finding out 
 topically, the terminus should apparently be referred to Patrick's 
 departure on this Irish mission. But see post, 1, 419. 
 
 ■f " I saw a script against me : " vidi in vissu noctis seriptum 
 erat contra facem meam sine honore et inter haec audiui responsum 
 dicentem male audiuimus [scripto contra] faciem designati nudato 
 nomine. A most difficult passage, not helped by the corres- 
 ponding Bodleian text. Contra faciem is perhaps the Irish in 
 agaid " adversum ; " and, in that sense, the passage may be 
 made to bear the meaning it has in the version, by introducing 
 the two words in brackets, but otherwise seems hopelessly 
 obscure. For male audio, in the sense given, seethe examples 
 in I'acciolati, " audio." 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 27 
 
 Of honor written, and, the while, I heard 
 330 That voice within make answer, " We are here 
 Ill-styled by name stripped bare of dignity." 
 It was not ' k Thou art here ill-styled," it said, 
 But " we," as if the Speaker joined himself 
 Tncorporately with me, and the voice 
 335 Were His who once said, Whoso toucheth thee, 
 Toucheth as Hivere the apple of mine eye. 
 Wherefore my thanks I render unto Him 
 Who in all things hath been my comforter, 
 That He impeded not my going forth 
 340 Whereon I had resolved, nor stayed the work 
 Which my dear God had taught me I should do : 
 Nay, rather felt I as from Him new strength 
 Infused. And so before both God and man 
 My faith was proved, wherein I boldly say 
 345 My conscience reprehends me in no wise, 
 Now, nor yet will. I take to witness God 
 I have not lied relating what I heard 
 In these communings (A). But I rather grieve 
 For him, my dearest friend, that we should need 
 350 To hear such answer* given— my friend of friends 
 To whom I did confide my very soul — 
 And certain brethren had advertised me 
 That he, before that inhibition made.f 
 In that debate wherein I had not part 
 355 Nor moved I it, nor was I then in Britain- 
 Had in my absence battled bravely for me. 
 Yea, he with his own mouth had said to me, 
 " Behold, thou art deemed worthy of the grade 
 
 * " Hear such answer:" Cur hoc meruimus asidire tale 
 responswn, referring apparently to "we are here ill-styled," 
 supra. 
 
 •J- " Before that inhibition : " ante dcfensionem Mam. 
 
28 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Of Bishop ; " though indeed unworthy I. 
 
 360 Whence comes it, then, that he should afterwards, 
 In presence of them all, both good and bad, 
 Thus publicly degrade me, and deny 
 What, unsolicited, of his own will, 
 He gladly had conceded me before ? 
 
 3G5 But God is over all : of this enough. 
 
 No ; I must (not) conceal* the gift of God 
 Which, in this land of my captivity, 
 He hath bestowed me, which with earnest quest 
 I sought for and here found. He me hath saved 
 
 370 From all unrighteousness; and I believe 
 By reason of the indwelling comity, 
 And trust in Him which, even to this day 
 Doth work within me audibly, t He knows 
 Were these man's voices. Had they been, belike 
 
 375 Christ's charity had made me hold my peace. 
 Therefore unwearied thanks I render Him 
 Who kept me faithful in temptation's hour, 
 That I to-day should live to offer up 
 Myself a living sacrifice to Him, 
 
 380 My Saviour, my Preserver. Well may I 
 Say, Lord, what am I, or my calling what 
 That with such favor, with such aid divine 
 Thou hast environed and uplifted me, 
 As daily I amongst the Gentiles rise 
 
 385 Higher and higher, whilst I glorify 
 
 Thy name where'er I be. Whate'er befalls 
 
 Happy or wretched, good or ill, the same 
 
 I deem ; and equally for it thank Thee 
 
 With thanks perpetual for that Thou hast shown 
 
 * " I must (not) conceal:" Sed tamen dcbeo absconder e : non 
 omitted in text ? 
 
 + " Audibly," nudimicr. 
 
TIIE CONFESSIO. 
 
 390 Him the most sure indubitable One, 
 
 In whom I may believe for ever ; Him 
 Who will for ever hear me. So, too, I, 
 In these last days, though ignorant, may dare 
 Address me to a work so holy-good, 
 
 395 So wondrous, as may even make parity 
 
 'Twixtme and them, who, He himself foretold 
 Should bear His joyful message, witnessing 
 Him to all people, ere the world should end. 
 And we do witness here, the Gospel now 
 
 400 Is preached so far as no man is beyond (B). 
 'Twere long, in whole or part, to tell my toils, 
 Or how the Almighty One did oft release 
 Me from enslavement; aud from perils twelve, 
 "Wherein my life was ventured ; and from snares, 
 
 405 The which I cannot put in words. 'Twere ill 
 Too much to tax my reader where I have 
 The Author's self within, who all things knows, , 
 Even before they happen, as He knows 
 Me, his poor pupil. And for that it is 
 
 410 The voice divine doth oft admonish me : 
 
 "Whence came this wisdom to me who had none, 
 Nor knew the number of my days nor Him ? 
 "Whence came this knowledge and this heart's delight 
 In this His gift so great, so salutary, 
 
 415 That, for its sake, I well contented left 
 
 Country and kin ? And many were the gifts 
 They offered me with yearning and with tears. 
 And certain of my seniors, too, made known 
 Their disapproval ; * but with the help of God 
 
 * " Their disapproval." If this be the same opposition of 
 the seniors above related (1.297), and again in more geneial 
 terms referred to, post (]. 556-60), it should be deemed to have 
 preceded Patrick':'* mission, whatever difficulty that construc- 
 tion might aitail in interpreting' invenerunt. 
 
 29 
 
30 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 420 In no way did I yield them my consent : — 
 Not mine the grace ; but God it was in me, 
 Who conquered through me and withstood them all, 
 That I might come to preach His Gospel here 
 To the Hibernian people, that I here 
 
 425 Should suffer the contempts of unbelievers 
 Should hear derision of my embassage, 
 And many persecutions, even to chains, 
 Endure ; nay, even my own patrician grade 
 Forfeit for others' good. And if I be 
 
 4o0 But worthy to do somewhat for His name, 
 Ready I am, this hour, with all my heart, 
 To yield Him service, even to my death, 
 Who this grace does me that, through means of me, 
 Much people is re-born to God, confirmed, 
 
 435 And clerks ordained for their instruction, 
 
 New coming to the faith from earth's far ends, 
 And gathered to the Lord, even as, of old, 
 He promised by His prophet, They shall come 
 From outmost ends of earth ; and also says, 
 
 440 Our fathers got them idols, and therein 
 Had nothing profitable ; and again 
 This also : / have set thee as a light 
 To light the Gentile, that thou shoal dst make safe 
 Even to the ends of earth. And here I wait 
 
 445 To see fulfilled His words, who ne'er deceived, 
 As promised in the Gospel, — They shall come 
 From east and west, and sit down side by side 
 With Abraham and with Isaac and with Jacob. 
 Even so do we believe from all the world 
 
 450 The faithful come. Behoves it, therefore, we 
 Fish well and diligently, as the Spirit says, 
 Come after Me that I may make of you 
 Fishers of men ; and, by His prophet, again, 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 31 
 
 Behold, of fishermen and hunters keen 
 455 I send a multitude; so saith the Lord. 
 
 Et cmtera* Whereby it much behoves 
 
 We spread our nets in such wise as a shoal 
 
 And multitude be taken ; and that clerks 
 
 Be everywhere at hand who may baptize 
 400 The hastening crowd, even as our good Lord saith 
 
 In His evangel, Going, therefore, forth, 
 
 Teach ye all nations, and, the same baptize 
 
 In name of Father, Son, and. Holy Ghost, 
 
 Teaching them to observe ivhat things soe'er 
 4G5 I have commanded ; and, lo, I myself 
 
 Am with you till the final consummation 
 
 Of all things ; and again says, Going forth 
 
 Into the whole world, preach ye my evangel 
 
 To every creature living. Who believes 
 470 And is baptized, is safe. Who not believes, 
 
 He. shall be damned f (A). And He again says thus : 
 
 The gospel of my kingdom shall be preached 
 
 To the whole world ; and witness shall be made 
 
 To all the nations, and then conies the end. 
 475 Likewise our Lord doth by His prophet say, 
 
 Lo, in the latter days, thus saith the Lord, 
 
 I shall pour forth my Spirit on all flesh. 
 
 Your sons and daughters they shall, prophesy, 
 
 Your youths see visions, and old men dream dreams. 
 480 And on your servants and your handmaidens 
 
 * " Et ccetera : " Probably an indication of abridgment 
 (iv. supra). 
 
 fThe words " reliqua sunt exempla" here occur in the 
 Armagh Codex, left untranslated, as being* probably the 
 language of the scribe, indicating abridgment from a fuller 
 text. 
 
32 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 In thf.se days shall 1 pour my Spirit, and they 
 Shall prophesy. And also Hosee says, 
 Her will I call my people who was not 
 My people, and on her will pity take 
 
 485 On whom I took not pity ; and in the place 
 Wherein 'twas said no people of mine are ye, 
 There shall they yet he called the sons of God (B). 
 Whence now the Irish, who, in former days, 
 Had but their idols and their rites unclean, 
 
 490 Nor aught knew of the Lord, have late become 
 The Lord's own people. And the sons of Scots 
 And daughters of their kings, now sons of God 
 Are counted, and vowed handmaidens of Christ (A). 
 And one biess'd Scotic lady nobly born, 
 
 495 A most fair person whom myself baptized, 
 Came, soon thereafter, making her report 
 Of intimation by a messenger 
 Sent her from God with His admonishment 
 That virgin she should live and nearer Him. 
 
 500 In six days after, — thank the Lord for it, — 
 With excellent observance she assumed 
 The grade desired of all Christ's handmaidens : 
 Not at their parents' bidding. They from them 
 Suffer reproach and persecution, 
 
 505 Yet, notwithstanding, still the number grows 
 Of those of our kind daily born to us 
 I know not, I, how many they are, besides 
 Widows and women continent ; of whom 
 They chiefly suffer who, in bondage held, 
 
 510 Bear threats and terrors : yet they persevere, 
 And God to many of them grants the grace 
 That, if but in a little, earnestly 
 They follow His example. Whence it comes 
 Should I now care to leave them, going forth 
 
THE CONFESSIO. ;j:j 
 
 515 It may be into Britain,* sure 'twere sweet 
 
 To see one's country and one's kin again : 
 
 Or farther yet proceeding, even to Gaul, 
 
 To see the brethren, and the faces see 
 
 Of my Lord's saints, God knows I were right glad, 
 520 But in the Spirit am bound : and He declares 
 
 I were God's recreant did I leave them so. 
 
 Moreover, truth it is, I would not lose 
 
 The fruit of all my labour well begun. 
 
 Yet 'tis not I determine, but my Lord, 
 525 ' He who commanded I should hither conic*, 
 
 That here I should fulfil my rest of days 
 
 In serving them : and so methinks I shall : 
 
 Albeit but little trust I in myself, 
 
 Clad in this body of death, for he is strong 
 530 "Who daily struggles to subvert my faith, 
 
 And turn me from the unfeigned chastity 
 
 I'll keep, God helping, till my days do end. 
 
 The flesh indeed still draws us down to death, 
 
 And snares of lawless pleasure ; and I lmow 
 535 In part the reason why I cannot live 
 
 The perfect life His other faithful souls 
 
 Achieve ; but to my good Lord I avow 
 
 I blush not at His searching of my heart ; 
 
 For since I first did know Him in my youth, 
 540 His love and fear have ever grown in me, 
 
 And I, He helping, still have kept the faith. 
 
 Let him who will, then, laugh : let him who will, 
 
 Scoff. I shall not keep silence, nor conceal 
 
 *" Going 1 forth ; it may be into Britain, &c. :" tit pergens in 
 britanniis et libentissime paraius eram quasi ad patriam et parentes 
 non id solum sed usque gallias usilare fi aires et, ut uiderem t'aciem 
 sanctorum dominl mei. In some of the MSS. the words are 
 fratres meos. 
 
 a 
 
34 TIIE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 The signs and marvels ministered to me 
 
 64.5 Of God, who knoweth all things many years 
 Before they are ; yea, from before all time. 
 Wherefore ought I unintermittingly 
 Give thanks to Him that He did so indulge 
 My ignorance and sloth, not once but oft ; 
 
 bbO And not as with an object of just wrath 
 
 Dealt with me, but as with His yoke-fellow, 
 Though slow I was to learn the part enjoined, 
 And by the Spirit shown ; who pitied me 
 'Mongst thousand thousands other ; for He saw 
 
 bob That I was willing-ready, but knew not 
 
 In what way to bear witness : for they all* 
 Opposed my mission, and, behind my back, 
 Did prate and say, " This one, forsooth, would put 
 His life in jeopardy 'mongst enemies, 
 
 5G0 Who of the Lord know nothing," not as though 
 They spoke in malice : but, indeed, because 
 My wish did not commend itself to them, 
 By reason, I confess, of my defect 
 In learning. And I did not recognise 
 
 0G0 At once the grace that then was in me — grace 
 Now efficacious as it then had been, 
 Had I been as I ought. 
 
 Thus simply, then, 
 Brethren and fellow servants in the Lord 
 Who have believed with me, I've told to you 
 
 oTO How it has come to pass that, for the sake 
 
 Of strengthening and confirming you in faith, 
 I have preached, and still do, hoping we all 
 May yet rise higher. That be my reward ! 
 Because the wise son is his father's glory. 
 
 "They all:" See ante 1. 419. 
 
