' 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
cH'. ,e.v . '9'-' 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. <J^ 
 
 Purchased by the 
 i Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund. 
 
 '\ BR 746 7CT 1894 
 
 ! Cathcart, William, 1826- 
 
 ! 1908. 
 
 I The ancient British and 
 
 Irish churches including 
 
^ s 
 
 
 p I 
 
BRITANNIA ROM ANA 
 
 Tak(_-ii IVoiii liapiii's "History of Eiigiaiid. 
 
THE ANCIENT 
 
 British and Irish Churches 
 
 INCLUDING THE 
 
 LIFE AND LABORS OF ST. PATRICK 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM CATHCART, D. D. 
 
 Editor of The Baptist Encycloposdia, and Author of The Papal System 
 
 WITH MAPS, ILLUSTRATIONS, AND FULL INDICES 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 CHARLES FT. BANES 
 1420 Chestnut Street 
 
 1S94 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1894, by the 
 
 AMERICAN BAPTIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 Christianity Among the Ancient Britons. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGK 
 
 I. Introduction of Christianity, 11 
 
 II. Introduction of Christianity {Continued), . . 19 
 
 III, Christianity among the Ancient Britons dur- 
 
 ing THE First Four Centuries, 25 
 
 IV. Christianity among the Ancient Britons dur- 
 
 ing THE First Four Centuries (Cbw^inw^c?), . . 33 
 
 V. Christianity among the Ancient Britons dur- 
 ing THE Fifth and Sixth Centuries, .... 39 
 
 VI. Christianity among the Ancient Britons dur- 
 ing THE Fifth and Sixth Centuries (Continued) 48 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 Christianity Among the Ancient Irish. 
 
 I. The Gospel in Ireland before St. Patrick's Day, 59 
 
 II. Britain, St. Patrick's Country, 63 
 
 III, St. Patrick as a Missionary, 69 
 
 IV. St. Patrick's Supposed Mission from Rome . . 77 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 V. St. Patrick's Koman Commission Unauthenti- 
 
 CATED, 84 
 
 VI. Foreign Appeals to Rome, 91 
 
 yil. Papal Appeals in Gaul and Ireland, .... 95 
 
 VIII. St. Patrick's Missionary Qualifications, . . 101 
 
 IX. St. Patrick's Missionary Qualifications {Con- 
 tinued), 110 
 
 X. St. Patrick's Great Work and his Exalted 
 
 Worth, 118 
 
 XL St. Patrick's Confession, and his Letter to 
 
 Coroticus, 124 
 
 XII. The Confession of St. Patrick; or, "The 
 
 Epistle to the Irish," 127 
 
 XIIL St. Patrick's Confession {Continued), 131 
 
 XIV. St. Patrick's Confession {Continued), 134 
 
 XV. St. Patrick's Confession {Continued), 138 
 
 XVI. St. Patrick's Confession {Concluded), 142 
 
 XVII. St. Patrick's Epistle to Coroticus, .... 146 
 
 XVIII. St. Patrick and Baptism, . . . , 151 
 
 XIX. St. Patrick held the Leading Doctrines of 
 
 THE Baptist Denomination, 158 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 Scotland and the Conversion of the Picts. 
 
 I. The Evangelization of the Southern Picts . 165 
 II. NiNiAN, Palladius, AND Kentiqern 173 
 
CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 III. The Life and Labors of Columba, ..... 181 
 
 IV. The Commencement of Columba's Mission to the 
 
 Northern Picts, 189 
 
 V. Columba's Success, 196 
 
 VI. The Abbey of Iona, 199 
 
 VII. Columba's Work Established, 206 
 
 VIII. Incidents of Columba's Life, 211 
 
 BOOK ly. 
 
 The Mission of the Scots to the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 I. Protestantism in Great Britain and Ireland 
 
 FROM the Beginning of the Seventh Century, 217 
 
 II. King Oswald Converted, 222 
 
 III. Hibernian Mission Schools among the Anglo- 
 
 Saxons, 228 
 
 IV. NorthuxMbria and Mercia, 234 
 
 V. The East Saxons, 237 
 
 VI. The Scots and their Anglo-Saxon Converts, . 242 
 VII. Protestantism in Great Britain and Ireland 
 
 FROM the BEGI]?fNING OF THE SEVENTH CeNTURY, 250 
 
 VIII. The Answer of the Britons to Augustine, . . 258 
 
 IX. Persecution of the Scots, 262 
 
 X. The Influence of Irish Missionaries, .... 269 
 
 XL The Early British Churches, 277 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK V. 
 
 British and Irish Presbyters and Bishops ; their 
 Marriages and Homes. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Primitive Church Order, 281 
 
 II. The Marriage of the Clergy, 285 
 
 III. Married Monks and Nuns, 289 
 
 IV. Early Monasteries in Great Britain and Ire- 
 
 land, 292 
 
 V. Commentaries in Monasteries, 295 
 
 VI. Monasteries were Bible Manufacturing and 
 
 Distributing Societies, ......... 299 
 
 VII. The Early British and Irish Monasteries 
 ■WERE Theological Seminaries and Home and 
 Foreign Mission Societies, 302 
 
 VIII. Monasteries among the Ancient Britons and 
 Irish were Learned Universities; Marriage 
 IN Connection with Monasteries, 308 
 
 BOOK YI. 
 
 Some of the Doctrines and Observances of the 
 Ancient British and Irish Christians. 
 
 I. Sin and Salvation, 312 
 
 II. The Atonement, and Conversion, 315 
 
 III. Justification, Life, and Intercession, ... 318 
 
 IV. The Lord's Supper, or Eucharist, 322 
 
 V. The Doctrine of Purgatory, 330 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The inhabitants of England, Ireland, and Scotland, 
 before the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth 
 century, had common Celtic ancestors. There is no 
 more interesting or less known portion of ecclesiastical 
 history than that of the ancient religious communities of 
 Great Britain and Ireland. Not one of these powerful 
 churches was founded by Rome or rendered any allegi- 
 ance to the supreme pontiff for centuries after its estab- 
 lishment. 
 
 The Britons were evano-elized before the end of the 
 fourth century. Their scanty religious history inspires 
 admiration for their heroism under imperial Roman, and 
 heathen Anglo-Saxon persecutions, and deep regret that 
 so few of their ancient records were spared. St. Patrick, 
 Ninian, and Kentigern, the apostles of great numbers of 
 converts, were Britons. Helena, the Christian mother of 
 Constantine the Great, was a native of Britain. No 
 people in Christian history ever showed greater fidelity 
 to their Bible principles, when sacerdotal enemies of the 
 gospel tried to drive them from the truth. 
 
 St. Patrick's career as a slave, as a prince of preachers, 
 as a missionary, who by Divine help overcame the fierce 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 idolatry of a whole nation, and by his unselfish love cap- 
 tured their hearts and those of their descendants for 
 fourteen hundred and fifty years, is without an exact 
 parallel in all the biographies of missionary heroes. His 
 Christian life is full of fascination. 
 
 The history of Patrick began to lose its legendary char- 
 acter after the learned Archbishop Ussher, in the seven- 
 teenth century, showed him to the world as a simple and 
 mighty evangelical preacher, like the illustrious primate 
 of Ireland himself. George III., in 1783, established 
 for Ireland its only order of kuighthood, the knights of 
 St. Patrick. George was a very decided Protestant. 
 Neither he nor his ministry had any purpose to conciliate 
 Roman Catholics in the new institution. The Irish Par- 
 liament was a Protestant body ; and a majority of the 
 knights have always been Protestants. 
 
 The great Protestant "Religious Tract Society" of 
 London, the mother of all similar organizations every- 
 where, has issued within a few years the works of St. 
 Patrick in its series called " Christian Classics," which 
 contains one each of the productions of St. Augustine, 
 Ansel m, Athanasius, Basil, and William Tyndale, the 
 illustrious translator of the English Bible. 
 
 The " Lords Commissioners" of the British Treasury, in 
 1887, ordered that " The Tripartite Life of Patrick," with 
 other documents relating to that saint, should be printed 
 and placed among the " chronicles and memorials of Great 
 Britain and Ireland during the middle ages." This 
 learned publication is an encyclopaedia of ancient 
 
PREFACE. 9 
 
 writings relating to Patrick, and of his own genuine 
 works. 
 
 The volume which we now send forth, contains careful 
 translations of Patrick's extant literary efforts, and an 
 account of every known and important transaction of 
 his life. It also furnishes sketches of the labors of 
 Ninian and Kentigern in Scotland, and of the life and 
 labors of Columba, the apostle of the Northern Picts of 
 Caledonia, probably the greatest Irishman who ever 
 served the Saviour. 
 
 It relates the wonderful story of the Hibernian mission 
 from lona to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, presided over by 
 Aidan, Finan, and Colman, which, by the grace of God, 
 resulted in the conversion of at least two thirds of that 
 people, whose descendants to-day own so much of the 
 wealth, commerce, territory, power, and missionary enter- 
 prise of the world. Augustine, the Italian Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, and his fellow-monks, were little more 
 than pioneers in the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 This glorious Hibernian success rests upon evidence as 
 strong as that which makes it certain that William the 
 Conqueror gained the victory over Harold at the battle 
 of Hastings. 
 
 It presents historical testimony showing tliat the an- 
 cient Britons, Picts, and Hibernians were not Roman 
 Catholics. It treats of the marriage of the British and 
 Irish clergy, and of their great monastic institutions, 
 which were established as missionary societies, theological 
 seminaries, Bible copying and distributing organizations, 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 as parsonages for great numbers of home missionaries^ 
 and as universities, divinely favored in imparting a 
 learned education to semi-barbarous Anglo-Saxons, and to 
 unenlightened youths from every quarter of Europe. 
 
 It describes a number of the leading doctrines and 
 observances of the ancient British and Irish churches, 
 based upon their early commentaries or other writings, 
 which show a remarkable agreement with the creeds and 
 practices of the evangelical Christians of our day, but 
 especially with those of the Baptists. 
 
 The story is one of the greatest interest, and entirely 
 controverts the claims of the Roman hierarchy respecting 
 these ancient Christians and the foundations they estab- 
 lished. 
 
 Foot-notes furnish reliable authorities for all the im- 
 portant statements that are made. I am indebted to the 
 Rev. Philip L. Jones, A. B., for valuable suggestions. 
 
 W. C. 
 
 Philadelphia, Jan., 1894. 
 
Ancient British and Irish Churches. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 Dean Stanley and Augustine-The Anglo-Saxons not chiefly evan- 
 gelized by Romish missionaries-Roman legions-Koman traders- 
 Commerce with the East-Greeks and Marseilles-Persecutions at 
 Vienne and Lyons-Simon Zelotes, Paul, Peter, Philip, and others, 
 supposed to have been missionaries in Britain. 
 
 The ancient Britons, who once occupied all England and 
 a considerable part of Scotland, had much to do, through 
 their religious descendants, in the conversion of their Anglo- 
 Saxon conquerors. These pagans, coming into Britam m the 
 fifth century, reared temples of idolatry in all directions, and 
 destroyed every vestige of British Christianity within their 
 reach. In A. d. 596, Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, a 
 man of large heart and of sincere piety, sent a company ot 
 missionaries into Britain to seek the salvation of the heathen 
 An-lo-Saxons. At the head of this band was Augustine, the 
 first^ archbishop of Canterbury. This prelate had some 
 vanity, a limited measure of true religion, a good master in 
 Gregory, and favoring circumstances. 
 
 The late Dean Stanley, while a canon of Canterbury, 
 
 wrote : 
 
 I have said little of Augustine himself, and that f- '-;--';;^; 
 First, because so little is known of him; secondly bocau n,u 
 
 confess, that what little is told of him leaves an unfavorable npres 
 
12 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 sion behind. We cannot doubt that he was an active, self-denying 
 man — his coming here through so many dangers of sea and land 
 proves it ; and it would be ungrateful and ungenerous not to acknowl- 
 edge how much we owe to him. But still, almost every personal trait 
 which is recorded of him shows that he was not a man of any great 
 elevation of character, that he was thinking of himself, or of his order, 
 when we should have wished him to be thinking of the great cause 
 he had in hand. We see this in his drawing back from his journey 
 to Britain in France; we see it in the additional power which he 
 claimed from Gregory over his companions ; we see it in the warn- 
 ings sent to him by Gregory that he was not to be puffed up by the 
 wonders he had wrought in Britain ; we see it in the haughty severity 
 with which he treated the remnant of British Christians in Wales, 
 not rising when they approached, and uttering that malediction 
 against them, which sanctioned, if it did not instigate, their massacre 
 by the Saxons.^ 
 
 The success of Augustine of Canterbury, during his life, 
 was not very extensive. Laurence, who followed him in that 
 see, after the death of Ethelbert, met with serious trouble. 
 His son Eadbald '^ refused the faith of Christ, and fell into 
 immorality. " By these offenses," Bede says, " he gave occa- 
 sion to those to return to their former uncleanness, who, under 
 his father, had, either for favor or through fear of the king, 
 submitted to the laws of faith and chastity." And such was 
 the extent of this apostasy that Laurentius concluded to leave 
 Britain, and was only hindered by what he represented as a 
 miraculous visit of St. Peter, who gave him good advice and 
 a sound " scourging," which lasted " for a long time." The 
 same thing occurred among the East Saxons. The three sons 
 of Sabert, the king, professed idolatry after his death, and the 
 people turned to their old idols with renewed devotion ; and 
 Mellitus, their bishop, with Justus, bishop of Kochester in 
 Kent, fled to France, these two bishops and Laurentius 
 having "unanimously agreed that it was better for them all 
 to return to their own country, where they might serve God 
 in freedom, than to continue without any advantage among 
 these barbarians who had revolted from the faith." 
 
 1 " Historical Memorials of Canterbury," pp. 33, 34. London, 1855. 
 » Bede's " Eccles. Hist ," Lib. II., cap. 5, 6. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 13 
 
 Pauliniis, probably the ablest and best of the Italian mis- 
 sionaries, labored with much apparent success in the king- 
 dom of Northurabria from a. d. 625 to A. d. 633, when there 
 was a great slaughter of Christians in Northumbria, and 
 flight alone promised safety ; Paulinus removed to Kent, and 
 became bishop of Rochester, where he lived for nineteen 
 years, having completely abandoned his work ^ in that region. 
 
 These forsaken fields were reclaimed and others were occu- 
 pied, partly by those who fled from their flocks, but chiefly 
 by the Scottish missionaries, the religious descendants of St. 
 Patrick, without whose glorious labors, in all probability, the 
 Anglo-Saxons would have been largely pagans for centuries. 
 
 The ancient Britons belonged to the great Celtic race, sec- 
 tions of which furnished inhabitants to Great Britain and 
 Ireland, and to Gaul long before its conquest by the Franks. 
 The Britons had nothing in common with the Anglo-Saxons. 
 In religion they followed Druidism ; private quarrels were 
 judged by their priests, as well as disputes about bequests, 
 and all criminal accusations. Punishments and rewards were 
 controlled by them ; they exercised the greatest power over 
 the public and private lives of the people. They used their 
 whole authority against the Roman invaders of Britain, who 
 found it necessary to destroy them. Under Suetonius Pauli- 
 nus, the legions in Britain overthrew the altars and destroyed 
 the ancient forests, until, in Nero's time, Druidism was shut 
 up within the little island of Mona (Anglesey). Thither it 
 was followed by Suetonius Paulinus. In vain the sacred vir- 
 gins hurried to the shore like furies, in mourning habits, with 
 disheveled hair, and brandishing torches. He forced the 
 passage, and slaughtered every human being that fell into his 
 hands. This occurred in a. d. 61.^ The sacred groves of the 
 Druids were cut down, and all traces of their former author- 
 ity removed. From this crushing blow Druidism never 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 21. 
 
 2 " Tacit. Annal., " XIV., 29, 30. 
 
14 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 recovered. Its overthrow in South Britain banished the Sav- 
 iour's greatest enemy. 
 
 It is impossible to fix the exact date when the gospel was 
 first introduced into Britain ; nor can the channels through 
 which it came be determined with certainty. As the first 
 preachers of the gospel in Rome are wholly unknown, so the 
 records of men furnish nothing reliable about the first British 
 missionaries. 
 
 The Roman legions and colonists were likely to bring some 
 of the persons who first told the story of the cross in Britain. 
 Roman legions were located for an indefinite period in some one 
 country — a century, or even centuries ; they were never re- 
 cruited in the province where they were encamped, but in for- 
 eign and often distant countries. An English legion might 
 have as recruits some of Paul's converts in Asia Minor. 
 British recruits might be sent to some legion located in the 
 East, and might be converted there. And they, on their final 
 return home, and foreign disciples serving Rome in Britain, 
 would surely aid in spreading the gospel in that country. 
 
 The conversion of Cornelius, of the Italian band in Cse- 
 sarea, under Peter's ministry, was one of many cases where an 
 officer and his household were fitted by forgiveness to tell 
 those around them at the time and on their return to their 
 old homes, their former neighbors and friends, the power of 
 the Crucified to take away sin. Through this agency, doubt- 
 less, many Britons were saved. 
 
 The Roman legions in Britain needed much which it 
 could not furnish. Early after the Saviour's death, Roman 
 traders followed the legions to supply their wants, and to sell 
 the natives the products of other lands. Toward the close 
 of the first century, when Agricola completed the subjugation 
 of the Britons, he encouraged them to build temples and 
 houses, and to imitate the dress and luxuries of their conquer- 
 ors. From A. D. 84, they gradually adopted Roman usages.* 
 
 1 Tacit. " Vit. Agr,," cap. 21, 
 
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 15 
 
 These uew tastes, and the wants of the army, brought many 
 Roman civilians into Britain, among whom or their families 
 it is probable that there were Christians, whose light would 
 reach the hearts of their British neighbors. 
 
 Never in the history of our race was there a zeal that sur- 
 passed that of the early Christians. Maligned, tortured, de- 
 stroyed, by Nero and others, nothing could silence them. 
 The world had not dangers with suflficient force to stop their 
 efforts and sacrifices to save souls ; and somehow they reached 
 Britain to tell the story of Christ's love. There is reason to 
 believe that the gospel came to Britain chiefly in the track 
 of commerce. The Tyrians traded with Britain for ages be- 
 fore the Christian era. The Carthagenians, after the capture 
 of Tyre by Alexander the Great, inherited for a time the 
 commerce of Britain. 
 
 The Greeks, first as rivals, and then as successors to the 
 Carthagenians, took possession of the exports and imports of 
 Britain. Marseilles, a Greek colony in France, said to have 
 been founded five hundred years before Christ, was the grand 
 depot to which the tin, lead, and skins of Britain were con- 
 veyed, and from which they were transported to all parts of 
 the world with which the Greeks had commercial relations.* 
 The conversion of many Greeks in early Christian times ac- 
 complished much for the spread of the gospel, and even 
 through business relations that intelligent and resolute people 
 sometimes rendered great service in extending Christ's king- 
 dom. 
 
 Two young men were taken by Meropius, a Greek of Tyre, 
 to Abyssinia about a. d. 331 ; upon his death in that land, 
 whither he had gone as a traveler, they unexpectedly found 
 themselves favorites of one of its kings, holding important ap- 
 pointments. One of them, Frumentius, built a house of prayer, 
 and afterward was appointed a bishop through the famous 
 Athanasius. Socrates, the historian, states that he was a 
 
 1 Thackeray's " Researches into the Ecclesiastical and Political State of Ancient 
 Britain," Vol. I., p. 18. London, 1843. 
 
16 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 successful missionary.^ We have reason to believe that 
 Greek Christians buying tin and lead compassionated the 
 idolatrous Britons who exported these scarce metals, and 
 preached Christ to them. 
 
 The first known church in France was founded by Greeks. 
 In A. D. 177, the Christians of Vienne and Lyons were 
 dragged into cruel notoriety by savage persecutions borne 
 with heroic fidelity. Milraan states that these Christians 
 appear to have been a religious colony from Asia Minor, or 
 Phrygia. Pothinus, their bishop, was in his ninetieth year 
 when dragged to prison, from the barbarities of which in two 
 days he ascended to heaven. His name showed his Greek 
 origin. When the persecution ended, surviving Christians 
 wrote an account of the fiendish sufferings inflicted upon 
 their martyrs to their Phrygian brethren.^ The sketch covers 
 eleven octavo pages, and it is given entire by Eusebius.^ It 
 is full of the grace of God, and of the most touching recitals 
 that ever shocked human hearts. The writers have nothing 
 to say to Pope Eleutherius in this document ; they are Greeks 
 and disciples whom they have made, and they send this 
 record of the sufferings of their tortured and slain brethren 
 and sisters to their fellow-believers in Asia Minor. 
 
 Greek Christians in France or in the East, it is believed, 
 long before A. d. 177, when persecution gave European and 
 Asiatic prominence to the churches of Lyons and Vienne, 
 gave effective help to the evangelization of Britain. Ne- 
 ander expresses a common opinion about the origin of British 
 Christianity when he says : 
 
 A later tradition of the eighth century reports that Lucius, a 
 British king, requested the Koman bishop, Eleutherius, in the latter 
 part of the second century, to send him some missionaries. But the 
 peculiarity of the later British church is evidence against its origin 
 from Rome. For in many ritual matters it departed from the usage 
 of the church of Rome, and agreed much more nearly with the 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 19. 
 
 2 " History of Christianity," p. 256. New York. 
 
 8" Eccles. Hist.," Lib. V., cap. 1. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 17 
 
 churches of Asiu Minor. It withstood for a long time the authority 
 of the Komish papacy. This circumstance would seem to indicate 
 that the Britons had received their Christianity either immediately, 
 or through Gaul, from Asia Minor ; a thing quite possible and easy 
 by means of the commercial intercourse. The later Anglo-Saxons, 
 who opposed the spirit of ecclesiastical independence among the 
 Britons and endeavored to establish the church supremacy of Kome, 
 were uniformly inclined to trace back the church establishments to a 
 Roman origin ; from which eflbrt many false legends, as well as this, 
 might have arisen. ^ 
 
 Fox gives the same common impression about the East 
 furnishing the first laborers in Britain : " By all which con- 
 jectures it may stand probably to be thought that the 
 Britons were taught first by the Grecians of the East 
 church rather than by the Romans." ^ Fox mentions 
 Joseph of Arimathea, who was sent from Gaul into Britain 
 with twelve others, by the Apostle Philip about A. d. 63, who 
 spent the remainder of his life in that country with his com- 
 panions, and laid the foundations of the Christian church in 
 it. He states also that Simon Zelotes was reported to have 
 brought the gospel of Christ to Britain. The Apostle Paul 
 has been claimed as the founder of British Christianity, and 
 the learned Stillingfleet,^ while failing to establish his title to 
 this signal addition to many kindred honors, comes very near 
 to success. Philip, the apostle, has been represented as one 
 of the early, if not the first, preachers of the gospel in Brit- 
 ain. The Apostle Peter is also heralded as a preacher in 
 Britain. James, the son of Zebedee, is also in the list of 
 British missionaries. Aristobulus, of whom Paul speaks in 
 Rom. 16 : 10, appears as one of the Saviour's reputed heralds 
 to the ancient Britons. Surely such an array of apostles, 
 supposed to be preachers in Britain, is, at least, evidence of 
 the general conviction that the Christianity of that land is 
 from the East, either directly, or through France. 
 
 1 " General History of the Christian Church," Vol. I., pp. 85, 86. Boston. 
 
 « " Acts and Monuments," I., 306, 307. London, 1847. 
 
 8 " The Antiquities of the British Churches," p. 39. London, 1840. 
 
18 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Mosheim says : 
 
 Whether any apostle, or any companion of an apostle, ever vis- 
 ited Britain, cannot be determined ; yet the balance of probability 
 rather inclines toward the affirmative. The story of Joseph of Ari- 
 mathea might arise from the arrival of some Christian teacher from 
 Gaul, in the second century, whose name was Joseph. As the Gauls, 
 from Dionysius, bishop of Paris in the third century, made Diony- 
 sius the Areopagite to be their apostle ; and the Germans made 
 Maternus, Eucherius, and Valerius, who lived in the third and 
 fourth centuries, to be preachers of the first century and attendants 
 on St. Peter ; so the British monks, I have no doubt, made a certain 
 Joseph from Gaul, in the second century, to be Joseph of Arima- 
 thea. 1 
 
 There is no reliable evidence that any of the apostles, or 
 their companions, ever preached in Britain. 
 
 13 Mosheiiu's " Eccles. Hist.," p. 52. Loudon, 1848. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY {Continued). 
 
 Supposed conversion of King Lucius and his people by Komish mis- 
 sionaries—Gregory the Great knew nothing of it— Eusebius is 
 io-norant of it— Clovis, "the eZc^es^ son of the Church"— Eusebius 
 and the rapid spread of the gospel. 
 
 Bede, a Romanist, denies the Eastern origin of British 
 Christianity, in his story of the conversion of King Lucius. 
 He says : ^ 
 
 In the year of our Lord's incarnation, A. d. 156, Marcus Antoninus 
 Verus, the fourteenth from Augustus, was made emperor, together 
 with his brother Commodus. In their time, whilst Eleutherius, a 
 holy man, presided over the Eoman church, Lucius, king of the 
 Britons, sent a letter to him, entreating that by his command he 
 might be made a Christian. He soon obtained his pious request, and 
 the Britons preserved the faith which they had received uncorrupted 
 and entire in peace and tranquility until the time of the Emperor 
 Diocletian.i 
 
 The object of this fabrication was to glorify Rome as the 
 original fountain of British Christianity, and to foster obedi- 
 ence to the popes. Bede, though a Romanist, was incapa- 
 ble of forofing this foolish story ; but some one else did. 
 There is nothing in any writing now extant and existing in 
 or before his day upon which to found this fraudulent 
 national conversion. There was no king of the Britons, as a 
 whole people, as Bede represents Lucius to have been, during 
 the Roman occupancy of their country. There were no mis- 
 sionaries from Rome, or elsewhere, who brought the whole Brit- 
 ish people, apparently in the life of one man, to the Saviour. 
 No such emperors as the two named by Bede ever reigned 
 together ; nor is the date or the name of the Roman bishop 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 4. 
 
 19 
 
20 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IKISH CHURCHES. 
 
 more correct than the names of the emperors. Eleutherius 
 flourished between a. d. 176 and 190 ; and Marcus Antoninus 
 became emperor in A. d. 161. 
 
 It is singular that Gildas should know nothing of King 
 Lucius and the Roman " legation " that baptized him and all 
 the Britons. He lived in the latter half of the sixth century. 
 He was well informed about the history of the ancient 
 Britons, his own people. His works show a fearless and 
 almost an abusive plainness of speech toward the Britons. 
 If such a mighty change occurred under King Lucius as the 
 conversion of all the Britons, Gildas " the Wise" knew it ; 
 and if he was acquainted with it, and there was occasion to 
 say any thins: about that great event, Gildas was the last man 
 in his island, Briton, Angle, or Saxon, who would have con- 
 cealed it. Gildas, however, states that the gospel was 
 brought to his country soon after the defeat of Boadicea by 
 Suetonius Paulinus about A. d. 63. And he points at nothing 
 that would lead us to suppose that Rome had anything to do 
 with its coming.^ 
 
 Eusebius, who died about A. d. 339, wrote a church history 
 of priceless value, giving, among other things, details of the 
 success of Christianity in various places. He writes, for 
 instance, that "Mark established churches at Alexandria, and 
 that a great multitude of believers, both of men and women, 
 were collected there at the very outset."' How appro- 
 priately from him would the announcement have come, 
 that the Britons and their king, Lucius, were converted in a 
 few years by two missionaries from Rome! He w^as the 
 especial friend of Constantino the Great, whose mother was 
 born there, and who had many personal reasons for regarding 
 Britain with affection. Constantino or Helena could readily 
 have furnished the exact facts, or secured them for him ; just 
 such information came within the peculiar scope of the work 
 of Eusebius. Its communication to all Christians through 
 
 » " Works of Gildas." Sec. 8. 
 
 2 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 16. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 21 
 
 his pages could not fail to gratify true believers everywhere ; 
 but he knew uothing about it. Gregory the Great, who sent 
 Auo-ustine the missionary into England in A. d. 596, wrote 
 him four letters of instruction, admonition, and encourage- 
 ment, which are published in Bede. But there is nothing 
 about the conversion of King Lucius and all his subjects, by 
 the OTace of God upon the efforts of the missionaries of Pope 
 Eleutherius; which grace and success Augustine and his 
 companions might fully expect, coming into the same island 
 with the same papal commission. 
 
 Rome utterly neglected the heathenism of Gaul until the 
 middle of the third century. In A. d. 177, at Vienne and 
 Lyons, in Gaul, persecution brought to the knowledge of 
 believers the existence of flourishing communities of Chris- 
 tians, originally from Asia Minor. Neander says: ^'For a 
 long time pagan superstition in other parts of Gaul withstood 
 thelfurther spread of Christianity. Even so late as the mid- 
 dle of the third century few Christian communities were to 
 be found there." ' At this time Rome sent her first mission- 
 aries to preach Christ to Galilean heathen. No doubt there 
 were Christian soldiers in the Roman legions and believers 
 among the colonists in France from other countries besides 
 Italy who, in some measure, spread the gospel, but with limited 
 success. Gregory of Tours gives the names of seven men, 
 ordained as bishops and sent unto the Gauls from Rome to 
 preach Christ. These were Gatianus, Trophymus, Paulus, 
 Saturnijius, Dionysius, Stremonius, and Martial. Some of 
 these men went as missionaries to such places as Pans, Tours, 
 Aries, Narbonne, Toulouse.' No doubt, many appeals had 
 been made to Rome on behalf of these Galilean pagans, 
 neighbors to Italy. Why were the alleged cries of distant 
 King Lucius heard in Rome, and the gaping wounds of the 
 Gauls next door left unheeded by the popes until^hundred 
 
 1 " General Church History," Vol. I., p. 84. Boston. , 
 
 2 .' S. Gregor Episc," Turin : Patr. Lat.. Vol. LXXI. " Hist. Franc..' Lib. I., cap. 
 28, p. 175. Migne. 
 
22 ANCIENT BEITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 years later ? This presents a difficulty, the only solution of 
 which is found in the fact that the popes sent no missionaries 
 west of Italy before the seven missionaries to Gaul about 
 A. D. 250. 
 
 The kings of France for ages received the titles of " The 
 Eldest Sons of the Church," and " Most Christian Majesty." 
 Michelet says: "The Franks alone received Christianity 
 through the Latin church — they held their ground against 
 the pagan Saxons, the latest swarm from Germany ; against 
 the Arian Visigoths ; and finally against the Saracens — there- 
 fore, it is not w'ithout reason that our monarchs have been 
 styled ' The Eldest Sons of the Church.' "^ Michelet seems 
 to intimate that this title began with Clovis, as it was he who 
 carried out the conversion of the Franks ; but he is posi- 
 tive about the titles belonging to the kings of France. 
 Mosheim writes : " It is said that the conversion of Clovis 
 gave rise to the custom of addressing the French monarchs 
 with the titles of 'Most Christian Majesty,' and * Eldest Sou 
 of the Church.' " ^ Bower says : 
 
 Clovis was at this time the only Catholic prince in the world, as the 
 word Catholic was then understood ; Anastasius, emperor of the 
 East, was a professed Eutychian. Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths 
 in Italy; Alaric, king of the Visigoths, master of Spain, and of the 
 third part of Gaul ; the kings of the Burgundians, Suevians, and 
 Vandals, in Gaul, Spain, and Africa, were zealous Arians. As for 
 the other kings of the Franks, settled in Gaul, they were still 
 pagans. Clovis was not only the sole Catholic prince at this time 
 in the world, but the first king who ever embraced the Catholic 
 religion {with his people) ; which procured to the French king the 
 titles of the ''Most Christian," and that of " The Eldest Son of the 
 Church: ^^ 
 
 These titles have been confirmed by the usage of popes 
 and sovereigns, and of inferior dignitaries in secular and 
 ecclesiastical positions of prominence. Clovis, for his rich gifts 
 
 1 " History of France," Vol. T., p. 84. New York. 
 
 2 " Eccles. Hist.," p. 17.5. London, 1848. 
 
 3 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. I , pp. 295, 29(i. Philadelphia. 
 
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 23 
 
 to churches in France, for his crown of gold enriched with 
 precious stones to St. Peter, and for his pre-eminence in or- 
 thodoxy among sovereigns, and his priority in time among 
 heathen kings, as the first pagan prince, with his people, to 
 confess Christ, received for himself and his successors, the 
 kings of France, the title of " Eldest Son of the Church." 
 Poor King Lucius, though said to have been converted and 
 baptized, with his subjects, by missionaries from Kume, is 
 deliberately cast aside by his mother of the " Seven Hills " 
 as an impostor, who proclaims that not he, but Clovis, is her 
 "Eldest Son," though he renounced idolatry hundreds of 
 years later than imaginary Lucius. 
 
 Eusebius, describing the way in which the gospel obtained 
 its first conquests over the nations, says : 
 
 Under a celestial influence and co-operation, the doctrine of the 
 Saviour, like the rays of the sun, quickly irradiated the world. 
 Presently, in accordance with divine prophecy, the sound of his in- 
 spired evangelists and apostles had gone throughout all the earth, 
 and their words to the end of the world. Throughout every city and 
 village, like a replenished barn floor, churches were rapidly found 
 abounding, and filled with members from every people. Those who, 
 in consequence of the delusions that had descended to them from 
 their ancestors, had been fettered by the ancient disease of idolatrous 
 superstition, were now liberated by the power of Christ, through the 
 teaching and miracles of his messengers. And as if delivered from 
 dreadful masters, and emancipated from the most cruel bondage, on 
 the one hand renounced the whole multitude of gods and demons, 
 and on the other, confessed that there was only one true God, the 
 Creator of all things. This same God they now also honored with 
 the rites of a true piety, under the influence of that inspired and 
 reasonable worship which had been planted among men by our 
 Saviour.i 
 
 Every believer in early times proclaimed the gospel 
 wherever men would listen. 
 
 When Gideon's three hundred warriors extended a slender 
 line around the hosts of Midian at midnight, and blew their 
 trumpets, broke their pitchers, and exhibited their lamps, the 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 3. 
 
24 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Lord set every man's sword against bis fellow, and the host 
 fled, completely routed. So the early soldiers of the cross, 
 defying death in its most violent forms, and deeply moved by 
 the hopeless condition of the nations enveloped in idolatrous 
 darkness, formed a girdle of redeemed sentinels, as extended 
 as their numbers permitted, outside the doomed myriads, 
 and blew their Scripture trumpets, pealing forth the solemn 
 warning : " There is no man that liveth and sinneth not " ; 
 " The soul that sinneth it shall die " ; and showing their 
 lamps of hope on which were painted in divine words, " God 
 is love " ; " Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 
 be saved." Then the Holy Spirit fell in more than pente- 
 costal power, turning pagans in teeming multitudes to Christ 
 and his cross, and setting their weapons upon their idols. 
 Such efforts Christianized the ancestors of all the present 
 great nations of the world ; and if persisted in, they would 
 long since have made the entire earth a temple, and every 
 human heart an altar, bearing for God a sacrifice of " sweet 
 savor." By these means, the whole of South Britain was 
 brought to the Saviour without a historical trace of any 
 great missionary leader. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS DURING THE 
 FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. 
 
 Pomponia Graecina — Date of the introduction of the gospel — Origen, 
 Eusebius, Theodoret — St. Martin's church of Canterbury — The 
 Diocletian persecution — Testimonies to Christian worth— Alban 
 and other martyrs — Galerius stops the persecution— Churches 
 rebuilt — Great prosperity. 
 
 There is reason for believing that Pomponia Graecina, 
 the wife of Aulus Plautius, the victorious lieutenant of 
 Claudius, in Britain, about the years A. d. 43-47, was a 
 Christian. The account given of her religion and conduct 
 by Tacitus ^ makes it almost certain that she believed in Christ. 
 She was probably with her husband during a part of the 
 time in which he ruled Britain. The want of evidence to 
 prove the Christianity of others, who had some connection 
 with Britain in the first century, constrains us to be silent 
 about them. 
 
 Gildas, the Briton, writing in the sixth century, fixes the 
 date of the introduction of the gospel into Briton as subse- 
 quent to the defeat of the Britons under Boadicea by Sueton- 
 ius Paulinus. After describing the crushing overthrow of 
 the Britons, he says : 
 
 Meanwhile {interea) these islands, stiff with cold and frost, and 
 . . . remote from the visible sun, received the beams of light, that 
 is, the holy precepts of Christ, the true Sun, showing to the world 
 his splendor . . at the latter part, as we know, of the reign of 
 Tiberias Caesar, by whom his religion was propagated without impedi- 
 ment, and death threatened to those who interfered with its profes- 
 sors.* 
 
 1 " Tacit. Annal.," Lib. XIII., cap. 32. 
 
 2 " Works of Gildas," Sec. 8, 7, 8. 
 
 O 26 
 
26 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 That is to say, toward the close of the reign of Tiberias, 
 about A. L>. 63, the gospel sent its beams of light into the 
 British Islands, Gildas also informs us that its rays of light 
 produced fruits that lived in Christian hearts until the 
 ferocious persecution of Diocletian. This testimony is worthy 
 of confidence. Tertullian, a distinguished writer of the second 
 century and the early part of the third, in a little work writ- 
 ten against the Jews, says : 
 
 In whom other than in the Christ, who has already come, do all 
 the nations believe? For in him have believed the most diverse peo- 
 ples: Parthians, JVIedes, Elamites; those who inhabit Mesopotamia, 
 Armenia, Phrj-gia, Cappadocia ; the dwellers in Pontus, Asia, and 
 Pamphylia; those occupying Egypt, and inhabiting the region of 
 Africa beyond Cyrene, Romans and natives, even Jews dwelling in 
 Jerusalem, and other nations ; nay, the different tribes of the Getu- 
 lians, and many territories of the Moors, all parts of Spain, the differ- 
 ent peoples of Gaul, and parts of Britain not reached b^^ the Romans 
 but subjugated to Christ. . . In all these the name of the Christ, who 
 has already come, reigns.^ 
 
 He does not say that Jesus reigns over all in every one of 
 the races of which he writes, but simply over some believing 
 souls in each one of them. Tertullian had ready access 
 through Carthage to Rome, the centre of intelligence in his 
 day for the world ; and in it he could find correct news about 
 Christianity in Britain, even among the warlike Picts beyond 
 the Roman wall. Our quotation announces a miracle, that 
 the lowly apostles of Jesus, one hundred and sixty years after 
 bis death should, by themselves or others, have carried his 
 gospel into such a list of countries, and that some of all the 
 nations and tribes he names, and many in not a few of them, 
 should receive the Saviour, is one of the greatest marvels in 
 the whole range of extraordinary events. 
 
 If Tertullian were to rise from the dead for a time in our 
 day, and become acquainted with the boundless resources — 
 financial, intellectual, numerical, and governmental — of 
 the Christian churches; and if he were also to learn the 
 
 1 " Adv. Judaeos," cap. VII., part IV., p. 303. Lipsiae, 1841. 
 
THE FIEST FOUR CENTURIES. 27 
 
 situation of the one thousand million or more pagans 
 and Mohammedans, not to speak of others ; and of the 
 comparatively insignificant efforts employed for their sal- 
 vation, it is not improbable that Tertullian would resume for 
 the occasion the legal practice, which he abandoned for the 
 ministry, and frame an " indictment " against the evangelical 
 Christians of the world for not giving labor, love, money, 
 earnest prayers and, when necessary, sufferings, equal to the 
 believers of his day, that we might enjoy similar successes. 
 We can readily conceive this severe advocate and faithful 
 minister, reading to us his record of triumphs as an "accusa- 
 tion," and indignantly saying : "This is what we and our 
 fathers have done; what have you and your predecessors, 
 w^ith far superior resources, accomplished in the same space 
 of time?" 
 
 Origen was born in Alexandria, in A. d. 185, and died in 
 Tyre, A. d. 254. He was the equal of any man in his day in 
 genial literary and scientific culture, and unequalled as a 
 biblical scholar. No portion of the believing family on 
 earth could be long hidden from him. He writes : " When 
 did Britain previous to the coming of Christ agree to worship 
 the one God ? When the Moors ? When the whole world ? 
 Now, however, through the church, all men call upon the 
 God of Israel." ^ " The influence of the gospel and the 
 power of the Saviour's kingdom, have reached as far as 
 Britain, which seemed to be in another division of the 
 world." ' 
 
 Eusebius was born about A. d. 270, in Csesarea. He had 
 the most ample means of securing full and exact information 
 of any man in his day in the vast empire of Kome. His 
 history is still an authority among Christian scholars. He 
 says : 
 
 If they, the apostles, were seducers and deceivers, they were at the 
 same time men of no education ; belonging entirely to the common 
 
 1 " Fourth Homily on Ezekiel." ^ " sixth Homily on Luke." 
 
28 ANCIENT BRrTISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 people, nay, one might almost say barbarians, and knowing no 
 language but that of the Syrians, how then did they come to 
 advance through the whole world? . . . That some of them should 
 take possession of Rome itself, the head and queen of cities, that 
 others should occupy the kingdom of the Persians, others the king- 
 dom of the Armenians, others that of the Parthians, others even that 
 of the Scythians ; that some should have penetrated to the ends of 
 the earth, and the country of the Indians; a7id others should have 
 crossed the ocean to those islayids called British; such things I will 
 not believe to be according to man, through man only.^ 
 
 Theodoret, bishop of Cyprus, was born at Antioch, in a. d. 
 386. His ecclesiastical history is very valuable. He writes 
 of the first heralds of the cross : " These, our fishermen, pub- 
 licans, tent-makers, persuaded not only the Romans and their 
 subjects, but also the Scythians, Sauromatse, Indians, Persians, 
 Serge, Hyrcanians, Britons, Cimmerians, and Germans to em- 
 brace the religion of him who had been crucified." ^ 
 
 The Christians of Britain enjoyed a large measure of pros- 
 perity before the persecution of Diocletian burst upon them. 
 Many of their countrymen had adopted the dress and* cus- 
 toms of Rome long before that. Numbers of the houses of 
 the wealthy were built of Roman brick. Is there any reason 
 to doubt that most of their churches were constructed of the 
 same material. Old St. Martin's Church, of Canterbury, 
 England, is a building existing from remote antiquity. Its 
 present walls are chiefly composed of Roman brick, and as 
 Dean Stanley says, " May possibly retain in them some of 
 the original bricks of Queen Bertha's chapel."^ This had 
 been used by the Britons as a place of worship. The legen- 
 dary founder of the church was King Lucius, who lived in 
 the latter half of the second century. From this we learn 
 that the original church called St. Martin's by Bertha and 
 her French friends, was extremely old when the Anglo-Saxons 
 came into Britain in the middle of the fifth century. 
 
 1 " Evangel. Demonst.," Lib, III., cap. 7. 
 
 a Torn. IV., Serra. 9., p. 610. 
 
 3 " Historical Memorials of Canterbury," pp. ]4, 15. London, 1855. 
 
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. 29 
 
 Speaking of the period just before the persecution of Dio- 
 cletian began, and of the Christian religion everywhere, 
 Eusebius says : 
 
 Who can describe the vast collections of men that flocked to 
 the religion of Christ, and the multitudes crowding in from 
 every city, and the illustrious concourse in the houses of worship, 
 on whose account, not content with the ancient buildings, they 
 erected spacious churches from the foundations in all the cities. ^ 
 
 What was true of Christian prosperity generally was true 
 of British disciples especially ; for a few years after the per- 
 secution they came forth as an influential, well-ordered body, 
 prepared to take a respectable place in a great ecclesiastical 
 council in Gaul. 
 
 Diocletian, in the early part of his reign, was favorably 
 disposed to the toleration of Christians. His wife and 
 daughter, the Empresses Prisca and Valeria, as Eusebius 
 writes, favored, if they did not adopt, the Christian faith. 
 Christians were made governors of provinces, and freed from 
 all anxiety about sacrificing to the gods. The rulers of the 
 churches were courted and honored with the greatest subser- 
 viency by all the rulers and governors. But suddenly the 
 storm broke upon the unsuspecting Christians with savage 
 fury, in edicts written, says Eusebius, with "a dagger's 
 point," '^ which required the destruction of the churches, the 
 burning of the Scriptures, and ultimately, the apostasy or 
 murder of the entire Christian family. 
 
 These decrees were not fully executed in Britain. Euse- 
 bius states ^ that they were only carried out in it for two years, 
 while in the East they were enforced for ten years. During 
 this fierce visitation of imperial hatred to Christ's truth and 
 his friends, Constantius gave some protection to godly Britons. 
 Gildas, the venerable British historian, writes of Diocletian s 
 persecution : 
 
 1 "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. VIII., cap. 1. 
 * " Vit. Constant.," Lib. XL, cap 51. 
 3 " De Marty rol. Pal.," cap. 13. 
 
30 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 The churches, throughout the whole world, were overthrown, all 
 the copies of the Holy Scriptures which could be found were burned 
 in the streets, and the chosen pastors of God's flock were butchered, 
 together with their innocent sheep. God magnified his mercy toward 
 us, as we know, during the above named persecution, that Britain 
 might not be totally enveloped in the dark shades of night ; he, of 
 his own free gift, kindled among us bright luminaries of holy mar- 
 tyrs, whose places of burial and martyrdom, had they not been, for 
 our manifold crimes, interfered with and destroyed by the barba- 
 rians, would have still kindled in the minds of the beholders no small 
 fire of divine charity. Such were St. Alban of Verulam, Aaron and 
 Julius, citizens of Caerleon, and the rest of both sexes, who, in dif- 
 ferent places, stood their ground in the Christian contest. ^ 
 
 In Bede's^ account of St. Alban's martyrdom, we learn 
 that while a pagan during this fierce persecution, Alban shel- 
 tered a clergyman, pursued by enemies of Christ ; his contin- 
 uance in prayer, his saintly spirit, and his tidings about Jesus, 
 led the host to him, who bestowed a blessed hope upon him. 
 The clergyman's enemy found the place of his concealment, 
 after he had been there several days, and soldiers came 
 to arrest him. When they arrived at Alban's house, he 
 put on the long coat worn by his guest, and was taken be- 
 fore the judge as the minister. The judge was indignant at 
 Alban, whom he knew, and commanded him to be dragged 
 to an altar before him, and to sacrifice to the gods ; and he 
 also informed him that because he had defrauded him out of his 
 expected victim, he must suffer his penalty if he intended to 
 renounce idolatry. Alban refused to sacrifice to the demons. 
 The judge then demanded : " Of what family or race are 
 you ? " " What does it concern you " answered Alban, " of 
 what stock I am ? If you desire to hear the truth of my re- 
 ligion, be it known to you that I am now a Christian, and 
 bound by Christian duties." " I ask your name," said the 
 judge;- "tell me it immediately." "lam called Alban by 
 my parents," replied he, " and I worship and adore the true 
 and living God, who created all things." The judge, full of 
 
 1 " Works," Sec. 9, 10. ^ < 'Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 7. 
 
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. 31 
 
 anger, demanded again that he should sacrifice to the great 
 gods. Alban rejoined : " Your sacrifices are offered to devils, 
 and are worthless." 
 
 The judge then ordered him to be executed. The heads- 
 man, as he led him to the place where he was to suffer, was 
 converted ; and both were put to death together. The judge 
 himself gave up persecution, and apparently, idolatry. 
 Though Britain escaped the violence of the persecution that 
 prevailed elsewhere, yet the churches were torn down, the 
 sacred writings reduced to ashes, and many of the faith- 
 ful, both men and women, were slain.^ For a time des- 
 olation, weeping, bereavement, prevailing prayers, and deep 
 gratitude for the sustaining grace of martyrs, marked the 
 followers of Jesus in Britain, and their temples of worship. 
 But the reign of cruelty and wrong passed away. This per- 
 secution was rather the work of Galerius than of Diocletian, 
 his father-in-law and he confesses that crime in the edict by 
 which he ended the persecution. Diocletian resigned his au- 
 thority before it had raged quite two years ; and Galerius 
 had begun it before the publication of the edict. He, tor- 
 tured by a foul disease whose cure defied human skill, and 
 feeling the keenest pangs of remorse for the woes he had in-' 
 flicted upon innocent Christians all over the world, issued a 
 decree ordering the cessation of all persecutions against Chris- 
 tians immediately, and commanding his ofiScers to rebuild 
 their churches, " that they might perform their accustomed 
 devotions, and oflTer up prayers for the emperor's safety." ^ The 
 rescript was speedily put in execution. Everywhere its tid- 
 ings were heard ; and, like the jubilee trumpets of Israel, the 
 enslaved in the mines, the exiled who fled to strange coun- 
 tries, those who were concealed in catacombs, or hidden in 
 dens and caves of the earth, and armies of prisoners awaiting 
 the execution of frightful sentences, came forth to pray for 
 
 1 Fox's •' Acts and Monuments," I., 25, 90. London, 1841. 
 
 2 Eusebius, " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. VIIL, cap. 17. 
 
32 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the monster in agonies, who had bathed so many countries in 
 the blood of saints. In Britain, Gildas tells us, those who 
 were hidden in woods and deserts and secret caves, waiting 
 until God would give them protection, came forth ; and as 
 the bloody decrees expired, all Christ's young disciples, after 
 the long wintry night of flight and anguish, walked forth in 
 the joyful light of heavenly freedom.^ " They rebuilt the 
 churches, which had been leveled to the ground ; they founded, 
 erected, and completed churches to the holy martyrs, and 
 showed their ensigns as tokens of this victory ; festivals were 
 celebrated, and sacraments received with clean hearts and lips, 
 and all the church's sons rejoiced as it were in the fostering 
 bosom of a mother." And this holy union between Christ the 
 Head and the members of his churches, proved a great bless- 
 ing for years. They had received divine strength for the 
 worst trials that ever threatened men ; their martyred brethren 
 and sisters had unflinchingly confessed Christ before thou- 
 sands, and given the pagans stronger proof of the divinity 
 of the gospel than any miracle ever wrought. 
 
 No saints on earth were ever better fitted, by un world liness 
 and heavenly minded ness, to secure converts for Christ, than 
 these pious Britons. No heathen on earth were in a better 
 condition to yield to Jesus, than their idolatrous neighbors. 
 They were crestfallen in view of the complete overthrow of 
 persecution of which they were the willing instruments ; the 
 government, very soon after, was permanently against them ; 
 and in their hearts they w^re compelled to confess that the 
 gospel was the power of God beyond a doubt. This period 
 was undoubtedly the final harvest time for the salvation of 
 tlie South British idolaters. As these men of prayer set out 
 to rebuild the churches, their songs, as well as the dying 
 words of martyrs, the earnest prayers of living believers for 
 more converts, and the power of the life-giving Spirit, brought 
 hundreds, thousands, and at last, all the Britons to Jesus. 
 
 1 " Works of Gildas," Sec. 12. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS DURING THE 
 
 FIRST FOUR CENTURIES {Continued). 
 
 Constantius and Helena are married— He favors the Britons— Con- 
 stantine is born in Britain — He grants religious liberty to Cliristians 
 —British bishops at the council of Aries— Pope Sylvester and the 
 council — Arianism in Britain— British bishops at the councils of 
 Sardica and Ariminum- Hilary of Poictiers and the bishops of 
 Britain— Jerome and British pilgrims to Palestine— Theodoret and 
 British pilgrims— At the close of the fourth century the gospel had 
 subdued all Britain from Dumbarton southward— Paganism was 
 still in France. 
 
 Constantius, a Roman ruler of Britain, was married to 
 Helena, a native of that country. Her father was probably 
 a hotel keeper, who had a tavern on one of the great Roman 
 roads in Britain. -While acting as his hostelress '— stabularia 
 —she attracted the regard of Constantius and he made her his 
 wife. From this lowly position she became the consort of an 
 emperor, and the mother of Constantine the Great. She was 
 a devoted Christian, and tliere is some reason for supposing 
 that she exerted an influence over both husband and son in 
 favor of Christians, which prompted them to the toleration 
 of their opinions. In A. d. 303, when persecution reached 
 Britain, Constantius was only a Csesar. He was obliged to 
 execute the orders of Diocletian and Maximianus, each of 
 whom bore the title of Augustus— supreme emperor. In 
 this subordinate position he could not hinder the execution 
 of the fiendish mandates of the Augusti ; but when, m A. d. 
 305, be became Augustus, with Spain, Gaul, and Britam 
 under his independent jurisdiction, the Christians enjoyecl 
 liberty of conscience. ConstantineJheGreat^rites CoHier,^ 
 
 rGibbon, Vol. I., p. 237. McGowan, London, 
 a " Eccles. Hist..'' Vol. I . P- 56. London, 1840. 
 
 33 
 
34 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 is said to have been born in Britain, not only by our English 
 historians, but by the generality of others. At the death of 
 his father in York, in a. d. 306, the first thing he did after 
 being appointed Caesar by the army was " to give the Chris- 
 tians the free exercise of their religion." ^ In A. d. 312, 
 after a battle fought at the Milvian bridge, near Kome, Con- 
 stantine the Great, joined by Licinius, issued a decree, giving 
 full liberty to the Christians to live according to their own 
 laws. This decree was re-issued the next year at Milan, re- 
 moving some hindrances to the spread of Christianity which 
 existed in it at first, and bestowing the protection of the 
 emperor upon all Christians. This sovereign, born of a 
 British mother, and most likely in Britain, made Caesar in 
 that country where his father reigned and died, gave the 
 boon of religious liberty in a public law to all the nations of 
 the mighty Roman Empire. 
 
 In A. D. 314, the council of Aries, in France, was held. It 
 was not summoned by the pope, though not so far from Rome, 
 but by the Emperor Constantine. The business for which it 
 was convened was to decide a controversy which agitated cer- 
 tain ecclesiastics in North Africa about the election of a 
 bishop to the see of Carthage, and which a council at Rome, 
 the previous year, was unable to settle. Other matters, how- 
 ever, occupied a considerable part of the deliberations of the 
 council. There were present at it three British bishops, most 
 likely to represent a large number of bishops and churches, 
 as the bishops of Britain were quite numerous. The names 
 of the bishops were Eborius, Restitutus, and Adelfius, from 
 York, London, and Cserleon. From the presence of these 
 bishops we are justified in the inference that the British 
 churches were in a settled and prosperous condition, which 
 made their opinions of some value in an influential Galilean 
 council convoked by the emperor. Du Pin says : 
 
 The bishops wrote to Sylvester, bishop of Rome, as the chief bishop 
 
 1 Stillingfleet's "Antiquities of the British Churches," p. 75. London, 1840. 
 
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. 35 
 
 of the world [bishop of its chief cit3^] an account of everything that 
 they had ordained, that he might publish these canons throughout 
 the Cat-holic church. They assure him that they were very sorry 
 that he could not be present himself in person at the council, and 
 they pray him to publish their decisions over all the world. ^ 
 
 According to the custom of Gallic councils then and much 
 later, the bishop of Aries asked the pope, because he was in 
 a city which was the centre of correspondence with all 
 nations, not to confirm the decrees of the council, but to com- 
 municate them throughout the church universal, as the 
 emperor sent his edicts to the commander of the praetorian 
 band, his special military agency, to give them general pub- 
 licity. 
 
 The great council of Trent, which opened in 1545 and 
 adjourned finally in 1563, was dependent for the confirmation 
 of its decrees upon the bull of Pope Pius IV., in which we 
 read : 
 
 The help of the Holy Spirit in the first place being invoked, as we 
 found all these Catholic decrees to be salutary and useful for Chris- 
 tian people, by the advice and assent, in our secret consistory, of the 
 same brethren of ours (the cardinals), we confirm them each and all 
 this day by apostolic authority; and we order that they be received 
 and obeyed by all the faithful of Christ.^ 
 
 Gildas urges a serious charge of heresy against the Britons : 
 
 The Arian treason, fatal as a serpent, and vomiting its poison from 
 beyond the sea, caused deadly dissension between brothers inhabiting 
 the same house, and thus, as if a road were made across the sea, like 
 wild beasts of all descriptions darting the poison of every heresy 
 from their jaws, they inflicted dreadful wounds upon their country.' 
 
 Bede speaks of the Arian madness which, having corrupted 
 the whole world, infected Britain also, so far removed from 
 the rest of the globe, with the poison of its arrows. 
 
 Arius first broached his peculiar doctrines in Alexandria, 
 in Egypt, about A. d. 317 ; there, in opposition to the opin- 
 ions of Alexander, his bishop, he taught that the Son is only 
 
 1 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. T , pp 595, .596. Dublin. 
 
 8 " Canones Et Decreta Concilii Tridentini," p. 219. Lipsise, 1863. 
 
 3 " Works." Sec. 12. 
 
36 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHEg. 
 
 the first and noblest of those created beings whom God the 
 Father formed out of nothing ; and that he was inferior to 
 the Father both in nature and in dignity. His doctrines 
 secured such an extensive adoption, that a commotion was 
 excited throughout the entire East, and Constantine the 
 Great felt constrained to summon the celebrated council of 
 Nice, in a. d. 325, to settle a controversy that threatened the 
 peace of Christendom. The council decided against the 
 opinions of Arius, and for a time he was sent into exile in 
 Illyricum. But under Constantius, emperor of the East, the 
 son of Constantine, who was a warm friend of Arianism, that 
 system flourished in a greater measure than ever, and between 
 it and orthodoxy, especially after the death of Constans, 
 when a large part of the West, including Kome and Italy, 
 was added to the dominions of Constantius, there were 
 frequent conflicts threatening the peace of the whole Chris- 
 tian world. If Arianism entered Britain before the council 
 of Nice, or during the reign of Constantius, it could hardly 
 fail to create dissension, and even angry strife ; not because 
 of anything especially belligerent in it, but because it 
 appeared to its opponents as an intruder, hitherto unknown, 
 seeking to displace the most glorious of truths. It must have 
 had a short life ; we hear little of it during the w^arfare upon 
 Pelagianism in the first half of the fifth century. 
 
 In A. D. 347, the emperors Constantius and Constans called 
 a council to meet at Sardica, in Bulgaria, to which one hun- 
 dred bishops came from the West, and seventy-three from the 
 East, who withdrew from the council because the western 
 bishops refused to exclude Athanasius, Marcellus, and other 
 condemned bishops. Hosius, of Cordova, presided over the 
 council. The retirement of the Eastern bishops put it in the 
 position of a provincial council in reference to authority, as 
 a general council alone had a right to make decrees and 
 canons binding upon all Christians. According to Stilling- 
 fleet, there were British bishops in this council.^ 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the British Churches," p. IZ. London, 1840. 
 
THE FIRST FOUR CENTURIES. 37 
 
 CoEstantius summoned a council to meet at Ariminum, 
 A. D. 350.^ About four hundred bishops attended its meet- 
 ing's, for whose journey the emperor furnished conveyances ; 
 he also provided money to pay the expenses of those who 
 would accept it. The Christianity of Britain was now 
 recognized before the world in these councils, as having a 
 large body of followers. 
 
 Hilary, Bishop of Poictiers, a native of Gaul, to'>k charge 
 of his see in a. d. 350, and was for many years the most 
 prominent Galilean prelate ; he was largely instrumental in 
 arresting the progress of Arianism in the West. His twelve 
 books on the Trinity made him famous. He became so 
 odious to the Arian bishops that, in A. d. 356, they persuaded 
 the Emperor Constautius to banish him to Phrygia. In this 
 province he wrote his work " On Councils," in the beginning 
 of which " he salutes the bishops of Britain among the rest of 
 the prelates of Christendom, and complains a little that the 
 distance of place and the disadvantages of his banishment 
 had forbidden him the satisfaction of receiving frequent 
 letters from them. After this complaint, he congratulates 
 them upon their orthodoxy, and that they had preserved 
 themselves all along from heretical infection." '' From this 
 we see that British bishops and their churches were accorded 
 equal prominence with their brethren in other lands in the 
 middle of the fourth century. 
 
 Christians became so numerous in Britain toward the close 
 of the fourth century that they set out in considerable num- 
 bers as pilgrims to Palestine, confident that their brethren at 
 home were sufiiciently numerous now to protect their pro- 
 perty, and guard every precious interest of the Saviour's 
 cause in their dear native land during their absence. Jerome 
 in Palestine saw so many of these pilgrims, and heard of so 
 many more, among whom Britain was largely represented, 
 
 1 Du Pin, Vol. Im P- 609. 
 
 2 Collier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 85. London. 
 
38 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 that he wrote : " The Briton, though separated from the rest 
 of our world, when religion has the ascendancy leaves his 
 western sun in search of a land known to him only by report 
 and by Scripture history." ^ 
 
 Martin, bishop of Tours, ordained in A. d. 374, who died 
 in A. D. 397, shows in his ministry the singularly slow 
 progress of Christianity in France compared to its success in 
 Britain. This bishop was for a long period the most popular 
 ecclesiastic in western Europe. He had been a soldier ; and 
 as a clergyman, he engaged in incessant warfare against pagan- 
 ism. He marched at the head of a band of devoted follow- 
 ers to destroy idols, temples, and consecrated groves, making 
 numerous campaigns in his war against heathen shrines and 
 statues. He replaced the fanes of the gods with churches, 
 and converted many idolaters at the time when Christianity 
 was apparently completely triumphant in Britain.^ 
 
 1 " Omnium Operum," Tom I., Ep. 17, p. 58. /roben. Bal., 1516. 
 * " De Vita Martini," cap. 9-17. Verona, 1741. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS DURING THE 
 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 
 
 Higher education under the Romans— St. Patrick and Dumbarton- 
 Birthplace of Pelagius— His commentaries— His contributions to 
 the "Book of Armagh"— His errors— His love for the Bible- 
 Attacks on Pelagius— His heresy in Britain— On the appeal of 
 orthodox Britons, Germanus and Lupus from Gaul aid them— 
 They succeed— The "hallelujah victory" over Picts and Saxons- 
 Revival of Pelagianism— Its leaders banished— Kind words of 
 Augustine to Pelagius. 
 
 Education has much to do with Christianity, and espe- 
 cially with the preparation of ministers for their work. In 
 Britain, under the Romans, as in other provinces of the 
 empire, there was a valuable system of public education. It 
 was for the free and superior classes, and it extended through- 
 out the dominions of Rome. Each city maintained a certain 
 number of professors, according to its size and population, 
 who taught grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. They were 
 appointed by the magistrates, and partly paid by municipal 
 funds. Vespasian first made provision for salaries for pro- 
 fessors at Rome. The Antonines extended the system to the 
 other cities of the empire. The instructors received a salary 
 from the city, and a small fixed sum from each pupil. They 
 were exempt from taxation and military service. Christians 
 were sometimes professors in these public schools.^ 
 
 Julian the Apostate issued an edict, a. d. 362, excluding 
 Christian professors from these public institutions, and " for- 
 bidding the children of Christians from frequenting the 
 public schools, and from being instructed in the writings of 
 the Greek poets and orators." ^ 
 
 1 Milman's " History of Christianity," p. 356. New York. 
 
 2 Sozomen's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. V., cap. 18. 
 
 39 
 
40 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 There is a decree of the Emperor Gratian, who reigned 
 from A. D. 375 to A. d. 383, in the " Theodosian Code," 
 requiring all the chief cities of these parts of the Roman 
 Empire — Gaid — to settle and maintain in them professors of 
 the learning of both the Greek and Roman languages. 
 Britain was a part of the " diocese " of the imperial governor 
 of the Gauls, and undoubtedly was included in Gratian's 
 decree. But even Gratian's decree was but a renewal of the 
 edicts of the Antonines. By virtue of Gratian's edict, says 
 Bishop Stillingfleet : 
 
 We are to search for the ancient schools of learning among the 
 Britons in the chief cities of the provinces of that time, especially at 
 London, which was the head of the nation, and at York, and Cser- 
 leon. So that the British churches, as long as the Roman power 
 remained here, had the same advantages for learning which the3' 
 had in other Roman provinces. But when the Roman forces were 
 withdrawn, and nothing but miseries and desolation followed, then 
 St. German's care proved a most seasonable relief in providing such 
 schools as those of Dubricius and Iltutus, for the training of persons 
 qualified for the service of the church. ^ 
 
 By virtue of the decrees of the Antonines, who reigned 
 from A. D. 138 to A. d. 180, if we had ancient British writings 
 we might find schools of learning also in Britain, not only 
 from the time of Gratian, but from the Antonines, who 
 created them in all the provinces of the empire. But these 
 works of an early day are not now known to exist, except in 
 one case. 
 
 St. Patrick is the only ancient British writer before Gild as 
 whose works survive. He was born in the Roman-British 
 kingdom of Strath clyde, perhaps about A. d. 360. Late in 
 life he wrote his celebrated " Confession," in which, apologiz- 
 ing for his poor Latin, he says : 
 
 I thought of writing long ago, but I hesitated even until now, 
 because I feared to fall under the censure of men ; for I have not 
 read like others, who being taught in the best way, therefore rightly, 
 both drank iyi the custoynary learning in a proper manner and have 
 never changed their language from childhood. 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the British Churches," p. 220. London, 1840. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTUKIES. 41 
 
 Patrick refers to the Irish raiders who carried him from 
 his home and school and hindered his educational success ; 
 and he speaks very positively about the great advantages of 
 others, presumably his school companions, who were permitted 
 to pursue their studies, were taught in the best way, and 
 drank in the prescribed literature in a proper manner. His 
 apology for his poor Latin contains an unintentional testimony 
 to the superior instruction of the Roman schools of Dumbar- 
 ton. 
 
 Under the Romans there were ninety-two cities in Britain, 
 thirty-three of which were "conspicuous and celebrated." 
 Two of these were " municipal " ; nine, " colonial " ; ten 
 under the " Latian law," and twelve, " stipendiary." ^ Each 
 of these classes had special privileges, and probably the 
 entire thirty-three cities, and even more, had Roman schools. 
 Dumbarton was under the Latian law, and had St. Patrick's 
 father as a decurion, or member of its city council. 
 
 Pelagius was a Briton, according: to the most trustworthy 
 evidence. His British name, Morgan, signified sea-born ; his 
 Greek name, Pelagius, denotes one living by the side of the sea, 
 or coming from it. Pelagius was not a native of Brittany, 
 in France. Armorica was not called Brittany until the sixth 
 century, when Britons fleeing from Anglo-Saxon victories 
 found a refuge there, and gave it its name.^ Pelagius was 
 neither an abbot nor a monk of Bangor. Bingham writes : 
 
 Some say Pelagius first brought the monastic life out of the East 
 into Britain ; others make him abbot also of the college of Bangor, 
 and speak of two thousand monks under him ; but this is justly cen- 
 sured by learned men as a mere fable of modern authors.' 
 
 It was somewhat later than the residence of Pelagius in 
 his native country before there were any monasteries in 
 Britain. Pelagius was a monk of a class that existed in his 
 time. These led stricter lives than others within their own 
 
 1 Richard of Cirencester, "Six Old English Chronicles," pp. 456, 457. 
 
 ' Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," Vol. II., 474. McGowan, London. 
 
 ^Bingham's " Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book VII., chap. 11, sec. 3. 
 
42 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 houses ; retiring from the common employments of the world 
 for sacred studies and prayer, their chief occupation next to 
 their devotions, was the study of the Scriptures, while some 
 grave person instructed the disciples in the holy word. This 
 was the chosen office of Pelagius, in Rome, which led him to 
 publish his commentary on Paul's epistles in that city, about 
 A. D. 404^ 
 
 This work, with some parts of it mutilated to remove his 
 errors, is still in existence, and much the larger portion of it 
 is unusually valuable. Its authorship has been credited to 
 Jerome, and it is often printed in old editions of his works. 
 Bishop Lightfoot says : 
 
 The notes of Pelagius are pointed and good, but meagre. The 
 high estimation in which they were held, in spite of the cloud which 
 hung over their author, and the fact of their being attributed to 
 Gelasius and to Jerome, are high testimonies to their merits.^ 
 
 Pelagius was an eminent scholar for his day, educated most 
 probably in British schools. In a council held in Jerusalem, 
 in A. D. 415, where he was accused by Orosius, a Spanish 
 presbyter, sent by Augustine for the purpose, Pelagius 
 addressed the council in Greek, the vernacular of its mem- 
 bers, which Orosius was unable to do.' Neander says : 
 "Pelagius had not the profound speculative spirit which 
 we find in Augustine ... In learning he was Augustine's 
 superior." * 
 
 The " Book of Armagh/' ^ at present in Trinity College, Dub- 
 lin, Ireland, was transcribed from a manuscript, then becom- 
 ing obscure, in A. d. 807. This remarkable work is ten hun- 
 dred and eighty-six years old. It contains all the books of 
 the New Testament, with Jerome's preface to his version of 
 the four Gospels ; and also Pelagms' ® preface to the Epistles, 
 
 1 Stillingfleet's " Antiquities of the British Churches," pp. 188-190. 
 
 2 Lightfoot " On the Galatians," p. 233. Sixth ed, 
 
 3" The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 120. 
 
 *" History of the Christian Church," Vol. II., pp. 573, 574. 
 
 6 " Government Tripartite Life," Pref. 94. 
 
 • " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 120. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 43 
 
 as well as a separate preface from him to each epistle. Irish 
 Christians never had any regard for the heresy of Pelagius, but 
 they had, in the centuries immediately after their conversion, 
 much admiration for his commentaries. 
 
 Collier gives the following list of the errors of Pelagius : 
 
 That Adam had mortality in his nature, and whether or not he had 
 sinned, he would certainly have died; that the consequences of 
 Adam's sin were confined to his person; and that the rest of 
 mankind received no disadvantage from it ; that the law qualified 
 for the kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon equal promises 
 with the gospel; that before the coming of our Saviour some men 
 lived without sin; that new-born infants are in the same condition 
 with Adam before his fall ; that the death and disobedience of Adam 
 are not the necessary causes of death to all mankind, neither does the 
 resurrection of the dead follow in virtue of the Saviour's resurrec- 
 tion ; that if a man will make the most of himself, he may keep the 
 commands of God without difficulty, and preserve himself in a per- 
 fect state of innocence ; that rich men, notwithstanding the advan- 
 tage of their baptism,— which was generally supposed to wash away 
 all sin,— unless they parted with all their estate, would find all other 
 virtues insignificant to them; neither could they be qualified for the 
 kingdom of heaven ; that the grace and assistance of God are not 
 granted for the performance of every moral act, the freedom of the 
 will and information in the points of duty being sufficient for this 
 purpose; that the grace of God is given in proportion to our merits; 
 that none can be called the sons of God unless they are perfectly 
 without sin ; that our victory over temptation is not gained by God's 
 assistance, but by the freedom of the will.^ 
 
 To Collier's statement, it might be added that the character 
 of Pelagius was without a blemish ; and that he declared that 
 it " was through the Holy Scriptures alone that any one is 
 able to know the whole will of God." ^ 
 
 Pelagius was assailed by Augustine, of Hippo, after his 
 conversion almost a second inspired Paul. Jerome joined in 
 the warfare. Pelagius, the obscure Briton, Coelestius the 
 Hibernian, and Julianus, with minor adherents, threatened 
 for a time to disturb the peace of the Christian world. 
 
 1 Collier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., pp. 96, 97. London, 1840. 
 
 sin Scripturis Divinis per quas solas potes plenaiu Dei intelligere vohintat.'ui. 
 " Ep. Demetrias," Cap. 9. 
 
44 ANCIENT BEITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 About A. D. 425, Pelagianism was introduced into Britain 
 by Agricola from Gaul. Its advocates were so successful in 
 their mission, that in a short time they made a great number 
 of converts, and thoroughly alarmed the friends of sovereign 
 grace. " They refused absolutely to embrace this perverse 
 doctrine, so blasphemous against the grace of Christ ; " and 
 as the orthodox British clergy felt unable to confute its " sub- 
 tlety by force of argument," they applied to the Galilean 
 bishops for help. They never thought of seeking the aid of 
 the pope. The neighboring bishops consulted in a synod 
 summoned for the purpose, and by unanimous choice, in A. D. 
 429, sent Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, of Troyes, 
 to eradicate the heresy. A multitude welcomed these breth- 
 ren on landing in Britain. The fame of their sermons and 
 virtues spread quickly over the country ; they preached daily 
 in the churches, streets, and fields, so that the orthodox 
 everywhere were confirmed, and wanderers were restored. 
 But while the masses accepted the testimony of the visiting 
 bishops, the Pelagian leaders kept in the background, until 
 driven by the loss of so many from their ranks, they boldly 
 came forth and met the champions of truth in a public discus- 
 sion. They appeared, " conspicuous for riches," in glittering 
 apparel, and supported by the flatteries of many. Evidently 
 the wealthy Britons were Pelagians. An immense multitude 
 of men, with their wives and children, surrounded the 
 speakers. It was one of the most momentous meetings ever 
 held in Britain. The aristocratic followers of Pelagius deliv- 
 ered their addresses first and, as Bede says — perhaps not im- 
 partially — " long took up the time, and filled the ears with 
 empty words." The Galilean bishops, when the Pelagians 
 ended, poured forth a torrent of evangelical eloquence, sus- 
 tained by Scripture proofs and the written testimonies of 
 famous Christian authors. The Pelagians were utterly over- 
 thrown and confessed their errors, and for some time aban- 
 doned their heresy.^ 
 
 1 Bede's ' Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 17. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 45 
 
 In the same year a piratical party of Saxons from beyond 
 the sea united with an invading force of Picts from Caledonia 
 to attack the Britons. Greatly fearing their adversaries, the 
 Britons entreated the assistance of Germanus and Lupus. 
 Germanus had been a general before he was a bishop, and he 
 accepted the appointment of commander of the British 
 troops. He found in the country through which the enemy 
 was expected a valley surrounded by hills, in which he 
 placed his inexperienced troops. As the enemy was seen 
 approaching, Germanus seized the standard, and gave orders 
 that all his men should repeat the word when he cried " halle- 
 lujah." And as they were ready for the attack, and Ger- 
 manus and Lupus shouted " hallelujah " three times, the 
 whole people uttered the same word in their loudest tones ; 
 and coming unexpectedly upon the Saxons and Picts, the 
 hills resounding the echo on all sides, they were filled with 
 dread ; a panic seized them, and fearing that not only the 
 neighboring rocks, but that the skies were falling upon them, 
 they fled with all haste, and threw away their weapons to 
 increase their speed. The Britons did not lose a man and 
 collected much booty. This bloodless battle took place near 
 Mold, in Flintshire, Wales, and is known as the " Hallelujah " 
 victory.^ 
 
 Pelagianism revived in Britain some time after the depart- 
 ure of Germanus and Lupus ; and in process of time, the 
 defenders of sovereign grace became alarmed at the move- 
 ments of these free-will rejecters of " God, working in us both 
 to will and to do of his good pleasure," and the clergy of 
 Britain, in A. d. 447, sent again for Germanus to visit them 
 for the defense of the truth. Germanus, accompanied by 
 Severus, subsequently bishop of Treves, hastened to the 
 anxious Britons. Great numbers met and welcomed them on 
 their lauding. They addressed very large congregations in 
 various directions. They gave much comfort to the orthodox, 
 and inspired courage in hearts where it was sadly needed ; 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 20. 
 
46 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 aud finding that Pelagianism had made little progress, and 
 was chiefly confined to certain demonstrative leaders, Ger- 
 manus secured their expulsion from the island.^ By the exile, 
 eflTective though unjust, of the leaders, the heresy of Pelagius 
 was again overthrown. 
 
 Pelagius was a writer of force, and even eloquence, as we 
 see in his well-known letter to the Lady Demetrias. It was 
 written upon the capture and plunder of Rome by the Goths 
 under Alaric, in a. d. 410. He says: 
 
 This dismal calamitj^ is but just over, and you yourself are a ^vitness 
 how Rome, that commanded the world, was astonished at the alarm 
 of the Gothic trumpet, when that barbarous and victorious nation 
 stormed her walls and made their way through the breach. Where 
 were then the privileges of birth and the distinctions of quality? 
 Were not all ranks and degrees levelled at that time and promiscu- 
 ously huddled together? Every house was then a scene of misery 
 and equally filled with grief and confusion. The slave and the man 
 of condition were in the same circumstances, and everywhere the 
 terror of death and slaughter was the same; unless we may say that 
 the fright made the greater impression upon those who obtained the 
 most by living. Now if flesh and blood have such power over fears, 
 and mortal men can frighten us to this degree, what will become of 
 us when the trumpet sounds from the sky, and the archangel summons 
 us to judgment ; when we are not attacked by sword or lance, or by 
 anything so feeble as a human enemy, but when the artillery of 
 heaven, all the terrors of nature, the militia, as I may so speak, of 
 God Almighty, are let loose upon us? ^ 
 
 Pelagius at times unconsciously created for himself warm 
 affection in the hearts of some. His great adversary, Augus- 
 tine, addressed a letter to him in these terms : " To the most 
 beloved lord, and most desired brother, Pelagius, Augustine 
 wishes health in the Lord." He then proceeds to write : 
 
 I thank God very much that you were pleased to rejoice me with 
 your letter, and to make me sure about your health. The Lord give 
 you blessings by which you may be always happy and live with the 
 Eternal forever, most beloved Lord, and most desired brother.^ 
 
 1 Bede's "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 21. 
 
 2 rollier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., pp. 94, 95. London, 1840. 
 
 3 Ussher's " Works," Vol. V., p. 250. 
 
THE FIFTH AND hlXTH CENTURIES. 47 
 
 Besides his commentary and his "Letter to Demetrias," 
 Pelagius wrote " A Treatise Concerning the Power of 
 Nature," several works on " Free-will," and " A Confession 
 of Faith." 
 
 He was the ablest of the ancient British Christians except 
 St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland ; and with the Holy Spirit 
 directing his heart and labors, he might have won a heatlien 
 nation for Christ, whose people would have been blessing his 
 memory still, instead of securing a beggarly harvest of 
 blighted hopes, in the graceless hearts of friends, and of 
 opposition and indignation from the larger part of the Chris- 
 tian world. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS DURING THE 
 
 FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES (Continued). 
 