THE COXFESSIO. . 35 
 
 575 You know, and God knows, what way from my youth 
 I have conversed amongst you, in the faith 
 Of truthfulness and singleness of heart : 
 That to the people I do dwell amongst 
 I have declared the faith, and so do still. 
 580 God knows that I no man of them in aught 
 Have circumvened, nor, for the sake of Him 
 And of His Church, will ever ; nor provoke 
 In them, or anyone, unch-arity, « 
 Whereby the name of God may be blasphemed 
 585 In me, for it is written, Wo to him 
 
 By whom the name of God shall be blaspheme!. 
 And, unlearned though I be in skill of words, 
 Yet have I striven in some poor sort to serve 
 My Christian brethren and Christ's handmaidens, 
 590 And pious women who of their free will 
 
 Did oft bestow me gifts, and on mine altar 
 Cast of their jewels, which I still returned, 
 Though thereby they were grieved : and, for the hope 
 Of life eternal, have so led my life, 
 595 Here with them, so on guard, as none may find 
 In any tittle of my ministry 
 Cause of offence, nor let my smallest act 
 Afford occasion to the infidel 
 To sully or diminish my good fame. 
 600 Think ye, where I such thousands have baptized, 
 I took from any of them, in recompense, 
 But half a scruple. Tell me when, or where ? 
 I will return it. Yea, where God ordained 
 Through my weak ministry these many Clerks, 
 605 Gratis I gave them orders. If I asked 
 Of any to the value but of my shoe, 
 Tell me : I will repay it you and more. 
 'Twas rather I who spent my worldly wealth 
 
3G THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 On you, amongst you, wheresoe'er I went, 
 
 610 In your behalf, through perils manifold, 
 So far as no man was beyond, nor there 
 Had ever come who might give baptism, 
 Ordain a clergy, or confirm the flock. 
 God aiding, I did, with most willing mind 
 
 615 And diligent affection to your weal, 
 
 Defray it all. Sometimes I fee'd the kings, 
 In that I fee'd their sons who gave convoy 
 To guard us all from capture. In one day 
 They sought, indeed, to slay me ; but my time 
 
 G20 Was not yet come. But all the goods they found 
 Upon us they bore off, and me myself 
 Kept bound with iron, till, the fourteenth day. 
 The Lord did lose me from their power ; and all 
 Our goods were given us back, for the Lord's sake, 
 
 625 And sake of our conductors. You vourselves 
 Have knowledge what gratuities I spent 
 On them that did administer the law 
 Throughout the regions I most visited. 
 I think not less than fee of fifteen men 
 
 630 I did disburse amongst them, all, that you 
 Might me enjoy, and I again in you 
 Have manifold enjoyment in the Lord. 
 Nor grudge I it, nor count it yet enough. 
 Lo, I still spend, and still will further spend, 
 
 635 Happy if He, who can, shall yet allow 
 
 That for your sakes I even may spend my soul (B). 
 I call to witness God I do not lie, 
 Nor write as seeking opportunity 
 Of lucre or of flattery or reward 
 ' 640 Of praise. That honour is enough for me 
 
 Which is not seen, but in the heart believed (A). 
 But He who promised never lies (B). I see 
 
THE CONFESSIO. ' 3" 
 
 Myself, iii this my generation, 
 
 Beyond degree exalted by my Lord, 
 G45 Unworthy though I am, nor such as He 
 
 Might deign so favour. For I surely know 
 
 That poverty and plainness fit me more 
 
 Than luxury and riches. Christ our Lord 
 
 Was also poor for us. I poorer still, 
 G50 For. should I crave for wealth, I have it not. 
 
 Nor j udge I now myself : for daily now 
 
 I look to find my death by violence, 
 
 Or, captive, to be sold to slavery, 
 
 Or some such end : (A) but none of these I fear, 
 055 Having assurance of His promises, 
 
 For I have cast me in the hands of God 
 
 Who governs all things, and his prophet saith, 
 
 Cast thou thy burden on the Lord, and Re 
 
 Will aid thee. Yes, I do commend my soul 
 G60 To my most faithful God whose embassage 
 
 I here discharge, howe'er unworthily. 
 
 For He respects not persons, but did choose 
 
 Me to this office, that, amongst the crowd 
 
 Of His ambassadors, I might be least. 
 665 What shall I render back to Him for all 
 
 His benefits conferred on me ? What say 
 
 Or promise to Him when I plainly see 
 
 I nothing have unless He gives it me, 
 
 Yea, though I search the heart and reins. Enough, 
 670 k More than enough I count it, well content, 
 ( If He but give me that I drink His cup 
 
 As granted other claimants of His love ; 
 
 But never, never let me lose the flock 
 
 He pastures by me in earth's outland here ! 
 675 God grant me that ! And that I persevere 
 
 In faithful witness to my journey's end. 
 
 And if, for His sake. I have ought of good 
 
38 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Accomplished, for His love, T pray Him grant 
 That with His captives and His proselytes, 
 
 680 Even for His name's sake I may shed my blood, 
 Be it without my dues of burial, 
 Yea, though this wretched body and these limbs 
 Be torn asunder by devouring dogs, 
 Wild beasts, or fowls of heaven. I surely know 
 
 685 Did this befall me, I should so enrich 
 
 My soul with my poor body ; and I know 
 Clad in our bodies we shall all arise 
 In that day, in the brightness of the sun, 
 To wit, in glory of Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 690 Our dear Eedeemer, rise as sons of God, 
 And co-heirs with Himself, conformable 
 To His own image as it then shall be. 
 
 For this sun, which we see, doth daily rise 
 At God's commandment; but God so ordains 
 
 695 It shall not always rise, nor shall its light 
 Endure for ever. It shall fade, and they 
 That worship it shall perish : but, for us 
 "We do believe and worship the true Sun, 
 Chiist, which shall never perish, nor shall He 
 
 700 Who doth His will, but shall endure for ever, 
 
 As Christ Himself, who, in the heaven of heavens, 
 Reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost 
 Now and for everlastingly — Amen. 
 Again and yet again I iterate 
 
 705 My brief words of Confession, and declare 
 In truth, and in uplifting of the heart, 
 Before my God and His most holy angels, 
 That other object never did I look to 
 In coming back* again amongst this people, 
 
 * "In coming back : " Utunquam redderem [redirem] agentem 
 [ad genteni] Mam; Unde antem prim uix euaseram. A good 
 example of the corrupt state of the Bodleian text. 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 39 
 
 710 From whom so hardly I escaped before, 
 
 Save but the Evangel and His promises (B). 
 And now beseech all them that do believe 
 And fear the Lord, whoe'er they be shall deign 
 Look on this writing or receive the same 
 
 715 "Which sinner Patrick, I, the much-unlearned, 
 Have writ in Ireland, that no man may say 
 My Ignorance it was dictated aught, 
 If any aught of good be therein seen 
 Such as may pleasure God, but rather deem 
 
 720 For certain that it doth proceed from Him. 
 And this is my Confession e'er I die (A). 
 
 IX. The first impression made by this narrative as re- 
 gards Patrick's place of origin, certainly is, that Bannow 
 Tabernise was in insular Britain; because in speaking of 
 his desire to revisit his family from Ireland (viii. 518-24), 
 he puts Gaul beyond them. The first impression also is 
 that no great length of time elapsed between his Call and 
 his proceeding on his mission ; and that the intermediate 
 time was spent in Britain ; because he thanks God for not 
 having impeded him in going forth (ib. 340) on his mission 
 to the Irish (ib. 422), notwithstanding the opposition of 
 his family and seniors, which struggle, commencing in 
 Britain, appears to have been continuous and presumably 
 carried on in one place. The only intimation of epoch is, 
 vaguely, that it was in Christian times, and while a 
 well- settled Church-organization existed in that part of 
 Britain in which his family were settled. 
 
40 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 X. Besides these probable matters of fact, and the 
 lively traits of Patrick's personal character which it fur- 
 nishes, the Confessi o intimates that on some occasion— the 
 place of which is not distinctly specified— he had experi- 
 enced an injurious opposition against his "laborious 
 episcopate," then seemingly in course of prosecution, when 
 some personal title of distinction was withheld from him in 
 what may be inferred to have been an ecclesiastical script 
 (viii. 279-44), and that at some previous time, he not then 
 being in Britain, his conduct, apparently in reference to 
 episcopal functions had been the subject of discussion in 
 some assemblage, probably synodical, in that country 
 {io. 348-59). 
 
 XI. The Coroticus Epistle is not found with the Con- 
 fessio in the Book of Armagh ; but while the Confessio has 
 always been referred to as (i Epistolarum Patricii Liber 
 Primus," the Coroticus has in like manner been known as 
 "Epistolarum Patricii Liber Secundus," and, in the Book 
 of Armagh, the entitlement under which the Confessio is 
 found is " Incipiunt Libri Sancti Patricii Episcopi," show- 
 ing that at least another was intended to accompany it. 
 The Coroticus, as will be seen, contains much internal evi- 
 dence of having proceeded from the same hand as the 
 Confessio (conf. viii. 454-5, with xii. 122-4 ; and viii. 492-4, 
 with xii. 134-6, &c). It also, like the Confessio, uses some 
 expressions not consonant to the Latin but to the Celtic 
 idiom, as though the writer in both conceived his thoughts 
 in some form of Celtic speech and expressed them in 
 
THE CONFESSIO. 41 
 
 Latin (viii. 93??, 161 n, 183 n, 184??, 231??, 258??, 328??, 
 and xii. 69 n, 140 ??, 188 n). It is a shorter piece than the 
 Confessio and in some respects less interesting. In the 
 Confessio the inner nature of the writer is seen throughout. 
 In the Coroticus he is seen in his relations with an external 
 world of wrong and suffering, against which he struggles 
 with the grief and indignation any pastor might experi- 
 ence whose flock had been made the prey of lawless 
 violence. Still there breathes through its reproaches and 
 words of technical objurgation a lofty sentiment and 
 energy of imagination which would make any prose 
 translation inadequate to its full reproduction. It is 
 therefore presented here as, in form as well as substance, 
 a companion piece to the Confessio. No important differ- 
 ence of meaning arises on any verbal discrepancy of the 
 texts. That used by the Bollandists is here adopted, 
 from Villanueva, who has appended notes of the various 
 readings [S. Patricii Synodi et ojpuscula, 240). 
 
XII. 
 
 THE "CQROTICUS" EPISTLE. 
 {Before A. D. 500.) 
 
 I, Patrick — I, a sinner and unlearned, 
 Here in Hibernia constituted bishop, 
 Believe most surely that it is from God 
 I hold commission to be that I am, 
 5 A proselyte and pilgrim, for His love, 
 
 Here amongst savage peoples. He who knows 
 All things, knows also if this be not so. 
 
 I would not aught so harsh and so severe 
 From me proceeded ; but constrained I am 
 
 10 By zeal for God and for the truth of Christ, 
 And stirred to anger for my people's sake, 
 My sons in God, for whom I made exchange 
 Of kin and country, and did vow myself 
 For rest of life, if worthy, even to death, 
 
 15 To teach the Heathen ; though, indeed, by some 
 My function now be held in small esteem. 
 
 Therefore these words I, with my proper hand, 
 Have framed and written, for delivery 
 To these the soldiers' of Coroticus ; 
 
 20 I say not, to my fellow- citizens, 
 
 Nor fellow- citizens of pious Romans, 
 But rather fellow- citizens of Fiends, 
 Because of their ill deeds, who, barbarously, 
 In manner full of hatred, live in death, 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 4:] 
 
 25 Companions of the Scots and Picts apostate, 
 Intent to glut their savage souis in blood 
 Of innocents unnumbered, by myself 
 In God begotten and in Christ confirmed. 
 
 The day wherein my white-robed neophytes — 
 30 The chrism still wet arid glistening on their brows — 
 Passed at the sword's edge of these murderers, 
 The day next following, sent I my Epistles 
 By one whom from his youth I had brought up, 
 A holy Presbyter, with other clerks, 
 35 Beseeching that some portion of their spoils 
 They might forgive us, and set free again 
 The baptized captives whom they still detained : 
 They answered my request with jeers and laughter. 
 Alas, I know not which the more to mourn, 
 40 Them slain, or them made prisoners, or them 
 Whom Satan therein made his instruments ; 
 Who, with himself, must in the pains of hell 
 Hereafter have their lasting recompense : 
 For, He who sins the servant is of sin, 
 45 And worthy to be called the Son of Satan. 
 
 Know ye then, all men having fear of God, 
 That alien unto me and unto Him 
 Whose office here I execute, are they 
 Fratricides, parricides, devouring wolves 
 50 Who swallow up the people of the Lord 
 
 As 'twere a meal of bread. But it is wiittcn, 
 The wicked have made void Thy law. That law, 
 W r hich in Hibernia in those latter days. 
 Thou didst set up so fair and excellent. 
 55 God granting, I intrude on no man's right, 
 But have my part, with others He has called 
 And pre- appointed, to proclaim His gospel, 
 Through no small persecutions, to earth's ends ; 
 
44 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Albeit the enemy doth strive against me 
 
 CO By tyranny of this Coroticus, 
 
 Who knows not fear of God or of God's priests, 
 His chosen ones, to whom He delegates 
 The power supreme and awful : Whatsoever 
 Ye bind on earth it shall be bound in heaven. 
 
 65 Wherefore, beseech you, all that holy are, 
 And all of humble heart, that with such men 
 Ye hold no flattering converse. You, with them, 
 Eat not nor drink ; nor of them take their alms, 
 Until with rigorous* penance, and with tears 
 
 70 Effused, they make atonement, and set free 
 These new-baptized handmaidens of Christ, 
 For whom He died and suffered on the cross. 
 For the Most High doth not respect the gifts 
 The unjust offer. He ivho offers up 
 
 75 Out of the 'poor mail's substance, is as he 
 Who slays the son in presence of the father. 
 Again : The riches he is gorged withal 
 Forth from his belly he shall vomit up. 
 Death's messenger shall hale him, and the ire 
 
 80 Of dragons shall assail him. Tongue of asp 
 Shall slay him. Inextinguishable fire 
 Consume him. Woe to them that fill themselves 
 With that not theirs. What profits it a man 
 To gain the whole ivorld, if he lose himself, 
 
 85 And suffer condemnation of his soul ? 
 
 Long were the list, to run through all the law 
 Denounced by God against cupidity. 
 Greed is a mortal sin. Thou shall not covet 
 Thy neighbour's goods. Thou shalt commit no murder. 
 
 * " With rigorous penance : " Crudtliter, agreeable to the 
 Irish cruaid "hard." 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 45 
 
 90 The homicide cannot he one with Christ. 
 Who hates his brother shall a murderer 
 Be deemed, and he ivho loves not his own brother 
 Remains in death. How much niore guilty he 
 "Who stains his hands in blood of God's own children, 
 95 Lately acquired to Him in earth's far ends, 
 Here through rny Littleness's ministry. . 
 
 What ! was it then without God's promises 
 Or in the body only that I came 
 To Ireland ? Who compelled me ? Who me bound 
 
 100 In spirit that I should no more behold 
 
 ~K ; j.dred or early friend ? Whence came the sense 
 Inspiring me with pity for the race 
 That once were my own captors ? I was born 
 Noble ; my father a Decurio ; 
 
 105 That privilege of birth I have exchanged 
 (I blush not for it, and I grudge it not) 
 For benefit of others, bartered so 
 In Christ, and given over to a race 
 Extern to mine, all for the glorious hope 
 
 1 10 Ineffable, of that perennial life 
 
 Which is in Jesus Christ our Lord ; albeit 
 My own not know me. And 'tis also said, 
 A prophet in his own land hath no honor. 
 Belike they think we are not of one Father 
 
 115 Nor of one sheexD-fold. But the Lord declares 
 Who is not with me is against me. lie 
 Who ivith me gather eth not, scattereth. 
 Ill fares it when one builds and one casts down. 
 And seek I not the things that are mine own ? 
 