 Bishop Germanus — His great immersion of an army of believers — 
 Maximus takes thirty thousand British soldiers from their island — 
 In desperate straits the Britons make a final appeal to Kome — In- 
 vasion of the Anglo-Saxons — British heroes : Vortimer, Ambrosius, 
 King Arthur — Destruction of churches and slaughter of ministers 
 and congregations — Famous British colleges — The synod of Brevy 
 — The Pelagians — Celebrated church leaders— The monastery of 
 Bangor — Its extensive ruins. 
 
 Germanus became bishop of Auxerre in France on the 
 death of Amator, in A. d. 418, and remained there for thirty 
 years, when he entered the rest of heaven. He was of noble 
 parents, governor of a province, and a general. His courage 
 made light of dangers ; his love for Christ and souls made 
 him preach everywhere.^ He was an eloquent speaker. Dur- 
 ing his first visit to Britain, the Holy Spirit fell in saving 
 power upon great numbers of his hearers who, by faith, were 
 cleansed from sin. Some of these were the warriors led by 
 him against the Saxons and Picts, of whom Bede writes : 
 " The army advanced still ivet with the baptismal water ; the 
 faith of the people was strengthened ; and whereas human 
 power before had been despaired of, the divine assistance was 
 now relied upon." ^ A great revival swept over Britain, in 
 A. D. 429, under the daily sermons and fervent prayers of 
 Germanus and Lupus. 
 
 Constantine, a reputable clergyman of Lyons, who wrote a 
 " Life of Germanus," in the fifth century, describes this national 
 awakening as " so powerful among the Britons that they had 
 
 1 " Constant. Vit.," German. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 20. 
 
 48 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CEXTUKIES. 49 
 
 preachipg every day, and eagerly rushed for the grace of bap- 
 tism, for a very great multitude of the army demanded the 
 water of the salutary bath [baptism]. The army marched 
 [to the Hallelujah battlefield] wet with baptism, and the 
 people through faith were enthusiastic. The protection of 
 arms was despised in the expectation of the help of God." ^ 
 The w^ord translated " wet " is the Latin word madidus, which 
 means " wet, " wringing wet " ; and as this wetting came from 
 being put into a large bathing vessel, the lavacrum, used for 
 taking baths, this was clearly the baptismal immersion of 
 great numbers. 
 
 Dr. M'Lauchlan, a scholarly Presbyterian, quoting from 
 Ailred's " Life of Ninian," who lived in A. D. 400, that great 
 numbers " rushed to the fountain of saving cleansing," adds : 
 " Wells seem to have been used at an early period for bap- 
 tism, which, as has been suggested, may be the origin of their 
 being held sacred." ^ That is, baptism was immersion, admin- 
 istered in wells at an early period. 
 
 Dr. Whitley Stokes, an eminent Celtic scholar, was 
 appointed by the authority of the " Lords' Commissioners " 
 of the British Treasury to edit " The Tripartite Life of 
 Patrick, with other Documents Relating to that Saint," in 
 which he states, "that the ordinary baptismal rite is continu- 
 ally referred to [by the ancient writers in his two volumes]. 
 Patrick himself was baptized in a well, and in a well he bap- 
 tized the pregnant Fedilm, and it is said, twelve thousand 
 others ; that the immersion was trine appears from two glosses 
 in the " Wiirzburg Codex Paulinus." ' The baptism received 
 and conferred by Patrick, the British apostle of Ireland, 
 was immersion ; and it was the baptism in his day of the 
 whole Christian world. 
 
 When Germanus administered his great baptism to the 
 Britons, their country had been Christian for many years ; 
 
 1 " Germani Antisis. Vit., " Lib. I., cap. 28. 
 »" The Early Scottish Church," p. 71. 
 
 3 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. L, Intro., p. 183. London, 18S7. 
 K 
 
50 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHI/RCHES. 
 
 there is no ground for supposing that there was an avowed 
 pagan in it; and if infant baptism had prevailed among 
 them as it has been practised among all Pedobaptists until 
 the principles of the Baptists began to spread in modern 
 times, there would scarcely have been five hundred unbaptized 
 children over three months old in Britain. 
 
 Constantine declares that " a very great multitude of the 
 army " demanded baptism. Bede confirms this statement. 
 Where did these people come from if their fathers practised 
 infant baptism ? Their existence can only be accounted for 
 by the absence of the infant rite. " Infant baptism," says 
 Neander, "among the Christians of the East, though in 
 theory acknowledged to be necessary, yet entered so rarely 
 and with so much difficulty into church life, during the first 
 half of this period" — the first half of the fourth century; 
 and he gives as a result of the absence of baptism — " that in 
 times of public calamity, in earthquakes, in the dangers of 
 war, multitudes hurried to baptism, and the numbers of the 
 existing clergy scarcely sufiaced for the wants of all."^ 
 Gregory, of Nazianzum, was baptized at thirty-one ; Jerome, 
 the early translator and commentator, at thirty-two. These 
 distinguished fathers of the fourth century had Christian 
 parents. Augustine and other fathers born in the fourth 
 century were immersed at adult age, though one parent was 
 a Christian, and probably both, at their birth. There is 
 absolutely no evidence that any baptism but that of the im- 
 mersion of adult believers existed among the ancient Britons 
 in the first half of the fifth century, nor for a long period 
 afterward. 
 
 The Britons, after the departure of the Romans, had no 
 regular schools for higher education. There is reason to 
 believe that Germanus induced them to establish monastic 
 schools, like that at Lerins, in France. It was founded by 
 Honoratus, in the end of the fourth century. Lerins edu- 
 cated twelve archbishops, a dozen bishops, and more than 
 
 1 " General History of the Christian Church," Vol. II., pp. 319, 320. Boston. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 51 
 
 a hundred marlyrs. It was called, " The blessed isle, the isle 
 of saints." ^ It is almost certain that to his advice they were 
 indebted for several noble schools with thousands of students. 
 They loved Germanus dearly, and named churches in various 
 places after him; and in Wales, where the Anglo-Saxons 
 could not destroy them, as they did in England, a considerable 
 number remain to this day, such as Llanarmon in Denbigh- 
 shire, Llanarmon DyfFrin Ceirioy, and St. Harmon's, Rad- 
 norshire. The Welsh form of Germanus is Garmon ; and in 
 composition the"G" is dropped. "Llan"is used for our 
 word church ; so that " Llanarmon " is the church of Ger- 
 manus. In the parish of Mold, in Flintshire, Mars-Garmon 
 is located, that is the field of Germanus ; this is believed to 
 be the field of battle of Germanus when assailed by the 
 Saxons and Picts, whom he routed by " Hallelujah ! " shouted 
 simultaneously three times by his whole army. 
 
 Fastidius, a British bishop at this period, became prom- 
 inent, and was regarded as a man of " great genius and elo- 
 quence, an excellent preacher, and a very pious person." He 
 wrote a work upon the "Christian Life," which Du Pin 
 commends highly .2 Faustus, a Briton by birth, who spent 
 many years in Gaul, became abbot of the celebrated monastic 
 school of Lerins, about a. d. 430. He had " a wonderful 
 reputation for piety and learning." Du Pin states that " he 
 was commended and honored by the greatest men of his 
 time." ' 
 
 It is certain that there were many men of exalted worth 
 and usefulness among the Britons during the fifth and sixth 
 centuries, of whom we have a scanty record, or none of any 
 kind ; but it is encouraging to meet with British authors of 
 merit in ages when their country was desolated with fire and 
 sword in wars that apparently would never end. 
 
 When the Romans first removed their troops from Britain, 
 
 1 Michelet's " History of France," Vol. I., p. 65. New York. 
 « Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 497. 3 Ibid., p. 510. 
 
52 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 after the capture of Rome, in a. d. 410, the people were 
 civilized and surrounded in many cases with comforts and 
 luxuries. Their gardens and villas exhibited some faint 
 imitation of Italian elegance/ They were in the most unwar- 
 like condition of any people in Europe. Some years before, 
 the usurper Maximus, bent upon the invasion of Gaul, led an 
 army into it containing thirty thousand Britons who never 
 returned.^ There were twelve considerable bodies of British 
 troops located in various, and often distant provinces of the 
 Roman Empire, and always outside of their own country, 
 from which they were regularly recruited.^ Britons were 
 never trained to arms or given military employment at home. 
 Immediately after the withdrawal of the Roman troops, and 
 again, when they returned to give their enemies a parting 
 and crushing defeat, and left the island, the Britons, deprived 
 of all military protectors, native or foreign, suffered enor- 
 mously. The Picts and Scots, ferocious w^arriors to whom the 
 shedding of blood w^as a daily business, preyed upon them. 
 Petty tyrants sprang up among them to divide their remain- 
 ing: streno-th and encourasre their murderers. It is not 
 remarkable, even after the relief given them, and the return 
 of the legion loaned by Rome, that they should send an 
 address pleading for another visit from the warriors who had 
 protected them for centuries. Their memorable petition, con- 
 taining the words, " The barbarians drive us to the sea ; the 
 sea throws us back upon the barbarians ; these two modes of 
 death await us — we are either to be slain or drowned," * has 
 frequently excited scorn, but deserves only compassion. 
 
 From the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons, in a. d. 449, fierce 
 war existed between them and the Britons for about one hun- 
 dred and thirty years, with interruptions commonly of brief 
 duration. The Britons, betrayed by King Vortigern in the 
 
 1 Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," Vol. II., p. 304. McGowan. 
 21bid., p. 168. 
 
 3 Rapin's " History of England," Vol. I., p. 25. London, 1732 
 
 4 " Works of Gildas," Sec. 20, 21, 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 53 
 
 admission of these warlike barbariaus into their country, and 
 otherwise divided, were far from becoming an easy prey to 
 their future conquerors. To their natural bravery they 
 added, from necessity, other developments of successful mili- 
 tary experience, until they became formidable to their in- 
 vaders, whom they frequently drove from the field of battle. 
 The tomb of Vortimer, the son of Vortigern, was built upon 
 the shore as a warning to the roving Saxons, whom he had 
 defeated three times in Kent.^ Ambrosius Aurelian showed 
 himself one of the bravest of generals, whose leadership 
 commonly led to victory. 
 
 But every British name is effaced by the illustrious name of 
 Arthur, the hereditary prince of the Silures, in South Wales, and 
 the elected king or general of the nation. According to the most 
 rational account he defeated in twelve successive battles the Angles 
 of the North, and the Saxons of the West ; but the declining age of 
 the hero was embittered by popular ingratitude and domestic mis- 
 fortunes. 
 
 Rapin speaks of him as a great general ; as a hero who 
 enjoyed so much of the love and esteem of the Britons that, 
 after his decease many of them would never believe that he 
 was dead.2 This valiant Gustavus Adolphus of the Britons 
 built and repaired churches, and was for years the shield of 
 British Christianity. But the Britons had sinned deeply 
 against God. Gildas the Briton places the five kings of his 
 country in moral pillories, and beside them many of the lead- 
 ing clergymen. Most of the Britons had backslidden from 
 God. The savage fury of the Saxons came as the scourge 
 of Jehovah, and it pressed onward and never stopped until 
 the Britons were driven to the confines of Cornwall and 
 Wales, and desolation and death marked the long, sad line of 
 the retreat. Gildas writes : 
 
 All the husbandmen were routed, together with their bi?hops, 
 priests, and people, whilst the sword gleamed, and the flames 
 crackled around them on every side. Lamentable to behold, in the 
 
 1 Gib>)on's " Decline and Full," Vol. II., p. 475. McGowan, London. 
 
 2 Rapin's " History of England," Vol. I., pp. 38, 39. 
 
54 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 midst of the streets lay the tops of the lofty towers tumbled to the 
 ground, stones of high walls, holy altars, fragments of human bodies 
 covered with livid clots of coagulated blood, looking as if tbey had 
 been squeezed together in a press; and with no chance of being 
 buried, save in the ruins of the houses, or in the ravening bellies of 
 wild beasts and birds. ^ 
 
 The destruction of the churches was followed by the flight 
 of the ministers to escape martyrdom. And in all England, 
 as distinct from Cornwall and Wales, Christianity was a 
 mere memory of the past. 
 
 The conquest of Britain by the Anglo-Saxons, with the 
 destruction of its Christianity and so many of its people, is 
 one of the darkest chapters in the book of crime. The sub- 
 jugation of Gaul by the Franks, who spoke the same lan- 
 guage as the Anglo-Saxons, or even of the Anglo-Saxons 
 themselves by William the Conqueror, was merciful in com- 
 parison with the fate of the ancient Britons. 
 
 Though the Christian '' priests," as Bede says, " were every- 
 where slain before the altars ; and the prelates and the peo- 
 ple, without any respect of persons, were destroyed with fire 
 and sword," ^ yet Christianity lived in Wales, even with 
 vigor, during these hundred and thirty years of persecution, 
 and it flourishes there still. 
 
 One of the powerful agencies for extending the gospel 
 among the ancient Britons was the establishment of great 
 monastic schools, where the Bible was studied, and literary 
 instruction imparted. These institutions are said to have 
 been founded, soon after A. D. 429, by Dubricius and Iltutus, 
 supposed disciples of Germanus. 
 
 Ussher quotes a statement about Dubricius which appears 
 to be worthy of acceptance : 
 
 His fame was increased, on account of his knowledge of the Old 
 and New Testaments, through the whole of Britain, so that scholars 
 came from every part of it; and not only the uneducated, but the 
 philosophical and the learned thronged to him for the sake of study; 
 
 1 " Works of Gildas," Sec. 24, 25. 2 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 15. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 55 
 
 and with them he retained a thousand clergymen through seven con- 
 tinuous years at his hall at Hentland, on the river Wye, in the study 
 of literature and divinity.^ 
 
 We are also informed that he had another place named 
 Moch-Rhos, on the same river, where " he remained many- 
 years, directing the studies of his innumerable scholars. 
 The students supported themselves by cultivating the knd 
 belonging to the institution, and by the fish in the river 
 Wye." He died about a. d. 522. 
 
 In A. D. 519, a numerous synod was held at Brevy, in 
 Wales, to suppress a newly threatened outbreak of Pelagian- 
 ism. At this assembly all the bishops in Britain were pres- 
 ent ; and one hundred and eighteen prelates took part in its 
 proceedings, besides abbots, and others.^ 
 
 St. David preached to a vast concourse of people, and by 
 his eloquence and learning completely silenced the Pela- 
 gians.^ He founded twelve monastic schools, the chief one 
 of which was in the valley of Ross, near Menevia, where he 
 trained many eminent ministers. For ages he was described 
 as " the glory of the ancient British church." 
 
 Iltutus shared with Dubricius in the honor of founding 
 the great monastic colleges of Wales. In his institution 
 many noblemen's sons were educated ; among his pupils 
 were Sampson, afterward archbishop of Dole, in Brittany; 
 Paul, another bishop in Brittany ; David, Paulinus, and 
 Gildas the Wise.* His school, says Leland, flourished like a 
 university among the Britons.^ 
 
 The best known of these monastic colleges was located at 
 Bangor, in Flintshire, Wales. This monastery was in the 
 neighborhood of Chester, in England, as we learn from AVil- 
 liam, of Malmesbury, an intelligent and careful writer, who 
 died about A. d. 1143. He states that Chester belonged to 
 
 1 Ussher's " Works," Vol, V., p. 510. 
 
 2 Stillingfleet's " Antiquities of the British Churches," pp. 357, 358. 
 
 3 Butler's " Lives of the Saints," p. 28o. Dublin. 
 < " A''it. Gild.," Cap. III. 
 
 5 Collier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. T., p. 112. London, 1840. 
 
56 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the Britons, as well as the adjacent monastery of Bangor, 
 in the adjoining Welsh county of Flint. He speaks of the 
 " incredible number " of the monks as seen in the vast extent 
 of the ruins. " In his day there were so many half-destroyed 
 walls of churches in the neighboring monastery, so many 
 winding porticoes, such masses of ruins, as are scarcely to 
 be seen elsewhere." ^ 
 
 According to Bede, Ethelfrid, the pagan king of North- 
 umbria, raised a mighty army against the Britons of Chester ; 
 and observing, as he drew near to attack the enemy, a body 
 of priests numbering twelve hundred and fifty, most of whom 
 were from the monastery of Bangor, standing near the Britons, 
 in a place of great safety, praying for the success of their 
 warriors, he ordered an assault to be made upon them first, 
 because, he said, though they do not bear arms, they cry to 
 their God against us, and fight against us by their prayers. 
 All but fifty of the Bangor students and ministers and 
 neighboring pastors were slain, their monastery was destroyed, 
 and the Britons under Brocmail were routed. The monas- 
 tery of Bangor, as we learn from Bede, had seven divisions ; 
 each section ruled by its own rector, and each having not 
 less than three hundred members, who all lived by the labor 
 of their hands.^ 
 
 This great school, with thousands of students, imparted 
 instruction in every branch of knowledge, and especially in 
 the teachings of the Scriptures. The butchery of its twelve 
 hundred unarmed professors and students, and of neighbor- 
 ing ministers with them by savage, pagan Ethelfrid, the 
 father of saintly Oswald, king of Northurabria, while they 
 were praying for their imperilled brethren, is one of the most 
 odious crimes against humanity in the records of the heathen 
 Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 The monastery of Tuy Gwyn, built in A. d. 1146, was 
 
 1 Malmesbiiry's " Chronicle," Lib. I., cap. 3. 
 SBede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II , cap. 2. 
 
THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. 57 
 
 the first abbey for friars erected in Wales ; " afterward tbey 
 swarmed like bees." ^ 
 
 Du Pin states that Gildas was abbot of Bangor ; that he 
 wrote his lamentations for the miseries of Britain in A. d. 
 564, and died in A. d. 570. Polydore Vergil, writing of his 
 " little book," says " that he has treated in a few words of the 
 history of his time [and of centuries earlier], and he has 
 bewailed the iniquity of his British countrymen and times, 
 alleging many texts of Holy Scriptures whereby he might 
 both train them to goodness, and cause them to abandon evil 
 deeds ; the book is obscure and knotty." ^ The sub-collector 
 of Peter's pence would find any book full of Scripture ob- 
 scure and knotty. 
 
 Of the Sampsons, one of whom was bishop of York, and 
 subsequently of Dole, in Brittany ; and the other, his suc- 
 cessor in Dole, " who carried ofi" a great many records of 
 British antiquity with him," which were never recovered, 
 much might be said. These distinguished bishops were 
 honored when living, and their memory was reverenced for 
 generations after their decease. Cadocus, abbot of Llancar- 
 ' van ; Paternus, Petrock, St. Telian, Oudoceus, St. Asaph^ 
 and others among the ancient Britons, in times of unceasing 
 warfare and the most shocking public calamities, lived near to 
 God, and led their suffering brethren to the same safe refuge. 
 They built churches and colleges; they sent out ministers 
 everywhere to preach Christ among the Britons ; they made 
 and circulated many copies of the Scriptures ; they were 
 present with their people in full view of patriotic battles, 
 though hindered by their consciences from actual fighting, 
 that they might pray for their success, minister to the 
 wounded, and cheer the dying ; and that they might invoke 
 the protection of the Almighty upon the helpless wives and 
 little ones, and the dear old fathers and mothers at home. 
 
 1 " Historical Works of Giraldus Cambre^nsis," p. 397 ; note. London, 18G3. 
 
 2 " History 'tf England," Vol. I., p. 28. Camden Society, London. 
 
58 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Often their prayers were answered by sweeping victories, 
 without which their peoj)le would have been annihilated by 
 Anglo-Saxon desperadoes. During the long years of war 
 with them, they had martyrs for Christ, with sufferings as 
 inhuman as Romish fiends ever inflicted upon the godly 
 Waldenses ; and the number of their sacrificed brethren far 
 exceeded those of the Waldenses in the most cruel one hun- 
 dred and thirty consecutive years of their entire blood-stained 
 history. The Britons for centuries held the chief doctrines 
 and practices of the Baptist denomination. 
 
BOOK II. 
 CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE ANCIENT IRISH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 King Cormac rejects idolatry long before Patrick's arrival— British 
 women in Ireland — A believing family immersed — Ccelestius an 
 Irishman — Bishop Colman — Sir W. Betham — Patrick's testimony. 
 
 Ireland, so near the coast of Britain, and so full of war- 
 riors, wizards, and idolatrous agencies and objects, was well 
 known to the churches of Britain, and without doubt often 
 occupied their thoughts and enlisted their supplications. 
 The Romans never attempted its conquest ; and it is probable 
 that the Christian Britons were deterred from adequate 
 efforts to secure the conversion of a savage people outside 
 the protection of the Roman legions. That they made the 
 attempt, however, more than once, in some form, their in- 
 vincible zeal and historical facts assure us. St. Patrick was 
 brought up in a Christian family in Britain, where he was 
 born, and the truth which saved him when a youthful slave 
 in pagan Ireland was taught him in the godly home of Deacon 
 Calpurnius, his father, and in the church of which he was a 
 member and officer. When he escaped from slavery and re- 
 turned to his home, and once more enjoyed Christian society^ 
 his believing experience was greatly enlarged, and his reliance 
 upon Christ strengthened ; and soon he was persuaded that he 
 must become a missionary to the Irish. His family, while 
 probably approving of his zeal, was alarmed at the prospect 
 before him. Slemish, the mountain, with its swine, guarding 
 which he spent six dreary years, in snow, in drenchinL^ raiii, 
 
 5U 
 
60 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 in rags, and in pinching hunger, by day and by night, reared 
 its rugged sides and black summit before them in horror. And 
 still more fatal dangers were presented to their imaginations, 
 and full of fears for his safety, they entreated him to stay 
 with them. They offered him gifts ; and when these and 
 pressing appeals failed, they resorted to threatenings and im- 
 prisonment ; and as Patrick in his " Confession " calls himself 
 a "fugitive," it is supposed that the resolute young Briton 
 had to fly from his home to enter upon his great work of 
 saving Ireland. This was the spirit of many saints who car- 
 ried the gospel over Britain until its people were converted, and 
 probably of several others who proclaimed the glad tidings in 
 Ireland. 
 
 In the beginning of his " Confession," St. Patrick says : " I 
 was taken as a slave into Ireland with so many thousands of 
 men, according to our deserts." This was not a solitary raid 
 from Ireland, though a large one. Man-stealing and coast 
 robbery were common. In this way many British Christians, 
 nominal and real, were scattered over that country. " The 
 Four Masters' Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland " tells us, 
 at A. D. 266, that— 
 
 Forty years was Cormac, the son of Art, the son of Conn, in 
 the sovereignty of Ireland when he died at Cleiteach, the bone 
 of a salmon sticking in his throat, on account of the Siabhradh 
 [Genii] which Maelgenn, the Druid, incited at him, after Cormac had 
 turned against the Druids on account of the adoration of God in pref- 
 erence to them. Wherefore a devil attacked him at the instigation 
 of the Druids. 
 
 He left express orders that he should not be buried with 
 nis idolatrous ancestors. Cormac was apparently a Christian. 
 
 After Patrick had arrived in Ireland as a missionary, on 
 one occasion he left Lomman in charge of his vessel, while he 
 went away for some days. During his absence, — 
 
 Lomman was reading the gospel aloud, when Fortchern, son of 
 Ft'dilmid, admiring the gospel and its teaching, forthwith believed, 
 and tlie well being open, he was baptized in that place by Lomman. 
 
THE GOSPEL IN IRELAND. 61 
 
 He remained there with him until his mother came in search of him 
 and she was rejoiced to see him, for she was a Britoness. She also be- 
 lieved, and returned again to her house and told her husband everything 
 that happened to her and to her son, and Fedilmid rejoiced in the 
 coming of the clergyman, because his mother was British, a daughter 
 of Scoth Noe, the kingof the Britons. Then Fedilmid greeted Lomman 
 in the British tongue, asking him about his rank, faith, and kindred. 
 And he answered : "I am Lomman, a Briton, a Christian, a disciple 
 of Bishop Patrick, who was sent by the Lord to baptize the people of 
 Ireland, and turn them to the faith of Christ, who sent me here 
 according to the will of God." And immediately Fedilmid believed, 
 with his whole family, and he made an offering to him, and to St. 
 Patrick, of his lands, his possessions, and his substance, with all his 
 rights as a chieftain over his followers.^ 
 
 This evidently truthful quotation is from " Additions to the 
 Collections of Tirechan," a valuable work written in the ninth 
 century. These Christians of British blood represented mul- 
 titudes from Albion, some of whom bore witness in Ireland to 
 the power and peace of the gospel during perhaps three hun- 
 dred years of Hibernian paganism. 
 
 Coelestius,^ an Irishman, born in the fourth century, became 
 a Christian, and during a large part of the first half of the 
 fifth, he was one of the most active men in Europe or Asia. 
 Accepting the heretical opinions of Pelagius, he was untiring 
 in his efforts to spread and defend them. 
 
 In the " Additions to Tirechan's Collections," it is written : 
 " Colman, a bishop, presented to Bishop Patrick, his church 
 at Cluain Cain, in Achud Cain, as an offering devoted to him 
 forever; and he committed it to the holy men, presbytef 
 Medb and presbyter Sadb." ^ Neither Patrick nor his assist- 
 ants had ever conducted the services of this church. Its own- 
 ership and use were exclusively Colman's. He was evidently 
 a missionary Briton, laboring in Ireland before Patrick's 
 arrival ; or else he came to it independently of Patrick. 
 
 1 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., pp. 334, 335. 
 
 2 Jf^rome's " Proemium," in Lib. III. Comment, in " Jeremiam," Tom. V., p. 
 137 " Froben. Bal.," a. d. 1516. 
 
 3 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. IL, p. 337. 
 
62 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Soames gives the general verdict of scholars about Chris- 
 tianity in Ireland, when, in speaking of the arrival of Palla- 
 dius, in A. d. 431, he says : '' The truth is, that a few Christian 
 congregations, regularly organized under bishops, had existed 
 in the south of Ireland from some very remote period." ^ 
 
 Dr. William Lindsay Alexander, a Scotch writer of his- 
 torical ability, states that, — 
 
 Patrick was not, indeed, the apostle of Ireland, for Christianity 
 existed there before his arrival. It is nevertheless certain that he 
 found the greater part of the island so utterly destitute of its influence, 
 that to him was granted a degree of success such as none of his prede- 
 cessors had attained. ^ 
 
 The late distinguished scholar. Sir William Betham, in his 
 " Antiquarian Researches," states that Ireland was Christian- 
 ized by St. Patrick long before the year A. d. 432, the date 
 assigned by most of the analysts, and the writers of his 
 " Lives," for the commencement of his labors in it. We have 
 no doubt that St. Patrick began his ministry in Ireland in the 
 end of the fourth century, and not in A. d. 432 ; and there 
 is a moral certainty that long before his day there were 
 Christians in Ireland. 
 
 Toward the end of his " Confession," Patrick clearly inti- 
 mates this; "I travel amongst you" [he says to his con- 
 verts] "even to remote places, where no one has ever 
 come to baptize, ordain clergymen, or edify the people." 
 From these words it seems evident that some others in places 
 more easily reached had performed these sacred duties. 
 
 1 Soames' " Latin Church," p 53. London. 
 
 a " The Ancient British Church," p. 162. London. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 BRITAIN ST. Patrick's country. 
 
 Kingdom of Strathclyde — Dumbarton Patrick's birthplace— "Whit- 
 ley Stokes— Joceline — Giraldus Cambrensis— Koman coins found 
 in Ireland — Irish piratical attacks on Caledonia— Miliuc Patrick's 
 owner — The Irish kingdom in Caledonia — Patrick's testimony. 
 
 From an early period there was a large British popula- 
 tion, from Cumberland, England, into Dumbarton, Scotland, 
 out of which the kingdom of Strathclyde was constituted. 
 Its people maintained their own sovereignty with some modi- 
 fications until the eleventh century. All Britain was divided 
 by the Romans into seven provinces, only five of which were 
 permanently under them.^ They left it for the last time in 
 A. D. 423, having returned after their previous withdrawal 
 to render temporary military help to their sorely pressed 
 British friends. 
 
 Dumbarton, in Scottish Gaelic, is Dun Bhreatuin, the city 
 of the Britons. Bede describes it as " The strong city of the 
 Britons, standing in his day, called Alcluith," which in their 
 (British) language signifies the rock Cluith, for it is close to 
 the river of that name. It formed the western termination 
 of the Roman wall, built by A^ricola, a. d. 80, which ex- 
 tended from the Firth to the Clyde. 
 
 St. Patrick, in the beginning of his celebrated " Confession," 
 says : " I had Calpurnius, a deacon, for my father, who was 
 the son of the late Potitus, a presbyter, who resided in the 
 village of Banaven Tabernise ; for he had a little farm ad- 
 jacent where I was captured. I was then nearly sixteen years 
 of age." The country from which the youthful Patrick was 
 forcibly carried has given rise to much discussion. The only 
 
 1 " Richard of Cirencester," Lib. I., cap. 6. 
 
 63 
 
64 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 two quarters for which arguments worthy of the name are 
 employed are Great Britain and Gaul, as France was called 
 in ancient times. His traditional residence for some time in 
 Gaul, and his love, expressed in the " Confession," for the 
 godly brethren of that country, are the chief reasons alleged 
 for claiming it as his birthplace. Against France, and in 
 favor of Britain, Patrick and others furnish evidence which 
 cannot be resisted. His birth took place in or near Dumbar- 
 ton, among the Strathclyde Britons,^ and though the place 
 of his birth is now in Scotland, ages before Patrick was born, 
 and ages after, it belonged to the Britons, from whom Patrick 
 himself sprang. 
 
 In the piratical raid in which Patrick w^as seized, he tells 
 us in his " Confession " that " He was carried into slavery in 
 Ireland with many thousand men." 
 
 This man-stealing expedition would have met with serious, 
 if not insuperable, difficulties in transporting these thousands 
 of captives from Gaul to Ireland. Irish ships in that period 
 were chiefly " coracles," made of the skins of beasts and 
 wicker (willow) rods ; a kind of boat, frail as it may seem, 
 which is still frequently used in Arran, A chill, and the 
 western coast of Ireland.^ Though the Irish made long 
 and dangerous voyages in these hide-covered basket ships, 
 yet the conveyance of some thousands of unwilling and vin- 
 dictive captives over the wide sea separating France from Ire- 
 land in any mere raid seems extremely doubtful. Dr. Whit- 
 ley Stokes in his introduction to " The Tripartite Life of St. 
 Patrick," p. 137, says : 
 
 The least improbable statements about Putrick are that he was 
 born about 373 [more probably about a. d. 360], at Nemptor, which 
 may have been the older name for Ail Cluacle, " Kock of Clyde," 
 now Dumbarton. Sucat, the saint's baptismal name, is the modern 
 Welsh Hygad, "warlike," some of whose exploits may have helped 
 to form the legend of our saint. 
 
 1 Ussher's " Work," Vol. VI., pp. 375, 376. Erlington ed. 
 
 2 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 115. Dublin, 1888. 
 
BRITAIN ST. PATRICK'S COUNTRY. 65 
 
 Joceiiiie (Vit. Pat., cap. 7), in the twelfth century, speaking 
 of Nenipthur, Patrick's reputed birthplace, states that " It 
 was in the valley of the Clyde, and was usually called by the 
 people Dunbretan, or 3Ions Brltonum, the hill of the 
 Britons," Dumbarton. Giraldus Carabrensis, a learned 
 Welsh ecclesiastic, for some time a resident of Ireland during 
 its partial conquest in the twelfth century by the forces of the 
 English king, gives undoubtedly the universal tradition of 
 the Irish about Patrick, when he writes : " Patrick, a native 
 of Britain, and a man eminent for the sanctity of his life." ^ 
 Neander follows with the same testimony : 
 
 The place of Patrick's birth was Bonnaven, which lay between the 
 Scottish towns Dumbarton and Glasgow [they are about fifteen miles 
 apart], and was then reckoned to the province of Britain. . . At the 
 age of sixteen he with many others of his countrymen was carried 
 oflf by Scottish [the name of the Irish then] pirates to the northern 
 part of Hibernia, and sold to a chieftain. 2 
 
 From the coast of Antrim in Ireland to Dumbarton on 
 the Clyde, the space is crossed by a steamer in a few hours ; 
 from the cliffs of the Antrim coast the houses in the nearest 
 part of Scotland can be seen. The Irish Scots made many 
 piratical attacks upon the territories of the Picts and their 
 British neighbors in what is now called Scotland. In the lat- 
 ter half of the fourth century these expeditions inflicted such 
 widespread and intolerable injuries upon them that the 
 Romans made extraordinary efforts by land and sea to stop 
 assaults from Caledonia and Ireland upon their five sections of 
 Britain. 
 
 Some of the plunder carried off by the Irish Scots, probably 
 from Dumbarton and its neighborhood, has been found within 
 fifty years at the Giant's Causeway and Coleraine, about 
 forty miles from Belfast, and elsewhere in Ireland. At the 
 Causeway in 1831, two hundred Roman coins were discovered, 
 extending from Vespasian, A. d. 70, to the Anton ines, a. d. 
 
 1 " The Topography of Ireland," Dist. III., cap. 16. 
 s Neander'8 " General History," Vol, II., p. 122. 
 
66 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 160. At Coleraine, in 1854, two thousand Roman coins were 
 found and two hundred ounces of silver ; the coins were all 
 of the fourth and fifth centuries, ending with Honorius by 
 whom Britain was surrendered by the Romans.^ Numerous 
 discoveries of Roman coins have been made in the same 
 section, in Ulster, and in other parts of Ireland, though the 
 Romans never came to it except as captives in company with 
 Picts and Britons. 
 
 In plundering raids against the Dumbarton Britons, in the 
 latter half of the fourth century, thousands of captives were 
 probably landed on the coast between the mouth of the River 
 Bann — which runs through Coleraine to the sea, three miles 
 distant — and Larne ; this line of coast would measure about 
 thirty miles, and it has several small natural havens. Some 
 of the coins in the Coleraine collection probably came over in 
 the expedition that brought Patrick into captivity. He 
 became the slave of Miliuc, a petty king of North Dalaradia. 
 He lived in a valley near the hill of Slemish, now called the 
 valley of the Braid, from the river that runs through it. 
 There is a township in the valley still called Ballyligpatrick, 
 or the town of Patrick's Hollow ; in it are some remains of 
 an Irish chieftain's fort.^ It is five miles from Ballymena, 
 and fifteen from Coleraine. It is in the centre of County 
 Antrim ; the other district of Antrim, called Dalriada, em- 
 braced the glens of Antrim and the coast from Coleraine to 
 Larne, not far from Belfast. It is not unlikely that in some 
 little harbor between the Causeway and the mouth of tlie 
 Bann, Patrick's men-stealers disembarked ; indeed, it is pos- 
 sible that his coracle, in company with others, ascended the 
 Bann itself to the rocky barrier across the river called the 
 " Cutts," above Coleraine, and there first touched the country 
 which gave him years of degradation and suffering, and a 
 long life afterward of widespread gospel triumphs. The men 
 
 1 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 16. 
 
 2 Reeves' " Antiquities of Down and Connor," pp. 83, 84. 
 
BRITAIN ST. Patrick's country. 67 
 
 of Dalriada and Dalaradia were heroes in courage and 
 Northmen in cruelty ; the Romans as well as the inhabitants 
 of Great Britain had often lamented their fierceness in battle. 
 Their strip of coast frequently witnessed the triumphant 
 return of their frail vessels dangerously freighted with spoils 
 and captives. These were the men who, early in the sixth 
 century, established the kingdom of Argyle in Scotland, 
 which ev^entually extended its dominion over that entire 
 country. Even Bede, the EngHshman, who died in 735, 
 writes of this kingdom : 
 
 In process of time, Britain, besides the Britons and the Picts, 
 received a third nation, the Scots (Irish), who migrating from Ire- 
 land, under their leader, Keuda, either by fair means or by arms, 
 secured for themselves the settlements among the Picts, which they 
 still possess. From the name of their commander, they are to this 
 day called Dalreudins.^ 
 
 Patrick in his " Confession," says : "Again, after a few years, 
 I was in the Britains with my parents, who received me as a 
 son, and earnestly besought me, that now, at least, after the 
 many hardships I had endured, I would never leave them 
 again." Patrick unquestionably speaks of the Britains as 
 the home of his parents from which they besought him to 
 never depart. Again, writing in the " Confession " of converts 
 in Ireland, he says: " Wherefore, though I could wish to leave 
 them, and had been most willingly prepared to proceed to the 
 Britains as to my country and parents ; and not tbat only, but 
 even to visit the brethren in the Gauls, and to see the face of 
 the saints of my Lord." Patrick could not more emphatically 
 pronounce himself a Briton ; and as if he wished to refute 
 the statement to be made by some in future ages that he was 
 a native of Brittany, in France, he speaks of the Britains as 
 entirely distinct from France, and he uses the plural Gauls, 
 which included every part of France, even that subsequently 
 known as Brittany. But no section of France was the home 
 of any considerable body of Britons so as to give it t]i< ir 
 
 1 " Eccles. His.," Lib. I., cap. 1. 
 
68 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 name, until Patrick was in his grave. Britons, flying from 
 the victorious Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, and from their 
 ruined homes and slain kindred, found a refuge in Gaul in the 
 sixth century ; and after its settlement by them it was called 
 "Cornwall,"^ and the "Lesser Britain." There are strong 
 reasons for accepting the statement at the beginning of the 
 celebrated " Tripartite Life of Patrick " : " As to Patrick, 
 then of the Britons of Ail Cluade, Dumbarton was his 
 origin." 
 
 1 Gibbon's " Decline and Fall," Vol. II., p. 474. McGowan. 
 
CHAPTER HI. 
 
 ST. PATRICK AS A MISSIONARY. 
 
 Patrick's poor progress in Latin— A vision in Britain in his youth calls 
 him to Ireland— His Roman nobility— Redeeming captives from 
 the Franks— Palladius had Patrick as another name— Probus states 
 that Patrick preached in Ireland when young. 
 
 If Patrick was born about A. d. 360, as there are many- 
 reasons for believing, it is improbable in the highest degree that 
 he should defer his efforts to save the Irish until a. d. 
 432, when he was seventy-two years of age, as " The Four 
 Masters" relates.' He speaks in his "Confession" of being 
 taken "captive when a youth, almost a boy in speech before 
 I knew what I ought to seek . . . hence I blush to-day, 
 and greatly fear to expose my unskillfulness in the use of 
 the Latin tongue. I have not learned like others . . . 
 who have never changed their language from infancy, but 
 have always added more to its perfection." Had then 
 Patrick been in France for thirty years as a student for the 
 ministry, using Latin chiefly, or perhaps exclusively, with his 
 great talents he would have been a splendid Latin scholar, 
 far beyond his boyish attainments in that tongue, the defects 
 of which he carried with him to Ireland and the grave. 
 
 That Patrick's call to preach to the pagans in Ireland came 
 soon after his escape from slavery in that country is certain. 
 He tells us in his "Confession" that the voices which he 
 heard in a vision of the night from Ireland, said to him : 
 " We entreat thee, holy youth (puer), that you come and 
 henceforth walk among us." On another night, in reference 
 evidently to his call to Hibernia, in a vision, some one said to 
 him : " He who gave his life for thee, is he who speaks in thee." 
 
 1 " Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland " at a. d. 432. O'Donovan. 
 
70 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 After these visions we are not surprised to read in the same 
 " Confession " : 
 
 Whence came it to me ... to know God, or to love him, that 
 I should leave country and pa7'e7its, and many gifts which were 
 offered to me with weeping and tears? And moreover I offended, 
 against my wish, certain of my seniors. But God overruling, I by 
 no means consented or complied with them. It was not my grace, 
 but God who conquered in me, and resisted them all, so that I came 
 to the Irish peoples to preach the gospel. 
 
 The vision addresses him as a youth with parents. The 
 struggles which he had with them and the seniors, with 
 gifts, weeping, and tears to detain him at home, point unmis- 
 takably to Patrick as a young man, not long since delivered 
 from slavery, and about to rush into perils again ; but God 
 resisted them all, and in early life " he came to the Irish 
 peoples " to announce the tidings of Calvary. The " Tripar- 
 tite Life " repeats Patrick's own account, somewhat enlarged. 
 It also adds : " The holy man, w^hen he w^as encouraged and 
 prompted by the divine Spirit about the conversion of the 
 Hibernians, had now reached his thirtieth year. " ^ 
 
 In the same connection, the " Tripartite Life," after describ- 
 ing Patrick's divine call to evangelize Ireland at thirty, 
 relates the fable that he spent thirty years more in theological 
 preparations for his great work before hearkening to the 
 voice of Jehovah. Such contempt for the divine authority 
 by Patrick during so many long years, and such indiffer- 
 ence to the eternal death of a whole generation of idolatrous 
 Irishmen, prove this story to be without foundation. 
 
 Patrick probably spent a short time in useful preparation 
 in Gaul before entering upon his Irish mission, in which the 
 Saviour w^as about to give him the whole country as his 
 reward. 
 
 Writing to Coroticus, Patrick says : " I was a freeman, ac- 
 cording to the flesh, having a decurion for my father ; but I 
 sold my nobility for the advantage of others (Irish converts), 
 
 IVol. I., pp. 24-26. 
 
ST. PATRICK AS A MISSIONARY. 71 
 
 and I am neither ashamed nor grieved for the act." Pat- 
 rick's father was a member of the town council of Dumbar- 
 ton, one of the ten Komano-British cities under the " Latian 
 law," which invested them with this privilege.^ Patrick, as 
 a native of Dumbarton, was a Roman citizen of patrician 
 rank. This he sacrificed to preach to the Hibernians. Pat- 
 rick's Roman "nobility" was not an exjnring distinction 
 when he surrendered it for the honor of being the apostle of 
 Ireland ; the power of imperial Rome showed itself as strong 
 as ever in Britain then. So that Patrick must have been in 
 Ireland many years before A. d. 410, when the Romans 
 abandoned Britain, and the northern barbarians destroyed all 
 Roman institutions and honors, and so terrified the Britons 
 that their old masters, for their temporary defense, loaned 
 them a legion which finally left them in A. d. 423. Patrick's 
 selection as a preacher to the Hibernians was from God, in 
 the end of the fourth century, and not from Pope Celestine, 
 in A. D. 432. 
 
 Patrick, in his epistle to Coroticus, states that " it was the 
 custom of the Roman and Gallic Christians to send godly 
 and able men to the Franks and other nations, with many 
 thousand solidi, for the purpose of redeeming baptized con- 
 verts." Patrick sent clergymen, as he informs Coroticus, to 
 secure some of his baptized captives, or the whole of them, as 
 the Gallic and Roman Christians ransomed their brethren 
 when seized by the Franks and other pagans; but these 
 ministers were received with insolent mockery by the marau- 
 ders. The allusion of Patrick to the Franks shows that he 
 must have written it, as Whitley Stokes says, " While tlie 
 Franks were pagans, before A. d. 496, and before they crossed 
 the Rhine, in A. d. 428, and settled in Gaul " ; ' and as a con- 
 sequence, gave up all future attacks upon a country which 
 was to bear their name apparently forever. Patrick wrote 
 
 1" Richard of Cirencester." cap. VIL, in "Six Old English Chronicles." p. 457. 
 London. 
 2" Government Tripartite Life." Intro., p. CI. 
 
72 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 his letter to Coroticus in Ireland, years before Pope Celestine 
 is supposed to have sent him there. 
 
 Patrick uses the plural Britains for Britain, which was cus- 
 tomary while the Romans occupied that country. In 1676, 
 the territory of the present State of New Jersey was divided 
 into East and West Jersey. During the separation, both sec- 
 tions were called " The Jerseys." East and West Jersey were 
 soon re-united and called New Jersey. As already stated, the 
 Romans had five divisions in the territory in Britain which 
 they actually occupied^ and these, in writings and in the usage 
 of intelligent persons, were uniformly called Britains, just as 
 our ancestors spoke of "the Jerseys." This custom prevailed 
 until the first evacuation of Britain by the Romans, in a. d. 
 410. At that time the triumphant Picts and Scots celebrated 
 the embarkation of the imperial legions by flooding the 
 Britains with a deluge of anarchy and murder which de- 
 stroyed many lives, and all the sectional landmarks and 
 peculiar institutions of old Rome. The use of Britains by 
 Patrick in his little works, shows that they were written 
 before the evacuation of Britain by the troops of the Caesars, 
 or very soon after. 
 
 We learn from the " Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine," 
 who was born in a. d. 402, and died in a. d. 463, that Palla- 
 dius was ordained by Pope Celestine, and sent to the Scots (the 
 Irish) believing in Christ (in Christum credentes) as their 
 first bishop. "The Four Masters " ^ tells us that Palladius 
 was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine I., and that he baptized 
 a few persons in Ireland and erected three wooden churches, 
 one of which was " Teach na Romhan " — house of the Romans. 
 He left because he did not receive respect in Ireland. Pal- 
 ladius came to a community already believing in Christ. 
 There is no hint given that his charge consisted of pagans, 
 and if there had been, the accusation W'Ould probably have 
 been as false as that which Adrian IV. made against the 
 
 " The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," O'Donovan, at a. d. 430. 
 
ST. PATRICK AS A MISSIONARY. 73 
 
 Irish Christians in the twelfth century in his famous bull, 
 giving Ireland to Henry II., king of England, in which, 
 speaking of Henry's object, he says : " You strive to extend 
 the boundaries of the church, to proclaim the truths of Chris- 
 tianity to an uneducated and rude people." ^ 
 
 Adrian assumes that Ireland was outside the Christian 
 church ; there was no pretense for such a charge in his day, 
 and it is not made against the Irish at the coming of Palla- 
 dius. It is not hinted that the believers in Christ were only 
 few and scattered ; enough for a nucleus, but no more. The 
 representation of Prosper gives countenance to the conviction 
 that Irish Christians were numerous when it was necessary 
 for the distant bishop of Rome to send an ecclesiastical over- 
 seer for their especial advantage. The " Anglo-Saxon Chron- 
 icle " writes of Palladius, at A. d. 430 : " This year, Palladius 
 the bishop, was sent to the Scots (Irish) by Pope Celestine, 
 that he might confirm their faith." ^ 
 
 In this record there is an intimation that the Scots were 
 already converted, and needed a skillful leader to establish 
 them in the true faith. In Fordun's " Scoto-Chronicon," it is 
 recorded : " Durst, who is otherwise called Nectane, the son- of 
 Irb, reigned forty-five years ; in his reign, St. Palladius, the 
 bishop, was sent by the blessed Pope Celestine to teach the 
 Scots (Irish), long before, however, believing in Christ." ^ 
 Fordun's view does not come in collision with the statements 
 of Prosper, the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," or the "Four 
 Masters," and in its more enlarged declaration it is nearer 
 the truth. Probably, except in remote regions, the Irish 
 people were converted when Palladius landed. St. Patrick 
 and his preachers were the instruments of this great work, 
 but they were ignored by Palladius and Celestine. Palladius 
 was the first Romish primate of the Irish Christians and the 
 last until Malachi appeared in the twelfth century. Patrick, 
 
 '>■ Giraldus Cambrensis' " Conquest of Ireland," Lib. IT., cap. 6. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist, and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," p. ;^08. London, 1870. 
 
 3 Quoted in Nicholson's " St. Patrick," p. 66. Dublin, 1868. 
 
 G 
 
74 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 however, was their teacher before the brief ministry of Pal- 
 ladius, and most probably during and after it. One of the 
 remarkable acts of Palladius was to call one of the three 
 little churches which he built, " The House of the Romans." 
 It is not unlikely that in this edifice some service peculiarly 
 Roman was celebrated. While Patrick had no liturgy, this 
 unusual observance may have prompted the lack of respect 
 which, according to the " Four Masters," led to the with- 
 drawal of Palladius from Ireland. Tirechan, in the latter 
 half of the seventh century, states that Palladius, who was 
 sent by Pope Celestine to Ireland, " was called Patrick by 
 another name." ^ 
 
 The unfortunate addition of Patrick to the name of Pal- 
 ladius has, as many judge, originated the absurdity about 
 Patrick's sixty years of age when he began his labors in 
 Ireland, though he was less than thirty, and the fable about 
 his commission from Pope Celestine. The sixty years of Pal- 
 ladius Patrick, his Gaulish birth, his papal commission, and 
 A. D. 431 when he landed in Ireland, instead of the end of 
 the fourth century when Patrick commenced his Irish mis- 
 sion, reckoned to Patrick the apostle of Ireland, have created 
 the mass of confusion in which, to many, the history of St. 
 Patrick is involved. 
 
 Dr. Lanigan, a learned Catholic historian, writes : " It is 
 universally admitted that there were Christian congregations 
 in Ireland before the mission of Palladius, which took place 
 in A. D. 431."^ These communities must have had ministers 
 who gathered and presided over them. 
 
 Probus,' a credible author of the tenth century, in his 
 "Life of Patrick" gives an account of his course which 
 agrees mainly with his own. " While in Gaul, the angel of 
 the Lord," he states, " appeared to St. Patrick, saying, ' Go to 
 St. Senior, the bishop who is in Mount Hermon ; ' . . . and 
 
 1 Tirechan's Collections in " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 332. 
 
 ' Lanigan's " Eccles. Hist, of Ireland," Vol. I., p. 9. 
 
 ' In " Government Tripartite Life," Introduction, p. 139. 
 
ST. PATRICK AS A MISSIONARY. 75 
 
 when he arrived there he remained for some days with him, 
 and the bishop ordained him to the priesthood; and he 
 studied with him for a considerable period." While he 
 tarried there, Probus tells us that he heard in a vision the 
 voices of youths in Ireland, saying: " Come, holy Patrick, and 
 save us from the wrath to come." According to Probus, 
 Patrick wanted the approval of the Most High upon his 
 Irish mission, and he declined the journey until he had seen 
 the Lord ; and in his interview with him he commanded him 
 "to go into Ireland and proclaim in it the doctrine of ever- 
 lasting salvation ... and Patrick arose, and came into 
 Hibernia; and forthwith the prophets of Ireland foretold 
 that Patrick would come there. But when the islanders 
 treated him with scorn as he preached day and night, 
 although they could not resist the appointment of God," he 
 was discouraged, and " not long after, Patrick, the man of 
 God, left Ireland " He was unsuccessful in his labors, and 
 for a time abandoned his mission. A man of Patrick's hero- 
 ism and perseverence would not leave the perishing Hiber- 
 nians even temporarily without many a brave struggle. Pass- 
 ing over some interpolations in Probus, he informs us in his 
 twenty-first chapter that Patrick looked for encouragement 
 and help in his distress to Gaul and not to Rome. He 
 says: 
 
 Patrick sailed over the British Sea, and turning into the Gauls, 
 traveling as he projoosed in his heart, he came to the most pious 
 and the most distinguished man in faith and doctrine, Germanus, the 
 bishop of Auxerre, the eminent primate of nearly the whole of Gaul. 
 With him he remained not a little time in all subjection, with 
 patience, obedience, charity, chastity, and all purity of spirit and 
 life.^ Whilst he delayed there many days, the angel of the Lord came 
 to him in frequent visions, telling him that the time to go to Hibernia 
 had now come, that he might convert to Christ by the preaching of 
 the gospel the fierce and barbarous peoples for whose instruction he 
 had been appointed. 
 
 A fit time having come, with godly counsel he set out for the 
 service to which he was thought worthy of a call from God. And 
 Germanus sent with him Kegirus, a presbyter, that he might have 
 
76 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 him as a suitable companion and witness in all his travels and 
 labors.* 
 
 Probus also informs us, that Patrick received the grade of a 
 bishop from Amator, a Gallic prelate, and sailed from Gaul 
 into Britain for his Irish field It is said that after grievous 
 and long continued discouragements he returned to Gaul, and 
 spent four years in study with Germanus of Auxerre ; and 
 that he was directed by him, after receiving episcopal conse- 
 cration from a bishop of Gaul, and without visiting Rome, 
 to resume his missionary work in Ireland. He went to Ire- 
 land a third time, a second as a missionary with Gaulish 
 assistants and funds to aid his work.^ This information 
 about Patrick is more like the truth than his " Lives " gener- 
 ally give. 
 
 To show that Patrick began his missionary labors in 
 Ireland while yet a young man, he speaks emphatically of 
 leaving country and j^arents that he might preach the gospel 
 to the Hibernians. Three times in the " Confession " and 
 "Letter to Coroticus" he mentions the abandonment of his 
 parents as well as of his country for missionary duties. These 
 references to the separation from his parents in going to Ire- 
 land would be extremely absurd if he were not a young man. 
 
 Patrick uses decided words about his youthful years on be- 
 ginning his ministry in Ireland. In his '' Confession" he writes 
 for his Irish friends, " You know and God knows how I have 
 lived among you from my youth, faithful to truth, and sincere 
 in heart." ^ That Patrick was a missionary in Ireland in the 
 end of the fourth century, when he was thirty years of age or 
 less, is absolutely certain. And though he labored without 
 much success for some years, finally the songs of his multi- 
 tudes of converts filled all Ireland with hallelujahs. 
 
 1 "Government Tripartite Life," Introduction, p, 139. 
 
 2 Ibid., Introduction, p. 141. 
 
 3 Vos scitis pt Deus qualiter apud vos conversatus sum a juventute mea, et fide 
 veritatis et sinceritatis cordis. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 Patrick's supposed mission from rome. 
 
 Lives of St. Patrick are interpolated with fables— Tirech an and Pat- 
 rick's Kojiian commission — The choirs of heaven, Rome, and Irish 
 Fochlut singresponsively at Patrick's ordination in Rome— Patrick 
 stealing relics in Rome— Patrick's "Confession" unfavorable to 
 Rome — His love for Gallic brethren— No pope writes a joyful letter 
 over his baptism of twelve thousand in a well in Connaught. 
 
 TiRECHAN, in the seventh century, says that " Palladius, 
 the bishop, was sent to Ireland first ; he was called Patrick 
 by another name ; then Patrick the second was sent by the 
 angel of God called Victor, and by Pope Celestine, through 
 whom all Hibernia believed." ^ Tirechan's second Patrick 
 was the apostle of Ireland. Tirechan is the first writer who 
 gives Patrick a Roman commission ; he composed his work 
 about two hundred years after the death of Patrick. He 
 was familiar with Patrick's "Confession," and he makes a 
 mistake in a quotation from it. 
 
 When Patrick, toward the end of the " Confession," speaks 
 of the expense he incurred in securing protection from the 
 judges in the regions which he more frequently visited, he 
 states that " He thought he distributed among them not less 
 than the price of fifteen men " [slaves]. Tirechan makes it 
 twelve, with St. Patrick's memorable little work before him. -' 
 Tirechan relates that St. Patrick was captured " in his tenth 
 year," ^ and not when " he was nearly sixteen years of age," 
 33 Patrick himself says. Tirechan tells some incredible 
 stories about Patrick ; he relates that when 
 
 He came into White field, he found in it the sign of the cross of 
 Christ and two new graves, and the saint called from his carriage: 
 
 1 Tirechan's Collections, " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 332, 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 310. 3 Ibid., p. 331. 
 
 77 
 
78 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 "Who is buried here?" And a voice answered from the grave: 
 "Behold, I am a heathen man." The saint replied : "Why is the 
 sacred cross planted near you ? " And again he responded : " Because 
 there was a man buried near my side, whose mother requested that a 
 cross should be placed at the grave of her son, but the senseless fellow 
 planted it near me." Then Patrick stepped down from his carriage 
 and seized the cross, and pulled it up from the sepulchre of the pagan 
 and placed it above the face of the baptized man, and mounting his 
 carriage, he offered silent prayer to God. 
 
 Tirechan tells about a man's monstrous grave, one hundred 
 and twenty feet long, which Patrick saw, and which led him 
 to w^ork a great miracle ; he writes : 
 
 That he struck with his staff the stone at his head, and made the 
 sign of the cross upon the grave and said: "Open the grave, O 
 Lord." And the saint opened the ground, and the man, large and 
 sound, arose and said : " May you be blessed, O pious man, because 
 you have called me even for one hour from so much anguish." 
 Uttering these words he wept most bitterly and said: "I shall go 
 with you." They replied : " We are not fit to have you go with us, 
 for the men cannot look at your face through fear of you; but put 
 your trust in the God of heaven and receive the baptism of the Lord, 
 and you shall not return to the place in which you were; . . . and 
 he confessed God, and was baptized and rasted, and was placed again 
 in his grave. 1 
 
 These and other so-called miracles in Tirechan, in connec- 
 tion with his contradictions of St. Patrick's " Confession " 
 from which he quotes, show that his reckless credulity, and 
 his intentional or other historical mistakes, lessen the force of 
 his testimony in every case. They do not deprive his work 
 of all value, but his statements need corroboration from cir- 
 cumstances or witnesses. This unreliable biographer is the 
 first author to assert St. Patrick's papal mission to Ireland. 
 
 In the " Tripartite Life " it is recorded that— 
 
 Patrick went to Rome to have [ecclesiastical] orders given him; 
 and Celestine, abbot [pope] of Rome, he it is that read orders over 
 him, Germanus and Amatho, king of the Romans, being present 
 with them . . . and when the orders were being read, the three 
 choirs mutually responded, namely, the choir of the household of 
 
 1 Tirechau'8 Collections, " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 324. 
 
Patrick's supposed mission from rome. 79 
 
 heaven, and the choir of the Eomans, and the choir of the children 
 from the wood of Fochlut, in Ireland. This is what all sang: " All 
 we Irish beseech thee, Holy Patrick, to come and walk among us, 
 and to free us.^ ' 
 
 There must have been a very unusual musical combination 
 on this occasion, when the melting melody of paradise in vast 
 volumes fell upon Rome, when the sacred music of the 
 eternal city was poured forth, and when the wild strains of 
 " Fochlut " passed over oceans and mountains and mingled 
 with the chants of Rome and heaven at Patrick's ordination 
 by Celestine. The choirs of heaven and Rome were as Irish 
 as the choir of " Fochlut," for one song sounded from the lips 
 of the celestial and terrestrial musicians, "All we Irish 
 beseech thee, Holy Patrick, to come and walk among us, and 
 to free us." The imagination of this biographer of Patrick 
 about the union of choirs is very vivid, but it is equalled in 
 his representation of Patrick's ordination by Celestine, 
 " abbot " of Rome. The " Tripartite Life," from which the 
 extract is taken, " was compiled in the eleventh century 
 from documents, many, or all of which, were composed before 
 A. D. 1000." 
 
 Patrick's Roman mission is otherwise recorded in the 
 "Lebar Brecc. A Homily on St. Patrick," in the Irish 
 language of the thirteenth century : 
 
 The angel brought Patrick to Capua, on Mount Armon, and the 
 Lord spake to him in that place, as he spoke to Moses on Mount 
 Sinai, and told him to go and preach to the Gael [Irish], and he gave 
 him therein Jesus' staff. Wherefore it was according to the will of 
 the synod of Rome and of the angel and of the Lord that Patrick came 
 to Ireland. 
 
 Journeying to Hibernia, he entered a vessel " on the 
 
 strand of the sea of Britain." When Patrick went on board, 
 
 a leper sought permission to go with him, but there was no 
 
 vacant place for the leper : 
 
 So Patrick put out before him to swim in the sea the portable stone 
 
 1 " Government Tripartite Life," pp. 32, 33. 
 
80 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 altar whereon he used to make offering every day. But for all that 
 God wrought a great miracle here, to wit, the stone went not to the 
 bottom, nor did it stay behind them ; but it swam round about the 
 boat with tlie leper on it until it arrived in Ireland.^ 
 
 " The staff of Jesus," says Giraldus Cambrensis, " deservedly 
 holds the first place among all the croziers and other relics in 
 wood of the saints." ^ It occupies a conspicuous position in 
 the ecclesiastical history of Ireland. This " famous staff," and 
 a celebrated copy of tlie Gospels, were, according to the great 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, in his "Life of St. Malachi" of 
 Armagh, the necessary titles to the primatial see of Armagh.^ 
 The fabulous story of the gift of this staff by the Lord to Pat- 
 rick, and of his trip to Ireland, with his portable stone altar 
 floating around his boat and supporting the leper, inspire in- 
 credulity about his voyage to Rome and commission therefrom. 
 
 We learn in the ''Tripartite Life," that Patrick leil 
 Sechnall in charge of the Irish churches and sailed to Bor- 
 deaux, and journeyed to Eome ; and that 
 
 Sleep came over the inhabitants of Eome, so that Patrick brought 
 away as much as he wanted of the relics. Afterward these relics were 
 taken to Armagh, by the counsel of God and the counsel of the men 
 of Ireland. There were brought there three hundred and three score 
 and five relics, together with the relics of Peter and Paul and Lau- 
 rence and Stephen, and many others. And a sheet was there with 
 Christ's blood [thereon], and with the hair of the virgin.* 
 
 This entire relic- stealing story would not be a greater 
 slander if alleged against John Knox or John Calvin. The 
 evidence in favor of a Roman commission for Patrick is 
 forged, made incredible by attendant fables, and first dis- 
 covered long alter Patrick's death. 
 
 There is strong evidence that Patrick had no Roman com- 
 mission in Ireland. His " Confession " is an account of the 
 triumphant efforts of grace in the heart and life of a believer 
 
 1 In "Government Tripartite Life," Vol II., pp. 447, 448. 
 
 « " Topograi>hy of Ireland," Dist. III., cap. 34, 
 
 3 " Opera Omnia Vita St. Malachise," Tom. I., cap. 12, p. 619. Parisiis, 1690. 
 
 * "Government Tripartite Life of Patrick," Vol. I., p. 239. 
 
Patrick's supposed mission from rome. 81 
 
 of unusual humility, and of a heroic missionary, blessed with 
 successes never surpassed ; it is one of the most important 
 little works ever written. It has a charm for the devout 
 reader of all ages, countries, and Christian communities. 
 Running through it there is a spirit of self-defense which 
 cannot fail to arrest attention. In the "Confession" he 
 writes: "And if, perhaps, it appears to some that I put 
 myself forward in this matter with my ignorance and slower 
 tongue, it is, however, written : ' Stammering tongues shall 
 learn quickly to speak peace.' How much more ought we to 
 aim at this, we, who are the ' epistle of Christ.' " 
 
 Again ; " Be ye astonished, both great and small, who fear 
 God ; . . . who aroused me, a fool, from the midst of those 
 who appear to be wise and skilled in the laws, and powerful 
 in speech and every matter ? " 
 
 Because many were hindering this mission, and already were talk- 
 ing among themselves, and saying behind my back: "Why does 
 this fellow put himself into danger among enemies who know not 
 God? " Not as tliough they spoke for the sake of malice, but because 
 it was not a wise thing in their opinion, as I myself also testify, on 
 account of my defect in learning. 
 
 Very much in tho tone and language of the " Confession " 
 is apologetic and defensive. Why did not Patrick in his final 
 vindication of the Hibernian mission publish a commission 
 from Pope Celestine, if he had one? It would have had 
 much weight with all who reverenced dignity and worldly im- 
 portance, and cared nothing for Protestant Bible principles. 
 It is impossible, in view of Patrick's acknowledged sagacity 
 to account for his silence in the " Confession " about Celestine's 
 commission, except upon the ground that he never had it. 
 
 Dr. Todd says i 
 
 The "Confession" of St. Patrick contains not a word of a mis- 
 sion from Pof)e Celestine. One object of the writer was to defend 
 himself from the charge of presumption in having undertaken such a 
 work as the conversion of the Irish, rude and unlearned as he was. 
 Had he received a regular commission from the see of Rome, that fact 
 alone would be an unanswerable reply. But he makes no mention 
 
82 ANCIENT BKITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 of Pope Celestine, and rests his defense altogether on the divine call 
 which he believed himself to have received for the work.^ 
 
 Patrick held his friends in loving regard. That Gaulish 
 Christians had much to do in preparing him for his work is 
 the testimony of all tradition ; and that they gave him fellow- 
 laborers and funds we have many reasons for believing. He 
 felt bound to them by peculiar ties ; and in his " Confession," 
 prepared in full prospect of an early entrance into heaven, 
 speaking of his converts, he says : 
 
 Wherefore, though I could wish to leave them, and had been most 
 willingly prepared to proceed to the Britains, as to my country and 
 parents; and not that only, but even as far as to the Gauls, 
 to visit the brethren, and to see the face of the saints of my 
 Lord— God knows that I greatly desired it ; but I am bound in the 
 Spirit, who witnesseth to me, that if I should do this he would hold 
 me guilty ; and I fear to lose the labor I have commenced ; and not 
 I, but Christ the Lord, who commanded me to come and be with 
 them for the rest of my life. 
 
 Patrick had a strong desire to visit his kindred, and perhaps 
 a more earnest wish to see the face of his Lord's saints in 
 Gaul ; and only the Holy Spirit and the Redeemer hindered 
 the visit. 
 
 If the apostle of Ireland had been an agent of Rome, it is 
 certain, that as Celestine did not live during Patrick's spirit- 
 ual harvests, that Sixtus, his successor, or Leo the Great, who 
 followed him, would call the attention of the leading bishops 
 of Christendom to the astonishing miracles of converting grace 
 wrought in Ireland by St. Patrick and his disciples. When 
 the tidings reached Gregory the Great in Rome that his mis- 
 sionary in England, Augustine, had recently baptized a mul- 
 titude of converts from heathenism in the river Swale, in that 
 country, he wrote the following in a letter, still preserved in 
 his works, to Eulogius, patriarch of Alexandria : 
 
 More than ten thousand English, they tell us, were baptized by 
 the same brother [Augustine], our fellow-bishop, which I communi- 
 cate to you, that you may know something to announce to the people 
 
 » Todd's " St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland," pp. 310, 351, 352. Dublin, 1864. 
 
Patrick's supposed mission from rome. 83 
 
 of Alexandria, and that you may do something in prayer for the 
 dwellers at the ends of the earth. ^ 
 
 Gregory could not keep such news to himself, and there is 
 reason to believe that he sent many similar epistles to leading 
 bishops throughout the world. 
 
 Patrick's biographers, with other great baptisms, write of 
 one : " And in that day twelve thousand were baptized in 
 the well of Oen-Adarc," and among them " the seven sons of 
 Amalgaid, with the king himself." ^ Tidings of this baptism, 
 through British and Gaulish Christians, must speedily have 
 traveled all over the West ; and Kome, the centre of intelli- 
 gence for every quarter of Europe, heard ail about it ; but 
 the successors of the dead Pope Celestine paid no attention to 
 the missionary's triumphs whom he was supposed to have sent 
 to Ireland. There is not a written word from one of them re- 
 joicing over Patrick's additions to their church, showing 
 clearly that he was no Roman missionary. Had he been, the 
 old Te Deum would have been chanted in every church in 
 Rome, and in the great temples of Constantinople, Alexan- 
 dria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, with the sublimest music then 
 on earth to celebrate Patrick's religious triumphs. So com- 
 pletely buried was Patrick and his work by popes and other 
 Roman Catholics, that in their epistles and larger publica- 
 tions, his name does not once occur in one of them until A. d. 
 634, when Cummian,^ an obscure but learned Irish Romanist, 
 speaks of the cycle of " our holy father Patrick," in a long 
 letter to the abbot of lona. This epistle was not written until 
 Patrick had been about one hundred and seventy years in his 
 grave. 
 
 1 " Gregor, Mag.," Tom. Ill,, Lib. 8, Ep. 30, p. 952. Migne, ParisUfc 
 
 2 " Government Tripartite Life of Patrick," p. 135. 
 Ussher's Works, Vol. IV., p. 432. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 Patrick's roman commission unauthenticated. 
 
 Prosper does not notice Patrick— His account of Pelagianism in 
 Britain — Bede does not mention him — Muirchu in the seventh cen- 
 tury denies that Patrick went to Kome — Fiacc's hymn knows noth- 
 ing of the Roman commission— The hymn of Secundinus leaves no 
 place in Patrick's creed for the papacy. 
 
 Prosper, of Aquitaine, who died in A. d. 463, when sixty- 
 two years of ^ge, was familiar with the acts of the popes in 
 his day and sustained friendly relations with them. 
 
 He knew something of the religious condition of Ireland, 
 and he writes that " Palladius was ordained by Pope Celes- 
 tine and sent to the Scots, believing in Christ as their first 
 bishop." As St. Patrick was warmly attached to some Gallic 
 brethren, and among them, it is almost certain, to the elo- 
 quent Germanus, known all over France, and as the life of 
 Prosper ran along probably the whole successful part of St. 
 Patrick's missionary career in Ireland, Prosper must have 
 known as much of his course in Ireland as Germanus, or any 
 of his other Gaulish brethren. And if Celestine sent Pat- 
 rick to Ireland, it seems to us impossible that Prosper could 
 be ignorant of it. As he is silent about the pope's favor to 
 Patrick, .it certainly may be concluded that he had no mission 
 from Celestine. He says nothing of the greatest success ever 
 given to a missionary of Christ, apparently because he was 
 not a Romanist. Bower, in his " History of the Popes," 
 speaking of the prevalence of the Pelagian heresy in Britain, 
 says : 
 
 The Catholics, having no prospect of relief from their own pastors, 
 ♦ had recourse to those of Gaul, who . . . summoned a great coun- 
 cil and chose with one voice St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and 
 St. Lupus, bishop of Troyes, to pass over into Britain, and there 
 maintain the Catholic cause. 
 84 
 
ROMAN COMMISSION UNAUTHENTIC ATED. 85 
 
 Thus Constantine writes in his ancient " Life of Germanus." 
 But Prosper, who lived in the fifth century, states that the 
 ** two prelates were sent into Britain by Pope Celestine." 
 Bower adds : . . . " Prosper was a notorious flatterer of 
 the popes, and ascribed the whole to Celestine." ^ 
 
 Without a Roman commission, Prosper could not record 
 Patrick's labors in Ireland, as he registered the mission of 
 Palladius, and the authority of the pope who sent him. As 
 Patrick's churches in Ireland, like their brethren in Britain, 
 repudiated the supremacy of the popes, all knowledge of the 
 conversion of Ireland through his ministry must be sup- 
 pressed, as completely as the silence of this " notorious flat- 
 terer of the popes " can secure it. 
 
 Bede never speaks of St. Patrick in his celebrated " Eccle- 
 siastical History." His accuracy in general cannot be ques- 
 tioned ; his information about Patrick's followers in Scotland 
 and England is verv extensive and reliable. His account of 
 their differences from the Romish Church in Britain, of 
 which he was a member, is universally regarded as truthful. 
 No Protestant could speak more highly of some of these 
 ancient enemies of the pope's authority than Bede. He gives 
 a brief account of the extensive usefulness of Ninian,^ a 
 Briton, sent from Rome as a missionary to the southern Picts, 
 in A. D. 400. He states that " Palladius was sent by Pope 
 Celestine to the Scots believing in Christ," ^ that is, to the 
 Irish, to whom he went, and commenced an unsuccessful mis- 
 sion ; but not a word about St. Patrick, whose very fruitful 
 labors placed him outside the range of comparison with these 
 worthies. From details which he has left us about his meth- 
 ods for securing reliable materials for his work, we learn that 
 he was most painstaking. He secured copies of bulls from 
 Xothelm, afterward archbishop of Canterbury, while on a 
 visit to Rome, " from the archives of the holy Roman Church, 
 
 1 Vol. I., p. 174. Philadelphia, 1844. 
 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 4. » Ibid., Lib. I., p. 13. 
 
86 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 by permission of Gregory III., some of which appear in his 
 history." ^ The labors of Patrick's religious descendants 
 were unusually blessed in Northumbria, in England, where 
 Bede spent his life. For a time they had the supreme spirit- 
 ual control of that great kingdom. No more saintly hero 
 appears in the " Ecclesiastical History " of Bede than King 
 Oswald ; no more heavenly minded ecclesiastic than Bishop 
 Aidan ; and no more talented, holy, and useful woman than 
 St. Hilda, from whose learned school at Whitby, Csedmon 
 graduated, the first great Anglo-Saxon poet, together with 
 large numbers of other persons distinguished by love for the 
 Scriptures and by much worth. These saints, canonized by 
 all Northumbria, as Bede in substance informs US', belonged 
 to the church of the Scots (the Irish), who held no commu- 
 nion with the Roman Catholic Church, founded in England by 
 Augustine and his assistants, and sent there by Gregory the 
 Great. The friction caused by these two differing commu- 
 nities attracted general attention over the entire north of 
 England. The Scottish Church in that country was crushed 
 by the ignorance and tyranny of King Oswy,'^ at the council 
 of Whitby, in A. d. 664, just twelve years before the birth of 
 Bede. He had conversed with many hundreds who knew 
 and revered the old Scottish preachers and their Bibles, and 
 Bede himself was indebted to Trumhere,' one of their disci- 
 ples, for his own warm love for the Scriptures. 
 
 To suppose that such a man, with these environments 
 would not know all about St. Patrick that could be learned, 
 is surely to make a great mistake. Besides, he had an 
 inquiring mind, and had " applied himself to every branch 
 of literature and science then known." He was a writer of 
 numerous volumes on a variety of topics ; he had a reputation 
 so extended that it reached Rome ; and Pope Sergius * invited 
 him to visit him in that city to pour the light of his learning 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., preface, pp. 1, 2. 
 
 » Ibid., Lib. III. , cap. 25. 3 Ibid., Lib. IV., cap. 3. 
 
 * William of Malmesbury's " Chronicle," Lib. I., cap. 3. 
 
ROMAN COMMISSION UN AUTHENTICATED. 87 
 
 upon some subjects which were obscure to the pontiff; the 
 death of Sergius, or some other circumstance, prevented his 
 accepting the invitation. Impelled by his own bent of mind, 
 and by the memories and influences of the members of St. 
 Patrick's Church in Northumbria, with an open door to 
 search the pope's register, through a Nothelm, a Gregory III., 
 or a Sergius, it is morally certain that Bede had positive in- 
 formation before he wrote his work that Patrick had no com- 
 mission from Pope Celestine. If this had not been true 
 Patrick would have appeared in Bede's " Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory" as the grandest religious hero in Great Britain and 
 Ireland since the Saviour's birth. 
 
 As Bede is careful to insert notices of Ninian and Palla- 
 dius, and as St. Patrick entered upon his Irish labors only ten 
 or fifteen years before Ninian ; and was preaching in Ireland 
 during and after the visit of Palladius, it seems very clear 
 that Ninian and Palladius are favorably noticed because they 
 were papal emissaries ; but Patrick, immeasurably superior 
 to either of them in worth and works, is completely ignored, 
 for no imaginable reason except the absence of the pope's 
 commission. Bede's notice of other Protestant Scots and 
 Anglo-Scots was compulsory, because their homes, their age, 
 and their missionary efforts mixed them up widely with the 
 conversion and religious affairs of the Anglo-Saxons ; and 
 their unusual piety and benevolence constrained the truth- 
 loving historian to speak well of them. 
 
 But St. Patrick lived three centuries and a half before, and 
 nothing absolutely forced Bede to give his blessed record ; 
 and unlike Ninian and Palladius, he had the commission of 
 no pope. He was a Protestant, for which the Venerable Bede 
 slights him. 
 
 Muirchu Maccu-Mactheni, who died about a. d. 670, in 
 his " Notes " on St. Patricks life, whites "Concerning his age 
 when he wished to visit the apostolic see to learn wisdom ; 
 concerning his finding holy Germanus in the Gauls, and there- 
 fore he loent 710 farther; concerning his ordination by 
 
88 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Amator, the bishop, Palladius being dead." Muirchu wrote 
 more than two hundred years after Patrick's death. His 
 declaration is positive that he did not go to Rome, and that he 
 went no farther than the Gauls, where he was ordained ; and 
 that his object in proposing to see the capital of the Caesars 
 was not reverence for the pope, or to secure his commission to 
 preach in Hibernia, but to learn wisdom, to join the multi- 
 tudes of students who came there from every nation of the 
 West to secure a superior education. 
 
 Fiacc's hymn is a. biographical sketch of Patrick, written 
 in Irish in the eighth century. It gives an account of Pat- 
 rick's birthplace and ancestry ; of Miliuc, his owner when a 
 slave, and of his six years of bondage in Ireland; of his 
 studies with Germanus of Auxerre ; of his visions about 
 Ireland, and the cry of the children of Fochlut Wood that 
 the saint would come and walk with them and convert 
 Ireland's tribes from evil to life.^ The poem includes in its 
 sixty-eight lines more facts about Patrick than it is possible 
 to conceive until it is examined. 
 
 Ussher states that " Secundinus was regarded as the author 
 of the Alphabetical Hymn composed in praise of Patrick." 
 And he quotes an old Irish writer, who relates that " Sechnall, 
 the son of Restitutus, a Lombard, and of Darerca, the sister 
 of Patrick, composed that hymn."" Secundinus was his 
 Roman and Sechnall his Irish name. Dr. Whitley Stokes 
 says " that the evidence of the antiquity (fifth century) of 
 this hymn is strong " ; ^ and this is the opinion of others 
 learned in ancient Irish literature. It contains twenty-three 
 stanzas with four lines in each. It declares that Patrick " is 
 constant in the love of God, and unchangeable in faith, upon 
 whom the church [of Ireland] is built, even as Peter." * 
 Here there is no place even for Peter as a foundation for the 
 Hibernian Church. 
 
 1 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 270. 
 
 a " Works," Vol. VI., p. 383. Erlington ed. 
 
 « " Tripartite Life," Intro., Intro. CII. 
 
 < Super quern Aedificatur, ut Petrus aeclesia [ecclesia]. 
 