 120 Not for mine own delight : 'twas God that stirred 
 That strong solicitude within my heart, 
 That, of the hunters and the fishermen 
 Whom He aforetime for these latter days 
 
46 THE PATHICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Had pre-appointed, I too should be one. 
 
 125 Men bear me envy : Lord what shall I do ? 
 Men much despise me : Lord, behold thy sheep 
 Are torn around me, and are made a prey 
 Of these aforesaid robbers, by command 
 Of this, Thy foe, Coroticus, whose mind 
 
 130 Is far from charity ; who, Christian men 
 Delivers into hands of Scots and Picts. 
 Lord, ravening wolves have eaten up thy flock 
 Which here in Ireland had such fair increase, 
 Sons of the Scots and daughters of the Kings 
 
 135 Now holy monks and handmaidens of Christ, 
 So many, past iny counting. Wherefore thou, 
 Coroticus, no pleasure in these wrongs 
 Done to the just hast now, nor ever shalt have, 
 Now nor till judgment, and the final day 
 
 140 Of condemnation to the under world.* 
 
 What man of holy life would not abhor 
 To jest, to feast, wiih such as these ? They fill 
 Their houses with the spoils of Christians slain. 
 They live on rapine. Pity they know not. 
 
 145 They drink of poison ; and the poisoned cup 
 They offer to their kindred, even as Eve 
 Knew not 'twas death she offered Adam. So 
 Fares it with all the wicked ; endless death 
 And endless pain the fruit of all they do. 
 
 150 This custom do the Gaulish Christians use 
 And Roman. Fit and holy Presbyters 
 They send the Franks and other extern Heathens, 
 
 * "Of condemnation to the under- w orld : " Quam obrem 
 injur iam justorum non te placeat, etiam usque ad inferos non 
 placebit. " Ad inferos," equivalent to the Irish use of "go 
 bratb," to the condemnatory judgment, for ever. 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 4 7 
 
 "With money charged, so many thousand coins, 
 "Wherewith to ransom their baptized slaves : 
 
 155 Thou slayest and sellest into extern lands 
 
 "Which Imow not God, my Christians, and dost cast 
 Christ's baptized virgin members in a stews. 
 "What hope canst thou, so acting, have in God ? 
 Him who thinks with thee, him who to thy crime 
 
 160 Gives words approving, God will judge. For me, 
 I Imow not how to speak or what words use 
 Of these dead dear ones of God's family 
 Thy sword has touched, alas, too close. 'Tis writ, 
 To iveep with them that weep. And writ again, 
 
 165 If ails one member all do ail with it. 
 
 And still the Church bewailing must lament 
 Those sons and daughters whom as yet the sword 
 Leaves living, but who live in exile far 
 Across the sea, where, that the sin may show 
 
 170 Fouler by want of shame, the impudent 
 
 kits shameless and abounds ; where free-born men 
 And Christians, sold for money, serve as slaves 
 To basest, wickedest, apostate Picts. 
 
 Therefore with lamentation unrestrained 
 
 175 I will uplift my voice ; oh dearest brothers, 
 Loveliest and most beloved, my sons in Christ 
 Begotten of me, past my power to count, 
 What shall I do for you, unworthy I, 
 To succour God or man ? The iniquity 
 
 180 Of the unjust has overcome us. They, 
 Belike, believe not that one baptism 
 "We both have been baptized in ; that one God 
 We both have over us. Belike, think scorn 
 Of us, that haply Ireland gave us birth. 
 
 1 85 For this do I bewail you, oh my brothers. 
 Yet, on the other hand, do, in myself, 
 
48 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Eejoice that my poor toils in your behoof 
 And pilgrim labours were not all in vain,* 
 Though such unspeakable and horrid crime 
 190 Has happened during this my ministry. 
 
 Thank God, the baptized of you, and believing 
 Are gone from this place into Paradise. 
 I see you as ye take your parting flight 
 To where shall be no night nor any grief, 
 195 Nor ever death may enter ; in whose fields, 
 
 Even as young calves let loose, ye shall exult, 
 And under foot tread down your enemies, 
 "Who dust and ashes 'neath your feet shall lie. 
 There, with apostles and with prophets, ye 
 200 Shall reign, and martyrs, and eternal crowns 
 Enjoy ; as He has witnessed, saying thus: 
 Coming from east and west they shall sit down 
 With Abraham and Isaac and with Jacob 
 In kingdom of the Heavens. Without are dogs, 
 205 Sorcerers, and murderers, and perjurers, 
 
 Whose portion shall be henceforth in the lake 
 Of ever-burning fire. And not in vain 
 The apostle tells us : Where thejustest man 
 Is hardly safe, where shall the sinner look— 
 210 The impious, and transgressor of the Laiv — 
 To find himself? Where shall Coroticus, 
 With his most wicked rebels against Christ, 
 Look to be found ? Where find them they who now 
 Bestow the baptized women and the spoils 
 215 Of orphans on their filthy satellites, 
 
 For sake of this world's fleeting sovereignty, 
 Which, in a moment, passes as a cloud, 
 
 * " In vain; "m vacuum; agreeable to the Irish idiom, dul 
 
 ar nemnid. 
 
THE C0R0TICU3 EPISTLE. 49 
 
 Or smoke that dissipates before the wind. 
 So shall the sinner and the fraudulent 
 
 220 Perish before God's face. But they, the just, 
 
 Shall banquet in the heaven of heavens with Christ, 
 Judging the nations, and o'er unjust kings 
 Eule throughout ages without end. Amen. 
 Before my God and His most holy angels 
 
 225 I bear my witness that it shall be so, 
 Even as my poor Ignorance has said it. 
 For these are not my words. These are the words 
 Of God and His apostles and His prophets, 
 Who never lied, which I here put in Latin. 
 
 230 They ivlio believe are safe. Who not believe 
 
 They shall be damned. The voice that speaks is God's. 
 
 I now beseech His servant, whosoe'er 
 Shall set him forth to be the carrier 
 Of these my letters, that he suffer none 
 
 235 Abstract them privily, but have them read 
 Before all peoples publicly, yea, read 
 In presence of Coroticus himself. 
 
 May God inspire them that they think at length 
 Of Him, and even late although it be, 
 
 240 Eepent them of the wickedness they've done. 
 Manslayers of their brethren in the Lord 
 They have been. May they yet repent, and free 
 Their captive baptized women ; so that yet 
 They may themselves deserve to live in God, 
 
 245 And have eternal safety. Now be peace 
 To Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen. 
 
 D 
 
50 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 XIII. This document advances us no further in the 
 inquiry as to Patrick's place of origin than by its sugges- 
 tion (xii. 19-25), that the ruler of that district, wherever 
 situate, was Coroticus (post, xxxii.), and that Coroticus's 
 soldiers, professing Christians, were Roman citizens of 
 Patrick's own municipality there, and associates of the Picts 
 and Scots, an indication pointing to some part of Northern 
 insular Britain. Its contribution to Patrick's personal 
 history is also scanty. In it (ib. 2) he alleges himself to 
 be constituted bishop in Ireland ; and the Epistle, de- 
 nouncing the minor excommunication, is in itself an act of 
 episcopal jurisdiction. In the exercise of his functions he 
 intrudes on no other man's right (ib. 55-8), while he inti- 
 mates (ib. 97-101) that his mission was undertaken under 
 Divine compulsion, and that, since going forth on it, he 
 had never again beheld the faces of his family or friends. 
 On the question of epoch the Coroticus furnishes ground 
 for wider speculation. The reference to "Apostate" Picts 
 (ib. 25, 173) will, prima facie, strike most readers as 
 indicating a, date subsequent to the conversion of the 
 Southern Picts by Ninian of Whiterno, about A.D. 412, 
 the conversion of the Northern Picts by Columba in the 
 sixth century being clearly too late, and any earlier 
 Christianization of Scotland, rightly or wrongly, dis- 
 credited. It is certain, however, that monuments of an 
 earlier date than either Ninian or Columba, laying claim 
 to a Christian origin, exist in PicQand, and it will be 
 well not to allow the possibility of there having been 
 apostate Picts before the mission of Ninian in North 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 51 
 
 Britain to be excluded from our consideration ; especially 
 as the context of the Epistle is not to be reconciled with- 
 out difficulty to a post-Ninianite epoch. For, certainly, 
 municipal institutions and the presence of a Christian 
 Eoman soldiery (ib. 20-1) are features more likely to be 
 found in Northern Britain before the withdrawal of the 
 legions and general flight of the Bomans in the early 
 part of the fifth century. To the same effect is the 
 passage in which, reproaching Coroticus with selling 
 fellow Christians into slavery, Patrick contrasts his 
 conduct with that of the Christians of Gaul and Borne 
 (ib. 150-56) who bestowed their treasures in redeeming 
 baptized captives from the Franks and outside Gentiles. 
 The meaning appears to include the Franks among the 
 other "exteras gentes ; " which would look to a period 
 prior to their removal from the right bank of the Bhine 
 and settlement in Belgic Gaul about A.D. 428, and indeed 
 prior to the disruption of the Bomano-Gaulish civiliza- 
 tion, by the great inroad of the barbarians about a.d. 
 407. 
 
 XIV. The mission of Palladius, Archdeacon of 
 Auxerre, as first bishop to the Irish Christians by Pope 
 Celestine in A.D. 431, rests on the cotemporaneous 
 authority of Prosper of Aquitaine, and has never been 
 denied or doubted. If the writer of the Confessio and 
 Coroticus succeeded him, these Epistles penned after 
 probably thirty years from his arrival (viii, 98, xii. 33-4), 
 would belong to the latter part of the fifth century, and 
 
<32 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 all the last- mentioned inferences as to epoch, however 
 probably flowing from them, should be set aside. Before 
 determining on that alternative, it will be well to enter 
 on an examination of the other evidences. 
 
 XV. These Secondary Evidences consist of the seven 
 Lives published by Colgan in his Trias Thaumaturga, 
 and of the Collections in the Book of Armagh not 
 accessible to him, supplemented by the valuable matter 
 lately restored to them from the Eoyal Library of Brussels 
 by the Rev. Edward Hogan in his "Documenta de S c0 . 
 Patricio" (post, xxvi.). There are other Lives in Irish 
 Manuscripts, but they do not appear to add anything 
 pertinent to this inquiry. 
 
 XVI. In marshalling the Lives, Colgan has given 
 the first place to the Irish Hymn or metrical legend 
 ascribed to Patrick's cotemporary, Fiacc, bishop of 
 Sletty. In the arrangement of the others he has been 
 influenced by this consideration, that he finds in thetn 
 expressions to the effect that such a one "is" or 
 "inhabits" in such a church, being a person of known 
 date in history. Consequently, he takes these Lives to 
 have been compiled while the persons in question were 
 still living. But this is now recognised as a misappre- 
 hension of the expression "is," which in Irish hagio- 
 graphy means no more than that the relics of such a one 
 are there preserved, or his memory there venerated. For 
 example, in the second of Colgan.' s Lives the expression 
 
THE COEOTICUS EPISTLE. 53 
 
 is used regarding Bishop Loarne of Bright in the county 
 of Down : " Civitatula est quae dieitur Imreathan, ubi est 
 Episcopus Loarne qui ausus est increpare Patricium 
 tenentem manum pueri ludentis juxta ecclesiam suam" 
 (Vit. II. a c. xxxvii.). The story, as more fully told in 
 the Vita. iv. a c. xxxvii., shows the idea of the kind 
 of presence after death, thought, in these limes, to be 
 continued in the persons of buried saints. The boy's 
 hoop with which he had been playiag near the grave of 
 Saint Patrick (Bright is not far from Saul, where the 
 incident seems to have happened) had fallen down through 
 a chink into the interior of the grave, The boy, having 
 put in his hand to recover his plaything, was unable to 
 withdraw it ; on which bishop Loarne, being sent for, 
 attended, and addressed these words to Patrick : " Cur, 
 senior, manum innocentis tenes ? " 
 
 XVII, This kind of indication affording no criterion, 
 it will now be inquired whether Colgan's arrangement 
 may not be supported on some other ground. One group, 
 comprising the three last Lives, Five, Six, Seven, is easily 
 separable as bearing internal evidence of times later than 
 the ninth century. There remain Lives One, Two, 
 Three, and Four, to which may be added the Collections 
 in the Book of Armagh as now supplemented by the 
 matter brought to light at Brussels. These Collections 
 refer themselves to certain dates in the seventh century. 
 Tirechan, the author of one set of them, states that he took 
 his matter from the oral instruction or from the book of 
 
54 THE PATRICIAN" DOCUMENTS. 
 
 his teacher, Bishop Ultan of Ardbraccan, who died a.d. 
 656. Muirchu Maccu Machthine, the author of the 
 imperfect Life constituting another part, professes to 
 write at the dictation or by the command of his patron, 
 Bishop Aed of Sletty, who died a.d. 698. Both profess 
 to ground their relations on already existing material 
 written and traditionary. Muirchu, in a preface to his 
 work, intimates that many had already endeavoured to 
 compile the Acta of Patrick, and that there was at least 
 one "Life" of the saint then in existence; but in 
 excusing his own imperfect style, seems to claim the 
 merit of originality in his composition. Tirechan, in 
 addition to the book of Bishop Ultan, refers also to a 
 " Commemoratio " or personal memoir which he ascribes 
 to Patrick himself. 
 
 XVIII. These circumstances invest the Patrician 
 Collections in the Book of Armagh with distinctive impor- 
 tance, and, in the absence of date-indications from the 
 other pieces, give them the character of a standard by 
 comparison with which the relative priorities of all may 
 be approximately estimated. This may be done in a 
 manner sufficiently discriminative for the purposes of the 
 present inquiry, by the application of some principles 
 grounded on common experience. It may be laid down as 
 matter generally observed in compositions of this kind. 
 
 First. That as between a shorter and a longer bio- 
 graphy of the same person, the longer may be presumed 
 to be the more recent ; which presumption, in biographies 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 55 
 
 of saints, is strengthened where the disparity is caused 
 by the introduction of additional Mirabilia. 
 