ROMAN COMMISSION UNAUTHENTICATED. 89 
 
 The Redeemer sent forth Paul as an apostle directly and 
 not through other Christians, and when he had a special field 
 for his labors, he saw in a vision of the night a man of Mace- 
 donia, saying, "Come over into Macedonia and help us." 
 Like Paul's remarkable conversion, Patrick suddenly became 
 a believer among Hibernian pagans when long absent from 
 Christians. After his return to Britain he soon had in a 
 dream or vision a call to preach the gospel in Hiberuia ; and 
 this call was repeated until he found himself publishing the 
 "glad tidings" to the people among whom he suffered so 
 much, and from whom he had so much to apprehend. Pat- 
 rick's conversion and call to missionary labor came from God 
 as surely as Paul's. The hymn says, that " Patrick is a good 
 and faithful shepherd of the evangelical flock whom God has 
 elected to defend his people and to feed his lowly servants 
 with divine instructions, for whom, after the example of 
 Christ, he had given his life." ^ Again Secundinus makes 
 Patrick the worthy choice of God for his responsible duties 
 in Hibernia, without any help from Pope Celestine. The 
 hymn further says : 
 
 He discovers a holy treasure in the sacred volume ; . . . he is a 
 true and distinguished cultivator of the evangelical field, whose seeds 
 are the Gospels of Christ; he sows with sacred words in the ears of 
 the wise; and he plows their hearts and minds with the Holy Spirit. 
 Christ elected him his vicar "^ in the provinces — of Ireland. 
 
 Secundinus makes out a grand character for St. Patrick, 
 even in the small section of his poem which we have given ; 
 and in the last quotation he makes Christ appoint him his 
 vicar, the loftiest title assumed by the pontiffs. Assuredly, 
 Secundinus leaves no higher place for any pope, or apostle, 
 than he gives to Patrick. Of course he says nothing about 
 Patrick's commission from the pope ; he lived in his day and 
 it required two centuries more to start such a fable. Upon 
 Patrick the Church of Ireland was built. The Lord chose 
 
 1 Quern Deus Dei elegit custodire populura. 
 
 8 Xps (Christus) ilium sibi elegit in terris vicarum. 
 
90 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 him to teach the Hibernians ; God sent him to Ireland as he 
 sent the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles ; God elected him the 
 guardian and shepherd of the Irish Christians, and finally 
 Christ made him his vicar in Ireland. 
 
 Secundinus describes St. Patrick as a fine specimen of Bible 
 Christianity. His poem has none of the ridiculous miracles 
 which disfigure the memoirs of later writers. As one of 
 Patrick's chief bishops, acquainted with him and his entire 
 history, the silence of Secundinus about the Roman mission 
 and his destruction of any foundation, however insecure, 
 on which it could stand, gives a death blow to that fondly 
 cherished delusion. 
 
 Patrick himself confirms the doctrine that God, and no 
 Roman ecclesiastic, called him to Hibernia. In the " Con- 
 fession," he says : 
 
 I commend my soul to my most faithful God for whom I dis- 
 charge an embassage [in Ireland] in my ignoble condition because, 
 indeed, he does not accept the person, and he chose me to this office, 
 that I might be one of the least of his ministers. 
 
 Perhaps nothing would ever have been heard of Patrick's 
 Roman commission had it not been for an unlikely story that 
 Lucius, king of the Britons, sent to Pope Eleutherius, about 
 A. D. 156, entreatins: him to send ministers to preach to him 
 and his people.^ He sent Faganus and Damanus, under 
 whose instructions the king and his people were converted.^ 
 In imitation of this tale, the fable was invented that 
 Donald I.,' king of Scots, sent to Rome about A. d. 210, 
 asking Pope Victor for religious instructors, that Mark and 
 Denys were the missionaries, and that the king and his sub- 
 jects were baptized as a result of their labors. The three 
 assumed facts are equally destitute of foundation, and not 
 unlikely the King Lucius fiction was the parent of the other 
 two. 
 
 1 William of Malmesbury's " Chronicle," Lib. I., cap. 2. 
 
 2 Fox's " Acts and Monuments," Vol. II., p. 110. 
 
 8 " The Early Scottish Church," M'Lauchlan, p. 52. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FOREIGN APPEALS TO ROME. 
 
 The popes encouraged appeals to Kome— A limited reference to 
 Rome permitted by the council of Sardica— This council not a 
 general synod, and without authority to make general laws— The 
 popes falsely quote its decrees as the canons of Nice— The African 
 bishops expose the imposition— Africans forbidden to appeal to 
 j^ome— French bishops reject the claim of Leo the Great to hear 
 appeals from Gaul— Celidonius makes the first appeal. 
 
 One of the common practices of the popes to increase 
 their authority, even as early as the fourth century, was to 
 encourage appeals to themselves. And as favor was some- 
 times shown to unworthy persons, condemned by their own 
 church officers, who appealed to Rome, other ecclesiastical 
 criminals naturally followed their example. Individuals 
 benefited by appeals to the pontiff, in self-defense magnified 
 the wisdom and dignity of the bishops of Rome, and induced 
 clergymen in trouble to seek their aid. 
 
 The council of Sardica,^ held in A. d. 347, was composed 
 of Western bishops, after the withdrawal of their Eastern 
 brethren, and had only eighty members. It was never recog- 
 nized as a general council, and consequently had no right to 
 make laws for the church universal. Du Pin, a Catholic of 
 great learning, speaking of three canons of this council per- 
 mitting a limited appeal to Rome, says : 
 
 They do not give the bishop of Rome power to judge the cause of 
 a bishop in his own tribunal at Rome ; they only give him authority 
 to inquire whether it were well or ill determined, and in case he find 
 that it were determined wrong to order a new decision of it in the 
 country and by the neighboring bishops of the province where it was 
 determined, whither he might send legates in his own name, if he 
 thought it convenient.2 
 
 1 Perceval, on " The EToman Schism," p. 9. London, 1836. 
 
 2 " Du Pin " Vol. I., pp. 606, 607. 
 
 91 
 
92 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Du Pin justly observes, that " the discipline which these 
 fathers established ivas new'' It had no existence in the 
 Christian church before the council of Sardica. Du Pin 
 also writes : " They were never put in the code of the canons 
 of the universal church, approved by the council of Chalce- 
 don [a. d. 451, composed of six hundred and thirty bishops]. 
 The popes only used them and cited them under the name of 
 the council of Nice to give them the greater weight and au- 
 thority.'' And they used them, not to secure a new trial 
 at home by neighbors, but to cover their own iniquitous usur- 
 pations. The inexcusable falsehood that these three canons 
 were adopted by the council of Nice, the first and most ven- 
 erated general council ever held by uninspired men, was 
 urged by Pope Boniface upon the North African bishops 
 as his justification for hearing appeals from their country- 
 men. The African bishops, however, after careful inquiries 
 about these canons, notified him that " no such canons were 
 passed at Nice, and peremptorily rejected his claim to hear 
 appeals, alleging that they knew of no canon of the fathers 
 authorizing such a course." ^ 
 
 Pope Celestine, who is supposed to have sent St. Patrick 
 to Ireland, attempted to act the tyrant over the African 
 churches under the false pretense that the worthless canons 
 of Sardica were adopted by the council of Nice. A base 
 fellow^, named Apiarius, a presbyter of Sicca, in North Africa, 
 who had been " convicted of many crimes, for which he was 
 degraded and excommunicated by his own bishop, Urbanus," 
 appealed to Rome. Zosimus, the pope, restored him to his 
 rank and the communion of the church, " w^ithout ever hear- 
 ing the other side." He sent three legates to Africa to de- 
 mand the re-instatement of Apiarius, and to require " a strict 
 observance of the canons of Nice " ; one of which permitted 
 limited appeals to Rome. These canons of Nice were the 
 old unrecognized Sardica canons, which Zosimus tried to ira- 
 
 1 Perceval, on " The Roman Schism," p. 19. 
 
FOREIGN APPEALS TO ROME. 93 
 
 pose upon the African bishops as the canons of Nice. There 
 was an exciting controversy in Africa between Faustinas, the 
 chief Romish legate, and the bishops, which resulted in a 
 brief suspension of opinion about the canons until Aurelius, 
 the chief African bishop, should write to the bishops of Con- 
 stantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch for authentic copies of 
 the canons of Nice. A compromise was arranged about 
 Apiarius, which restored him to his rank and the communion 
 of the church, on condition that he should make his submis- 
 sion to his bishop, Urbanus. Authentic copies of the canons 
 of Nice were received the same year, a. d. 419, by the mes- 
 sengers. These copies agreed in every particular with their 
 own, especially with that of Csecilianus, of Carthage, which 
 he brought with him from Nice, where he had assisted at the 
 council, " without any trace of the canons which Zosimus had 
 produced." These copies were forthwith sent to Rome by 
 the same messengers who brought them from the East. This 
 left canon 22, adopted at Milevi, in a. d. 416, which reads : 
 " Let no one who shall think fit to make appeals to parts 
 beyond sea [Rome] be received into communion by any one 
 in Africa," in full force in North Africa. Boniface, the 
 pope, after receiving the copies of the Nicene canons, allowed 
 the dispute to drop, and the African prohibition of appeals 
 to prevail. 
 
 Apiarius sinned wickedly again and was excommunicated, 
 and once more he appealed to Rome ; and Pope Celestine, 
 Patrick's supposed patron, restored him to all his privileges, 
 and sent him home with his legate Faustinus, with orders to 
 see him re-instated. The African bishops rejected the inso- 
 lent commands of Celestine ; and, gathering a large council, 
 proceeded to try Apiarius. For three days the arrogance of 
 Faustinus was boundless ; on the fourth, Apiarius, conscience- 
 smitten, confessed the enormities with which he was charged, 
 and covered the legate, and the pope soon after, with inex- 
 cusable disgrace. 
 
 The council " cut off Apiarius absolutely from the com- 
 
94 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 munion of the church," notwithstanding his restoration by 
 Celestine. " Then it renewed in stronger terms than ever 
 the canon which had given so great offense at Rome, prohib- 
 iting, on pain of excommunication, appeals beyond sea 
 [to Rome], under any pretense whatsoever." The bishops 
 also sent a " synodal letter " to Celestine ; in which, among 
 other things, they write : 
 
 As for what you have sent us by Faustinus, as a canon of the coun- 
 cil of Nice, we must let you know that no such canon is in the genu- 
 ine and uncorrupt copies of that council which have been transcribed 
 and sent us by our fellow-bishops Cyril, of Alexandria, and the Eev- 
 erend Atticus, of Constantinople. These copies we sent to Boniface, 
 your predecessor.! 
 
 The tyrannical usurpations of Celestine, and the false rep- 
 resentation that the disowned and originally powerless canons 
 of Sardica were the authoritative canons of the council of 
 Nice, are fully recorded by the Catholic Du Pin,^ as well as 
 by Bower. 
 
 1 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. I., pp. 171, 172. 
 a " Eccles. History," Vol. I., pp. 638, 639. Dublin. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAPAL APPEALS IN GAUL AND IRELAND. 
 
 Cruelty of Pope Leo to Hilary of Aries— Patrick's interest in French 
 Christians— He never alludes to Celestine— Connection between 
 North Africa and Gaul— Patrick's supposed canon ordering an 
 appeal to Kome unknown to the pope— Irishmen of Roman tenden- 
 cies, like Adamnan, ignorant of it— Malachi, the first Romish 
 bishop of Armagh, regarded it as a forgery. 
 
 The chiircli of Gaul denied the authority of the pope to act 
 upon appeals from the decisions of its bishops. Celidonius, 
 bishop of Besan9on, was deposed for a legitimate cause by a 
 council, over which Hilary, bishop of Aries, presided. From 
 the decision of the council he appealed to the pope. " Celi- 
 donius was the first Galilean bishop who ever thought of ap- 
 pealing from the judgment of his colleagues to that of the 
 bishop of Rome." Leo the Great was pope. As if intoxicated 
 with his first appeal of this character, he cleared Celidonius of 
 his accusations, against the evidence, and restored him to his 
 former dignity. He cut off Hilary from the communion of the 
 apostolic see, deprived him of all jurisdiction over the seven 
 religious provinces belonging to his bishopric, suspended him 
 from ordaining any bishop, and in A. d. 445, in order to dis- 
 grace him among the bishops of his own province, who re- 
 garded him as a "true pattern of every Christian virtue," 
 he wrote a letter against him in " the most bitter terms, as 
 one who was a disgrace to the episcopal order." By baseless 
 assertions that the bishops of Rome had always received 
 " entire obedience and submission from the Galilean bishops 
 till the time of Hilary," Leo obtained from Valentinian III. 
 " the famous rescript vesting the bishops of Rome with abso 
 lute and uncontrolled authority over the Galilean churchea 
 
 95 
 
96 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 and bishops." ^ The emperor's order restored Celidonius, 
 " but that was owing," says Bower, " to the imperial rescript, 
 not to Leo's decree ; for Hilary and the other Galilean bishops 
 . . . could never be induced to acknowledge the pretended 
 power in the see of Rome of receiving appeals, and re-exam- 
 ining a cause which they had determined." 
 
 Patrick had close relations with France; he loved Ger- 
 manus of Auxerre, and he lived years after Leo's wicked 
 attack upon Hilary and the Galilean bishops. Hilary was 
 one of the most distinguished Christian leaders in Gaul. 
 Patrick had Gallic assistants and financial aid in his Irish 
 ministry. And no truer friend of their clergy lived in or 
 outside of Gaul than the warm-hearted Patrick, the Briton. 
 That he sympathized with them in their oppression by Pope 
 Leo and during the remainder of his life while they suffered 
 from the tyranny of the most talented of all the popes, is 
 absolutely certain. That he would advise his Irish disciples 
 to refer a difficult case for decision to Pope Leo, or to any of 
 his predecessors or successors, with their iniquitous pretensions 
 to rule unjustly, is unlikely in the last degree. 
 
 Patrick knew that Pope Celestine had sent Palladius to the 
 Scots [Irish], believing in Christ as their first bishop. At 
 that time there is reason for believing that Patrick had been 
 laboring for years in Ireland, and that Palladius was sent as 
 an emissary of Rome to seize his converts an i organize a 
 Romish church in Hibernia. He failed in his attempts and 
 left the island. This view of the object of Palladius w^ould 
 account for the singular fact that Patrick never mentions 
 Palladius or his mission. Patrick having some direct inter- 
 est in procuring information about Celestine had many oppor- 
 tunities for obtaining it. 
 
 North Africa, in Patrick's day, was settled largely by 
 Italian colonists, who kept a close connection with the mother 
 country and France. They spoke Latin. They were numer- 
 
 1 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. I., pp. 190-192. 
 
PAPAL APPEALS IX GAUL AND IRELAND. 97 
 
 ous and prosperous. Their Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augus- 
 tine were honored as authors in all Christian countries. Their 
 people were in Italy following various callings, like Augustine 
 when he was converted at Milan. They thronged Marseilles, 
 the old centre of the commerce of the Mediterranean, as mer- 
 chants and mariners. St. Augustine was a member of the 
 African council, in A. d. 419, which refused to accept the 
 pope's falsehood that the canons of Sardica, permitting a lim- 
 ited appeal to Rome, were the canons of Nice, except during 
 the time needful to examine the copies of the great Eastern 
 bishops ; and when the messengers brought the proof of the 
 pope's deceit, appeals to him were permanently forbidden. 
 The works of this eminent man were read all over Europe. 
 In the two hundred and twentyrfifth letter, published in his 
 works, Prosper informs him that "several Christians in 
 Marseilles, having seen his work against the Pelagians, be- 
 lieved that what he taught about the calling of the elect was 
 contrary to the doctrine of the fathers." He also told him 
 that Hilary, bishop of Aries, whom he commends, " did much 
 admire and approve St. Augustine's doctrine in all other 
 things, but could not relish his principles about the decree of 
 the calling of the elect." ^ The efforts of Zosimus, Boniface, 
 and Celestine to claim jurisdiction through appeals over the 
 African bishops, were widely known, over Italy and France 
 especially. And this information was, no doubt, frequently 
 revived by the extraordinary popularity of Augustine, the 
 celebrated North African bishop. Patrick certainly knew of 
 the unhallowed ecclesiastical oppressions of Celestine, his two 
 predecessors, and Pope Leo, through appeals to Rome. And 
 it would be a reflection upon his common sense, upon his 
 regard for scriptural justice, and upon his love for his French 
 friends, if he established an Irish appeal to the tyrannical 
 popes who tormented them and others by such appeals. 
 
 How is it that Rome herself did not hear of Patrick's canon 
 and enlist some malcontent Irish ecclesiastic to invite her 
 
 1 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 391. 
 
98 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 judicial decision in his favor ? What a splendid opportunity 
 she had during the seventh century, when the Easter and 
 tonsure controversies raged in Britain and Ireland! How 
 quickly she dug up the dead canons of Sardica, and trans- 
 muted them, for a time, into the venerated decrees of Nice ! 
 During that period there were some Romanists in principle 
 among the Irish, like Adamnau,^ who tried without success to 
 convert the monastery of lona, of which he was abbot, to 
 Romish practices, and who showed the activity of an apostle of 
 the pope in efforts to seduce the Christians of Hibernia. He 
 could have appealed to Rome, urging Patrick's canon decree- 
 ing such application in difficult cases ; the pope would have de- 
 cided in his favor with alacrity, and would have issued a bull, 
 reciting the canon of the illustrious St. Patrick and his own 
 great powers, and commanding all who reverenced Patrick, 
 Peter (whose successor he claimed to be), and God, to 
 submit to Rome's decision. Had Patrick left such a canon, 
 Adarauan would have been aware of it, and his zeal shows 
 that he would have used it at Rome as soon as he became 
 a partial pervert. And its employment at Rome, with a bull 
 based upon it, through the influence of godly Patrick's name, 
 might have seriously injured Bible Christianity among the 
 Irish. There were others who knew all the canons or deci- 
 sions of St. Patrick, and who would have notified the pope 
 of a canon enjoining an appeal to Rome if it had had any 
 existence. And the fact that for centuries they never used it 
 to justify unrighteous efforts to rule St. Patrick's churches, is 
 well-ni^h irrefutable evidence that it never existed. 
 
 Learned Irishmen, when proselytes of Rome, never used 
 Patrick's supposed canon for an appeal to Rome in favor of 
 such a step. 
 
 The canon commanding an appeal to Rome is preceded by 
 an order requiring every difficult case to be sent for decision 
 to the see of the archbishop of Armagh, and if by that see, 
 with its wise men, such a trouble as the aforesaid cannot be 
 
 1 Bede'3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IV., cap. 15. 
 
PAPAL APPEALS IN GAUL AND IRELAND. 99 
 
 easily healed, " We decree that it be sent to the apostolic see, 
 that is, to the see of the Apostle Peter, having authority in the 
 city of Rome. Auxillius, Patricius, Secundinus, and Benignus 
 made this decree." ^ The ninth line following the above, 
 begins with a brief, but ridiculous account of the loves of St. 
 Patrick and Brigit. It reads : 
 
 Between holy Patrick of Ireland and Brigit, the pillars [of the 
 Irish mission], the tenderness of so great a love existed, that they had 
 but one heart and one purpose. Christ, through him and her, showed 
 forth many virtues. The holy man [Patrick] said to the Christian 
 virgin : " O my Brigit, thy parish, in thy province, shall be considered 
 thy kingdom." 
 
 Brigit was a great helper to Patrick in the conversion of 
 Ireland ; but to speak of her as a pillar, like Patrick, in that 
 great work, is the extravagance of falsehood. The terms of 
 endearment ascribed to Patrick in addressing Brigit, show a 
 complete lack of harmony with all that is known of his 
 reserved relations with women, even with such a grand 
 laborer in the gospel as the saintly Brigit. The writer of the 
 " Book of the Angel " was probably the interpolator of a ful- 
 some notice of Brigit's baptism in Patrick's " Confession," as 
 well as the forger of the former pamphlet. 
 
 Among the strange things in Irish history, nothing is more 
 remarkable than the fact that such a man as Malachi, arch- 
 bishop of Armagh, in the twelfth century, wholly ignored 
 Patrick's supposed canon ordering in certain cases an appeal 
 to Rome. He felt that the Church of Ireland w^as rapidly 
 rushing to destruction. Why not appeal to Rome for help in 
 this emergency, giving Patrick's canon as his chief reason ? 
 ^loreover, his heart was fixed upon the union of the Irish 
 and Roman churches. He lamented the state of the married 
 primates of Ireland, not so long in their graves ; the condition 
 of the wandering bishops, without any fixed dioceses ; and the 
 helplessness of the church, the football of contending clans 
 and petty factions. 
 
 1 In " GoTernment Tripartite Life," p. 356. 
 
100 J^NCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 He desired self-denial, austerity, painful mortifications of 
 the flesh, full-fledged popery, and why not appeal to Kome 
 upo7i the authority of St. Patrick's canon f But Malachi was 
 aware that the entire "Book of the Angel" was a silly fraud, 
 wholly unworthy of notice ; and that it had been regarded as 
 a forgery by all his countrymen who knew anything about it 
 since it was first discovered. The risks that Malachi ran in 
 making an appeal to Rome, placing himself as a traitor before 
 the friends of Irish church independence, make it certain that 
 he would have sheltered himself under Patrick's canon in his 
 application to Rome, if it had not been known as a forgery. 
 
 Dr. Whitley Stokes regards the " Book of the Angel " as 
 a composition of the ninth century. It consists of five octavo 
 pages. It tells of an angel arousing Patrick from sleep, and 
 informing him that God had appointed Armagh to be the 
 religious capital of Ireland ; and he also communicated to 
 him the boundaries and prerogatives of the archbishopric of 
 Armagh. 
 
 There is another "Book of the Angel," which had an 
 Eastern origin, and immeasurably more success than the Irish 
 fabrication. Mohammed, speaking of his Koran, in the 
 second chapter of that work, uses these words : " Gabriel, for 
 he hath caused the Koran to descend on thy heart, by the per- 
 mission of God." ^ According to the false prophet, the Koran 
 is the "Book of the Angel" Gabriel. The Irish book, 
 inspired by some Romanist angel, in the train of the father 
 of untruths, preserves a canon attributed to Patrick and 
 others, ordering an appeal to Rome in certain cases. In these 
 productions of the two angels, the Moslem celestial author 
 appears more poetical and sublime than his Hibernian fellow- 
 laborer, but he fails to surpass him in a lack of veracity. 
 
 1 Sales' " Koran," p. 13. Philadelphia, 1868. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 
 
 His discouragements — His humility — Compassion for the unsaved — 
 His perseverance in serious difficulties — His influence among the 
 chiefs — His school for training native preachers — Learning of its 
 president, Secundinus — A Gaulish Eton — Patrick's talents— His 
 courage in danger— His visit to King Loeghaire— The royal se- 
 pulchral monuments. 
 
 In his sixteenth year, with no Christian principles to guide 
 him, and with gospel seed only in his memory, which did not 
 germinate in his heart for some years ; with no associates but 
 slaves, or the lowest class of Irish idolaters ; with religious 
 conversation limited to " Cenn-Cruaich," the chief idol of 
 Ireland, covered with gold and silver, and the twelve other 
 idols around him, plated with brass, or to incantations to se- 
 cure the favor, or to disarm the wrath of the gods of Hiber- 
 nia; without one Christian companion or kind heathen 
 friend, Patrick's condition, as he became a slave in Ireland, 
 gave no hope of future usefulness ; it was fitted to make him 
 conform to paganism, and to join in the worst sins of his 
 neighborhood. Truly, he was like a "stone deep in the 
 mud," as he says, when God lifted him up and placed him 
 upon the wall of the spiritual temple. 
 
 Patrick was one of the humblest men who ever lived. 
 Near his death, when his influence was greater than that 
 which any man in Ireland wielded, he uses expressions of 
 the greatest lowliness of mind. His self-depreciation far 
 surpasses Augustine's in his Confessions, though in real cul- 
 pability Patrick was sinless compared to the bishop of Hippo. 
 His anselfishnes« shines conspicuously throughout his genuine 
 writings. It was in this spirit that he came to Ireland to preach 
 Christ, to whose people he owed nothing. And it was in the 
 
 101 
 
102 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHUliCHES. 
 
 same spirit that he labored there fifty or more years without 
 leaving his field of toil more than once or twice in that long 
 period. His kindred loved him, and by "tears and gifts" 
 tried to prevent his entrance upon the duties and dangers of 
 the Irish mission ; but he had intense compassion for unsaved 
 souls. This led him to journey through many dangers into 
 the most remote places. He actually aimed at telling the 
 good tidings to the last man in Hibernia, though he had to 
 visit every bog shelter, mountain hut, and fisherman's cabin 
 in the land. 
 
 Perseverance was a marked feature in Patrick's character. 
 As an ancient Briton, he was impulsive, ready-witted, easily 
 moved to grief or joy ; but he was also cool, deliberate ; 
 clinging to a work at first unsuccessful and often showing 
 unusual difficulties. 
 
 His soul was frequently bowed down in tearful, supplica- 
 ting grief before God ; but the Holy Spirit wiped away his 
 tears, and repeated to him either the precious words, or others 
 of the same import : " Be not weary in well-doing, for in due 
 time you shall reap, if you faint not." And as often as 
 Hibernian heathenism showed a defiant front, Patrick main- 
 tained his seemingly useless assaults ; his persevering energy 
 coming from the divine Spirit with the constancy of the 
 tides, until at last the ranks of paganism were broken and 
 its army routed, and Patrick unfurled the flag of Calvary" 
 over all Ireland. 
 
 He showed much wisdom in conducting his work in Hi- 
 bernia. The people were in clans or tribes, with a chief or 
 petty king at the head of each ; then came provinces, with a 
 king governing this larger community ; and then the supreme 
 king, supposed to exercise sovereign dominion over the whole 
 island. Knowing the vast influence which these kings pos- 
 sessed in opening the ears of their people to listen to the gos- 
 pel, Patrick sought an opportunity first to preach to them ; 
 and he did not hesitate to address the supreme king of Ire- 
 land. When a leading chief received the gospel, his entire 
 
ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 103 
 
 subjects became interested in its examination, and many of 
 them soon after accepted the Redeemer. And when Dub- 
 thach MaccLi-Lugair, " king-poet of Ireland, and of the su- 
 preme king," received the Saviour by faith, Patrick's gospel 
 obtained a victory over the culture and intelligence of Ire- 
 land, the tidings of which would reach and influence in 
 some measure the most ignorant herdsman in the "Green 
 Isle." While one soul was as precious to Patrick as another, 
 one man's salvation might influence thousands toward Jesus ; 
 but such an extensive blessing for others attends the con- 
 version of few. By presenting the blood of atonement at 
 the earliest opportunity to the civil, literary, and legal chiefs 
 of Hibernia, Patrick's labors were greatly facilitated. 
 
 Patrick had helpers from Gaul and Britain ; but at an 
 early day he had wisdom given him to see the advantages 
 of a native ministry in Ireland. At first the education of 
 such a body of men must have been a serious question. But, 
 finally, Patrick constituted a " household " on an extensive 
 scale ; it consisted, in part, at one time of twenty-four per- 
 sons, who were already in the ministry ; three of these were 
 bishops, of whom Secundinus, his nephew, was one ; the others 
 followed various occupations : domestic, mechanical, agricul- 
 tural, ecclesiastical, literary, legal, and nautical ; all of whom, 
 as opportunity ofl'ered, preached Christ.^ These were simply 
 the agents who conducted a great missionary institution 
 which supplied the country with ministers and teachers in 
 some secular pursuits, as Irish missionaries on the con- 
 tinent furnished them in the seventh century. The " metri- 
 cal " version of the " Household " of St. Patrick mentions 
 the name of " Brogan, the scribe of St. Patrick's school," ' 
 showing that the great missionary really had a training insti- 
 tution under his care. Patrick, in his " Letter to Coroticus," 
 speaks of " a holy presbyter whom he had taught from in- 
 fancy." This still further brings out the idea of a general 
 
 1 " Government Tripartite Life," p. 265. 
 
 2 0'Donovan's " Annals of the Four Masters," at a. d. -148. 
 
104 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 educational institution, whose chief object was the instruc- 
 tion of ministers for the Irish church. Secundinus was at 
 the head of Patrick's " household " college, according to the 
 " Tripartite Life." He was the most scholarly man among 
 Patrick's followers. His celebrated " hymn " is remarkable 
 for its good Latin, considering that its author was a native 
 of Ireland, with unknown advantages for acquiring a superior 
 education, unless in Gaul, of which his father was a native. 
 The twenty-first stanza of his hymn begins with the word 
 Christ in a common abbreviation in Greek letters, " ^/>?," 
 showing that he understood Greek. In the same section of 
 Gaul in which Auxerre is located, the residence of Germanus, 
 the supposed preceptor of Patrick, the ancient city of Autun 
 lies. In an old Christian cemetery in it, about thirty years 
 ago, as Withrow says : 
 
 A remarkable Greek inscription was found, the date of which is 
 about A. D. 400. The language is of Homeric purity and vigor, 
 which is accounted for by the fact that Autun was, during the fourth 
 and fifth centuries, a sort of "French Eton," where Greek, the 
 tongue of " Homer and the gods," was sedulously cultivated. ^ 
 
 There is much reason for believing that Secundinus had 
 acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin in Gaul. This 
 learned bishop was at the head of Patrick's " household " ; 
 that is, his great school, where he lived when at home. 
 
 Brogan, the scribe of St. Patrick's school, was a lecturer, 
 on theology probably, whose addresses were so valuable that 
 they were frequently written and put in circulation ; he also 
 made copies of the works of others. In these senses scribe is 
 often found in the "Annals of the Four Masters." The 
 " Book of Leinster " states that Congus a scribe was the 
 nineteenth successor of St. Patrick in the see of Armagh. 
 Patrick's " household " school was the forerunner of the great 
 colleges of Clonard and Bangor, which in the sixth century 
 sent out Columba and Columbanus with a wealth of learning, 
 
 ^ " The Catacombs of Rome," p. 257. London. 
 
ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 105 
 
 and of many similar institutions in Ireland ; and of the great 
 school in Ion a in Scotland. 
 
 St. Patrick's " household " college was continually blessing 
 the churches which he founded with able and consecrated 
 ministers. At Cross, Patrick, the apostle of Ireland, left 
 Teloc and Nemnall,i <^ two of his household "—clergymen ; 
 while Patrick was abiding in Ailech Airtich,' and while he 
 was in an assembly apart, "his household were baptizing, 
 conferring orders, and sowing the faith." In Dalaraida"* he 
 left " two of his household," Glaisiuc and Presbyter Libur ; 
 at Maige Damoerna * and Raith Sithe, Patrick left " two of 
 his household." In Maigev Criathar, Patrick ordained Fiacc, 
 son of Ere, to labor in Leinster,^ and " he left seven of his 
 household " with him. He founded churches in the land of 
 the Osraige,« and he left with them " a party of his household." 
 And Patrick came to Mendait Tire, and he left " holy elders 
 of his household " at Tech Talain. To these might be added 
 other cases, but those already quoted show that Patrick had 
 an institution for training ministers under his own supervi- 
 sion, so extensive that he could send pastors and preachers 
 wherever there were openings for them. And from the 
 account of the occupations of the numerous clergymen com- 
 posing his household, we are inclined to believe that it was 
 also intended for the general instruction of young converts. 
 
 Patrick had a powerful intellect and a high order of elo- 
 quence. There is a little story told of the conversion of King 
 Loeghaire's two daughters, which contains Patrick's account 
 of God. The story in its main features is now regarded by 
 most scholars learned in Irish literature as genuine. Patrick 
 and some clergymen were sitting beside the spring called 
 Cleebach. Ethne the fair and Fedelm the ruddy, daughters 
 of King Loeghaire came to the spring to wash their hands ; 
 the appearance of the men filled them with wonder, and the 
 ladies said to them, " Whence are ye, and whence have vp 
 
 1 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I, p. 133. " I»)itl , P- I-"'"- 
 
 3 Ibid., 163. 4Ibi(i.,lG5. 5 Ibid., p. 191. 6 ibid., p. 195. 
 
106 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 come " ; and Patrick said to them, " It were better for you to 
 believe in God than inquire about our race." The first 
 daughter said : 
 
 Who is God? and where is God? and of what is God? and where 
 is his dwelling-place? Has your God sons and daughters? gold 
 and silver? Is he ever living? Is he beautiful? Have many 
 fostered his son? Are his daughters dear and beautiful to the men 
 of the world? Is he in heaven, or on earth? in the sea? in the 
 rivers? in the mountains? in the valleys? Tell us how he is seen? 
 How is he loved? How is he found ? Is he in youth or in age? ^ 
 
 But St. Patrick, full of the Holy Spirit, answering, said : 
 
 Our God is the God of all men, the God ot heaven, of the sea, 
 and of the rivers; the God of the sun and of the moon, of all the 
 stars ; the God of the lofty mountains and of the lowly valleys; the 
 God over heaven and in heaven and under heaven. He has his 
 dwelling in heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things which are 
 in them. He inspires all things ; he gives life to all things ; he sur- 
 passes all things ; he supports all things. He kindles the light of the 
 sun and the light of the moon. He made springs in arid land, and 
 dry lands in the sea, and he appointed stars to minister to the greater 
 lights. He hath a Son co-eternal with himself, and like unto him. 
 But the Son is not younger than the father, nor is the father older 
 than the son. And the Holy Spirit breathes in them. Father and 
 Son and Holy Spirit are not divided. 
 
 Howbeit, I desire to unite you to the Son of the Heavenly King, 
 for ye are the daughters of a king of earth. 
 
 Patrick's account of God, addressed to the royal inquirers, 
 probably in the hearing of a considerable number of others, 
 is profound, exact, and astonishing. The author of this ex- 
 temporaneous address at the spring was fitted to interest 
 listening thousands and move a whole nation. 
 
 Patrick was a man of great courage. Soon after the con- 
 version of Dichu, apparently the first person whom he led to 
 the Saviour, he determined to visit his old master in Antrim, 
 Miliuc. He proposed this, according to Muirchu ^laccu- 
 Mactheni, to redeem himself for having run away from \m 
 bondage. He carried with hira a double price for his servi- 
 
 1 The " Waitings of Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland," pp. 85, 88. Eeligious Trad 
 Sociiiy of London. 
 
ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 107 
 
 tude, an earthly and a heavenly one/ that he might free him 
 from bondage (to Satan) whom, as a captive, he formerly 
 served. Miliuc, when he learned that his former slave was 
 about to visit him, according to Muirchu, and also the " Tri- 
 partite Life," gathered all his treasures into his house, and 
 burned it, them, and himself. Patrick came to the southern 
 side of Slemish Mountain, and had a full view of the confla- 
 gration that destroyed his former owner and his home. 
 
 His proposed visit to Miliuc showed a daring spirit. He 
 was a desperate man, at the head of a numerous tribe of war- 
 riors, whose fathers, and possibly some of themselves, had 
 routed the soldiers of imperial Rome on the coasts of Britain. 
 St. Patrick, to him and his subjects, and to his neighbors far 
 and near, was but a fugitive slave, prompted by insolence 
 in venturing to visit Miliuc. He had reason to expect the 
 loss of any money which he carried, his immediate enslave- 
 ment, or a cruel death ; but he was going to preach Christ to 
 a tyrant, to purchase an indisputable right to personal liberty, 
 and to secure the salvation of his old master's family, which 
 he accomplished, and he feared nothing. After this he came 
 to Dichu, son of Trichem, and remained a long while preach- 
 ing salvation by faith, " until," it is recorded, " he brought all 
 the Ulstermen' by the net of the gospel to the harbor of 
 life." 
 
 Muirchu mentions another convert of Patrick, named 
 Maccuil, a desperate reprobate, an Ulsterman.^ Muirchu 
 speaks of him as, 
 
 Very impious, a cruel tyrant, as if bis name was Cyclops. He was 
 depraved in thoughts, outrageous in words, malicious in deeds, bitter 
 in spirit, cross in soul, wicked in body, fierce in mind, a heathen in 
 life, savage in conscience, . . . killing passing strangers with execra- 
 ble wickedness. 
 
 This reckless murderer, intending to slay Patrick, had one 
 
 1 " Geminum seruitutis pretium, terrenuiu utique et cceleste." Notes by Muircliu 
 Maccu-Mactheni in "Tripartite Life," p. 275. 
 
 2 " Government Tripartite Life," p. 39. 
 
 3 Muirchu Maccu-Mactheni in " Government Tripartite Life," pp. 285-2S9. 
 
108 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 of his men placed in their midst as if he were dead, and in- 
 vited Patrick to stop for a time, and to approach and heal 
 him. Patrick drew near, " knowing all their wiles and de- 
 ceits," and soon after the man was found dead, to the horror 
 of Maccuil and his band. They took his death for a miracle, 
 though Patrick never claimed that he wrought any miracle ; 
 and Maccuil was smitten with distressing repentance toward 
 God. And the saint commanded him '•' to put his trust in the 
 Lord Jesus his God, and confess his sins and be baptized in 
 the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. 
 And in that hour he turned to and trusted the eternal God, 
 and, moreover, he was baptized." This account is also found 
 in the " Tripartite Life," and in the " Lebar Brecc Homily 
 on St. Patrick." It required no ordinary courage to address 
 such desperadoes, knowing their plan to murder the preacher 
 and his companions. 
 
 The most heroic effort of the saint's life was his visit to 
 King Loeghaire, at Tara. According to Muirchu,^ who 
 writes in the seventh century, Patrick laid up his vessel at 
 the mouth of the river Boyne and set out for Tara on foot* 
 reaching "the Graves of the men of Fiacc " upon the evening 
 of the day upon which he started. Here the pagm kings of 
 Ireland, with the rites of heathenism, were buried. We learn 
 from Prof. George T. Stokes,^ of Trinity College, Dublin, that 
 these famous " graves " are two miles below Siane. At this 
 place several islands divide the Boyne and make it fordable. 
 On one side there are raths, forts, caves, circles, and pillar 
 stones, bearing all the evidence of ancient sepulchral pagan 
 monuments. There are twenty mounds. Knowth covers an 
 acre, and it is eighty feet high. New Grange occupies two 
 acres, and it is, perhaps, the most remarkable Celtic monument 
 now existing. The interior chamber of the New Grange moat 
 has been often compared to the great cavern variously called 
 the tomb of Agamemnon and the treasury of Atreus. Both 
 
 1 Muirchu Maccu-Mactheni in " Government Tripartite Life," p. 278. 
 
 2 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," pp. 71-73. 
 
ST. PATRICK'S MISSIONARY QUALIFICATIONS. 109 
 
 are constructed on exactly the same plan, the roof being 
 dome-shaped, but built without any knowledge of the princi- 
 ple of the arch ; the central chamber* is nineteen feet six 
 inches high, twenty-two feet long, and eighteen broad, while 
 the passage which leads to it is sixty-three feet long, and in 
 general six feet high. One mile from New Grange, the third 
 great rath of Dowth presents similar features. This vast 
 cemetery existed in the same state as it is at present in St. 
 Patrick's time. It was plundered by the Danes of Dublin in 
 A. D. 862, and the raths were rifled of their treasures. In 
 A. D. 266, Cormac Macart, king of Ireland, who renounced 
 Druidism and became a Christian before death, expressly for- 
 bade his burial in Brugh, another name for " the Graves of 
 the men of Fiacc," " because it was a cemetery of idolaters ; 
 for he did not worship the same god as any of those interred 
 at Brugh." ^ 
 
 1 Keating's " General History of Ireland," Vol. I., p. 428. 
 
 K 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications (Cojifmweci). 
 
 Tara— Its banqueting hall — A feast in it with an immense attendance 
 — Easter fire— Loeghaire and Tara enraged at Patrick — They attack 
 him — His victory — He goes to Tara the next day singing, "The 
 Deer's Cry" — He preaches to the king and great men of Ireland — 
 Patrick gains a victory for Christ — Loeghaire professes faith — Ire- 
 land is largely opened to the gospel— "Wizards and miracles — His 
 magnetic influence— His name assumed by a whole nation — The 
 Kedeemer his sole reliance. 
 
 St. Patrick fixed his temporary resting place on the hill 
 of Slane, near Drogheda, surrounded by dead royal pagans, 
 and the symbols of their living and powerful idolatry. Tara 
 was in full view of Patrick's camping-ground. It was the 
 chief residence of the supreme kings of Ireland for centuries 
 before St. Patrick's day, and it continued to enjoy this dis- 
 tinction until A. D. 563. It is situated about twenty-five 
 miles from Dublin. From Prof. George T. Stokes, who 
 refers to the investigations of the learned Petrie about Tara, 
 and other sources of information, we have an accurate 
 account of the ancient palace of the Irish kings. Largely 
 and finally improved in the third century and forsaken in 
 the sixth, though vast, it was necessarily rude by the side of 
 the structures of a later age. The banqueting hall was seven 
 hundred and fifty-nine feet in length ; it was originally ninety 
 feet in breadth, and it retains marks of fourteen distinct 
 entrances.^ Tara, according to Petrie, with one exception, 
 had buildings constructed of wood and clay. Mr. Petrie 
 says: "It is probable that the edifices of Tara were not 
 unlike or inferior to those of the ancient Germans, of which 
 Tacitus speaks in terms of praise, and which he describes as 
 
 1 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," pp. 65-78. 
 
 110 
 
ST. PATRICK'S MISSIONARY QUALIFICATIONS. Ill 
 
 being overlaid with earth so pure and splendid that it resem- 
 bled painting." In 1810, two magnificent torques (neck 
 chains) of gold were found at Tara, which are now in the 
 museum of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. They are 
 spiral in form. One is nearly twenty -eight ounces in weight, 
 and five feet seven inches long. The second is of equal 
 length, but of more delicate construction and greater light- 
 ness, weighing only twelve and a half ounces. 
 
 At stated intervals, a great convention of the people of 
 Ireland met in Tara, to attend to the public business of the 
 whole island and to enjoy a series of feasts. The night 
 which Patrick spent at Slane was one of the nights of a great 
 festival at Tara. According to Muirchu, there were 
 
 Convened there kings, governors, generals, princes, and nobles of 
 the people ; and, moreover, magicians, soothsayers, enchanters, and 
 the inventors and teachers of all art and of all science, were called 
 b3" Loeghaire to Tara, their Babylon, as formerly they were invited 
 by Nebuchadnezzar, the king.^ 
 
 They came " To practise many enchantments and magical 
 devices, and some other idolatrous superstitions." Throngs of 
 followers attended the congregated leaders of Ireland at Tara. 
 
 The feast of Easter in that day was regarded as the greatest 
 festival that ever existed ; and this interest w^as felt over the 
 entire Christian world. On the eve of its celebration, lamps 
 w^ere lighted or fires kindled. Eusebius, the well-known 
 church historian relates, that " In the time of Constantine, 
 this vigil was kept with great pomp ; for he set up lofty pil- 
 lars of wax to burn as torches all over the city of Constanti- 
 nople, and lamps burning in all places, so that night seemed 
 to outshine the sun at noonday."^ Patrick, after consultation 
 with his believing companions, resolved to celebrate Easter, 
 and " he kindled the divine fire (of Easter) very bright and 
 blessed. It was seen at Tara," and it created indignation 
 there, for " there was a custom proclaimed by edict (of the 
 
 1 Muirchu Maccu-I\ractheni in " (iovernment Tripartite Life," pp. 278-285. 
 
 2 " Vit. Const.," Lib. IV., cap. 22, 57. 
 
112 AXCIEXT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 king) that his soul should perish from his people who lighted 
 a fire anywhere in any of these regions on that night before 
 it was kindled in the palace of Tara." Loeghaire, the 
 king, was greatly disturbed by Patrick's violation of the legal 
 custom of Tara ; and especially by evil forebodings loudly 
 expressed by his great men unless this lawless act was pun- 
 ished ; and " the whole city of Tara shared in Loeghaire's 
 apprehensions." " Nine carriages were prepared for the 
 king's party ; the two magicians, Lucetmail and Lochru, were 
 added for the attack in the presence of all the nobles." By 
 the advice of the magicians, the king refused to " approach 
 the place where Patrick's fire was, lest afterward he might 
 adore him who kmdled it." And when, " at the close of the 
 night, Loeghaire came to the Graves of the men of Fiacc, St. 
 Patrick was called out from the place of his Easter fire to 
 the king. Before he came, the magicians said : ' Let us not 
 rise at his coming, for whosoever rises at his coming shall 
 afterward believe upon and adore him.' " And when he 
 appeared before the king, his situation was very alarming ; 
 Loeghaire was enraged, his nobles were indignant, the magi- 
 cians were full of malice ; Tara, behind these champions, was 
 ready to destroy the apparently helpless preacher of the gos- 
 pel ; even the Graves of the men of Fiacc just at hand, with 
 the dust of many royal conquerors, all resolute defenders of 
 paganism, must have increased the outward hopelessness of 
 the saint's situation. But the brave missionary, assisted by 
 the enthroned Lamb, as he looked at the carriages and their 
 horses, felt more powerful than the king of Tara with all 
 Ireland to help him. "And appropriately with his lips aiK, 
 his heart, he sings the words of the psalm : ' Some trust in 
 chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of 
 our God.' " At the saint's approach, only one arose, assisted 
 by the Lord, who was unwilling to obey the command of the 
 magicians ; it was Ere, the son of Deg, whose remains are 
 now preserved in the city of Slane. Patrick blessed him and 
 he believed in the everlasting God. 
 
ST. PATRICK'S MISSIONARY QUALIFICATIONS. 113 
 
 Lochru, the magician, in the presence of the saint, spoke 
 abusively of the Catholic [universal] faith. 
 
 St. Patrick sternly beholding him encouraging such wickedness, as 
 formerly Peter looked at Simon, with a certain authority and with a 
 loud voice, said confidently to the Lord: '0 Lord, who canst do 
 all things, by whose power afl things consist, and who has sent me 
 hither, let this impious man, who blasphemes thy name, be raised 
 aloft now, and let him quickly die. 
 
 The magician immediately perished in accordance with 
 Patrick's alleged prayer ; but his true supplication was un- 
 doubtedly only for a peaceful victory for the gospel. 
 
 The king and his friends, maddened at Patrick for the death of 
 Lochru, wished to kill him, and said: "Lay hands upon this man 
 slaying us." Then seeing the impious pagans about to rush upon him, 
 St. Patrick arose, and in a loud voice, said : "Let God arise, let his 
 enemies be scattered, and let them that hate him fly from his face." 
 
 No man ever showed greater bravery in defense of the truth, 
 in presence of such desperate and powerful enemies. Imme- 
 diately after Patrick repeated this sublime prayer from Psalm 
 67, darkness fell upon the people of Loeghaire ; these impious 
 men fought each other; there was a great earthquake. It 
 seemed to them that the sky fell on the earth, and all fled, 
 leaving Patrick, the king and queen, and two attendants. 
 The queen plead for her husband's life from Patrick ; he 
 pretended conversion, and tried to kill the saint; Patrick 
 and his companions disappeared from the sight of Loeghaire, 
 " but the pagans saw only eight stags with a fawn going to 
 the wilderness." This was the number of Patrick's party. 
 Muirchu does not say that they were turned into stags, but 
 that inference has been drawn from his account. 
 
 On the following day, Easter day, when the kings and 
 princes and magicians were sitting at a national feast in the 
 immense assembly hall of Tara with Loeghaire, St. Patrick 
 approached the scene of revelry, not like a timid deer, but 
 with the boldness of a lion, singing with his brethren, the 
 words of the famous 
 
114 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 DEER'S CRY. 
 I bind myself to-day to God's power to pilot me, 
 
 God's might to uphold me, 
 
 God's wisdom to guide me, 
 
 God's eye to look before me, 
 
 God's ear to hear me, 
 
 God's word to speak for me, 
 
 God's hand to guard me, 
 
 God's way to be before me, 
 
 God's shield to protect me, 
 
 God's host to secure me. 
 
 Against snares of demons, 
 
 A gainst seductions of vices. 
 
 Against [the lusts] of nature. 
 
 Against every one who wishes ill to me, 
 
 Far or near, 
 
 Alone and in a multitude. 
 I summon to-day all these powers around me 
 Against every cruel, merciless power which may come 
 Against my body and my soul, 
 Against incantations of false prophets. 
 Against bhick laws of heathenism. 
 Against false laws of heretics. 
 Against craft of idolatry. 
 
 Against spells of women and smiths and wizards. 
 Against every knowledge that hath defiled man'^ body and soul. 
 Christ to protect nie to-day against ever}' poison, 
 Against burning, against drowning, against death-wound, 
 So that I may have a multitude of rewards. 
 Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, 
 Christ in me, Christ below me, Christ above me, 
 Christ at my right, Christ at my left, 
 Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height, 
 Christ in the heart of every one that thinks of me, 
 Christ in the mouth of every one that speaks to me, 
 Christ in the eye of every one that sees me, * 
 
 Christ in the ear of every one that hears me, 
 
 I bind myself to-day to a strong power, an invocation of the Trinity 
 I believe a threeness with confession of a oneness, 
 A Trinity in unity, 
 In [the] Creator of the universe. 
 
 Salvation is the Lord's, salvation is the Lord's, salvation is Christ's, 
 ]\ray tliy salvation. Lord, be always with us! Amen.^ 
 
 1 This liymn has no fabulous miracles in it like the works cf Tirechan ?nd Muir- 
 ciiu about two centuries later. It makes no reference to the worship of saiiits, 
 
ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 115 
 
 If the king and his hosts of guests heard the singers and 
 their sublime hymn they must have been filled with astonish- 
 ment at the novel strains and confident appeals to God for 
 help. 
 
 As Patrick entered the great banqueting hall, as Muirchu 
 Maccu-Mactheni says, " to make an address before all the 
 tribes [of Hibernia] upon the holy faith," ^ he seems weak- 
 ness itself inviting death from thousands of blood-stained 
 reprobates. Patrick had a severe contest with Lucetmail, 
 another magician, who tried like the magicians of Egypt in 
 the days of Moses, to excel Patrick's supposed miracles, but 
 he lost his life in the contest. As a result of the exciting 
 conflict between Patrick and Lucetmail, Loeghaire and many 
 others believed. Some like the king, through fear of Pat- 
 rick's supposed magical power, and others like Dubthach 
 Maccu-Lugair, the " king-poet," with saving faith. Patrick 
 secured a great victory at Tara, which, in a large measure, 
 opened Ireland to the gospel. 
 
 Muirchu, from whom this account of Patrick's visit to Tara 
 is taken, like other writers of his day, credits him with a 
 number of miracles. Even his converts were likely to believe 
 in his supernatural powers. 
 
 When Augustine came from Kome as a missionary to 
 England, in a. d. 596, Ethelbert, king of Kent, a man of 
 superior intelligence, with a Christian wife, was afraid to 
 meet Augustine and his brethren " in a house," as Bede says, 
 " lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised 
 any magical arts, they might impose upon him." ' So when 
 Loeghaire was going to meet Patrick at the Graves of the 
 men of Fiace, his wizards said to him : 
 
 angels, or the Virgin Mary. It speaks of incantations, wizarcjs, and the black laws 
 of heathenism, showing its adaptation to Ireland in Patrick's early ministry. It 
 is full of evangelical scriptural sentiments such as Patrick held; and it has one 
 expression, "the judgment of doom," which in some form was often on Patrick's 
 lips. The hymn seems to have had Patrick for its author. We have given sevon 
 of the eleven stanzes. 
 
 1 In "Government Tripartite Life," p. 285. London, 1887. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 25. 
 
116 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 O king, you shall not go to the place where the fire is (Patrick's 
 place), lest afterward you might reverence hitn who kindled it, but 
 you shall be on the outside near by, and he shall be called to you that 
 he may reverence you, and the king said: "You have suggested a 
 good plan ; I will do as you advise." 
 
 Patrick was regarded as an enchanter by some of the 
 Hibernian heathen, and it is highly probable that not a few 
 of them after their conversion, seeing his remarkable success, 
 reckoned him as one of Christ's enchanters who wrought 
 wonders. In this way some of these miracles originated. 
 
 Patrick does not himself allude to miracles, but he speaks 
 in terms of unbounded gratitude for the grace that enabled 
 him to lead such numbers to Jesus. 
 
 The truth of Muirchu's narrative of Patrick's religious 
 success at the Graves of the men of Fiacc and at Tara is 
 in the main certain. Anything which cannot be accounted 
 for by natural causes is an invention added to the original 
 text, probably by a later hand, but not destroying its verity 
 and value. 
 
 Another great advantage possessed by Patrick was his 
 acquaintance with the Irish language. It is sometimes 
 assumed that as a Briton his tongue was identical with that 
 of Hiberiia. The people of Gaul, Britain, and Ireland had 
 exactly the same language before the Britons left the rest of 
 the Celtic family to occupy their island home, and before the 
 Irish removed to Hibernia. But time and separation made 
 great changes. St. Patrick, by such a miracle of Providence 
 as sent Joseph into Egypt to provide for his kindred and the 
 subjects of Pharaoh in the coming famine, was carried into 
 Hibernia in his youth and detained there six years, that he 
 might learn its language thoroughly, and that he might be 
 able to preach Christ with irresistible eloquence. 
 
 Patrick had a remarkable influence over those whom he 
 met, a magnetic power to draw their affections to himself and 
 their hearts to his Master. His disciples held him in the 
 greatest reverence while he lived, and loved him after his 
 death next to their gracious Redeemer. There were no divi- 
 
ST. Patrick's missionary qualifications. 117 
 
 sions among his followers, however numerous they became. 
 Patrick was the recognized ruler of his many churches whose 
 members bestowed his name upon their children until it be- 
 came the most common given name among Celtic Hibernians. 
 Gibbon, referring to this, speaks of Patricius and Augustus 
 as common names in Italy, and states that " the meanest sub- 
 jects of the Roman empire assumed the illustrious name of 
 Patricius (Patrick, a noble), which by the conversion of 
 Ireland, has been communicated to a whole nation." Though 
 St. Patrick has been dead fourteen hundred and fifty years, 
 he still lives in millions of Celtic hearts in Hibernia and in 
 other lands, and their children, schools, and churches still 
 bear his honored name. 
 
 Patrick's chief qualification was constant reliance upon the 
 grace and spirit of God ; hence we read in the " Confession " : 
 " I can accomplish nothing unless my Lord himself should 
 give it to me." " It was not my grace, but God who overcame 
 me that I should come to the Hibernian nations to preach the 
 gospel." " Therefore I am much indebted to God who gave 
 me such great grace that many were born again of God." 
 
 These convictions made him pray incessantly for the con- 
 version of souls. Like the well-known prayer of John Knox, 
 " Give me Scotland or I die," so Patrick's heart was con- 
 tinually crying out to God, " Give me Ireland or I die," and 
 as a result God opened the windows of heaven and poured 
 out floods of converting grace, so that Ireland in his day, 
 while not entirely w^ithout unbelievers, became a Christian 
 island, and soon after a school for missionaries to the heathen 
 Picts of Scotland, the Pagan Anglo-Saxons, and the idolaters 
 of almost every section of the continent of Europe. It is a 
 little remarkable that this grand old believer in sovereign 
 grace, in full salvation in the blood of the Lamb, and in the 
 immersion of believers, should give his name to popish 
 churches, where his gospel is denounced, and bis Baptist 
 brethren, with whose doctrines his writings are in singular 
 agreement, are branded with heretical infamy. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ST. Patrick's great work, and his exalted worth. 
 
 Cummian and St. Patrick's work and worth — The Four Masters— 
 Marianus iScotus— The Chronological Tract— The Lebar Brecc 
 Homily— Joceline—Giraldus Cambrensis— Roger of Wendover— 
 AV illiam of Mahnesbury— Mathew of Westminster— Eapin— Arch- 
 bishop Ussher— Mosheim— Neander— Dr. M'Lauchlan— Prof. G. 
 T. Stokes, D. D.— The Duke of Connaught— The oldest and the 
 greatest Religious Tract Society in Europe. 
 
 In the following quotations the author claims the truth of 
 the general drift only of the evidence presented ; the precise 
 number of churches founded by Patrick, or of clergymen or- 
 dained by him, cannot be given, and the dates cannot be 
 fixed with exactness. In A. d. 634, St. Cummian wrote a 
 treatise against the Irish time of observing Easter, in the 
 form of an epistle to Segienus, abbot of lona. He was a 
 Hibernian, a graduate of the great school of Durrow. He 
 was an eminent scholar. In his epistle he shows an acquaint- 
 ance with Origen, Cyprian, Cyril, Augustine, and Gregory 
 the Great ; and he speaks of Patrick as " Holy Patrick, our 
 father,'' ^ that is, the father of Irish Christianity, and the 
 human founder of all its institutions in Hibernia and 
 Scotland. 
 
 The celebrated " Four Masters," ^ whose large work was 
 compiled in the first half of the seventeenth century out of 
 ancient records, relate that St. Patrick erected seven hun- 
 dred churches, ordained seven hundred bishops and threo 
 thousand priests, and baptized all Ireland. 
 
 The " Chronicle " of Marianus Scotus,^ a Hibernian, as the 
 
 1 "Vet. Ep. Hibern. Sylloge," Ussher's ".Works," Vol, IV., p. 440. 
 
 2 " Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," at a. d. 493. O'Donovan. 
 
 3 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 510. 
 118 
 
ST. Patrick's great work. 119 
 
 latter name tells us, was written about A. d. 1072. In it it 
 is stated that " Holy Patrick, a Briton, preaching with signs 
 and wonders, turned the whole island of Ireland to the faith " 
 of Christ. Marianus Scotus was one of the most celebrated 
 scholars and writers of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The Chronological Tract ^ in the Lebar Brecc, written in the 
 eleventh century, says of St. Patrick : 
 
 Seven hundred fair churches he erected : 
 He raised them from the ground, 
 
 " The Lebar Brecc Homily on St. Patrick," composed in 
 the thirteenth century, and first printed with the " Govern- 
 ment Tripartite Life," at page 431, says : " One of the splen- 
 dors which the Sun of Righteousness shed upon the world 
 was the splendor, and the flame, the precious stone and the 
 shining lamp which enlightened the west of the world, Holy 
 Patrick, high bishop of the west of the world, father of the 
 baptism and belief of the men of Ireland." Patrick's re- 
 ligious descendants, teaching and preaching for ages all over 
 Europe, had secured for him a wide-spread and flattering 
 reputation long before the " Lebar Brecc " was written. 
 
 Joceline says : ^ " He consecrated three hundred and fifty 
 bishops with his own hand, he founded seven hundred churches, 
 aud advanced five thousand clergymen to the sacerdotal 
 rank and service." Joceline, who in the twelfth century, 
 wrote one of the many "Lives" of St. Patrick, was an 
 author of considerable reputation. 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis,^ was cousin to the chief Norman- 
 Welsh warriors who achieved the " English " conquest of Ire- 
 land. Writing of Patrick, he states that : 
 
 He was a native of Britain, eminent for the sanctity of his life, 
 who, finding the nation [Irish] sunk in idoh\try, and immersed in 
 all kii>ds of superstitions, was the first who, aided by divine grace, 
 preached the faith of Christ, and planted it among them. The 
 
 1 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., pp. 551, 553. 
 
 « Ussher's " Works," Vol. VI,, p. 518. 
 
 3 "Topography of Ireland," Dist. Ill, Cap. XVI. 
 
120 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 people flocking in throngs to be baptized by him, and the whole 
 island having been converted to Christianity, he chose Armagh fur 
 his see. 
 
 Roger, of Wendover/ an EnglisbmaD, who died in A. d. 
 1237, whose work was largely stolen by the celebrated his- 
 torian, Matthew Paris, and whose name it still bears in 
 old editions of Paris, relates of St. Patrick, that " during eighty 
 years he was a pattern of apostolical virtue. . . He ordained 
 three hundred and forty-five bishops and three thousand pres- 
 byters ; moreover, he converted twelve thousand men in the 
 province of Connaught to the Christian faith. . . Passing 
 into Ireland with spiritual treasures, he baptized its people." 
 
 William of Malmesbury,"^ who died in a. d. 1143, an Eng- 
 lishman, of whom Leland writes, " He is an elegant, learned, 
 and faithful historian," says : "It is written in the year of our 
 Lord's incarnation, a. d. 425, that St. Patrick is ordained to 
 Ireland. . . In A. D. 433, Ireland is converted to the faith 
 of Christ by the preaching of St. Patrick." 
 
 Matthew of Westminster, a historian, whose great work 
 has been honored by frequent references by Hume and 
 others, an English author of the fourteenth century, writes : 
 " St, Patrick went to Ireland girded up to preach the gospel, 
 and rich in spiritual treasures ; he baptized the Irish, gain- 
 ing many to God." ^ 
 
 Rapin,* the author of a voluminous history of England, 
 was a Frenchman. His work is, in many respects, the fairest 
 and best record of Great Britain ever published. About St. 
 Patrick, he writes : " He was one of the most remarkable men 
 for the conversion of the Irish, which is generally ascribed to 
 him. . . The Irish did, and still do, reverence him as their 
 apostle and protector. . . Patrick, the Great, the converter 
 of the Irish, governed the Church of Ireland for sixty 
 years." 
 
 1 Wendover's " Flowers of History," at A. D. 491. 
 
 * " Chronicle," Lib. I., cap. 2, p. 4. 
 
 8 " Flowers of History," at a. d. 493. 
 
 4 " History of England," Vol. I., p. 43. London, 1732. 
 
ST. PATRICK'S GREAT WORK. 121 
 
 Archbishop Ussher ^ (Calvinistic Episcopalian), one of the 
 most learned men that ever lived, whose works are still 
 among the chief treasures of the admirers of scholarly worth, 
 devotes many pages to the career of St. Patrick. In a letter 
 to William Camden, written in June, 1618, he speaks of the 
 apostle of Ireland as "Our great St. Patrick." He justly 
 treats his supposed miracles with contempt, but " wishes that 
 the credit of that worthy man himself should in no wise be 
 touched. Elsewhere^ he quotes with favor the statement of 
 Sigebertus in his " Chronicle," who " wrote about our Patrick, 
 that, having been ordained archbishop of the Scots [Irish], 
 and excelling for sixty years in signs, sanctity, and instruc- 
 tion, he converted the whole island of Hibernia to Christ." 
 
 Mosheim^ says : " Patrick, although there were some Chris- 
 tians before his arrival, has been justly called the 'Apostle 
 of Ireland.' " 
 
 Neander* writes : " Patrick abandoned of all human aid, 
 (as a slave and swineherd in Ireland), found protection, help, 
 and solace in God, and found his chief delight in prayer and 
 pious meditations. If Patrick came to Ireland as a deputy 
 from Kome, it might naturally be expected that in the Irish 
 church a certain sense of dependence would always have been 
 preserved toward the mother church at Rome. But we find, 
 on the contrary, in the Irish church afterward, a spirit of 
 church freedom, similar to that shown by the ancient British 
 church, which struggled against the yoke of Roman ordi- 
 nances." 
 
 This goes to prove that the origin of this church was 
 independent of Rome, and must be traced solely to the people 
 of Britain. Neander further says : 
 
 Patrick possessed a great advantage in prosecuting his work in 
 Ireland from his knowledge of the customs and language of the 
 
 1 Ussher's •' Works," Vol. XV., p. 154. 
 
 2 Ibid., Vol. VI., p. 283. 
 
 3" Eccles. Hist.," p. 175. London, 1848. 
 
 ♦"General History of the Christian Church," Vol. II., pp. 122-124. 
 L. 
 
122 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 country. He assembled around him in the open fields, at the beat 
 of a drum, a concourse of people, where he related to them the story 
 of Christ, which relation manifested its divine power upon their rude 
 mind. 
 
 Dr. Thomas M'Lauchlin * (Presbyterian), a distinguished 
 Celtic scholar, writes : 
 
 From all that can be learned of St. Patrick there never was a 
 nobler Christian missionary. . . He went to Ireland from love 
 to Christ and love to the souls of men. . . It is strange that a 
 people who owed Rome nothing in connection with their conversion 
 to Christ, and who long struggled against her pretensions, should 
 now be ranked as her most devoted adherents. 
 
 Professor George T. Stokes,' D. D., (Episcopalian), the 
 author of a very valuable work on the Celtic church, says : 
 "St. Patrick had spent his youth in Ireland. There God 
 had revealed himself to his soul, and Patrick ever longed 
 to return to the same country with the tidings of salva- 
 tion. . . Great missionaries should be great generals, they 
 require the peculiar talents demanded in great conquerors. . . 
 Such an one was St. Patrick." 
 
 On May 1, 1850, Arthur William Patrick Albert, Duke 
 of Connaught, was born. This son of Victoria is named for 
 Arthur Wellesley, the great Duke of Wellington, King 
 William, St. Patrick, and his own father. Prince Albert. 
 Truly Patrick's name is in distinguished company. And it 
 is a little curious, though perhaps not intended when the 
 title was conferred, that Patrick gathered in Connaught the 
 greatest harvest of converts he ever received at one time. 
 He baptized twelve thousand persons there in a great out- 
 pouring of the Spirit of God, including Amalgaid, the king 
 of Connaught, and his seven sons. 
 
 In the " Writings of Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland," as 
 a work recently issued by the Religious Tract Society, of 
 London, is called, its editor, Dr. Wright, Bampton lecturer 
 for 1878 in the University of Oxford, writes : 
 
 1 " The Early Scottish Church," p. 99. 
 
 « " Ireland and the Celtic Church, pp. 46, 47, 62. 
 
ST. Patrick's great work. 123 
 
 The modesty and humility exhibited by Patrick in the account 
 presented of the marvelous success of his mission is most remark- 
 able. There is, moreover, in his writings a display of genuine mis- 
 sionary spirit, which, as it has roused many a Christian worker to 
 action in the past, may well stir up many in our day also. Patrick 
 everywhere displays an earnest trust and faith in the constant pro- 
 tection of a gracious Providence. His love for the souls of men among 
 whom he labored, notwithstanding the bad treatment he received at 
 their hands, is remarkable A simple, unatiected piety, wholly 
 devoid of ostentation, breathes forth in every paragraph of his 
 writings. They ought to be dear to all lovers of the gospel of Christ 
 to whatsoever creed they may belong. 
 
 Patrick's writings ought to be prized by all who delight in such 
 devotional works as the "Confessions of Augustine," or the "Imi- 
 tation of Christ," of Thomas a Kempis. Much food will be found 
 for the devotional life in the simple "remains" of the apostle of 
 Ireland. 1 
 
 1 Patrick's " Writings," pp. 26, 27, 28. Keligious Tract Society of London. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 ST. Patrick's confession, and his letter to coroticus. 
 
 Authenticity of the Pamphlets. 
 
 We shall mention only a few of the numerous reasons 
 why these two works of the Apostle of Ireland are regarded 
 as genuine. 
 
 Books written a little over two hundred years after St. 
 Patrick's death, such as those of Tirechan, Muirchu Maccu- 
 Mactheni, and Adamnan, who were good but credulous 
 men, abound in miracles, preposterous and sometimes cruel ; 
 and even Venerable Bede himself, occasionally disgraces his 
 noble history by similar fictions. St. Patrick's writings are 
 entirely free from such fables. They read like sober and 
 truthful records. 
 
 St. Patrick states that he writes poor Latin. He makes 
 grammatical mistakes, and has a somewhat barbarous 
 style ; but this is to be expected from a Briton who learned 
 Latin in his boyhood, studied for some time in France, and 
 preached in Irish during many years. Any one acquainted 
 with the " History of the Franks " of Gregory, who became 
 bishop of Tours, in France, in A. d. 573, will see such a re- 
 semblance to Patrick's Latin as will speak strongly for the 
 genuineness of his "Confession," and of his "Letter to 
 Coroticus." 
 
 The ancient " Book of Armagh," still preserved in Trin- 
 ity College, Dublin, has evidence, universally accepted 
 bv learned men, that it was in existence as early as a. d. 
 807. It contains among other writings, a copy of St. Pat- 
 rick's " Confession," at the end of which there is a note of the 
 transcriber, reading : " Thus far the volume which Patrick 
 124 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. 125 
 
 wrote with his owd hand." i There are strong reasons for 
 receiving the testimony of the copyist as the truth. 
 
 Tirechan's "Notes on St. Patrick's Life," written in the 
 end of the seventh century, are in the " Book of Armaeh." 
 He quotes St. Patrick's " Confession," calling it " his writ- 
 ing [seriptio sim]. These are weighty testimonies to the gen- 
 uineness of the " Confession." 
 
 There is a complete absence of motive to commit a forgery 
 in the " Confession " or the " Letter to Coroticus." " The 
 Book of the Angel," in the " Book of Armagh," was in- 
 tended to magnify the importance of the see of Armagh, as 
 a secondary object, though it is introduced first; and then, as 
 its primary aim, to link Ireland to the pope by appeals' to 
 Rome. In it, there is a strong reason to suspect fraud. But, 
 in the "Confession " and the " Epistle to Coroticus," there is 
 absolutely nothing upon which to base a charge o*f forgery. 
 Both works are intensely earnest and religious, full of Script- 
 ure and of the spirit of the Redeemer ; and they impress 
 the thoughful reader with the conviction that St. Patrick, 
 their author, was one of the greatest and holiest men who' 
 ever preached salvation through the Cross; and that these 
 are his genuine writings. 
 
 Of the "Letter to Coroticus," Professor Stokes justly says: 
 "ItsLatinity is apparently of the same age and from the 
 same pen as the ' Confession.' It quotes the old Latin ver- 
 sion of the Bible [earlier than Jerome's * Vulgate'], and is 
 therefore generally accepted by critics as genuine." ' Nichol- 
 son,' another competent writer, affirms that St. Patrick's 
 " Epistle to Coroticus," and his epistle to the Irish, commonly 
 called his "Confession," are now by common consent received 
 and acknowledged to be the undoubted productions of the 
 saint." 
 
 J "Hiic usque volumen quod Patricias manu conscripsit sua." "Government 
 Tripartite Life of Patrick," Introduction, p. XCII. 
 
 ^^ Ireland and (he Celtic Church." p. 28. London, 1888. 
 !5t. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. .5., Dublin, 1868. 
 
126 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 The " Cottonian MS.," now in the British Museum, col- 
 lated with the Armagh codex of the '' Confession," edited by 
 Whitley Stokes, D. C. L., in his " Tripartite Life of Patrick, 
 with other Documents Eelating to that Saint," has furnished 
 the Latin text for the following translation. 
 
 In Patrick's " Confession," as he wrote it, there are no 
 chapters ; but this arrangement has been already adopted 
 with advantage by others. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE " CONFESSION " OF ST. PATRICK, OR " THE EPISTLE TO 
 THE IRISH." 
 
 Patrick's parents— His birthplace— His captivity— His conversion 
 among Irish pagans— His desire to glorify God— His Creed— His 
 deficiency in learning — God alone aroused and saved him — He is 
 bound to labor faithfully for Ireland. 
 
 I, Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and least of all the faith- 
 fid, and most contemptible to great numbers, had Calpornius 
 for my father, a deacon, a son of the late Potitus, the pres- 
 byter, who dwelt in the village of Banavan Tibernise, for 
 he had a small farm at hand with the place where I was cap- 
 tured. I was then almost sixteen years of age. I did not 
 know the true God [as my Saviour] ; and was taken to Ire- 
 land in captivity with many thousand men in accordance with 
 our deserts, because we walked at a distance from God, and 
 did not observe his commandments, and were disobedient to 
 our priests, who warned us about our salvation ; and the Lord 
 brought down upon us his swift anger, and scattered us 
 among many nations, even to the end of the earth, where now 
 my littleness is seen among strangers ; and there the Lord 
 gave me a knowledge of my unbelief, that, though late, I 
 might remember my transgressions^ and that I should be 
 converted with my whole heart to the Lord, my God ; who 
 had regard for my humiliation, and compassionated ray youth 
 and ignorance, and protected me before I knew him, and 
 before I had discretion, or could distinguish between good 
 and evil, and shielded and soothed me as a father does a 
 son. 
 
 Wherefore, I am not able to keep silence, nor would it in- 
 deed be proper, about such great benefits, and such great 
 grace as the Lord was pleased to grant me in the land of my 
 captivity ; because this is our recompense [to Him], that, after 
 chastening [brings us] to the knowledge of God, we should 
 exalt and confess his wonderful works before every nation 
 which is under the whole heaven. 
 
 127 
 
128 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 ST. Patrick's creed. 
 
 Because there is no other God, neither ever was, nor shall 
 be after him, except God the Father, unheyotten, without hegin- 
 ing,from whom is all beginning, upholding all things, as we 
 declare ; and his son, Jesus Christ, whom we testify surely to 
 have been always with the Father before the foundation of the 
 tmrld ; spiritually with the Father; in an ineffable manner 
 begotten before all beginning ; by him the things visible and 
 invisible were n^ade; being made man, and having conquered 
 death, he was received into the heavens with the Father. And 
 he gave him all dominion over every name; of those in heaven, 
 and of those on earth, and of those under the earth; that 
 every tongue should confess to him, forasmuch as Jesus 
 Christ is Lord and God; in whom we believe, and whose 
 coming speedily as the future Judge of the living and the dead, 
 we expect, icho will render to every one according to his deeds, 
 and hath' poured out upon us abundantly the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit, the pledge of immortality, who co7istituted the believing 
 and obedient the sons of God, the Father, and joint heirs with 
 Christ, whom we confess and worship, one God in the Trinity 
 of the sacred na^ne. 
 
 For he himself hath said, by the prophets, " Call upon me 
 in the day of thy tribulation, and I will deliver thee, and 
 thou shalt extol me." And again he saith, " It is honorable 
 to reveal and confess the works of God." Although I am 
 imperfect in many things, I desire my brethren and my rela- 
 tives to know my principles, that they may fully understand 
 the desire of my soul. I am not ignorant of the testimony 
 of my Lord, who witnesses in the psalm, " Thou shalt destroy 
 those who utter a falsehood." And again, "The mouth which 
 lies kills the soul." And the same Lord in the gospel 
 says, " The idle word which men shall speak, for it they shall 
 give an account on the day of judgment." Therefore [I 
 sought] with fear and trembling to dread exceedingly this 
 sentence on that day when no one can withdraw or conceal 
 himself, but we shall all render an account even of our 
 «^mallest sins before the tribunal of the Lord Jesus. 
 
ST. Patrick's confession. 129 
 
 Wherefore formerly I proposed to write, but hesitated even 
 until now, for I feared lest I should fall under [the censo- 
 rious] language of men, because I have not learned as others, 
 who, instructed in the best manner and therefore rightly 
 in every way, both drank in sacred literature in a proper 
 manner and have never changed their language from child- 
 hood, but rather constantly added to its improvement. 
 For our language and discourse are translated into a foreign 
 tongue, as can easily be proved by the drivel of my writing 
 after what manner I have been instructed and educated in 
 languages ; because the wise man says, " By the tongue reason 
 is discerned, and knowledge and the teaching of truth." But 
 what avails an excuse even in accordance with truth, especi- 
 ally with presumption? Since indeed now in my old age I 
 myself seek to perfect that which I did not thoroughly learn 
 before in my youth, because [my sins] were a hindrance to 
 learning thoroughly what I had read through before. But 
 who believes me, although I should say, as I have declared 
 before, that when a youth, nay, almost a boy in speech, I was 
 captured, before I knew what 1 ought to seek, or what I ought 
 to shun. Therefore, I blush to-day, and greatly fear to expose 
 my unskillfulness, and not being eloquent I cannot express 
 myself with the brevity of an [able] speech, even as the 
 Spirit moves, and the mind and the endowed understanding 
 point out. 
 
 But if it had been given to me as to others, nevertheless, I 
 would not be silent on account of the recompense, although 
 it seems to some that I place myself forward in this matter 
 with my unskillfulness and slower speech, but it is wriiten, 
 "Stammering tongues shall speedily learn to speak peace." 
 How much more ought we to seek this, we who are the 
 "epistle of Christ" for salvation even to the end of the 
 earth, though not eloquent, yet firm, and most indelibly 
 written in your hearts, " Not with ink, but by the Spirit of 
 the living God." And again the Spirit testifies, " And hus- 
 bandry was appointed by the Most High." Therefore,^ I, 
 first a rustic, a fugitive, uneducated, ignorant how to provide 
 for the future, but I know this most assuredly that before I 
 was humbled I was like a stone which lay in deep mud, and 
 he who is mighty came and in his own way sustained me, and 
 he mdeed raised me up and placed me upon the top of the 
 wall. And hence I ought to cry out loudly to make some 
 return also to the Lord for his so great benefits, here and in 
 
130 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 eternity, which the minds of men cannot estimate. Therefore 
 be ye astonished, both great and small, who fear God. And 
 ye rhetoricians, who do not know the Lord, hear therefore 
 and examine carefully, who aroused me, a fool, from their 
 midst, who appeared to be wise and skillful in the law, pow- 
 erful in speech, and in every matter? And he has inspired 
 me, though abhorred by this world beyond others, if indeed 
 I be such ; but on condition that with fear and reverence and 
 without complaint I should faithfully serve the nation to 
 which the love of Christ transferred me, and gave me during 
 my life, if I should be worthy ; in short, that with humility 
 and truth I should serve them. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ST. Patrick's confession (Continued). 
 
 Patrick's desire to preach~He tends cattle— Frequency and fervor 
 of his praj'Crs— His dream of freedom — His escape from slavery — 
 His repulse at the ship — Successful supplication— The salvation of 
 heathen sailors— Hunger in the desert — God sends food — Patrick 
 will eat nothing offered to idols — Temptation of Satan. 
 
 Therefore, in the measure of the faith of the Trinity, it 
 behooves me to extol without any apprehension of danger 
 and to make known the gifts of Grod and his everlasting 
 consolation, and faithfully, without fear, to spread the name 
 of God everywhere, so that, even after my death, I may 
 leave as legacies to my brethren and to my sons, whom I 
 have baptized in the Lord, so many thousand men. And I 
 was not worthy, nor deserving, that the Lord should yield 
 this to his servant, that after suffering afflictions and so great 
 calamities, after captivity, after many years, he should give 
 me so great favor among that nation, which I formerly in my 
 youth never hoped for, nor thought of 
 
 But after I came to Ireland I daily fed cattle, and I prayed 
 often during the day ; the love of God and his fear increased 
 more and more, and my strength of mind became so vigor- 
 ous that in one day I made as many as a hundred prayers, 
 and in the night nearly the same numlDer ; so when I remained 
 in the woods and in the mountain [Slemish, County Antrim], 
 I was aroused before daylight for prayer, through snow, 
 through frost, through rain, and suffered no injury from it; 
 neither was there any slothfulness in me, as I now perceive, 
 because then the Spirit was fervent within me. 
 
 And there, indeed, on a certain night, I heard in my sleep 
 a voice saying to me, " Thou fastest well, thou art quickly 
 about to go to thy country." And again, after a very short 
 interval, I heard an answer saying to me, " Behold thy ship 
 is ready." And it was not near, but perhaps two hundred 
 miles ; and I had never been there, neither did I know any 
 of the men there. Afterward I took to flight, and left the 
 
 131 
 
132 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 man with whom I had been six years ; and I came in the 
 strength of the Lord, who directed my journey for good ; 
 and I feared nothing until I came to the ship. And on the 
 day of my arrival the vessel moved forward from her place, 
 and I asked them that I might go away and sail with them. 
 And it displeased the captain, who replied sharply with anger, 
 " By no means seek to go with us." And when I heard this 
 I withdrew I'rom them to go to the hut where I lodged. 
 And on the way I began to pray, and befoi'e 1 finished my 
 supplication I heard one of them shouting loudly after me, 
 " Come, quickly, for these men call thee.'' And immedi- 
 ately I returned to them, and they began to say to me, 
 *' Come, for we receive you in good faith ; make a friendship 
 Vfiih. us in any way you wish." So on that day I refused to 
 make friendship with them on account of the fear of God, 
 because they were heathen. Nevertheless, I hoped of 
 them that they would come into the faith of Jesus Christ, 
 because they were heathen ; and on this account I continued 
 with them [and we sailed immediately]. 
 
 After three days we landed, and we journeyed twenty-eight 
 days through a desert, and their food was exhausted, and 
 hunger prevailed over them. And one day the captain 
 began to say to me, " What do you say. Christian ; your God 
 is great and almighty, why therefore can you not pray for us, 
 for we are in danger of famishing? For it will be difficult 
 for us ever again to see a human being." But I said to them, 
 plainly : "Turn with confidence and with the whole heart to 
 the Lord our God, for there is nothing impossible to him, 
 that he may send you food this day on your way, until you 
 are satisfied, for everywhere there is plenty with him." And 
 by God's assistance so it happened. Behold, a herd of swine 
 appeared in the road before our eyes ; and they killed many 
 of them, and greatly refreshed, they remained there two 
 nights ; and they were revived by their flesh, for many of 
 them fainted and were left half dead near the road. And 
 after these things they gave God the warmest thanks, and I 
 was honored in their eyes. And from that day they had food 
 in abundance. 
 
 They found wild honey also and offered some of it to me ; 
 and one of them said, " This has been offered in sacrifice." 
 Thanks to God ! I, therefore, tasted none of it. On the same 
 niuht, while I was sleeping, Satan strongly tempted me, 
 which I shall remember as long as I shall be in this body ; 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. 133 
 
 he fell upon me as a great rock, and I had no power over 
 my members. But whence it came to me into my mind that 
 I should call Helias I know not ; and during these things I 
 saw the sun arise in the heavens, and whilst I called Heltas ^ 
 with all my might, behold, the splendor of the sun fell upon 
 me, and immediately shook from me the [whole] wei^rht. 
 And I believe that I was assisted by Christ, my Lord, [and 
 his Spirit even then] was crying out for me, and I hope that 
 it will be so in the day of my oppression, as the Lord says in 
 the Gospel ; " It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your 
 Father that speaketh in you." 
 
 1 According to Dr. Todd " Helias " is equivalent to the Hebrew Eli, " My God." 
 
 M 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ST. Patrick's confession (Contifiued), 
 
 Another captivity — Provisions for its wants — In Britain with his 
 parents — His missionary call to Ireland — The Spirit praying within 
 him — The Lord aids him when accused — The writing against him 
 in a vision — A good conscience — Patrick's divine gift when a cap- 
 tive — His gratitude to God. 
 
 And again, after many years, I was taken captive once 
 more. On that first night I remained with them I heard a 
 divine communication saying to me, " During two months 
 thou shalt be with them," which happened accordingly. On 
 the sixtieth night the Lord delivered me out of their hands. 
 Behold, on the journey he provided for us food and fire and 
 dry Aveather every day, until on the fourteenth day we met with 
 men. As I intimated above, we journeyed for twenty-eight 
 days through a desert, and on the very night on which we came 
 among human beings our food was all gone. And again, 
 after a few years, I was in the Britains [Great Britain] with 
 my parents, who received me as a son, and besought me 
 earnestly \_ex fide] that now, at least, after the many hard- 
 ships which I had borne, that I would never depart from 
 them again. 
 
 And there I saw, indeed, in the bosom of the night, a man 
 coming as it were from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, 
 with countless letters, one of which he gave to me ; and I 
 read the beginning of the letter containing, "The Voice of 
 the Irish " ; and whilst I read aloud the beginning of the 
 letter, I myself thought, indeed, in my mind that 1 heard the 
 voice of those who were near the wood of Fochlut, which is 
 adjacent to the western sea. And they cried out as if with 
 one voice, " We entreat thee, holy youth, to come and hence- 
 forth walk among us." And I was deeply moved in heart, 
 and was unable to read further ; and so I awoke. Thanks 
 be to God that after very many years the Lord granted to 
 them according to their cry. And on another night, whether 
 within me, or near me, I know not, God knows, with most skill- 
 134 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. 135 
 
 fill words which I heard but could not understand, except at 
 the conclusion of the speech, he thus spoke, " He who gave 
 his life for thee, he himself it is who speaks in thee " ; and so 
 I awoke rejoicing. 
 
 And again, I saw him praying in me, and he was, as it 
 were within my body, and I heard above me, that is, above 
 the inner man, and there he was praying mightily with 
 groans. Meanwhile I was astonished and marveled, and 
 pondered who it could be that was praying in me, but at the 
 end of the prayer he expressed himself that he was the 
 Spirit, and so I awoke and recollected that the apostle says, 
 " The Spirit helps the infirmity of our prayer ; for we know 
 not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit 
 himself pleadeth for us with unutterable groanings, which 
 cannot be expressed in words." And again, " The Lord, our 
 Advocate, maketh intercession for us." 
 
 And when I was attacked by some of my seniors, who 
 came and [urged] my sins against my [proposed] difficult 
 episcopate, so that on that day I was strongly impelled to 
 fall away, here and in eternity. But the Lord spared a 
 proselyte and a stranger for his name's sake ; he graciously 
 and mightily succored me in this treading under, for in the 
 guilt and reproach I did not come out badly. I pray God 
 that it be not reckoned to them as an occasion of sin. After 
 thirty years they found me, and [they brought] against [me] 
 the word which I had confessed before I was a deacon, and 
 which I had, through perplexity and with a sorrowful mind, 
 made known to my dearest friend, what I had done in my 
 boyhood, on one day, nay in one hour, because I was not yet 
 [fitted] to overcome. I know not, God knows, if at that 
 time I was fifteen years of age. And I did not put my trust 
 in the living God from infancy, but I continued in death 
 and in unbelief until I suffered severe chastisement ; and I 
 was humbled to [accept] the truth by hunger and nakedness, 
 and that daily. On the other hand, I did not of my own 
 accord go to Ireland until I became almost dejected [prope 
 defiGiebam~\. But this was rather good for me, for by it I was 
 corrected by the Lord ; and he made me fit this day that I 
 should be what was once far from me ; that I should be filled 
 with anxiety and be concerned for the salvation of others ; 
 since, at that time, 1 did not think even of myself 
 
 Then on that day on which I was reproached for those 
 remembered things above mentioned ; on that night, I saw in 
 
136 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 a vision of the uight that there was a writing opposite to my 
 face without honor. And in the meanwhile I heard a divine 
 communication saying to me, " We have seen with displeas- 
 ure the face of a designatiis,^ with his name removed." He 
 did not say, " You have seen with displeasure," but " We 
 have seen with displeasure," as if he had joined himself to 
 me, as he has said, " He that toucheth you is as one who 
 toucheth the pupil of my eye." Therefore I gave thanks to 
 him who comforted me in all things, that he did not hinder 
 me from the journey which I had decided on, and also 
 from my work which I have learned from Christ my Lord. 
 But the more from that time I felt in myself no small power, 
 and my faith was approved before God and men. But, there- 
 fore, I say boldly that my conscience does not blame me here, 
 or for the future. I have God as my witness that I have not 
 lied in the statement which I have related to you. 
 
 But I grieve more for my most valued friend to w^hom I 
 entrusted even my life, that we should have deserved to listen 
 to such statements. And I learned from some of my brethren 
 before that defense, that when I was not present, nor in the 
 Britains, nor did it originate from me, that he also, in my 
 absence, entered into a conflict for me. He himself said to 
 me with his own mouth, " Behold thou art to be granted the 
 dignity of a bishop," of which I was not worthy. Where- 
 fore, then, did it come to him afterward, that before all, good 
 and bad, he should publicly dishonor me, although before, 
 of his own accord, he joyfully granted [that honor to me]. 
 It is the Lord who is greater than all. I have said enough. 
 
 I ought not, however, to hide the gift of God which he 
 bestowed upon us in the land of my captivity ; for there I 
 earnestly sought him and I found him there, and he kept me 
 from all iniquities ; I believe so, because of his Spirit dwell- 
 ing in me ; who has wrought in me again boldly even to this 
 day. But God knows that if a man had spoken this to me 
 I might perhaps have been ^silent for the love of Christ. 
 Wherefore, I give unwearied thanks to my God who pre- 
 served me faithful in the day of my temptation, so that I 
 may to-day with confidence offer my soul a sacrifice to him, 
 a living victim to Christ my Lord, who preserved me in all 
 my straits, so that I may say, " Who am I, Lord ? and what is 
 my calling, that thou hast co-operated with me by such diving 
 power? "so that to-day I can continually exult among the 
 
 1 Patrick, the bishop designate. 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. I37 
 
 Gentiles, aud extol thy name wherever I shall be not onlv in 
 prosperity but even in adversity ; that whatsoever'may happ u 
 to me either good or ev.I, I ought to bear it alike, and a'wavs 
 give thanks to God, who has shown me that I need et no S 
 to my trust m h,m who cannot be doubted, and that he w 
 dZ Z' '1 ^^' \ '^r^^^ J.*"" 'S""^"^"'' ^'>«''W in these Zt 
 
 derfnf th^f T ""'^'''f'^.' '^'' '"''/•"' "^•"'^'^"^ «"d so won- 
 derful; that I may imitate some of those of whom long before 
 the Lord predicted that they should publish his gospel "for 
 a testimony to all nations before the end of the world " which 
 has therefore, as we have seen, been so fulfilled. Behold we 
 
 TnX '?""il*'''-^"'P'' ^"^ ''«<=" P^^a'^'-ed everywhere, 
 in places where there is no man beyond. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ST. Patrick's confession (Continued). 
 
 Patrick's dangers and deliverances — Abounding grace fitted him for 
 his mission — His willingness to die for his Master — He aimed at the 
 salvation of multitudes — The gospel for all nations— Irish converts 
 — Brigit — The Spirit hinders him from visiting Britain or France 
 *— The power of the tempter — His faithfulness. 
 
 It would occupy much time to give an account of all my 
 labors in detail, or even in part. Briefly I may tell how the 
 most righteous God frequently delivered me from slavery, 
 and from twelve dangers in which my life was in peril, 
 besides many snares and evils which I cannot express in 
 words, neither would I trouble my readers. But I have 
 God, the Creator, who knew all things even before they 
 were made, as he knew me, his poor pupil. So, however, 
 a divine communication very often admonished me [and I 
 asked] whence I obtained this wisdom which was not in 
 me, I, who neither knew the number of my days, nor had a 
 knowledge of God ? Whence did I receive afterward the 
 gift, so great, so salutary to acknowledge God and to love 
 him, that I should leave my country and parents, and many 
 gifts which were offered to me with weeping and tears ? And 
 I also offended against my wish certain of my seniors. But 
 God ruled it that in no way did I consent, or comply with 
 them. It was not my grace, but God who conquered in me 
 and resisted them all, so that I came to the Hibernian people 
 to preach the gospel, and endure insults from unbelievers, 
 and hear reproaches about my wanderings, and [suffer] many 
 persecutions, even to chains, and that I should give my 
 nobility for the advantage of others. And if I should be 
 worthy I am ready to lay down my life without delay and 
 most gladly for his name ; and there I desire to spend it even 
 until death, if the Lord permit. For I am greatly indebted 
 to God, who bestowed on me so much grace that many people 
 have through me been born again to God, and that every- 
 where clergymen should be ordained for a people lately 
 coming to the faith, whom the Lord drew from the ends of 
 138 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. 139 
 
 the earth, as he had promised by the prophets, "To thee the 
 Gentiles will come and say, As our fathers made false idols 
 and there is no advantage in them." And again, "I have 
 se thee to be a light for the Gentles, that thou mayest be for 
 salvation even unto the end of the earth." And there I wish 
 to await His promise, who never lies, as he promises in the 
 T'^r-. I^^ shall come from the east and the west, and 
 shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob." So we 
 trust that believers will come from the whole world 
 
 Therefore, we ought to fish well and diligently as'the Lord 
 forewarns and teaches us, saying, " Come after me, and I will 
 make you fishers of men." And agam he says, bv the 
 prophets "Behold, I send many fishers and hunters, 'saith 
 the Lord, etc. Wherefore, it greatly behooves us to spread 
 our nets so that a copious multitude and throng mav be 
 taken for God ; and that everywhere there might be cler^v- 
 men who shall baptize and exhort a people, needy and deSr- 
 ing [the Saviour's approval] ; as the Lord in the gospel fore- 
 warns and teaches, saying : " Going, therefore, teach all nations, 
 baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son 
 and ot the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all thino-s 
 whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you 
 every day, even to the end of the world." And again he 
 says: Going, therefore, into the whole world, preach the 
 gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized 
 shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be con- 
 demned. And again: "This gospel of the kingdom shall 
 be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations, 
 and then shall the end come." 
 
 u rf ""u' W^?""'^.^' tjie ford, foretelling by the prophet, says : 
 It shall be in the last days, saith the Lord, that I will 
 pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh, your sons and your 
 daughters shall prophesy, and your sons shall see visions," and 
 vour old men shall dream dreams. And upon my servants 
 indeed, and upon my handmaids in those days, I will pour out 
 ot my Spirit and they shall prophesy." And in Osee, he 
 says : i will call that which was not my people, my people, 
 and that which had not obtained mercy, as having obtained 
 mercy ; and it shall be in the place where it was said, ' Ye are 
 not my people, there they shall be called sons of the living 
 
 o\'or 
 
 Whence then is it that in Leland they who have n. ■^;- 
 bad any knowledge of God, and until now have alw;iv 
 
140 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHEg. 
 
 worshiped only idols and unclean things? how is it, that 
 they have lately become the people of the Lord, and are 
 called the sons of God ? Sons of the Scots [ Irish ] and 
 daughters of chieftains are seen to be monks and virgins of 
 Christ. And there was even one blessed Irish lady [St. 
 Brigit], of noble birth, very beautiful, an adult, ^vhom I 
 baptized.^ 
 
 And after a few days she came to us for a reason, and 
 informed us that she had received a response from a messen- 
 ger of God, and he advised her that she should be a virgin 
 of Christ and that she should draw near to God. Thanks be 
 to God, on the sixth day from that she, most opportunely and 
 eagerly, seized on that which also all the virgins of God do ; 
 not with the will of their fathers, but they suffer persecution, 
 and false reproaches from their parents ; and nevertheless the 
 number increases the more, and of our race who were born 
 [to Christ] there, we know not the number besides widows 
 and continent women. But the women who are held in 
 slavery are the chief sufferers ; but in defiance of terrors 
 and threatenings they have constantly persevered. But the 
 Lord gave grace to many of my handmaids for, although 
 they are prohibited, they courageously imitate him. 
 
 Wherefore, though I could wdsh to leave them, and had 
 been most willingly prepared to go to the Britain s, as to my 
 country and parents, and not that only, but I was prepared 
 to visit the brethren even in the Gauls, that I might see the 
 face of the saints of my Lord. God knows that I greatly 
 desired it ; but I am bound by the Spirit who testifieth to 
 me, that if I should do this, he would mark me as guilty of 
 what might happen ; and I fear to destroy the w^ork which I 
 have begun ; and not I, but Christ the Lord, who com- 
 manded me to come and be with them the rest of my life, 
 if the Lord will, and if he will keep me from every evil way, 
 that I may not sin before him. But I hope [to do] that 
 which I ought ; but I do not trust myself so long as I am in 
 this body of death ; for strong he is who daily tries to turn 
 me from the faith, and from the purity of religion, proposed 
 [in myself] not feignedly ; [which I will observe] even to 
 the end of my life, to Christ my Lord. But the flesh, 
 always hostile, leads to death, that is, to allurements unlaw- 
 
 1 Of the paragraph beginning with, "Sons of the Scots," and ending with, "I 
 baptized," Nicholson justly says: "I agree with Sir W. Bethara that these sentences 
 are interpolated. " St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland," p lOf.. DiibMn. 1S68. 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CONFESSION. 141 
 
 fully enjoyed. And I know in part why I have not led a 
 perfect life like other . believers. But I confess to my Lord, 
 and I do not blush in his presence, because I do not lie, that 
 from the time that I kneAv him in my youth, the love of God 
 has increased in me, and his fear ; and until this day, by the 
 favor of the Lord, I have kept the faith. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ST. patkick's confession (^Concluded). 
 
 Patrick's defiance of unbelieving enemies— God's consideration for 
 his trials— He justifies his conduct in Ireland— He refuses gifts- 
 He baptizes and ordains without compensation— He gives largely 
 of his own means — His life is in danger— His purpose in coming 
 as a missionary to Ireland— He gives God all the glory of his 
 success. 
 
 Let him who wishes, scoff and revile, I will not be silent ; 
 neither will I conceal the signs and wonders which were 
 given to me by the Lord many years before they came to 
 pass, as he knew all things even before the time of this 
 world. Hence I ought to give thanks to God Vvdthoiit 
 ceasing, who frequently overlooked my folly and my neg- 
 ligence, even out of place, and not in one instance only, 
 that he might not be vehemently angry with me ; although I 
 was given to be his helper, I did not quickly yield to what 
 was pointed out to me, and as the Spirit suggested. And the 
 Lord had pity on me among thousands and thousands, because 
 he saw in me that I was ready, but that in my case for these 
 reasons I knew not what to do about my position, because 
 many were hindering this mission, and already talked behind 
 my back, and said : " Why does this man put himself into 
 danger among enemies who have no knowledge of God?" 
 I did not understand that [they spoke] for the sake of malice, 
 but it was in their opinion, as I myself also admit, on account 
 of my defect in learning. And I did not quickly recognize 
 the grace that was then in me ; but now I understand that I 
 ought before [to have obeyed, God calling me]. 
 
 Now, therefore, I have related simply to my brethren and 
 fellow-servants, who trusted me [the reason], why I have 
 preached and do preach for the building up and confirma- 
 tion of your faith. AVould that you might follow greater 
 and perform mightier things ; this will be my glory, for a 
 wise son is the glory of the father. You knoiv, and God 
 also, how I have coiiducted myself among you from my youth, 
 both in the faith of the truth and in sincerity of heart ; 
 142 
 
ST. Patrick's confession. 143 
 
 also in reference to the nations among whom I dwell. 
 I have kept faith with them and I shall keep it. God 
 knows that I have defrauded none of them. Neither do I 
 think [of this] on account of God and his church lest I 
 might excite persecution against them and us all, and lest 
 through me the name of the Lord should be blasphemed ; 
 because it is written : " Woe to the man by whom the name 
 of the Lord is blasphemed." 
 
 For though I am unskillful in all things, yet I have tried 
 in some measure to protect even my Christian brethren, and 
 the virgins of Christ, and religious women who have pre- 
 sented to me small voluntary gifts, and their ornaments, 
 which they placed upon the altar, and I returned these to 
 them again ; and they were provoked against me because 
 I did this. But I [acted in this way] on account of the hope 
 of eternal life, that I might, therefore, in all things cautiously 
 guard myself, so that unbelievers may not catch me on any 
 pretext, or the ministry of my service ; and that, even in the 
 smallest matter, I might not give them occasion to defame, or 
 depreciate me. But perhaps since I have baptized so many 
 thousand men, I might have expected half a screpall ^ from 
 some of them. Tell it to me, and I will restore it to you. 
 Or when the Lord ordained clergymen everywhere through 
 my humble instrumentality, I conferred the rite gratuitously. 
 If I asked from any of them even the price of my shoe, tell 
 it against me and I will restore you more. 
 
 I spent for you that they might receive me ; and among 
 you and everywhere I traveled on your account through 
 many dangers, even to remote places where there was no 
 one beyond, and where no one had ever come to baptize, 
 ordain clergymen, or edify the people. The Lord giving it, 
 I diligently and most willingly^ for your salvation, furnished 
 all things. In the meantime, I made presents to the kings, 
 besides which I gave hire to their sons who escorted me ; 
 nevertheless, they seized me with my companions. And on 
 that day they were very eager to kill me ; but the time had 
 not yet come. And they took everything which they found 
 in our possession, and they bound me with iron. And on the 
 fourteenth day the Lord freed me from their power, and 
 whatever belonged to us was restored to us, through God and 
 needful friends whom we had provided beforehand. But you 
 know how much I paid to those who acted as judges through 
 
 1 An ancient Celtic coin, worth six cents. 
 
144 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 all the regions which I more frequently visited ; for I think 
 that I distributed to them not less than the price of fifteen 
 men that you might enjoy me, and that I may always enjoy 
 you in God ; nor do I repent of it, nor is it enough for me — I 
 still spend and will spend for your souls. The Lord is mighty, 
 and may he grant to me henceforth that I may spend myself 
 for your souls ! 
 
 Behold I call God to witness upon my soul that I lie not ; 
 neither have I written to you that there might be an oppor- 
 tunity for flattery, or for greed [of praise], nor do I hope for 
 honor from any man. For sufficient for me is the honor 
 which is not seen but is believed in the heart, since faithful 
 is he that promises ; he never lies ; but I see now, in the 
 present age, that I am exalted above measure by the Lord, 
 and I was not worthy, nor deserving that he should do this 
 for me; since I know that poverty and calamity are more 
 convenient for me than riches and pleasures. But Christ the 
 Lord was poor for us. 
 
 But I, poor and miserable, if I washed for riches, have 
 them not ; neither do I judge myself worthy, because I daily 
 expect either murder, or to be circumvented, or to be restored 
 to slavery, or misfortune of some kind. But I fear none of 
 these things because of the promises of the heavens, for I 
 have placed myself in the hands of the omnipotent God, 
 who reigns everywhere ; as the prophet says : " Cast thy care 
 upon God and he will maintain thee." Behold, now, I com- 
 mend my soul to my most faithful God, for whom I act as an 
 ambassador in my unworthiness, because, indeed, he does not 
 accept the person, and he chose me to this ofiBce that I might 
 be one of the least of his ministers. But what shall I repay 
 to him for all the things w^hich he has given me? What 
 shall I say, or what shall I promise to my Lord? Because I 
 have no power unless he had given it to me, but he searches 
 the heart and reins ; because I desire enough and too much, 
 and am prepared that he should give me his cup to drink as 
 he has granted to others that love him. 
 
 Wherefore, may it never happen to me from my Lord that 
 I should lose his people w^hom he has gained in the utmost 
 parts of the earth. I pray God to give me perseverance, and 
 judge me worthy to render myself a faithful witness to him, 
 even until mv departure on account of my God. And if I 
 have ever imitated anything good on account of ray God 
 whom I love, I ask him to grant me, tliat with these prose- 
 
ST. PATRICK'S CO.VFESSIOX. I45 
 
 lytes and captives I may pour out my blood for his 
 name s sake, though I myself should lack burial, and my 
 dead body be most shockingly torn limb from limb by do^s 
 or by wild beasts, or that birds of the air should devour it' 
 I believe most certainly that if this should happen to me I 
 shall have gamed both soul and body. Because without any 
 doubt, on that day we shall arise in the bricrhtness of the sun 
 that IS in the glory of Christ Jesus, our Redeemer, as sons 
 of the living God, and joint heirs with Christ, and conformed 
 to his future likeness, and through him and in him we shall 
 reign. 
 
 For that sun which we see, by command of God, arises 
 daily on our account ; but he shall never reign, nor shall his 
 splendor continue ; but all even that worship him [the sun] 
 wretched persons, shall come unhappily into punishment 
 But we, who trust and adore the true Sun, Jesus Christ, who 
 will never perish ; neither shall he who does his will, but'shall 
 remain forever, as Christ shall continue forever who reio-ns 
 with God the Father Almightv, and with the Holy Spfrit 
 before the ages, and now, and through all the ao-es of ao-es 
 [" forever and ever "]. Amen. ° ° ' 
 
 Behold^ I will again and again briefly set forth the words 
 of my "Confession." I testify in truth and in joy of heart 
 before God and his holy angels, that I never had any reason 
 except the gospel and its promises, to return to that nation 
 [the Irish nation m which he was a slave for six years] from 
 which I had formerly escaped with difficulty. 
 
 But I beseech those who believe and fear God, and whoso- 
 ever shall see fit to examine or receive this writino-, which 
 Patrick, the sinner, unlearned indeed, has written in Ireland 
 that no one may ever say, if I had done, or proved, even 
 some little things, according to the will of God, that it was 
 my Ignorance [which did it], but rather conclude and believe 
 most assuredly, that it was the gift of God. And this is my 
 confession before I shall die. 
 
 I. " J^"?^ ^^^ *^^ volume which Patrick wrote with his own 
 hand. On the seventeenth of March, Patrick was translated 
 to heaven."— iVo^e of the copyist in the " Book of Armagh;' at 
 the end of the "Confession^ 
 
 N 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 Patrick's epistle to coroticus. 
 
 Patrick's authority from Grod— Wickedness of the soldiers of Corot- 
 icus— Some of their victims murdered and others enslaved— 
 Patrick excommunicates the pirates— He admonishes Christians to 
 shun them, and to refuse their alms— The Eoman and Gallic Chris 
 tians redeem their captive brethren from the Franks and other 
 pagans— Patrick's lament for his slain and enslaved converts— Their 
 glory in eternity and the doom of their enemies. 
 
 I, Patrick, a sinner, indeed unlearned, acknowledge that 
 I have been appointed a bishop in Ireland. I most assuredly 
 think that I have received what I am from God. I live, 
 therefore, among barbarians, a proselyte and an exile, on 
 account of the love of God. He is witness that it is so. Not 
 that I desired to pour out anything from my mouth so harsli 
 and severe, but I am compelled, animated by zeal for God, 
 and for the truth of Christ, through my love for my neigh- 
 bors and sons, for whom I have given up country and parents, 
 and even my life unto death if I am worthy [of martyrdom]. 
 I have vowed to my God to teach the nations, although I am 
 despised by certain persons. 
 
 I have prepared this letter and written it with my own 
 hand to be given and handed to the soldiers, to be sent to 
 Coroticus ; I do not sav to my fellow-citizens and to the citi- 
 zens of the Roman saints, but to the citizens of demons on 
 account of their own evil works, who, by the hostile custom 
 of [barbarians] live in death : companions of the Scots and 
 apostate Picts, who make themselves bloody with the blood 
 of innocent Christians, whom I have begotten to God without 
 number, and confirmed in Christ. 
 
 On the day after that on which they were anointed, neophytes 
 [recent converts] in white robes, while [the oil] of the anoint- 
 ing was glistening on their foreheads, they were cruelly mur- 
 dered and slain with the sword by the above-mentioned persons. 
 And I sent a letter by a holy presbyter, whom I taught from 
 
 1 According to Dr. Whitley Stokes, Coroticus was king of Dumbarton. See 
 " QoTernment Tripartite Life," Introduction, p. C. London, 1887. 
 
 146 
 
Patrick's epistle to coroticus. 147 
 
 his infancy, with [other] clergymen [asking them] to restore 
 to us some of the pillage, or of the baptized captives whom 
 they seized, but they laughed at them. Therefore, I know not 
 whom to lament most, those who were slain or those whom 
 they captured, or those whom Satan grievously ensnared into 
 the everlasting pains of hell, where they shall be in bondage 
 together with him ; for he, indeed, is a servant of sin who 
 commits it, and he is called a son of the devil. Wherefore, 
 let every man who fears God know that they are alienated 
 from me, and from Christ, my God, for whom I am an ambas- 
 sador, parricides, fratricides, ravening wolves, devouring the 
 Lord's people as the food of bread, as he says : " The ungodly 
 have made void thy law. Lord." 
 
 Since in these last times Ireland, by the favor of God, has 
 been most excellently and graciously planted and instructed, 
 I do not usurp [the labors of others but] I have a share with 
 those whom he has called and predestinated to preach the 
 gospel in no small persecutions even to the extremity of the 
 earth. Although the enemy envies us through the tyranny 
 of Coroticus, who does not fear God ; or his priests, whom he 
 has elected, and has granted to them that highest, divine, 
 sublime power, that those whom they should bind on earth, 
 should be bound in the heavens. Whence, therefore, I earn- 
 estly beseech the holy and humble in heart not to deem it 
 right to flatter such persons, or to take food or drink with 
 them ; nor ought you to take their alms, until they make 
 satisfaction for the tears cruelly shed [by us], and set at 
 liberty the servants of God and the baptized handmaidens 
 of Christ for whom he was put to death and crucified. The 
 Most High rejects the gifts of the wicked ; and he who offers 
 a sacrifice from the goods of the poor is as a man that sacri- 
 fices the son in the presence of his father. 
 
 The riches, he says, which he will collect unjustly, shall be 
 vomited from his belly, the angel of death shall force him 
 away, the fury of dragons shall punish him, the tongue of 
 the adder shall kill him, unquenchable fire shall devour him. 
 Therefore, woe to those who fill themselves with things that are 
 not theirs. Or what does it profit a man, if he gain the whole 
 world, and suffer the loss of his own soul ? It is tedious to 
 discuss [texts], one by one, or to pass through the whole law 
 to choose testimonies about such covetousness. Avarice is a 
 deadly sin : " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's property," 
 " Thou shalt not kill." A murderer cannot be with Christ. 
 
148 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 " Whosoever hateth his brother is ' termed ' a murderer." Or, 
 "he who loveth not his brother abideth in death." How 
 much more guilty is he who has defiled his hands with the 
 blood of the sons of God acquired in the uttermost parts of 
 the earth by the exhortation of our littleness. 
 
 Whether did I come to Ireland without God, or according 
 to the flesh, who constrained me, bound by the Spirit not to 
 see any of my kindred ? Do I not love godly compassion 
 because I act [in this manner] toward that nation which cap- 
 tured me, and made havoc of the servants and handmaidens 
 of my Father's house. I was a freeman according to the flesh. 
 I was born of a father who was a Decurion. For I sold my 
 nobility for the good of others, and I do not blush or grieve 
 about it. Finally, I am a servant in Christ, [delivered to] a 
 foreign nation on account of the unspeakable glory of an 
 everlasting life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And if 
 my relatives do not recognize me : "A prophet hath not honor 
 in his own country." Perhaps [they suppose] that we are 
 not of one sheepfold, nor have one God as our Father, as he 
 says : " He who is not with me, is against me ; and he that 
 gathereth not with me, scattereth." It is not meet that one 
 destroys, another builds. 
 
 I do not attend to my own interests ; it is not my grace but 
 God, indeed, has placed this deep concern in my heart, that 
 I should be one of the hunters or fishers whom formerly God 
 promised for the last days. Am I envied? What shall I 
 do. Lord? I am greatly despised. Behold, thy sheep are 
 torn around me, and plundered by the above-named robbers, 
 by the order of Coroticus, with hostile purpose. The betrayer 
 of Christians into the hands of the Scots and Picts is far 
 from the love of God. Ravening wolves have swallowed up 
 the flock of the Lord, which, therefore, in Ireland, by the 
 greatest diligence, was increasing most prosperously. And 
 the sons of the Scots [Irish] and the daughters of chiefs are 
 monks and virgins of Christ; I cannot enumerate them. 
 Wherefore, an assault upon the righteous will not give thee 
 pleasure [O Lord], nor will it ever confer happiness in the 
 regions below. Who, of the saints, would not shudder to l)e 
 sportive, or to enjoy a feast with such persons? From the 
 spoil of dead Christians they have filled their houses. They 
 live by rapine ; they do not know how to pity ; they hold [out] 
 poison, a deadly food, to their friends and sons. As Eve did 
 not understand that she offered death to her husband, so are all 
 
149 
 
 those who act wickedly — they make death everlasting pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 It is the custom of the Roman and Gallic Christians to 
 send holy and fit men to the Franks and other nations with 
 so many thousand solidii ^ to redeem baptized captives. You 
 [Coroticus] so often kill them and sell them to a foreign na- 
 tion ignorant of God ; you deliver the members of Christ, 
 as it were, into a den of wolves. What hope have you in 
 God? or he, who agrees with you? or he, who talks with 
 you in words of flattery? God will judge, for it is written : 
 " Not only they who do evil, but also they who consent to itj 
 are to be condemned." I know not what I can say or what 
 I can speak more concerning the deceased sons of God whom 
 the sword has smitten ferociously beyond measure. For it is 
 written : " Weep with those that weep." And again : " If 
 one member suffers, all the members suffer with it." 
 
 Wherefore, the church laments and bewails her sons and 
 daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who have 
 been carried away and transported into a distant part of the 
 earth, where sin is clearly and shamelessly stronger [there 
 it impudently dwells and] abounds. There, freeborn Chris- 
 tian men, having been sold, are reduced to slavery, chiefly 
 among the basest, the vilest, and the apostate Picts. There- 
 fore, with sadness and grief, I will cry aloud, O my most 
 beautiful and most beloved brethren and sons, whom I have 
 begotten in Christ ; I cannot number you ; what shall I do 
 for you ? I am not regarded as worthy by God or men to 
 help [you]. The iniquity of the wicked has prevailed over 
 us. We are become as strangers. Perhaps they do not be- 
 lieve that we have partaken of one baptism, or that we have 
 one God and Father. It is a disgrace to them that we have 
 been born in Ireland; as he says, Have you not one God? 
 Why have you forsaken each his neighbor? Therefore, I 
 grieve for you ; I do grieve for you most dear to me. But 
 again, I rejoice within myself that I have not labored for 
 nothing, and that my pilgrimage has not been in vain ; even 
 though a crime so shocking and unutterable has hippened. 
 Thanks be to God, baptized believers, ye have withdrawn 
 from the world to paradise ! I perceive that you have com- 
 menced to journey [to the world] where there shall be no 
 more night, nor grief, nor death, but ye shall exult as calves 
 
 1 The solUIus was a gold coin ; in Patrick's time, it was probably worth 81.75 
 to S2.00. 
 
150 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 loosed from their chains, and you shall tread down the wicked, 
 they shall be ashes under your feet. 
 
 Ye shall reign therefore with the apostles and prophets, 
 and shall, with the martyrs, obtain the everlasting kingdom, 
 as he himself testifies, saying: "They shall come from the 
 east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and 
 Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens." With- 
 out are dogs, and sorcerers, and murderers, and perjurers; 
 their portion is in the lake of eternal fire. Not without 
 cause does the apostle say, '' Where the righteous will scarcely 
 be saved where shall the sinner and the impious and the 
 violator of the law find himself ? " Where shall Coroticus, 
 with his most iniquitous rebels against Christ ; where shall 
 they behold themselves who distribute baptized women and 
 the spoils of orphans as rewards among their most filthy 
 satellites on account of a wretched temporal kingdom which 
 truly in a moment shall pass away like clouds or smoke 
 which are surely scattered by the wind? So transgressors 
 and the dishonest shall perish from the face of the Lord, but 
 the riojhteous shall feast in unbroken assurance with Christ, 
 and they shall judge the nations, and reign over unjust kings 
 for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
 I testify before God and his angels that it shall be so, as 
 he has intimated to my ignorance. These are not my words, 
 but [the words] of God, and of the apostles and prophets, 
 which I have written in Latin, who have never lied. " He 
 that believeth shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall 
 be condemned." God hath said it. I entreat earnestly, that 
 whosoever is a servant of God, he may be prompt to be the 
 bearer of this letter ; that it by no means be abstracted by 
 any one, but much rather that it be read before all the people 
 and before Coroticus himself; to the end that if God would in- 
 spire them, they may at some time return to him, and may, 
 though late, repent of what they have so wickedly done ; 
 these murderers of brethren in the Lord may set free the 
 baptized captives whom they formerly seized, so that they 
 may deserve to live for God, and may be made whole here 
 and in eternity. Peace to the Father, and the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit. Amen. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ST. PATRICK AND BAPTISM. 
 
 A remarkable ancient Irish description of believers' baptism- 
 Patrick's own account of believers' baptism— Numerous baptisms 
 of believers recorded in his " Lives " — Persons immersed by- 
 thousands in some places— Wells dug by Patrick at new churches 
 for immersion— An American baptismal well like Patrick's— Im- 
 mersion the baptism of the Christian church in Patrick's age. 
 
 With Patrick, as with other leaders of that day, 
 professed believers were the only subjects of bap- 
 TISM. In the " Tripartite Life," the Great Commission is 
 quoted : " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Spirit ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
 I have commanded you," etc. Upon these words this cele- 
 brated " Life " makes the following, among other comments : 
 " Go ye, teach. Meet is the order, teaching before baptism. 
 For it cannot be that the body should receive the sacrament of 
 baptism before the soul receives the verity of faith . . He 
 directed the apostles, first to teach all nations, and then to 
 baptize them with the sacrament of faith, and in favor of faith 
 and baptism, to enjoin all things that were to be heeded" ^ 
 
 This is, perhaps, the most scriptural, and, at the same time, 
 the most thoroughly Baptistic description of the subjects of 
 Christian baptism ever penned. And it is in such complete 
 harmony with St. Patrick's practice, that it is reasonable to 
 suppose that the " Tripartite Life " gives the Saint's own expo- 
 sition of the Commission. Patrick's account of the persons he 
 baptized shows that they were believers. In the third chapter 
 of the " Confession," he writes : 
 
 " So that even after my death I may leave as legacies to 
 
 ' "Government Tripartite Life," Introduction, Vol. I., p, 65. 
 
 151 
 
152 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 my brethren, and to my sons whom I have baptized in the 
 Lord, so many thousand men.'' Here there is no place for 
 unconscious infants. In the sixth chapter of the "Confes- 
 sion" he states: "Perhaps, since I have baptized so many 
 thousand me/i I might have expected half a screpall [a coin 
 worth six cents], from some of them ; tell it to me and I will 
 restore it to you." There is no room here for irresponsible 
 children. 
 
 In Patrick's " Letter to Coroticus," he describes some of 
 the persons whom he immersed as " baptized captives," " bap- 
 tized handmaidens of Christ for whom he was put to death 
 and crucified," as " baptized women distributed as rewards," 
 and then, as " baptized believers." Those whom Patrick 
 baptized were men, women, handmaidens, and believers, a 
 term that includes both sexes and the young and the old, who 
 had put their trust in Christ. These are Patrick's unques- 
 tioned accounts of his baptisms, and from them it is clear as 
 a bright, summer day, that Patrick immersed believers only. 
 It would have been easy for him to add to the " baptized " 
 men, women, and handmaidens, and believers, infmits, but 
 evidently he did not baptize them. 
 
 Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, in giving a statement of 
 the baptism of Clovis and a multitude of others, adminis- 
 tered by his predecessor, St. Remigius, in a. d. 496, says : 
 " Moreover,^ from his army three thousand men were bap- 
 tized, without counting women and children." If this state- 
 ment about the baptisms of the children was true, how natural 
 and proper in Hincmar to record it ? St. Patrick's account 
 of his baptisms does not mention baptized children. In the 
 immersion of professed believers only, Patrick was on firm 
 scriptural and Baptist ground. In Patrick's day, infant 
 baptism was little known in the practice of the Eastern 
 churches, and we have no evidence that it had any existence 
 whatever in Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 1 Vit. St. liemig, Patr. Lat., Tom. 125, pp. 1160, 1161. Migne. 
 
ST. PATEICK AND BAPTISM. 153 
 
 The subject of Patrick's baptism, according to the writers 
 of his "Lives," were believers. Of Dichu, supposed to be 
 Patrick's first convert, the " Lebar Brecc Homily," says: 
 " Dichu repented and believed in one God, and Patrick 
 baptized him, and a great host along with him." ^ The bap- 
 tized persons on this occasion were penitent believers. 
 
 " Ere, the son of Deg, believed in God, and confessed the 
 catholic faith [that is, the universal, not the Komish faith], 
 and was baptized by Patrick." ^ Once in journeying, " Patrick 
 saw a tender youth herding swine. Mochae was his name. 
 Patrick preached to him, and baptized him." * He was old 
 enough to take care of swine, and to listen to such a gospel 
 address as Patrick would give to a youth, and he was con- 
 verted. "Patrick baptized Enda,^ and he offered his son. 
 Cor mac [to Patrick], who was born the night before, together 
 with every ninth ridge of his land throughout Ireland." 
 Cormac was not presented to Patrick for baptism any more 
 than the land, and while Enda was baptized, Cormac was 
 simply handed by Patrick " to four of his household to be 
 reared." The child was probably motherless. If Patrick 
 had practised infant baptism, surely this little one would 
 have received it. And if he had received it, the fact would 
 have been recorded. 
 
 "The men of North Munster to the North of Limerick 
 went in sea-fleets to meet Patrick. ^ . and he baptized 
 them in Tirglass." ^ There must have been a great outpour- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit upon these throngs who came by water 
 to the missionary for baptism ; but no intimation is given that 
 their little children received the rite with their parents. 
 
 It is said, " Patrick went into the province of Mugdoirn to 
 Domnach Maigen, and he baptized the men of Mugdoirn." ^ 
 " At Temair Singite, Patrick baptized the men of Assail." ** 
 
 2 In " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 451. 
 
 3 Ibid., Vol, I., p. 45. London, 1887. * Ibid., p. 41. 
 5 Ibid., p. 81. 6 Ibid., p. 207, 
 ? Ibid., p. 183. 8 Ibid, p. 79. 
 
154 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 In these records of Patrick's baptisms, there is absolutely no 
 evidence that unconscious little ones received the sacred rite 
 from him. The men, that is, the people, baptized were of 
 both sexes and of all ages, and they all professed to be 
 such believers as Patrick claims in his two celebrated works 
 that he baptized ; without their profession of faith before 
 baptism in each case Patrick's description is sadly lacking in 
 veracity. 
 
 The " Wiirtzburg Glosses," a brief commentary in Irish on 
 Paul's Epistles, in Latin, written about" a. d. 815, a work of 
 Calvinistic orthodoxy, expounding 1 Cor. 14:6: " What 
 shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revela- 
 tion, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine," 
 says, " Prophesying ; that is, preaching, the stirring up of 
 every one to belief that he may he ready for baptism.'' ^ This 
 is the doctrine of all Baptists, and of St. Patrick, and his fol- 
 lowers for some time after his death. 
 
 St. Patrick's baptism was immersion. The "Tri- 
 partite Life of Patrick," written in the eleventh century, 
 the best known of his biographies, represents Patrick him- 
 self as being baptized in a fountain; it says: "A church, 
 moreover, was founded over that well in which Patrick was 
 baptized, and there stands the well [fountain] by the altar." ^ 
 
 From the same work we make the following quotations : 
 " Patrick founded a church at Domnach Maige Slecht — and 
 there is Patrick's well wherein he baptized many." ^ These 
 persons, like Patrick himself, were baptized in the spring or 
 well. The well was dug at this church, which was founded 
 by him, as a baptistery, just as he opened many other baptis- 
 mal fountains. And it was called by his name because he 
 had its water tapped and brought to the surface ; or if run- 
 ning along the ground he had a basin made for its reception 
 suitable for the immersion of an adult. Wells, except by 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 64. Dublin, 1888. 
 
 2 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I., p. 9. 
 8 Ibid., p. 93. 
 
STo PATRICK AND BAPTISM. 155 
 
 accident, are seldom found in Ireland in connection with 
 churches. Neither the heat of the climate, nor the conve- 
 nience of the people requires them. In Patrick's time the 
 church was built near a spring, or a well was sunk close to 
 the church for a baptistery. If baptism had been by sprink- 
 ling or pouring, Patrick would never have had a well in 
 Ireland ; in no country on earth are springs more abundant 
 or more accessible ; , and for sprinkling purposes they are 
 more than ample. A great missionary well-sinker roaming 
 over Ireland partly to bore for water for the common uses of 
 life, is a senseless office to assign to St. Patrick ; to build 
 churches and prepare baptismal fountains, are righteous du- 
 ties even for him. 
 
 " The Tripartite Life " says : " Patrick went to Naas ; . . 
 to the north of the road is his well [his baptistery] wherein 
 he baptized Dunling's two sons — Ailill and lUaun." ^ Tire- 
 chan relates that Patrick came into the regions of Corcutemne 
 to the fountain Siui, in which ' he baptized many thousand 
 men, and he founded three churches. 
 
 Patrick's well at Naas was one which he sank and pre- 
 pared for immersion ; the fountain at Sini was evidently a 
 considerable spring, with a large natural cavity, like others 
 spoken of, or yet to be mentioned, which, without labor, were 
 used to " bury believers in baptism." Of the province of the 
 Deisi, it is said : " Patrick's well is in that place, and there is 
 the church of Mace Clarid." ^ Patrick's well and the church 
 are linked* together, showing that immersion in the name of 
 the Trinity was the purpose for which the well was intended. 
 Again : " Patrick baptized the men of the east of Meath ; his 
 well is m front of the church."* This baptismal fountain, 
 called Patrick's well, was located by him where it would be 
 needed for the immersion of believers. This quotation re- 
 
 1 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I., p. 185. 
 
 - Tirechan's collections in "Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I., p. 323. 
 
 3 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I., p. 209. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 77. 
 
156 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 minds us of a well in front of the New Britain Baptit^t 
 Church, Bucks Co., Penna. ; it is a baptistery dug in the 
 ground, suitably finished and covered ; a spring supplies it 
 with water ; and in it many have been baptized. Any one, 
 perhaps of hundreds of well-baptisteries prepared by the 
 Baptist apostle of Ireland, could have furnished a model for 
 the one at New Britain. " Patrick," it is further said, " founded 
 a church at Drumne, and by it he dug a well." ^ These ac- 
 counts of Patrick's wells are frequent in his biographies. 
 They were close to churches ; he is sometimes said to have 
 dug them, and many of them are called Patrick's wells, be- 
 cause he had them sunk; in Patrick's, and other wells, or in 
 lakes and streams, all his converts were baptized. 
 
 When it is said of the most famous of all St. Patrick's 
 baptisms, in which the seven Amalgaid princes received the 
 ordinance : '' In that day twelve thousand were baptized in 
 the ivelL of Oen-adarc," "^ a grand immersion took place, just as 
 all the well baptisms of Patrick were immersions. Rev. Dr. 
 Blackburn, a Presbyterian, states that St. Patrick " it may be, 
 showed tolerance of the old superstitions . . . also the 
 wells that had long been used for heathen purposes he allowed 
 to be used for baptism." ^ Passing over two assertions in this 
 quotation which are chiefly baseless, it is clearly admitted 
 that St. Patrick employed wells and not the sprinkling font 
 for baptism. Baptism in springs or wells in Ireland meant 
 dipping, as it meant everywhere in Christendom at that time, 
 and could mean nothing else. 
 
 The Wiirtzburg Glosses, explaining Ephesians 4 : 5, "One 
 Lord, one faith, one baptism," says : " One baptism, though 
 the dipping is three-fold." * Jerome, the great biblical scholar, 
 a contemporary of St. Patrick, expounding the same Scripture, 
 writes : " We are immersed three times that the unity of the 
 
 1 " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. I., p. 109. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 135. 
 
 3 "St. Patrick and the Early Church of Ireland," p. 161. Phiiada. 
 
 * ' The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 90. Dublin, 1P88 
 
ST. PATHICK AND BAPTISM. 157 
 
 Trinity may appear in the sacrament." ^ In this way Patrick 
 baptized his converts ; this was the form of baptism of the 
 ancient British churches and of the whole Christian world 
 in the days of Patrick and Jerome, and for many ages later. 
 St. Patrick baptized believers, and he immersed them in 
 baptism. He maintained views as to the form and the sub- 
 jects of baptism which are dear to our whole denomination. 
 
 Hieronymi Opera," Tom. IX., p. 108. Froben. Basl, 1516. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ST. PATRICK HELD THE LEADING DOCTRINES OF THE 
 BAPTIST DENOMINATION. 
 
 St. Patrick rejected all canons, creeds, and councils— The Nicene 
 creed— Columbanus and a remarkable canon— Contempt of Irish 
 missionaries for canons— The Bible is Patrick's code of laws— His 
 love for it— Ancient Irish eulogy of it— Pteligious liberty for pagans 
 and others— Patrick as a foreign missionary— His teaching ulti- 
 mately sends out swarms of missionaries to heathen lands. 
 
 Baptists have ahvays refused to surrender the independence 
 of their churches, even to their owu Associations. They reject 
 all ecclesiastical authority, with its canons, creeds, and synods, 
 except the Holy Scriptures, with their laws for the govern- 
 ment of lives and churches. 
 
 St Patrick stood on the same ground. He rejected the creed 
 of the council of Nice, a celebrated synod, which convened 
 in A. D. 325. He made a creed for himself, which will be 
 found in the second chapter of his " Confession," in this 
 volume. In it he treats chiefly of the Godhead, and its 
 Trinity of equal persons. The Nicene creed is devoted to 
 the same mysterious and exalted subjects; but it is not 
 Patrick's creed. We have before us the Nicene creed pre- 
 served by Socrates,^ and also the copy of Theodoret,^ the one 
 born about a. d. 380, and the other about 387. 
 
 We have also the creed of Constantinople,^ adopted a. d. 
 381, an enlargement of the Nicene, and passing under its 
 name in the Episcopal church and elsewhere. Patrick's 
 creed differs widely from the Nicene, and more extensively 
 from the creed of Constantinople. Nor can the supposition 
 that Patrick intended to write the Nicene creed, but quoted 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 8. ^Eccles, Hist.," Ibid , cap. 12. 
 3 " Definitions of Faith and Canons of Discipline," p. 58. New York. 
 158 
 
ST. PATRICIAS BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 159 
 
 from memory instead of a written text, account for the 
 serious differences between the two creeds. 
 
 Patrick never calls his the Nicene creed, and this is a 
 remarkable omission. If he had intended it for the vener- 
 able document of Nice, notwithstanding its variations, he 
 should have given its name to it. His "Confession," in 
 which he placed it, was intended as a defense. The council 
 of Nice was the most honored synod that ever assembled, 
 and its name attached to his creed would have given it and 
 him a valuable orthodox character. But Patrick recognized 
 no authority in creeds however venerable, nor in councils, 
 though composed of several hundred of the highest eccle- 
 siastics, and many of the most saintly men alive. He never 
 quotes any canons, and he never took part in making any, 
 notwithstanding the pretended canons of forgers. So abhor- 
 rent to the apostle of Ireland was the despotism of councils, 
 canons, and creeds, that he did not designate as a creed that 
 portion of his " Confession," which, by its terms and theme 
 has been called by some his '' creed." Nor does he invite any 
 special attention to the creed-like section of his "Confes- 
 sion " ; it stands with the same claims to respect as the account 
 of his conversion, of his missionary call to Ireland, of his 
 strong desire to save men, or of God's frequent answers to his 
 prayers. Patrick wrote his " Confession," as he states, late in 
 life, and not long before his death ; what he does not df^scribe 
 as a creed, because it was not intended to possess either the 
 power or the name of a creed in his day, though we call it 
 Patrick's creed, is in his " Confession " ; so that, during his 
 entire ministry of fifty or sixty years prior to the writing of 
 the " Confession," Patrick had no creed either for himself or 
 his churches. In that document he imposes no creed upon 
 his followers ; he and they were as free from councils, and 
 their canons and creeds, as the aspostles and their churches, 
 or as modern Baptists. 
 
 Tirechan, who wrote in the seventh century, and from whose 
 documents we learn so much of interest, declares that Patrick 
 
160 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 ordained four hundred and fifty bishops in Hibernia.^ This 
 was a violation of the fourth canon of the council of Nice, 
 which required at least three^ bishops to consecrate a new 
 member of their order. This canon is still binding in the 
 Protestant Episcopal church.^ And in the Methodist Epis- 
 copal church, its spirit still survives ; the bishop-elect is 
 required to have the hands of three bishops laid upon him, 
 or " at least of one bishop and two elders," or, in extreme 
 cases, the hands of three elders.* But Patrick ordained his 
 own bishops without scruple. He paid no attention to canons. 
 In the latter half of the sixth century, when Kentigern was 
 to be ordained bishop of the Strathclyde Britons, whose 
 country was formerly Roman territory, in which the canons 
 of Nice were binding, according to Ussher,^ an Irish bishop, 
 when requested, crossed the sea, and unaided, consecrated 
 Kentigern ; he, like Patrick, was no respecter of canons. 
 
 In the end of the sixth century, Columbanus, a Hibernian, 
 went to the continent as a missionary, prompted by the great 
 success of Columba among the Picts. Annoyed in his mission 
 on account of his observance of Easter at the Irish time, he 
 appealed to Boniface^ IV. for permission to keep it at the cus- 
 tomary time of his country without reproach, and he urged his 
 application because the second canon of the council of Con- 
 stantinople, in A. D. 381, decreed that: "The churches of 
 God, among the barbarians, must be administered according 
 to the customs of the fathers which have prevailed." ^ The 
 word " barbarians," to an ancient Roman, meant generally 
 foreigners, a nation, like the Irish, never subject to the 
 Romans. The interpretation of this canon by Columbanus, if 
 accepted, would have largely freed the Irish Christians from 
 
 1 Tirechan's Collections in " Government Tripartite Life," Vol. II., p. 304. 
 
 2 " Definitions of Faith and Canons of Discipline," p. 33. New York. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 291. 
 
 *"Xhe Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church," p. 86. 
 New York. 
 & Ussher's " Works," Vol. VI., p. 225. 
 6 Da Pin's *' Eccles. Hist.," Vol. II., p. 5. Dublin. 
 t " Definitions of Faith and Canons of Discipline," p. 65. New York, 
 
ST. Patrick's baptist doctrines. 161 
 
 the ever threatening tyranny of councils. For the customs of 
 the flithers, which prevailed in Hibernia, and still bore sway 
 there, Patrick and his missionaries were to set aside all coun- 
 cils with their canons and creeds. Columbanus himself knew 
 that there was no biblical authority for councils, canons, and 
 creeds, and his appeal to the canon of Constantinople shows 
 that when he was at home he cast aside the whole system, 
 as this canon would have allowed, if the Roman empire still 
 existed. 
 
 The English Boniface, the Romish apostle of Germany 
 writes about Clement, an Irish missionary in his field- 
 "He resisted the Catholic church; rejected the canons of 
 the churches of Christ; refuted the works and opinions 
 ot the holy fathers, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory; and 
 he regarded with contempt the laws of councils." ' These 
 Iri^h ministers, instructed by Patrick's teaching, and many 
 others like them, held, with the apostle of Ireland, that 
 no councils, canons, or creeds, have any scriptural dominion 
 over Christ s churches. Modern Baptists unite with St. 
 Patrick in cherishing this doctrine. 
 
 His sole authority to rule churches or Christians is the Bible 
 He never appeals to any other. In his " Confession," and " Let- 
 ter to Coroticus," Dr. Wright, with each page, has printed 
 the Scriptures quoted or alluded to; and they number one 
 hundred and thirteen. He has done the same thing with the 
 hymn called ^^The Deer's Cry,"^ and in it the references are 
 thirty-two. Considering the small size of these works, the 
 number of allusions to or quotations from the Divine word 
 are very remarkable. Promises, commands, prohibitions, 
 heart exercises, prayers, the condition of men around, these 
 and many other things stir up Patrick to quote Scripture. 
 
 In the « Leber Brecc Homily on St. Patrick," written in the 
 thirteenth century, we have eith er an ancient sketch from 
 
 I .?Th 't''r " ""'':' J^^'^^'- "i''^^"- ^^y"oge. Works." Vol. IV.. p. ^5. 
 London. '''' ^^'^^'^ '^' '^^"^"^•" «^"^'«"« ^ract Socict v of 
 
162 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Patrick's own pen of the Bible, or else the exact echoes of 
 his teaching about the Book of books. It says : 
 
 One of the noble gifts of the Holy Spirit is the Divine Scripture 
 whereby every ignorance is enlightened, every earthly distress is 
 comforted, every spiritual light is kindled, and every weakness is 
 strengthened. Tor it is through the Holy Scripture that heresies and 
 schisms are cast forth from the church. In it is found perfect counsel 
 and fitting instruction by each and every grade in the church. For 
 the Divine Scripture is a mother and a gentle nurse to all the faith- 
 ful ones who meditate upon it and consider it, and who are nurtured 
 until they are chosen sons of God through its counsel.^ 
 
 These were Patrick's sentiments, whether or not he penned 
 the words originally. In the Bible he saw^ everything to 
 bless the soul and rule the church, and outside of it nothing 
 ecclesiastical or secular to exercise lordship over Christ's 
 people. He could apply the words of Chillingworth to him- 
 self and his converts: "The Bible, 1 say the Bible only, is 
 the religion" of Patrick and his Christian Hibernians, to 
 guide their souls and rule their religious communities. In 
 this, Patrick was a Baptist. 
 
 There is reason for believing that Patrick taught that 
 no good citizen should be punished for his irreligious or pagan 
 opinions. This doctrine is in harmony with his whole con- 
 verted life. St. Patrick's mother is said to have been a sister 
 of St. Martin, the celebrated bishop of Tours. Ninian, a 
 countryman of St. Patrick, built a church for the southern 
 Picts bearing his name. Dr. M'Lauchlan says, " he became 
 famous in the Celtic churches."^ No man in his day was 
 better known or more highly esteemed all over western Eu- 
 rope. When Priscillian and his friends were condemned to 
 death for heresy, Martin declared it to be an unheard-of 
 thing that an ecclesiastical matter should be judged by a 
 secular court on principles of the civil law ; and he entreated 
 Maximus to spare the lives of the unfortunate men,' but they 
 
 1 In " The Tripartite Life," Introduction, p. CLXII. 
 
 2 " Early Scottish Church," p. 63. 
 
 » Neander'8 " History of the Christian Church," Vol. II., p, 712. Boston. 
 
ST. Patrick's baptist docteines. 163 
 
 were beheaded. This event created a great sensation, speedily- 
 known for that age, even in Britain and Ireland The course 
 of Martin was applauded. St. Patrick, through Gallic 
 friends, and probably relatives, who sent money and helpers 
 for his mission, heard of it, and in his warm-hearted way de- 
 nounced secular penalties for erroneous religious opinions ; 
 and that for ages made the Hibernian churches the freest in 
 the world ; religious opinions, except in times of ungoverna- 
 ble excitement, could not be punished by secular penalties. 
 
 Columba and Columbanus followed Patrick's example in 
 becomins: foreiorn missionaries, the first to leave Ireland to 
 preach abroad, and they followed his doctrine of liberty of 
 conscience. In a. d. 575, there was held at Drumceatt, about 
 twenty miles from Londonderry, Ireland, a great national 
 convention. It was composed of the chief men of Ireland 
 in civil and in ecclesiastical life, with immense numbers of 
 retainers. The convention continued fourteen months, and 
 was under arms during its whole existence. It granted in- 
 dependence to the Irish Dalriada kingdom of Scotland, the 
 great object for which it met. When it was unanimously- 
 agreed at the convention to put the bards to death as adverse 
 to the Christian religion, Columba alone plead for them. 
 They opposed his mission in Caledonia at every step, yet he 
 could not slay or hurt them for paganism. And such was 
 the eloquence and power of the appeal and the influence of 
 the advocate, that the bards were saved.^ Full of gratitude 
 for their deliverance, the bards issued a poem, composed by- 
 Dalian Forgaill, poet laureate of Ireland at that time, in 
 honor of Columba, which is still in existence.^ 
 
 Columba's treatment of the bards showed Christian gener- 
 osity, conformity to the Saviour's will, and attachment to 
 the famous doctrine of Roger Williams. 
 
 When Columbanus, who was born in Ireland in a. d. 543, 
 was prosecuting a successful mission in France, the envy of 
 
 1 Smith's " Life of St. Columba," p. 12'). Glasgow, 1824. 
 
 2 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 127. 
 
164 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 neighboring bishops led them to summon him before their 
 synod to punish him, ostensibly for keeping Easter at the 
 Irish instead of the Romish time. He sent a letter in reply, 
 declining their request, and telling them that " He desired 
 only that every one might keep his own custom, and follow 
 his own tradition."^ According to Columbanus these bishops 
 had no right to dictate to him in any religious act, and 
 punish him for not conforming to their views as they were 
 planning to do ; neither had he or any one else authority to 
 inflict civil penalties upon the religious opinions or acts of 
 others unless they were criminal. St. Patrick, Columba, and 
 Columbanus, stood upon the Baptist platform of liberty of 
 conscience. 
 
 Patrick was remarkable as a missionary. AVhen he sailed 
 for Ireland to preach the gospel, that country had many 
 British slaves engaged in the lowest occupations and suffering 
 the greatest hardships. His old master waited to seize him 
 and enslave him again. Petty wars, piracy, tyranny, and 
 idolatry were rampant all over the island ; but the intrepid 
 Patrick, in the name of Jesus, fearlessly entered upon his work 
 and pursued it for half a century or more, until all Ireland 
 was nominally Christian, though its entire people were not 
 converted. He presents his missionary plan in his " Confes- 
 sion " when he writes : " Therefore, it is necessary to spread our 
 nets so that a large multitude and throng may be taken for 
 God." There never was a foreign missionary whose heart em- 
 braced a wider field, and whose labors among pagan barbari- 
 ans were more successful in the conversion of souls ; among 
 whom he planted such a missionary spirit as led them to com- 
 plete his unfinished work in Ireland, and to send missionaries 
 to Caledonia to the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and in unparalleled 
 numbers to many other European nations. The denomina- 
 tion of Carey and Judson may justly claim Patrick, the illus- 
 trious foreign missionary, as holding all their leading doc- 
 trines, and as being substantially a Baptist. 
 
 1 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist," Vol. II., p. 5. Dublin. 
 
BOOK III. 
 SCOTLAND AND THE CONVERSION OF THE PICTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE EVANGELIZATION OF THE SOUTHERN PICTS. 
 
 Their conversion due to Britons — The Strathclyde Britons — The 
 earliest Scots in Caledonia — The Irish Scots settled there in the 
 sixth century — Pictish raids — Roman walls — Christian captives 
 among the Picts — A Hibernian slave — Coroticus and his captives — 
 Heathen plunderers bring home missionaries — The Diocletian per- 
 secution sends fugitives among the Picts. 
 
 The conversion of the southern Picts was accomplished 
 through the instrumentality of Britons, private persons and 
 prominent missionaries. 
 
 Anciently, the greater part of Scotland was called Albania 
 or Alba, as England bore the name of Albion. Caledonia 
 was also an early name of the same region. The country of 
 the ancient Britons included England and the southern part 
 of Scotland. From the county of Cumberland, in England, 
 to Dumbarton, in Scotland, the people were all Britons. 
 
 This territory and its people formed the kingdom of Strath- 
 clyde, governed by a native ruler subject to the Romans, and 
 surviving for centuries after they abandoned Britain. To 
 these Britons St. Patrick belonged, a people as thoroughly 
 British as the heroes who fought under King Arthur in his 
 celebrated victory over the Anglo-Saxons at Badon Hill. 
 
 The Scots, though not known by that name until the fourth 
 century, had an earlier home than that in Caledonia. In 
 the beginning of the sixth century, the Dalriadani ^ Scots of 
 Antrim, Ireland, founded a kingdom in Argyleshire, Albania, 
 
 1 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 113. 
 
 165 
 
166 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 which afterward became the dominant power in Scotland, and 
 gave its present name to that part of Great Britain. Bede, 
 writing of these Irish settlers in Pictland, says : " Britain, be- 
 sides the Britons and the Picts, received a third nation, the 
 Scots, who, migrating from Ireland under their leader, Keuda, 
 either by fair means or by force of arms, secured to them- 
 selves those settlements among the Picts which they still pos- 
 sess." In the same connection he adds : " Ireland is properly 
 the country of the Scots." ^ 
 
 The Strathclyde Britons were evangelized before the end 
 of the fourth century ; many of them, perhaps, long before it. 
 They were the neighbors of the Picts, and separated from 
 them by barriers which in peaceful times were crossed by 
 numbers every day from both sides. The Christianity of the 
 Britons undoubtedly and savingly impressed some of their 
 Pictish neighbors. The gospel, in its early converts, was a 
 treasure of such overwhelming importance, that they could 
 not hide it from friends or enemies. Pains, terrors, the loss 
 of everything, universal scorn, or the worst form of slavery, 
 could not restrain their boundless enthusiasm. The converted 
 ancestors of St. Patrick among the Strathclyde Britons, as 
 they thought of the peri?hing heathen Picts across the border, 
 and of the agonizing death of the cross, must have felt the 
 enthusiasm of the words : 
 
 For love like this, let rocks and hills 
 
 Their lasting silence break, 
 And all harmonious human tongues 
 
 The Saviour's praises speak. 
 
 And undoubtedly they told these pagans, in words of touch- 
 ing compassion, the Saviour's unspeakable forgiveness, and 
 the power of his blood to cleanse from all sin ; and the elo- 
 quence of their glowing faces would constrain the Christless 
 Picts to fly to the wounds of the crucified Saviour. In this 
 way most probably many of them were brought to the Ke- 
 deemer in the first gospel ages. 
 
 1 "Eccles. Hist.," T4b. I., cap. 1. 
 
EVANGELIZATION uF THE SOUTHERN PICTS. 167 
 
 Armed excursions across the Eomano-British border were 
 frequent during the entire Koman occupation of Britain, and 
 after it ended. They secured immense quantities of plunder, 
 and inflicted death upon multitudes without mercy. Dangers 
 from Picts and Scot3 were so great that in the reign of the 
 Emperor Domitian, Agricola, about A. d. 81, fortified the 
 line between the Forth and the Clyde to secure protection 
 from them. About a. d. 126, the Emperor Hadiian con- 
 tracted his possessions in Britain and built a new defensive 
 wall between the Tyne and the Sol way. About a. d. 144, the 
 Emperor Antoninus Pius drove the barbarians of Pictland 
 beyond the wall of Agricola, and constructed, between the 
 Forth and the Clyde, breastworks of turf, a deep ditch, a 
 military road, and a number of forts at proper distances to 
 repel the northern enemy. The last wall to protect the 
 Roman provinces of Britain was constructed by the inhabi- 
 tants, and by a legion of Roman soldiers sent over after the 
 emperor had abandoned the country, in response to an almost 
 despairing appeal. 
 
 By these endless raids the Britons were robbed for ages of** 
 vast quantities of treasure and portable property, and of 
 great numbers of captives who were reduced to slavery. For 
 centuries the people of Pictland were served in their dwell- 
 ings, fields, and laborious pursuits by slaves chiefly from 
 Britain, but also from Ireland. Columba, the apostle of the 
 Picts, as Adamnan ^ informs us, in the sixth century, saw 
 among the northern Picts a girl held in slavery by Broichan 
 the magician, the foster-father of the powerful King Brude. 
 He demanded her freedom, which Broichan at first refused. 
 Afterward the slave was liberated. This poor captive came 
 from Christian Ireland, evangelized about a century and a 
 half before. St. Patrick, in his "Letter to Coroticus" de- 
 nouncing his capture of many of his recent converts and his 
 murder of some of them, says : " Wherefore the church la- 
 ments and bewails her sons and daughters whom the sword 
 
 1 "De Vita St. Columbse," Lib. II., cap. 21., pp. 752, 758. Migne. 
 
168 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 has not yet slain, but who have been carried away and re- 
 duced to slavery chiefly among the basest, the vilest, and the 
 apostate Picts." Christian shives from Ireland were among 
 the heathen in Pictland ; and believing Britons must have 
 been enslaved by these barbarians while they were uncon= 
 verted especially, in great numbers ; though some of them, 
 after professedly receiving Christ, still inflicted slavery upon 
 captive brethren. Every true disciple in slavery in the family 
 of a heathen Pict must have been a missionary in some 
 measure. And perhaps to that cause, as much as to any 
 other, were the Picts, especially the southern Picts, indebted 
 for their general preparation to accept the Kedeemer, and 
 many of them for their complete conversion. 
 
 By a decree of Providence, not of appointment, but oi per- 
 mission, the Picts were allowed to make many expeditions 
 into the country of the Britons, for riches and slaves ; that 
 in every faithful Christian captive whom they brought home 
 they might add another to the numerous witnesses for Christ 
 who lived among them. Encouraged by the tidings which 
 reached them of the conversion which blessed the restricted 
 efforts of godly captives, and of the pious soldiers and officers, 
 or merchants supplying necessaries to Roman camps on the 
 border in intervals of peace, it is possible that godly volun- 
 teer missionaries, bent on the salvation of souls at all risks, 
 penetrated the region beyond the " walls," and with the elo- 
 quence of earnestness, aided by the Holy Spirit, drew large 
 numbers to the Saviour. This would be in accordance with 
 numerous examples in similar cases. No one of these could 
 be a Ninian, or a Columba. If there had been such a laborer 
 as either, the conversion of the southern, or of the northern 
 Picts would have borne his name through all generations, 
 and many histories. 
 
 And it is certain that there were many followers of Christ 
 among them about the close of the fourth century. These 
 were of sufficient strength to be known throughout all Albania 
 and Britain, and in some distant quarters of tlie globe. 
 
EVANGELIZATION C;F THE SOUTHERN PICTS. 169 
 
 Tertullian,^ the well-known presbyter of Carthage, in 
 North Africa, as we stated before, about a. d. 200, in 
 enumerating the many peoples that had become Christian, 
 places in his list the inhabitants of " parts of Briton not 
 reached by the Romans, but subjugated to Christ ! " This 
 account describes exactly the converts among the Picts, 
 whom the Romans had not subdued, and never could con- 
 quer. 
 
 The Diocletian persecution was an unspeakable outrage 
 upon the laws of God and the rights of man. Historians 
 generally regard this scourge to Christians in every section 
 of the Roman Empire, as an active agent in spreading the 
 gospel in the country of the Picts and in Ireland. Both 
 were outside of the dominions of the Caesars ; and regarded 
 them, and their edicts and soldiers, with abhorrence. Spots- 
 wood says : 
 
 But that which furthered not a little the propagation of the gospel 
 in these parts [the country of the Picts], was the persecution raised 
 by Diocletian, which at that time was hot in the south parts of 
 Britain [all England and the south of Scotland, owned by the 
 Britons and ruled by the Komans]. This brought many Christians, 
 both teachers and professors, into this kingdom^ [of Scotland]. 
 
 There is no reasonable doubt of the correctness of this 
 statement. The simple fact that the Christian Britons were 
 regarded with deadly hatred bv the Romans, the persecutors 
 of the Picts for generations, even then would open their 
 hearts and homes to the innocent fugitives. 
 
 The number of fugitive Christians must have been very 
 great. Bede states that, " IMany persons, with the constancy 
 of martyrs, died in the confession of their faith." He also 
 relates that : 
 
 At the same time that Alban was martyred, Aaron and Julius 
 suffered, and many^ more of both sexes in several places; who when 
 the y had e ndured sundry torments, and their limbs had been torn 
 
 1 " Adv. Judaeos," Part IV., cap. 7, p. 303. Lipsife, 1841. 
 
 2 " History of the Church and State of Scotland," p. :?. London. 
 
 3 " Eccles. Hist ," Lil). I., cap. 7. 
 P 
 
170 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 after an unheard-of manner, yielded their souls up to enjoy in the 
 heavenly city a reward for the sufferings through which they had 
 passed. 
 
 The number of martyrs, according to this historian, must 
 have been very great. The tidings of their sufferings were 
 undoubtedly sent by Christians on the spot, or living near 
 by, over the whole Roman province of Britain. And then, 
 the alarmed children of God would fly to some refuge in 
 their own country ; or, doubting the safety of any home 
 asylum, would set out for the country of the Picts. 
 
 It is also worthy of notice, that those who fled in this per- 
 secution were the resolute servants of God. The first thought 
 about them naturally is, that they were afraid of the pains 
 of martyrdom, and ran away to escape them. From Bede 
 we learn that Alban was twice offered deliverance from 
 death if he would " sacrifice to the great gods," — that is, to 
 "devils," as Alban properly described them. Unworthy 
 believers required no asylum at home or abroad from 
 Roman torture or death ; they had only to blaspheme Christ 
 and sacrifice to demon gods, and they were safe. When these 
 saints appeared among the Picts, it would speedily be known 
 t • them that they could have lived in peace and prosperity 
 at home if they had only denied Christ ; that for him they 
 had given up home, loved ones, property, friends, and safety ; 
 and now they were ready for hunger and cold, and pagan 
 inhospitality and cruelty among them ; and when these poor 
 believing Britons informed the Picts, that such was their love 
 for Christ that "they counted all things but loss for the 
 excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus their Lord, for 
 whom they had suffered the loss of all things," what an effect 
 their flight and their verbal testimony to Jesus must have had 
 upon their heathen hosts ! 
 
 We can judge better of their practical preaching to the 
 Picts by the conversion of St. Alban among the Britons, 
 more fully related elsewhere in this work. He was a pagan 
 when the Diocletian persecution began to rage in Britain. 
 
evaxgj:ijzation of the southern picts. 171 
 
 At this time he gave shelter to a godly minister flying for 
 his life. Bede' relates, that Alban — 
 
 Observed this man to be engaged in continual prayer, and watch- 
 ing day and night; when, on a sudden the divine grace shining on 
 Alban, he began to imitate the example of faith and piety which was 
 set before him, and being gradually instructed by his wholesome 
 admonitions, he cast off the darkness of idolatry, and became a 
 Christian in all sincerity of heart." 
 
 If such was the case in Britain, many pagan Picts must 
 have been saved by the fugitive British Christians among 
 them. Valentia, then a Roman province occupied by 
 Britons, now a part of Scotland, must have suffered like the 
 rest of Roman Britain. Its persecuted ones naturally would 
 fly for refuge to their neighbors, the Picts. Dr. M'Lauchlan 
 writes : 
 
 Beyond the wall of Antonine, to the north, lay an extensive region, 
 inaccessible either to the power or persecutions of Kome, and 
 thither many of the oppressed Christians would flee, betaking them- 
 selves for security to the kind offices of the neighboring heathen; 
 nor would they be received less cordially because of their being 
 fugitives from Kome. These fugitives would carry with them the 
 faith for which they had suffered, and would strive to repay their 
 hosts by communicating to them the knowledge of its saving truths 
 
 In this way, in common with a number of others, we are 
 convinced that the gospel reached manv hearts in the coun- 
 try of the Picts. And this is fully established by the account 
 of their reception of Ninian, the apostle of the southern Picts. 
 From his biographer, Ailred,=^ we learn that he was welcomed 
 by a great concourse of people, among whom were joy, devo- 
 tion, and praise of Christ. The people hailed him as one of 
 the prophets. This was a Christian greeting from the chil- 
 dren of God to their new pastor. And while there is no 
 doubt that the majority of the southern Picts were still 
 idolaters, it is quite certain that the Christians among them 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 7. 
 2 "The Early Scottish Church," pp. 50, 51. 
 
 » Vit. Nin., cap. 2, in " Vitae Antiquae Sanctorum in Scotia." Pinkerton ed. 
 London. 1789. 
 
172 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHUFCHES. 
 
 were a very numerous body. This meeting between Bishop 
 Ninian and his future flock was held at Whithorn, in Gallo- 
 way ; and the " territory of the southern Picts included 
 Galloway and the Lothiaus." 
 
 Ninian was the first permanent missionary who labored in 
 this fruitful field. That there were occasional ministers who 
 visited the southern Picts before Ninian, may be taken for 
 granted ; but very much of the gospel work among them was 
 done by laymen. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 NINIAN, PALLADIUS, AND KENTIGERN. 
 
 Ninian's birthplace— His love for the Scriptures— His church at Can- 
 dida Casa — His writings and success— Pilgrimages to his grave — He 
 left no Romish brand upon his institutions— Palladius in Caledonia 
 — He sundered his Roman ties — He trai.ied Servanus and Ternan — 
 Servanus instructed Kentigern — He became bishop of Glasgow — 
 He is driven to Wales — There he has many converts and founds the 
 present bishopric of St. Asaph — He returns to his old field and is 
 joyfully received — Many churches bear his name. 
 
 NiNiAN or Ringan was born about a. d. 360. His parents 
 were Christians. He was inclined from early youth to lead a 
 godly life, and to search the Holy Scriptures with diligence. 
 Like the celebrated Pelagius, who remained for a consider- 
 able period in Rome with otuers fully and regularly engaged 
 in the study of the word of God in their own rooms, Ninian 
 went to the eternal city, and gave much time to the same 
 blessed pursuit. Collier says he was born in North Wales, 
 and it is possible that Ninian may have learned to love the 
 Divine oracles under the very influences that made them es- 
 pecially dear to the great Welsh heretic, Pelagius. 
 