 Secondly. That when the same matter verbatim is 
 found in several pieces on the same subject, continuously 
 in one, but discontinuously and with interspersed matter, 
 ejusdem generis, in others, there is a presumption that the 
 latter is copied from the former ; especially where the 
 author of the continuous matter claims originality for his 
 composition, and where faults or obscurities of expression 
 in the professing original are found corrected or avoided 
 in the duplicate. 
 
 XIX. A careful examination of the Lives Two, Three, 
 and Four, shows that, while each in length greatly exceeds 
 the Muirchu, this excess is in a large degree made up of 
 Mirabilia; that almost the whole text of Muirchu, in 
 many instances chapter for chapter and word for word, 
 interspersed with cognate matter which a copyist would 
 not be likely to omit, exists in these Lives respectively ; 
 and that, in them, defects and obscurities of expression of 
 Muirchu are rectified or avoided. For these reasons the 
 " Colgan," Lives Two, Three, and Four, will be regarded 
 as puisne in date of composition and authority to Muirchu 
 as it to Tirechan, subject however to this reservation, that 
 their sources may be of an equal or greater antiquity. 
 
 XX. But the Hymn of Fiacc does not afford any pre- 
 sumption of the same kind. It nowhere borrows the 
 language of the other Lives. They add to and improve on 
 
56 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 the matter found in it. It gives one alias to Patrick, Succat. 
 They add Cothraige and Magonius. It represents Patrick as 
 obtaining, in compensation for not being buried, as he 
 wished, at Armagh, two special privileges, namely, that 
 his favourite Hymn should be a lorica for those who should 
 sing it, and that, at the Last Day, all the Irish should go 
 up with him to Judgment. To this the Lives add two 
 further prerogatives ; and the Muirchu improves on that 
 respecting the Last Day by making Patrick himself the 
 Judge of the Irish on that occasion. 
 
 *■&' 
 
 XXI. A probable priority among these Secondary Evi- 
 dences may therefore be assigned to the Fiacc already put 
 first in his series by Colgan. In the midst of much that is 
 vague and trivial it contains apparently the germs from 
 which most of what has since been affirmed respecting 
 Patrick's epoch, contemporaries, and personal history 
 immediately before his arrival as a missionary in Ireland, 
 appears to have grown up. In point of literary interest it 
 is bald and jej une, like most bardic works of its class. "We 
 experience, indeed, a great change in leaving the natural 
 effusions of Patrick himself for the vague and evasive 
 generalities of his commemorator. The piece is in Irish, 
 a very archaic example of the language, and is composed 
 in rhymed verse. The necessities of the rythm lead to the 
 employment of chevilles or phrases thrown in as metrical 
 make-weights; but some of these, such "as histories 
 relate," " as lines tell us," indicate that written material 
 then existed, and that the writer did not, as Colgan was 
 
THE COROTICUS EPISTLE. 51 
 
 inclined to believe, relate cotemporaneous events. Indeed 
 nothing in literary criticism can be clearer than that this 
 piece was written some considerable time after the 
 desertion of Tara, an event twice referred to in it (xxii. 10, 
 22), which took place about A.D. 565. It may, if I have 
 given it its proper priority, have been composed at any 
 time during the period which elapsed after Tara had 
 become " desert and silent," and before the middle of the 
 seventh century, when Tirechan and Muirchu began the 
 amplifications, continued with increasing proportions by 
 the writers of the remaining Lives. As first of the 
 evidences by which the purport of the original documents 
 has been enlarged and modified to the great extent which 
 will be presently disclosed, it ought not to be put forward 
 at any disadvantage in form or substance as compared 
 with them. It is therefore also given in its entirety, and 
 with such aids to the reader in taking in its general teno." 
 as a metrical version may confer. In this, the text and 
 translation printed by Stokes in his " Goidelica," have 
 been followed. 
 
XXII. 
 
 The Fiacc Metrical Life. 
 {After A.D. 565.) 
 
 1. 
 
 Born in Nemthur was Patrick, as histories tell us. 
 At his age of sixteen he was brought under sorrow. 
 
 2. 
 
 His name at first, Succat; for his sire's, understand ye 
 'Twas Calphurn mac Otid, sprung from, deacon Odisse. 
 
 3. 
 
 Six years in hard thraldom, man's victuals he ate not ; 
 Four masters Cothraige obeyed in their households. 
 
 Spake Victor to MilchiCs thrall, " Over sea hie thee." 
 "Where he planted his feet, on the rock rest their imprints. 
 
 5. 
 
 Over all the Alp mountains, over sea did he travel, 
 
 Till he tarried with German, in the south, in south Letha.* 
 
 * "Letha : " used generally for the continent of Europe, 
 as Armorican Letha, Letha of Rome. The south of Gaul 
 would appear to be here intended as comprising 1 the Rhone 
 delta and its islands (2 :>os ^> xxv.). 
 
THE FIACC METRICAL LIFE. 59 
 
 G. 
 
 In the Terrene sea islands he tarried, he pondered, 
 At reading the Canon, at study with German. 
 
 7. 
 
 To Erin he came by his Angel admonished, 
 In manifold visions to haste his returning. 
 
 8. 
 
 'Twas a good day for Erin the coming of Patrick ; 
 
 He heard the young children from Focluth wood calling. 
 
 9. 
 
 They prayed to the holy one, that he would come to them.* 
 Come, and conduct them to life everlasting. 
 
 10. 
 
 For thus had their prophets foretold them the coming 
 Of a new time of peace would endure after Tara 
 
 11. 
 
 Lay desert and silent. The druids of Laery 
 Had told of his coming, had told of the Kingdom. 
 
 12. 
 
 Holy life led he still, strong expeller of evil, 
 Therefor do his merits shine high o'er the Nations. 
 
 * "Come to them:" till recently read as " They prayed 
 that the holy one, traversing Letha, would come," &c. The 
 more approved reading is now taken to be lethu = cum Mis. 
 
60 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 13. 
 
 The Hymns and Apocalypse and the Three Fifties 
 Sang he daily : baptizing, and praising God always. 
 
 14. 
 
 Nor allowed he the cold winter weather him hinder 
 From his nights in the water-pools; preaching, the daytime. 
 
 15. 
 
 In Slan well, by Boirche, he'd sing psalms a hundred 
 Ev'ry night in his suit to the High King of Angels, 
 
 16. 
 
 And would then take his sleep, on the bare rock reposing, 
 In his wet-dripping frock, with a stone for his pillow. 
 
 17. 
 
 He preached the glad Gospel ; he wrought many marvels ; 
 He healed halt and leper ; he raised the dead living. 
 
 18. 
 
 To the Scoti he preached it, with manifold labours,* 
 That they all might, at doomsday, attend round their 
 Patron ; 
 
 19. 
 
 Emer^s sons, sons of Erimon, all whom the Devil 
 Had theretofore shut in his great pit infernal, 
 
 * "With manifold labours :" till recently read as "After 
 toiling through Letha." 
 
THE FIACC METRICAL LIFE. 61 
 
 20. 
 
 Till came their Apostle — as a swift wind his wending — 
 Preaching peace from Christ's cross, sixty years, to the Feni. 
 
 21. 
 
 There "was darkness o'er Erin, they adored things of Faery ; 
 They believed not the truth of the Trinity Godhead. 
 
 22. 
 In Armagh is Headship ; long since life was in Emain ; 
 A great church is Down ; Tara — woe's me — a desert. 
 
 23. 
 When Patrick first sickened, he'd have fain gone to Macha; 
 By day came the Angel thereon to entreat him. 
 
 24. 
 He came south to Victor — it was he gave the summons — 
 The bush burned unburnt whereout Victor bespoke him, 
 
 25. 
 Saying "Headship to Macha " for which to Christ glory — 
 "But thou must to heaven, which grants thy petition, 
 
 26. 
 
 " That the hymn thou hast chosen shall be breast-plate 
 
 of safety 
 To all who, at Doom, shall come round thee to judgment." 
 
 27. 
 He who gave him Communion, who survived him, was 
 
 Tassach. 
 He had said he would come : and his words were 
 
 accomplished. 
 
62 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 28. 
 
 Night's shade set aside, there was light around unfading, 
 To a year's end was radiance, was one continual daylight. 
 
 29. 
 
 In the fight the son of Nun fought against them of Canaan, 
 When the sun stood still on Gibeon, as histories tell us, 
 
 30. 
 
 Though Joshua stayed the sun till the wicked were 
 
 slaughtered. 
 More fitting was his light at death of holy Patrick. 
 
 O 1 
 
 The clerks of Erin flocked to attend his funeral office. 
 The quiring angel's strain made them all sink down in 
 slumber. 
 
 32. 
 
 The soul from Patrick's body, toil-worn, at last departed ; 
 God's angels all the night sang around it unceasing. 
 
 33. 
 
 When Patrick departed, he went to the other Patrick, 
 And together they ascended to Jesus the Son of Mary. 
 
 34. 
 
 Humble Patrick, unblemished, much good did he 
 
 accomplish. 
 In his service with Mary's Son, since first born in 
 
 Nemthur. 
 
THE FIACC METRICAL LIFE. 63 
 
 XXIII. The Fiacc supplies the particular name of 
 Patrick's birth-place, Nemthur, "but affords no further 
 clue to its local situation. It also for the first time 
 introduces the name of Milchu, Patrick's bondmaster, 
 and purports to give some account of Patrick's career 
 after his escape from slavery and before entering on his 
 Irish mission. Some time must have been spent by him 
 in necessary clerical preparation ; and this interval, passed 
 over in the Confessio, is here accounted for by probationary 
 studies pursued in the South of Europe under the tuition 
 of Germanus, meaning, no doubt, the celebrated bishop of 
 Auxerre of that name (xxii. 5, 6). During this period, 
 apparently, Patrick is represented as having his Call from 
 the children of Focluth (ib. 8, 9), an incident which, in 
 the Confessio, is put at the home of his family in Britain 
 (viii. 262-72) ; and this discrepancy cannot but detract 
 from the credit of the Fiacc (11) and of the remaining 
 authorities following it in this particular. It ascertains 
 very clearly the epoch of the Irish mission of the Patrick 
 it commemorates, which, in common with all the Lives, it 
 represents as having taken place in the time of Leoghaire, 
 son of Neil, A. D. 428-464. Its most noteworthy state- 
 ment, however, is that intimating a plurality of Patricks 
 {ib. 33), which shows that at least two personages of 
 eminent sanctity were then recognised as having borne 
 the name. To the evidences that Patricius was a title of 
 office (Loc. Pat. 414), I add one example, the signature to 
 the acts of the Council of Orange, A.D. 529, of P. 1VI. F 
 Liberius Y. C. et illustris prsefectus prastorii Galliarum 
 atque Patricius (Usher, 6, p. 26), 
 
64 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 XXIV. The Fiacc has a Gloss and Scholium (post, xli.) 
 the places of which, in order of date and authority, have 
 not been determined. They appear to be subsequent to 
 the Armagh Collections, and also to some of the " Colgan " 
 Lives, inasmuch as identical matter of the Muirchu Life 
 is found dispersed in the Scholium ; and both Scholium 
 and Gloss explain Nemthur as another name for Ailclyde, 
 whereas the authors of Lives Two and Three repeat the 
 Nemthur of Fiacc, without any attempt at identification. 
 In this view the Armagh Collections come next in order 
 after the text of the Fiacc, while the Gloss and Scholium 
 of the latter fall into some place after Life Three. 
 
 XXV. What are known as the Annotations of Tirechan 
 in the Book of Armagh are, as has been seen (sup. xvii.), 
 presumably older than the Life by Muirchu; and will 
 first be noticed for some light they may possibly throw- 
 on the subject of there having been more Patricks than 
 one (sup. xxiii.). " I have found," he says (Hog. Doc. de 
 S co . P. 57), "in Bishop Ultan's book four names for 
 Patrick, that is, Magon, or the renowned; Succat, who is 
 Patrick — qui est Patricius— and Cothirthiacus, because he 
 served in four households of the Magi." Bringing 
 Patrick at once to the field of his missionary employment, 
 Tirechan affords no information as to his place of origin. 
 His condensed introductory chapter may be regarded as 
 a summary of the beliefs respecting the pre-missionary 
 life of Patrick which were in current acceptance in Ireland 
 about the middle of the seventh century. Having related 
 
TIRECHAN. 65 
 
 the story of his captivity in the service of Milchu, in his 
 first chapter, he thus proceeds : — 
 
 " Then, however, the Angel of the Lord visited him in 
 his dreams, on the heights of Skirte (Skirry), near to 
 Sliebh Miss. And this was the Angel's la^t command : 
 'Behold, thy ship is ready: arise and journey (ambula ),' 
 and he (the Angel) departed from him up to heaven; and 
 he arose and jou'neyed (ambulavit) according to the 
 command of the Lord's Angel, Victor by name. In his 
 seventeenth year was he cap'ured, led away and sold into 
 Ireland; in his twenty-second year it was vouchsafed to 
 him to leave his toils \\i'h the Magi. Seven other years 
 he journeyed (ambulavit), and saiL-dthe seas (in fludibus), 
 in plains and mountain-valleys, throughout Gaul and all 
 Italy, and in the islands which are in the Terrene Sea, as 
 he himself has said in his narrative (commemoratio) of his 
 labours. And he was thirty years in one of these islands, 
 which is called Aralanensis, as Bishop Ultan testified to 
 aie. But all that happened to him you may find written 
 in the distinct history of him. These [matters which I 
 am now about to relate] are his latest mirabilia, concluded 
 and happily accomplished ( finita atque fdiciter facta) in 
 the fifth year of the reign (in V. regni anno) of Loigire 
 Mac NeillV (Hog. Doc. 57, c. 1). 
 
 He then relates the missionary artaof Patrick, extending 
 over seventy-two years (c. 53), which, if they were 
 finished at the time stated, would throw back his advent 
 to A.D. 359. The other relevant passage is from his 56th 
 chapter (Hog. Doc. 89) : 
 
 "In the thirteenth yoar of the Emperor Theodosius, 
 Patrick is sent [as] Bishop, for the ins'ruction (ad 
 dodrinam) of the Scoti, by Bishop Celestine, Pope of 
 
 E 
 
66 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Rome : which Celestine was forty -seventh Bishop from 
 the Apostle Peter in Koine city. Paladius is first sent 
 [as] Bishop, who was called Patrick for his other name 
 (sup. xxiii. ; post, xlviii.), who suffered martyrdom amongst 
 the Scoti, as holy men of old testify. Then the Second 
 Patrick is sent by the Angel of God, Victor by name, and 
 by Pope Celestine ; through whom all Ireland believed, 
 who gave baptism to almost all of it. . . . All which 
 things, in God accomplished, have been gathered together 
 by the most skilful of our ancients." 
 