 Ailred, his biographer in the twelfth century, writes of 
 him : " He was sparing of his words, assiduous in study, 
 courteous in manner, ever subjecting his flesh to the spirit, 
 and devoting himself to great searching of the Holy Script- 
 ures ; so much so that he discovered that among his people 
 [the Britons] its real sense was not thoroughly understood." ^ 
 The stigma cast upon the supposed ignorance of the ancient 
 Britons about the Scriptures is only a sneer at their Protest- 
 antism by Ailred, the Romish abbot of Rievall in York- 
 shire, England. 
 
 1 Vit. Nin., Cap. 4, in " Vitse Antiquae Sanctorum in Scotia." Pinkerton ed. 
 London, 1789. 
 
 173 
 
174 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 From Ailred we also learn that so chaste was be in body, 
 so wise in counsel, that all men spoke of him [in Kome], and 
 he enjoyed the highest favor of the supreme pontiff. . . And 
 the Roman pope hearing that in the western part of Britain, 
 while some had not received the Christian faith, others had 
 received it from heretics, or from men unlearned in the divine 
 [popish] law, consecrated Ninian to the episcopal office, and 
 sent him as the first apostle to the people of his own nation.^ 
 Ailred represents Ninian as a papal emissary coming to set 
 up the authority of the pontiff among the Britons, and to 
 convert the Picts ; and Bede,^ whose testimony is decisive, 
 relates, that — 
 
 The southern Picts, who dwell on this side of those mountains, had 
 long before [a. d. 565], as is reported, forsaken tlie errors of idolatry, 
 and embraced the truth by the preaching of Ninian, a most reverend 
 bishop and holy man of the British nation, who had been reguhirly 
 ■instructed at Rome in the faith and mysteries of the truth; whose 
 episcopal see, named after St. Martin, the bishop [of Tours], and 
 famous for a stately church, wherein he and many other saints rest 
 in body, is still in existence. 
 
 Archbishop Spots wood' writes, that Ninian proved himself 
 a notable instrument in the church, for he converted the 
 southern Picts to the faith of Christ, and for his continual 
 labors in preaching, not among them alone, for he traveled 
 also among the Scots and Britons, and he sent ministers 
 everywhere to aid him in carrying the good tidings to each 
 village and home in the country of the Picts. To assist him 
 in this part of his missionary work he had a school for train- 
 ing ministers. 
 
 His church, called Candida Casa, oi White House, built of 
 stone, must have been a wonder to the Picts. French masons 
 erected it ; and there was no other structure of the kind among 
 them. IS^inian was a man of genius, his church pleased the 
 Picts, and it gave dignity and permanency to his mission. 
 
 1 Vit. Nin. Cap., II. Pinkerton ed. London, 1789. 
 
 2 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IIL, Cap. 4. 
 
 3 " History of the Church and State of Scotland," p. 7. London. 
 
NINIAN, PALLADIUS, AND KENTIGERX. 175 
 
 Ninian, the Briton, was another St. Patrick, the Briton, in a 
 diminished form, practical, persevering, and filled with the 
 love of Christ, so that he could never rest until the idols of 
 all the southern Picts w^ere destroyed, and Jesus was their 
 acknowledged Saviour. 
 
 Ninian wrote a commentary upon the Psalms, and a book 
 of selections of the remarkable sentences of holy men, " as 
 Bale^ relates " ; probably in the style afterward used by 
 Peter Lombard in his celebrated work called " Sentences," 
 in which he collected and arranged the biblical opinions of 
 the Latin fathers, and for which he was often called " Master 
 of the Sentences." 
 
 Ninian died in a. d. 432, when he was seventy-two years of 
 age ; and while Camden writes his noblest epitaph : " Ninian 
 the Briton, a holy man, who first enriched the southern Picts 
 with the Christian faith,"^ yet other witnesses attest his ex- 
 traordinary w^orth. Multitudes of all ranks made pilgrimages 
 to his tomb. 
 
 "His name," says Dr. Alexander, a Scotch author, who 
 died about thirty years ago, " still survives in popular legends 
 which have been handed down from father to son for many 
 generations, and which ascribe to him deeds, in number and 
 marvelousness, sufficient to have made the reputation of a 
 dozen saints."^ George Chalmers* counts twenty-four 
 churches and chapels in Scotland bearing the name of St. 
 Ninian, and it is known that this list does not include all. 
 
 Ninian's connection with Kome evidently ceased soon after 
 he entered upon his mission to the southern Picts. For 
 Ninian to maintain the dominion of any Roman priest over 
 him and the congregations he was about to organize among 
 the Picts, would have been to stir up the most virulent oppo- 
 sition from the entire Picts, north and south, and would, al- 
 most to a certainty, have resulted in his expulsion or death. 
 
 1 Cited in Collier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 101. London, 1840. 
 
 2 Britannia, article "Galloway," p. 379. Amsterdam, 1639. 
 
 3 Alexander's " Ancient British Church," pp. 171, 172. London. 
 * " Caledonia," Vols. I., p 315 ; II., p. 211. 
 
176 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 The earth never nourished a people who hated the Romans 
 more bitterly than the Picts and the original Albanian Scots. 
 In Ninian's day they fought the Romans, and they had waged 
 war with them, with some intermissions, for nearly four hun- 
 dred years, and the new missionary was so anxious to preach 
 the gospel that he concluded to say nothing about the power- 
 ful bishop of Rome. 
 
 At Canterbury, the bishops of Rome constantly maintained 
 their despotic relations with Augustine, the first archbishop, 
 and all his successors until the Reformation. The whole 
 Christian world saw the chains that united Canterbury and 
 Rome. Scotch history shows no papal links uniting Ninian's 
 churches to the pope. He left no mark of Romanism upon 
 any of his ecclesiastical institutions. 
 
 Eager for the salvation of the pagans around him, he was 
 silent about his Romanism for a time through prudence, until 
 the Spirit of God showed him the falsehood of even the modi- 
 fied papal supremacy of that day ; and then he discarded it 
 for ever, and ultimately left his church as Protestant as the 
 neighboring churches of Britain. 
 
 As we shall notice more fully again, according to Prosper 
 of Aquitaine, and Venerable Bede, " Palladius Avas sent by 
 Celestine, the Roman pontiflT, to the Scots who believed in 
 Christ, to be their fiist bishop," in A. d. 431. The Scots 
 referred to in his commission were the Irish. His stay in 
 Ireland was short, though he managed to build three 
 churches in that country; rude, wooden structures, one cf 
 which was called "The House of the Romans." He left 
 their country, as the "Four Masters" tell us, because "he 
 (lid not receive respect in Ireland." The name of the above 
 church, whether given by himself or contemptuously applied 
 by the people, furnishes evidence that he had avowed himself 
 a Roman emissary. As Rome was abhorred by the Irish 
 as much as by the Picts, though every Roman soldier had 
 evacuated Britain some years before; and, as the Irish 
 episcopal dii.^;nty, conferred by Pope Celestine upon Palla- 
 
NINIAI^, PALLADIUS, AND KENTIGERN. 177 
 
 dius, aimed to set aside St. Patrick, who had long labored 
 in Ireland under the auspices of Christians in Britain and 
 Gaul, without any relations with Rome, it is likely that 
 patriots, who hated the legions of Imperial Rome, and con- 
 verts who revered the devoted Patrick, united in encour- 
 aging Palladius, the papal intruder, to leave Hibernia, after 
 a brief sojourn in it. 
 
 Palladius, learning that there were some Scots and many 
 Picts yet unsaved in Pictland, sailed for that country. He 
 settled, it is supposed, at Fordoun in Mearns. There he 
 labored, according to Spotswood,^ for twenty-four years with 
 success, and maintained a character without reproach. He 
 built a little church, "which from him to this day is called 
 by a corruption of the word, ' Paddie's Church,' " and a neigh- 
 boring well ' yet bears his name, There is still held at For- 
 doun an annual fair called " Paddie's, or Palladie's Fair." 
 
 While the mission of Palladius was rewarded with some 
 converts, it bears no comparison in its results with the har- 
 vest gathered by Ninian, Columba, or Kentigern. 
 
 Ninian set Palladius an example about references to Rome 
 in North Britain, which he appears to have carefully followed 
 after his repulse in Ireland. M'Lauchlan justly writes : " It 
 is clear that, so far from the mission of Ninian and Palladius 
 being successful in introducing the Roman system into Scot- 
 land, they had no successors [as popish emissaries], and it was 
 seven hundred years ere Scotland submitted to the jurisdiction 
 of the Roman see." ' 
 
 Palladius accomplished more through two of his disciples 
 in Caledonia than by his own direct efforts— these were Ser- 
 vanus, or St. Serf, and Ternan. These men were favored 
 greatly by Providence in extending the Saviour's kingdom. 
 Their names are mentioned with honor by all the early his- 
 torians of Scotland. On the Forth, he founded a famous 
 
 1 " History of the Church and State of Scotland," p. 7. 
 
 * A baptismal well. 
 
 3 " The Early Scottish Church," p. 106. 
 
178 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 school where many clergymen were educated, in reference to 
 which it is said that, " Servanus taught the Christian's law to 
 the clergy."^ His most remarkable pupil was Kentigern, 
 and he was his favorite disciple. If he had never instructed 
 another, he deserves the loving remembrance of all Chris- 
 tians in and out of Scotland, in his own age and every 
 other. It has been truly written by M'Lauchlan: "The 
 impression produced by the perusal of the ' Life of Kenti- 
 gern,' the pupil of Servanus, is, that Servanus preached and 
 taught as a Christian missionary at Culross, according to the 
 system of the ancient British church ; " ^ that is, he rejected 
 the supremacy of the pope, as the British bishops declined 
 to submit to Gregory the Great, or to receive Augustine 
 whom he had appointed to be their archbishop. 
 
 Kentigern was born about A. d. 514. His birth is en- 
 shrouded in mystery, occurring at Culross on the Forth. 
 Like Ninian, he was a Briton. According to Archbishop 
 Ussher, he was placed in the school of St. Serf when young — 
 
 And, being talented, the boy advanced successfully in the acquisi- 
 tion of knowledge; he was beloved above all his companions in the 
 eyes of holy Servanus, and it was his custom to call- him Munchu 
 [Mungo], which means most dear friend. It is well known that not 
 otherwise than by the name of St. Mungo was Kentigern spoken of 
 by the Scots even to this day.^ 
 
 Archbishop Spotswood* describes Mungo as so compas- 
 sionate to the poor that he distributed to them all that came 
 to his hand. That he ate no flesh, tasted no wines or strong 
 drink, and that when he retired to rest he slept upon the 
 cold ground, having a stone for his pillow. He practised 
 these discomforts, not to atone for his sins, the only sacrifice 
 for which was the slain Lamb of God, but to crucify his pas- 
 sions and fit him to walk with God. And he succeeded 
 wonderfully in his object. 
 
 1 " Life of Kentigera in Glasgow Chartulary," p. 85. 
 
 2 "The Early Scottish Church," p. 103. 
 
 3 Ussher's "Works," Vol. VI., p 225. 
 
 * " History of the Church and State of Scotland," p. 11. 
 
1'^!''!' I'i!l'i||:i!:i: 
 
 liiiiiilllMniib^uS^^^^ 
 
NINIAX, PALLADIUS, AND KENTIGERX. 179 
 
 We learn from Archbishop Ussher^ that, in his twenty-fifth 
 year, Kentigern was consecrated bishop of Glasgow : 
 
 The king, the clergy of the Strathclyde Britons, with other Chris- 
 tians, although few, elected him to be their pastor and bishop, while 
 he opposed it very much. Moreover, they had him consecrated for 
 their bishop, according to the usage of the Britons and Scots by a 
 single Irish bishop whom they sent for. 
 
 His diocese [field ; there was no diocese in Scotland for centuries 
 afterward] was of vast extent, reaching from sea to sea ; he traveled 
 over it always on foot, sparing no pains to spread the light of the 
 gospel among the unbelievers, of whom he converted and baptized 
 great numbers. ^ 
 
 The apostasy of the Southern Picts, soon after their conver- 
 sion, and of the Britons of Strathclyde, St. Patrick's coun- 
 trymen, gave him continual pain, and prompted many an 
 earnest sermon and daily and fervent prayers for their rescue 
 from general blacksliding. In the midst of his godly efforts, 
 Kentigern suffered both insult and injury from the king of 
 the Strathclyde Britons ; and he fled to Wales for protection. 
 
 Staying with St. David, in Menevia, as Archbishop Ussher^ 
 states, he converted many to the faith, and built a church. 
 He also constructed a monastic school and constituted it a 
 bishop's see. In this institution there were nine hundred and 
 sixty-five persons ; all of them in some way laboring for the 
 triumph of grace over guilt and ruin. On the banks of a 
 Welsh clyde, he founded this monastery and a bishopric which 
 exists now, and which is still known by the name of his 
 disciple and successor, St. Asaph. 
 
 After he had been many years in Wales, Kentigern was 
 recalled by the King of the Strathclyde Britons, and other 
 Christians in conjunction with him. He returned to Glas- 
 gow, accompanied, as his biographer says, by six hundred 
 and twenty disciples. He was received on his arrival with 
 great joy ; and rich blessings descended upon the ministry of 
 
 1 " Works," Vol. VI., p. 225. 
 
 2 Butler's " Lives of the Saints," Vol. T., p. 54. Dublin, 
 
 3 " Works," Vol. VI., p. 85. 
 
180 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the word. At Holdelin, many were converted by the preach- 
 ing of Kentigern and his disciples/ 
 
 When Kentigern returned from Wales — 
 
 He renewed his missionary labors, in which he was cheered by a 
 visit from Cclumba [the great apostle of the northern Picts] and, 
 dying about A. d. 601, he was buried where the cathedral of Glasgow 
 now stands. The fame of St. Kentigern is attested by the many 
 churches which still bear his name, as well in Scotland as in the north 
 of England. The church of Crosthwaite, where Southey is buried was 
 dedicated to him. Some of his miracles are still commemorated by 
 the armorial ensigns of the cit^^ of Glasgow ; these are a hazel tree 
 whose frozen branches he kindled into a flame, a tame robin which 
 he restored to life, a hand-bell which he brought from Eome [where 
 he never was] a salmon which brought from the depths of the Clyde 
 the lost ring of the Queen of Cadyow.^ 
 
 If, however, his spurious miracles, which received form after 
 his death, still survive in the city arms of Glasgow, he exerted 
 an influence, through the gospel, on the hearts of hosts of 
 Caledonians in his day, which has wielded a beneficial power 
 over their descendants through all the ages since, and which 
 will live and work while the sons and daughters of his spirit- 
 ual children continue in any land under an earthly sun. 
 
 1 " Early Scottish Church," p. 124. 
 
 2 Chamber's " Encyclopaedia," article " St. Mungo." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE LIFE AND LABORS OF COLUMBA. 
 
 Importance of Columba's future labors— His ancestry, education, 
 and piety— His grand reception at Clon — His institutions at Derry 
 and Durrow— His copy of the Gospels still in existence— Derry' s 
 interesting history— He goes to Caledonia /or Christ. 
 
 St. Columba was trained in the religious community of 
 which the ilkistrious St. Patrick was the human founder. 
 Looking at the successes of his personal ministry, and those 
 of his disciples during his life and after his death, in Great 
 Britain and Ireland, he was among the foremost preachers of 
 the gospel of any age in these lands. His work in Ireland 
 was useful in an extraordinary measure. His labors in Scot- 
 land not only secured the conversion of hosts under the gen- 
 eral name of " The Northern Picts," but were an unex- 
 ampled blessing to that entire country. The pupils whom 
 he himself taught in lona, and some of their disciples in- 
 structed at lona, Lindisfarne, Melrose, and Whitby, led to 
 the Saviour the great bulk of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 There is ample room to assert that in a. d. 635, when Aidan 
 entered the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria with his 
 lona preachers, through apostasy and original heathenism, 
 the celebrated mission of Augustine and Gregory the Great 
 in England was confined to the little kingdom of Kent and 
 Northumbria, the east Saxons having fallen into apostasy from 
 their nominal Christianity. 
 
 After nearly forty years of labor, the Romish mission had 
 made little advance from A. d. 597, when Augustine baptized 
 Ethelbert of Kent and ten thousand of his subjects. But the 
 lona mission under God swept over a large part of the Anglo- 
 Saxon kingdoms and brought their people to the Saviour. 
 Q 181 
 
182 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Little wonder that Dr. Alexander writes : " Columba stands 
 before us as one of the great missionary heroes of the church. 
 He has earned for himself a name which shall be held in 
 everlasting remembrance ; for his is the imperishable glory 
 of having kindled a light in these northern lands which has 
 never since been utterly extiuguished."^ 
 
 According to Adannuin/ ** Columba was descended from 
 famous ancestors, his father was Fedlimid, the son of Fergus. 
 His mother was Aethnia, the daughter of MacNave." He 
 was a relative of the royal fiimily of Ireland. Columba was 
 a great-grandson of Neill of the nine hostages; "so named 
 from the hostages which he received from so many [Hiber- 
 nian] nations that were subject to him." His father was 
 grandson by the mother to Lorn Mor, son of Ere, one of the 
 three leaders of the Dalriadic' colony that founded the king- 
 dom of Argyle in Caledonia. He was united by blood to 
 the royal families of Ireland and of the Scots of Argyle. 
 
 Columba was born about A. d. 521, in the county of Done- 
 gal, Ireland. He received the two extraordinary names of 
 Crimthan, a wolf, and Columba, a dove. Subsequently, either 
 from his interest in the worship of the sanctuary, or from the 
 great number of churches which he established, he was fre- 
 quently called Columcille, that is, Colum " of the church." 
 
 The only authorities regarded as reliable for the leading 
 events of Columba's life are the biographies written by his 
 successors in lona, Cumin Fion and Adamnan, Bede's " Eccle- 
 siastical History," and the works of the Irish " Annalists." 
 Cumin wrote about sixty years after Columba's death, Adam- 
 nan about ninety, largely appropriating Cumin's work, Bede 
 about a hundred and twenty, and Tighernac, the earliest of 
 the " Annalists " in the eleventh century. The word " relia- 
 ble," as applied to these authors, has reference simply to the 
 ordinary facts of history which they record ; there is nothing 
 
 1 " lona," pp. 99, 100. Religious Tract Society. London. 
 
 2 "Vita Columba," Lib. L, cap. 1., p. 727. Migne. 
 8 Bishop Reeves' " Vit. Colum.," p. 71. 
 
THE LIFE AND LABORS OF COLUMBA. 183 
 
 miraculous to be received on their testimony, though there is 
 no doubt of their conscientiousness in relating many incredi- 
 ble wonders. 
 
 In early life, Finnian^ of Clonard was his instructor ; he 
 was a man of extensive learning, of great popularity as a 
 teacher, and especially devoted to the study of the Scriptures. 
 Large numbers received their education from him, some of 
 whom became eminent ministers of the gospel. Adamnan 
 says that, " On one occasion, when St. Finnian saw Columba 
 approaching him he perceived an angel of the Lord as the 
 companion of his walk, and he addressed some brethren near 
 by, and said: ^Behold, now you see St. Columba, who de- 
 serves to have an angel from heaven as his companion and 
 guardian.' '" From this statement it is certain that Columba's 
 conduct had been so remarkably Christlike, that when a 
 mere youth at school he was called " saint " by the head of 
 the institution, who also represented him as having an angel 
 as his companion and guardian. Adamnan in a large measure 
 accounts for Columba's unusual piety in another part of his 
 " Life " by his reference to " the period during which he re- 
 mained with St. Finbar the bishop [another of his instruct- 
 ors], in his youth, learning the wisdom of the sacred Scrip- 
 tures." ' 
 
 With another of his preceptors [Gemman], as we learn from 
 Adamnan: "He was engaged in seeking divine [biblical] 
 wisdom while yet a young deacon." The teacher had a spe- 
 cial regard for his pupil, and was accustomed to call him 
 " saint " Columba, and apparently to study with him away 
 from the institution. On one of these occasions a savage and 
 murderous enemy chased a little girl fleeing from him on the 
 open plain ; when she saw the aged teacher of the young 
 deacon mentioned above, as he was reading in the field, she 
 fled directly to him with all possible speed. Alarmed by her 
 
 1 Ussber's "Works." Vol. VI.," pp. 472, 473. 
 
 2 " Adaranani Vit. Colum.," Lib. Til., cap. 4; p. 761. Migne. 
 
 3 Ibid., Lib II., cap. 7, p. 762. Migne. 
 
184 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 terrified appearance he called Columba, who was reading at 
 some distance, that both might protect the girl with all their 
 might from her foe. He, coming suddenly without any re- 
 gard for them, killed her at once with his spear under their 
 garments, and turning away he began to depart, leaving her 
 lying dead at their feet. The old man full of grief said to 
 Columba : " Holy youth, Columba, how long will God, the 
 just judge, suffer this wicked deed to be unpunished to our 
 disgrace ? " The saint replied : " In the same hour in which 
 the soul of the slain girl enters heaven, the soul of the mur- 
 derer shall descend into hell." Adamnan adds that the as- 
 sassin at once fell a corpse " before the eyes of the holy youth 
 [Columba]," as Ananias lost his life in the presence of 
 Peter, and that " the report of this sudden and dreadful pun- 
 ishment spread immediately through many of the provinces 
 of Ireland, giving a marvelous reputation to the deacon." 
 However it may be explained, it is certain that this story at- 
 tracted much attention to the young Bible student. Columba 
 was also a pupil of the celebrated St. Ciaran in the monastic 
 college of Clon, upon the Shannon, in Ireland, which he 
 founded. He preached to the Irish Dalreudini of Kintyre 
 with success. He died in A. d. 594. For this venerable man 
 Columba ever cherished the warmest regard. 
 
 An ode which he wrote on St. Ciaran's death is still in 
 existence, in which he commemorates his virtues, thanks the 
 Saviour for sending to the world such an apostle, and styles 
 him the " Lamp of this Island."^ 
 
 Columba probably received the first idea of preaching to 
 the heathen Picts from Ciaran. In the monastery of Clon,^ the 
 brethren, no less than Ciaran, were enthusiastic admirers of 
 Columba. He paid a visit to the monastery after an absence 
 of some years, and preparations were made to give him a 
 hearty welcome. Adamnan writes that when — 
 
 The approach of Columba was announced, the whole people, in 
 every direction from the lands near the monastery, assembled to- 
 1 Alexander's " lona," pp. 65, 66. London, 2 Clonmacnois. 
 
THE LIFE AND LABORS OF COLUMBA. 185 
 
 gether, and were met by those who were in it ; and going forth from 
 the enclosures of the monastery, following the Abbot Alitherus with 
 great eagerness, they advanced with one mind, as if to meet an angel 
 of the Lord, with faces turned in submission to the earth. When he 
 appeared they kissed him with warm reverential regard; and, sing- 
 ing hymns and praises, they conducted him with honor to the church • 
 and that he might not be distressed by the pressure of a multitude of 
 his brethren they made a safeguard of pieces of wood, bound together, 
 to surround the saint while walking, which was to be carried by four 
 men keeping step with him."i 
 
 He left Clon as a student, and this triumphant reception 
 was but an example of his experience as a scholar in St. 
 Ciaran's University. That Columba's reception was not ex- 
 ceeded in respect, love, and joy by any similar event in the 
 history of student life and educational institutions, may be 
 taken for granted. His generosity created enthusiasm every- 
 where. 
 
 In a visit to France, he was solicited by King Sigi- 
 bert, who made him large promises, to remain with him. 
 But Columba, whose ambition was to be useful rather 
 than great, told him that he was so far from coveting the 
 wealth of others, that for Christ's sake he had already re- 
 nounced his own."* This answer corresponds with the gen- 
 erous devotion to Christ of Columba's entire religious life. 
 
 Columba possessed a superior education. He was familiar 
 with Latin and Greek, secular and ecclesiastical history, 
 the principles of jurisprudence, the law of nations, the science 
 of medicine, and the laws of mind. He was the greatest Irish- 
 man of the Celtic race in mental powers ; and he founded in 
 lona the most learned school in the British Islands, and 
 probably in Western Europe for a long period. 
 
 In his twenty-fifth year, Columba established his first mis- 
 sionary institution at Derry. This important event occurred 
 in A. D. 546. Bede, speaking of it, says : " Before he passed 
 passed over into Britain, he built a noble monastery in Ire- 
 land, which from the great number of oaks, is called in the 
 
 1 " Adamnani Vit. Colum.," Lib. I., cap. 3, p. 730. Migne. 
 
 2 Smith's " Life of Columba," p. 51. Glasgow. 
 
186 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Scottish [ Irish ] tongue, Dearm-ach, the field of oaks." ' 
 Writing of the colleges of lona and Derry, he states that, 
 " From both of these monasteries, many others had their be- 
 ginning through his disciples, both in Britain and Ireland." 
 It is probable that like the city of St. Gall, in Switzerland, 
 which originated from the monastery of the Irish missionary, 
 Gallus, Derry, or Londonderry as it is now called, owes its 
 existence to the great school of Columba, located in its field 
 of oaks. It was only about twenty miles distant from Gar- 
 tan, County Donegal, where Columba was born ; and it is not 
 unlikely that it was selected for the triple purpose of confer- 
 ring educational and religious blessings upon his numerous 
 kindred and early friends, and of receiving their protection 
 and help in his first great missionary institution ; and also to 
 make it a religious " camp " in which to drill recruits for the 
 invasion of heathen Caledonia, a project which he cherished 
 at an earlier day than the commencement of the Derry estab- 
 lishment. Its proximity to the Scottish coast makes it almost 
 certain that this was a leading reason for its selection as a 
 site ; while the benefits to be conferred upon relatives and 
 friends, and reasonably to be expected from them, made it an 
 excellent location from which to found other literary institu- 
 tions, theological seminaries, training schools for missionaries, 
 and workshops for teaching young mechanics for Ireland and 
 Scotland. 
 
 Bede's statement that many other monasteries sprang from 
 lona and Derry, is confirmed by any number of witnesses. At 
 this early period of Columba's life, he w^as full of consecrated 
 effort. Had he been a soldier, like young General Wolfe, at 
 Quebec in 1759, he would have led an army up its tremendous 
 cliff's to the heights of Abraham, and, infusing his own cour- 
 age into his men, would have snatched victory where ordi- 
 nary generals would have met defeat. He went everywhere 
 throughout Ireland, preaching Christ ; difficulties seemed to 
 increase his ardor, and apparent impossibilities quickly disap- 
 
 ~ 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 4. 
 
THE LIFE AND LABORS OF COLUMBA. 187 
 
 peared ; weariness seldom crippled liis energies ; and the success 
 of one, or half a dozen great undertakings, instead of calling 
 him to retirement, or even restful relaxation, only urged him 
 forward to equal or to greater efforts to glorify God. Souls 
 were saved in large numbers through his ministry, backslid- 
 ers were reclaimed, Christians were revived, the penurious 
 became liberal givers, the sleeping and idle became wakeful 
 and active workers. His name was honored throughout every 
 part of his native country. When he preached, multitudes 
 came to hear; and when he commenced a new church or 
 college, the number of volunteer helpers was great; and 
 when one of his monastic schools was opened, the best teach- 
 ers in the island were anxious to instruct its students, and they 
 gathered, sometimes in thousands, to profit by its advantages. 
 It was the ao^e of consecrated men in Ireland, and Columba 
 was regarded, as his years increased, as the greatest of all 
 living believers. He was freely placed next to the illustrious 
 Patrick himself, an honor never accorded to any other man. 
 " Columcille," ' the " Four Masters " say, " the apostle of Alba, 
 [Scotland], head of the piety of the most part of Ireland 
 and Alba, after Patrick, died in his church in Hy [lona] in 
 Alba on Sunday, the ninth of June. He was aged seventy- 
 seven, and he was in the thirty-seventh year of his pilgrim- 
 age." 
 
 Durrow Monastic Mission Institute was founded A. d. 553, 
 and became the largest and most celebrated of all the Irish 
 colleges of Columba. A book of the Gospels, belonging to 
 this monastery and bearing its name, and now in the library 
 of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, claims to have been 
 written by Columba. "An entry,' in Latin, now partly 
 obliterated, claims remembrance of the scribe, Columba, 
 who wrote this evangel in the space of twelve days." It 
 is believed by many that this ancient copy of the four 
 Gospels is the work of Columba. " To Columba is ascribed 
 
 1 " Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," at a d. 592, O'Donovan, Dublin, 1819. 
 * " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 107. London, 1888. 
 
188 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the origin of three hundred churches in Ireland, amoni:: 
 which are numbered those of Derry, Kells, Tory Island, 
 off the Donegal coast ; Drumcliffe in Sligo, Swords, in the 
 county of Dublin ; Raphoe, Lambay, near Malahide, and 
 Durrow." 
 
 Londonderry has now a population of about twenty-five 
 thousand. It is famous as the seat of Columba's first monastic 
 college, and as the port from which he set out for his success- 
 ful mission among the northern Picts of Scotland, as also for 
 its heroic defense against the army of the popish despot, James 
 II., who had been a fugitive from England for some time. 
 The few hours' sail between Derry and Scotland, where James 
 had many friends, made its possession extremely desirable, 
 that through Derry and Scotland he might finally reach 
 London. He brought an army there in the spring of 1689, 
 composed of Irish and French, and more than twenty-five 
 thousand strong ; when the soldiers arrived, Macaulay says, 
 the citizens were " betrayed, deserted, disorganized, and begirt 
 with enemies." The number of refugees and citizens " capa- 
 ble of bearing arms within the walls was seven thousand, and 
 the world could not have furnished seven thousand better 
 qualified to meet a terrible emergency, with clear judgment, 
 dauntless valor, and stubborn patience. They were all Pro- 
 testants : " Presbyterians and Episcopalians," the former the 
 more numerous, all Scotch-Irish, and from their names a 
 goodly number of them the descendants of Columba's Cale- 
 donian converts. " Twice a day worship was conducted in the 
 principal church." The walls and other defenses were very 
 weak. Provisions were scarce and soon there was a famine. 
 But the besieged defended themselves with unsurpassed 
 bravery. " The women were seen in the thickest of the fire 
 serving out water and ammunition to their husbands and 
 brothers." Famine and pestilence, rather than arms, reduced 
 the garrison " from seven to three thousand men." The reign 
 of hunger during most of the one hundred and five days of 
 the siege furnished scenes of horror never surpassed, the peru- 
 
THE LIFE AND LABORS OF COLUMBA. 189 
 
 sal of which cannot cease to shock even hearts unaccustomed to 
 compassion ; and yet " no surrender," was the unanimous cry 
 of the besieged, of all ages and both sexes, from the beginning 
 of the siege until the popish enemy fled. The entire people 
 inside the walls felt that they were suffering and fighting for 
 salvation through the blood of the Lamb, and they were all 
 prepared to die, like those who had already fallen as martyrs 
 for the enthroned Redeemer. Two vessels laden with pro- 
 visions, and protected by the frigate " Dartmouth," passed up 
 the Foyle to Derry, through Irish batteries fiercely active ; 
 the second morning after the arrival of the vessels, the French 
 and Irish besiegers were in full retreat. " So ended," says 
 Macaulay, " this great siege, the most memorable in the annals 
 of the British Isles." ^ By their bravery, the defenders of 
 Londonderry stopped rapid transportation to or from Scotland, 
 and gave wonderful encouragement to the patriotic Protes- 
 tants of that country and of England at a very critical time, 
 
 Columba's monastic school at Londonderry, and the siege 
 of the city in 1689, have made it famous ; and have long 
 since proved themselves blessings of a high order to Great 
 Britain and Ireland, and some countries beyond their limits. 
 The one broke the yoke of paganism from the Northern Picts 
 and the great body of the Anglo-Saxons, the other burst the 
 chains of civil despotism and Romish tyranny in the British 
 islands and their colonies. 
 
 When Columba sailed for the Picts, the pioneer foreign 
 missionary from Ireland, in the enjoyment of some love from 
 nearly every Irish heart, with the blessings of the rich and 
 the poor, the old and the young accompanying him, he went 
 to save pagans " for Christ " ; and he steered for the Scottish 
 coast at forty-two years of age, with all his powers, physical, 
 intellectual, and spiritual, in full development. He went as 
 a living sacrifice for God — with the windows of heaven open 
 to flood him and his companions with the richest blessing. 
 
 1 Macaulay's " History of England," Vol. III., pp. 57, 58, 59, 71 ; Butler's ed, 
 Philadelphia, 1856. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF COLUMBA's MISSION TO THE 
 NORTHERN PICTS. 
 
 Columba sails from Derry with twelve disciples — They take posses- 
 sion of lona— Its hallowed and glorious memories — Its location and 
 condition— The island granted by King Brude — An Irish monastic 
 building— The early Egyptian monks lived for their own sup- 
 posed religious benefit — Columba's disciples were missionaries and 
 teachers of ministers — They were called "Soldiers of Christ" — 
 They were spiritual Knights of St. John— lona raised the supplies 
 needed — Much to give away. 
 
 There is do ground for doubt that Columba sailed for his 
 new mission field from his first college in Derry, Ireland. He 
 took with him twelve disciples, who were all, it is supposed, 
 relatives of the missionary. The band left Derry for their 
 new home in coracles, boats made of rods and covered with 
 hides. 
 
 The missionaries first landed, according to tradition, upon 
 the island of Colonsay, from which they could still see the 
 coast of Ireland ; to avoid this they put to sea again, and 
 continued their course until they arrived at lona. Here 
 they came ashore upon an island which they and their suc- 
 cessors made famous for all time. More than thirteen hun- 
 dred years after the establishment of this mission, large 
 numbers of intelligent tourists every year, from nearly all 
 parts of the world, visit lona, not to see the Romish ecclesi- 
 astical ruins still remaining there, or the burial places of 
 ancient nobles and kings, but the little island where the 
 holiest man that ever lived in Britain planned and prayed for 
 pagan Picts, heathen Anglo-Saxons, and Christless souls in 
 countries outside of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 The island of lona lies off" the larger island of Mull on the 
 190 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF COLUMBA^S MISSION. 191 
 
 west coast of Scotland. It is about three miles long, and va- 
 ries in breadth from a mile to a mile and a half; its area is 
 estimated at two thousand imperial acres. The soil is remark- 
 ably fruitful, and it yields earlier crops than most parts of 
 Great Britain. Bede^ states that the island was given to 
 Columba by Brude Meilochon, " the powerful king of the 
 Pictish nation." Tighernac, in his annals, at A. d. 574, 
 writes that Conall, son of Comgall, king of Dalriada in 
 Caledonia, granted it to Columba. The record of Bede is 
 rehable ; Conall probably confirmed the gift. 
 
 The monastic collegiate buildings, erected by Columba, were 
 chiefly of wattles and clay. They were of slender construction, 
 but stanch in their occupants. Adamnan^ relates that his 
 monks in Columba's time were sent to gather rods for build- 
 ing a " guest chamber," which shows that the humble dwell- 
 ings of the inmates at that period were of no more enduring 
 materials. After these homes were in use for some time it is 
 not unlikely that planks were substituted for wattles and 
 clay. Bede informs us that when Finan, the Scot, became 
 bishop of Lindisfarne, in Northumbria, " He built a church 
 after the manner of the Scots, not of stone, but of hewn oak,^ 
 and covered it with reeds." Such a church was reared at 
 lona. The monks occupied huts around a central court. 
 Columba himself had his "little hut" upon an eminence 
 overlooking the monastic buildings. The Latin word used 
 by Adamnan, which we translate " little hut," is tuguriolum, 
 the term used by St. Patrick in his " Confession " to describe 
 his lodgings when as a penniless fugitive slave he found shelter 
 at the seaside until he could secure a passage to Scotland. 
 Adamnan, speaking of Columba, represents a young man as 
 standing " at the entrance of the little hut in which the blessed 
 man was writing." At another time he speaks of " the holy man 
 when he was sitting writing in his little hut," copying his last 
 
 1 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 4 
 
 8 Adamnan's " Vit. Colum.," Lib. II., cap. 3. 
 
 3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II[., cap. 25. 
 
192 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 verse from the Psalms/ " They that seek the Lord shall not 
 want any good thing." 
 
 Professor Stokes*'' thinks that there were two hundred per- 
 sons in the monastery at an early day. At some periods 
 there were more. But this number would not be excessive 
 when we consider the labors required by its vast fields, the 
 great body of teachers needed in its immense classes, those 
 engaged in copying the Scriptures, the preachers for many 
 miles around whose only parsonage was lona, and all who 
 followed mechanical pursuits in the ministry. These and 
 visitors from various quarters formed a large village of huts. 
 Around this little city of primitive homes a kind of fortifica- 
 tion was thrown up, circular in form, a fort in strength and 
 height. The cell of St. Cuthbert on the isle of Fame, in the 
 present county of Durham, England, as Bede relates, had a 
 mound so high around it that he could see nothing but 
 heaven.^ 
 
 No buildings of the early period of lona's Christian occu- 
 pants exist; their perishable materials have disappeared 
 many ages ago. Traces of the ancient structures can still be 
 found ; but the present ruins, instead of being the fragments 
 of Columba's buildings, are the remains of Romish ecclesi- 
 astical edifices scattered over the little island, truly represent- 
 ing the papacy as Christianity in ruins. Never were men 
 before, like Columba and his brethren, with such culture, 
 such consecration to Christ, and such sure prospects of suc- 
 cesses, equalling those of apostolic times, so poorly housed in 
 wattle huts. But they were the followers of him who as 
 man was born in a manger, to establish his throne on the 
 earth. 
 
 As we have already seen, Columba wished to go abroad 
 jor Christ, and therefore sailed for Britain, that he might 
 gather the Northern Picts into his fold and destroy their 
 
 » Adamnan's " Vit. Cohira.," Lib. TI., cap. 14; Lib, IIL, cap. 19, 29. 
 * '• Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 119. 
 8 Bede'3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IV., cap. 28. 
 
'^ c 
 
 ■ % 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF COLUMBA's MISSION. 193 
 
 idols. This was his only object in coming to Caledonia, and 
 the chief design of all his brethren in taking possession of lona. 
 Curzon in 1849 published his "Visits to Monasteries in the 
 Levant," in which he gives the following : 
 
 The Desert of Nitria [is] famous in the annals of monastic history 
 as the first place to which the anchorites in the early ages of Christi- 
 anity retired from the world, in order to pass their lives in prayer 
 and contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh. It was in Egypt 
 that monasticism first took its rise; and the Coptic monasteries 
 [houses occupied by many monks] of St. Anthony and St. Paul claim 
 to be founded on the places where the first hermits established their 
 cells on the shores of the Red Sea.^ 
 
 The objects aimed at by anchorites, hermits, and monks in 
 convents were, as Curzon says : " To pass their lives in prayer 
 and contemplation, and in mortification of the flesh." There 
 was not a single person in the monastic mission of lona in 
 Columba's day and for ages afterward, whose duties were 
 limited to prayer, contemplation, and the mortification of the 
 flesh. They entered lona, as Columba came to labor, as mis- 
 sionaries for Christ. The early monks ^ of Columba were all 
 ordained presbyter-missionaries, who proclaimed Christ, 
 founded churches, and carried their spiritual treasure wher- 
 ever pagans lived, though rugged mountains and savage wilds 
 had to be crossed to reach them. 
 
 The celebrated missionaries, Carey, IMarshman, and Ward, 
 sent to India by British Baptists, at Serampore, India, set up 
 printing presses to spread the knowledge of Jesus throughout 
 that land ; for the same object they established a school which 
 ultimately became a college, and they preached incessantly, 
 lona was a school and college ; it was full of students, pro- 
 fessors, and preachers ; and it was very active in Scripture 
 distribution, as will be shown presently. The college at 
 Serampore was a monastery in its aims and constant efforts 
 of precisely the same order, conducted on a more limited scale, 
 as the mission institute of lona. 
 
 1 "Visits to Monasteries in the Levant," p. 66. New York. 
 
 2 " The Early Scottish Church," p. 173. 
 R 
 
194 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 There was no monastery in Columba's day in England, Ire- 
 land, or Scotland of the common Romish type, whose inmates 
 had practically nothing to do for the outside world, and the sole 
 objects of whose cloistered lives were prayer, contemplation, 
 and the mortification of the flesh. All the monasteries of 
 Ireland and Scotland were educational mission institutes. 
 
 One of the common names fur the monks of Columba was 
 "a Soldier of Christ" {Christi miles). Adamnani appears 
 to delight in the use of this term. It was remarkably appli- 
 cable to Columba and his brotherhood. They occupied lona 
 to make war upon the idolatrous Druid strongholds of the 
 northern Picts. To rescue captives from heathenism they 
 were resolved to watch and pray ; to preach the gospel and 
 set a good example ; to make long journeys ; endure hunger 
 and cold ; and risk constant danger and a violent death. 
 
 The famous Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, in the thir- 
 teenth century, had nineteen thousand manors in Europe, each 
 one of which could furnish a well armed soldier for the suc- 
 cour of the Holy Land. These warrior monks had pro- 
 fessedly no earthly business but to fight the Moslems ^ for the 
 rescue, or for the retention of Palestine ; and often they in- 
 flicted disastrous defeats upon their foes. The sole and abid- 
 ing duty of Columba and his brethren was to be brave soldiers 
 of Christ in Pictland. And nobly they used their spiritual 
 weapons until its paganism was destroyed, and its people be- 
 came the happy captives of triumphant grace. 
 
 The community of lona had apple orchards, fruitful fields, 
 overflowing barns, and an abundance of everything to supply 
 the wants of their large family and their numerous visitors ; 
 and to provide for frequent cases of poverty or improvidence 
 on the part of the neighbors. These fruits of their island were 
 the rewards of their labors. What a wealthy missionary 
 society Columba's regulations organized ! The great commu- 
 nity had no need to ask a single temporal gifl from any one 
 except sunshine and showers from God, and they were able to 
 
 1 " Vit. Colum.," Lib. III., p. 23. « " MaUhew Paris," at a. d. 1244. 
 
COMMENCEMENT OF COLUMBA's MISSION. 195 
 
 furnish preachers for a whole kingdom in Caledonia, and for 
 several Anglo-Saxon kingdoms ! The men of lona, Columba, 
 no doubt, at their head, conducted their entire farming and 
 domestic labors themselves. Bede writes,^ that Biscop, his 
 own abbot, " like the rest of the brethren, delighted to exer- 
 cise himself in winnowing the corn and threshing it, in giving 
 milk to the lambs and calves, in the bakehouse, in the garden, 
 in the kitchen, and in the other employments of the monas- 
 tery." Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne was one of the worthy 
 disciples of Columba in lona, and when in a. d. 664, he was 
 driven out of England by King Oswy, of Northumbria, be- 
 cause he would not accept the pope's Easter, as we learn from 
 Bede, he went to Ireland, taking with him Scots and English 
 belonging to the church of the Scots in Northumbria. In 
 process of time he found it necessary to build a monastery for 
 his English brethren, which, was called Mageo; "it became 
 very large," as Bede states ; *• its monks were gathered from 
 the province of the English, and lived by the labor of their 
 hands, after the example of the venerable fathers."' The 
 fathers to whom Colman refers are the founder and the 
 brethren of lona, and their successors. 
 
 1 Bede'8 " Eccles. Hiat.," Pref. p. 10. 2 ibid., Lib. IV.. cap. 4. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 columba's success. 
 
 Columba's devotion to copying the Scriptures— Thus engaged on the 
 day of his death— He selected talented youths for education and 
 future usefulness— Marriage allowed in lona, the wives living in a 
 neighboring island— Anglo-Saxons employed in lona that mission- 
 aries in England might learn its language— No monkish rule en- 
 joined by Columba. 
 
 The brethren at lona, from the abbot to the least import- 
 ant member, appear to have adopted the task of preparing 
 the Scriptures for circulation. The "Four Masters" say: 
 "Columcille^ went to Alba [Scotland], where he afterward 
 founded a church." And in a note it is added, " He wrote 
 three hundred New Testaments with his own hand, and por- 
 tions of the Old Testament." This statement is more likely to 
 be below the number than above it ; and it represents a vast 
 amount of labor. Among the early things that gave him 
 prominence was a dispute with St. Finnian and King 
 Diarmad, about a psalter, which he copied, which Fin- 
 nian claimed, because he owned the original. 
 
 The day of his death, with a strong conviction that he 
 should go to heaven that day, 
 
 He sat in his hut transcribing the psalter, and coming to the sen- 
 tence in the thirty-fourth Psalm where it is written, "They that 
 seek the Lord shall not want any good"; he said, "Here I must stop 
 at the end of the page; what follows let Baithen transcribe." The 
 last verse which he wrote was appropriate for the saint about to 
 depart, for everlasting mercies would never fail him. For his suc- 
 cessor, the father and teacher of his spiritual sons, the following is 
 proper, "Come, children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the 
 fear of the Lord." ^ 
 
 If ever a Christian was especially earnest in making copies 
 
 1 " Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," at A. D. 556. O'Donovan's ed. 
 
 2 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. III., cap. 29. 
 
 196 
 
197 
 
 of the Scriptures in his earlier days and in his later years, 
 for the enlightenment and salvation of men, that believer was 
 the venerable Columba. His followers imbibed his love for 
 the sacred volume. 
 
 Dr. M'Lauchlan's statement cannot be reasonably doubted, 
 that " Columba's own home work,, and that of his disciples, 
 was transcribing the Scriptures."^ And if he, with the 
 supreme direction of a great many monasteries in Caledonia 
 and Ireland, wrote three hundred New Testaments " with his 
 own hand," and portions of the Old Testament, the monks of 
 lona, during his long presidency of their institution, must 
 have transcribed many thousand copies ; and the issue of the 
 Scriptures by his very numerous monasteries must have been 
 simply enormous ; especially as they rejected all mere human 
 authority in religious belief, or in Christian observances. 
 
 Another rule that governed lona was the selection of the 
 most talented and godly youths for careful instruction in 
 several branches — an education which, for that age, or even 
 for our own, was of no mean order ; and such a training as 
 would develop their piety and prudence in the largest meas- 
 ure. He chose men of learning, devoutness, and zeal for 
 his first associates in lona.^ By this perfectly proper course 
 the Jesuits secured for a time almost the mastery of Europe. 
 Columba's selection invariably joined piety to manifest ability. 
 The results of this course are conspicuously seen in the Scot- 
 tish missionaries, whose success in the conversion of a large 
 m.ijority of the ancient Anglo-Saxons, deserves the gratitude 
 of their descendants everywhere. 
 
 Aidan was a man of eminent talents and of apostolic piety. 
 Finan, Colman, and Diuma would have been great religious 
 baders in any country. There is much ground for believ- 
 ing that these men were chosen in early life for missionary 
 training by Columba himself;' they were all instructed in 
 
 1 " The Early Scottish Church," p. 175. 
 
 ' Smith's " Life of Columba," p. 185. Glasgow. 
 
 3 Ibid , p. 188. 
 
198 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 loua. The enlistment of men of eminent talents, who lived 
 near to God, to go from Ireland to Pictland, and the training 
 of students, largely contributed to the success of the Pictish 
 mission at the beginning as well as later in its history. 
 
 Marriage was not prohibited in lona, though its practice 
 may not have been common. Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander 
 thinks otherwise. He says : 
 
 Marriage^ was allowed, and most of them [the monks of lona] seem 
 to have entered into this state. Their wives were not permitted to 
 reside with them in the college. Near lona there is an island which 
 still bears the name, Ellen nain ban [Women's Island], where their 
 husbands seem to have resided wif,h them, except when duty required 
 them in the college or the sanctuary. 2 
 
 So resolved were the missionaries in lona upon the accom- 
 plishment of their great work, that when their brethren had 
 to minister to a people who spoke a foreign language, they 
 employed suitable persons from their country in their colleges 
 to teach them the strange tongue. When Aidan began to 
 preach in England, King Oswald, of Northumbria, was his 
 interpreter ; but missionaries for the Anglo-Saxons were soon 
 after instructed^ in lona by natives of their field. Adamnan 
 mentions some of these in lona, such as " Genereus,* a Saxon, 
 and Pilu, a Saxon." 
 
 There is no evidence that they accepted any formal monk- 
 ish rule. Columbanus had a rule, and one of great strictness, 
 and from the similarity of his name to that of the founder of 
 lona, Columba has been sometimes credited with it. The 
 three ordinary vows of the monks — celibacy, poverty, and 
 obedience — were either rejected totally at lona, or received in 
 a modified form. Celibacy and poverty were never imposed 
 there, and even obedience was only imposed within moderate 
 limits. 
 
 1 "lona," pp. 109, 110. Religious Tract Society of London. 
 
 » Jaraieson's " History of the Culdees," pp. 30-32. 
 
 « Smith's "Life of St. Columba," p. 146. 
 
 * " Vit. Colum," Lib. IIL, cap. 14, p. 764, and Lib. III., cap. 26, p. 769. Migne. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE ABBEY OF lONA. 
 
 The decision of the abbot of lona sometimes reversed by the brethren 
 — Columba preached "The word of Life"— Preparations made to 
 support the mission — Columba preaciies to King Brude — The 
 Druids' hostility to Columba— Conversion of the King and his 
 friends— The Northern Picts become a Christian people. 
 
 The abbot's authority was supreme until an appeal was 
 made to the brotherhood, and their decision might, and some- 
 times actually did, reverse his. Adamnan, the abbot, Col- 
 umba's biographer, was persuaded to adopt the Romish 
 Easter while he visited Alfrid, king of Northumbria, and 
 upon his return, as we learn from Bede,^ " he endeavored to 
 bring his own people into the way of [Romish] truth, that 
 were in the isle of lona or that were subject to that monas- 
 tery ; but in this he could not prevail.'' " That is, to say, 
 the brethren in lona overruled the abbot's decision and nulli- 
 fied it, as they had a perfect right to do ; and of their authority 
 to do this he makes no complaint. All the Columban insti- 
 tutions in Scotland followed lona." 
 
 Columba's doctrines were thoroughly evangelical. Adam- 
 nan writes, " Columba ought to be called pure and innocent, 
 as with a dove-like disposition, he had given a guest chamber 
 within himself to the Holy Spirit." The Saviour says, 
 " When he the Spirit of truth is come he will guide you into 
 all truth." lona, ruled by an abbot like Columba, whom it 
 trusted and loved, yielded joyfully to him in everything. 
 
 He knew nothing of salvation by works, prayers, sacra- 
 ments, payments, or sufferings; he preached Christ's love, liis 
 death, his readiness to save, his intercession for all that came 
 to God by him; and through these truths, pressed upon him 
 
 i"Eccles. Hist.," Lib. V., cap. 15. 
 
 109 
 
200 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 by the Spirit within him and upon others by the same Spirit 
 attending his ministrations, the Redeemer was glorified by the 
 converts of counties or of a kingdom. 
 
 He preached salvation by the repentance which takes r. 
 man from the practice of his sins to the Saviour and removes 
 the guilt of his iniquities without the influence of any cere- 
 mony, or human merit. 
 
 Let us go, says Columba to his servant, to meet a proselyte whose 
 true repentance Christ has accepted. But Fechnaus [the proselyte], 
 descending from the vessel, ran to meet the saint coming to the har- 
 bor. . . and he made a ver^^ sad lamentation, and confessed his sins 
 before all who were there The saint, weeping together with him, 
 said to him, "Arise, son, and take comfort, thy sins are remitted of 
 which thou art guilty ; for thus it is written, ' God does not despise 
 the lowly and the broken heart.'" He arose fjoyfully and was re- 
 ceived by the saint. ^ 
 
 In this account Columba makes no claim to pardon the 
 man by saying, like the Catholic priest to his penitent, " I 
 absolve thee," etc. He simply says, " Thy sins are remitted." 
 And the ground for this assurance is the writing of the Holy 
 Spirit, " God does not despise the lowly and the broken heart." 
 Columba did not preach among the Picts the washing away 
 of sin by baptism, or its removal by priestly absolutions. 
 We have in connection with the conversion of Fechnaus an 
 account of the intense interest Columba had in the salvation 
 of men. Somehow he had learned, before his vessel reached 
 port, that " Fechnaus was in distress about his sins," and as 
 soon as his servant saw the boat approaching the harbor, 
 Columba, full of eagerness, set out to encourage the proselyte, 
 not yet landed ; when the saint met him weeping and con- 
 fessing his sins, he mingled his tears with those of the peni- 
 tent, and pointed him to the fountain of consolation and 
 cleansing. 
 
 While " Columba tarried for some days in a province of 
 the Picts," as Adamnan ^ relates, " a certain peasant, with his 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. I., cap. 16. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. II., cap. 20. 
 
THE ABBEY OF lONA. 201 
 
 whole household, hearing the word of life through an inter- 
 preter, the holy man [Columba] being the preacher, believed 
 and was baptized, the husband with the wife, and the chil- 
 dren, and the servants." Here the theme of the apostle of the 
 Northern Picts was " the word of life," and faith was the in- 
 strument of salvation, the possession of which fitted them for 
 a public profession of Christ in baptism. 
 Adamnan ^ writes in another place of an — 
 
 Old decrepit pagan whom two youths lifted from a ship and placed 
 before the face of the blessed man [Columba]. He immediately be- 
 lieved the word of God received from the saint [Columba] by an 
 interpreter and was baptized by him ; and after the mysteries of bap- 
 tism were completed, as the saint prophesied, he died in the same 
 place, and his companions buried him there and piled up a heap of 
 stones [upon his grave] which is seen at this day on the seashore; 
 and the river, at that place in which he received baptism, is called in 
 our times by the inhabitants after his name. 
 
 In this case Columba preached " the word of God " ; and 
 the man, though an old heathen, burdened with the supersti- 
 tions of idolatry throughout a long life believed. Elsewhere, 
 Adamnan^ relates that "the holy old man, stating these 
 things, as quickly as he could, preceded his fellow-travelers 
 until he came down into a field, and there a certain aged 
 man, Enichatus by name, was found Avho heard the word 
 of God preached by the saint [Columba], and he believed 
 and was baptized." This shows most emphatically that " the 
 word of God " was the subject of Columba's preaching to the 
 Northern Picts; and that true, heart-felt repentance and 
 faith were wrought in those whom he baptized. At least, 
 these formed the basis of their acceptance for baptism. 
 
 These were the chief themes which filled his conversations, 
 and his sermons, and eventually, the hearts of all Pict- 
 land. 
 
 Bede,' who died about A. D. 735, some thirty years after 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib I,, cap. 19. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. III., cap. 18. 
 
 3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 4. 
 
202 A^'CIE^'T British and irish chupwChes. 
 
 Adamnan, gives the same subject as the burden of Columba's 
 sermons. 
 
 His declaration is, " There came into Britain, in A. D. 565, 
 a famous priest and abbot, a monk by habit and life, whose 
 name was Columba, to preach the word of God to the pro- 
 vinces of the Northern Picts." The " Anglo-Saxon Chronicle," 
 at A. D. 565, states that Columba came to the Picts and con- 
 verted them to the faith of Christ. Columba's orthodoxy 
 was that of a modern evangelical missionary. Is it remark- 
 able, that having " the word of God," which is the sword of 
 the Spirit, as his missionary weapon, with the Spirit himself 
 occupying the guest chamber of his heart, he should uproot 
 grievous sins and the idolatry of the Northern Picts, and 
 through his disciples the heathenism of multitudes of the 
 ancient Anglo-Saxons ? 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted that we have no good " Life " 
 of Columba; the two ancient biographies of this distin- 
 guished man have taken but little notice of the details of his 
 purely missionary labors. 
 
 Such historical matters as Adamnan does give, and they 
 are numerous and valuable, are merely frames for his pic- 
 tures of Columba's supposed prophecies, miracles, and visions 
 of angels. » 
 
 It took some time for Columba to erect his large college in 
 lona, and to plant crops and fruit trees for his numerous 
 family, so that his mind might feel at ease on their account, 
 and that numbers of them might be ready to enter upon the 
 full work of gospel preachers when he began it himself. He 
 may have spent one or two years in preliminary arrange- 
 ments, essential to future usefulness. Meanwhile, perhaps 
 through an interpreter, he acted according to liis custom ob- 
 served before and after this period, by presenting the gospel 
 to the people of the neighboring islands, and others on the 
 mainland, who in many cases accepted it. In this way he 
 and his brethren received much encouragement from their 
 limited services for Christ. 
 
THE ABBEY- OF ION A. 203 
 
 At length he resolved, after earnest prayer for help, to go 
 and preach to King Brude himself. He knew that his con- 
 version would secure the attention of his subjects, and that 
 the Spirit of God would unlock their hearts. The journey 
 was one of at least a hundred and fifty miles by land and 
 water, and had little attraction for a missionary in that day. 
 The men along its lochs, and rivers, and glens had no friend- 
 ship for any Christian ; but it mattered not, God was with 
 him, and he was sure of it ; and as Adamnan relates, " In the 
 first great weariness^ of the journey," without waiting for 
 rest, he resolved to seek an interview with Brude himself, 
 the mighty king. 
 
 He, puffed up with regal conceit in his fortress, in a spirit of arro- 
 gance would not open his gates on the first approach of the blessed 
 man [Columba]. When the man of God noticed this, he drew near 
 with his companions and first making the sign of the Lord's cross 
 upon the closed doors, then knocking", he placed his hand upon the 
 gate, which instant'y opened of its own accord with great swiftness, 
 the bolts having been driven back with much force. Through the 
 gate, instantly opened, the saint and his associates entered. The 
 circumstances becoming known, the king and his advisers were 
 greatly alarmed, and leaving the palace he advanced to meet the 
 blessed man with respect, and addressed him very courteously in con- 
 ciliatory words, and from that time afterward, during the remaining 
 days of his life, the king held the holy and venerable man in very 
 great honor. 
 
 Of course the miraculous part of this narrative is a mere 
 legend, and so also was the making of the sign of the cross 
 over the gate. But, that Columba and his followers practi- 
 cally forced themselves into Brude's presence, and that he sup- 
 posed that their god alone could give them such courage, seem 
 unquestionable facts. The king at first was seriously alarmed, 
 and so were the members of his chief council [senatus] ; 
 but when Columba preached to him and them the word of 
 God, showing the greatness of his love, the atoning power of 
 Christ's sufferings, the sure punishment of the unbelieving in 
 the lost world, and the immediate need of repentance and 
 
 1 " Vit. Colum.," Lib. II., cap. 23. 
 
204 ANCIE>iT BRITISH AND IRISH CHUKCHES. 
 
 faith in the Saviour, the king and his friends were deeply- 
 troubled by their sins, and as he poured out an audible 
 prayer to the Redeemer in the spirit of a hymn which he 
 
 composed : 
 
 " As thou didst suflfer on the cross, 
 To save a guilty race, 
 Show me thy power with thy love, 
 And glory grant and grace," ^ 
 
 they put their trust in the Lamb of God, and from that time, 
 until death Brude was the warm friend of Columba. The saint 
 became a welcome and, considering the distance, a frequent 
 visitor at Brude's residence. And his conversion and friend- 
 ship, together with the favor of his cabinet, were of the great- 
 est service to Columba in the conversion of the Picts. 
 
 The hostility of the Druids was constant and deadly ; but 
 Columba burning with love to Jesus, and with zeal to save 
 the lost, went everywhere preaching the word. The apostle 
 of the Northern Picts had a " voice which could be heard 
 like a trumpet, even to a mile's distance " ; he had real elo- 
 quence ; sympathy ran in every utterance and opened the 
 hearts of his hearers to receive the gospel ; he had tact as a 
 speaker and ruler of monasteries which was never surpassed ; 
 his well-known purity of character and generosity gave im- 
 mense force to his addresses ; sickness, weariness, wickedness, 
 were scarcely impediments to his march over the rugged 
 highlands ; he wanted no money or goods from the rich or 
 the poor to compensate him for his unceasing toils and sacri- 
 fices ; and then he had the noblest message for guilty men 
 ever conceived in heaven or proclaimed to broken hearts — 
 the blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, through faith, cleanses 
 from all sin. As he went everywhere over his wide field, 
 Bible in hand and the Spirit of God in the " guest chamber " 
 of his heart, the clansmen in tens of thousands followed the 
 example of King Brude and of their chieftains, and the 
 whole country was aroused. 
 
 1 Smith's " Life of St. Columba," p. 174. Glasgow. 
 
THE ABBEY OF lONA. 205 
 
 Ministers from lona and from the Columban monasteries 
 in Ireland accompanied their veteran leader and were sent 
 out on all sides of his line of travel to open new fields for 
 sowing gospel seed, or to follow converts to their homes and 
 establish churches among them. Others were left by Co- 
 lumba to preach permanently in the chief centres of gospel 
 power. Bibles, made in Ireland for this glorious regenera- 
 tion of a whole people, were placed in locations where some 
 one could expound them to listening throngs. The work 
 of Coluraba and his assistants knew no abatement, nor did 
 the prosperity of the mission ; and at last the pagan section 
 of the Picts, through years of prayerful toil, became a Chris- 
 tian kingdom. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 columba's work established. 
 
 Columba's name commemorated in many places — lona a famous 
 school of learning— Bishops subject to its abbot — Columba used 
 no liturgy— Remarkable answers to his prayers. 
 
 "Columba's name has been traced to fifty-three places, 
 both among Scots and Picts, where it is commemorated 
 either in [baptismal] wells, or in churches dedicated to 
 him." ^ Dr. Smith writes : 
 
 Columba planted churches in all our western isles, and in all the 
 territory of the ancient Scots and Northern Picts, and some even be- 
 yond them. Most of our parishes still bear the names of his disciples ; 
 and the number of places whose names begin with " Kil" [church], 
 show how thickly our churches were anciently planted, so that there 
 is much reason to believe that the largest number ascribed to 
 Columba is not above the mark. Providence smiled in a remarkable 
 manner upon his labors, and his success was astonishing. It is no 
 wonder that such an extraordinary man should have been greatly 
 revered while alive, and that his memory should have been pro- 
 foundly venerated after death.^ 
 
 Neander writes of Columba : 
 
 In lona he founded a monastery which under his management 
 during thirty years, attained the highest reputation, a distant and 
 secluded seat for the pursuit of biblical studies and other sciences. 
 The memory of Columba made this monastery so venerated, that its 
 abbots had the control of the bordering tribes and churches; and 
 even bishops acknowledged their authority, though they were but 
 simple priests.^ 
 
 Not a hint is given by early writers, who describe the life 
 and labors of Columba, of any liturgy which he used. He 
 and his associates, as we are informed, made copies of the 
 
 1 " Vit. Colum," p. 289. Reevea' ed. 
 
 2 " Life of St. Columba," pp. 180, 181. Glasgow. 
 
 3 " History of the Christian Church," Vol. III., p. 10. Boston. 
 
 206 
 
207 
 
 Psalms, Gospels, New Testament, and of the Old Testament ; 
 but nothing is said about transcribing liturgies, or any forms 
 of prayer or worship. The Lord's Supper, in the early 
 churches, inspired an interest only partially known in later 
 times ; if any written form of service existed in Columba's 
 day, we should find it in the celebration of the Eucharist ; 
 but though Adamnan makes repeated references to it in his 
 " Life of Columba," there is absolutely nothing of a liturgical 
 character in it. Adamnan mentions that four of the holy 
 founders of monasteries from Ireland visited Columba ; and 
 with one consent, "they chose him to consecrate the sacred 
 mysteries of the Eucharist in the church before them ; he 
 complied with their wishes, and on the Lord's Day entered 
 the church at the same time with them ; and then, after the 
 reading of the Gospel, according to custom, the solemn rites of the 
 service \^for believers'] were celebrated.'' ^ This included the 
 Eucharist. It is worthy of special notice, that reading the 
 Gospel [the account of the institution of the Eucharist] was 
 the customary introduction to the actual distribution of it, 
 in lona, when Columba directed its devotions. The observ- 
 ance of this ordinance in most non-Episcopal, evangelical 
 churches of our day, is very much like Columba's. 
 
 Columba lived very near to God, especially in his supplica- 
 tions. He not only offered petitions to God by dav and by 
 night, but all new undertakings and apprehended dangers sent 
 him at once to the mercy seat. Adamnan mentions a number 
 of his remarkable appeals to the Redeemer. 
 
 On a certain occasion, when the holy man was in lona, he sud- 
 denly said to his servant, "ring the bell." The brethren, aroused 
 by its sound, ran quickly to the church, their chief priest going 
 before them, to whom he said : " Let us earnestly pray to the Lord 
 for King Aidan and this people, for at this hour they are engaged 
 in battle." After a brief interval, he left the house of prayer, and 
 looking to heaven he said, "Now the barbarians are put to flight 
 and Aidan has secured the victory.'^ 
 
 1 Adainnani " A it. Colum.," Lib. III., cap. 21, p. 767. Migne. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. I., cap. 7. 
 
208 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 This prayer was answered. 
 
 At another time, when the saint was at sea in the usual 
 open wicker boat, the lives of those on board were in great 
 danger from the wind and the heavy sea. Columba, during 
 the storm, was busy helping to bale out the coracle, when : 
 
 The sailors! said to the saint, assisting them to empty the vessel, 
 "Why are you doing this? It profits little to remove our dangers; 
 you ought rather to pray lor us while death threatens us." When 
 the saint heard this he ceased baling out the salt water and began to 
 pour forth precious and earnest prayers to the Lord, and wonderful 
 to relate, at the moment when the saint, standing on the prow with 
 hands outstretched toward heaven, prayed to the Almighty, the en- 
 tire tempest in the air, and the fury of the sea, appeased by a word, 
 quickly ceased. 
 
 A Christian peasant and wife had a serious misunderstand- 
 ing, which resulted in the refusal of the woman to live with 
 her husband. He solicited Columba's assistance. The saint 
 reasoned with her like a loving and godly father ; she showed 
 no malice, but refused to yield on the main question. Adam- 
 nan relates the conversation. Never were wiser scriptural 
 counsels given ; but Columba seemed to fail. At last he said 
 to the unhappy couple : 
 
 Let us' three, this day, that is, I and the husband and wife, fast 
 and pray to the Lord [for a reconciliation]. She said, "I know that 
 it will not be impossible to you, as the things which seem difficult, or 
 even impossible, when sought from God, may be given." On the 
 same day the wife, together with her husband, agreed to fast with the 
 saint. Columba was sleepless the night following, praying earnestly 
 for them, and on the next day he addressed the wife, the husband 
 being present, and said, "Are you prepared, O woman, to-day to en- 
 ter a monastery, as you said yesterday " ? She replied, " Now I have 
 learned that God has heard thy prayer for me; for the man I hated 
 yesterday I love to-day." 
 
 The prayers of Columba brought domestic peace. Once 
 Broichan threatened to raise a tempest which would hinder 
 Columba from sailing upon the day he proposed ; as he was 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. XL, cap. 2. 
 « Ibid., cap. 28. 
 
209 
 
 a well-knowD magician and Druid the saint, determined to 
 trust in God and leave port. At the appointed time the 
 heavens became dark ; a contrary tempestuous gale was blow- 
 ing, while a multitude followed the saint to the place of sailing. 
 
 Our Columba, seeing the furious elements stirred up against him, 
 called upon Christ the Lord [for help], and while the sailors showed 
 timidity, he became more resolute and ordered the sail to be raised. 
 This thing was done while the throng was looking on ; and the ves- 
 sel, driven in the teeth of the gale, ran with surprising speed, and 
 after a brief interval the contrary winds were turned back so as to 
 help [Columba' s] trip.i 
 
 And he ended his brief voyage so successfully that his 
 safety was regarded as a divine miracle, unexampled in the 
 history of those who saw it. At any rate, it was his prayer 
 to Christ that fitted an inexperienced man like himself to 
 guide the frail coracle, threatening to founder every moment, 
 in perfect safety when old sailors hesitated to embark until 
 the storm abated. 
 
 As a specimen of his supplications in secret, we learn from 
 Adamnan that on one occasion, when he desired to pray 
 alone, he found it necessary for some special reason to warn 
 the brethren not to follow him. His wishes were respected 
 by all but one of them, and he set out alone as he desired to 
 a retired place ; but " the fraternal spy, heedless of the abbot's 
 request, stole along another way " to an eminence where he 
 could see him, " desirous of discovering the reason for the 
 solitary walk of the blessed man ; when he beheld him he 
 was standing and praying with his hands spread out to hea- 
 ven, and his eyes lifted up to the skies." ^ Columba's praying 
 power was to him an invinciple weapon, the use of which 
 overcame all enemies. And he recognized in other faithful 
 Christians the possession of the same praying power. He 
 was exceedingly anxious at one time to be taken to his hea- 
 venly home, and grieved that for some years longer he must 
 stay on earth ; and he gave as a reason for it, the prayers of 
 
 » Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. II., cap. 22. 
 « Ibid., Lib. III., cap. 26. 
 
210 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 his brethren. He says : " The Lord has granted to the pray- 
 ers of these churches against my wish, that from this day 
 four years shall be added to my life." ^ In all this Columba 
 does not exaggerate the influence with God of faithful, plead- 
 ing Christians. He knew, scarce less than James, that the 
 "supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its 
 working." 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. 111., cap. 31. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INCIDENTS OF COLUMBA's LIFE. 
 
 Columba's faith in Providence — Kindness to the captured robber — 
 His benedictions in view of death — His last message — His death — 
 The funeral rites— The eulogy — Columba's writings— Other labor- 
 ers in Caledonia. 
 
 In prospect of meeting a great ocean monster which had 
 created terror among the people of lona as it raised itself 
 upon the surface of the sea near their island, Baithen, the 
 successor of Columba, who had much of his spirit, as he was 
 about to sail where it had been recently seen, said to Co- 
 lumba, " I and that monster fish are under the dominion of 
 God." " Go in peace," said the saint, " your faith in Christ 
 shall protect you from this danger." The huge whale ap- 
 peared to Baithen and his men, but speedily plunged under 
 the waves and never was seen again.^ 
 
 When Broichan threatened the great tempest to which we 
 have already referred, which was intended to hinder Columba 
 from sailing on a particular day, his answer to the magi- 
 cian was, " The omnipotence of God rules all things ; he is 
 the Governor by whose authority our entire movements are 
 controlled."^ The saint, trusting in him whose sceptre of 
 love exercises dominion over everything mighty and minute 
 in his universe of worlds, went to sea with confidence and 
 completed his little voyage without injury. Such reliance as 
 this upon the universal earthly government of God fitted 
 him to meet any danger, and to attempt undertakings sur- 
 rounded by the greatest difficulties. Benevolence was one of 
 the several remarkable features in Columba's character. 
 Once a robber was waiting an opportunity to steal from the 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.." Lib. I., cap. 12. * Ibid., Lib. II., cap. 22. 
 
 211 
 
212 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 saint. He had him seized and brought before bini. On see- 
 ing him, the saint said to him, " Why do you so frequently 
 steal the property of others, breaking the divine command- 
 ment? Come to me when you are in need, and you shall 
 have the necessary things which you ask." ^ He also sent 
 other gifts a little later, because he noticed that disease 
 threatened the criminal's life. Kindness like this to a robber 
 is the last thing seen on earth. It was evidently compassion 
 on the part of Columba ; and yet it was an argument for the 
 divine origin of Columba's Christianity that could not be 
 refuted. 
 
 Before Columba's death he was carried in a vehicle to visit 
 the brethren laboring in the western part of the island, and 
 as he sat in the carriage"'^ he turned his face to the east and 
 blessed the island with its inhabitants and the brethren in 
 the collesre. At another time he visited the barn^ with 
 Diarmad, and when he saw two heaps of corn, he praised God 
 and gave him thanks, and said, " I warmly congratulate my 
 dear monks, if indeed I shall leave you, you shall have a 
 year's supply." 
 
 Then he ascended an eminence overlooking the institute, 
 and stretching out both hands he blessed it, saying, " Upon 
 this place, although small and mean, not only the kings of 
 the Scots with their people, but the rulers of barbarous and 
 foreign nations with their subjects, shall confer great honor. 
 Saints also of other churches shall greatly venerate it." * It 
 is reasonably certain that while Columba was blessing his 
 college, that is praying to God to pour out his mercies and 
 grace upon it, Aidan and the other missionaries who were in- 
 strumental in the conversion of many of the Anglo-Saxons 
 were in it, and shared in this blessing. And the prediction 
 of the patriarchal missionary was strikingly confirmed. 
 
 After this he descended to the hut which was probably his 
 own special dwelling, and proceeded with a psalter, a copy of 
 
 1 Adamnan's " Vit. Colum.," Lib. I., cap. 20. 
 
 « Ibid., Lib. III., cap. 27. » Ibid., cap. 28, ■» Ibid., cap. 28. 
 
INCIDENTS OF COLUMBA^S LIFE. 213 
 
 which he was making, until he came to the end of a page ; 
 he had sought a blessing upon the island and its inhabitants ; 
 upon the heaps of corn in the barn ; and now he bids farewell 
 to Scripture copying. After finishing the page of the psalter, 
 he went to church to the evening service of the Lord's Day. 
 After his return, through Diarmad, his attendant, he sent a 
 message to the brethren : 
 
 My 1 little children, I commend to you as my last words, that you 
 have mutual and unfeigned love among yourselves; and if you will 
 follow the example of the saints, God, the strength of the good, will 
 help you, and I, abiding with him, will intercede for you; and not 
 only shall the necessaries of this life be granted you by him, but the 
 reward of eternal blessing prepared for those who keep the divine 
 precepts, shall be given to you. 
 
 It was not imagined in lona that any one was to pray to 
 him instead of Christ as an intercessor. Adamnan never 
 states that any one ever prayed to him or to other men, 
 though he wrote about ninety years after Columba's death. 
 Columba, it is supposed, simply meant, that if he was per- 
 mitted, he would commend their situation to God ; his inter- 
 cession to refer solely to his knowledge of their state when 
 he left the earth. 
 
 When the bell was rung at midnight, he hastened to the 
 church, and going quicker than the others, he entered alone 
 and kneeled in prayer near the altar. Diarmad followed 
 him slowly, but could not see him in the darkness, and cried 
 out, "Where art thou, father?" He discovered the saint 
 lying before the altar ; sitting near him and raising him a 
 little, he placed his head on his breast ; meanwhile, the con- 
 gregation of monks with lamps, came to him and began to 
 lament their father, who appeared to be dying. Soon after 
 he breathed his last. The whole church was filled with sor- 
 rowful lamentations. 
 
 After the death of the saint, when the morning hymns 
 were ended, the sacred body was carried from the church to 
 
 Adamnani " Vit. Colum,," Lib. III., 29. 
 
214 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the house, accompanied by the chanting of psalms by the 
 brethren. The last rites were completed with honor dur- 
 ing three days and nights. "The venerable body of our 
 holy and blessed patron, wrapped in pure, fine linen, was 
 placed in a coffin prepared for it, and buried with due rever- 
 ence, to rise in luminous and unfading glory at the resurrec- 
 tion." 
 
 Such was the end of the life of our distinguished patron, who ac- 
 cording to the Scriptures, is now a companion to the fathers in 
 eternal triumphs, and has become united to apostles and prophets, 
 and to the thousands clothed in white, who have washed their robes 
 in the blood of the Lamb and follow him whithersoever he goeth. 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ himself has granted this grace, to whom, with 
 the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, be honor, power, praise, 
 glory, and dominion, forever and ever.^ 
 
 Columba died June 9th, a. d. 597. 
 
 Though placed on earth, he was fitted for the morals of heaven. 
 He was angelic in aspect, brilliant in speech, holy in deed, lofty in 
 genius, and great in counsel. No part of an hour could pass in which 
 he was not earnestly engaged in prayer, reading, writing, or in some 
 other work.'' 
 
 His extraordinary piety, talents, and usefulness, accompanied with 
 a perpetual serenity of mind, cheerfulness of countenance, simplicity 
 of manners, and benevolence of heart, have deservedly raised him to 
 the first rank of saints.^ 
 
 We are not surprised that the mourners at his death spoke 
 of him as " the pillar of many churches." Nor is it remark- 
 able that a man of such piety had a hope of heaven so 
 unclouded, that, for at least four years before his death, he 
 desired earnestly to lay aside bodily infirmities and his 
 weighty official burdens, and go to his beloved Redeemer. 
 His instructions and example survived in his island home 
 and elsewhere in Caledonia centuries after his death ; and his 
 name and chief missionary college were regarded with the 
 greatest reverence. As the learned Pinkerton justly ob- 
 
 1 Adamnani " Vit. Colum.," Lib. III., cap. 31, 33, 34. 
 
 2 Ibid., Lib. I., cap. 1 
 
 » Smith'B " Life of St. Columba," p. 165. Glasgow. 
 
INCIDENTS OF COLUMBA's LIFE. 215 
 
 serves, " lona was the Rome of Scotland until the end of the 
 ninth century."^ 
 
 It would interest many to see all the literary works of 
 Columba. From Bede we know that. "Some writings were 
 preserved of his life, and discourses by his disciples " ; of 
 these a portion was penned by himself From the " Life of 
 Columba," in Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga we learn that 
 there were " A great many of Columba's own writings, fall 
 of piety and devotion, some in prose, but mostly in Latin or 
 Irish verse." Of Columba's Latin poems. Dr. Smith pub- 
 lishes translations of three : " One composed during a thun- 
 der-storm," at Durrow ; another, " On the Creation, Fall of 
 Angels, and Final Judgment " ; the third is addressed to the 
 Redeemer. The^ following stanzas are from the translation of 
 the third poem : 
 
 Thy glory shines above the skies, 
 
 "Where thou art God and King ; 
 And to the New Jerusalem 
 
 Thy people thou wilt bring. 
 
 As thou didst suffer on the cross 
 
 To save a guilty race, 
 Show me thy power, with thy love, 
 
 And glory grant, with grace. 
 
 Protect us, O thou God most high, 
 
 Until we reach the place. 
 Where endless anthems we shall sing 
 
 Around thy throne of grace. 
 
 lona was plundered and burned several times bythe " Danes," 
 and in a. d. 805, sixty-eight of the brethren were slain by 
 the '' pirates." The " Northmen " were almost as eager to 
 burn the Scriptures and the religious books of the monas- 
 tic missions as they were to rob and murder. The Scandi- 
 navian pirates destroyed invaluable literary treasures in 
 Caledonia, and among them, most of the writings of Co- 
 lumba. 
 
 1 Cited in Smith's " Life of St. Columba," p. 145. Glasgow. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 174, 175. 
 
216 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Independent missionaries, contemporaries of Columba, la- 
 bored in Caledonia ; one of them, named Kenneth, or Cain- 
 nechus, gave his name to Inch-Kenneth, in Mull ; to Kenno- 
 way, in Fifeshire, and to other places in Scotland, as well as 
 to localities in Ireland. He was an Irishman by birth, but a 
 successful laborer in Alba. 
 
 Ciaran, of Clonmacnois, a special friend of Columba long 
 before he came to Alba, labored in that country for a con- 
 siderable period with encouraging results. He gave Camp- 
 beltown, in Kintyre, its Gaelic name of Kilkerran, Ciaran's 
 Church. Kilkerran, in Ayrshire, took its name from him, and 
 other places in Scotland. 
 
 Colum of Eala (pronounced Colmonell), has left his name 
 to Kilcalmonell, in Kintyre, and to the parish of Colmonell, 
 in Ayrshire. 
 
 Donnan preached in Scotland in Columba's day. The 
 country of Sutherland has the parish of Kildonan, or Don- 
 nan's Church ; and in the island of Eigg the parish church 
 is still called Kildonan. 
 
 Molaise, another missionary, left the name of Lamlash, in 
 Arran, a corruption of the words Eilean Molaise, or Molaise's 
 Island. " Molaise was one of that famous band which, at an 
 early period, laid the foundations of the Scottish church, 
 and who were of kindred sentiments with the great mission- 
 ary of lona." * 
 
 1 •• The Early Scottish Church," M'Lauchlan, p. 205. Edinburgh. 
 
FOLDOUT 
 HERE 
 
BOOK IV. 
 
 THE MISSION OF THE SCOTS TO THE ANGLO- 
 SAXONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, FROM 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Pagan temples built by Anglo-Saxons — Adoption of heathen customs 
 by the Romanists— Apostasy among their converts in Northumbria, 
 among the East Saxons, and in Kent— Northumbria accepts the 
 gospel of Paulinus. 
 
 The missionaries came from lona in Scotland, where Col- 
 umba established his great educational and evangelizing 
 institution in A. D. 565. Its founder and his brethren were 
 Hibernians, descendants of the converts of St. Patrick, the 
 Briton; and their successors for ages were chiefly Irish 
 Scots. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxons, after wide-spread slaughter, the destruc- 
 tion of churches and Christians of every vestige of civiliza- 
 tion, and of every trace of the true religion in their portion 
 of Britain, reared temples to their ferocious deities all over 
 the fruitful country where pious Britons for centuries had 
 sung hallelujahs. The Scots of Ireland, inspired by the com- 
 mission of their risen Lord, left their native land to bring the 
 Northern Picts to the Saviour ; and after nearly seventy years 
 of incessant toil, self-denial, and prayers, the pagans of Scot- 
 land, having been converted to Christ, they were free to seek 
 new heathen fields for their loving labors. As their first 
 missionary efforts in England were undertaken to recover 
 from apostasy converts of the pope's Italian mission it is 
 T 217 
 
218 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 necessary to give a brief account of the labors of these for- 
 eign preachers. 
 
 In A. D. 596, Augustine and some forty monks, it is said, 
 came to England by command of Gregory I., Pope of Rome, 
 to evangelize the pagans in Ethelbert's kingdom of Kent. 
 The way had been opened for them by Bertha, the Christian 
 wife of Ethelbert, and her godly French chaplain. Bishop 
 Luidhard. The Romanist Lingard, truly describing the sit- 
 uation, writes : 
 
 From the epistles of Pope Gregory it appears that these and similar 
 causes had awakened a desire for religious knowledge among the in- 
 habitants of Kent, and that application for instruction had been made 
 to the prelates of the Franks, whose apathy and indolence are lashed 
 by the severe but merited animadversions of the pontiff. It w^as at 
 this favorable period that Augustine reached the isle of Thanet, and 
 sent a messenger to inform Ethelbert that he had arrived from a dis- 
 tant country to open to him and his subjects the gates of eternal 
 happiness. 1 
 
 In the course of a short period Ethelbert and ten thousand 
 of his subjects were baptized in the Swale near Canterbury.'' 
 
 Augustine, Mellitus, Justus, Laurentius, and Paulinus, the 
 prominent members of the mission, were men of feeble ability 
 and of poor courage. They were so alarmed by the appre- 
 hended dangers of the mission when they were in France, on 
 their journey to Britain, that the whole party sought a release 
 from Gregory from such a dangerous enterprise. Mellitus 
 and Justus fled from their flocks when they apostatized, and 
 Paulinus when alarmed for his safety and Laurentius had 
 planned to fly to France. These men were deficient in talent 
 and in general fitness for the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons ; 
 and while their success was limited in the kingdoms of the 
 Heptarchy, and especially in bringing regenerated persons 
 into the church ; and while admitting that they were good 
 men we must look, in a considerable measure, for their suc- 
 cess such as it was, to Gregory's guidance, and to the favor to- 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 23. Philada. 
 
 3 " Vita Sanct. August. Patrl. Lat.," Tom, LXXX., pp. 79, 80. Migne. 
 
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PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 219 
 
 ward the gospel created by Providence in the hearts of the 
 leading persons in Kent, and in Sabert, the nephew of Ethel- 
 bert, king of the East Saxons. 
 
 In one direction Gregory inflicted a great evil upon 
 the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. The pagans were accus- 
 tomed " to slaughter many oxen in sacrifices to devils," and 
 feast upon parts of them around their temples. As these 
 structures, after purification, became churches, Gregory 
 thought that there ought to be some solid festivities around 
 them still ; so he ordered that upon the day of the dedication 
 [to Christian uses] of the temples, or upon the nativities of 
 the holy martyrs, the people should build huts of boughs of 
 trees around the old temples, now called churches, and that 
 they should kill and eat cattle, and return thanks to the 
 Giver of all things for the food.^ This was simply a heathen 
 custom disguised ; and there is reason to fear that other idol- 
 atrous practices were furnished with the mask of Christianity 
 by the pliant preachers, so that when Ethelbert and Sabert 
 died, and their pagan sons succeeded them, their people 
 quickly removed the mask and showed that they were pagans 
 still, by restoring idolatry. 
 
 After the death of Edwin, king of Northumbria, who was 
 slain in a battle which he fought with Penda, king of Mercia, 
 and Cadwallada, king of the Britons, his kingdom was rav- 
 aged for more than a year by the conquerors, during which, 
 as Lingard says, " The converts [of Northumbria], deprived 
 of instruction [their bishop having fled to Kent], easily 
 relapsed into idolatry." ^ Bede complains bitterly, in con- 
 nection with the cruelties to the converts in Northumbria 
 after the battle with Edwin, that, " It is the custom of the 
 Britons, not to pay any respect to the faith and religion of 
 the English, nor to correspond with them any more than 
 with pagans." ^ It is reasonable to suppose that the Britons 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 30. 
 
 8 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 26. 
 
 ' Bede's " Eccles. History," Lib. II., cap. 20. 
 
220 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 were well acquainted with the apostates of Kent, and of the 
 East Saxons, and of the character generally of the Northum- 
 brian " New Christians," as well as of the heathen practices, 
 tolerated by the missionaries, though somewhat disguised ; 
 and it is difficult to see how intelligent and faithful British 
 Christians could recognize the English converts of the Ital- 
 ian mission, as a whole, as disciples of Christ. 
 
 Northumbria, the missionary field of the illustrious Aidan, 
 the first and greatest missionary of the Scots to the Anglo- 
 Saxons, was the scene of the labors of Paulinus, the papal 
 apostle of that kingdom. He entered it in a. d. 625. He 
 was to officiate as chaplain to Queen Ethelberga, and seek 
 assiduously the conversion of Edwin, her pagan husband. 
 After many efibrts the king at last consented to call a national 
 council to discuss the propriety of the whole nation adopting 
 Christianity. When it convened, he solicited an expression 
 of opinion upon the business for which they had been called. 
 
 The Chief Priest Coifi answered, " O king, consider what this is 
 which is now preached to us; for I verily declare to you, that the 
 religion which we have hitherto professed, has, as far as I can learn, 
 no virtue in it. For none of your people has applied himself more 
 diligently to the worship of our gods than I ; and yet there are many 
 who receive greater favors from you, and are more preferred than I. 
 Now, if the gods were good for anything, they would rather forward 
 me, who have been more careful to serve them." 
 
 One of the king's thanes said : 
 
 "The present life of man, king, seems to me, in comparison with 
 that time which is unknown to us, like the swift flight of a sparrow 
 through the room in which you sit at supper in the winter, with your 
 commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, while the 
 storms of rain and snow prevail abroad ; the sparrow, I say, flying in 
 at one door, and immediately out at another; whilst it is within it is 
 safe from the wintry storm, but after a short space of fair weather it 
 immediately vanishes out of your sight. So this life appears for 
 a short space, but of what went before, or of what is to follow we are 
 utterly ignorant." 
 
 At Coifi's request Paulinus addressed the eoimci], after which 
 he strongly commended the religion of Paulinus, and pro- 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 221 
 
 posed to burn the temples and altars of the gods. And soon 
 after, upon a royal horse, he went to the temple and profaned 
 it, to the horror of the multitudes, and then by his order the 
 temple was destroyed by fire. 
 
 " King Edwin, with all the nobility and a large number of 
 the common people, received the faith, and was baptized." 
 Bede tells us that the baptism occurred at York,^ in a. d. 
 627. 
 
 Paulinus had several large baptisms after that in North- 
 umbria. The writer visited a spring in Northumberland, 
 England, on the crest of a small hill, two miles from Har- 
 bottle, and eleven from Alnwick Castle, the well-known resi- 
 dence of the duke of Northumberland ; the basin of the 
 fountain was thirty-four feet long by twenty feet wide. In it 
 was a large granite cross, bearing upon one side the inscription, 
 " In this place Paulinus, the bishop, baptized three thousand 
 IM orthumbrians, Easter, A. D. 627." This baptism was an 
 immersion. But unfortunately these baptisms generally were 
 the result of a decision of the Witenagemot, or national coun- 
 cil of Northumbria, rather than the action of the Spirit of God 
 in " opening their eyes and turning them from darkness to 
 light " ; and hence when Edwin was killed, as Lingard says, 
 " The converts easily relapsed into their former idolatry." 
 Had the people been truly converted, like Holy Alban, the 
 Briton, only a few days a believer, before he became a tri- 
 umphant martyr, they would have suffered anything rather 
 than have apostatized, even though but recent converts. 
 
 1 Bede'8 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 13, 14. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 KING OSWALD CONVERTED. 
 
 Aidan the true apostle of Northumbria begins his ministry there — 
 King Oswald interprets his sermons— Vast numbers believe—" The 
 holiest spot in Britain" — Many Scottish preachers join Aidan — 
 The Bible is his supreme authority— He gives a fine horse to a beggar 
 —Oswald's victory over Cadwalla— He cuts a silver dish in pieces for 
 the poor — Gospel triumphs. 
 
 In a. d. 635, Oswald became king of Northumbria. He 
 was the son of Ethelfrid, the pagan king of Northumbria, who 
 slew the twelve hundred unarmed monks of Bangor, who 
 were praying for their brethren in arms whom Ethelfrid had 
 marched an army to destroy. Lingard writes that " Oswald 
 and Eanfrid, the sons of Ethelfrid, the predecessor of Edwin, 
 in the mountains of Scotland, had concealed themselves from 
 the jealousy of that prince; and had spent the time of their 
 exile in learning from the monks of lona the principles of 
 the gospel." ^ That the sons of such a heathen murderer of 
 so many saints should be sent to receive Christianity from the 
 godliest men in Europe is a situation with few parallels in 
 the history of Christianity. The Spirit of God took Oswald 
 to the island of lona, and made him the most saintly sovereign 
 that ever sat upon a British throne. 
 
 As soon as Oswald grasped the scepter of Northumbria, he 
 felt a strong desire to enthrone Christ in the hearts of all his 
 subjects. In A. d. 635, he began to take steps to secure a 
 suitable preacher. It does not seem to have occurred to him 
 to send for Paulinus, the Italian apostle of his kingdom, 
 though he was living then and for years afterward at 
 Rochester, in Kent. He had heard of his great baptisms, 
 and he saw his people given over to idolatry, though perhaps 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church." p. 26. Philadelphia. 
 222 
 
KING OSWALD CONVERTED. 223 
 
 all were baptized, and he wanted most earnestly Scottish 
 missionaries for himself and his subjects. He sent to lona 
 for a bishop, by whose instructions and ministry his people 
 might put their trust in the Saviour. The first preacher 
 lacked prudence and gentleness, but Aidan, who soon fol- 
 lowed him, was eminently qualified for extensive usefulness 
 among all classes. When Aidan preached, which was very 
 often, the king accompanied him as interpreter. The am- 
 bassador of Christ and the royal interpreter had immense 
 congregations to hear and receive the word, and among them, 
 as Bede states, were the " ministers and commanders." The 
 usefulness of these two heralds of the cross was such that 
 believers were soon multiplied beyond calculation. 
 
 Upon the arrival of Aidan, King Oswald appointed his 
 episcopal see in Lindisfarne, at his own request. Paulinus, 
 his predecessor, was made bishop of York, a bishopric cover- 
 ing the same territory as Aidan's, in accordance with direc- 
 tions given to Augustine by Pope Gregory ; but Aidan was a 
 true Protestant, and paid no attention to papal requirements. 
 Lindisfarne was an island upon which a monastic school was 
 immediately built ; and it became the home of Aidan as long 
 as he lived. Like lona, it was selected chiefly because it was 
 away from the busy scenes of human life, where its occupants 
 could hold communion with God without interruption. 
 The little island was the birthplace of the churches of 
 Northumbria. Alcuin, the celebrated Northumbrian favorite 
 of Charlemagne, writing of the monastery of Lindisfarne, 
 speaks of it, " as the holiest spot in Britain,"^ although the 
 first church of the Anglo-Saxons, and the remains of their 
 Romish apostle Augustine were still in Kent. In addition to 
 Lindisfarne, Aidan, at an early day, established a monastic 
 mission school at Melrose, anciently called Mailros. 
 
 Aidan was habitually a man of prayer. During the siege 
 of the Royal City [Bambrough] of the Northumbrians, by 
 Penda, king of Mercia, when he had surrounded it to a great 
 
 1 Malmesbury's " Chronicle," Vol. I., cap. 3. 
 
224 ANCIENT BRITISH AXD IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 height by combustible materials and set them ou fire, design- 
 ing to destroy the city and its people, Aidan was in the isle 
 of Fame, two miles distant, where " he was accustomed to 
 retire to pray in private, that he might be undisturbed ;"^ and 
 when he saw the flames and the smoke above the city walls, 
 with eyes and hands lifted up to heaven, he cried to God for 
 deliverance for the city ; and the wind immediately changed 
 and blew the flames upon those who kindled them, which 
 created such alarm that the siege was abandoned. In State 
 and Church, Aidan's faith and prayers gave strength and 
 prosperity to North umbria. 
 
 Oswald listened to the appeals of Aidan, and applied him- 
 self industriously to build up and extend the Saviour's king- 
 dom in Northumbria. " Many Scots came daily into Britain, 
 and with great devotion preached the word in King Oswald's 
 provinces." Churches were built, money and lands were do- 
 nated for monastic schools, and the people showed great interest 
 in all departments of church work. Aidan's faith and practice 
 were built exclusively upon the inspired writings. Speaking of 
 the lona ministers, Bede says : " They only practised such works 
 of piety and chastity as they could learn from the propheti- 
 cal, evangelical, and apostolical writings ;" ' and of Aidan and 
 his companions in service, he says, " They ^ were employed in 
 meditation, that is, either in reading the Scriptures or learning 
 psalms. This was the daily occupation of himself and of all 
 that were with him whersoever they went." And when Aidan 
 and his fellow Scots, by preaching the word of the Lord, un- 
 sheathed this " sword of the Spirit," the great Comforter seized 
 it with almighty energy, and gave it constant employment 
 until Oswald's kingdom was the Saviour's. 
 
 Bede says : " The object which Aidan had in view in all 
 that he said, did, or preached, was the same as ours, that is, 
 the redemption of mankind through the sufferings, resurrec- 
 tion, and ascension into heaven of the man Jesus Christ, who 
 
 iBede's "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 16. 
 
 ' Ibid., cap. 4. 3 Ibid., cap. 5. 
 
KING OSWALD CONVERTED. 225 
 
 is the mediator between God and man." ^ This was the doc- 
 trine which produced the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Such were the teachings of holy Aidan — a perfect salvation 
 at once, by trusting the slain Lamb of Calvary, the ever 
 prevailing intercessor for all believers. Aidan's doctrines 
 moved Northumbria like a moral earthquake. The mission- 
 ary would give anything to the poor. It was his custom tu 
 journey on foot, even when he had to travel long distances ; to 
 aid him in his ministry. King Oswin gave him a fine horse to 
 be especially useful in crossing rivers, or on occasions when haste 
 was needful. Some time after, a poor man on the road solic- 
 ited alms, and Aidan immediately dismounted and gave the 
 horse with his " royal furniture " to the beggar, " for he was 
 very compassionate, a great friend of the poor, and, as it were, 
 the father of the wretched." The king heard of it, and as 
 Aidan some time after was going into dinner with him, he 
 asked him why he had given away to the poor man that 
 " royal horse," when he had inferior horses which would have 
 been good enough for him ? To which he immediately an- 
 swered, " What is it you say, O king ? Is that foal of a mare 
 dearer to you than a son of God ? " 
 
 Aidan's present to the beggar, under ordinary circumstances 
 in our day, looks very foolish ; but he preferred walking to 
 have the opportunity to present Christ in conversations with 
 travelers. He knew well that the mendicant's unexpected 
 horse, like similar donations which he had bestowed before, 
 would open more widely the ears of Northumbrians to his 
 message of love from the precious Redeemer. 
 
 "Aidan was accustomed to traverse both town and country on foot, 
 never on horseback, unless compelled by some urgent necessity; and 
 whenever in his way he saw any, either rich or poor, he invited 
 them, if unbelievers, to embrace the mystery of the faith ; or, if be- 
 lievers [he endeavored] to strengthen them in faith, and to stir them 
 up by words, and actions to alms and good works. He never gave 
 
 » Bede'3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 17. 
 
226 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 money to the powerful men of the world, but only food, if he hap- 
 pened to entertain them ; and the gifts which he received from the 
 rich, he bestowed in ransoming those who had been wrongfully sold 
 as slaves ; many of whom he afterward instructed and advanced to 
 the priesthood." ^ 
 
 Aidan was an itinerant preacher ; speaking of a locality 
 where there was a church with a chamber connected with it, 
 Bede says : " Aidan was accustomed to go and stay there, and 
 to make excursions to preach in the country round about, 
 which he likewise did at other places." In this way the inde- 
 fatigable minister was all the time moving over his great 
 field, preaching continually to thousands, or to individuals, 
 and ever laboring to appear as a man approved of God ; 
 bearing blessed testimony to the truth of the gospel in earnest 
 and eloquent words : 
 
 " In love of peace and charity, in a mind superior to anger and ava- 
 rice, despising pride and vain glory, in industriously keeping and 
 teaching the heavenly commandments, in reproving the haughty 
 and powerful, in tenderly comforting the afflicted and relieving or 
 defending the poor. To say all in a few words — he took care to omit 
 none of those things which he found in the apostolical or prophetical 
 writings, but to the utmost of his power endeavored to perform them 
 all." 
 
 Such is the testimony of Bede, an eighth century Romanist, 
 based upon " the information of those who knew Aidan " ; 
 to which he adds : " I in no way commend or approve what 
 Aidan imperfectly understood in relation to the observance 
 of Easter ; nay I very much detest the same, as I have most 
 manifestly proved in a book I have written, ' Be Tempor- 
 ihus: " 
 
 Oswald was a courageous soldier, and as interpreter to 
 Aidan he rendered valuable services in the conversion of his 
 people. He had great faith in the success of prayer. When 
 going to fight Cadwalla, a victorious and troublesome enemy 
 of the Northumbrians, before the battle began, he erected a 
 cross, and — 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 5. « Ibid., cap. 17. 
 
KING OSWALD CONVERTED. 227 
 
 " Kaising his voice he cried to his army, "Let us all kneel and 
 jointly beseech the true and living God Almighty, in his mercy, to 
 defend us from the haughty and fierce enemy, for he knows that we 
 have undertaken a just war for the safety of our nation." All did 
 as they were commanded, and advancing accordingly toward the 
 enemy with the first dawn of day, they obtained the victory as their 
 faith deserved." ^ 
 
 The army of Oswald was small, bat praying faith made it 
 invincible. This victory showed the heathen of Northum- 
 bria that Jehovah was on the side of Christian Oswald, so 
 that from " this time," as Malmesbury says, " The worship of 
 idols fell prostrate in the dust " ; ' not that Christianity had 
 succeeded paganism yet, but its votaries had lost confidence 
 in their gods. Once — 
 
 "On Easter day, when he was at dinner with Bishop Aidan, and a 
 silver^ dish was set before him, laden with royal delicacies, and he 
 was on the point of putting out his hand to bless the bread, on a 
 sudden, the servant came in to whom the charge of ministering to 
 the poor was committed, and told the king there was a multitude 
 of poor people approaching, who were sitting everywhere about the 
 streets, entreating alms from the king. And he immediately ordered 
 the food that was set before him to be carrii-d down to tliem, and the 
 dish to be broken into small pieces, and to be distributed among them. 
 Aidan was delighted at this act of royal piety." 
 
 Oswald's liberality to the cause of Christ in building 
 churches, his help to Aidan as interpreter of his sermons, 
 his extraordinary consecration to Christ, his unbounded influ- 
 ence in his kingdom, and his power at the mercy seat, so fre- 
 quently employed for the salvation of Northumbria. made 
 him, next to Aidan, the chief man in bringing his kingdom to 
 Christ. 
 
 1 Bede's "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. TIL, cap. 2. 
 
 2 William of Malmesbury's " Chronicle," Vol. I., cap. 3. 
 
 3 Matthew of Westminster, " Flowers of History," at a. d. 644. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 HIBERNIAN MISSION SCHOOLS AMONG THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 
 
 Melrose founded by Aidan — Cuthbert— Popularity of the monastic 
 mission preachers— Whitby Abbey under Hilda— Hilda as a mis- 
 sionary, college president, and theologian — Caedmon, the Protest- 
 ant, the first eminent Anglo-Saxon poet. 
 
 The monasteries of Patrick's spiritual offspring among the 
 Anglo-Saxons, were designed, like all these monasteries else- 
 where, as great missionary schools, to train ministers, bring 
 the young under godly influences, and to expound the Script- 
 ures every day. " Famous monasteries," says Ussher, " were 
 planted in England by Aidan, Finan, and Colman, unto 
 which the people flocked apace on the Lord's Day, not for 
 the feeding of their bodies, but for learning the word of God." ^ 
 The monastery of Lindisfarne was founded by Aidan, the 
 pioneer missionary. It was constructed after the manner of 
 the Scots, not of stone, but of hewn oak, covered with reeds. 
 It had no more houses than were necessary for its occupants 
 and their schools, besides the church. The inmates had no 
 money, but they had cattle. They had no need for riches, or 
 houses to entertain the great, for these only came to the 
 church to pray and to hear the word of God, and if they re- 
 mained to take a repast they were satisfied with the ordinary 
 food of the brethren. From Lindisfarne went forth numbers 
 of Scots, who came to assist Aidan, as well as converted and 
 trained Anglo-Saxons, to every part of Northumbria, to 
 preach Christ crucified. When one of them entered a village 
 he was soon surrounded by a congregation anxious to hear the 
 blessed gospel. They knew that the ministers only came to 
 their town " to preach, baptize, visit the sick, and in few 
 
 1 " Works," Vol. v., p. 297. Erlington ed. 
 228 
 

 
HIBERXIAN MISSION SCHOOLS. 229 
 
 words, to take care of souls. They were so free from worldly- 
 avarice that none of them received lands and possessions for 
 building monasteries, unless compelled by the civil authori- 
 ties." Lindisfarne was a noted instrument in securing the 
 evangelization of Northumbria and the other Anglo-Saxon 
 nations. 
 
 The monastery of Mailros ^ or Melrose, on the river Tweed, 
 was founded by Aidan, and it prospered greatly through his 
 efforts. It was the home of Eata, Boisil, and Cuthbert, in 
 whose day its usefulness extended over some counties of what 
 is now called Scotland, and over the entire north of England. 
 
 Cuthbert was trained by Eata in Melrose ; he was one of 
 twelve Anglo-Saxon youths adopted by Aidan and Boisil. 
 Guthbert's life at Melrose affords us an example of the practical 
 training imparted at a mission institute of the. Scots, and of 
 the labors expected, and commonly given. He set out to 
 preach sometimes on horseback, but more frequently on foot ; 
 upon his arrival at each town the whole people surrounded 
 him to hear the word, and generally they listened to it eagerly, 
 and carried it away in their hearts. Under the power of 
 the truth, men would sometimes confess and deplore publicly 
 their most secret sins. The minister did not shrink from go- 
 ing to mountain villages, located amid craggy heights, and 
 occupied by a rough and almost barbarous people, to tell them 
 of Christ's great love. In these evangelizing tours he would 
 remain away from a week to a month, preaching, very likely, 
 at least once every day. Such were the men brought up 
 under Aidan's personal oversight, or in accordance with his 
 directions, either before or after he entered the heavenly rest. 
 These missionaries of the Scottish church gave an immortality 
 of saintly fame to the old hewn-log abbey of Melrose far 
 surpassing any glory ever acquired by its successor, whose 
 magnificent ruins are known to the world.* 
 
 Whitby Abbey, anciently called Streanshalch, was founded 
 
 1 Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., p. 304. Erlington ed. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IV., cap. 27. 
 
230 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES'. 
 
 and presided over by St. Hilda, a grand-niece of Edwin, 
 king of Northumbria. She was instructed by Aidan and 
 other godly men. In her monastery there were two separate 
 divisions, one for each sex ; her institution had a very large 
 list of students. Her wisdom was so remarkable in settling 
 controversies among her scholars, and in imparting right 
 principles to govern their future lives, that soon her fame 
 spread everywhere, and persons of the highest rank, even 
 kings and princes, in their difficulties came to her for counsel. 
 She made the Scriptures so much the subjects of reading and 
 study that her monastic home became a great theological 
 seminary, from which no less than five bishops graduated. 
 From so many leading bishops coming from the celebrated 
 school of Hilda it is certain that there must have been a 
 large number of less note who went forth on preaching tours. 
 This was the custom in all the Scottish missions in Ireland, 
 Scotland, and England. The toils of the inmates of the mon- 
 astery so called, in the broad fields donated for its support, 
 sustained its entire family, sometimes numbering thousands, 
 abbess, professors, teachers, ministers, and pupils. 
 
 In Whitby and other abbeys of the Scots, many were em- 
 ployed in making copies of the Scriptures ; others in teaching 
 mechanical trades to boys ; others in giving instruction to 
 young girls in callings suitable to their sex ; and many in all 
 grades of secular education ; and the abbess and others, in 
 the simplest and most profound biblical studies. The male 
 and female establishment at Whitby under Hilda, was a great 
 common school for the very young, a manual training school, 
 a secular university, a Sunday-school during a portion of every 
 day in the week, a theological seminary for ministers, and a 
 parsonage for the preachers who furnished the bread of life 
 to the people of a very extensive district. This was one of 
 many such monasteries belonging to the Scots in Great 
 Britain and Ireland. 
 
 Hilda was one of the most talented and useful women of 
 the whole Anglo-Saxon race. In the organization of her col- 
 
HIBERNIAN MISSION SCHOOLS. 231 
 
 lege, she and Aidan followed the example of lona except in 
 receiving members of both sexes. 
 
 A man possessing remarkable talents was unexpectedly dis- 
 covered in the lowly position of hostler in the stables of the 
 abbey. He was accustomed to turn into English poetry any 
 portion of the Latin Scriptures translated to him. By his 
 verses many became Christians. 
 
 One night, after leaving an entertainment because he could 
 not " sing in turn with others for the sake of mirth," he fell 
 asleep, and some one spoke to him and insisted that he should 
 sing; and as he would take no refusal, Caedmon inquired, 
 what he should sing? "Sing," replied the visitor, "the 
 beginning of created beings." Immediately he began to sing 
 verses to the praise of God which he had never heard before. 
 On awaking, he remembered all that he had sung in his 
 dream, and it filled him with such astonishment and delight 
 that he informed the steward. He, deeply moved, communi- 
 cated the intelligence to Hilda. She sent for Caedmon, for 
 she was ever anxious to discover talents that could be used 
 for the glory of God ; and in the presence of " many learned 
 men," evidently belonging to her monastery, at her request 
 " he related his dream and repeated the verses " he heard in 
 it. " They all concluded that heavenly grace had been con- 
 ferred upon him by our Lord." 
 
 They gave him a passage of Scripture which they ordered 
 to be turned into verse. The next morning he gave it to 
 them " composed in excellent verse." Hilda rejoicing over 
 the grace of God in the man, at once placed him in her 
 monastery, and ordered that he should be taught the whole 
 series of sacred history. 
 
 "He sang of the creation of the world, the origin of man and all the 
 history of Genesis, and he made many verses on the departure of the 
 children of Israel out of Egypt, and their entering into the land of 
 promise; the incarnation, sufferings, resurrection of our Lord, and 
 his ascension into heaven; the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the 
 preaching of the apostles; also the terror of future judgment, the 
 horror of the pains of hell, and the delights of heaven; besides many 
 
232 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 more about the divine benefits and judgments by which he endeav* 
 ored to turn away all men from the love of vice, and to excite in them 
 the love of and application to good actions ; for he was a very reli- 
 
 Caedmon's poetical sermons were sung all over North um- 
 bria; and only a little later, over all the Anglo-Saxon 
 nations. Nor is there any doubt of their great effect. 
 
 The hymns and poems of Caedmon must have had a power- 
 ful fascination. Sung by travelers, and around the wood 
 fires where the family gathered at night ; by the ploughman in 
 his furrow, and the lonely shepherd with his flock ; by the 
 worshiping hundreds in the log church, or the listening 
 thousands in the open air ; they were eminently fitted to draw 
 the people nearer to God. 
 
 In A. D. 1665, biblical poems, under the name of Caedmon, 
 were published at Amsterdam, between which and " Paradise 
 Lost," in some parts, there was such a striking similarity that 
 it was supposed Milton might have had some hints from 
 Caedmon.^ It is certain, however, that he had poetical 
 genius of a high order, and that it was not dedicated to the 
 Virgin, St. Joseph, or any angel : but to the Father, Son, and 
 Spirit, and their works, and to the Holy Scriptures. That 
 Caedmon was a Protestant Scot in his belief, is just as certain 
 as that he was in race an Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 Aidan's object in North umbria was precisely the same as 
 Coluraba's in lona, from which he came ; and there is no evi- 
 dence that Aidan's Anglo-Saxon monasteries, while under the 
 control of the Scots, differed in object or in vows from lona. 
 The inmates could leave at any time, marry, exercise the 
 rights of ownership over such property as they had not sur- 
 rendered or might yet acquire, and withdraw the temporary 
 obedience necessary in the monastery, but regarded as un- 
 pledged and unjust, in the case of withdrawal. 
 
 Through the labors of Lindisfarne, Melrose, and Whitby, 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IV., cap. 24. 
 aSoames' " Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 253. London. 
 
HIBERNIAN MISSIOX SCHOOLS. 233 
 
 aided by less prominent monasteries, Aidan and his missiona- 
 ries, Christianized the whole of Northumbria. The entire 
 workers in the Northumbrian mission, in monastic institutes, 
 and in gospel pulpits seem to have been made free from their 
 guilt and their besetting sins by faith in the Crucified, and by 
 the sceptre of reigning grace ; and they were free from the bar- 
 barous bondage of popish nuns and the unchristian shackles 
 of Romish monks. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NORTHUMBRIA AND MERCIA. 
 
 Extent of Nortbumbria — It was evangelized by tbe Hibernian Scots 
 and their disciples— Conversion of the southern Mercians, and of 
 the Mercians proper— Extent of Mercia— William Carey and the 
 first American ancestor of Adoniram Judson were born in these 
 counties. 
 
 NoRTHUMBRiA Contained^ the southeastern counties of Scot- 
 land ; and in England the counties of Northumberland, Cum- 
 berland, Durham, Westmoreland, York, and Lancaster. This 
 was an extensive country, and must have contained a large 
 population at the time of its re-conversion under its powerful 
 preacher, Aidan. He had not only burning zeal, but aston- 
 ishing administrative ability to direct successfully and without 
 ajar the individuals and institutions working for the Saviour 
 in this great kingdom. And yet it is supposed that at his 
 death in 651 , Northumbria had received the gospel. Even 
 Lingard writes of this eminent Protestant : 
 
 The success of Aidan was owing no less to his virtues than to his 
 preaching; the severe austerity of his life; his profound contempt for 
 riches, and his unwearied application to the duties of his profession, 
 won the esteem, while his arguments convinced the understanding, 
 of his hearers. Each day the number of his proselytes increased; 
 and within a few years the church of Northumbria was fixed upon 
 a solid and permanent foundation. 2 
 
 " Aidan was the successful Apostle of Northumbria," and 
 in the marvelous series of missionary successes which brought 
 this kingdom to Christ, Aidan, Oswald, Hilda, and even Cuth- 
 bert, though partially Romanized in his later years, stand 
 forth among the noblest Christians and missionaries ever la- 
 boring for Christ in Great Britain or Ireland. 
 
 1 Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., p. 357. 
 
 2 Lingard's " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 75. Phila. 
 
 234 
 
NORTHUMBRIA AND MERCIA. 235 
 
 The Southern Mercians, also known as the Midland Angles, 
 were converted about a. d. 653. Peada was their ruler. 
 His father, the pagan Penda, king of Mercia, made him prince 
 of the Southern Mercians. He was an accomplished young 
 man, endowed wdth an excellent disposition, and possessing a 
 flattering reputation. 
 
 He sought in marriage Elfleda, daughter of Oswy, the king 
 of Northumbria. Oswy belonged to the Scottish church ; 
 and though somewhat easily led, when his prejudices favored 
 any course, he was a Christian, and he absolutely refused Pe- 
 ada's request unless he first became a Christian, and made 
 efforts "to secure the conversion of his people. 
 
 Oswy's refusal of Elfleda led Peada to listen to the preach- 
 ing of the gospel, and to statements about the evidences of 
 Christianity ; and finally he became such a firm believer that 
 he declared that he would be baptized even though Elfleda 
 should never be his wife. He was baptized by Finan, the 
 successor of Aidan, with all the earls, soldiers, and servants 
 that came with him. He received four priests, whose learn- 
 ing and godliness qualified them as missionaries ; these were 
 Cedd, Adda, Betti, and Diuma. They arrived in the pro\ance 
 with the prince, and preached Christ with such demonstra- 
 tions of the Spirit's power, that "many, as well of the nobility 
 as of the common people, renounced the abominations of idol- 
 atry, and were baptized daily." Neither did Penda oppose 
 this great work among the Mercians. 
 
 Two years later, Penda began a deadly war against Oswy 
 and the Northumbrians, whom he determined to exterminate 
 from " the highest to the lowest." The pagans had three times 
 as many soldiers as Oswy ; and they were led by veteran com- 
 manders, famous in former wars. The Christians appealed to 
 their heavenly Captain for succor in their great peril ; and 
 they had faith in him that he wonld give them the victory. 
 Penda was slain and his soldiers killed, drowned, or put to 
 flight. After the war ended, Diuma, a disciple of Columba 
 of lona, was ordained bishop of the Southern Mercians, by 
 
236 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Finan the Scot. Rapin says, " As for the conversion of the 
 Mercians, the Italian missionaries [ the pope's ] had no hand 
 in it at all," ^ meaning, as he fully shows in the context, that 
 the Scots were the apostles of Mercia. 
 
 Soames ^ justly represents " the whole centre of England," 
 that is, the ancient kingdom of Mercia, as being converted by 
 the Scottish missionaries w^ithout any aid from the Romanists. 
 
 Mercia contained the modern counties of Chester,^ Derby, 
 Nottingham, Lincoln, Shropshire, Stafford, Leicester, Rut- 
 land, Northampton, Huntingdon, Hereford, Worcester, War- 
 wick, Gloucester, Oxford, Buckingham, and parts of Hertford 
 and Bedford. Mercia was the largest of the Anglo-Saxon 
 kingdoms. Its population, when its inhabitants were con- 
 verted, must have been very numerous for such an early 
 period. Its conquest for Christ, considering its extent, its 
 commanding situation, and the power of its people was of 
 the greatest importance. 
 
 It is a matter of some interest that Dr. William Carey, the 
 founder of modern missions, was born in Northamptonshire, 
 in the old kingdom of Mercia, England. Dr. Judson, next to 
 Carey the greatest agent in the establishment of modern 
 missions, was the descendant of William Judson, who came 
 to America from Yorkshire, in England, in 1634. York- 
 shire was an important part of the kingdom of Northumbria, 
 Aidan's special field ; and it was the home of St. Hilda and 
 her great monastery at Whitby, where her memory and works 
 are still cherished, though she died in A. D. 680. It is wor- 
 thy of notice in passing, that the founder of modern missions 
 was born on an ancient, successful foreign mission field of 
 tlie Scots in England, and that the English ancestor of Dr. 
 Judson, the great co-operator with Dr. Carey in the general 
 establishment of modern missions, came from another prosper- 
 ous section of the same Scottish mission to the same land. 
 
 1 " History of England," Vol. I., p. 79. London. 
 
 ' Soames' " Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 66. London, 1856. 
 
 3 Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., p. 357. Erlington ed., DubUn. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EAST SAXONS. 
 
 Extent of the kingdom of the East Saxons— Its people were baptized 
 pagans— The sons of pious King Sabert and their people re-estab- 
 hsh idolatry— Apostasy in papal Kent— The fraudulent miracle of 
 Komish Laurentius— Cedd and another Scot bring the East Saxons 
 to Christ— Northumbria, the southern counties of Scotland, Mercia, 
 and the East Saxons, were won for Christ — Cedd's ordination de- 
 fective—Small success of Augustine. 
 
 The kingdom of the East Saxons contained the modern 
 counties of Middlesex,^ the site of London, Essex, fifty- 
 four miles long and forty-five wide, and the southern part of 
 Hertfordshire. 
 
 In A. D. 604, Archbishop Augustine ordained Mellitus 
 bishop of the East Saxons. London was then their capital. 
 Sabert, son of Ricula, sister of Ethelbert, king of Kent, was 
 their sovereign. When they were supposed to be converted 
 by the ministry of Mellitus, Ethelbert built the first church 
 of St. Paul, in London, for Mellitus and his successors in the 
 see of London. 
 
 Sabert, the king, died in a. d. 616. He was a true fol- 
 lower of Christ, and his death inflicted a fatal blow for the 
 time being upon the infant church of the East Saxons. Im- 
 mediately after his death his three pagan sons, who inherited 
 his dominions, openly professed idolatry, which during their 
 father's reign they had seemingly abandoned ; and they 
 granted full liberty to their subjects to worship idols. 
 
 The princes sought a quarrel with Mellitus, and compelled 
 him and his attendants to leave their kingdom. The bishop 
 seeing that he had, in his ignorance, been baptizing pagans 
 instead of true converts, fled to France with Justus, of Roch- 
 
 Ussher's 'Works." Vol. IV., p '651. 
 
 237 
 
238 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 ester in Kent, who, like Mellitus, was a fugitive from the 
 lately baptized idolaters. These persons, in Sabert's reign, 
 either through fear, or to advance their worldly interests, de- 
 sired baptism in thousands. Augustine, Mellitus, and Paul- 
 inus administered it to unregeuerate idolaters, as many as 
 might come. And when the baptized pagans openly returned 
 to their idols, the two bishops sailed for France, and Lau- 
 rentius was ready to keep them company for the same reason, 
 and would have been a fugitive but for a lying miracle which 
 he devised, and which frightened Ethelbert's son into a pro- 
 fession of Christianity. The idolatrous sons of King Sabert 
 were killed in battle not long after their father's decease; but 
 their people having yielded themselves to the worship of 
 wicked demons, would not renounce them on account of the 
 death of their three princes who had led them back to the pub- 
 lic worship of their old gods. King Eadbald of Kent, having 
 become apparently a Christian, recalled Justus and Mellitus, 
 and sent them to govern their churches. " But the London- 
 ers would not receive Bishop Mellitus, choosing rather to be 
 under their idolatrous high priests." 
 
 In A. D. 653, Sigebert, king of the East Saxons, was on 
 very friendly terms with Oswy, king of Northumbria, who fre- 
 quently reasoned with him about his folly in worshiping idols, 
 and rejecting the present and everlasting blessings of the gospel. 
 Finally, when on a visit to King Oswy, he accepted Christ, 
 and his friends who were with him joined him in putting their 
 trust in the Saviour ; and he and they requested baptism from 
 Finan, the Scot, bishop of Lindisfarne, who baptized the 
 kmg and his distinguished attendants, " at the village called 
 ' At the Wall,' because it is close to the wall by which the 
 Romans formerly divided the island of Britain." Oswy, at 
 Sigebert's request, on his return home, " Gave him some 
 teachers who might convert his nation to the faith of Christ, 
 and baptize them "; these wereCedd and another priest of the 
 communion of the Scots. 
 
 These men, traveling in all parts of the country of the 
 
THE EAST SAXONS. 239 
 
 East Saxons, gathered numerous churches to our Lord, and 
 were so prospered in their blessed work that Cedd felt the 
 need of advice from the wise and godly Finan of Lindis- 
 farne, to whom he came, and whose heart was made glad by 
 the prosperity of Cedd's mission. Finan, the Protestant Scot, 
 ordained him bishop of the East Saxons. Cedd, encouraged 
 by his visit to Finan, built a number of churches for his in- 
 creasing congregations, and ordained priests and deacons to 
 assist in preaching the truth, and in the administration of 
 baptism, especially at Ithrancestir on the Blackwater, and in 
 Tilbury, near the Thames, opposite Gravesend. At Tilbury 
 he established a monastic school to aid his growing mission 
 in the education of ministers, and in furnishing a home for 
 his numerous preachers. 
 
 While his efforts were prospering in every direction, suddenly 
 Sigebert was murdered by two of his kinsmen. The successor 
 of Sigebert was Suidhelm, who was baptized by Cedd in the 
 province of the East Angles, who maintained a friendly re- 
 lation to the Christian church, now permanently established 
 among the East Saxons. 
 
 After the death of Suidhelm, Sighere and Sebbi, under 
 Wulfhere, king of Mercia, governed the East Saxons. In 
 their reign a dreadful pestilence raged extensively among the 
 Anglo-Saxons, from w^hich the East Saxons suffered severely. 
 In their terror and despair, Sighere and his subjects insanely, 
 for a short period, turned to idolatry. In this situation there 
 is no record made of any effort to reclaim them by the 
 Romish bishops of Canterbury and Rochester, their neigh- 
 bors in Kent. But from Mercia, converted by the Scots, 
 Jaruman, the bishop, and a priest came to restore them from 
 their temporary aberration. 
 
 Faithful and prayerful labors accomplished their blessed 
 object, so that soon the people turned to the Saviour again, 
 and " opened their churches, and rejoiced in confessing the 
 name of Christ." So that Jaruman and his companion re- 
 turned to their Mercian field. 
 
240 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Duriog the defection of Sighere and his subjects, Sebbi and 
 his people '' very devoutly preserved the faith which they had 
 embraced," without the slightest wavering. 
 
 Soames ^ writes : 
 
 The kingdom of the East Saxons had sunk in unheeded heathenism 
 since the failure of Mellitus, the Komish missionary. One of its 
 princes, however, Sigebert, had become a frequent guest at the 
 Northumbrian Court, and he was there converted. At his desire, 
 Chad [Cedd], of the Scottish communion, repaired to the East 
 Saxons. He received eventually Episcopal consecration from Einan, 
 the Scot, prelate of Northumbria, and it was chiefly by his exertions 
 that the diocese of London, the kingdom of the East Saxons, as it 
 remained until recently, was reclaimed from gentile superstition. 
 
 The kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and of the East 
 Saxons, won for Christ by the missionary Scots inside of 
 thirty-five years, show rich triumphs of redeeming mercy 
 through the earnest prayers and consecrated labors of stran- 
 gers from another land and speaking a foreign tongue. 
 
 In A. D. 665, Chad [Cedd] had to be ordained by Wini of 
 the West Saxons, with the aid of two British bishops, who did 
 not belong to the Roman communion, and by its adherents 
 were not regarded as lawfully consecrated. Speaking of this 
 transaction, Bede writes,' "For at that time there was no 
 other bishop in all Britain canonically ordained, besides 
 Wini." Wini himself was ordained in France, so that he had 
 no taint in his consecration, coming from the hands of Protes- 
 tant Scottish or British ordaining bishops. 
 
 Kapin says : 
 
 Augustine has run away with the honor of converting the English, 
 when in the main the progress he made was not very considerable. 
 It is true that he preached to the Saxons of Kent, as Mellitus 
 did to those of Essex, and that with good success. 
 
 In the height of his success, for which he is so greatly honored, 
 Augustine established only two bishops, Justus at Rochester [in his 
 own Kent], and Mellitus at London, over the East Saxons. This 
 is clear evidence that the progress with which he was credited 
 
 1 " Anglo-Saxon Church," pp. fi6-7. London, 1856. 
 8 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 28 ; Lib. III., cap. 7. 
 
THE EAST SAXONS. 241 
 
 was not so considerable as Gregory imagined. Surprisingly strange 
 is it that the conversion of the English should be ascribed to Augus- 
 tine, rather than to Aidan, to Finan, to Colman, to Cedd, to Diuma, 
 and the other Scottish monks, who undoubtedly labored much more 
 abundantly than he. But here lies the case: these last had not 
 their orders from Rome, and therefore must not be allowed any 
 share of the glory of this work.^ 
 
 Only two counties north of the river Thames were under Roman 
 Catholic superintendence during their transition from paganism to 
 Christianity, and these two were largely indebted to domestic [Scot- 
 tish] zeal for their conversion. Every other county from London 
 to Edinburgh, a distance of about four hundred miles, has the full 
 gratification of pointing to a native church of unknown antiquity, 
 but seemingly of Asiatic origin, as its nursing mother in Christ's 
 holy faith. ^ 
 
 Soames, in the above statement, is sustained by evidence 
 that defies contradiction. By '' native church" he means the 
 church of the ancient Britons, of which St. Patrick's denomi- 
 nation was a branch. 
 
 The Scots rendered much assistance in the conversion of 
 the Romish Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The East Angles fell 
 from the Christianity of Roman monks into idolatry. Six 
 years afterward, through the labors of Fursey, a Protes- 
 tant Scot, great numbers of the apostates were reclaimed. 
 King Oswald was the head of the Protestant Anglo-Saxon 
 church, but he succeeded in securing the conversion of King 
 Cynegils and his daughter, whom he married, and lent power- 
 ful help to their Romish bishop, Birinus. 
 
 About A. D 680, Ethelwalch, king of the South Saxons, 
 was converted while on a visit to the Mercians, a kingdom 
 evangelized by the Scots. This was an event of the greatest 
 importance in leading to the conversion of his people. 
 
 The East Angles, the West Saxons, and the South Saxons 
 were Roman Catholics, whom the Protestant Scots, or their 
 disciples, efficiently helped to relinquish heathenism and em- 
 brace the Saviour. Of course the Scots w^ere but instruments 
 in these conversions, the power came from the divine Spirit. 
 
 1 Rapin's "History of England ' Vol. I., pp. 79, 80. 
 » Soames' " Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 67. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE SCOTS AND THEIR ANGLO-SAXON CONVERTS. 
 
 They were engrossed with winning souls — Denominational train- 
 ing neglected — The opposition of King Ethelbert's family — The 
 Easter and tonsure controversies— Queen Elfreda's influence— The 
 council of Whitby— Oswy's treachery— Wilfrid, and Peter as the 
 rock— Persecution— The " tea tax"— Archbishop Theodore. 
 
 That the grand results of such a mde-spread work should 
 be removed from the supervision of members of the Scot- 
 tish communion, is a matter justly causing much surprise. 
 The church of the Hibernian Scots, in their island home, or 
 in what is now called Scotland, was essentially a missionary 
 establishment for centuries, during and after St. Patrick's 
 day. This was the controlling purpose governing all its in- 
 stitutions, efforts, and contributions ; and sending many of its 
 noblest sons to preach the gospel in Scotland, England, 
 France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The Scots were 
 entirely engrossed with the glorious work of soul saving, and 
 paid little attention to the instruction of their converts in their 
 denominational peculiarities. George Whitefield was proba- 
 bly the greatest preacher, in many respects, that ever ad- 
 dressed an Anglo-Saxon audience ; wherever he proclaimed 
 the gospel men and women were converted, and often in 
 large numbers ; and in one great meeting upon the Calton 
 Hillp in Edinboro, five hundred souls are said to have been 
 born again. England, Scotland, and America had mul- 
 titudes of his spiritual children, who speedily brought other 
 throngs to Christ. 
 
 But Whitefield taught no denominational doctrines, and 
 established no community bearing his own or any other name ; 
 and as a natural result his disciples filled up the ranks of 
 242 
 
THE SCOTS AND ANGLO-SAXONS. 243 
 
 other denominations, and constituted no church with which 
 Whitefield's name was inseparably linked. 
 
 It is safe to say, that if all the persons born again, or re- 
 vived, under Whitefield's ministry, and all others blessed in 
 the same way through their instrumentality and the agency 
 of their successors, and if the living among them existed in 
 one denomination to-day, it would be much the largest in 
 England or America. But Whitefield lost posthumous fame, 
 and Protestant churches gained enormously in souls overflow- 
 ing with love to Christ. The Scots acted substantially upon 
 Whitefield's principle. Had it been otherwise, no power in 
 England could have driven them from two-thirds of the 
 Anglo-Saxon dominions in Britain, occupied and owned by 
 their disciples. If their spiritual children, after the posses- 
 sion of new hearts, had been trained thoroughly in the great 
 principles of the Scots as contrasted with those of Eome, as 
 they ought to have been, they would have discovered among 
 themselves some warlike. God-fearing Cromwell, who would 
 have purchased liberty of conscience for them, if necessary, even 
 by the sword. But they never tried to form a compact, in- 
 doctrinated denomination, which might have continued pure, 
 and perhaps have rendered the Keformation of the sixteenth 
 century unnecessary in much the larger part of the territory 
 governed in the seventh century by the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 Bribery was active in robbing the Scots in Britain of the 
 people who were rescued from idolatry by their efforts. 
 How extensively this powerful argument was employed it is 
 i inpossible now to prove ; but it was used successfully in one 
 notable case, and it may have been practised in a number of 
 others. Bede relates that Wini, for money given to the king 
 of Mercia, obtained the see of London, and became the re- 
 ligious teacher of the East Saxons, a people converted from 
 apjstasy and idolatry by the Scottish missionaries, and per- 
 manently gained to Rome by Wini. 
 
 Romanism has secured enormous advantages from kings ; and 
 often through the arts of queens. The royal family of Kent 
 
244 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 was loyal to Rome ; Bertha, the queen became such before the 
 coming of Augustine, Ethelbert, soon after, and his family 
 generally, except during the brief apostasy of Eadbald, im- 
 mediately after Ethelbert's death. This family enjoyed the 
 confidence and respect of all the Anglo-Saxon princes. Their 
 reputation was greatly exalted, because they were the first 
 patrons of Christianity among the Anglo-Saxons. And it 
 was a special subject of gratification to them that their 
 Christianity came from Rome, the famous old capital of the 
 world, and from Gregory, who possessed more personal wealth 
 and public respect than any bishop in Christendom, and not 
 from missionaries, destitute of refinement, who came from the 
 barbarous country of the Northern Picts, or from Hibernia. 
 Their relation to Augustine, as they considered it, bound them 
 in honor to sustain Romanism in every one of the Saxon 
 kingdoms when an opportunity was given, and to supplant 
 the Scottish missionaries by popish priests. 
 
 A subject of bitter controversy arose between the Scots and 
 Romanists in Britain, about the proper time to celebrate 
 Easter. The feast itself had been regarded for some centuries 
 even then as of the greatest importance. It divided occa- 
 sionally members of the same family in its celebration. While 
 one was observing the lenten fast with a view to celebrate 
 Easter, another had ended the fast, and was inclined to in- 
 dulge in all the jovs then customary at Easter. The Roman 
 party made the date of the celebration of Easter as important 
 almost as the doctrine of the incarnation, and possessed the 
 demon of intolerance toward their Scottish brethren. 
 
 Eanfleda, the wife of Oswy, king of Northumbria, was a 
 Kentish princess, a granddaughter of Bertha, so resolutely 
 bent upon the conversion of her grandfather Ethelbert, king 
 of Kent. She was the friend of the Romish Augustine living, 
 and was buried near him after death. Eanfleda was a reso- 
 lute Papist, and she brought a chaplain named Rom anus with 
 her to shield her from the necessity of being present at the ser- 
 vices of the faithful Scots. Hei son's tutor was Wilfrid, the 
 
THE SCOTS AND ANGLO-SAXONS. 245 
 
 bitterest Romanist outside the papal chair. On one occasion, 
 as Prof. Stokes says ; 
 
 The king had ended his fast of Lent, and was celebrating his Eas- 
 ier, while the queen was still fasting, and observing the lengthened 
 services of Palm Sunday and of passion week ; and you may be sure 
 she felt bound, as an ardent Romanist, to bring Oswy round to a more 
 catholic frame of mind, by putting him upon the same meagre allow- 
 ance she herself was enjo^'ing in that penitential season. 
 
 This enemy of the Protestant Scots, apparently teased, 
 flattered, and argued her husbaud into a renunciation of the 
 Scottish communion privately, with a view to a public discus- 
 sion and pretended refutation of the points in controversy 
 between them and the Romanists. 
 
 Another disputed question between the Scots and Roman- 
 ists was the form of the tonsure. The Roman clergy shaved 
 the crown of the head, which was surrounded by a circle of 
 hair, and was supposed to represent the Saviour's crown of 
 thorns ; this, the Romanists claimed, had descended to them 
 from St. Peter. The Scottish priests shaved the fore part of 
 the head from ear to ear in the shape of a crescent, which 
 their enemies called in mockery the tonsure of Simon Magus. 
 As a matter of fact, the tonsure was a heathen practice. 
 Bingham^ denies the existence of this custom in the early 
 ages of the gospel, and quotes in proof Jerome's comment on 
 the words, " Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer 
 their locks to grow long ; they shall only poll their heads " 
 (Ezekiel 44: 20). He says : 
 
 This evidently demonstrates, that we ought neither to have our 
 heads shaved, as the priests and votaries of Isis and Serapis ; nor yet 
 suffer our hair to grow long, after the luxurious manner of barbarians 
 and soldiers; but that priests should appear with a venerable and 
 grave countenance : neither are they to make themselves bald with 
 a razor, nor clip their heads so close that they may look as if they 
 were shaven ; but they are to let their hair grow so long that it may 
 cover their skin 
 
 " It is impossible," says Bingham, " for any rational man 
 
 1 ' Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book VI., chap 4, sec. 16, 
 
246 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES' 
 
 to suppose that Christian priests bad sliaveo crovvus in the 
 time of St. Jerome, when he so expressly says that they had 
 not, and that none had but the priests of Isis and Serapis.'' 
 These were the two grand objections to the Scots urged by the 
 Romanists, the Scottish time of celebrating Easter being the 
 greater heresy of the two. 
 
 Eanfieda. her popish son Alfrid, and Wilfrid, having com- 
 pleted their plot against the Scots, and having undoubtedly 
 secured the acquiescence of King Oswy, an ecclesiastical 
 council was called to meet at Whitby ; and in A. D. 664 it 
 assembled ; Oswy presided over it. In his opening address he 
 declared that he thought that " those who served one God 
 should observe the same rule of life ; and as they all expected 
 the same kingdom in heaven, they ougjht not to differ about 
 the celebration of the divine mysteries ; but rather to inquire 
 which was the truest tradition, that the same might be followed 
 by all.'' However true these statements were as independent 
 propositions, in the connection in which they were used they 
 were but pretenses in order to condemn the Scots and to declare 
 that the king renounced their customs and would tolerate 
 only the Roman usages. Both sides were heard ; Bishop Col- 
 man ably defending the Scots, as far as the king permitted. 
 
 Wilfrid, the tutor of Alfrid, Oswy's son, quoted the text 
 so frequently employed, and so often misapplied by Roman- 
 ists, " Thou art Peter, and upon this rock [his confession just 
 made that Christ was the son of the living God] I will build 
 my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : 
 and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven," 
 etc. Wilfrid, with the utmost coolness assumed that Peter 
 was the foundation of the church, and with natural audacity 
 claimed that the pope was his successor, and held his keys. 
 Oswy was not astonished at this falsehood ; he had heard it 
 often from Eanfieda, Alfrid, Romanus, and Wilfrid ; and he 
 had concluded to crush the Scots, and free himself from the 
 tormenting efforts of Eanfieda to make him a Romanist. 
 The king said : 
 
THE SCOTS AND ANGLO-SAXONS. 247 
 
 " Is it true, Colman, that these words were spoken to 
 Peter by our Lord ? " 
 
 He answered, " It is true, O king." 
 
 Then said he, " Can you show any such power given to 
 your Columba ? " 
 
 Colman answered, "None." 
 
 Then the king in substance answered that as Colman and 
 Wilfrid both agreed that the keys of heaven were given to 
 Peter, he would obey in all things the decrees of Peter, the 
 doorkeeper of heaven, lest he might refuse to admit him by 
 his keys when he sought an entrance into paradise. There 
 was not one word uttered by Colman or Wilfrid about the 
 time for celebrating Easter, or the form of the tonsure, which 
 inspired the slightest interest in King Oswy, though the set- 
 tlement of troubles in connection with these usages was the 
 object for which the meeting was ostensibly held. But when 
 Peter as the rock, and the holder of the keys of the kingdom 
 of heaven, was introduced, then Oswy was deeply moved, and 
 avowed himself a follower of Peter, that is. a Romanist, and 
 condemned the entire Scots communion in Northumbria, 
 which condemnation was the whole object of the synod. 
 
 Colman seeing that "his doctrine was rejected and his sect 
 despised," and conformity to the Roman Easter and tonsure 
 demanded under severe penalties, took with him the faithful 
 Scots and such Anglo-Saxons as would not accept the popish 
 Easter and tonsure, and withdrew first into Scotland, and sub- 
 sequently into Ireland.' Great numbers of good men con- 
 formed ; others were silent and lived secluded ; many flocks 
 were scattered ; and the Christianity of two-thirds of the 
 Anglo-Saxons received 9 blow like the one struck by the act 
 of uniformity in England in 1662, when about two thou- 
 sand of the noblest Christian ministers in the English 
 church, the equals of Colman and his brethren, were driven 
 forth homeless, and often penniless, because they would 
 
 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib III., cap. 26. 
 
248 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 not conform to Romish usages, and were bitterly persecuted 
 for years.^ 
 
 With the departure of the leaders of the Scots their system 
 was broken up. Romanists filled their positions ; Canterbury 
 took the place of Lindisfarne ; Rome took the place of lona, 
 and sent Archbishop Theodore, as lona had sent Aidan, 
 Finan, and Colman. The Scots educated many of their suc- 
 cessors, and implanted a love for the Scriptures in the vast 
 population intrusted to them for instruction, which lived in 
 their hearts long after their dear old teachers had been re- 
 moved from their beloved flocks. 
 
 Many have said, " How foolish the Scots were to leave their 
 mission fields for the sake of retaining their own Easter and 
 tonsure. Why did they not give them up and accept the 
 Romish ? " In a way for which we cannot account, the Scots 
 believed that their tonsure and Easter were divinely ap- 
 pointed, and that they were urged by Romanists on the basis 
 of the pope's authority to give up their religious usages and 
 accept his. They scorned his pretended superiority, and 
 reckoned it a great crime against Christ to recognize his 
 usurpations, even in little things in the Saviour's kingdom. 
 
 When, in 1773, the British Parliament repealed certain 
 taxes which it had unjustly imposed upon the American colo- 
 nists, but retained six cents a pound as duty upon tea ; and 
 when opposition to the tea tax showed irrepressible strength, 
 compelling the return to Europe of some of the tea, hindering 
 its sale everywhere, and prompting some disguised Boston 
 patriots to empty the tea chests into the water,^ would any 
 intelligent man on earth ask, " Why run such tremendous risks 
 with England for six cents a pound upon tea?" Not one. 
 The lover of his country would know that the colonists were 
 fighting against " taxation without representation " , in short, 
 for freedom, and against tyranny. The Scots rightly viewed 
 the Easter and the tonsure of Rome, as the patriotic colonists 
 
 1 Neal's " History of the Puritans," Vol. IV., p. .30.^. Dublin. 
 « Anderson's " General History," p 370. New York. 
 
THE SCOTS AND ANGLO-SAXONS. 249 
 
 regarded the tea tax, and they resisted her claims to rule 
 them in little or great things as impious opposition to Christ, 
 the only lawgiver of Christians They should, however, have 
 remained in England and marshalled their forces against the 
 pope, and all his queenly, kingly, and priestly abettors in the 
 Anglo-Saxon heptarchy. 
 
 It was necessary, four years after the withdrawal of the 
 Scots, to send a man to Rome to be consecrated archbishop of 
 Canterbury, apparently to secure respect for his decisions in 
 Britain. But he died abroad, and Pope Vitalian, to stop re- 
 ligious dissension in England, selected a Greek named Theo- 
 dore, a native of Tarsus, in Cilicia, for this great office. 
 Theodore was a man of considerable learning and of a despotic 
 will, and he bent all his energies to the triumph of Rome in 
 England. 
 
 In the twenty-one years of his primacy, by the exercise of 
 Greek shrewdness and of tyrannical power, and by the sup- 
 port of the armed forces of the Anglo-Saxon kings, Romish 
 Easter, the papal tonsure, and all the public ceremonies of 
 popery were openly observed, and in the great majority of 
 cases secretly hated. 
 
 It is not improbable that if Theodore had not come to 
 Canterbury the Scots might have been recalled, and an open 
 Bible continued to two-thirds of the Anglo-Saxons. 
 
 Colman, the defender of the Scots at Whitby, finally settled 
 with other saints on the island of Inis-bo-Finne, off the coast 
 of County Mayo, Ireland, and founded a church upon it, 
 the ruins of which are still to be seen on the island. His 
 death occurred in August, A. d. 675.^ 
 
 » O'Donovan's "Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," by the Four Masters, at a. d. 
 667. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND FROM 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 
 
 The Celtic people of Britain and Ireland were all one Protestant de- 
 nomination in the seventh century— Letters of the Romish bishops 
 Laurentius, Mellitus, and Justus — Meetmgs of the British clergy 
 with Augustine, in a. d 603— A pretended miracle of Augustine— 
 His pride— Insolent demands and threatenings — The Britons had 
 no intercourse with Rome— They were treated as rebellious schis- 
 matics— Ancient Welsh account of the meeting with Augustine— 
 The Britons declared that they owed no obedience to the pope. 
 
 The original inhabitants of England, Scotland, and 
 Ireland, in the beginning of the seventh century, were all 
 Protestants, in the modern sense of that term. At exactly the 
 same period, the little community of Anglo-Saxon converts 
 were Romanists. About the middle of the seventh century 
 Protestant Anglo-Saxon believers were very numerous. 
 
 The ancient British, Irish, and Caledonian churches were 
 substantially one great Protestant body, like the "United 
 Church of England and Ireland " (Episcopalian), of the 
 present day, with the same articles of faith, but with separate 
 local jurisdiction. Laurentius, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and Bishops Mellitus and Justus, in a letter written about A. 
 D. 605, which Bede^ has preserved, and which they addressed 
 to the " bishops and abbots throughout all Scotland," that is, 
 to the Scots of Ireland and Caledonia, say : 
 
 Becoming acquainted with the errors of the Britons, we thought 
 the Scots had been better; but we have been informed by Bishop 
 Dagan, coming into this aforesaid island [Britain], and the Abbot 
 Columbanus [an Irishman], in France, that the Scots in noway differ 
 from the Britons in their behavior [toward Romanists]. 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IT., cap. 4. 
 250 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 251 
 
 Baronius* writes, " that the Scots were dipped in the same 
 schism with the Britons," and for this reason affirms that the 
 Britons were subjected by Providence to the wrongs inflicted 
 upon them by a " barbarous nation," meaning the Anglo- 
 Saxons. 
 
 Wilfrid, Queen Eanfleda's able and arrogant assailant of 
 the illustrious Scottish missionaries at the council of Whitby, 
 speaking of them, and of Easter, says:^ "Only these and 
 their accomplices in obstinacy, I mean the Picts and Britons, 
 who foolishly in these two remote islands, and only in part 
 even of them, oppose all the rest of the world." These 
 words were uttered in A. d. 664, a little before which there 
 had been some defection in the south of Ireland toward 
 Romish Easter, not toward submission to the supremacy of 
 the pope, to whom they did not bow for several hundred 
 years afterward. Wilfrid alludes to this defection in the quo- 
 tation, but admits the agreement of the Scots, Picts, and 
 Britons, about Easter, which stood in the forefront of all the 
 differences separating them from Rome. Soames writes : 
 
 It is quite certain that, in Augustine's tune, from a. d. 596 to 604, 
 [Celtic] Britain and Ireland were agreed upon religious questions. . . 
 Their clergy may be described as one body, with as much accuracy 
 as the whole Anglican clergy, be they where they may, or the whole 
 Romish clergy, be they where they may, may be described as one 
 body.' 
 
 Few more interesting conferences have ever been held in 
 Britain, than the one in which the chief of the Italian mis- 
 sionaries in England and the bishops of the ancient Britons 
 took part, in A. d. 603. 
 
 King Ethelbert of Kent " drew together the bishops, or 
 doctors, of tiie next province of the Britons," at a place 
 called, in the eighth century, Augustine's Oak. Augustine, by 
 " brotherly admonitions," tried " to persuade them to preserve 
 Catholic unity with him," to preach the gospel to the pagan 
 
 1 " Annales Ecclesiastici," at a, d. 604, sec. 78. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 25. 
 
 8 Soames' " Latin Church," p 51. London, 1848. 
 
252 ANCIENT BKITISH AND IRISH CHUIICHES. 
 
 Anglo-Saxons, and to adopt the Romish time for the celebra- 
 tion of Easter. He also charged them with " doing several 
 other things which were against the unity of the church." 
 " When, after a long disputation, they did not comply with 
 the entreaties, exhortations, or rebukes of Augustine and his 
 companions, but preferred their own traditions before all the 
 churches in the world, which in Christ agree among them 
 selves," he proposed to end the controversy by a miracle 
 The Britons " consented unwillingly." A blind Englishman, 
 not a Briton, was the proposed subject, of the miracle. This 
 friend of Augustine received no relief from " the ministry of 
 the Britons," according to the report which reached Bede, but 
 immediately received sight through the prayers of his 
 archbishop. 
 
 If Augustine had been a man of superior sagacity he 
 would have insisted upon the Britons procuring a bhnd man 
 of their race for his miraculous test ; had this been done, 
 and had the man received sight through Augustine's prayers, 
 there might have been some result favorable to Rome from 
 the supposed supernatural response to the archbishop's appeal 
 to heaven. As matters occurred, it was a pre-arranged fraud, 
 with the pretended blind Englishman apparently at hand 
 ready to receive the sight which he had never lost. False 
 miracles in that age abounded. Bede himself has an exten- 
 sive list of them from the archives of Canterbury, or even 
 from the memories of credulous Northumbrians. 
 
 The most striking features of the first conference were that 
 the Britons were required to preserve Catholic unity, to sur= 
 render certain things, to perform certain other things, and 
 in general to comply with the demands of this arrogant 
 monk from Rome. A witty lady, speaking of the most com- 
 mon and sacred of earthly unions, once said : " The husband 
 and wife are one, and that one is the husband." Her view 
 of the wedded union was precisely the idea of Augustine 
 about Catholic unity. The Britons must give up their 
 Protestantism and become Romanists, then there would be 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 2o3 
 
 glorious Catholic unity. The Britons rejected the Romish 
 scheme at the first meeting, but agreed to it at a second. 
 Bede states that they sought it, and confessed, after the false 
 miracle, that Augustine was the preacher of divine truth. 
 No doubt this was the Canterbury tradition which was sent to 
 him ; but if it is to be credited, why did not some of them 
 advocate Augustine at the second conference ? Their acts at 
 both meetings flatly contradict the Canterbury story. 
 
 Another remarkable statement in the conference, which 
 Bede does not deny, though he records it, was made by the 
 Britons, " that they could not depart from their ancient cus- 
 toms " without the consent and leave of their people. The 
 ancient customs of which they speak are their usages and doc- 
 trines, which prohibited them from joining the church of the 
 pope. From this statement, it follows that they were not at 
 any time rebels to the pope, who were guilty of schism and 
 formed a church of their own, as Romanists have asserted ; 
 but that they were, from the first preaching of Christianity in 
 Britain, an independent community, borrowing no Roman 
 rites, and refusing the kingly tyranny of the popes. 
 
 At the second conference, as Bede relates, there were 
 present : 
 
 Seven bishops of the Britons, as was asserted, and many most learned 
 men, especially from their most noble monastery, which, in the Eng- 
 lish tongue, is called Bancornburg [Bangor], over which the Abbot 
 Dinooth is said to have presided at that time. 
 
 The representatives of the Britons before coming to the 
 conference took council of a " holy and discreet man, who was 
 accustomed to lead a hermit's life [living in a solitary place] 
 among them," in reference to forsaking their traditions " at 
 the preaching of Augustine." He answered, " If he is a man 
 of God, follow him." " How shall we know that ? " said they. 
 He replied, " Our Lord saith, ' Take my yoke upon you, and 
 learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart ' ; if, therefore, 
 Augustine is meek and lowly of heart, it is to be believed that 
 he has taken upon him the yoke of Christ, and ofl^ers the same 
 
254 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 to you to take upon you. But if he is stern and haughty, it 
 appears that he is not of God, nor are we to regard his words." 
 They insisted again, " And how shall we discern even this? " 
 " Contrive," said the anchorite, " that he may first arrive with 
 his company at the place where the synod is to be held ; and 
 if at your approach he shall rise up to you, hear him submis- 
 sively, being assured that he is the servant of Christ ; but, if 
 he shall despise you, and not rise up to you, whereas you are 
 more in number, let him be despised also by you." 
 
 They took the hermit's advice, and it is more than probable 
 that they would have followed the course he counseled if they 
 had not heard his suggestions. When they- came to the place 
 of meeting, Augustine was there, and seated, and he did not 
 arise to receive them. Bede says, that the Britons on 
 
 Observing this were in a passion, charged him with pride, and en- 
 deavored to contradict all that he uttered. He said to them, "You 
 act in many particulars contrary to our custom, or rather to the cus- 
 tom of the universal church, and yet, if you will comply with me in 
 these three points : Keep Easter at the due time ; administer baptism, 
 by which we are again born to God, according to the custom of the 
 holy Koman Apostolic Church; and jointly with us preach the 
 word of God to the English nation, we will readily tolerate all the 
 other things you do, though contrary to our customs." They an- 
 swered that they would do none of these things, nor receive him as 
 their archbishop. ^ 
 
 After this response, Augustine " breathed out threatenings " 
 about the "vengeance of death," which they would suffer 
 from their English enemies. 
 
 There could not be a more complete and determined rejec- 
 tion of Augustine himself and his rites, customs, and church, 
 and of the authority of Pope Gregory, who sent him. The 
 noble protest of the Reformers at the diet of Spire in 1 529, 
 against certain of its decrees, gave them and subsequent 
 rejecters of Romanism the new name of Protestants. Tlie 
 British representatives at Augustine's Oak, protested quite 
 as loudly as the Reformers at Spire; and they had this in 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 2. 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN GEEAT BRITAIN. 255 
 
 their favor, that while the German Protestants had been 
 always Komanists until a short period before their famous 
 protest, the Britons were never Roman Catholics. Accord- 
 ing to the learned Bingham : ^ 
 
 The Britannic churches for six hundred years never acknowledged 
 any dependence upon Home. And for the business of the paschal 
 controversy, they were so far from paying any deference to the Ro- 
 man custom, that they continued their ancient practice of observing 
 Easter on a'different Sunday from Rome for some ages after, not- 
 withstanding all the arguments that the pope or his party could urge 
 against them. For which reason they were treated as schismatics by 
 the agents and emissaries of Rome. 
 
 It is certain that Augustine informed them that the pope 
 had appointed him their archbishop. There are three rea- 
 sons for this assurance. The first is his evident vanity, as 
 seen in his occupation of a chair when courtesy, even in that 
 day, required him to stand. Then, in answer to a question 
 which he put to Gregory, " How are we to treat the bishops 
 of France?" Gregory tells him that he "gives him no 
 authority over the bishops of France." ' And he explains 
 and enforces his answer in such a way, and to such an extent, 
 as indicated that Gregory was apprehensive lest he should 
 attempt to usurp supremacy over the French bishops. The 
 question itself seems to imply such a purpose. His pride 
 makes it certain that he would proclaim himself archbishop 
 at Augustine's Oak. And it is very probable that it was for 
 that purpose that King Ethelbert was requested to con- 
 vene the British bishops. The second reason is, Pope 
 Gregory had made Augustine, by his decree, archbishop of 
 the British bishops. The full question, already quoted of 
 Augustine to Gregory, his seventh question is, " How are we to 
 deal with the bishops of France and Britain ? " To the British 
 part of the query, Gregory answers : " But as for all the bishops 
 of Britain, we commit them to your care, that the unlearned 
 
 " Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book IX., chap 1, sec. 11. 
 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 27. 
 
256 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 may be taught, the weak strengthened by persuasion, and the 
 perverse corrected by authority." Surely the ambitious 
 Augustine, receiving the oppressed British bishops as he sat in 
 his chair, would make no secret of his papal authority to rule 
 them. And the third reason is given in the answer of the 
 British bishops to Augustine : " They replied that they would 
 do none of those things [demanded by Augustine] nor receive 
 him as their archbishop." Here we have, not only a per- 
 emptory refusal to abandon any of their religious usages, or 
 to yield anything to him which he claimed, but a specific 
 rejection of him as their archbishop. The declinature to re- 
 ceive him as archbishop leaves no room for doubt about the 
 announcement by Augustine of his appointment to this dig- 
 nity by Gregory. The Roman Catholic author, Lingard, 
 writes : 
 
 As Bede, when he enumerates the demands of Augustine, omits 
 the recognition of his authority, some Catholic authors have main- 
 tained that it was not mentioned, and of consequence was not 
 rejected. Their opinion, however, is expressly refuted by Bede him- 
 self [in the words], "nor would they receive him for [their] arch- 
 bishop." 1 
 
 The claim of Augustine to regulate their religious obser- 
 vances was based solely upon Gregory's appointment to be 
 their archbishop ; so that their rejection of him and his 
 ecclesiastical directions, were a contemptuous repudiation of 
 Gregory the Great, and his attempted usurpations over them. 
 
 There is another account of the meeting of Augustine and 
 tbe seven bishops, presented by Sir H. Spelman ^ in Welsh, 
 English, and Latin ; this record is of great antiquity, and it 
 corresponds in the main statements with Bede, but gives more 
 details of the discussion. It is of Welsh origin. The sub- 
 stance of it is : 
 
 That the abbot of Bangor, in the name of the British churches, 
 declares that they owe the subjection of brotherly kindness and 
 charity to the church of God, and to the Pope of Rome, and to all 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," pp. 42 43. 
 2 " Spelman Concil. Britan.," An. GOl. Tom. I., pp. 108, 109. 
 
PROTESTANTISM IN GREAT BRITAIN. 257 
 
 Christians; but other obedience than that they did not know to be 
 due to him whom they called pope ; and for their part they were 
 under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Caerleon upon Usk, who was 
 under God, their spiritual overseer and director. 
 
 These are the words of the learned Dinooth of Bangor; 
 they are manly and truly Christian, but they do not go be- 
 yond the record of Bede in rejecting Augustine and Pope 
 Gregory, except in particularizing their more general state- 
 ments. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE ANSWER OF THE BRITONS TO AUGUSTINE. 
 
 Giraldus Carabrensis and the answer of the Britons to Augustine — 
 Dagan, a Hibernian bishop, refuses to eat with the Romish mission 
 aries— Papal bishops reprove the Britons for their errors— Pope 
 Honorius charges the Scots with presumption — Pope-elect John 
 follows Honorius — Taliessyn the Briton and " Romish wolves." 
 
 The Welsh writer/ whose " Topography of Ireland " 
 and "Conquest of Ireland," are known to scholars, works 
 written in the twelfth century, from the country of his birth 
 and residence might be supposed to know better than many 
 the Welsh or ancient British account of the conference be- 
 tween Augustine and the British bishops. He writes : 
 
 When the seven bishops 'appeared, Augustine, sitting in his chair 
 with Roman pride, did not rise up at their entrance. Observing his 
 haughtiness . . . they immediately returned, and treated him and 
 his statutes with contempt, publicly proclaiming that they would not 
 acknowledge him for their archbishop. 
 
 It is not surprising that the British and Irish Protestants 
 excited so much interest in the hearts of papal dignitaries. In 
 all Christendom no class of men showed such resolute oppo- 
 sition to their pretensions, and such a determination to shuL. 
 them and their communion ; and yet they held the truth in a 
 spirit of generous love, as the memorable address of Dinooth 
 at Augustine's Oak, so clearly shows. 
 