 There are four remarkable passages connecting some 
 Patrick with a precedent Christian institution in Ireland 
 in Tirechan. Coming to Coleraine, after crossing the 
 river Bann, on his return from his visitation of Conn aught, 
 Patrick imparts his blessing to that place, " in quo fuit 
 episcopus" (Hog. Doc, 86). In Find Moy of Hy Maine, 
 Patrick finds the cross which the Christian mother had 
 planted by mistake over the sepulchre of the pagan 
 buried beside her son (Hog. Doc, 83). In Tir Erril he 
 discovers the altar (Hog. Doc, 69) which, the Tripartite 
 explains, lay with its glass chalices hidden in a cave in 
 Dumagraid. At Achadgower, in Mayo, there came to 
 him a pious maiden, Mathona, a nun, sister r or relative 
 of Benignus, who assisted at the episcopal ordination of 
 her brother Senach. Senach appears to have made 
 certain stipulations regarding his orders (Hog. Doc, 
 80; Hennessy, apud Cus.), and the result is, in the 
 "language of Tirechan, "missam Patricii acceperunt," all 
 which tend to favour the inference that, besides the 
 author of the Confessio, some other and later Patrick has 
 been commemorated in the Lives. 
 
THE MUIRCHU LIFE. 67 
 
 XXVI. The Muirchu Life, since the discovery of the 
 Brussels manuscript, which makes up its chapters missing 
 from the Book of Armagh, may now be considered as a 
 document of greater importance than even the Annota- 
 tions of Tirechan. A few years ago it became known 
 that a vellum manuscript Life of Patrick existed in the 
 Boyal Library at Brusssels which appeared to correspond 
 with the Muirchu Life, so far as it is found in the Book 
 of Armagh. We should not have had this valuable identi- 
 fication of the perfect twelfth century copy with the 
 imperfect ninth century transcript of this seventh century 
 compilation, if our late brother Academician, Sir William 
 Betham, had not, in what must now be deemed a happy 
 moment, ventured on the editing, however imperfectly, 
 of the Book of Armagh (Antiquarian Researches, Dublin). 
 He puts this venerable record, so far as it relates to St. 
 Patrick, substantially before the world, and enabled the 
 learned men who at Brussels continue the work of the 
 Bollandi Fratres, to recognise the identity of the Life in 
 their Eoyal Library with the Life by Muirchu in the 
 Armagh Codex in Trinity College Library here. This 
 has led to a most careful comparison of the two texts by 
 the Bev. Edward Hogan, S.J., to whom we are also 
 indebted for the " Docurnenta de Sancto Palricio " above 
 referred to, printed at Brussels in 1884. Dr. Whitley 
 Stokes had already, in his Goidelica, translated the 
 Irish passages, in which the imperfections of Sir William 
 Betham's Essay chiefly betrayed itself. Mr. Hogan 
 extends hia work to all the contents of this part of the 
 
08 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Codex, both Latin and Irish, and, in the first six chapters 
 of the Muirchu Life, supplies us with the matter which, 
 undoubtedly, at one time, existed on the folio now missing 
 from our own Book. 
 
 XXVII. In the newly-acquired part of the Life, 
 Muirchu, as regards Patrick's place of nativity, grounds 
 himself on the Oonfessio with an addition which may 
 help towards the better ascertainment of the site. The 
 scribe presents the Bannave Tabemice of the Confessio in 
 the dislocated form Ban navem thabur indecha, where the 
 added decha may recall the Dakenclud of the Dunbarton 
 terminus of Graeme's Dyke, as described by John Major 
 (Hist. Maj. Brit. 1. i. ci.). He then proceeds with other 
 matter equally remarkable, " quern vicum constanter, 
 indubitanterque comperimus esse ventre." Here may be 
 recognised the source of Probus's statement in Life Five 
 of the Trias, " quern vicum constanter indubitanterque 
 comperimus esse Neutrix provinciam," which has caused 
 so may fine intelligences, in search of Patrick's birth- 
 place, to cross the English Channel into the Gaulish 
 province of Neustria. Every one acquainted with com- 
 mon paleographic difficulties knows how often it occurs 
 that u and n have been mistaken for one another. Thus 
 Dunbarton, in the old Welsh dialogue between Taliesin 
 and Merlin (Skene F. B.), appears as Neutur. In the 
 Myvirian Archaeology, the editor has read it Nentur. 
 In both shapes it seems to be the equivalent of Fiacc's 
 Nemthor, whatever that name may originally have been. 
 
THE MUIRCHU LIFE. 69 
 
 XXVIII. In these recovered chapters, Muirchu, 
 following the Confessio, conducts Patrick from captivity 
 to his family in Britain, and plainly declares that, in 
 his view, this was insular Biitain, by bringing him 
 thence to Gaul over sea, " transnavigato rnari dextro 
 Britannico. " 
 
 XXIX. The Brussels complemental matter supplies 
 another incident in the Muirchu Life, which may be noted 
 as one of the points of later departure from the sequence 
 of events recorded in the Cunfessio. He has a chapter (3) 
 on a second captivity, which, according to his account, 
 Patrick, after his escape to Biitain, suffered " ab 
 aheuigenis." This adventure has been expanded by 
 one of the subsequent Life writers (post, xlii.) into a sea 
 voyage from the Boyne to Bordeaux, with a twenty-eight 
 days' journey through French desert (viii. 255 n.), con- 
 ducting Patrick to hiskin>rnan St. Mardn of Tours. The 
 -whole appears to be a parasitic growth, and to depend 
 from that one point iu the story of the Confessio where 
 Pairick uses the words, " et iterutn post annos multos 
 adbuc capturam dedi." At this point there is a hiatus in 
 the Book of Armagh. Pat rick having described his night- 
 mare in the desert, and stated what seems to have been 
 his belief that it was Chri&t who, within him, made use 
 of Lis, Patrick's, voice to exclaim " Helias," proceeds to 
 justify that belief from Scripture " Sicut in euangelio dixit 
 dorninus non uos estis" followed by the unconnected 
 words, " multos adhuc capturam dedi." The Bodleian 
 
70 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 and other texts supply what is here plainly wanting, 
 namely, " qui loquimini, sed spiritus Patris vestri qui 
 loquitur in vobis. Et iter um post annos," which complete 
 the sense. This has been taken as if Patrick were here 
 writing in reference to a bodily captivity. But they 
 who, following Muirchu, so understood the texts, have 
 overlooked the "adhuc," which, in its context, imports 
 a captivity still continuing. Patrick certainly was not 
 in bodily bondage when he wrote the Confessio ; whence 
 it must be concluded that his words, if they be not 
 scriptural quotation, are necessarily to be understood as 
 of a spiritual captivity, such as that of " aged Paul now 
 also a prisoner of the Lord." Indeed the expression 
 " et iterum" is so often used in the Confessio as intro- 
 ductory of scriptural citation when a further text is 
 vouched in support of a preceding one, that, if the words 
 in question could be at all adapted to the language of the 
 Epistle to Philemon, such would be a welcome version of 
 the passage. But they can only by a great stretch of 
 adaptation be so considered; and the incurring of a 
 spiritual bondage remains as the preferable construction. 
 It was the first occasion on which he had experienced 
 what he conceived to be the presence of an indwelling 
 coercer of his will, to obedience to whose promptings all 
 his subsequent life was to be conformed ; and this 
 probably will be received as the meaning conveyed in 
 1 ' ea nocte prima." That he believed himself to be subject 
 to this kind of bondage, even up to the time of his death, 
 was the tradition amongst the writers of the Lives. " When 
 
THE MUIRCHU LIFE. 71 
 
 Patrick first sickened, he had fain lain in Macha" 
 (xxii. 23), hut such was not the divine will. " Alas," he 
 says to Victor, who tells him this request was denied, 
 "my captivity is even to the end; since I cannot so 
 much as choose for myself the place of my burial " 
 (Vita 3 a , c. 88). 
 
 XXX. This part of the Confessio, therefore, it may be 
 affirmed gives no support to the theory of more than one 
 captivity in the ordinary sense of the word, and is quite 
 consistent with the completion of Patrick's whole journey 
 within the predicted two months, when, after the six 
 years of his detention in Ireland — comparatively few as 
 contrasted with the life-long duration of his other kind of 
 captivity — he found himself again at home in Britain, 
 agreeably to the first prediction, which, it may be observed, 
 all the other interpretations necessarily contradict, " cito 
 iturus ad patriam vestram et terram." 
 
 XXXI. Having described Patrick's return to his 
 family, as in the Confessio, Muirchu, in the fifth and sixth 
 chapters of the new matter supplied to us by these 
 Complementa, passes into a condensed and somewhat 
 abrupt continuation of the narrative ; — 
 
 " And many visions were there shown him. And he 
 was of the age of thirty years, as the apostle says (et 
 cetera), to (the measure of) the fulness of Christ, (when) 
 going forth to the Apostolic seat, to visit and honor (it) 
 even as the head of all the Churches of the whole world, 
 
72 THE PATKICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 in order that, understanding already the divine and 
 sacred mysteiies whereto God had called him, he should 
 learn, understand, fulfil, preach, and confer the divine 
 favor on the extern nations, converting them to the faith 
 of Christ." 
 
 From which it may be collected that, in Muirchu's 
 view, Patrick had at this time acquired the knowledge 
 of his ecclesiastical office, but before entering on it desired 
 to testify his respect to the Holy See, and, it may he 
 inferred, to obtain its sanction for his undertaking : — 
 
 "Having: therefore sailed across the southern sea of 
 Britain, in order to proceed across the Gaulish Alps by 
 the accepted (the ordinary?) route (accepto itinere), at 
 their extremity, which he had in his heart proposed to 
 take, he found a certain most holy prince bishop and 
 high duke at Alsiodor (Auxerre) city, with whom (he 
 remained in study)," &c. "And, having there spent 
 a long time as, forty years according to some, thirty 
 according to others, his old and right trusty (angel) 
 Victorious by namo, who [here the Armagh text begins] 
 had predicted to him in Ireland all things before they came 
 to pass, visited him with frequent visions, telling him 
 the time was now arrived when he should come (hither) 
 and, with the net of the evangel, fish for those rude and 
 savage peoples for whose instruction God had destined 
 him ; and there it was said to him in a vision, The sons 
 and daughters of the Wood of Focluth call thee,^ &c. 
 
 Where the growing disregard of the authority of the 
 Confessio may be observed in the transfer of the place of 
 his call from his home in Britain to Auxerre in Gaul. 
 
 Then follows, in both texts, the incident of the death of 
 
THE MUIECHU LIFE. 73 
 
 Palladius, leading to Patrick's proceeding at once on his 
 Irish mission, without wailing to complete his intended 
 journey to Rome. The statement of Palladius' mission is 
 substantially as above given by Tirechan (xxv.), save that 
 Pope Celestine does not appear in it. Patrick, on 
 Victor's summons, sets out on his "inceptum iter." 
 "Whether this was for Rome or for Ireland is not stated. 
 On his way he receives intelligence of the death of 
 Palladius at a place the situation of which has given rise 
 to much speculation. It is doubtfully called Ebmoria in 
 the Armagh, and distinctly Curbia in the Brussels, 
 Codex. If the "inceptum iter" were for Ireland, 
 Curbia would seem the better reading, for Corbie is on 
 the route northward from Auxprre. If for Rome, the 
 site of Ebmoria should be looked for on the " acceptum 
 iter" by the extremity of the Gaulish Alps. These, in 
 Irish geography, are the mountain chains of Auvergne 
 a*:d Languedoc, in which the Loire has its sources. At 
 their eastern extremity, " ad extremum," the valley of 
 the Rhone gives access to the Terrene or Mediterranean 
 Sea. Here, in the delta of the Rhone, is the island of 
 Aries (Arelato), to which reference is found above in 
 Tirechan, under the name Aralanensis (xxv.), but which 
 has its true name Arelatensis in the Fourth Life (post, 
 xxxix.), and being also known as the Insula Cameraoenis, 
 has been satisfactorily identified by Colgan with the 
 modern Camargue. A British connexion had been 
 established at Aries by the jpseudo Emperor Constantine, 
 about 407, if it did not exist before, and there will be 
 
74 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 nothing locally improbable in voyages from thence to 
 Italy ascribed to Patrick in other Lives. Wherever the 
 disciples with news of Palladius' death, met Patrick, his 
 further proceedings, according to Muirchu, were taken 
 with great promptitude. 
 
 " Patrick and those who were with him changing their 
 route, turned aside (declinaverimt iter) to a certain 
 wondrous man and chief bishop, Amathorex by name, 
 living in a neighbouring place, and there the holy 
 Patrick, knowing what would befall, received the 
 episcopal grade from the holy bishop Mathorex. Auxilius 
 also was ordained, and (so were) Isernine, and others of 
 lower degree, on the same day as holy Patrick. Then the 
 venerable traveller, &c, took ship and reached Britain, 
 and omitting all occasions of delay, save the common 
 requirements of the road, for no man can seek the Lord 
 by dallying, with all speed and a favouring wind crosses 
 over sea." 
 
 XXXII. The Muirchu Life is divided into chapters. 
 A short index to the headings of the several chapters is 
 found in both copies. One of these, No. 28, is conversant 
 with the Coroticus incident (sup. xiii.). The text of the 
 chapter, missing from the Armagh Codex, is present in 
 the Brussels copy. It makes Corictic (Cuirthech in Lib. 
 Arm.) a British king, and the entitlement of the chapter 
 in both examples is " De conflictu Patricii adversum 
 Coirthech regem Aloo." Alo-clotha is the form in which 
 Ailclyde is presented in the older Irish annals, as Alofind 
 for Elphin in the Book of Armagh. There is no other 
 royal seat in insular or continental Britain compounded 
 
THE MUIRCHU LIFE. 75 
 
 in Ail but Ailclyde. It is, therefore, matter of cogency to 
 conclude that, in the seventh century, the Coroticus of 
 Patrick's epistle was regarded as king of Ailclyde the 
 capital of the kingdom of the Strathclyde Britons. In 
 the Welsh additions to the Ilistoria Britonum of Nennius 
 is a list of these Strathclyde kings, including the name of 
 Ceretic yuledec, that is, Dux or Imperator, the native 
 designation given to various British reguli who from time 
 to time usurped the imperial purple. The document is 
 referred to A.D. 977 (Skene, An. P. & S. xcv. 15). It 
 purports to trace the pedigree of Eun Map Artgal through 
 fifteen generations, to Ceretic guledec. Eun was reigning 
 in Ailclyde A.D. 878, which, at thirty years to the genera- 
 tion, would put the middle age of Ceretic about A.D. 428. 
 Other computations of the same kind, grounded on the 
 dates or intermediate names in the list, would bring him 
 down to A.D. 470 or 480, in full agreement with the 
 accepted Patrician chronology. This list, however, is an 
 instructive example of the uncertainty attending the thirty 
 years canon, when applied to any but long and well- 
 authenticated lines of descent. Among other issue of 
 Ceretic, set forth in it, are Eydderch Hael and his 
 father Tudwal Tutclud, both mentioned by Adamnan, 
 and of known historic dates. Eidderch, fifth in descent, 
 reigning a.d. 573, would put Ceretic, the great-great- 
 grandfather about A.D. 423. Tudwal, a generation 
 nearer, is made by the author of the Life of Ninian 
 cotemporary with a Ninian, who must be taken as the 
 second of the name, and who flourished at Whiterne about 
 
76 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 A.D. 520 (Usher, 6, 585). He is also made by the author 
 of the Life of Kentigern, cotemporary with Darerca, 
 the supposed sister of St. Patrick, who died A.D. 518 (ib. 
 584). If Tudwal were reigning at any time so shortly 
 after the death of Patrick, commonly assigned to A.D. 493, 
 Ceretic, his great grandfather, could hardly have been 
 the reigning cotemporary of the same Patrick. Nor do 
 the difficulties arising on the epoch of Coroticus stop 
 here, There is another copy of the Run pedigree, 
 compiled about A.D. 1300 (Sk. F. B. 167), amongst the 
 Hengwrt Manuscripts. In this, while the generation 
 numbers are the same, the names between the Guledec 
 and Tudwal differ, suggesting the loss of one or more 
 generations, while the Guledec is named Maxen, as if 
 Ceretic were, alio nomine, Maxen Wledeg, or that Maximus 
 raised by the Britons to the Imperial rank, who reigned 
 A.D. 383-9. In reference to him, there is a statement by 
 Johannes Major, not irrelevant to this enquiry, though, 
 not vouched for by any other authority. Having 
 described the last constructed Roman wall between 
 Abercornie and Dakenclud, and stated that it ran 8,000 
 paces further to the North than the old line of Agricola, 
 he goes on to say, regarding the additional land so gained, 
 "banc terrain Maximus dux suo regno adjecit" (Hist. 
 Maj. Brit. 1. 1, c. 1). On these data the epoch of Coroticus, 
 and of the Patrick from whom he received the epistle, 
 will appear earlier or later, according as the mind of the 
 reader may be swayed in either direction by the other 
 evidences. 
 
ADDITIONS TO TI RECTI AN. 77 
 
 XXXIII. Tlie Book of Armagh contains matter 
 supplemental to the compilations of Tirechan. The 
 Codex here has the appearance of a commonplace book 
 of undigested material, partly in Latin and partly in 
 Irish. In that portion which is in the Irish language 
 occurs an account of the proceedings of Isernine, above 
 referred to (xxx'u). He is here identified with an Irish 
 bishop, Idh, and represented as engaged in a proceeding 
 not easily to be reconciled with the statemeDt of his 
 having been the cotemporary of Germanus. Patrick and 
 he had sailed by different routes for the same destination. 
 Patrick had arrived by way of a port on the eastern, 
 Isernine by one on the southern, coast. Isernine is 
 represented as visiting, first, his own kindred of the 
 Cothraige, a small tribe in the present county of Carlow. 
 Thence he proceeds into the southern borders of Wicklow 
 where he converts and baptizes the seven sons of Cathbod. 
 This innovation, it is represented, was displeasing to the 
 then king of Leinster, namely Euna Cennsaiagh, who 
 proscribed the converts. They, accompanied by Isernine, 
 went into exile in another part of the country, where 
 Patrick subsequently joined them, and by his interest 
 with Crimthan, son of Enna, obtained their pardon. 
 Enna Cennsaiagh was a personage having a well-defined 
 place in Irish history. He overthrew the monarch, 
 Eochaid Muimedon at the battle of Cruachan Clsenta, 
 about a.d. 358. He appears to have been then a man of 
 many exploits, and is said (O'Curry, 493) to have warred 
 against the Ulster kingdom at or before the destruction 
 
78 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 of Emania. The statement respecting him in the Book 
 of Leinster is that he was cotemporary of Enna Nia, 
 father of the first Dunlang king of Leinster, and great- 
 great-grand father of that second Dunlang, whose sons 
 Iollan and Ailill Patrick is stated in the Lives to have 
 baptized at Naas : Enna Genselach &a,n agus Enna Nia 
 comamser doib andis wide lugair dixit. Mair drecuin 
 drecuin da Enna hui nathaig nuadat nascad giallu gaedel 
 necht. " The same time then for both Enna Genselach 
 and Enna Nia, as Lugair said : Great dragons of dragons 
 are the two Ennas, descendants of the wounding hostage- 
 binder of the Gael, Nuadu Necht " (L,L. 316 b). He was 
 fourth in descent from Cathir Mor, whose death is put, 
 at latest, in A.D. 177, and must apparently have been 
 long past middle age when the conversion of the sons of 
 Cathbod took place. If we can credit our Irish pedigrees 
 the sons of Cathbod were eighth in descent from Cucorb 
 king of Leinster (Loc. Pat. tab. 1), whose death is put at 
 A.D. 119. This would make their probable period A.D. 
 360. "With all allowances for lives of exceptional duration, 
 we cannot bring down the actors in these affairs to the 
 post-Palladian period without excessive straining of 
 probabilities and many serious misgivings. 
 
 XXXIV. These Additions further throw light on some 
 obscurities respecting the epoch of Fiacc, nephew of 
 Dubtach Maccu Lugair, ordained bishop by Patrick on 
 his journey into Enna's territory of Hy Kinsela. In 
 c. 51 of Tirechan (Hog. Doc. 88) Patrick, after his ordi- 
 
ADDITIONS TO TIRECHAN. 79 
 
 nation of Fiacc, on his way to Munster, is represented 
 as also baptizing the sons of Dunlang, meaning, in the 
 common acceptance of the Life- writers, the above 
 mentioned Iollan and Ailill, the sons of his convert 
 Dunlang the second, king of Leinster, about A.D. 450. 
 That it was the elder Dunlang, however, who is here 
 referred to by Tirechan, may be thought probable from 
 the fact that he had at least seven sons, which is not 
 reported of his great-grandson Dunlang the second ; 
 and that the Irish-Latin additions to Tirechan, after the 
 statement respecting the sons of Cathbod (supra) go on to 
 say, " ranic Patraic iarsuidiu (Patrick came afterwards) 
 et crediderunt sibi (vii.) filii Dunlangi " (Hog. Doc. 103), 
 implying very persuasively that the ordination of Fiacc, 
 and the conversions of the sons of Cathbod and of 
 Dunlang, were nearly contemporaneous. Fiacc, after his 
 ordination, remained (congabt) at his first church at 
 Minbeg, on the borders of Wicklow and Carlow, until 
 sixty of his community died (coniorchartar) there. An 
 angel afterwards commanded him to remove to Sletty, on 
 the opposite side of the Barrow, where his resurrection was 
 to be. Fiacc would not, unless Patrick in person should 
 come to lay out his new church, which Patrick afterwards 
 did (Hog. Doc. 107, 8). Thio has the appearance of a 
 translation of relics, after Fiacc's remains had been 
 interred in Minbig for a lengthened period. One of the 
 traditions respecting him and his son Fiachra purports 
 so to represent the fact. Colgan (Tr. Th. 1S5, n. 37) 
 cites this from the Calendar of Cash el, <: Fiacrius filius 
 
80 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 Fiachi, et ambo quiescunt in Minbeg;" repeated by 
 Cathal Maguire in his Martyrology, " Fiacrius filius est 
 Fiaci, et est (sup. xvi.) cum eo simul in Minbeag, nempe 
 in cella parva quse est in sylva inter Cluain Mor Maedoc 
 et Aghad Abhail, in qua et sanctus Fiacus jacet " (Loc^ 
 Pat. 197). Great difficulty has been experienced in 
 co-ordinating Fiacc with Patrick and the younger 
 Dunlang; and Todd (Book of Hymns, 292) in making 
 out a late enough date for Fiacc, has been obliged to 
 insert some questionable and several surmised steps in 
 his pedigree. 
 
 XXXV. The lives remaining to be examined are the 
 Second to the Seventh inclusive in the Trias, reckoning 
 under the last its duplicate known as the Irish Tripartite. 
 All of them, for the reasons assigned (xx.), are taken as 
 posterior in date of compilation to the Fiacc, and to the 
 collections of Tirechan and the Life by Muirchu in the 
 Book of Armagh. As amongst themselves, the only 
 departure from the order given them that I would venture 
 to suggest, would be a transposition of Six and Seven — 
 that is, a postponement of the Life by Jocelyn (a.d. 1182) 
 to the Tripartite, the direct iuternal evidences of which 
 do not come lower down than a.d. 897 (Hennessy, apud 
 Cus., p. 466). These with the Fifth Life, bearing the 
 name of Probus as author, and referable by very pregnant 
 indications to the tenth century (Tr. Th. 61, 2 ; 64, 38), 
 are the only ones of the series which afford clear 
 evidences of their periods. Two, Three, and Four have 
 
LIFE TWO. 81 
 
 been arranged by Colgan in the order of seniority of their 
 supposed authors, Patrick junior, Benignus, and Eleran 
 the Wise ; but these early origins, for the reasons above 
 given (sup. xvi.), cannot now be sustained, and for the 
 further reasons also premised (sup. xix.), must all be 
 postponed in date to the Life by Muirchu. No better 
 sequence, however, irrespective of positive dates, than 
 that given them by Colgan can be suggested, especially 
 as Two and Three appear to ground themselves on Irish 
 originals, and preserve, imbedded in their Latin text, 
 several examples of that kind of fossil material. 
 
 XXXVI. Life Two then follows Fiacc in making 
 Nemthor the place of Patrick's birth, but adds nothing 
 express to our knowledge of where Nemthor is, beyond 
 what may be inferred from its use of the language of 
 Muirchu in bringing Patrick from the home of his family 
 into Gaul by crossing the southern British Sea (Tr. Th., 
 13, c. xxi.) ; whence its author must be concluded to have 
 supposed the home insular. 
 
 It also with the metrical Life attaches itself uncon- 
 formably to the narrative of the Confessio at the point 
 where Patrick is told to take shipping for home, and 
 marks expressly the discrepancy which in the Fiacc is 
 only inferential (sup. xxii. 4, o) : " Ecce, navis tua paratu. 
 est, ut peteret (peteres) Italiam, ut ibi per sanctam 
 Scripturam disciplinandus esses " (Tr. Th., 12, c. xvii.). 
 Its staple, like that of all the other remaining Lives, is 
 drawn from Muirchu, prefaced by numerous mirabilia of 
 
 
82 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 the Infancy, here apparently for the first time introduced, 
 and supplemented by some particulars, also appearing to 
 be here of primary introduction, relating to Patrick's acta 
 and cotemporaries. Having related his call (c. xxi.), 
 which, with the Confessio it makes in Britain, "cum 
 parentibus suis," it takes up the narrative of Muirchu, 
 and conducts him, as above, across the southern sea of 
 Britain to Germanus, with whom he reads for thirty years 
 4< in insula Arelanensi " (c. xxii.), being, doubtless, the 
 Island of Aries above referred to (sup: xxxi.). Then, 
 again following Muirchu, it relates the mission of 
 Palladius by Pope Celestine, his failure, and death in 
 Forddun, or, as others say, his martyrdom (c. xxiv.). 
 Here also it introduces, apparently for the first time, the 
 name of Nathi filius Garrchon, who, on Palladius' arrival 
 ''in fines Lageniensium," offered him some opposition. 
 After which it interposes somewhat abruptly in Muirchu' s 
 narrative a short but pregnant chapter (xxv.) in these 
 words: — "Patrick, sent by the same Pope Celestine to 
 Ireland, came to the mouth of a certain river, the Deac 
 {Inbltir Deagadh, Wicklow). But the aforesaid wicked 
 nobleman, Nathi, who previously had withstood Palladius, 
 opposed the blessed Patrick also and his doctrine. But 
 Sinell, son of Findcath, through the preaching of the holy 
 Patrick, believed in Almighty God, and first amongst 
 the Scots was baptized of holy Patrick, wherefore he 
 (Patrick) bestowed his blessing on him and on his seed." 
 Patrick then, proceeding northward into Ulster, makes 
 his first convert Dichu, Primus Scotorum per Pairicum 
 
LIFE TWO. 83 
 
 Confespus (ib. c. xxix.) ; and afterwards, returning to 
 Wicklow, is received by the grandson, and gives his 
 blessing to the infant great-grandson, of Smell. 
 
 Two first converts are certainly suggestive of different 
 and successive missions ; and if Dichu be properly placed 
 63 in his table of descent, Sinell being 59, one must 
 recognize a great difference in time. 
 
 XXXVII. Both ISTathi and Sinell are well-known names 
 in what is called the Dal Messincorb genealogy, preserved 
 in the Book of Leinster and elsewhere, and lately published 
 from these sources by the Rev. J. F. Shearman (Loc. 
 Pat., Tab. i.). Sinell is, in all the extant examples of 
 this pedigree, eighth in descent from Cucorb king of 
 Leinster. Cucorb's epoch is ascertained by that of 
 Fedlimedh Eeactmar king of Ireland, A.D. 113-119, bv 
 whom he was slain. His fourth son was Messincorb, 
 amongst whose descendants are found Findcath, Sinell, 
 and Smell's cotemporary, Nathi. Here it will be well 
 to preserve a judicious observation of Colgan, the truth 
 and appositeness of which all students of these genea- 
 logical tables will readily acknowledge. " Nostros his- 
 torices quanclo non texunt genealogias, solere ssepe 
 usurpare nomen filii late, pro nepote, aliove descendente " 
 (Tr. Th., 18, n. 35). For Sinell, in the pedigree, is not son, 
 but great-grandson of Findcath ; being son of Conall, son 
 of Cucongelt, son of Findcath, son of Garrchu, son of 
 Fothad, son of Eochaid Lamderg, son of Messincorb, son 
 of Cucorb ; and, at the generally accepted rate of thirty 
 
84 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 years to a generation, should, together with his cotem- 
 porary Nathi, if the pedigree be right, be concluded to 
 have flourished about A.D. 360, synchronously with Enna 
 Cennsalagh and the sons of Cathbod, who, it will be 
 remembered, are brought within the first influences of 
 the Patrician mission by the supplementer of Tirechan 
 (sup. xxxiii.). All deductions, however, of this kind, are 
 subject to the possibility that steps in the pedigree may 
 have been lost ; and Shearman, deeming the post-Palladian 
 date, which he considered the true one, to be irreconcilable 
 with this epoch for Sinell, has felt himself justified in 
 suggesting — " Some generations are wanting between 
 Garrchu, circa 200, and Findcath" (Loc. Pat., Tab. i., 
 No. 55). Tf three generations, indeed, could be so 
 interpolated, Sinell would be brought down to post- 
 Palladian times ; but no ground for such an alteration of 
 the text can be suggested save that of conformity to 
 accepted ideas. 
 