 About A. D. 605, Laurentius, archbishop of Canterbury, 
 and Mellitus and Justus, "servants of the servant's God," 
 addressed a letter " To our most dear brothers, the lords, 
 bishops, and abbots throughout all Scotland [Ireland]." Ac- 
 cording to Bede : 
 
 Laurentius, when he understood that the course of life and profes- 
 1 " Historical Works of Giraldus Cambrensis," p. 418. London. 1863. 
 268 
 
THE ANSWER OF THE BRITONS. 259 
 
 sion of the Scots, as well as of the Britons in Britain, were not truly 
 ecclesiastical ; especially that they did not celebrate the solemnity of 
 Easter at the due time ; . . . wrote jointly with his fellow-bishops 
 an exhortatory epistle, entreating and conjuring unity of peace, and 
 conformity with the church of Christ spread throughout the world. 
 
 From the letter of Laurentius, we learn that such was the 
 odiousness of a Romish clergyman to a Scot, that Dagan, one 
 of that nation, informed him that the Scots hated Romish 
 institutions as much as the Britons ; and " Bishop Dagan," 
 Laurentius writes, " not only refused to eat with us, but even 
 to take his repast in the same house where we were enter- 
 tained." ^ This letter was written about two years after the 
 synod at Augustine's Oak ; and it shows the intense love 
 which the Scots and Britons had for the freedom of their 
 church from the rule of popes. 
 
 Bede says : " The same Laurentius and his fellow-bishops 
 wrote a letter to the priests of the Britons, suitable to his 
 rank [probably as their Rome-made archbishop], by which 
 he endeavored to confirm them in [Roman] Catholic unity." 
 But no success attended this effort. This epistle, like the one 
 sent to the Scots, is dated a. d. 605. Twenty-nine years later 
 
 Pope Honorius wrote to the Scots whom he had found to err in the 
 observance of Easter, earnestly exhorting them not to think their 
 small number, placed in the utmost borders of the earth, wiser than 
 all the ancient and modern churches of Christ throughout the world, 
 and not to celebrate a different Easter, contrary to the paschal calcu- 
 lation and the synodical decrees of all the bishops upon earth.'' 
 
 The argument that small numbers and remoteness of habi- 
 tation detract from the worth of an opinion was not original 
 in conception. A Greek philosopher in Athens could have 
 used this argument with quite as much force against the 
 " Carpenter's Son " and his fishermen followers meeting in an 
 upper room ; or even against Jerusalem itself, his home for a 
 time, a city far from the culture, the arts, the literature, and 
 the secular glories of the old world. But the Scots, though 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 4. 
 •J Ibid., cap. 19. 
 
260 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 few in number compared to the whole Christian world, and 
 remote from Rome, and other great centres of population and 
 wealth, exerted a vast influence upon the evangelization and 
 education of several nations. 
 
 John IV., when pope-elect, about A. d. 689, wrote to the 
 Scots a letter about Easter and the Pelagian heresy. His 
 treatment of the Easter controversy, according to Bede, was 
 marked " by great authority and erudition for correcting 
 the same error." ^ The Roman see was vacant at the death 
 of Severinus, John's predecessor, four months and twenty-four 
 days; and though John was chosen a few days after the 
 death of Severinus, he had to remain without ordination dur- 
 ing weary months, and " without being a true pope, until he was 
 confirmed by the emperor." ^ The pope-elect must take a hand 
 in the popular Romish warfare upon the Easter of the Scots. 
 They were not Romanists, and no opportunity to scourge 
 their schism must be passed by unimproved. John took upon 
 him this odious office, because of a letter from some Scots sent 
 to Pope Severinus, which reached Rome after his death. 
 
 On the death of Deusdedit, Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 kings Oswy, of Northumbria, and Egbert, of Kent, sent Wig- 
 hard to Rome to be consecrated by the pope as his successor. 
 But Wighard died suddenly at Rome before his consecra- 
 tion. After his decease in a. d. 665, Pope Vitalian wrote a 
 letter to King Oswy about filling the vacancy in Canterbury, 
 in which he says : " By the protecting hand of God you have 
 been converted to the true and apostolic faith." This oc- 
 curred in A. D. 664, when he apostatized from the commu- 
 nion of the godly Scots to that of Rome. According to Vita- 
 lian, the faith of the Scots was not the " true apostolic faith," 
 but a creed so unholy that "the protecting hand of God" 
 was employed in rescuing him from it. In this letter, after 
 advising Oswy " in all things to follow continually the pious 
 rule of the prince of the apostles in celebrating Easter" 
 
 » Bede's" Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 19. 
 
 2 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. I., p. 438. 
 
THE ANSWER OF THE BRITONS. 261 
 
 [Romish Easter, which he accepted about a year before], 
 he adds : " As ^ soon as such a proper person [for archbishop 
 of Canterbury] shall be found, we will send him, well in- 
 structed, to your country, that he may by word of mouth, and 
 through the divine oracles, with the assistance of God, root 
 out all the enemy's tares throughout your island." The tares 
 were the doctrines and practices of the Scottish apostles of 
 two-thirds of the Anglo Saxons. 
 
 It is not surprising that Roman Catholic abuse stirred up 
 indignation even among the noblest of the Scots and Britons. 
 Taliessyn, in the early part of the seventh century, was prob- 
 ably the most eloquent man among the ancient Britons. 
 He was honored with the title of Ben Beirdh, that is, chief 
 of the bards or wisemen. He thus describes one of the battles 
 of Urien : 
 
 When the shouts of the Britons ascended louder than the roaring 
 of the waves upon the storm-tossed shore, neither field nor forest 
 afforded safety to the foe. I saw the warriors in their brave array ! 
 I saw them after the morning's strife 1 Oh, how altered! I saw the 
 conflict between the perishing hosts ; thj blood that gushed forth and 
 soaked the ground red. The valley that was defended by a rampart 
 was no longer green. Wan, weary men, pale with affright and 
 stained with blood, dropped their arms and staggered across the 
 ford. I saw Urien with his red brow; his sword fell on the bucklers 
 of his enemies with deadly force ; he rushed on them like an eagle 
 enraged.2 
 
 Taliessyn wrote the original of which the following is Arch- 
 bishop Ussher's translation : 
 
 Wo be to that priest yborn, 
 
 That will not cleanly weed his corn 
 
 And preach his charge among ; 
 Wo be to that shepherd (I say) 
 That will not watch his fold alway, 
 
 As to his office doth belong; 
 Wo be to him that doth not keep 
 From Romish wolves his sheep 
 
 With staff and weapon strong.' 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap 29. 
 
 2 Alexander's " Ancient British Church," p. 186. London. 
 5 Ussher's "Works," Vol. IV., p. 352. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTS. 
 
 Persecution of the Scots by the Romanists — Lingard's apology for 
 such wrongs— The Archbishop of Canterbury a religious tyrant — 
 The council of Hertford denounces Scottish Easter — The ordination 
 of Scots and Britons condemned— British and Scottish church 
 edifices need a Romish reconsecration — Aldhelm's famous work 
 against the error of the Britons— The Britons of South Wales detest 
 every Romish usage — The papal council of Celychyth forbade the 
 Scots to officiate in English churches. 
 
 The circumstances attending the expulsion of the Scots 
 from England, show that the Romanists regarded them 
 as dangerous heretics, unworthy of toleration. The simple 
 condemnation of their cause at Whitby, through the hypocrisy 
 and malice of Oswy, was a small matter. It would never 
 have removed Colman and his friends from their dear 
 Northumbrian converts. Persecution drove them from their 
 homes, pulpits, and flocks. King Alfrid, the son of Eanfleda 
 and Oswy, received the kingdom of Deira, one of the two 
 provinces of Northumbria, from his father. In it he gave the 
 monastery of Ripon with land for thirty families to Wilfrid ; 
 the land he had previously granted to the Scots for a monas- 
 tery, which they had built. After AVilfrid returned from 
 Rome, the king allowed the Scots their choice ; either to re- 
 tain his gift, enriched by their own toils, and give up their 
 principles, " adopting the Catholic Easter and other canonical 
 rites, according to the custom of the Roman apostolic church "; 
 or preserve their principles with a good conscience, and he 
 wouJd resume his gift of the land without allowing anything 
 f )r their buildings, and bestow it, as Bede relates, " upon him 
 whom he found to follow better discipline and better cus- 
 toms." Wilfrid, in accepting this donation without paying 
 262 
 
PEHSECUTION OF THE SCOTS. 263 
 
 for the improvements, acted dishonestly. Bede further repre- 
 sents this robbery of men, who preferred a good conscience to 
 the loss of everything, as followed by expulsion. He says, " The 
 king, not long after having discovered and banished the Scot- 
 tish sect, as was said above," ^ etc. This was the penalty King 
 Alfrid cruelly inflicted upon ministers of the Scottish com- 
 munion, with the full approbation of Oswy, his father, the 
 supreme sovereign of his kingdom of Deira. Banishment 
 from the country was the doom of the entire Scottish clergy 
 who would not conform to Romanism. Dr. Lingard, while 
 admitting the violence of the controversy between the Scots 
 and Romanists in Northumbria, forgets to tell that it all arose 
 from the Roman Catholics trying to force the Protestant Scots 
 to abandon their own usages and adopt the Romanist. " The 
 great objects," writes this historian, " which called forth the 
 zeal and divided the harmony of these holy men [Scots and 
 Romanists], regarded not the essentials of Christianity."^ And 
 yet his Romish brethren plundered and banished the holy 
 Scots for non-essentials, because they belonged to a commu- 
 Dion much more scriptural, and, excepting a few men like 
 Bede, with a much holier membership. 
 
 It is a little singular to see men like Lingard, and Alban 
 Butler, author of "The Lives of the Saints," write St Col- 
 umba, St Columbanus, St. Fursey, St Boisil, and St Aidan. 
 These men were scholarly Romish historians, and frequently, 
 though not invariably, fair; and the parties named are 
 " sainted " by them, though as good Protestants as Philip 
 Melancthon, the associate of Luther in the glorious Reforma- 
 tion. And yet Lingard is the apologist of the persecutors 
 of the Scots. He writes : 
 
 The termination of this controversy has subjected the successful 
 party to the severe but witnerited censures of several late historians. 
 They affect to consider the Scottish monks as an injured and perse- 
 cuted class, and declaim with suspicious vehemence against the 
 
 1 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. V., cap. 19. 
 
 2 " Antiquiiies of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 35. 
 
264 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 haughty and intolerant spirit of the Roman clergy. But if uniformity 
 were desirable, it could only be obtained by the submisson or retreat 
 of one of the contending parties; and certainly it was unreasonable 
 to expect that those who observed the discipline which universally 
 prevailed among the Christians of the continent should tamely yield 
 to the pretensions of a few obscure churches on the remotest coast of 
 Britain. ^ 
 
 This statement assumes really, though not in words, that 
 uniformity, even though obtained by force, was necessary. 
 The Scots did not regard compulsory uniformity as necessary, 
 and never sought it upon any occasion. Roman Catholics 
 have always tried to secure it, when they could " obtain the 
 submission or retreat" of Protestants, even when the "sub- 
 mission " came through imprisonment or shocking tortures, 
 and the " retreat " through an untimely grave. Roman 
 Catholic Lingard, who died so lately as 1851, the best in- 
 formed Romanist in early Anglo-Saxon literature who has 
 lived for centuries, who received, according to common Eng- 
 lish usage, from the crown for his learned historical services a 
 pension of fifteen hundred dollars a year ; even he says that 
 the "censures " pronounced against the Romish persecutors, 
 who compelled the Scottish Protestants and their converts in 
 Northumbria, in the seventh century, to accept Romanism or 
 fly into Scotland, were "unmerited." If similar treatment 
 were given to Romanists, its iniquity would be denounced in 
 all the papal histories of the world, where there was any pre- 
 tense for its presence. But the Protestant and Romish com- 
 nmnities stand out distinctly in Northumbria, about A. d. 
 664 for toleration. Religious uniformity, enforced by bodily 
 suffering, is an invention of Satan. 
 
 When Theodore became archbishop of Canterbury, in A. 
 D. 668, though he was then an old man, he speedily began to 
 show remarkable industry, and acted as if he owned the Eng- 
 lish Church, and could do as he pleased with its bishops and 
 people ; as the venerable John Fox says, " Theodore, being 
 
 1 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," pp. 38, 39. 
 
PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTS. 265 
 
 made archbishop of Canterbury began to play the 'Bex' 
 [king], placing and displacing bishops at his pleasure." One 
 of the favorite instruments which he employed for this pur- 
 pose, was a council, or " synod of bishops, and many other 
 teachers of the church." At the synod of Hertford, held in 
 A. D. 673, as Fox says, he played the " Rex " by reading ten 
 canons, and securing their unanimous adoption. The first of 
 these canons is : " That we all in common keep the holy day of 
 Easter on the Sunday after the fourteenth moon of the first 
 month." This is a condemnation of the Easter of the Scots 
 at the beginning of his list of canons. Though their leaders 
 were gone, their people cherished their instructions still. The 
 sixth canon reads : " That bishops and clergymen when travel- 
 ing, shall be content with the hospitality that is afforded them, 
 and that it shall not be lawful for them to exercise any priestly 
 function without leave of the bishop in whose diocese they 
 are." This is a mere translation of the canon ; John Fox 
 gives a translation, which is something of a paraphrase as 
 well. His version is : 
 
 That foreign bishops and clergymen coming into the realm should 
 be content only with the benefit of such hospitality as should be 
 offered them; neither should intermeddle any further within the 
 precinct of any bishop, without his special permission. ^ 
 
 There is no ground for doubting that this was aimed at 
 Scottish clergymen coming to see their old converts and 
 brethren. Fox evidently thought so when he translated the 
 first part of the canon, "foreign bishops and clergymen." And 
 the attack upon the Easter time of the Scots, in the first 
 canon, strongly confirms this opinion. The absent Scots are 
 assailed in this synod as Protestant enemies of Rome. 
 
 Ussher quotes several decrees which were adopted by some 
 of the Saxon bishops, probably in Theodore's day, of the 
 genuineness of which he had no doubt. One of these reads : 
 " Such as have received ordination from the bishops of the 
 
 1 Fox's " Acts and Monuments," Vol. I., pp. 355, 356. London, 1841. 
 X 
 
266 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Scots, or the Britons, who in the matter of Easter and ton- 
 sure are not united unto the Catholic Church, let them be 
 again by imposition of hands confirmed by a Catholic 
 bishop."^ This was simply a declaration that the churches of 
 the Scots and Britons were, in principle, hostile to Romanists, 
 and outside of their communion altogether. 
 
 The same decree of the Saxon bishops, in Ussher, further 
 enjoined, " In like manner also let the churches that have 
 been ordered [ governed ] by those bishops [ British and Scot- 
 tish ] , be sprinkled with exorcised water, and confirmed with 
 some [religious] service." This is just what Pope Gregory 
 commanded Augustine to do with the pagan temples of the 
 Anglo-Saxons. He says : " The temples of the idols in that 
 nation [ the English ] ought not to be destroyed, but let the 
 idols that are in them be destroyed ; let holy water be made 
 and sprinkled in the said temples." ^ We have an extraor- 
 dinary exhibition of the breadth and depth of the gulf which 
 the Romanists beheld between themselves and the Britons. 
 Says Ussher : 
 
 One of the instructions that the Romans gave the Saxons, was 
 this. You must beware that causes be not referred to other provinces 
 or churches which use another manner and another religion; whether 
 to the Jews, who serve the shadow of the law rather than the truth, 
 or to the Britons, who are contrary unto all men, and have cut them- 
 selves off from the Roman manner, and the unity of the church. ^ 
 
 Aldhelm, in a. d. 705, " by order of a synod, wrote a nota- 
 ble book against the error of the Britons, in not celebrating 
 Easter at the proper time, and in doing several other things 
 not consonant to the purity and peace of the church." This 
 work is only a small tract, and yet it made a great sensation, 
 chiefly because it appeared in the infancy of Anglo-Saxon 
 authorship. It has for centuries excited unusual attention, 
 because of its account of British opposition to Romanism ; in 
 this book, Lingard says : 
 
 1 Ussher's "Works," Vol, IV., p. 350. Erlington ed., Dublin. 
 
 2 Bede's " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. I., cap. 30. 
 
 3 Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., pp. 350, 351. 
 
PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTS. 267 
 
 St. Aldhelm assures " us that the clergy of Demetia [ South "Wales] 
 carried their abhorrence of the Catholic discipline to such an ex- 
 treme, that they punished the most trivial conformity with a long 
 course of penance, and purified with fanatic scrupulosity every uten- 
 sil which had been contaminated by the touch of a Roman or a 
 Saxon priest.^ 
 
 This letter furnishes increased evidence that the ancient 
 Britons had no connection with the Romish church. The 
 forty days which Aldhelm calls days of penance, may have 
 been merely days of instruction and probation, to fit them for 
 membership in a purer church. 
 
 The council of Celychyth, or Calcuith, was held in Eng- 
 land in A. D. 816. It enacted eleven canons, the fifth of 
 which decreed, " that none of the Scottish race ( de genere 
 Scottorum) be permitted to usurp to himself the sacred min- 
 istry in any one's diocese . . . because we are not certain 
 how, or by whom, they were ordained." ^ Du Pin gives as 
 the meaning of this canon that "no Irishman be suffered to 
 discharge any ecclesiastical function out of his own country."^ 
 
 From this canon of the early part of the ninth century, it 
 is clear that the Romish clergy of England regarded the 
 Scottish church as an outlawed community, whose clergy must 
 be ordained by Romish ecclesiastics before they could offici- 
 ate in England ; and whose churches must be rededicated, 
 and " sprinkled with exorcised water, and confirmed with 
 some [religious] service." Westminster Abbey, from a. D. 
 1065 to 1483, received, in whole or in part, not less than six 
 or eight consecrations and holy sprinklings. If by permission 
 of Providence, as a scourge to England and the British race 
 over the world, this grand temple, the creation of centuries, 
 the collective monument of many great Anglo-Saxons, should 
 fall into the hands of Romanists, it would be consecrated 
 again, and once more " sprinkled with exorcised water," to 
 purify it from the Rome-abhorred exercises of Protestant 
 
 1 '' The Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 39 Phila. 
 
 2 " Spelm.," Vol. I., p. 329. Wilkins' " Concilia," Lib. I., p. 170. 
 
 3 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. II., p. 107. Dublin. 
 
268 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 worship. This is the spirit of the fifth canon of the council of 
 Celychyth. Though lona had given up her Easter time 
 ninety-nine years before the synod of Celychyth assembled, 
 the attitude of the Scots, in Britain and Ireland, toward 
 Rome was still hostile; and the fifth canon of Celychyth 
 shows that the Romish bishops of England regarded them 
 with contempt and malignity. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF IRISH MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The popes afraid of the influence of Irish missionaries— Warning 
 epistles from Gregory III.— The oath of Bishop Boniface against 
 heretics— Protestant Hibernian missionaries occasioned that oath — 
 An archbishop has no authority without a pall— None in Ireland 
 until the twelfth century— The Celtic church of Ireland outside of 
 the Koman communion until that time— The Danes, who held Dub- 
 lin, Waterford, and Liinerick, were Catholics sooner— St. Bernard of 
 Clairvaux on the absence of Komish authority and palls in Ireland 
 until the twelfth century. 
 
 Even the pope was afraid of the Protestant spirit of the 
 continental missionaries from the British islands. 
 
 If the more free-minded British and Irish missionaries, scattered 
 among the German populations, had succeeded in gaining the pre- 
 ponderance, there would have gone forth from the German Church 
 a reaction [from Romanism] of free Christian development. At 
 Rome the danger which threatened from this quarter was well under- 
 stood; and the formal oath prescribed [by the pope] to Boniface [the 
 apostle of Germany], was doubtless expressly intended for the pur- 
 pose of warding off this danger and of making Boniface the instru- 
 ment of the Roman Church system, for suppressing the freer institu- 
 tions which sprung from the British and Irish churches. The purpose 
 of his mission was not barely to convert the pagans, but quite as much 
 also to bring back those whom the hereticks had led astray, to ortho- 
 doxy and to obedience to the Roman Church. ^ 
 
 Neander quotes an old report of the errand of Boniface, 
 the apostle of Germany, in which his mission is thus de- 
 scribed: "He should go beyond the Alps, where heresy 
 chiefly flourished, and he should utterly destroy it with sound 
 doctrine." He quotes epistle forty-five, of Pope Gregory HI., 
 addressed to the bishops of Bavaria and Germany, admonish- 
 iag them to adopt the liturgy and creed according to the 
 
 1 Neander's " General History of the Church," Vol, III., p. 49. Boston. 
 
 269 
 
270 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 model of the Roman apostolic Church ; and to heware of the 
 doctrine of the Britons corning \_among them~\ , or of false and 
 heretical priests.'' He also quotes epistle six, of the same 
 pope, addressed to the German bishops and dukes, stating 
 that the object of the mission of Boniface was partly to con- 
 vert the heathen, and partly to correct those who were led into 
 heresy by diabolical craft. 
 
 Boniface, who reorganized the German church in the inter- 
 est of the pope, was persuaded by him to take an oath^ of 
 special solemnity " to blessed Peter and to blessed Gregory, 
 your vicar," in which he pledged himself : 
 
 To maintain to the last, with the help of God, the purity and unity 
 of the holy Catholic faith ; to consent to nothing contrary to either ; 
 to consult in all things the interests of your church, and in all things 
 to concur with you, to whom power has been given of binding and 
 loosening, with your above-mentioned vicar, and with his successors. 
 If I shall hear of an3'' bishops acting contrary to the ca7ions, I shall 
 not cotnmicnicate with theyn, nor entertain any cotnmerce with them, 
 but I will re2-)rove them and hinder thetn if I can ; if I cannot I shall 
 acquaint therewith my lord, the pope. If I do not faithfully perform 
 what I now promise, may I be found guilty at the tribunal of the 
 eternal Judge, and incur the punishment inflicted by you on Ananias 
 and Sapphira, who presumed to deceive and defraud you. 
 
 This shocking oath has two principal objects. The first is, 
 the unity of the faith, that is, the suppression of every form 
 of Christian belief at variance with Romanism ; to accom- 
 plish this, Boniface must sacrifice everything to the advance- 
 ment of his church ; if any clergymen or bishops, like the 
 Hibernian Scots, show contempt for popish canons, lie must 
 have no fellowship or connection with them ; if he is able he 
 must hinder them ; and failing in this, like a hired detective 
 of the pope, he must report " to his lord " at Rome the 
 spiritual rebellion of these Protestant ecclesiastics. The 
 second object of the oath was to make him a slave of the 
 pope ; it requires him " in all things to concur with the pope." 
 Hence it follows that however widely his opinions, or his pro;- 
 posed efforts might differ from the pope's, his oath compelled 
 
 I Othlon, in " Vita Bonifac," Lib. II,, cap. 1, 14, 20. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF IRISH MISSIONARIES. 271 
 
 him " to concur in all tilings " with the Bishop of Rome. As 
 the heathen in Burma, who knew Dr. Judson for years, were 
 accustomed to speak of him as " Jesus Christ's man," because 
 they saw that his sole business in their country was to serve 
 the Saviour in all his words and ways, and to enlist every one 
 for the same blessed employment, so rugged Boniface was 
 bound by his oath to be the pope's man in all things, and 
 chiefly in destroying the influence of Protestant missionaries 
 from the British islands in Germany. 
 
 This was the first oath of obedience taken to the pope by 
 any bishop in Christendom, outside of his own province as 
 Bishop of Rome. Boniface kept his oath, and was at gi eat 
 pains, not only in Germany, but in France, to bring all other 
 bishops into the abject slavery to which he himself had so 
 meanly, and in view of his Anglo-Saxon origin, so disgrace- 
 fully submitted.^ 
 
 This wretched oath of Boniface was the beginning of the 
 oath which to-day binds in slavery to the pope all the Romish 
 bishops of the world. It is one of the most nefarious oaths 
 ever imposed by any ecclesiastical authority, or taken by any 
 clergyman, since the Saviour's birth ; yet every Roman Cath- 
 olic bishop takes it at his consecration. Two clauses of it 
 are: 
 
 I will, with all my power, observe, and cause others to observe, the 
 rules of the holy fathers, the apostolic [the pope's] decrees, or- 
 dinances or dispositions, provisions and commands. To the utmost 
 of my power I will persecute and attack hereticks, schismatics, and 
 rebels against the same our lord, or his aforesaid successors.^ 
 
 No matter how independent a Romish bishop may be, or 
 benevolent, or intellectual, and there are many of these in the 
 church of the popes, he is a general in the pope's army ; he 
 has taken the oath of allegiance ; the eyes of the ofiicers are 
 upon him, and multitudes of the rank and file ; and when 
 the army moves he must go wuth it ; when it fights he must 
 
 1 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. IT., pp. 23, 24, 
 
 2 "Pontificale Romanum," pp. 59-61. Antwerp, 1758. 
 
272 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 share in the wrongs it inflicts, and in the wounds it receives. 
 In short, he is not his own master ; the pope looks after that 
 matter for him, and his only remedy is to drop his weapons 
 and uniform, break his detestable oath, and desert to truth, 
 the true saints, and to God our ISaviour. It is strange that 
 the success of saintly ministers from the British islands, in 
 France and Germany, should have prompted the manufac- 
 ture of odious chains for Romish bishops by the popes, which 
 they have been wearing for more than eleven hundred years. 
 Practically the pall, or pallium, is the popes' commission to 
 an archbishop. They gradually secured the introduction 
 of this insignia of office, until in process of time every metro- 
 politan in Western Europe was compelled to receive one. This 
 was secured for France in a. d. 742, in a council, by the 
 apostle of the Germans, Boniface.^ But long before his time 
 a Romish pall was regarded with reverence, and subjected 
 its recipient in some measure to the bishop of Rome. Accord- 
 ing to Lingard : " At the period in which our ancestors were 
 converted, no archbishop was permitted to perform the most 
 important of his functions, until he had obtained the pall 
 from the hands of the pontiff"." ^ The period referred to is 
 the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century. 
 Says Archbishop Ussher, speaking of Ireland : 
 
 This country, for the number of holy men that lived in it, was here- 
 tofore termed the "Island of Saints" ; of that innumerable company 
 of saints, whose memory was reverenced here, what one received any 
 solemn canonization from the pope, before Malachi of Armagh and 
 Laurence of Dublin ? We read of sundry archbishops that have been 
 in this land between the days of St. Patrick and of Malachi; what 
 one of them can be named that ever sought a pall from Home ? The au- 
 thor of the "Annals of Mailros" [Melrosel writes, "In the year a. i>. 
 1151, Pope Eugenius, to whom St. Bernard wrote his book, De Con- 
 aideratione, did, by his legate, John Paparo, transmit four palls into 
 Ireland, whither a pall hefore had never heen brought." Therefore 
 Giraldus Cambrensis,^ though he acknowledges that St. Patrick chose 
 
 1 Collier's" Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., pp. 160-163. London, 1840. 
 
 2 Linenrd's " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 105. Phila. 
 
 3 " Topography of Ireland," Dist. III., cap. 17. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF IRISH MISSIONARIES. 273 
 
 Armagh for his seat, and did appoint it to be, as it were, a metropoli- 
 tan see, and the proper place for the primacy of all Ireland, yet doth 
 affirm withal, that in very deed " there were no archbishops in Ire- 
 land, but that bishops only did consecrate one another until John 
 Paparo, the pope's legate, brought four palls thither" ; whereupon 
 some of our chroniclers after him, state concerning Gelasius, at that 
 time archbishop of Armagh, " that he is said to have been the first 
 archbishop, because he used the first pall, and that others before him 
 were called archbishops and primates in name only, for the reverence 
 of St. Patrick, as the apostle of that nation." ^ 
 
 It is remarkable that the Irish church maintained its inde- 
 pendence of Rome to such a late date. In the twelfth cen- 
 tury it submitted to the pope for the first time in its history. 
 The Danes of Dublin, Waterford, and Limerick, converted 
 descendants of the robbers, incendiaries, and murderers who 
 tormented Britain and Ireland with savage ferocity, hated the 
 Irish people and their church, and became Roman Catholics, 
 holding communion with the archbishop of Canterbury at an 
 earlier day ; but the Irish people resisted Romanism until the 
 time of Malachi, who became their primate about a. d. 1134. 
 Through his influence chiefly his countrymen submitted to 
 the pope. According to the learned Bower : "^ 
 
 In A. D. 1153, the pontiff sent John Paparo into Ireland with four 
 palls for four bishops of that kingdom, namely, of Armagh, Dublin, 
 Cashel, and Tuam. On his arrival he disposed of the palls as he had 
 been directed. Thus were four archbishoprics established this year 
 in the kingdom of Ireland. 
 
 So that St. Patrick's archbishopric of Armagh was reck- 
 oned as nothing, though it was founded more than seven 
 hundred years before, because it had never received the Rom- 
 ish pall until John Paparo left it for Armagh. 
 
 The account of the Irish church left by the famous St. 
 Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, in France, in his "Life of 
 St. Malachi," is of unusual importance. Of him, Bayle^ 
 
 1 Ussher's " W^orks," Vol. IV., pp. 319, 320, 321. 
 
 2 Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. II., p. 481. 
 
 3 Bayle's " Dictionary," Vol. I., p. 772. London, 1734. 
 
274 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHUF.CHES. 
 
 writes : " St. Bernard flourished in the twelfth century. He 
 acquired so great an esteem, that the whole weight of the 
 church seemed to lie on his shoulders, and that kings and 
 princes made choice of him for the general arbitrator of 
 their differences." Bayle quotes from Francis D'Amboise 
 the follo\\ing : " St. Bernard was so generally admired and 
 beloved that he had the good wishes of the whole world." In 
 the four hundred and forty letters printed in his works, many 
 of them addressed to kings, queens, popes, cardinals, bishops, 
 and other distinguished persons living in various countries, 
 he finds an opportunity for three letters to Malachi, Arch- 
 bishop of Hibernia, and one to Irish brethren on the death 
 of Malachi. He was an untiring worker, interested in little 
 things, as well as in matters of supreme moment. If Malachi, 
 the poor Irish bishop, had been a great king, Bernard could 
 not have been more attentive to him when his guest at Clair- 
 vaux, or in treating the details of his life when writing his 
 biography. Bernard heard from Malachi personally and 
 by letters, the facts recorded in his " Life " ; he had Irish clerics 
 placed in his charge by Malachi for entrance into his monas- 
 tic order ; through his French monks he founded Mellifont 
 .Abbey in Ireland. From these persons Bernard had an op- 
 portunity to gather exact information about Malachi and the 
 Irish church. 
 
 Bernard says that Malachi, in his reforms in the Irish 
 Church, thought that : 
 
 He was not quite safe in making them without the authority of the 
 apostolic see, and he resolved to set out for Kome ; and especially 
 hecause a metropolitan see [a primates] was as yet wanting, and the 
 use of the pall, which is the fullness of honor, from the beginning had 
 heen wanting {defuerat ab initio pallii usus). 
 
 According to Bernard, as well as Giraldus, Patrick and his 
 successors down to Malichi, had no Roman authority and no 
 primate's see, being without the pope's pall, so that all conse- 
 crations of bishops were nullities. 
 
 Bernard, speaking of Malachi's crusade against the inde- 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF IRISH MISSIONARIES. 275 
 
 pendence of the Irish church, describes as follows the great 
 change his efforts produced : 
 
 Harshness yielded, barbarianism slept, an angry house began by 
 degrees to be appeased, correction is admitted easily, discipline is re-- 
 ceived ; from the centre, where barbarous laws are enacted, Roman 
 laws [the pope's commandments] are introduced; everywhere the 
 ecclesiastical customs [of the papacy] are accepted; the contrary 
 [customs of the Irish Church] are rejected. 
 
 Here Romanism is a novelty thrust into the Irish Church 
 by Malachi. Again, says Bernard, of Malachi laboring in 
 Ireland : 
 
 He gave laws full of righteousness, full of moderation and honesty; 
 and he also appointed in all the churches apostolical statutes and the 
 decrees of the holy Fathers, and chlejiy the iyistltations of the holy 
 Roman Church { proecipueque consuetudines sanctce RoynancB ecclesice). 
 
 Malachi here, according to Bernard, was making the Irish 
 a popish church for the first time. Bernard informs us that 
 when Malachi visited the pope " he solicited the confirmation 
 of the new metropolitan see [subject to Armagh, established 
 by Celsus, Malachi's predecessor], and that palls for both 
 sees [Armagh and Cashel] should be given to him. He soon 
 received the grant of confirmation ; but about the palls the 
 pope said : " That business must be transacted more solemnly. 
 Let the bishops, clergy, and nobles of the land be convened 
 and celebrate a general council ; and should you in this way, 
 with the knowledge and desire of all, seek the pall for worthy 
 persons, it shall be given to you ! "^ The confirmation by the 
 pope of a new episcopal see created by the primate of 
 Armagh was without example in Irish church history. 
 
 The application to Rome by Malachi for two palls, one of 
 which was for himself as primate of Ireland, never was made 
 before ; as Bernard says : " The use of the pall from the begin- 
 ning has been wanting [from the see of Armagh]." And to 
 show that the pope regarded his pall as a novelty for Ireland, 
 
 1 " Sancjti Bernard! Opera. Vita S. Malachiae," cap. 15, cap. 10, cap. 8, cap. 3, cap 
 16. Parisiis. 1690. 
 
276 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 whose religious, freedom-loving people, looking upon a papal 
 pall as a badge of slavery to an insolent Italian priest, might 
 expel Malachi and his pall from their island, or perhaps 
 destroy both, he insisted upon a request from an Irish general 
 council for the palls before he granted them. 
 
 A synod was held at Holmpatrick in A. d. 1148 to request 
 the palls, and a second time Malachi started for the symbols 
 of slavery, the palls which the pope promised. He was the 
 first ecclesiastic representing the authority of the Irish church 
 that ev'er made an appeal to the pope. His application for a 
 pall for Armagh is unquestionable evidence that down to the 
 middle of the twelfth century the church of Ireland was not 
 under the canons or the government of the bishops of Rome. 
 Michelet^ well says: " No churches in the middle ages con- 
 tinued longer independent of Rome than those of Ireland and 
 Brittany." 
 
 1 Michelet's " History of France," Vol. I., p. 153. New York. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE EARLY BRITISH CHURCHES. 
 
 The Britons of Cornwall resist papal authority in the tenth century- 
 The pope's jurisdiction in Wales began in the tenth and became uni- 
 versal in the thirteenth century-Llewellyn-Sir William Wallace- 
 No metropolitans in Scotland to consecrate bishops in twelfth cen- 
 tury-Dioceses first established in Scotland in the twelfth century- 
 Romish rule for only four hundred years in Scotland-Dr. Dollin- 
 ger and the independence of the early Irish and British churches. 
 
 The people of the county of Cornwall, in England, in the 
 tenth century, were ancient Britons; and in the register^ of 
 the priory of Canterbury, in the time of Archbishop Pleg- 
 mund, there is a record of a particular provision made for 
 the Cornish men to recover them from their errors, for that 
 county, as the register reads, refused to submit to and took no 
 notice of the pope's authority. The Cornish men were the 
 religious descendants of the Britons, who rejected the claims 
 of Pope Gregory's missionary in A. d. 603, at Augustine's 
 Oak, and they continued during the intervening centuries faith- 
 ful to the Rome-rejecting doctrines of their anti-papal ances- 
 tors. For this they are censured in the register, and probably 
 suffered many things in words and deeds from Plegmund and 
 his successors. 
 
 In A. D. 981 the archbishops of Canterbury, according to 
 
 Rapin, — 
 
 Acquired a new jurisdiction in Wales. Gucan, a Welsh priest, 
 being chosen bishop of Landaff, was consecrated by Archbishop Dun- 
 stan This precedent was followed by his successors, who, like him, 
 owned the archbishop of Canterbury for their metropolitan. Some 
 infer from this that all the British [Welsh] bishops, at the same time 
 recognized the superiority of the church of Rome, 'But this conse- 
 quence cannot be admitted. It is certain that the bishops of St. 
 
 I Spelman's " Concil.." Lib. I., pp. 387, 388. 
 
 277 
 
278 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 David's all along exercised the archiepiscopal functions in Wales until 
 the time of Henry I. [about A. d. 1109] ; and that without the orna- 
 ment of the pall, the mark of submission to the pope.^ 
 
 Prior to Gucan's time the pope had no authority in Wales. 
 In the reign of Henry I., Rapiu writes : 
 
 Gucan's 2 successors following his example, the archbishops of Can- 
 terbury claimed the same power with regard to all the other bishops 
 in Wales; but they met with great opposition. At length Bernard, 
 the queen's chaplain, being nominated to the see of St. David's, was 
 consecrated by Kalph, archbishop of Canterbury, who maintained 
 that since his jurisdiction was o\yned by the chief of the Welsh 
 bishops, the rest could not be excused from professing obedience. 
 However, as Bernard repented afterward, a long contest arose, which 
 was not decided until Wales was united to England in the reign of 
 Edward I. 
 
 Tlie Romanists now had two of the Welsh bishops in their 
 power, with a demand upon the others for submission, which 
 was long resisted. Giraldus Cambrensis says: "Until the 
 entire subjugation of Wales by Henry I., the Welsh bishops 
 were always consecrated by the bishop of St. David's, and he 
 was consecrated by his suffragans, without any profession or 
 submission being made to any other church." ^ Collier com- 
 menting upon the statement of Cambrensis, writes : 
 
 It follows pretty plainly that the British churches lived indepen- 
 dently of the see of Kome till the reign of Henry I. ; and that there 
 was no correspondence between them; for by the canons of the 
 Koman church, an archbishop was not to enter upon any part of his 
 metropolitan distinction [such as consecrating bishops], until he had 
 received a pall. * 
 
 Popery completed its triumph in Wales under peculiar cir- 
 cumstances. On December 11, 1282, the famous Llewellyn, 
 Prince of Wales, after years of conflict, and in a battle where 
 he was greatly outnumbered, was killed. He was a hero of un- 
 surpassed bravery ; generous to a fault, he was dearer to 
 
 1 Eapin's " History of England, Vol. I., p. 145. London, 1732. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 214. 
 
 3 " Itinerary Through Wales, Historical Works," p. 417. London. 
 * Collier's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. I., p. 474. London. 
 
THE T^AELY BRITISH CHURCHES. 279 
 
 patriotic Welshmen than their own lives. His name is borne 
 to-day by large numbers of men in Wales and all over 
 Anglo-Saxendom. He was descended from one of the oldest 
 royal families in Europe ; and yet the greatest military com- 
 mander of his day, either in a fit of brutality or more prob- 
 ably from natural ferocity, had his head struck off; and, 
 after crowning it with ivy, ordered it to be exposed on the 
 walls of the Tower of London. Kapin says : 
 
 The Welsh lost at length their liberty after preserving it in that 
 little corner of the island above eight hundred years. Destitute of all 
 succors, without foreign alliances, and without a naval power, they had 
 stood their ground against the kings of England, Saxon and Norman, 
 who had almost all tried to subdue them with forces vastly superior.^ 
 
 The Protestantism of the Welsh was finally sacrificed in all 
 its manifestations, outside of the secrets of the heart, on the 
 altar of Komanism, when they lost their independence, and 
 their Church and State were incorporated into the Romish 
 Church, and the tyrannical State of the England of that day. 
 Edward, whose troops were defeated by Sir William Wallace, 
 among the noblest of European patriots, inflicted a complete 
 overthrow upon the army of the Scottish hero at Falkirk in 
 1298. In 1305, Wallace, having fallen into Edward's power, 
 was by his order " hanged, drawn, and quartered," in Smith- 
 field, London. The king, whose unprovoked war upon the 
 Welsh, led to the killing of Llewellyn, the Washington of 
 Wales, and whose wicked war upon the Scotch, exhibited the 
 heroic patriotism of Sir William Wallace, the Washington of 
 Scotland, was the base tyrant who destroyed the last public 
 manifestation of ancient British Protestantism. His tomb in 
 Westminster Abbey is only a few feet from the coronation 
 chair, with the stone which he carried from Scone Cathedral, 
 upon which many Scottish and Irish kings were crowned. 
 Upon that old monument should be plainly cut : " Remember 
 Edward, the slayer of Llewellyn, and Sir William Wallace, 
 and of whole armies of patriotic Scots and Welf h ; and the 
 
 1 Rapin's " History of England, Vol. I., pp. 360, 361. London, 1732. 
 
280 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 destroyer of the last remnant of ancient British Protestantism." 
 We do not believe that either the Irish or Welsh Christians 
 of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries were as free from 
 error as their religious ancestors. We simply assert that they 
 were in the main anti-Romanists. 
 
 Scotland had no metropolitan of her own in the twelfth 
 century, when for the first time in the history of that country 
 her sovereign wanted Romish consecration for his bishops. 
 For this purpose the bishops-elect received their consecration 
 in England. In all former ages, such bishops as the Scotch 
 had were ordained at home without the services of a metro- 
 politan or the use of a pall ; and consequently they were not 
 Romanists. 
 
 In A. D. 1126, John, of Crema,^ a cardinal priest, held a 
 council of Scottish bishops at Roxburgh. This was the first 
 exercise of papal power in Scotland. The ancient Scottish 
 church was erroneous in some things, but hostile to Rome in 
 everything. The same statement is true about the ancient 
 Celtic churches of Britain and Ireland. A work generally 
 understood to have been wTitten by Dr. Dollinger, of Munich, 
 lately deceased, the celebrated " Old Catholic," one of the 
 most learned men in Europe, says : " In the "West, the Irish 
 and the ancient British church remained for centuries autono- 
 mous, and under no sort of influence of Rome." "^ This is the 
 testimony of the leading ecclesiastical historians of the world, 
 a testimony which Rome corroborates by ages of efforts, cun- 
 ning, tyrannical, and persecuting, which she employed to 
 entrap or drive them into her fold. Scotland and Wales were 
 dragged into it, but Rome could keep neither of them. And 
 the day will come when the Irish, whose fathers, Bible-loving 
 and Protestant, St. Patrick led to the fountain of atoning 
 blood, will forsake the priest, the mass, and the crucifix, and 
 fly to the great sacrifice of Calvary. 
 
 1 Smith's " Life of St. Oolumba," p. 203. Glasgow. 
 
 2 " The Pope and Council," p. 69. Boston, 1870. 
 
BOOK V. 
 
 BRITISH AND IRISH PRESBYTERS AND BISHOPS; 
 THEIR MARRIAGES AND HOMES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PRIMITIVE CHURCH ORDER. 
 
 Milman on "presbyter bishops "—A throng of British bishops at the 
 council of Brevy— St. Patrick's hundreds of bishops in Ireland— St. 
 Bernard speaks of great numbers in Ireland in the twelfth century 
 —Dioceses and diocesan epiocopacy had no existence in Ireland 
 before a. d. 1112— Scotland was in the same state— Columba, a 
 presbyter, ruled bishops— Why did he not become a bishop?— The 
 story about Bishop Cronan's visit to lona— The presbyters of lona 
 ordained the bishops sent out by their monastery. 
 
 Milman, an Episcopalian dignitary and scholar, writes 
 
 that: 
 
 The earliest Christian communities appear to have been ruled and 
 represented, in the absence of the apostle who was their founder, by 
 their elders, who are likewise called bishops, or overseers of the 
 churches. These pres by tei^ bishops and the deacons are the only two 
 orders which we discover at first in the church of Ephesus, at Philippi, 
 and perhaps in Crete. ^ 
 
 He supposes that it " was by no means improbable," that 
 afterward the apostle may have appointed an overseer, " supe- 
 rior to the co-ordinate body of elders." Milman's positive 
 statement, sustained by the Scriptures which he quotes, cannot 
 be refuted. His supposition is wholly lacking in evidence. 
 Stillingfleet ' refers to an account of the great council of 
 Brevy, Wales, taken from the manuscript of Utrecht, which 
 represents one hundred and eighteen bishops as present at its 
 
 1 " History of Christianity," p. 104. New York. 
 
 2 " Antiquities of the British Churches," p. 358. 
 
 281 
 
282 ANCIENT BKITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 deliberations. The learned bishop objects to the number of 
 bishops assigned to it, though he admits that Colgan defends 
 the large representation of bishops. The number was not too 
 great, if the minister of every church was a bishop, though 
 very much too large if the synod of Brevy was an Episco- 
 palian council. It is not unlikely that the chief ecclesiastics 
 of this assembly were substantially " presbyter bishops." Ac- 
 cording to Nennius,^ Patrick founded three hundred and 
 sixty-five churches, and consecrated the same number of 
 bishops, and ordained three thousand presbyters. If we take 
 the testimony of Nennius, St. Patrick placed a bishop in every 
 church which he founded ; and several presbyters, after the 
 example of the New Testament churches. Nor was the great 
 number of bishops peculiar to Patrick's time ; in the twelfth 
 century, St. Bernard tell us that in Ireland " bishops are 
 multiplied and changed according to the pleasure of the pri- 
 mate, without reason or order ; so that one bishopric is not 
 satisfied with one, but almost every church had a bishop of 
 its own.'" ^ As far as numbers went, the Irish churches at 
 this period had bishops after the order of Baptist churches. 
 
 Professor George T. Stokes'^ declares that, prior to the synod 
 of Rathbresail, in a. d. 1112, "Episcopacy had been the rule 
 of the Irish church ; but dioceses and diocesan episcopacy had 
 no existence at all." Episcopacy, without territorial jurisdic- 
 tion and with so many bishops, could only be congregational. 
 
 "Scotland," as Collier* relates, "in the ninth century was 
 not divided into dioceses, but all the Scottish bishops had their 
 jurisdiction as it were at large, and exercised their function 
 wherever they came. And this continued to the reign of 
 Malcom III.," who was crowned in a. d. 1057. When Collifr 
 speaks of jurisdiction, we must remember that they had no 
 jurisdiction in its proper sense; the early Scottish bishops 
 
 1 " History of the Britons," Sec. 54. 
 
 2 " Vit. St. Malachi, Episc. Hibern.," Cap. X., - . 667. Parisiis, 1690. 
 
 3 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 338. 
 
 * " Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain," Vol. I., p. 367. London. 
 
PRIMITIVE CHURCH ORDER. 283 
 
 were like their brethren in Ireland, without dioceses and with- 
 out jurisdiction. Eminent writers like Dr. Todd/ of Trinity- 
 College, Dublin, freely assert this. 
 
 Bede relates that " lona had for its ruler an abbot, who 
 is a priest, to whose direction all the provinces, and even the 
 bishops, contrary to the usual method, are subject, according 
 to the example of their first teacher, who was not a bishop, 
 but a priest and monk." ^ To this Bede makes no objection, 
 though there is not in the history of Eomish Christendom, be- 
 fore, or iu, Bede's day, another case of the kind ; and there 
 certainly has not been one since. Why did not Columba 
 become a bishop ? Many scores of bishops would have shown 
 joyful haste to confer that office upon him ; and if the position 
 was really higher than his standing among the presbyters, he 
 would surely have become a bishop ; but it cannot be doubted 
 that he deemed his rank as a presbyter to be fully equal to 
 that of any bishop on earth. On the same principle, it is not 
 unlikely that his countryman, Gallus, a presbyter, declined to 
 be bishop of Constance, and had his friend and pupil, John, 
 invested with the responsibilities of that office. 
 
 Adamnan, in his " Life of Columba," is represented as speak- 
 ing of the visit of Cronau, an Irish bishop, to lona. He was dis- 
 guised, but Columba supernaturally recognized his episcopal 
 orders ; and as Columba, according to Adamnan, was seeking 
 two presbyters to celebrate the Lord's Supper, when he per- 
 ceived that Cronan was a bishop, he said to him, " Christ 
 bless thee, brother, consecrate alone, according to the episcopal 
 rite, for I know thou art a bishop." This story is told osten- 
 sibly to show Columba's supernatural powers of discernment ; 
 but the writer of it probably forged it to prove that Columba, 
 though he ruled bishops, recognized their rank as superior to 
 his own. The basis of the Cronan fabrication is without foun- 
 dation ; two presbyters were not necessary in Columba's time 
 to celebrate the Eucharist. Adamnan himself, in his work 
 
 1 " St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," Introduction. 1864. 
 
 2 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., p. 4. 
 
284 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 in which the Cronan story now appears, plainly intimates that 
 one presbyter was competent to celebrate the Lord's Supper ; 
 he says that "Columba observed a certain presbyter adminis- 
 ter the sacred rite of the Eucharist, whom the brethren of the 
 monastery who lived there had selected to celebrate the solemn 
 service because they regarded him as very devout " ;^ and he 
 writes that as Columba observed the presbyter and the Eu- 
 charist, 
 
 He uttered an alarming denunciation, " The pure and the unclean are 
 seen to be equally mixed here; the pure is the holy rite of the [sym- 
 bolical] offering administered by a guilty man, who, notwithstanding, 
 conceals in his conscience a foul crime." Those present who heard 
 these words tremhled, and were exceedingly astonished. But the man 
 of whom they were spoken was constrained to confess his sin. 
 
 The recognition by Columba that a bishop was the superior 
 of a presbyter, as seen in the Cronan case, is a mere forgery, 
 and it is of a later day than Adamnan's. 
 
 Neither Adamnan nor any other ancient writer ever men- 
 tions a bishop as a resident of lona. There is absolutely no 
 evidence that Bishops Aidan, Finan, Colman, Diuma, and Cel- 
 lach, missionaries among the Anglo-Saxons, were ordained by 
 bishops. The presbyter abbot of lona and his fellow-presby- 
 ters in the monastery, evidently ordained all the presbyters 
 and bishops who left their institution to preach Christ. And 
 when any of the bishops returned to reside at lona, they came 
 as presbyters, like the other ministering brethren there ; and 
 like Columba himself 
 
 There is some reason for believing with M'Lauchlan ^ that 
 " The ordinary clergy, as distinguished from the members of 
 the [monastic] colleges, were the bishops of the early church." 
 
 1 " Vit. Colum.," Lib. I., Cap. XX.. p. 737. Migne. 
 
 2 " The Early Scottish Church," p. 337. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MARRIAGE OF THE CLERGY. 
 
 Patrick's grandfather a married presbyter— Married British bishops 
 —Hibernian married missionaries in the eighth century— Patrick 
 seeks a man with one wife for a bishop — Cormac, the Irish married 
 bishop and king — St. Bernard states that eight married bishops held 
 the see of Armagh before Celsus, a. d. 1106. 
 
 Among the ancient Britons no stigma rested upon the mar- 
 riage of a member of any grade of the ministry. St. Pat- 
 rick, a Briton, commences his invaluable " Confession " with 
 these words : " I, Patrick, a sinner, the rudest and least of 
 all the faithful, and most contemptible to great numbers, had 
 for my father Calpornius, a deacon, a son of the late Potitus, 
 the presbyter." He mentions the church offices held by his 
 father and grandfather, as he gives an account of his age and 
 capture. 
 
 He seems to regard his relationship to them as an honor ; 
 and their wedlock as inflicting no disgrace upon them or him, 
 either among British believers or Hibernian Christians, to 
 whom he addressed his " Confession." 
 
 Gildas, the Briton, commenting upon Paul's account of the 
 qualifications of a bishop, writes, " Well governing his house," 
 saith the apostle, "having his children subjected with all 
 chastity." 
 
 " Imperfect, therefore, is the chastity of the parents [the 
 bishop and his wife], if the children be not also endued with 
 the same. But how shall it be where neither the father [the 
 bishop], nor the son, depraved by the example of his evil 
 parent, is found to be chaste ? " ' The context shows that 
 some married bishops were not faithful to their wives. 
 
 1 " The Works of Gildas," Sec 109. 
 
 285 
 
286 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IPwISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Gildas does not censure the marriage of bishops, which he 
 evidently thought a divinely instituted form of chastity, but 
 episcopal licentiousness. It is probable that many presby- 
 ters and bishops among the Britons were married. Nennius 
 dedicated his " History " " to Samuel, the son of Benlanus, the 
 presbyter, his preceptor, a British clergyman, counting it a 
 grace, rather than any kind of disparagement to be the son of 
 a learned priest." ^ 
 
 Of the opponents of Boniface, the English missionary in 
 Germany in the eighth century, who seriously disturbed his 
 Romish tranquility, Neander writes : " Some of them were 
 free-minded British and Irish clergymen, particularly such as 
 would not submit to the Roman laws touching the celibacy of 
 the priests, whose married life appeared to Boniface, look- 
 ing at the matter from his point of view, an unlawful 
 connection." ^ 
 
 As the Scots were found everywhere on the continent in 
 the eighth century as teachers and missionaries, ^lichelet fre- 
 quently speaks of them. Writing of St. Boniface, he says : 
 " His chief hatred is to the Scots, the name given to the 
 Scotch and Irish, and he especially condemns their allowing 
 priests to marry." ^ 
 
 In " Additions to Tirechan's collections," * a work written 
 in Irish in the ninth century, we have an account of the selec- 
 tion of a bishop by Patrick, in which he was aided by Dub- 
 thach. Patrick wanted a man from his disciples of good lin- 
 eage, without defect, without blemish, neither rich nor poor ; 
 " I wish a man," he says, " of one wife, unto whom hath been 
 born only one child." Through Dubthach's information, 
 Fiacc was appointed a bishop. He was the husband of one 
 wife and he had the other qualifications. Commenting upon 
 
 » Cited in Ussher, Vol. IV., p. 295. 
 
 2 " General Hi-story of the Christian Church," Vol. III., p. 53. 
 3" History of France," Vol. I., p. 110. N. Y. 
 
 * "Additions to Tirechan's Collections" in "Government Tripartite Life," Vol. 
 II., p 345. 
 
THE MARRIAGE OF THE CLERGY. 287 
 
 this matter, Dr. Whitley Stokes remarks : " Polygamy 
 existed [in Ireland], and hence Patrick, like Paul, requires 
 for the bishopric of Leinster, a husband ot one wife." ^ The 
 same event is recorded in the " Tripartite Life of Patrick," 
 written some two hundred years after. 
 
 Cormac of Cashel, the great warrior, bishop, and king, was 
 born A. D. 831 ; he became king of Munster in a. d. 896, 
 and reigned only seven years. He was a married bishop 
 years before he was king. He perished in the battle of 
 Ballymoon near Carlow. Gormlaith,* the wife of the bishop- 
 king when he was only a prelate, married soon after his 
 death his conqueror at Ballymoon ; and losing him, the next 
 year she married Neill, king of Ireland. 
 
 In his description of the city of Armagh, Ireland, where 
 the primacy of the Irish Church has been located from 
 remote antiquity, the learned Camden states, that "Among 
 the archbishops of that city who attained special celebrity, 
 was St. Malachi, who first prohibited the marriage of priests 
 in Ireland."' Malachi was the first to stop the marriage 
 of Patrick's successors, the bishops of Armagh, and through 
 this great change, marriage was eventually forbidden to 
 the clergy of all grades in Ireland. 
 
 Celsus, the primate, who ordained Malachi a deacon, presby- 
 ter, and bishop, was anxious that he should succeed him as 
 archbishop of Armagh, which he did eventually. St. Ber- 
 nard of Clairvaux, writing of the primacy of Armagh, in his 
 " Life of Malachi," says : 
 
 A very wicked custom grew up through the diabolical ambition of 
 some powerful persons to obtain the holy see [Armagh] by hereditary 
 succession. Neither would they suffer any persons to perform episco- 
 pal duties unless they were of their own tribe and family, . . Finally 
 eight married men held the ofSce before Celsus.* 
 
 1 "Additions to Tireehan's Collections" in " Government Tripartite Life," Intro., 
 p. 168 
 
 2 O'Donovan's " Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland," at a. d. 909. 
 
 3 " Britannia," p. 434. Amsterdami, 1639. 
 
 4 " De Vita Malach., Episc. Hibern.," Cap. 10, pp. 667, 668. Parisiis, 1690. 
 
288 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 We learn in the same chapter of Bernard, that when Mai 
 achi was urged by the bishops and princes to enter upon the 
 primacy, that at first he refused, saying : " It was a serious 
 thing for a poor man like him to oppose himself to such persons. 
 so numerous, so powerful, and so rooted [in their guilt], who 
 now for almost two hundred years, held possession, as if by 
 hereditary right, of the sanctuary of God [the primacy of 
 Armagh]." 
 
 In the time of Brian Boru, who was killed at the battle of 
 Clontarf, a. d. 1014, Maelmury was bishop of Armagh ; he 
 was a married man, and belonged to the family that held the 
 primacy for two hundred years. Celsus, Malachi's legitimate 
 predecessor, belonged to the same great family of bishops who 
 held the see for two hundred years ; " he was the grandson 
 of a previous primate ; and he is said by some to have been 
 married." ^ 
 
 It has been asserted that these married primates had no 
 episcopal consecration ; St. Bernard, falsely informed, states 
 this, and that they employed regular bishops to perform all 
 their public ecclesiastical duties, while they carefully collected 
 the emoluments of the primate's office. To this Professor 
 Stokes replies : 
 
 The bishop [of Armagh] of Brian's day was succeeded in his ofBce 
 by no less than two sons. Yet at his death he was revered by the 
 whole of Ireland, and is described by the " Annals of the Four Mas- 
 ters" as "the head of the clergy of the west of Europe; the principal 
 of all the holy order of the west ; and a most wise and learned doctor," 
 than which no stronger words can be invented to describe a bishop 
 invested with full ecclesiastical functions. His son, Amalgaid, who 
 presided over the see from a. d. 1021 to 1050, acted as a real primate 
 over alllreland, and was the first bishop of Armagh who exercised 
 such power by making the first primatial visitation of all Munster. 
 His great-grandson, Maurice, successfully held the see for five years 
 in opposition to St. Malachi.^ 
 
 1 " Ireland and the Celtic Church," pp. 335, 337. 
 s Ibid., p. 357. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 MARRIED MONKS AND NUNS. 
 
 Many of the early monks and nuns married— They lived in their own 
 houses— These persons led stricter lives than others in their ordinary 
 dwellings — They gave much time to devotions and Bible study — 
 Such was the course of Pelagius — Bingham on married monks — 
 Athanasius on monks who were fathers of children— Augustine's 
 statement— Many of St. Patrick's monks and "virgins of Christ" 
 were no doubt married— Devoted much time to Scripture reading— 
 Probably conducted cottage Bible schools very extensively— There 
 is no evidence that Patrick ever established a monastery. 
 
 Collier writes that : ' 
 
 Those were called monks at Kome in Pelagius' time [the beginning 
 of the fifth century] who had no office in the church, but yet retired 
 from the common employments of the world for religious studies and 
 devotion. Thus Garnerius confesses that Pelagius was not otherwise 
 a monk than as those were so called who led stricter lives than others 
 within their owyi houses. The chief employment of these persons, 
 next to their devotions, was the study of the Scriptures, as appears 
 from Jerome's epistles ; and here some person of particular eminency 
 used to instruct his disciples [from the Bible]. This was Jerome's 
 practice at Bethlehem. This office Kuffinus performed to Pamma- 
 chius, and to Melania and her family. And so did Pelagius at Rome. 
 It was under this employment that he wrote his short commentaries 
 on St. Paul's Epistles, and his letters to Melania and Demetrias. 
 
 This is the testimony of all scholarly, impartial historians. 
 That great student of the antiquities of the church of Christ, 
 Joseph Bingham, writes : ^ 
 
 Thus much is certain from the express words of Athanasius and St. 
 Augustine, that in their time some went by the name of monks who 
 were married men and possessed estates. For Athanasius, writing to 
 Dracontius, a monk, to persuade him to accept a bishopric, to which 
 he was averse, because he thought it would not consist with his ascetic 
 
 » Collier's " Ecclesiastical History," Vol. I., p. 95. 
 
 a " Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book VII., chap. 2, sec. 6. 
 
 Z 289 
 
290 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 way of living, uses this argument to him : " You may still, after you 
 are made a bishop, hunger and thirst with Paul, and abstain from 
 wine with Timothy, and fast frequently as St. Paul was wont to do. 
 Many bishops are not married ; and on the other hand, many monks 
 are the fathers of children ; you may also find bishops that are fathers 
 of children, and monks that are not so ; clergy that eat and drink, 
 and monks that fast. For these things are at liberty, and no pro- 
 hibition laid upon them ; every one exercises himself as he pleases." 
 From these words of Athanasius [who died a. d. 372] it seems plain 
 that as yet the rules of the monastic life obliged no man to renounce 
 either his possessions or a married state, but he might use both if be 
 pleased, without 2iny ecclesiastical censure. And though the case was 
 a little altered with some monks before St. Augustine's time [he died 
 in A. D. 430], yet others reserved to themselves their ancient privi- 
 leges ; for St. Augustine, writing against the hereticks who called 
 themselves " Apostolics," says : "They arrogantly assumed to them- 
 selves that name because they rejected all from their communion who 
 had either wives or estates, of which sort the Catholic church had 
 tnany^ both monks and clergy.'''' 
 
 Augustine died when Patrick had labored about forty years 
 in Ireland. He was the most influential man in Christendom ; 
 or that had been in it since the days of the apostles. He was 
 such a friend of the monkish system that he set up that way of 
 living among the clergy of Hippo, by " making ^ the bishop's 
 house a monastery of clergymen," as he says. And yet, the 
 greatest theologian of the Christian ages, during Patrick's 
 ministry in Ireland, denounced the heretical " Apostolics " 
 for excommunicating the " many monks and clergy of the 
 Catholic church who had either wives or estates." 
 
 Bingham modestly adds '} " So that at least some monks were 
 still at liberty to enjoy both a conjugal state and possessions 
 of their own, without any impeachment of apostasy, or breach 
 of vow in the Catholic church." These monks with wives and 
 property, of course, "led stricter lives than others ivithin 
 their own houses." 
 
 St. Patrick in his "Confession" speaks joyfully of the 
 lately idolatrous Irish " as having become the people of the 
 Lord." " Sons of the Scots [Irish] and daughters of chief- 
 
 1 Bingham's " Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book VII., Chap. 2, Sec. 6. 
 
MARRIED MONKS AND NUNS. 291 
 
 tains are seen to be monks and virgins of Christ." Patrick 
 does not write a word in his little works about a convent or a 
 monastery, or about a special residence for any considerable 
 number of them. These persons lived in Ireland as many of 
 them at first lived elsewhere, in their own homes, often mar- 
 ried, and only differing from other Christians by special con- 
 secration to God. 
 
 In populous places, where the Christians were somewhat 
 numerous, we can imagine these lovers of the Bible forming 
 ten or twelve little companies, each one of which would visit 
 some family and their invited guests, and read and expound 
 to them the book of God ; and continue these Bible readings 
 in suitable places during portions of every day in the week. 
 And we can suppose that they had also a daily Bible and sup- 
 plication meeting for their own profit at each other's dwell- 
 ings. We can comprehend some measure of their anxiety, as 
 they plead with God very frequently that they might be kept 
 as true virgins and monks of Christ, and not chiefly as the 
 treasures of husbands or wives ; or the slaves of mammon or 
 pleasure. 
 
 These devoted disciples — " living sacrifices " to Christ — 
 rendered noble service in the evangelization of Ireland and in 
 building up Patrick's converts in scriptural knowledge ; a ser- 
 vice all the more valuable on account of the scarcity of copies 
 of the divine word and of the multitudes who could not read. 
 There were undoubtedly numbers of married and single per- 
 sons among these specially consecrated helpers of the apostle 
 of Ireland, just as St. Augustine, writing during a part of 
 Patrick's Irish labors, speaks of " many monks and clergy of 
 the catholic [universal] church, who had either wives or 
 estates." St. Patrick's monks and virgins of Christ, wedded 
 or unmarried, were parts of the " bride, the Lamb's wife " to 
 whom her heavenly Husband was the chief among ten thou- 
 sand and altogether lovely. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EARLY MONASTERIES IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 Brigit's nunnery a fiction— Bangor the first in Ireland— The other 
 Bangor the first in Britain — Clonard enthusiastic for Bible study — 
 St. Ruadamus, St. Kiaran, and the aged and decrepit go to Clonard 
 for Bible exposition — Many Anglo-Saxons attended Irish monaste- 
 ries to learn wisdom from the Scriptures— Free books, teaching, and 
 food in some cases. 
 
 It is difficult to fix the exact date when the first monastery 
 was established in Ireland. It is certain that Patrick was 
 long in his grave before this took place. 
 
 St. Brigit is said to have founded a nunnery at Kildare, 
 over which she presided. This lady was full of activity in 
 spreading the gospel in Ireland, and was almost second to 
 Patrick in that great work ; and second, if not equal to him 
 for centuries, in the regard of the people of Ireland. If she 
 founded a nunnery, the evidence to prove it is as securely 
 hidden as the grave of Abel. She was probably the leader of 
 a woman's missionary society. Bangor in Ireland was 
 founded by Comgal. Bingham states that it was established 
 about A. D. 520 ; and this date is apparently the true one. 
 He informs ns that it was the most ancient monastery in Ire- 
 land, as the famous monastery of Bangor was the oldest in 
 Britain.^ 
 
 These two monasteries soon collected a great number of 
 so-called monks, and similar institutions were speedily 
 planted in every direction, several of which had a member- 
 ship numbering two or three thousand. Bangor in Wales, as 
 Bede writes, had "So great a number of monks that the 
 monastery was divided into seven parts, with a ruler over 
 
 1 "Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book VII., chap. 2, sec. 13. 
 292 
 
EARLY MONASTERIES. 293 
 
 each ; and none of the parts contained less than three hun- 
 dred men, who lived by i:he labor of their hands." 
 
 The special occupation of the inmates of these early mon- 
 asteries was the study of the Scriptures. This was the chief 
 pursuit of monks where they were simply more devout than 
 many, and lived in their own houses, with their wives or fami- 
 lies like other men. The monastery was chiefly a Bible 
 school. 
 
 " Gildas was a monk of the famous monastery of Bangor " ^ 
 in Wales, in the sixth century, of whom Dr. M'Lauchlan 
 writes : 
 
 It was remarked by Polydore Vergil respecting Gildas, that he 
 quoted no book in his long letter "On the Destruction of Britain," 
 but the Bible; and certainly his quotations from it show, on the part 
 of the British historian, a very thorough acquaintance with the word 
 of God. The idea seems completely to pervade the minds of the men 
 who relate to us the events of this period that the people possessed the 
 Scriptures. "2 
 
 In the sixth century, the monastery of Clonard, in Ireland, 
 obtained great celebrity, especially for the successful study of 
 the Scriptures. It was' founded by St. Finnian, who was a 
 student for years under Gildas in Wales ; and from his love 
 for expounding the divine word to his pupils, we have a 
 strong confirmation of the warm regard in which it was held 
 by Gildas and other British monks. Finnian had com- 
 monly, about three thousand scholars receiving his instruc- 
 tions. Archbishop Ussher writes i^ " That the blessed Ruada- 
 mus lived at Clonard with St. Finnian, reading different parts 
 of the Scriptures ; and he was largely profited by them." 
 He also states '' of St. Kiaran, who greatly loved to hear and 
 to be taught from the divine Scriptures, even to decrepit 
 years, that it was said of him and other Hibernian saints of 
 his time, that they came in their old ages to that holy and 
 most wise man, Finnian, abbot of Clonard, that they niiglit 
 
 1 Collier's " Ecclesiastical History," Vol. I., p. 143. 
 
 2 "The Early Scottish Church," p. 62. 
 8 " Works," Vol. VI., pp. 47J, 473. 
 
294 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 read the divine writings in his sacred college." Men, full of 
 love for their Bibles, went away from Finnian's institution to 
 read them privately, and to expound them publicly. Bede in- 
 forms us that in the first half of the seventh century, Agilbert, 
 a Frenchman, labored as a bishop among the West Saxons 
 for many years ; he also writes that before this service, " he 
 lived a long time iu Ireland for the purpose of readii^g the 
 Scriptures." ^ 
 
 In A. D. 664, according to Bede, a pestilence '"^ ravaged 
 the southern coast of Britain and the kingdom of Northum- 
 bria, '* destroying a great multitude of men." Its harvest of 
 death was as extensive in Ireland. 
 
 Many of the nobility and of the lower ranks of the English nation 
 were in Ireland at that time, either for the sake of divine studios [the 
 study of the divine Scriptures], or of a more continent life. The 
 Irish willingly received them all, and took care to supply them with 
 food; as also to furnish them with books to read and their teaching 
 gratis, 
 
 Bede speaks of " Egbert and Chad, when both were youths 
 in Ireland, praying, observing continency, and meditating on 
 the Holy Scriptures."' Professor Stokes* justly observes, 
 " that all the ancient Irish saints were specially devoted to the 
 study and exposition of Holy Scripture." 
 
 1 "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. III., cap. 7. 
 
 2 Ibid., cap. 27. 
 
 3 " Eccles. Hist.," Lib. IV., cap. 3. 
 
 * " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 101. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 COMMENTARIES IN MONASTERIES. 
 
 -^.^TLuW. a SCO. 0, C^^^^^^ 
 
 Hiber„,a„com^e^,^ .nedthe W«r^^ of'christian books, were 
 d^edjt D;u!:;i,rireland, and bythepagan Anglo-Saxons 
 
 in Britain. 
 
 The earnest examination of the Scriptures -— Ij P- 
 duces something in the form of an «P«- -^ . J" ^^f^^; 
 character, written by the fathers, especially the «o™°^e"'*^y 
 ofjerle upon the Vulgate, are well known, and show the 
 
 ntet: whii the early Christians took -/« holy word 
 Sunday-school "helps" are commentaries for the use ot 
 teachers- and such expositions were never so generally used 
 rt nr day. -^nd yet, among the ancient British and 
 rrishChrUtians, expositions of Scripture were common, and 
 w re freelv usei in monasteries. Pelagius,' a British monk 
 It the commencement of the fifth century, wrote short notes 
 in thirteen of Paul's Epistles; and so popular were ey 
 that thev were wideW read and greatly admired by large 
 
 numbersfmany of wh.n were ignorant of their real author or 
 
 "^^t:. 400, Ninian, a Briton, commenced his labors 
 as a missionary among the Southern Picts, -here he was 
 largely prospered in his work. He wrote a commentary upon 
 L Ps'alL.'^' Augustine,' an Irish -A of the --th c n 
 tury, was the author of a solution of the <!;«'="''- °t 'J^ 
 Bible, which he caOedJheJ-Wonders^f^ripti^ 
 
 T^il^^T^rch History," Vol. I, p. 366. Dublin. 
 
 ! Bede's " Eocles. Hist.," Lib. III., p. 4. 
 
 J •• Ireland and the Celtic Church," pp. 221-4. 
 
296 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 which he treats of the difficulties in the historical books, in 
 the prophets, and in the New Testament. It is a commentary 
 upon many portions of Scriptures, distinguished by learning 
 and intelligence, and fitted for usefulness. He rejects the 
 story of Bel and the dragon, " because it has not the authority 
 of Holy Scripture ; and declines to discuss the difficulties of 
 the Maccabees on the same ground." " This work was long 
 ascribed to the great St. Augustine of Hippo, and bound up 
 with his works. 
 
 Jonas, the author of the " Life of Columbanus," the Irish 
 abbot of Bobbio, in Italy, writes of him : 
 
 In his breast the treasures of the Holy Scriptures were so laid up, 
 that within the compass of his youthful years, he set forth an elegant 
 exposition of the book of Psalms.^ 
 
 Ussher adds: "By whose industry afterward the study of God's 
 word was so propagated, that in the monasteries which were founded 
 according to his rule beyond the seas, not the men only, but the reli- 
 gious women also, did carefully attend the same, that through 
 patience and comfort of the Scripture they might have hope." 
 
 Sedulius,^ a Scot, wrote a commentary upon the Epistles of 
 Paul, about a. d. 818, distinguished by its sound teaching ; 
 it is remarkably Pauline in its principles. This was a 
 favorite view of the doctrines of grace in the days of Sedulius, 
 though not one which was universally received. 
 
 Colcu, who died in a. d. 790, is represented in the " Annals 
 of the Four Masters," at the date of his death as having " ar- 
 rived at such eminence in learning and sanctity that he was 
 called chief scribe and master [teacher] of the Scots in Ire- 
 land." " He made St. Paul's Epistles a special study, and 
 accepted him as his master and patron in the letter as well as 
 in the spirit." Mr. Olden ^ says that he was selected by his 
 monastery of Clonmacnois to represent its people in a theo- 
 logical discussion, and " that in consequence of his successful 
 vindication of St. Paul, the story went that when returning 
 
 ' Jonas in " Vit. Colnmbani," cap. 2. 
 2 Dn Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. II., p. 140. Dublin. 
 
 ^ " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," Preface, p. 8. 
 Dublin. 
 
m^^ 
 
 I: A}-^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 aTi«vr*'4t?w 
 
 A page from the " Wurtzbarg Glosses" (in Latin and Irish), a Coninientary 
 
 15. Tals ' " --— ^ — 
 
 Page 29fi. 
 
 on raul's Epistles, about a. d. 815. Taken from "Oklen's" Translation. 
 
COMMENTARIES IN MONASTERIES. 
 
 297 
 
 ladeu with books from the assembly, St. Paul appeared in 
 person, reUeved him of his burthen, and bore it to his desti- 
 nation!" Sedulius like Colcu, in his commentary, rejects the 
 justifying efficacy of works, and insists that faith alone confers 
 that matchless blessing. 
 
 Claudius, another Scot, in A. d. 815, completed his com- 
 mentary on Matthew, as he tells us in a letter preserved by 
 Ussher, and addressed to Justus, the abbot. In another letter 
 in Ussher, written to Dructerannus, the abbot, he speaks of 
 his exposition of the Epistle to the Galatians; and of his ex- 
 tensive selection of materials for commentaries on the other 
 Epistles.^ Like the notes of Sedulius, the expositions of 
 Claudius bring out prominently the great doctrines of evangel- 
 ical Protestants without a taint of Romanism, though they are 
 commended by him to the abbots of two monasteries. 
 
 The most interesting commentary made by Irishmen, now 
 hioim to exist, is that of the " Wiirtzburg Glosses " [comments]. 
 Irish monks founded a monastery at Wiirtzburg, in Germany, 
 at an early period. It was visited by Irish ecclesiastics as 
 late as the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It is supposed that 
 the " Glosses " were placed in the library of the monastery by 
 some of these Hibernians. It is now in the University library 
 of Wiirtzburg. The comments are made upon an older Latin 
 text than theVulgate of Jerome ; and they are written in 
 Irish " of the eighth or the beginning of the ninth century," 
 as competent authorities affirm. It contains Paul's Epistles, 
 with Colossians placed after the Second Epistle to the Thessa- 
 lonians, the arrangement followed in the "Book of Armagh," 
 and in some of the ancient codices. Olden, the translator, re- 
 marks that " it has a great advantage over many other ancient 
 documents in being free from the suspicion of interpolation or 
 alteration ; for when the Irish monasteries on the Continent 
 lost their national [Irish] character . . . there was no one 
 who could read the language." Of tbe^at^f thisinvalua])le 
 
 T;:^;;;-^^;;;^^^^;;^^ Usshers- works." Vol. IV. 
 
 pp. 468, 471. 
 
298 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURC^JHES* 
 
 document the translator says, " Charlemagne was probably 
 reigning, or at least he could not have been long in his 
 grave," when the " Wiirtzburg Glosses " were written. The ex- 
 istence of this commentary was little known until the publi- 
 cation of the great work of Zeuss on Celtic Grammar in 
 Berlin, less than thirty years ago. The " Glosses " themselves 
 were issued from the press in Berlin in 1881 ; in England 
 they were translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes, and published 
 by the Philolofrical Societies of London and Cambridge, in 
 1887 ; and in 1888 they were issued, somewhat abridged, in 
 Dublin, to the countrymen of their three original authors, in 
 a translation made by a learned Irish Episcopalian, Rev. 
 Thomas Olden, bearing the title, *• The Holy Scriptures in 
 Ireland One Thousand Years Ago."^ 
 
 The " Glosses " are very brief and wonderfully orthodox ; 
 their theology generally is in complete harmony with that of 
 Charles H. Spurgeon ; their words express more than we have 
 ever observed in the lang^uage of any other writers. These 
 commentators were monastery monks, not the early monks 
 who lived with special devoutness in their own houses. 
 
 We have many reasons for believing that there were nu- 
 merous other commentaries in Ireland and Britain some of 
 which may yet be found on the Continent, as the " Wiirtzburg 
 Glosses " were. But only fragments of the ancient literature 
 of Ireland escaped the destructive fury of the Danes, though 
 it was extensive for that period, as many scribes were in the 
 land. The writings and books in every church and sanctuary 
 where they were kept were burned and thrown'into the water 
 by the Danes, from the beginning of their ravages in a. d. 
 795 to the end of their sway in Ireland. 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," Pref. V., VI., 
 p. 117. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MONASTERIES WERE BIBLE MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBU- 
 TING SOCIETIES. 
 
 Great demand upon the monasteries for Scriptures— Immense num- 
 ber of copies made in Ireland— Great beauty of the text and 
 splendor of ornament attained by copyists— Giraldus Cambrensis 
 and an Irish copy of the Gospels of supposed supernatural origin — 
 "The Book of Kells," "The Book of Durrow," and "St. Cuth- 
 bert's Gospels,'' still m existence, are magnificent— Opinions of two 
 modern artists— The Scriptorium or copying room in every ancient 
 Protestant monastery— An eighth century prayer for its toilers. 
 
 The early monastery was a Bible society. Tiiis was true 
 of all the pioneer monasteries of the British islands. Soon 
 there were hundreds of these institutions, some of them with 
 thousands of students under one abbot, and all Bible schools. 
 