 XXXVIII. Life Three adopts the statement and 
 language of Life Two as regards Nemthor and the early 
 mirabilia. It follows substantially the story of the 
 Confessiowp to Patrick's escape, his return to his parents, 
 and his call by the Voices from Focluth, which it gives 
 in the Irish, hoch ! aillilo fortaiclt (c. xx.). It then takes 
 up the thread of Muirchu's relation, and conducts him to 
 St. Germanus, at Auxerre. In common with all the 
 remaining Lives, however, it breaks up the thirty or 
 forty years assigned by Muirchu to Patrick's studies 
 
LIFE THREE. 80 
 
 under Gernianus, and, after some time spent at Auxcrre, 
 transfers him to the tuition of St. Martin of Tours (Tr. 
 Th. 22, xxii.), thence to the Tamerensian (Camerensian) 
 island, and thence to Eome, where he receives 
 another call (Tr. Th. 22, xxiii.). This transfer to the 
 tuition of Martin involves an insuperable anachronism. 
 Martin had died before a.d. 418, the date of Germanus' 
 call to ecclesiastical orders. In describing these travels 
 it introduces apparently for the first time, those anomalies 
 in continental geography which here and in all the 
 remaining Lives, bespeak a date in times of diminishing 
 enlightenment, and have occasioned extreme embarrass- 
 ment to successive commentators. Patrick, at Eome, 
 hears the voice of the angel, " ' Go thou to the island 
 Hibernia, and aid them who invoke thee.' And Patrick 
 said, ' I will not go until,' &c. And the angel led him to 
 Mount Arnon ur muir letha (on the sea of Letha) on a 
 rock of the Tyrrene Sea, in a city which is called Capua " 
 (Tr. Th. 23, xxv.). Elsewhere this mountain is called 
 Armon, Morion, and Narnchin (Lit. iEngus. L. Br.), and 
 is placed somewhere in the neighbourhood of the 
 Arelatensian island ; whence it may be surmised that 
 Capua is either a geographical blunder, or that the name 
 may have been borne by some city of Provence, as that 
 of "The Eome of Gaul " was borne by Aries. 
 
 As regards epoch, this Life, as well as the next, 
 ascribes the rnartyrdoni of Odhran, the Saint's charioteer, 
 to a person far out of the range of any Patrician chro- 
 nology, namely, Folige, from whom the Hy Failge, "a quo 
 
86 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 orti sunt alii Folgi," that is, Eossa Foilge, eldest son of 
 Cathir Mor, whose date would be early in the third 
 century. The subsequent Lives correct this anachronism 
 by introducing a Foilge Bearraidh (si. A.D. 501, Q.M.) 
 as the murderer ; but, assuming Life Three to be of earlier 
 compilation, it is worth remark that it represents Foilge 
 as having been revisited " post niultum temporis " by 
 Patrick, affording another instance of successive acta, at 
 long intervals, ascribed to one or more of the name. The 
 body of Foilge had in the meantime been inhabited by 
 the demon, and on being summoned to Patrick's presence, 
 his dry bones only are found in his house (Tr. Th. 25, 
 c. lix.). The remainder of the Third Life appears to 
 be drawn from Muirchu and Tirechan. 
 
 XXXIX. Life Four begins with a tradition that the 
 family of Patrick was of Jewish descent, and reached their 
 settlement in Strath-clyde, "in qua terra conceptus et 
 natus est " (Tr. Th. 35, c. i.), by way of Armorica " juxta 
 mare Thyrrenum," showing that in the writer's judgment 
 there were several Armoricas, one on the southern as 
 well as the better known Armorica on the northern 
 sea-board of Gaul. Having suggested the interpretation 
 " turris ccelestis " for Nemthor, and given the current 
 version of Campus Tabernix, he adds, " Britannica autem 
 lingua Campus Tabern idem campus tabernaculorum 
 dicitur," probably referring to the Moy Tabern of old 
 Irish Tuatha de Danaan tradition, whose site on inde- 
 pendent grounds, is put in this region by O' Flaherty 
 
LIFE FOUR. 87 
 
 (Ogygial.iii., c.xxiii.). The story attaches itself somewhat 
 unconforrnably to the narrative of the Confessio : " Ecce 
 navistua parata est ; tempus namque adest ut in Sanctis 
 litteris docearis " (Tr. Th., 37, c. xxi.). It then conducts 
 Patrick, " Elevato velo, prospero flatu, ad Britanicos 
 sinus " (c. xxiii.), to his parents, where he has his call, and 
 whence he proceeds across the southern British Sea to 
 Saint Germanus, first at Auxerre, and afterwards in the 
 Arelatensian island, where he has a further call, again 
 repeated in Borne, whither he proceeds by sea, " per mare 
 Thyrrenum navigando transivit " (c. xxix.), and so 
 back again to Ireland, "recto transitu per Italiam 
 Galliasque." The writer cites the Confessio, and, in two 
 instances, from texts not now known to exist. In one of 
 these, Patrick is made to state that his mother was 
 Concessa (Tr. Th., 15, c. i.) ; and in the other (37, c. 
 xvii.) to supply an additional example of the psycho- 
 logical experiences of his youth. In this passage, 
 relating his life in the wilds while herding the flocks of 
 Milchu, he goes on to say, Audiebam quosdam ex sjpiritibus 
 psallentes in me, et nesciebam quiessent. " I heard certain 
 of the spirits within me singing psalms, and I knew not 
 who they might be " {ante, viii., 276). 
 
 It cannot be said that the Fourth Life supplies anything 
 from which an earlier epoch than that usually ascribed to 
 Patrick can definitely be inferred. It brings him in 
 contact (c. lxxvii. ) with the Foilge above-mentioned, but 
 without the story of the dry bones. There may be more 
 matter for reasonable speculation on this head in its 
 
SS THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 statement (c. lxxviii.) that, on a certain occasion Patrick 
 was accompanied on his progress through the borders of 
 Ossory by bishops Ibar and Ailbe. It would be too 
 wide a subject here, to enter on an examination of the 
 grounds on which the obits of these ecclesiastics have been 
 determined in our annals, but I do not desire, in passing 
 the topic by, to be understood as yielding convinced 
 assent to the late date assigned. 
 
 XL. The Fifth Life, in two books, a work well 
 ascertained to the tenth century, bears the name of 
 Probus as author. The writer is manifestly Irish (Tr. 
 Th., 61, n. 2). It is to be regretted that, having ascer- 
 tained, '' indubitanter," that Bannave Tdbemix regionis 
 is Nenirix provinciam ubi olim gigantes habitasse dicuntur, 
 he does not more distinctly state where Nentria is. He 
 makes Patrick, however, a Briton, intimating at the 
 same time that he himself writes in these islands : — " Hie 
 in Britanniis natus." He contradicts the Confessio in 
 putting Patrick's call at Mount Ilermon, near the 
 Terrene Sea (c. xviii.)- His relation of the capture is 
 extremely confused, but seems to show that he under- 
 stood Arimuric in the same sense as the author of Life 
 Pour, that is, as a designation of any maritime district. 
 The word, indeed, continued to be so used by Irish 
 writers down to the time of O'Plaherty, who dates the 
 Epistle Dedictory of his Ogygia " Aremorica Galviensi." 
 Having stated that Patrick was born " hi3 in Britanniis," 
 he proceeds : — " Cumque adhuc esset in patria cum patre 
 
LIFE FIVE. 89 
 
 Calfurnio et matre Concessa, in civitate eorum Arimuric, 
 facta est seditio magna in partibus illis. Nam filii 
 Eethmiti Eegis de Britannia vastantes Arimuric, et alia 
 circumposita loca, jugulaverunt Calpurnium et uxorem 
 ejus Concessam, filiosque eorum, Patricium, &c. — 
 abducentes Hiberniam ingressi sunt et vendiderunt 
 Patricium Milchoni regi," &c. — which can hardly be 
 otherwise read than that while Patrick was still in his 
 own country with his father and mother (i.e., hie in 
 Britanniis) in their seaside abode (civitate Aremorica) the 
 misfortune in question befell them. Obviously the 
 passage is either an inaccurate copy of the corres- 
 ponding statements in the scholium on the metrical 
 Life, or the latter is an improvement on it or some 
 similar account. 
 
 XLT. The statement of the Scholiast, whatever be its 
 true place in the sequence {ante, xxiv.), is more definite. 
 He alleges the identity of Nemthor with Ailclyde, and 
 accounts for Patrick having been carried off from 
 Lethanian Aremorica, in which, if we accept his authority, 
 we should conclude Bannave Tabernisd to be situate, by 
 the circumstance that he had accompanied his family 
 from Strathclyde thither. Contrasting the one story 
 with the other, the less exact will probably be regarded 
 as the older. "Whichever be the original, these passages 
 no doubt are the foundation of all that has been conjec- 
 tured regarding Patrick's Armorican connexion, and his 
 birth among the continental Britons, although both 
 explicitly exclude the latter inference. 
 
90 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 XLII. Probus interposes a third captivity between 
 
 Patrick's return to his family in insular Britain and his 
 
 first departure on his Irish mission, conducting him by way 
 
 of Bordeaux to St. Martin at Tours, from whom he receives 
 
 the tonsure and ordination ; thence to the " Eremitas et 
 
 Solitarios nudis pedibus " ; thence to the Island between 
 
 the mountains and the sea, from which he goes to Mount 
 
 Hermon, and is there ordained presbyter by Bishop 
 
 Senior, whose city, we are informed, " vallata est septem 
 
 muris (Tr. Th., 48, xvii.). A frequent source of error in 
 
 Irish transci iption arises from the confusion between the 
 
 characters or sigla expressing six and seven (se and 
 
 seclit); and a six- walled city, Six fours the Hexafrourai of 
 
 the Massilian colonists, does, indeed, exist within no great 
 
 distance of Aries, and may be the place referred to. 
 
 There is, however, notwithstanding much obscurity in 
 
 the account of these peregrinations, a general consistency 
 
 which forbids our ascribing it to mere invention, and 
 
 few readers will rise from a perusal of Probus without the 
 
 persuasion that some apostolic missionary of the Irish — 
 
 whether Palladius Patrick, Senior Patrick, or Patrick 
 
 the author of the Cun/essio — did, some time in the fourth 
 
 or beginning of the fifth century, sojourn for purposes 
 
 of ecclesiastical training in those regions bordering the 
 
 Terrene Sea on the southern coast of Gaul. It is to this 
 
 region Probus, in continuing disregard of the Confessio, 
 
 transfers the Call of the children of Focluth Wood, and 
 
 brings Patrick thence in prompt obedience to it on his 
 
 mission to the Irish. Coming hither as a simple presbyter, 
 
LIFE SEVEX. 91 
 
 and without coininision, Patrick finds himself unsuccess- 
 ful, and resolves to seek necessary authority at Rome 
 (Tr. Th., 48, c. six.). At this point Probus, resuming 
 the narrative of Muirehu, " transnavigato vero niari 
 Britannico" (Hog. Doc, 24, c. 25), conducts Patrick to 
 Germanus, and proceeds with the remaining incidents of 
 his hearing of Palladius' mission and death, and of his 
 return hither, and missionary acta, as already related. 
 These various captivities and double mission taken in con- 
 nexion with the two Patricks of the " Fiacc " Life (xxiii.) 
 are certainly suggestive of blended sets of acta of several 
 persons living at different epochs. 
 
 XLIII. The Tripartite, or Life Seven, is the most 
 copious repertory of all ; and, from the fact that the 
 first elements of almost all its matter may be found in 
 the Book of Armagh, either recorded at length or 
 indicated in the rough index (Hog. Doc. 110-1G) to 
 names of persons and places at the end of Tirechan in 
 that collection, there can be little doubt that, whatever 
 be the date of its compilation in its present form, most of 
 its substance is drawn from traditions which were 
 current before the compilation of the Armagh Codex. 
 It may, therefore, be of an authority equal to that of 
 any of the antecedent Lives. Its testimony on the 
 question of birthplace is explicit, that Patrick was born 
 at Nemthor of the Strath-clyde Britons (" de Brltannis 
 Alcluidentibus," Tr. Th., 117, c. I.), and that the palace 
 of the prince of that region, daily frequented by Patrick's 
 
92 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 foster-mother, described by Jocelyn as "in quodani 
 promontorjo supereminenti prsefato oppido Nempthor " 
 (Tr. Th., 6G, c. xi.), was in Ailclyde (Tr. Th., 119, c. xv.). 
 The Tripartite also has the Arniorican story, substantially 
 as told by Pro bus and the Scholiast on Fiacc ; and, on 
 the subject of Patrick's continental travels, follows the 
 Fiacc in making Patrick's escape from captivity a first 
 step in his continental journey. "Patricio in solitudine 
 agenti, apparuit Angelus, jubens ut in Italiam ad 
 discendas scripturas se conferat. Dixit, propera: ecce 
 nuvis tua parata est " (Tr. Th., 120, c. xxii.). And in 
 equal disregard of the authority of the Confessio it puts the 
 call in the islands of the Terrene Sea. As bearing on the 
 question of epoch, it differs from all the antecedent Lives 
 in extending Patrick's period from his first arrival in 
 the 5th of Leoghaire throughout that and the following 
 reign into the 8th year of Lugaid, Leoghaire's son, who 
 succeeded on the death of Ailill Molt, a.d. 481. This brings 
 the death of Patrick of the Tripartite to A.D. 493, the date 
 which has had the acceptance of the greater number of 
 modern writers, these also being of the greater weight. 
 As earlyicideed as the compilation of the Patrician Synchro- 
 nismus in the Leabhar Breac (vol. 2, p. 220) which probable 
 associated evidence would refer to the time of Domnall, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, A.D. 109 j, this was the received 
 date, and, notwithstanding the evidence of Tirechan to the 
 contrary, it continues to be so in the Annals and in the 
 latest writings of Todd and Shearman. The " Chronicon 
 Scotorum," however, distinguishes A.D. 489 as the date 
 
L1F£ SEVEN. 93 
 
 of the death of Patrick the Archbishop and Apostle of 
 the Irish, marking, in nearer accordance with Tirechan, 
 A.D. 457, in the latter parb of the reign of Leoghaire, as 
 the obit of "Senior Patrick the bishop, i.e. of Glaston- 
 bury," a further evidence of the continuing tradition from 
 the time of the writer of the Fiacc Life of there having 
 been at least two Patricks engaged in the Irish mission. 
 But that a missionary of so late a date should have been 
 in living rolations with the persons introduced by the 
 Tripartite as Patrick's cotemporaries is very difficult to 
 credit. 
 
 XLIY. Amongst the names in the rough index 
 referred to (sup. xliii.) is found Saran, son of Coelbadh, 
 and the twelve sons of Coelbadh. Patrick's connexion 
 with them, although not further expanded in the Book 
 of Armagh, is here fully detailed. He desired to found 
 a church at a place not now known in the northern part 
 of Ulster, at that time ruled by Saran, who opposed hh 
 wishes. Saran was king of Ulster, in succession to his 
 father, Coelbadh, whose period is the better fixed because 
 he was for one year full king of Ireland, until slain by 
 his successor, Eochaid Muidhmedhon, A.D. 367. This, it 
 will be seen, brings Saran into quasi parity of date with 
 Sinell (sup. xxx.), the sons of Cathbod (xxvii.), and 
 Enna Cennsalach (ib.) more than half a century before 
 the reign of Leoghaire. The only mode of reconciling 
 these dates with a post- Palladian mission is by supposing 
 that the story of the Tripartite ought to have been told of 
 
94 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 some otlier Sarau of the same family ; and Shearman, in 
 his Dalaradian Descents (Loc. Pat. Tab. 5), passing over 
 the son of Coelbadh, and following the authority of 
 O'Flaherty (Ogyg. iii. c. lxxvii.), has transferred the 
 incident to Saran son of Coelbadh's grandson, Maine. 
 
 XLY. But the son of Maine does not appear, like the 
 son of Coelbadh, to have had a brother Nathsluaig, as to 
 whose relations with Patrick the Tripartite is equally 
 explicit as it is in respect of Saran's. Nathsluaig having 
 commended himself to the Saint by an offered donation of 
 land for a church at Coleraine, Patrick accepts the gift 
 in these ambiguous terms : "It shall be mine, yet not 
 3ease to be yours ; for a grandson of yours as well as of 
 mine shall have his seat and his place of rest therein ; " 
 "which language," adds the author, "though it seemed 
 an enigma, yet proved to be a most true oracle ; for that 
 bishop Carbre who, in this same place, which ever since 
 that day and event is called Cuil Rathain, that is, Ferny 
 Close, did afterwards set up his episcopal seat, was 
 grandson of (the same) Nathsluaig, by his son Diguill, in 
 the way of fleshly generation, and likewise in the order 
 of spiritual procreation, was spiritual grandson of the 
 holy Patrick; for bishop Brugach, who is (xvi.) in Eath 
 Mugeonach, ordained bishop by holy Patrick, is he who 
 afterwards ordained Carbre bishop " (Tr. Th., 147, 7 a; 
 Vit. ii., c. cxxxvi. ), which Carbre, it may be observed, is 
 also indirectly noted in the Irish Index (Hog. Doc, 112) 
 as filius deculli, in connection with the Coeibadian 
 
LIFE SEVEN. 95 
 
 family. It is hard to read the prediction otherwise than 
 as referring to an event to occur after the deaths of both 
 grandfathers ; which would quite agree with what is 
 above observed respecting Coleraine (sup. xxv.). 
 
 XLVI. The unduly early connexions above mentioned, 
 are balanced in the Tripartite by others equally late as 
 compared with the accepted Patrician epoch. Patrick 
 having made his first convert amongst the Hy-Garrchon 
 of Wicklow, in Sinell, numbered 59, and also his first 
 convert amongst the Dalaraidhe of Down, in Dichu, 
 son of Trechim, numbered 63, returns to the region 
 of Hy-Garrchon, where he receives the hospitality of 
 Killen, and bestows his blessing on Killen's infant son 
 Marcan, being great-grandson of the same Sinell who 
 had been his first convert in the same district (Tr. Th., 
 152, c. 17). Thence proceeding into the borders of Leix, 
 he escapes the danger of certain pitfalls through the 
 warning of a pious matron, Eriga the daughter of 
 Fergnat, son of Cobthac, names of note in the genealogy 
 of the Hy-Ercain or descendants of Ercan grand-uncle of 
 St. Brigid of Kildare (Loc. Pat., Tab. v.). Proceeding 
 thence into northern Munster, he baptizes Eochaid 
 Baldearg, son of Carthen, of the line of Olioll Oluni. 
 While Sinell in these Tables of descent is 59 in generation- 
 order, Eochaid is 66, and Briga is 69. Patrick is thus 
 during his missionary career brought in contact with ten 
 successive generations. It might be possible for an 
 individual, in the course of a long life, and under excep- 
 
98 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 tional circumstances, to converse with persons perhaps 
 so far removed in order of birth as the sixth or seventh 
 generation ; but there appears no ground for supposing 
 Patrick's ministry in Ireland to have extended through 
 half so great a length of time, much less to have comprised 
 so excessive a range of cotemporaries. 
 
 XLVII. Life Six, by Jocelyn of Furness, dates from 
 about a.d. 1185. It relates, in amplified phraseology 
 and not inelegant Latin, the same matters already dealt 
 with, save that it passes by the double series of adventures 
 recorded by Probus ; and contributes large additions to 
 the general acta, drawn apparently from Tirechan and 
 the Tripartite, or Seventh Life, in reference to which it 
 seems misplaced. So far as concei-ns this enquiry, it 
 will suffice, to note, that Jocelyn evidently understood 
 Nemthor, or Nemphthor, " Mari Hibernico collimitans " 
 (Tr. Th., Go, c. iv.), to be in North Britain; because, in 
 relating Patrick's journey from the residence of his family 
 towards Gaul, he describes him as " natale solum 
 pertransiens " (Tr. Th., 69, c. xxii.). It contains nothing 
 apposite to the other heads of inquiry not to be found 
 equally at large and probably from earlier sources in 
 the Tripartite, save that (c. 150) it designates Coroticus 
 Ceretic, and places him " in finibus quibusdam Britaniae, 
 quse modo Vdllia dicitur," a designation in coteni- 
 poraneous use for the Britain of Strathclyde (Chron. 
 Ang-Sax., passim). 
 
LIFE SIX. C 
 
 <J t 
 
 XLYVTII. It is plainly impossible to refer all these 
 incidents, literally as they stand recorded, to a single 
 actor. The reader must either reject such of them as are 
 too early and too late respectively, and refer the residue 
 to the Patrick of popular belief ; or else accept the 
 alternative of allocating such of them as appear to stand 
 on an historical basis amongst several Patricks. The 
 former course involves the assumption of a sufficient 
 number of supposed errors of commission and omission iii 
 authors and transcribers, to reduce these collateral 
 anomalies to agreement with the body of the acta. With 
 these aids, a reasonably consistent account of the Patrick 
 of the Secondary Evidences, in his youth, captivity, 
 continental career, and Irish mission, might be constructed. 
 But if this portraiture be compared with the Patrick of 
 the Primary Evidences, a moral discrepancy, to some 
 minds much more embarrassing than any difficulty of date 
 or person, has to be encountered. For, if the characters 
 presented in the one set of proofs and in the other are to 
 be reconciled, it must be by believing that a conscientious 
 missionary, following in the track of an authorized 
 predecessor, has arrogated to himself all the credit of 
 what had been accomplished by Palladius, if not by 
 Palladius and others ; and that a candid student educated 
 in the best schools of the west of Europe should be found 
 lamenting, not only his want of learning, but his want of 
 the opportunities of acquiring it. Facile potest probari ex 
 saliva scriptural mece qualiter sum ego in sermonibus 
 instructus atque eruditus. 
 
 G 
 
98 THE PATMCIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 XLIX. There seems, therefore, for minds either averse 
 to violent emendations or incapable of reconciling the 
 moral discrepancies in question, no other alternative than 
 to conclude that there were more Patricks than one. 
 On the evidence adduced previously to the considerations 
 now put forward, Dr. Todd had already recognised two — 
 Palladius Patrick, and Patrick Calphurnides ; and, since 
 then, Shearman has included with these Sen or Senior 
 Patrick of Glastonbury (Loc. Pat., passim). Both 
 writers, adhering to the post-Palladian date of all the 
 Patrician acta, necessarily ignore the evidences of fourth 
 and early fifth century missionary activity. Both put 
 the mission of Palladius at A.D. 432 ; but, while Todd 
 fills up the period from thence to 440 with Palladian acta, 
 and thence to 493 with those of Patrick, son of Calphurn, 
 Shearman occupies the time from 432 to 463 with the acts 
 of Palladius and of the Glastonbury or old Patrick, and 
 thence to 493 with those of his Third Patrick, the author 
 of the Confessio. To allocate the bulk of the acta is now 
 impossible ; but it is obvious that if events of pre -Palladian 
 times be really predicated of any Patrick in the Lives, 
 they will be more consistently referred to him whose 
 writings have come down to us, and are found to contain 
 no trace of any predecessor in the Irish missionary field. 
 
 L. Eegarding Patrick's continental travels, there are 
 three schools of opinion traceable in the Lives, these also 
 indicating a growth from traditions respecting several 
 persons. In all, the object is to acquire the knowledge 
 
LIFE SIX. 09 
 
 and status necessnry for his mission. Muirchu carries 
 him, iu the prosecution of this design, no further than 
 Auxerre and Ebmoria ; "Fiacc," Tirechan, and the 
 authors of the Second and Fifth Lives conduct him 
 thence to the Terrene Sea islands ; and the writers of the 
 Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Lives and the Scholiast 
 on Fiacc extend his journey onward, expressly or by 
 necessary implication, to Rome. All agree in placing 
 him under the tuition of Germanus, or of Germanus and 
 Martin, which, if he were the missionary cotemporary of 
 Sinell, Saran, Enna, or the elder Dunlang, supposing 
 them to have been rightly marshalled in their dates and 
 pedigrees, could not have been so. These considerations 
 had already led Todd, even while adopting the reading 
 "ex [tra] Gallias" (sup. viii., 154 n.) to ascribe the major 
 part of these experiences to Palladius, whose family 
 connexions, he has shown, probably allied him with both 
 the ecclesiastics named ; and have, doubtless, had their 
 weight in inducing Shearman to the conclusion that 
 whatever portion of the continental record does not 
 belong to the history of Palladius, ought to be divided 
 between the other two, and that, as regards the author 
 of the Confessio, his orders at least ought to be deemed 
 altogether British (Loc. Pat., 447 ; Jour. Arch. Soc. 
 Ir., 258). 
 
 LI. As to his place of birth, the preceding analysis of 
 the evidences adds two items only to those already 
 accessible to the eve of criticism ; but the evidences, it 
 
100 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 is believed, are here somewhat more systematically 
 marshalled, and a consideration of them will probably 
 excite surprise that any differences of judgment should 
 have arisen on such premises. 
 
 LII. There is greater difficulty in concluding that 
 none of the continental incidents related in the Lives con- 
 cern the author of the Confessio. It is true they attach 
 themselves awkwardly to the story told in the Confessio 
 and often contradict it, and in matter and manner are 
 very much below the standard of its reasonableness, 
 dignity, and sincerity ; but they are old in compilation, 
 and derived from sources which were old in tho beginning 
 of the ninth century ; and if they do not relate to the 
 writer of the Confessio, certainly do so to some other 
 Patrick or Patricks, so far as their contents can be 
 considered relevant to any one. The existence of an 
 interval of thirty years, during some part of which 
 Patrick was not in Britain (sup. viii., 355), between some 
 event not distinctly indicated and some hostile demon- 
 stration against the writer, is clearly stated in the Confessio 
 {ib., o07). This, if it have not its terminus a quo in the 
 fault with which the seniors reproached him (ib.), can 
 only, it would seem, be referred to some period of absence 
 from Bri'ain, either for purposes of study or in the 
 prosecution of his mission in Ireland, If the former, 
 his thirty years would tally with the thirty years of 
 continental probation of Muirchu and the other Life- 
 writers, but would be inconsistent with the probable 
 
LIFE SIX. iUl 
 
 wants of the student, and with his own disclaimer of 
 educational advantages. If the latter, his language — 
 
 " They came . . . they found me after thirty years 
 To charge me with one word I had confessed 
 Before I was a DeacoD," 
 
 would imply that he had either been followed to Ireland 
 by those who objected to his " laborious episcopate " 
 (nip. 127 11.), or brought by them before some tribunal in 
 Britain ; and the circumstance of his writing with so 
 much warmth of the " dearest friend " who, on that 
 occasion, appears to have taken part adversely to him, 
 would indicate a recent cause of resentment, and perhaps 
 susfsrest that towards the close of his career his claim to 
 be considered the "Patricius" of the Irish had been 
 called in question. 
 
 LIII. Whether there were many Patricks or one, the 
 question of the epoch of the writer of the Confessio 
 remains. It will depend in great measure on the mental 
 constitution of the reader, whether he will incline to 
 accept the post-Palladian or the pre-Palladian epoch. 
 In presence of the general agreement of the Life -writers, 
 many may be disposed to lay the primary documents 
 aside as contributing matter only of moral idiosyncrasy, 
 and wall reject or adjust collateral divergencies con- 
 formably to a mission after A.D. 432. Those minds 
 which find more difficulty in the reconcilement of moral 
 discrepancies will, in adopting the alternative view, 
 rest content with the places assigned in the evidences to 
 
102 THE PATRICIAN DOCUMENTS. 
 
 the sons of Cathbod, Enna, Sinell, Natsluaig, and Saran, 
 and will allow the balance in which the periods of 
 Coroticus, Fiacc, and Dunlang remain suspended to 
 incline to the side having, in their estimation, the moral 
 preponderance, To judge of these elements of opinion, 
 it was necessary that both sets of evidence should be 
 before the reader, and they are now, it is believed for the 
 first time, presented in one catenation. 
 
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