 Clonard had three thousand pupils, who, while pursuing 
 other branches of learning, were chiefly engaged in seeking 
 Bible knowledge. This throng, even with the scanty allow- 
 ance of one copy to three or four persons, would require from 
 seven hundred and fifty to a thousand New Testaments. 
 Then Scriptures were needed for the many churches depen- 
 dent upon the monasteries. Their scribes supplied them all ; 
 and their students, who left the monastery for different fields 
 of Christian labor, in some cases made New Testaments in 
 hundreds. These monasteries were grand Bible making and 
 distributinor societies. 
 
 In Ireland the copying of the Scriptures reached the 
 greatest perfection in the beauty of the writing and in tlie 
 splendor of the ornamentation. Giraldus ^ Cambrensis writes 
 of a copy of the Gospels which he saw in Kildare, in which, 
 
 Every page is illustrated by drawings illuminated with a variety of 
 
 1 "Topography of Ireland," Dist. II., cap. 38. 
 
 299 
 
300 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 brilliant colors. In one page you will see the countenance of the 
 Divine Majesty supernaturally pictured; in another, the majestic 
 forms of the evangelists, with either six, four, or two wings: here is 
 depicted the eagle, there the calf; here the face of a man, there of a 
 lion; with other figures in almost endless variety. . . If you apply 
 yourself to a more close examination, and are able to penetrate the 
 secrets of the art displayed in these pictures, you will find them so 
 delicate and exquisite, so finely drawn, and the work of interlacing 
 so elaborate, while the colors with which the^^ are illuminated are 
 so blended, and still so fresh, that you will be ready to assert that 
 all this is the work of angelic and not of human skill. 
 
 Giraldus states that the Irish in his day believed that the 
 " book was written at the dictation of an angel." A footnote 
 states that the celebrated Mr. Petrie regarded this work as the 
 famous " Book of 'Kells,'' still preserved in the library of 
 Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. " The ' Book of Kells ' dates 
 from the seventh or eighth century ; and it does not stand 
 alone ; the ' Book of Durrow ' [in the same library] and 
 numerous MSS. all prove that a high state of artistic skill ex- 
 isted in the monasteries of Ireland." ^ 
 
 In a work of great value,^ with splendid illuminated initial 
 letters, facsimiles of letters made by ecclesiastical scribes from 
 the sixth to the sixteenth century, it is stated : 
 
 That in delicacy of handling, and minute but faultless execution, 
 the whole range of palaeography oflPers nothing comparable to these 
 early Irish manuscripts; and those produced in the same style in 
 England, by the monks of lona, and their Anglo-Saxon disciples at 
 Lindisfarne. When in Dublin some years ago, I had the opportunity 
 of studying very carefully the most marvelous of all, "The Book of 
 Kells." some of the ornaments of which I attempted to copy; but I 
 broke down in despair. Of this very book Mr. Westwood examined 
 the pages, as I did, for hours together, without ever detecting a false 
 line or an irregular interlacement. No wonder that tradition should 
 allege that these unerring lines were traced by angels. 
 
 " The Art of Illuminating" has two plates containing fac 
 similes of superb initial lettei^ from " St. Cuthbert's Gospels," 
 
 ' " fr^land and the Celtic Church," pp. 206, 207. 
 
 - " The Art of Illuminating as Practiced in Europe from the Earliest Times," pp. 
 U, !•>. London. 
 
MONASTERIES WERE BIBLE SOCIETIES. 301 
 
 otherwise known as the " Durham Book," now in the British 
 Museum. "It is the most celebrated production of the 
 Anglo-Hibernian monastery of Liudisfarne, founded by St. 
 Aidan and the Irish monks of lona." " This manuscript is 
 surpassed in grandeur only by the ' Book of Kells.' "^ 
 
 If Irish monks and their Anglo-Saxon disciples acquired 
 such eminence in the writing and illuminating of the Gospels 
 in the seventh and eighth centuries, it was simply because 
 they made, as is well known, innumerable copies of the word 
 of God, in Gospels, New Testaments, and in entire Bibles ; and 
 their experience, gathered from generations of transcribers, 
 and from hundreds of monasteries, in each of which there was 
 a band of writers continually at work making copies of the 
 Scriptures, fitted them to rank as the manufacturers of the 
 most beautifully written and the most splendidly illuminated 
 Scriptures or sections of Scriptures, not only in the seventh 
 and eighth centuries, but perhaps of all time. 
 
 The Scriptorium or copying room was in every Irish, Cale- 
 donian, Anglo-Hibernian, and Ancient British monastery. 
 The transcribing room, no doubt, varied in size, and in the 
 measure of its activities, but warm love for the Bible made 
 its existence a necessity. A prayer for the Scriptorium, in 
 the eighth century, in a French Visigothic MS. by monkish 
 copyists, was probably learned from some British or Irish 
 missionary : " Vouchsafe, O Lord ! to bless this Scriptorium 
 of thy servants, and all that dwell therein ; that whatsoever 
 sacred writing shall be here read or written by them, they 
 may receive with understanding and bring the same to good 
 effect, through our Lord." ^ That these ancient British and 
 Irish Protestants had such a prayer is certain, and it was 
 many times answered. 
 
 1 " The Art of Illuminating," p. 16. London, 1860. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 27. London. 
 
 2a 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONASTERIES WERE THEO- 
 LOGICAL SEMINARIES, AND HOME AND FOREIGN MISSION 
 SOCIETIES. 
 
 Early monasteries were theological setninaries — Clonard educated 
 Columba and many other notable men— Bangor, in Ireland, 
 trained Columbanus, Gall us, and other church teachers— Bangor, 
 in Wales, instructed Gildas, the learned Dinooth, and the entire 
 British ministers — Irish monasteries graduated the Hibernian 
 clergy for ages— lona was the chief seminary of Caledonia, where 
 Aiden and the other Protestant apostles of the Anglo-Saxons 
 learned theology' — Monasteries were home mission societies — Ban- 
 gor, in Ireland, an example — They were foreign Tnission societies 
 — Columba and the Northern Picts — Columbanus in France, 
 Switzerland, and Italy — The work of Gallus — Fridoiin— Thrud- 
 pert— Kilian — Cataldus— Fiacre— Colman—Fursey—" Swarms " of 
 Irish foreign missionaries. 
 
 Monasteries were theological seminaries. We have an 
 example of this in the " Annals of the Four Masters," ^ 
 which states that St. Finnian, abbot of Clonard, educated 
 in his monastery one hundred bishops, and instructed many- 
 celebrated saints, among whom were the two Columbs, 
 Coluracille and Columb MacCrimthainn, Brendan of Clon- 
 fert, Kieran of Clonmacnois, and many other clergymen, 
 who presided over churches, or became presbyter abbots. 
 Bangor, in Ireland, educated large numbers of clergymen, 
 some of whom, like Columbanus and St. Gall, secured a 
 reputation which has survived the wrecks and the oblivion 
 of almost thirteen hundred years. Bangor, in Wales, 
 sent out Gildas, and Dinooth, who distinguished him- 
 self in resisting Komish Augustine of Canterbury, and 
 the entire clergy of the ancient Britons for a long period. 
 
 1 At a. D. 548, note. O'DonoTan ed. 
 302 
 
EARLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. .'503 
 
 Monastic Bible schools also instructed in theology the entire 
 ministry of Ireland and of the Northen Picts of Scotland, 
 for generations, and the great Scottish missionaries and their 
 assistants, whose open Bibles and full salvation led two- 
 thirds of the Anglo-Saxon ancesters of the present English 
 people to the Saviour. 
 
 Monasteries were home missionary societies. When St. 
 Comgall founded Bangor, in Ireland, parts of the country 
 around Loch Neagh, rendered a poor support to an ignorant 
 population. This region, while not in the immediate neigii- 
 borhood of Bangor, was probably not more than fifteen or 
 twenty miles from it. " The Glens of Antrim " were about 
 the same distance from Bangor, whose numerous people were 
 only in comfortable circumstances after participating in suc- 
 cessful raids, such as resulted in the capture of St. Patrick 
 and others. In peaceful times and in later days, the popula- 
 tion suffered much from the poverty of their mountain soil. 
 And, while much of the country adjacent to Bangor provided 
 all necessaries for its people, there were other quarters 
 besides those named, which needed help to sustain religious 
 institutions, and missionaries to preach Christ. 
 
 All over these destitute regions, ministers from Bangor 
 preached and prayed and read the Scriptures in mountain 
 huts, in fishermen's cottages, and in the presence of large 
 congregations. By the labor of their own hands, the Bangor 
 brethren supported themselves, and frequently gave assistance 
 to the poor. This great home missionary society founded 
 kirge numbers of other institutions of its own order, preacli- 
 ing the gospel over extensive regions of the north of Irehmd. 
 literally without cost, and among a people who had scanty, if 
 any means of paying for it. In the sixth century, when 
 Bangor was established, no society existed to support home or 
 foreign missions, and the monastery supplied a pressing neces- 
 sity. 
 
 Monasteries were foreign missionary societies. The ancient 
 Britons evidently believed in such missions, or Patrick, one 
 
304 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 of their nation, would never have preached to the foreign 
 Irish pagans; or Ninian, another Briton, to the heathen 
 Southern Pices. The remarkable usefulness of Columba 
 among the Northern Picts, in uprooting their paganism, pro- 
 foundly moved the earnest Christians of his country. Many 
 hundreds of pious Irishmen in monasteries asked: "Could 
 not we, with God's blessing, accomplish as much among some 
 of the idolatrous peoples of the continent of Europe ? " And 
 soon a goodly number of foreign missionaries started for dis- 
 tant fields, the pioneers of a large army soon to follow. 
 
 Columbanus made France his first mission field. France, 
 in his day, needed the labors of true missionaries nearly as 
 much as when the saintly Greek preachers first brought the 
 gospel to her pagan inhabitants. He took with him twelve 
 students from Bangor to aid him in seeking the salvation of 
 the Franks.^ He founded the first Irish monastery in France ; 
 Luxeuil and Fontaines followed soon after. These, like other 
 Irish abbeys, were chiefly great schools, and they were soon 
 crowded by the sons of the most powerful Franks and Bur- 
 gundians. The influence of Columbanus spread in all direc- 
 tions ; education and the gospel triumphed widely over bar- 
 barism and irreligion. For twenty years this eminent man 
 labored until his name and successful work were known over 
 France, and in some degree over Europe Fredegarius, the 
 continuator of the " History of France," by Gregory of Tours, 
 writing of Columbanus, at the height of his prosperity at 
 Luxeuil, says : 
 
 The fame of the blessed Columbanus increased everywhere in the 
 cities, and in all the provinces of Gaul and Germany; by universjii 
 report he was worthy of commendation, and he was venerable wit'n 
 the honor given to him by all, so that King Thierry frequently came 
 to him to Luxeuil, and with all humility, solicited an interest in his 
 prayers.'^ 
 
 Brunehault, the grandmother of King Thierry, in A. d. 
 
 1 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. II, cap. 4. Dublin, 1723. 
 
 2 In " Gregorii Opera Omnia," p. 624, Pair. Lat., Tom. LXXI. Migne 
 
EARLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 305 
 
 610, banished him from Burgundy, where his monasteries 
 were established. 
 
 Columbanus and Gallus labored three years in Switzerland 
 and founded a mission from which considerable success imme- 
 diately resulted. The rage of the heathen, however, at the 
 destruction of one of their temples ^ by Columbanus, seriously 
 impaired the usefulness of the mission for a time, though it 
 afterward yielded rich harvests. 
 
 In A. D. 613, Columbanus entered Italy, where he was cor- 
 dially received by Agilulf, king of the Lombards, who gave 
 him an ancient church, and lands near Pavia, upon which he 
 erected the monastery of Bobbio. Here, in his last days, his 
 plans and toils secured abundant fruits in the conversion of 
 great numbers of pagans and Lombard Arians, and in col- 
 lecting an extensive library of invaluable books. A learned 
 writer says : " The Bobbio manuscripts are known everywhere 
 by the discoveries which have been made in their palimsests.'" 
 Columbanus died in A. D. 615. He was a Christian of the 
 apostolic order. He felt within him, as Jonas of Bobbio, his 
 biographer, states, "that fire which our Saviour says he came 
 to kindle on the earth." In his " Rules " for the spiritual 
 life he writes in the first : " We do not seek a God staying far 
 from us, but one whom we have received within us ; for he 
 dwells in us as the soul dwells in the body, if we are his sound 
 members." ' No man ever loved the Bible more warmly ; 
 and no man ever seemed more anxious for the salvation of 
 souls. He had no more respect for a pope than for an 
 Irish monk ; perhaps not as much, as his writings show. He 
 was a fearless missionary of Christ from Hibernia; sup- 
 porting himself and other missionaries by his monastic insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 Gallus, who came from Ireland with Columbanus, and was 
 unable through disease to go with him to Bobbio, after his 
 
 1 Neander's " General History of the Christian Church," Vol. III., p. 34. 
 
 2 " The Art of Illuminating," pp. 14, 15. London. 
 
 3 Cited in Neander's " General History of the Christian Church, Vol. III., pp. 
 29. 32. 
 
306 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 recovery began to preach among the idolaters of Switzerland 
 in their own language, which he had learned ; he received 
 so much encouragement from the great number of converts, 
 tnat he built the monastery named by the people " St. Gall," 
 which flourished greatly. The missionary's name was not 
 only given to the monastery, but to the city which grew up 
 around it, and to the Swiss canton of that name. There is a 
 sermon of Gallus extant which he preached at the ordination 
 of his disciple, John, as bishop of Constance, a position which 
 he secured for him after declining it himself. Archbishop 
 Ussher refers to the sermon ^ with evident approval, as it ac- 
 corded strongly with his own vigorous Calvinistic opinions. 
 Gallus lived to the age of ninety-five, according to Mabillon, 
 in great reputation and honor, having led multitudes to Christ. 
 The monastery of St. Gall collected a large library, rich to 
 this day in ancient Irish manuscripts. As a competent writer 
 says, " The library of St. Gall is too celebrated to require 
 mention." ^ 
 
 Soon after the death of Gallus, according to Neander, a 
 monk named Thrudpert, a Hibernian, went to Bresgau, in 
 the " Black Forest," and Kilian, from Ireland, preached in 
 a part of the Frankish territory. Bishop Reeves, of the Irish 
 Episcopal Church, a very learned writer upon Hibernian an- 
 tiquities, states that Fridolin preached in what is now known 
 as the canton of Glarus, in which his figure finds a place in 
 the cantonal arms and banner. St. Cataldus, from Ireland, 
 preached in Southern Italy, where San Cataldo, near Otranto, 
 is named after him ; St. Fiacre, from the same country, in 
 France, and the Irish St. Colman, is patron saint of Lower 
 Austria.^ 
 
 According to Roger of Wendover, * about a. d. 649, 
 prompted by love for Christ, Fursey visited France, and ex- 
 ercised his ministry there with success, and founded a monas- 
 
 1 " Works," Vol. IV., p. 252. 
 
 2 " The Art of Illuminating," p. 15. London 
 
 » Cited in " Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 131. Dublin, 1888. 
 * " Flowers of History " at A. D. 449. 
 
EARLY THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES. 307 
 
 tery at Lagny. He was joined by his brothers, " Foillan and 
 Ultan, who became eminent in France " ; Foillan afterward 
 established the monastery of Fosse. 
 
 The names of hundreds of the Hibernian missionaries are 
 foro-otten ; and of those who are known the names of only a 
 few are given. Speaking of the multitudes of Irish mission- 
 aries in France Michelet i says, " these holy adventurers, these 
 bird-like travelers, alight in flocks in Gaul." 
 
 Neander writes : " The monasteries of Ireland were filled to 
 overflowing . . . Thus whole colonies of monks under the 
 guidance of solid, judicious men as their abbots, emigrated 
 into these parts " ^ [idolatrous portions of Germany]. There 
 is every reason for believing that Hibernian Columbanus was 
 the William Carey who led the great Irish and Anglo-Saxon 
 missions on the continent of Europe in the seventh and eighth 
 
 centuries. . 
 
 Patrick, the missionary who brought the Irish to Christ ; 
 Columba, his religious descendant, who evangelized a large 
 part of Scotland ; Aidan, Finan, and Colman, disciples of 
 Columba, and of Patrick's churches, who, under God, con- 
 verted hosts of the Anglo-Saxons, and Columbanus and his 
 multitudes of missionary associates and successors, who laid 
 the foundations of many gospel triumphs among European 
 pagans, deserve the admiration and love of the Christian 
 world. 
 
 1 "History of France," Vol. L, p. 72. New York. 
 
 2 " General History of the Christian Church." Vol. III., p. 29. Boston. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MONASTERIES AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS AND IRISH 
 
 WERE LEARNED UNIVERSITIES; MARRIAGE IN 
 
 CONNECTION WITH MONASTERIES. 
 
 Bede and the scholarship of British Bangor— Dr. Johnson and 
 learning in Ireland — Malniesbury, Lingard, and Ussher on the 
 learning of Irish monasteries — Students from every country at Lis- 
 more — Dagobert II., of France, educated at Slane — Irish Virgil 
 announced the rotundity of the earth in the eighth century — Irish 
 Clemens succeeded Alcuin as principal of Charlemagne's palace 
 school — Marriage in connection with monasteries— Seventh Day 
 Baptist monks and nuns, 
 
 Bede, speaking of the delegation of Britons who came to 
 meet Romish Augustine in a. d. 603, says : " There came, 
 as it is asserted, seven bishops of the Britons and many most 
 learned men, particularly from their most noble monastery of 
 Bangor." ^ Bede was a man of fine scholarship ; and his tes- 
 timony to the learning of these Bangor men is important. 
 
 The Rev. Thomas Olden, in his preface to the " Wiirtzburg 
 Glosses," quotes the statement of Dr. Johnson : " Ireland was 
 the school of the West, the quiet habitation of sanctity and 
 literature." To most readers this declaration, even from 
 Samuel Johnson, appears almost incredible ; and yet historical 
 students everywhere repeat it. 
 
 Michelet, writing of the seventh century, states that **all 
 the sciences were at this period cultivated with much renown in 
 the Scotch and Irish monasteries." ^ " Ireland," he says, 
 " was always the school of the West, the mother of monks, 
 and the isle of saints, as it was termed." ^ 
 
 William of Malmesbury, states that Alfrid, a Northumbrian 
 
 1 "Eccles. Hist.," Lib. II., cap. 2. 
 
 2 " History of France," Vol. I, p. 102. N. Y. 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 137. N. Y. 
 
 308 
 
MONASTERIES, LEARNED UNIVERSITIES. 309 
 
 prince, iu the end of the seventh century, retired to Ireland, 
 where, safe from the persecution of his brother, " he became 
 deeply versed in literature, and enriched his mind with every 
 kind of learning." ^ 
 
 In the end of the seventh century, Lingard writes : 
 
 The monasteries of Ireland and the western isles [of Scotland] 
 were filled with men whose well-earned reputation was acknow- 
 ledged by the other Christian nations of Europe. The praise of their 
 virtue and learning had been the favorite theme of Aidan, Finan, 
 and Col man, the first three bishops of Lindisfarne [England]; and 
 the desire of improvement induced a crowd of noble youths to cross 
 the sea, and assist at the lessons of those foreign masters.' 
 
 Archbishop Ussher has preserved many testimonies to 
 " the reputation of Irish schools, especially for the teaching 
 of the Holy Scriptures." One of these is about the great 
 monastic school of Lismore, in the county of Waterford. 
 The archbishop inserts a Latin poem of considerable length,^ 
 eight lines of which we quote from an excellent translation of 
 Olden, in his Preface to the " Wiirtzburg Glosses " : 
 
 Now haste Sicambri from the marshy Khine; 
 Bohemians now desert their cold north land ; 
 Auvergne and Holland too, add to the tide ; 
 Forth from Geneva's frowning cliflfs they throng; 
 Helvetia's youth by Rhone and by Saone 
 Are few : the Western isle is now their home. 
 All these, from many lands, and by many diverse paths, 
 Rivals in pious zeal, seek Lismore's famous seat. 
 
 Among the students at Slane monastic school, in the seventh 
 century, was Dagobert II., king of France ; other persons of 
 much prominence, and many of great ability, received their 
 education in Irish monastic colleges.* Dr. Maclaine writes : 
 
 That the Irish distinguished themselves in those times of ignorance 
 [the eighth century] by the culture of the sciences beyond all the 
 other European nations, traveling through the most distant lands, 
 
 » " Chronicle of the Kings of England," Lib I., cap. 3. 
 8 " Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 259. 
 
 3 Ussher's " Works," Vol. VI., p. 304. 
 
 4 "Ireland and the Celtic Church," p. 209. 
 
310 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 both with a view to improve, and to communicate their knowledge, 
 is a fact with which I have long been acquainted.^ 
 
 Virgil, bishop of Salzburg, in Germany, in the eighth cen- 
 tury, first proclaimed the rotundity of the earth and the ex- 
 istence of the antipodes; besides which he preached the 
 blessed gospel with unusual success. 
 
 Charlemagne had a school in connection with his royal res- 
 idence, which he attended as a student ; and to which all the 
 officials of the court, and many others were accustomed to go. 
 Alcuin, a native of England, and the most celebrated educa- 
 tor of his day, was the first principal of this remarkable in- 
 stitution. Clemens, a Hibernian, became his successor when 
 he retired ; as Lingard ^ and others relate, Clemens was des- 
 titute of all support, except such as extraordinary learning 
 could give a wandering Irishman. And through it, he re- 
 ceived from Europe's greatest soldier and sovereign, the most 
 conspicuous literary appointment of the age in which he 
 lived. 
 
 Neander writes: 
 
 As in the Irish monastaries not only the Latin, but also the more 
 free-spirited Greek Church fathers, the writings of an Origen, were 
 studied; so it naturally came about that from that school issued a 
 more original and free development of theology than was elsewhere 
 to be found, and was thence propagated to other lands.' 
 
 Irishmen, as preachers of the gospel, were met in every sec- 
 tion of pagan Europe ; and they were found as instructors in 
 literature and art wherever they could secure pupils. These 
 Protestants were the most conspicuous evangelists and educa- 
 tors in Europe. Ussher states : 
 
 Our monasteries in ancient times were the seminaries of the minis- 
 try ; being, as it were, so many colleges of learned divines, unto which 
 the people did resort for instruction . . . Yea, this was the principal 
 means by which a knowledge, both of the Scriptures and of all other 
 
 J Mosheim's " Ecclea. Hist.," Maelaine, p. 175, note. Baltimore. 
 * '' Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 209. Phila. 
 3 Neander's " History of the Church," Vol. III., p. 460. 
 
MONASTERIES, LEARNED UNIVERSITIES. 311 
 
 good learning, was preserved in that inundation of barbarism, where- 
 with the whole West was in a manner overwhelmed ' 
 
 Marriage probably existed, not in, but in connection with, 
 most of the British and Irish monasteries. We see no rea- 
 son to doubt the statement of Michelet, that " the Culdees 
 of Ireland and Scotland permitted themselves marriage, and 
 were independent, even when living under the rule of their 
 
 order." ^ 
 
 But the mania that celibacy possessed a special sanctity 
 spread over the world, and many of St. Patrick's religious, 
 Bible-loving descendants were caught in its delusive snares. 
 It is surprising that such a practice should exist among 
 modern Baptists of any denomination, and yet the German 
 Seventh Day Baptists of Pennsylvania, in 1733, established an 
 order of monks and nuns. They adopted the white habit of 
 the Capuchins ; they wore cowls ; they applied monastic names 
 to those who united with them. In 1740 there were thirty-six 
 brethren in the cloisters and thirty-five sisters. " They con- 
 sidered celibacy a virtue," and quoted the apostles as favor- 
 ing that opinion. " This was a fondly cherished theme and 
 was constantly inculcated ; it was a prolific subject for many of 
 of their hymns, which seemed to hallow and sanctify virginity." 
 These monks and nuns regarded the Bible as the "only 
 rule of faith and practice"; they relied solely upon the 
 Saviour's atonement for salvation ; their views of the Trinity 
 were orthodox. Some of their doctrines were Arminian, 
 while a few of their observances came from the Dunkards. 
 They were evangelical, immersed believers, with a valid claim 
 upon the regards of true Christians, notwithstanding their 
 curious monastic practices.^ The early British and Irish 
 monks who were not married, wore no cowls nor Capuchin 
 habits, and exhibited a zeal for the salvation of pagans never 
 surpassed even in apostolic times. 
 
 1 Ussher'3 " Works," Vol. IV., pp 297-8. 
 
 8 " History of France," Vol. I., p. 72. N. Y. ,,^ ,o -p»,u 
 
 3 » The Religious Deuominationa of the United States," pp 110-12, 1 lui 
 
 1859. 
 
BOOK VI. 
 
 SOxME OF THE DOCTKINES AND OBSERVANCES OF 
 THE ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHRISTIANS. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 SIN AND SALVATION. 
 
 Views scriptural— Man naturally under the control of sin— His spir- 
 itual vision darkened thereby— Salvation not acquired by human 
 merit or efforts— Righteousness to be found in Christ. 
 
 Commenting upon Romans 5:6, " When we were yet 
 without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly," 
 the " Wiirtzburg Glosses " say : " Ungodly : all were un- 
 godly, as it is written, * There is none that doeth good, no not 
 one.' "1 
 
 Sedulius, a Hibernian, whose work is of the same date as 
 the " Glosses," in his notes on the second chapter of Ephe- 
 sians, states " that the minds of men from youth are set upon 
 evil ; for there is not a man who sinneth not " ; and upon the 
 fourth chapter of first Corinthians ^ he writes that a man 
 *' hath nothing from himself but sin." 
 
 Claudius,^ an Irish writer of the same age as Sedulius, in his 
 commentary on Matthew, Book First, says: "God is the 
 author of all good things, both of good affections and a good 
 will, which, unless God sets it in motion, a man cannot exer- 
 cise ; for a good will in man is prepared by the Lord ; that by 
 the gift of God he may do that which of himself he was un- 
 able to accomplish by the desire of his free will." Sedulius, 
 on the ninth chapter of Romans, writes : " God's mercy shall 
 go before me, and his mercy shall follow after me ; it sroes 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 11. 
 
 2 Cited in Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., pp. 253, 254. 
 
 312 
 
SIN AND SALVATION. 313 
 
 before an unwilling man that he may will [aright], and it 
 follows after the willing that he may not will in vain." 
 These Irish commentators speak briefly, but very strongly, 
 about the dominion of sin over unregenerate persons. To 
 them its tyrannical power is so great that a man must be 
 born of the Holy Spirit before he can render acceptable 
 service to God. Even John Scotus, the great advocate of the 
 freedom of the will in the ninth century, admits this doctrine 
 fully. 
 
 At the request of Charles the Bald, in a. d. 851, Scotus 
 joined in a common attack upon Gottchalk's theory of 
 " Double Predestination." Neander quotes this striking illus- 
 tration from him : "As a man in the dark, though he pos- 
 sesses the ability to see with his eyes, yet sees nothing till the 
 light comes from without ; so is it with the corrupt will till 
 the light of divine mercy shines upon it."^ The divines of 
 Ireland were agreed that men were naturally under the con- 
 trol of sin. 
 
 Irish commentators teach the doctrine that salvation is not 
 acquired by human merits or efforts, as clearly as if they had 
 lived after Luther's great Reformation instead of many cen- 
 turies before it. Sedulius, expounding the second chapter of 
 Ephesians, says : " By grace are ye saved through faith ; 
 that is, not by works." And, upon the second chapter of 
 Galatians, he writes that " Grace is mean and vain if it alone 
 [without works] is not sufficient for me." Upon the third 
 chapter of Galatians he comments, "Ye hold Christ to be 
 worthless as long as you think that he is not sufficient [with- 
 out your merits] for your salvation."' The "Wiirtzburg 
 Glosses," expounding Romans 11 : 6, " And if by grace, then 
 it is no more of works ; otherwise grace is no more grace," 
 etc., reads, " By * grace ': if it is grace, works have not pre- 
 ceded it ;' that is, grace, and not human effort, is the original 
 cause of all true religion in the soul. 
 
 fNeander's^General History of the Christian Church/' Vol. III., p. 488. 
 
 2 Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., p. 255. 
 
 • " The Holy Scriplures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 30. 
 
 2b 
 
314 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 The same exposition upon the words " obtain mercy," in 
 Roman 11 : 31, says : " It is by mercy that they will be saved 
 when they believe, and not by merit ; nor by the work of the 
 law." ' 
 
 The "Wiirtzburg Glosses," expounding Ephesians 2 : 7, 
 "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding 
 riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ 
 Jesus," says, " ' Grace '; it is his grace that saved us, and not our 
 own merits." ^ In the exposition of the " Wiirtzburg Glosses," 
 on Philippians 3:9, " And be found in him, not having mine 
 own righteousness," we resid, " rig hteoiisness : he shows here 
 that it is the righteousness of Christ that justifies, and not the 
 righteousness of the law," ^ secured by our obedience to it. 
 These ancient Christians, while contending for holy lives in 
 all believers, emphatically renounced salvation by human 
 merits. 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 33. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 88. 3 Ibid, p. 93. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ATONEMENT AND CONVERSION. 
 
 Substitutionary nature of Christ's death— Blood of Calvary, theme 
 of preaching— Saviour s death only atoning agent— Patrick's recog- 
 nition of the Holy Spirit in conversion— Deliverance from sin by 
 grace— Columbanus on conversion. 
 
 The substitutionary character of Christ's death is very 
 clearly taught by the ancient British and Irish writers. St. 
 Patrick, the Briton, had a vision apparently about his mis- 
 sion to the pagan Hibernians ; and in it he heard these words : 
 " He who gave his life for thee, is he who speaks in thee." 
 These words are found in his " Confession." Patrick un- 
 doubtedly thought that Christ uttered them. The reference 
 to the Saviour's gift of his life shows that in Patrick's opinion 
 Christ died as his substitute upon the cross. 
 
 In Fiacc's hymn, a composition of the eighth century, 
 giving the leading incidents in St. Patrick's life, the author 
 writes of him : " He preached for three-score years Christ's 
 cross to the tribes of the Feni [Hibernians]."^ The"Wurtz. 
 burg Glosses" thus explains the twentieth verse of the first 
 chapter of Colossians : " And having made peace through the 
 blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself: 
 cross': this is the\iame of the act of crucifying.'"' The 
 blood of Calvary was the theme of Patrick's preaching, and 
 of the sermons of his followers for some ages after his death. 
 
 The same writers, expounding the words, "Christ hath re- 
 deemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for 
 us " (Gal. 3 : 13), say, " ' Curse '; he was offered up on account 
 of sin and the curse." ^ 
 
 .409. 
 
 1 In " Government Tripartite Life of Patrick," Vol. II., p. 
 
 2 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 101. 
 
 .ibM„"P.M. 
 
316 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 Again, in their note on Colossians 2:14, " Blotting out the 
 handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was 
 contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his 
 cross," they write : " ' Ordinances '; death was decreed to 
 us. ' Nailing it '; so that it was drowned in his blood." ^ 
 According to this venerable commentary, the notes of which 
 were written in Irish more than a thousand years ago, the 
 only atoning agent known to its authors was the Saviour's 
 agonizing death upon the cross. 
 
 " The Lord opened to me the knowledge of my unbelief, 
 that even late I might remember my sins, and turn to my 
 Lord with my whole heart." Such is Patrick's account of 
 the commencement of the divine life in his soul. It occurs 
 in the first chapter of his " Confession," in this work. It is 
 very like the account given by Luke (Acts 16 : 14) of the 
 conversion of Lydia, " whose heart the Lord opened that she 
 attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." 
 
 Patrick writes again, in the same chapter of the " Confes- 
 sion," at the end of what is called his creed : " He hath 
 poured out upon us abundantly the Holy Spirit, the gift 
 and assurance of immortality, who causes men to believe 
 and to become obedient that they might be sons of God and 
 joint heirs with Christ." Here faith, obedience, sonship 
 with God, and the assurance of immortality come exclu- 
 sively from the outpouring of the Spirit upon the unsaved. 
 
 Sedulius, in his commentary on Ephesians, chap. 3, writes: 
 " We are saints ^ by the calling of God, not by the merit of 
 our deed; " " according to the power that worketh in us, not 
 according to our merits." The Spirit of God, not our act, 
 calls us into the kingdom of Christ ; and he works in us both 
 to will and to do of God's good pleasure. The " Wiirtzburg 
 Glosses," ^ expounding Romans 6 : 18, " Being then made free 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One.Thousand Years Ago," p. 103. 
 
 « Cited in Ussher, Vol. IV., p. 261. 
 
 * " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 15. 
 
THE ATONEMENT AND CONVERSION. 317 
 
 from sin, ye became the servant of righteousness," says : " Not 
 through yourselves, but by God and his grace " ; that is, God 
 and his grace delivered us from slavery to sin, and gave us 
 power to serve the righteous Saviour. 
 
 Coragall of Bangor, Ireland, in the sixth century writes : 
 " Religion does not consist in bodily efforts, but in humility 
 of heart."^ Columbanus, a Hibernian missionary in the be- 
 ginning of the seventh century, in his " Rules for the Spiritual 
 Life," gives a striking account of the source and supremacy 
 of the religious power of the soul. He says : " We have ac- 
 cepted a God abiding not far from us, one whom we have 
 received within us ; for if we are his saved members, he dwells 
 in us as the soul in the body." ^ According to Columbanus, 
 when a man is converted, the Spirit enters his heart and he is 
 born of God ; and as the temple of God he lives there, work- 
 ing in him that he should bear " the fruits of the Spirit, 
 love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
 meekness, temperance." 
 
 1 Cited in Neander, Vol. III., p. 31. « Ibid., p. 32. Note. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 JUSTIFICATION, LIFE, AND INTERCESSION. 
 
 Maccu-Mactheni on justification — Faith in Christ the basis of it- 
 Justification by faith held in strictest purity— Christ the source of 
 the believer's new life— Teaching of the " Glosses " thereon— Holy 
 hearts and lives insisted on— Mary's intercessory office not men- 
 tioned — No intercessor except Christ. 
 
 In Muirchu Maccu-Mactheni's notes on the " Life of St. 
 Patrick," a biography written in the seventh century, we have 
 a brief reference to Patrick's sermon before Loeghaire, the 
 king, and his nobles at Tara. It is also stated by Muirchu, 
 that when Patrick appeared before this distinguished assem- 
 bly, Dubthac, the chief poet, alone among the Gentiles arose 
 in his honor ; and " he first on that day believed in God, and 
 it was imputed unto him for righteousness," or justification. 
 Here is a striking and early example of justification by faith 
 in Ireland. 
 
 The " Wiirtzburg Glosses," commenting upon Romans 3 : 22, 
 " Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus 
 Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no 
 difference," reads : " ' Jesus Christ ': It is through faith in 
 Jesus Christ every one becomes righteous.'^ '^ Upon Romans 3 : 
 24, " Being justified freely by his grace through the redemp- 
 tion that is in Christ Jesus, the " Glosses " states: " * Justified^: 
 By faith only ; that is, by faith of belief in Jesus Christ." ^ 
 Upon Romans 4:5," But to him that worketh not, but 
 believeth upon him that justifieth the ungodly, his laith is 
 counted for righteousness," the above commentary says: 
 " * Faith '; He is to be justified by faith," * The " Glosses," 
 
 » In " Government Tripartite Life of Patrick," Vol. II., p. 283. 
 
 * "The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 18. 
 
 a Ibid., p. 8. * Ibid., p. 9. 
 
 318 
 
JUSTIFICATION, LIFE, AND INTERCESSION. 319 
 
 in expounding Romans 10 : 4, " Christ is the end of the law 
 for righteousness to every one that believeth," says : " ' For 
 Righteousness': Every one who believes in Christ shall be 
 righteous." ^ His faith gives him Christ's righteousness. 
 
 In the same chapter, in its notes upon the tenth verse, 
 " For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness," etc., 
 the " Glosses " says : " ' Believeth ' : Belief in the heart 
 makes the man righteous." ^ In the " Glosses," on Romans 
 8 : 1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to 
 them who are in Christ Jesus," we read : " ' No con- 
 demnation '; Here or yonder \i. e., beyond the grave]." 
 " * Are in Christ Jesus ' ; — Those who believe in Jesus," ' that 
 is to say, believers are justified triumphantly by Christ's right- 
 eousness and cannot be condemned in any world. In the 
 same commentary on Philippians 3 : 9, " And be found in 
 him, not having mine own righteousness," we read ; 
 " ' Righteousness '; He shows here that it is the righteous- 
 ness of Christ that justifies, and not the righteousness of the 
 law."* Justification by faith was held with the strictest 
 purity by many Celtic believers in Britain and Ireland at 
 this period. 
 
 Sedulius, in his commentary on the first chapter of Romans, 
 declares that : " It was right that, as Abraham was justified 
 by faith alone, so the rest that followed his faith should be 
 saved in the same way." ^ Fitly do Sedulius and Claudius, in 
 their commentaries upon the sixth chapter of Galatians, unite 
 in the declaration that we should rejoice, " not in our own 
 righteousness or wisdom, but in the faith of the cross, by 
 which all our sins are forgiven us." ^' By the faith of the 
 cross all our sins are blotted out. Christ is the end of the law 
 for righteousness to every one of us who believes, for God 
 hath " made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we 
 might be made the righteousness of God in him." 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 27. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 23. 3 Ibid., p. 17. ■• Ibid., p. 93. 
 6 Cited in Ussher, Vol. IV., p. 256. « Ibid., p. 255. 
 
320 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 In their notes upon Paul's words, " I am crucified with 
 Christ, nevertheless I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
 me " (Galatians 2 : 20), the " Wiirtzburg Glosses " says : 
 " ' Crucified ': So that I am dead to the will of the flesh, like 
 Christ. ' I live '; I deny it ; it is not I who live ; that is, I 
 am [only] alive because Christ is in me." ^ According to 
 this comment, the believer should be dead to all corrupt 
 tastes ; and Christ within him should be the mainspring of 
 his whole life. The WTiters of the same work, explaining the 
 words of the apostle of the Gentiles, " And such were some of 
 you ; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are 
 justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our 
 God" (1 Corinthians 6 : 11), give this explanation: '"Jus- 
 tified \- These three things belong to you — purity, and holi- 
 ness, and righteousness, in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and of the Holy Spirit." ^ In the " Glosses," where 
 the words are explained, " I beseech you, therefore, brethren, 
 by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living 
 sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable 
 service" (Komans 12 : 1), it is written : " ' Acceptable to 
 God ': Pure and free from sin ; that is, from all vices, for 
 the soul is ready to do the will of God ; let the soul therefore 
 be stirred up to do good. ' Holy ': As the [victim] oflfered 
 under the law before the door of the temple was without any 
 appearance of blemish, [so be ye] without any appearance of 
 sin." ' 
 
 Gildas, the Briton, in the sixth century, writes of the sins 
 of his Christian countrymen with grief and indignation. He 
 applies the words of Isaiah to them as found in some old 
 Latin version : Children without a law, have ye left God 
 and provoked to anger the holy One of Israel ? Why will ye 
 still inquire, adding iniquity ? Every head is languid and 
 every heart is sad ; from the sole of the foot to the crown, 
 there is no health in him." " And thus they did all things 
 
 1 " The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 84. 
 a Ibid., p. 54, 3 Ibid., p. 34. 
 
JUSTIFICATION, LIFE, AND INTERCKS-ION. ^21 
 
 contrary to their salvation," ^ He denounces the iniquities 
 of the Britons, clergy and laity : he pours out a flood of 
 lamentation over their backslidden condition. Leading 
 Christians in the British and Irish churches, before their 
 perversion to Romanism, while rejoicing in justification by 
 faith alone, continually insisted upon holy hearts and lives. 
 
 We know from personal examination the truth of Dr. 
 Whitley Stokes' ^ statement, that " the blessed Virgin Mary is 
 never mentioned by Patrick, or Secundinus, Muirchu Maccu- 
 Mactheni, or Tirechan." And of all the Christians in Brit- 
 ain or Ireland, these men were the least likely to slight Mary's 
 intercessory office, if she held that position. These are the 
 earliest Christian writers of Ireland. We have read with great 
 care, Adamnan's "Life ofColumba," written about the end 
 of the seventh century, treating of the doctrines and practices 
 of that distinguished man, and there is no hint given that he 
 knew of any intercessor except Christ. Not for several cen- 
 turies after Patrick's death was the Saviour's mother made an 
 advocate in heaven. 
 
 1 " The Works of Gildas," Sec. 21. 
 
 2 " GoTernment Tripartite Life," Introduction CLXV. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE lord's supper, OR EUCHARIST. 
 
 The Lord's Supper in " both kinds" — The daughters of King Loeg- 
 haire receive bread and wine — Columba and communion wine — 
 Paschasius Radbert's God in a loaf— John Scotus Erigena against 
 his heresy — Berenger and the doctrine of Scotus — English Elfric 
 follows Scotus— The "Wiirtzburg Glosses." 
 
 LoEGHAiRE, king of Ireland in Patrick's time, had two 
 daughters converted through his instructions. When they 
 asked Patrick " to see Christ's face " [as they had previously 
 seen their idols ] he said to them, " ye cannot see Christ unless 
 ye first taste of death, or unless ye receive Christ's body and 
 his blood." ^ This incident is related in the "Tripartite Life," 
 and it unquestionably represents the practice of St. Patrick and 
 of the Irish church for ages. The body and the blood are the 
 bread and wine of the Lord's Supper, which are spoken of by 
 the Saviour as his body and blood because they are figures of 
 them; and here both were given, as we learn from the narra- 
 tive for the first time, to the daughters of an Irish king. 
 
 It is related of Columba that in his early years, when only 
 a deacon, he discovered that there was no wine for the Lord's 
 Supper, which was about to be celebrated by the ministers of 
 a certain church ; and that " he took a pitcher and went to a 
 spring and drew water for the service of the Holy Eucharist," ' 
 after which he prayed to Christ to turn this water into wine, 
 as he had done at Cana of Galilee. " Entering the church he 
 placed the pitcher with the liquor in it near the altar, and to 
 the ministers he said, * You have the wine here which Christ 
 the Lord sent you for completing his [eucharistic] mysteries." 
 We have no ground for crediting the miraculous part of this 
 
 1 "Government Tripartite Life of Patrick," p, 103. London, 1887. 
 • Adamnan's " Vit. Columb." Lib.IL, p. 1. 
 
 322 
 
THE lord's supper, OR EUCHARIST. 323 
 
 Etory, though its truth was received by the people of Adam- 
 nan's time ; but there is every reason from this report to be- 
 lieve that Adamnan celebrated the Lord's Supper in " both 
 kinds," as he correctly represents the Irish Christians to have 
 done in Columba's early manhood. 
 
 The Lord's Supper was only a figurative sacrifice among 
 the ancient British and Irish Christians, as it was at first 
 among all believers. Adauuian describes it as " a sacrificial 
 mystery," ^ that is, a symbol of Christ's sacrifice. He writes 
 of it as " the services of the holy Eucharist " ; ^ as " the mys- 
 teries of the sacred Eucharist " ; as " the sacred mysteries 
 of the Eucharist." But no hint is given in these accounts of 
 the Eucharist, or in the others written by Adamnan, that it 
 was Christ himself, and that it should be adored as God. 
 Adamnan speaks in the same terms of baptism, \yriting of 
 the baptism of an aged convert he says, " After the mysteries 
 of baptism were celebrated." ^ In all the descriptions of the 
 Eucharist quoted there is no indication that it is the God of 
 glory, in every particle of its consecrated bread and wine ; 
 in fact, as far as Adamnan teaches, if the bread and wine are 
 turned into Jesus Christ, soul, body, and divinity, by conse- 
 cration to sacramental uses, the elemert of water in baptism 
 is changed into the blood of the incarnate God which cleanses 
 from all sin ; of which it is a figure. 
 
 Elsewhere Adamnan speaks of the Eucharist as " the body * 
 of Christ " ; the thought expressed by the Saviour when he said 
 of the bread, " This is my body." Immediately after, writing 
 of the Eucharist, he represents Columba as declaring that 
 "two presbyters should break the Lord's bread."* Accord- 
 ing to Adamnan, both he and Columba regarded the eucha- 
 ristic loaf as bread after consecration, the Lord's bread, or 
 the figure of the Lord's body. Just as Paul, describing both 
 elements of the Eucharist, after consecration, says, "For as 
 
 1 Adaranani " Vit. Columb." Lib. II., p. 1. 
 a Ibid., Lib.. III. p. 21, 
 
 3 Ibid., Lib. I., p. 19. 
 
 4 Ibid., Lib. I., p. 26. 
 
324 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 ofteu as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show 
 the Lord's death till he come." 
 
 If Columba, of whom Adamnan wrote, even according to 
 his account of the heaven-honored missionary, had seen in 
 prophetic vision the decree of the future council of Trent : 
 " If any one shall deny that in the sacrament of the most holy 
 Eucharist there is contained, really, truly, and substantially, 
 the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and so whole Christ ; but shall say 
 that he is only in it in sign, or figure, or power, let him be 
 accursed," ^ he would have been greatly shocked, and would 
 have regarded the framers of this decree, either as a synod of 
 candidates for the restraints of the insane, or as a body of or- 
 dained deceivers, imposing upon the credulity of the Christian 
 world. 
 
 John Scotus Erigena, in the ninth century, honored Ireland 
 and common sense by his denunciations of transubstantiation. 
 Michelet writes : 
 
 Paschasius Radbert in the ninth century [a.d., 831] first explicitly- 
 taught the marvelous poetry of a God in a loaf ... of infinity in an 
 atom [in the Romish wafer]. Vainly did the Irish church protest in 
 the name of logic [against a God in a loaf] ; it did not hinder the 
 doctrine from pursuing its triumphant progress through the middle 
 ages. 2 
 
 Michelet is right in making the Irish church protest against 
 Radbert's novel absurdity, thouojh John Scotus Erigena was 
 the chief representative of that church in this controversy. 
 One of his names, Scotus, was generally applied at this period 
 io natives of Ireland ; the other, Erigena, was used to make it 
 certain that he was an Irish Scot. Hampden,^ in his " Bamp- 
 ton Lectures," an accomplished judge, properly describes him 
 as: 
 
 One of the most remarkable persons in the history of the middle 
 ages. He was quite the meteor of the ninth century; as no one of 
 
 ^ " Canones et Decreta Cone. Trid.," Can. I., Sess. XIII., p. 63. Lipsise, 1863. 
 
 2" History of France," pp. 135, 136. New York. 
 
 3 '• On the Scholastic Philosophy," pp. 35. 415, Note 1. 
 
THE lord's supper, OR EUCHARIST. 325 
 
 his contemporaries appears to have approached him in the depth of 
 his learning, or the acuteness of his philosophy. His great learning, 
 particularly his knowledge of languages, the Greek, the Hebrew, and 
 the Arabic, appears to have been acquired by travels. 
 
 When Paschasius Radbert published his treatise "On 
 the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ," maintaining 
 that the body of Christ in the Eucharist is " the same body 
 that was born of the virgin, that suffered on the cross, and 
 that was raised from the dead," the emperor Charles, the Ball 
 objected strenuously to this innovation, and, as Waddington 
 says ' employed Ratramu and John Scotus to investigate the 
 suspicious opinion ; the arguments of Scotus, according to 
 Waddino-ton, are more direct, and his sentiments more per- 
 spicuous'and consistent than Ratramn's : " he plainly declared 
 that the bread and wine were no more than the symbols of 
 the absent body and blood of Christ." 
 
 At a great council held at " Vercelli, a. d. 1050, composed 
 of bishops from different countries, especially France and 
 Germany, and most of the learned men in the West, in 
 which the pope presided in person, the book of John Scotus 
 was read and condemned ; and the doctrine of Berenger, the 
 same with that of Scotus, was condemned by the council." ' 
 A month later than the imposing council of Vercelli with 
 the pope at its head. King Henry I., "as the dispute had 
 made a great stir in France, summoned all the bishops and 
 learned men of his kingdom, to meet in October, a. d. 1050, 
 in Paris, to examine it and Berenger." At this council, in 
 the absence of Berenger, an intercepted letter, written by 
 him, wa« read, condemning the opinion of Paschasius, and 
 "extolling that of Scotus, as entirely agreeable to the belief 
 of the church in primitive times, and the doctrine of the 
 fathers " The sentiment of this letter was unanimously " pro- 
 nounced heretical" ; "the book of Scotus, whom they styled 
 
 1 - History of the Church," pp. 257, 258. London. 
 
 a Bower's " History of the Popes," Vol. XL, pp. 349. 350. 
 
326 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 the author of the new heresy, was condemned " ; and it was 
 decreed that Berenger and his followers should be seized and 
 put to death wherever found, " if they did not publicly re- 
 tract their impious doctrine." 
 
 Berenger, through Ricardus, an abbot and a great favorite 
 of the king, in a letter, wished him to inform his majesty that 
 Scotus wrote his book at the request of Charles the Bald to 
 refute many gross errors about the Eucharist, originated chiefly 
 by Paschasius ; and that so deserving a man should be pro- 
 tected after his death, by the successors of the sovereign by 
 whose command he had written such a useful work/ Beren- 
 ger's revival of the scriptural teachings of John Scotus was 
 eventually destroyed by the fierce opposition of the Romish 
 clergy, from the pope to the most ignorant priest. But the 
 genius of this distinguished Irishman, about one hundred and 
 fifty years after his death, shone forth in his little work on 
 the Eucharist, and nearly set western Europe on fire. The 
 doctrine of John Scotus, that the Eucharist was a remem- 
 brancer of the Saviour's body and blood, and not his real flesh 
 and blood, was the belief of the English church at one pe- 
 riod. Elfric, says Soames,^ seems to have died only fifteen- 
 years before the Conquest, that is, in A. d. 1051. Soames 
 writes further : " Elfric merely finished, but with a vigor 
 equalled probably by Erigena [Scotus] alone, that unyielding 
 array of testimony against Lanfranc's eucharistic system, 
 which echoes from the whole theological school of ancient 
 England." That " eucharistic system " was transubstantiation. 
 Elfric writes of the Eucharist in his *' Second Epistle " : 
 
 The lively bread is not, however, bodily, the same body Christ 
 suffered in, nor is the holy wine the Saviour's blood that for us was 
 shed, in corporeal reality. But in spiritual meaning, both the bread 
 is truly his body and the wine also is his blood; even as the heavenly 
 bread which we call manna, which forty years fed Gods folk [was 
 truly his bodyl , and the clear water that ran from the rock in the 
 wilderness was truly his blood. Paul accordingly wrote: "All our 
 
 1 Bower's " History of Ihe Popes," Vol. II., p. 350. 
 a " The Anglo-Saxon Church," pp. 195, 196. 
 
THE lord's supper, OR EUCHARIST. 327 
 
 fathers ate in the wilderness the same spiritual meat, and drank the 
 spiritual drink. They drank of the spiritual rock, and that rock was 
 Christ." The apostle said, even as ye now heard, that they all ate the 
 same spiritual meat, and they all drank the spiritual drink. He does 
 not, however, say bodily, but spiritually. Then Christ was not as yet 
 born, nor was his bloodshed, when the people of Israel ate the meat 
 and drank of the rock ; and the rock was not Christ bodily, though 
 he said so ; those were merely the sacraments under the old law, and 
 they spiritually betoken the spiritual Eucharist of the Saviours body 
 which we hallow.^ 
 
 Elfric's lay sermons were read with difficulty in England, 
 and were seldom heard in her churches. To remedy this de- 
 fect, he prepared two series of homilies, of forty each, the one 
 folio ,ing upon the success of the other ; both works were ap- 
 proved and their use authorized by Sigeric, archbishop of 
 Canterbury.^ His homily, which was read in the churches 
 of England on Easter day ; his Epistle to Wulfsine, bishop 
 of Sherborne, and his Epistle to Wulfstan, archbishop of 
 York, show conclusively that transubstantiation was not re- 
 ceived in England in Elfric's time.^ 
 
 Soames states that " Elfric embodied, for the use of ordinary 
 .congregations, the substance of the famous attack upon 
 transubstantiation which Ratramn* wrote, when desired to 
 examine it by Charles the Bald." There is no doubt that 
 Elfric's attention was called to transubstantiation by the book 
 of Paschasius Radbert ; and that he regarded it as a work 
 full of danger to the gospel of Christ in England. It is 
 equally certain that he used the arguments against it so for- 
 cibly employed by John Scotus Erigena. In the Berenger 
 controversy in France on the same subject, and partly in 
 Elfric's day, there was not a word about Ratramn or Ber- 
 tram. At the great council of Vercelli, and at the French 
 convocation called by the king soon after, Scotus and his book 
 
 1 Cited in Soames' " Anglo-Saxon Church," pp. 272, 273. London, 1856. 
 
 2 Soames' " Anglo-Saxon Church," p. 187. London. 
 
 8 See Bower's '^ History of the Popes," Vol. II., p. 350, and Soames' " Anglo-Saxon 
 Church," p. 188. 
 4 Ibid, p. 195. 
 
328 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 were soundly denounced, but not a word against Ratramn or 
 Bertram. It was the same work which armed Elfric. Bower, 
 a historian of extraordinary learning, states that Scotus, in 
 his treatise " On the Body and Blood of our Lord," declared 
 that: 
 
 The faithful received the body of our Lord figuratively, mystically, 
 sacrainentally, spiritually, and not really or corporeally; that he 
 published that work under the feigned name of Bertram, which 
 induced Sigebert and Trithemius to ascribe it to Ratramn, who 
 wrote by the order of Charles the Bald, two books upon predestina- 
 tion. In the disputes that arose in after days about the Eucharist, 
 this treatise is constantly quoted as the work, not of Bertram or Ra- 
 traTnn, but of Scotus, and no mention is ever made of any writer upon 
 that subject under either of those names." ^ 
 
 Bower's opinion that the work of Scotus was published 
 anonymously under the name of Bertram was held by dis- 
 tinguished men 2 of competent learning. The arguments 
 sustaining his view are conclusive : Bertram was Scotus. Ra- 
 tramn wrote upon predestination, but published nothing in 
 reply to Paschasius Radbert. 
 
 John Scotus Erigena protected the people of England, 
 through the able and pious Elfric, from the idolatry of tran- 
 substantiation for many years. In Germany, France, Eng- 
 land, and in his native Ireland, he was the greatest enemy of 
 the Romish mass before the Reformation, and furnished the 
 leaders of that glorious movement with some of their most 
 powerful weapons against papal idolatry. John Scotus 
 Erigena, a graduate of the monastic college of Bangor near 
 Belfast, honored before all Europe the learning of Ireland, 
 and the scriptural doctrine of the Lord's Supper as taught by 
 Baptist St. Patrick, in a controversy in which he successfully 
 defied the greatest men in the Old World and the warring 
 forces of centuries. 
 
 The " Wiirtzburg Glosses," expounding the apostle's words, 
 " In whom we have redemption through his blood," says : 
 
 1 Bower's " H'story of the Popes," Vol. 11., p. 348. 
 Du Pin's " Eccles. Hist.," Vol. II., pp. 81-2. Dublin. 
 
OR EUCHARIST. 329 
 
 ^'Through his blood, through the material blood which poured 
 from his side when he was on the cross, and through the 
 spiritual blood which is offered every day upon the altar."* 
 This learned commentary in the ancient language of Hibernia 
 is emphatic in its renunciation of transubstantiation and in 
 that the asserting wine in the Eucharist is only spiritual or 
 figurative blood. This conclusion about the Lord's Supper 
 was the general opinion in Ireland at that time. 
 
 Sedulius, the Scot, who wrote his commentary during the 
 period that produced the " Wiirtzburg Glosses," expounding 
 the words, " This do in remembrance of me " (1 Corinth- 
 ians 11 : 24), speaking of the Eucharist says: "He left a 
 rememhrancer of himself to us, even as if one setting out for a 
 distant country should leave some token with him whom he 
 loved, that as often as he should see it, memory might recall 
 his favors and friendship." "^ Sedulius clearly declares that 
 the Saviour is absent in the flesh in the Lord's Supper ; and 
 that it is observed in memory of the great sufferer of Calvary, 
 who is alive in a glorified body in the heavens. 
 
 Claudius, another Irish commentator of the age of Sedulius 
 writes : " It pleased the Saviour first to deliver to his disciples 
 the sacrament of his body and blood ; . . . and afterward 
 the body itself to be sacrificed upon the altar of the cross." ' 
 Claudius distinctly asserts that the sacramental body of Christ 
 is not the " body itself" which was sacrificed upon the cross; 
 it could, therefore, only be a figurative body. 
 
 1 Published as the " Holy Scriptures in Ireland One Thousand Years Ago," p. 87. 
 Dublin. 
 « Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV.. p. 284. 
 8 Ibid 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY. 
 
 Immediately after death the ancient British and Irish Christians en. 
 tered Heaven ; this their belief— They knew nothing of Purgatory. 
 
 St. Patrick, in his " Letter to Corotieus," speaking of his 
 converts whom that pirate slew, says, " Thanks be to God, bap- 
 tized believers, ye have passed from this world to paradise ; I 
 see you have begun to migrate where there shall he no more 
 night, nor grief, nor death. . . Ye therefore shall reign with 
 the apostles, and prophets, and martyrs, and obtain the eternal 
 kingdom." There is no purgatory then, according to the great 
 Patrick. Speaking of the death of St. Brendan, Columba 
 said, " Last night I saw heaven suddenly opened ; and choirs 
 of angels descended to meet the soul of St. Brendan,^ by whose 
 luminous and incomparable glory the whole globe was made 
 bright." 
 
 Speaking about a view which Columba had of a battle in 
 the heavens, he states, " I saw ' the holy angels fighting in the 
 air with hostile powers, and I gave thanks to Christ, the mas- 
 ter of conflicts, because -the angel conquerors had carried to 
 the joys of the celestial country the soul of this stranger, who was 
 the first of our number to die in this island." 
 
 Adamnan, writing about a certain blacksmith who lived in 
 the central part of Ireland, who was much given to works of 
 charity, and whose life was full of other deeds of righteous- 
 ness, states that when he came to the end of a good old age, 
 on the same hour on which he left the body : 
 
 Columba, residing in lona, spoke thus to the few seniors standing 
 around him : " Columbus, the blacksmith, did not toil in vain ; he was 
 
 » Adamnini, " Vit. Colum.," Lib, III., cap. 15. 
 « Ibid., cap. 6. 
 
TPIE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY. 331 
 
 glad to purchase eternal rewards [not heaven or salvation] by the 
 labor of his own hands. Behold, now his soul is being carried by 
 angels to the joys of the celestial country .^^ ^ 
 
 Columba himself went to no purgatory after death, as his 
 biographer relates : " He was united to apostle and prophets 
 and to the thousands clothed in white who have washed their 
 robes in the blood of the Lamb, and follow him wheresoever 
 he goeth" ' In these testimonies we learn that no place of 
 purification by pains or otherwise, after death, had any exist- 
 ence in the theology of St. Patrick, Columba, Adamnan, or 
 of the men of their times. 
 
 After describing the horrid butcheries, burnings, and dese- 
 crations of their churches and of their dead, inflicted by the 
 pagan Anglo-Saxons upon the Christian Britons, Gildas, who 
 wrote in the sixth century, speaks of the truly faithful who 
 perished in these slaughters, surrounded by their backslidden 
 countrymen, as " being carried at that time into high heaven 
 by the holy angels,'' ^ 
 
 The soul of the celebrated St. Hilda, of St. Aidan's Protest- 
 ant Scottish church in Yorkshire, England, in the seventh 
 century, according to Roger of Wendover, " was seen carried 
 to heaven by angels, where with Christ she is solaced with 
 eternal joys'' ^^ 
 
 William of Malmesbury relates that the pious King Os- 
 wald, who brought St. Aidan from Caledonia in A. d. 635, 
 and interpreted his sermons when he preached, " on the day 
 that he was murdered in a moment ascended to the heavenly 
 tribunal." ^ 
 
 Nennius gives some account of the evangelizing efforts of 
 Germanus in Britain, when he came from Gaul at the request 
 of the Britons to oppose and destroy Pelagianism, in the first 
 half of the fifth ce ntury. On a certain day, Germanus and 
 
 1 Adamnani, " Vit. Colum.," Lib. III., p. 13. 
 
 2 Ibid., cap. 34. 
 
 8 " Works of Gildas," Sec. 24. 
 
 4 '« Flowers of History" at a. d 680. 
 
 6 " Chronicle," Lib. II., cap. 13. 
 
332 ANCIENT BRITISH AND IRISH CHURCHES. 
 
 his friends came to the gate of a British city to see and remon- 
 strate with its wicked king. While engaged in fervent prayer 
 for the success of their efforts in this city — 
 
 A man covered with perspiration came out and prostrated himself 
 before them. St. Germanus, addressing him said: "Dost thou be- 
 lieve in the Holy Trinity ?" To which the man having replied, " I do 
 believe," he baptized and kissed him, saying, "Go in peace; within 
 this hour thou shalt die ; the angels of God are waiting for thee in the 
 air ; with them thou shalt ascend to that Ood in whom thou hast be- 
 lieved J ^ ^ 
 
 He was put to death as Germanus foretold, and entered im- 
 mediately into heaven. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, writing of the Diocletian persecu- 
 tion, says : 
 
 All the churches were pulled down, and all the copies of the Holy 
 Scriptures that could be found were burned in the public markets. 
 The priests also, with the believers under their care, were put to death, 
 and with emulation pressed in crowds together for a speedy passage 
 to the joys of heaven^ as their proper dwelling place.'^ 
 
 Gallus, the successful Irish missionary in Switzerland, said 
 of Columbanus, his countryman, who died in a. d. 615, to 
 Magnus, his deacon : " After this night's watch, I understood 
 by a vision that my master and father, Columbanus, is to-day 
 departed out of the miseries of this life into the joys of para- 
 diseJ' ^ These statements might be increased very largely, 
 but it is needless ; they represent the ancient Britons, the 
 Picts, and the Irish : and they show conclusively the belief that 
 heaven was the immediate home after death of all the early 
 Christians of Great Britain and Ireland. There is no founda- 
 tion in their genuine writings, as there is none in the Bible, 
 for the following decree of the council of Trent : 
 
 Since the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Spirit from the 
 sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the fathers, has taught 
 in holy councils, and very recently in this general synod, that there 
 is a purgatory, and that the souls confined therein receive assistance 
 
 1 Nennius' " History of the Britons," Lib. II., sec. 32, 33. 
 
 2 " British History," Lib. V.,cap. 5. 
 
 » Cited in Ussher's " Works," Vol. IV., p. 270. 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY. 333 
 
 from the suffrages of the faithful, but chiefly from the acceptable sac- 
 rifice of the altar, the holy synod commands the bishops that the 
 sound doctrine about purgatory, handed down by the holy fathers and 
 sacred councils, be believed, held, taught, and everywhere proclaimed 
 by the faithful in Christ. . .'^ 
 
 For centuries after the conversion of Britain and Ireland 
 this fiction was wholly unknown by the people of both 
 islands. 
 
 After a conscientious and extensive examination of relia- 
 ble writings, we affirm with confidence that for many hun- 
 dreds of years the Ancient British and Irish Churches were 
 strictly Protestant, that St. Patrick had no taint of Romanism, 
 and though he held some things which we reject, he cher- 
 ished all the leading principles of the Baptist denomination ; 
 that Columba and many others followed his example ; and 
 that the ancient Britons, his countrymen, taught him his 
 Baptist principles. 
 
 A literary friend, writing of the leading persons in this 
 book, says : " We have found how evangelical they were in 
 their beliefs, and how consecrated they were in their deeds. 
 The missionary efforts put forth have aroused our admiration, 
 and the sufferings encountered at the hands of bigotry and hate 
 have called out our sympathy. We have seen how little these 
 people, whose life and work we have viewed, had in common 
 with the ecclesiastical tyranny that at first ignored, but since 
 has claimed them, and that Patrick himself, the noblest hero 
 of them all, has come forth from the mists substantially 
 a Baptist. This review of history so little known, will lead 
 us to value yet more our own heritage, while it should make 
 us still more guarded against the colossal power of Rome, 
 whose acts in the name of religion have in many ways been 
 so baleful." 
 
 1 " Canones et Decreta Cone. Trid.," Sess. XXV., Deer. Purgator., p. 173. Lipsia, 
 
 1863. 
 
INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED. 
 
 The numbers indicate the pages in this book. 
 
 Adamnan l^^' 
 
 182, 183, 185, 191, 192, 194, 196, 198, 
 200, 203, 206, 207, 208, 209, 211, 212, 
 213,214,322,323,330,331. 
 
 Ailred 1^^' 
 
 173, 174. 
 
 Alexander, Dr. William Lindsay 62, 
 
 175, 184, 198, 261. 
 
 Anderson 248. 
 
 Baronius ^^J- 
 
 Bayle 273. 
 
 Bede 1-' 
 
 13, 16, 19, 20, 30, 44, 45, 46, 48, 64, 56, 
 67, 73, 85, 86, 98, 115, 166, 169, 171, 
 174, 186, 191, 192, 195, 199, 201, 219, 
 221, 224, 225, 226, 227, 2J9, 232, 240, 
 247, 250, 251, 254, 255, 259, 260, 261, 
 263, 266, 283, 294, 295, 308. 
 
 Bernard of Clairvaux 80, 
 
 275, 282, 287. 
 
 Bingham '*^' 
 
 245, 255, 256, 263, 264, 281, 289, 290, 
 291. 
 
 Blackburn l'''^- 
 
 Bower 22, 
 
 94, 96, 260, 271, 273, 325, 326, 327, 
 
 Butler. 
 
 55, 
 
 179. 
 
 Chalmers, George l'^^. 
 
 Collier ^^- 
 
 87, 43, 46, 175, 272, 278, 282, 289, 
 
 Constantine ^^• 
 
 Curzon 1^^' 
 
 DoUinger 280. 
 
 Du Pin ^^' 
 
 51, 57, 91, 92, 97, 160, 164, 267, 295, 
 296, 304, 328. 
 
 Eusebius ^^ 
 
 23,28,29,31,111. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fox n, 
 
 31,90,265. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth 332. 
 
 Gibbon 3'^» 
 
 41, 52, 53, 55, 68. 
 
 Gildas 20, 
 
 25, 30, 32, 52, 54, 285, 321, 331. 
 
 Giraldus Cambrensis 57, 
 
 65, 73, 80,119, 258, 272, 278, 299. 
 
 Gregory, of Tours, 21, 
 
 304. 
 
 Gregory (the Great) 83. 
 
 Hampden 224. 
 
 Jamieson 1^8. 
 
 Jerome ^8, 
 
 61, 157. 
 
 Jonas 296. 
 
 Keating 109- 
 
 Lanigan 74. 
 
 Lightfoot 42. 
 
 Lingard 218, 
 
 219, 222, 233, 267, 272, 309, 310. 
 
 Macaulay 189. 
 
 M'Lauchlan 49, 
 
 90, 122, 162, 171, 177, 178, 193, 197, 
 216, 284, 293. 
 
 Matthew Paris 194 
 
 Matthew of Westminster 120, 
 
 227. 
 
 Michelet 22, 
 
 51,276,286,307,311,324. 
 
 Milraan 39, 
 
 281. 
 
 Mosheim 1^» 
 
 22,121,310. 
 
 Neander ^^' 
 
 21, 42, 50, 65, 121, 162, 206, 269, 286, 
 305, 307, 310, 313, 317, 319. 
 
 Neal 248. 
 
 282. 
 
 Nennius. 
 
 286, 332. 
 
 335 
 
3-36 
 
 INDEX OF AUTHORS QUOTED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Nicholson 73, 
 
 125, 140. 
 
 Origen 27. 
 
 Pelagius 43. 
 
 Perceval « 91, 
 
 92. 
 Rapin 52, 
 
 53, 120, 241, 278, 279. 
 Reeves 66, 
 
 182. 
 Richard of Cirencester 41, 
 
 63, 71. 
 Roger of Wendover 120, 
 
 306, 331. 
 
 Sale 100. 
 
 Smith 163, 
 
 185, 197, 198, 204, 206, 214, 215, 
 
 280. 
 Soames 232, 
 
 236, 240, 241, 251, 326, 327. 
 
 Socrates 158. 
 
 Sozomen 39. 
 
 Bpotswood 169, 
 
 174, 177, 178, 201, 284. 
 Bpelman 256, 
 
 267, 277. 
 Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn, 12, 
 
 28. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Stillingfleet 17, 
 
 34, 40, 42, 55. 
 St. Patrick 123, 
 
 127-150, 
 
 Stokes, Dr. Whitley 146. 
 
 Stokes, Prof. Geo. T 108, 
 
 110, 122, 125, 163, 165, 187, 192, 282, 
 
 288, 294, 2'J5, 300, 306, 309. 
 Tacitus 13, 
 
 14, 25 
 
 Tertulliau 169. 
 
 Thackeray 15, 
 
 Theodoret 28. 
 
 Todd 81, 
 
 283. 
 Ussher 46, 
 
 55, 64, S3, 88, 118, 119, 121, 160, 161, 
 
 178, 179, 183, 228, 229, 233, 236, 237, 
 
 261,266,273,293,297,306,309,311, 
 
 312, 316, 329, 332. 
 
 Vergil, Polydore 57. 
 
 William, of Malmesbury 56, 
 
 86, 90, 120, 223, 227, 329, 331. 
 
 Withrow 104. 
 
 Waddington 325. 
 
INDEX OF WORKS REFERRED TO OR QUOTED. 
 
 The numbers indicate the pages in this book. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Acts and Monuments of the Church. 
 
 (Fox) 17, 
 
 31, 90, 265. 
 
 Adv. Judgeos (Tertullian) 23. 
 
 Annales (Tacitus) 13, 
 
 14, 25. 
 Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland.. 69, 
 
 72,"l03, 118, 187, 196, 249, 287, 302. 
 
 Annales Ecclesiastici (Baroniiis) 251 
 
 Antiquities of the Christian Church 
 
 (Bingham) 41, 
 
 245, 255, 289, 290, 292. 
 Antiquities of Down and 'Jonnor 
 
 (Reeves) 66. 
 
 Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon 
 
 Church (Lingard) 218, 
 
 219, 221, 234, 263, 2G4, 267, 272, 
 
 309, 310. 
 British History, Geoflfrey of Mon- 
 mouth 3.32. 
 
 Canoues et Decreta Cone. Trid 3-!4, 
 
 333. 
 Chronicle (William of Malmesbury) 56, 
 
 86, 90. 120, 223, 227, 309, 331, 
 Concil. Britan. (Spelman) 256, 
 
 267, 277. 
 Decline and Fall of the Roman Em- 
 pire (Gibbon) 33, 
 
 41, 52, 53, 68. 
 Definitions of Faith and Canons of 
 
 Discipline - 158, 
 
 160. 
 
 DeMartyrol. Pal. (Eusebius) 29. 
 
 De Vita Martini 38. 
 
 De Vita St. Columbte (Adamnani) 167, 
 
 182, 183, 185, 191, 192, 194, 196, 198, 
 
 200, 201, 203, 206-214, 284, 322, 323, 
 
 330, 331. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dictionary (Bayle) 273 
 
 Eccles. Hist. (Bede)... 12, 
 
 13, 19, 30, 44, 45, 46, 48, 54, 56, 67, 
 73, 85, 86, 98, 115, 166, 169, 171, 174, 
 186, 191, 192, 195, 191), 201,219, 221, 
 224, 225, 226, 227, 229, 232, 240, 247, 
 250, 251, 254, 255. 259, 260, 2G1, 2i-.3, 
 263, 283, 294, 295, 308. 
 
 Eccles. Hist. (Collier) 34, 
 
 37, 43, 46, 55, 175, 272, 278, 282, 289, 
 293. 
 
 Eccle-s. Hist. (Du Pin) 37, 
 
 51,91,94,97, 161, 104,267,295,296, 
 304, 328. 
 
 ! Eccles. Hist (Eusebius) 16, 
 
 i 20,23,29,31. 
 
 I F:ccles. Hist. (Socrates) 16, 
 
 158. 
 
 Eccles Hist. (Mosheira) 18, 
 
 22, 121,310. 
 
 Eccle-s. Hist. (Theodoret) 28. 
 
 Eccles. Hist. (Sozomen) 40. 
 
 Eccles Hist, of Ireland (Lanigan).... 74. 
 
 Ep. Demetrias (Pelagius) 43. 
 
 Evangel. Demonst. (Eusebius) 28. 
 
 Flowers of History (Roger of Wend- 
 over) 120. 
 
 306, 331. 
 
 Flowers of History (Matthew of 
 
 Westminster) 227. 
 
 General History of the Christian 
 
 Church (Neander) 17. 
 
 21, 42, 50.65, 121, 162, 206, 269. 
 28(5, 305, 307, 310, 313, 317, 
 
 General History of Ireland (Keat- 
 ing) 109. 
 
 General History (Anderson) 248. 
 
 Gerniani Antisis Vit 49. 
 
 337 
 
338 
 
 INDEX OF WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Governmeut Tripartite Life (of 
 
 Patrick) 42, 
 
 49, 61, 70, 71, 74, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 
 83, 88, 99, 103, 105, 107, lOS, 111, 
 115, 118, 119. 125, 15o, 154, 155, 156, 
 IGO, 1G2, 2.SG, 287, 315, 31S,321, 322, 
 
 History of Christianity (Milman).... 16, 
 39, 281. 
 
 Hist. Franc. (Gregory of Tours) 21. 
 
 History of France (Michelet) 22, 
 
 51, 276, 286, 307, 308, 311, 324. 
 
 History of the Popes (Buwer) 22, 
 
 94, 96, 260, 271, 273, 325, 326, 327, 
 328. 
 
 History of England (Pvapin) 52, 
 
 53,120,236,241,278,279. 
 
 History of the Britons (Nennius) 282, 
 
 302. 
 
 History of England Polydore Vergie. 57. 
 
 History of the Church and State of 
 
 Scotland (Spotswood) 169, 
 
 174, 177, 178. 
 
 History of Caledonia (Chalmers, 
 
 Geo.) 175. 
 
 History of England (Macaulay) 189. 
 
 History of the Culdees (Jamieson)... 198. 
 
 History of the Puritans (Neal) 248. 
 
 History of the Church (Wadding- 
 ton) 325. 
 
 Historical Memorials of Canter- 
 bury (Stanley) 12, 
 
 28. 
 
 Historical Works (Giraldus Cam- 
 
 brensis) 57, 
 
 73, 258, 278. 
 
 Homilies (Origen) 27. 
 
 lona (Alexander) 182, 
 
 184, 198. 
 
 Ireland and the Celtic Church 
 
 (Stokes, Geo. T.) 64, 
 
 66, 108, 110, 122, 125, 163, 165, 187, 
 192, 282, 288, 294, 295, 300, 306, 
 309. 
 
 Life of St. Patrick (Nicholson) 73, 
 
 125. 
 
 Life of Germanus (Constantiue) 85. 
 
 Life of St. Columba (Smith). 163, 
 
 185, 197, 198, 204, 206, 214, 215, 280. 
 Life of Ninian (Ailred) 171, 
 
 173, 174. 
 Life of Kentigern 178. 
 
 15 
 
 41. 
 
 82. 
 
 I PAGE 
 
 Life of Columbanus (Jonas) 296. 
 
 1 Lives of the Saints (Butler) 55, 
 
 I 179. 
 
 j Omnium Operum (Jerome) 38. 
 
 On Galatians (Lightfoot) 42. 
 
 On the Scholastic Philosophy (Hamp- 
 I den) 324. 
 
 Researches into the Ecclesiastical 
 and Political State of An- 
 cient Britain (Thackeray)... 
 
 Six Old English Chronicles (Richard 
 
 of Cirencester) 
 
 63, 71. 
 
 St. Patrick the Apostle of Ireland 
 
 (Todd) 
 
 283. 
 
 St. Patrick and the Early Church of 
 
 Ireland 156. 
 
 The Ancient British Church (Alex- 
 ander, W. L.) 62, 
 
 175, 261. 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon Church (Soames) 232, 
 236, 240, 241, 256, 326, 327. 
 
 The Antiquities of the British 
 
 Churches (StilUngfleet) 17. 
 
 34, 40, 42, 55, 281 
 
 The Art of Illuminating 300, 
 
 301, 305, 306. 
 
 The Catacombs of Rome (Withrow) 104. 
 
 The Doctrines and Discipline of the 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church 160. 
 
 The Early Scottish Church (M' 
 
 Lauchlan) 49, 
 
 90, 122, 162, 171, 177, 178, 180, 193, 
 197, 216, 284, 293, 
 
 The Holy Scriptures in Ireland One 
 Thousand Years ago (Olden, 
 
 translator) 42, 
 
 154, 156, 296, 298, 312, 313, 314, 
 315, 316, 318, 319, 320, 329. 
 
 The Koran (Sale) '. 100. 
 
 The Latin Church (Soames) 62, 
 
 251. 
 
 The Pope and Council 280. 
 
 The Religious Denominations of the 
 
 United States 311. 
 
 The Roman Schism (Perceval) 91, 
 
 92. 
 
 The Topography of Ireland (Giral- 
 dus Cambrensis) 65, 
 
 80, 119, 272, 299. 
 
INDEX OF WORKS REFERRED TO. 
 
 339 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Writings of Patrick the Apostle 
 
 (if Ireland 106, 
 
 123, IGl. 
 Visits to Monasteries in the Levant 
 
 (Curzou) 193. 
 
 Vita Bonifac 270 
 
 Vit. Constant. (Eusebius) 29, 
 
 48, 111. 
 
 Vit. Gild 55. 
 
 ' Vita Sanct. August 218. 
 
 Vita St. MalachiiB (Bernard of Clair- 
 
 ; vaux) 80, 
 
 { 275, 282, 287. 
 
 1 
 i 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vit. St. Remigius 152, 
 
 Works (Gildas) 20, 
 
 25, 30, 32, 52, 54, 285, 321, 331. 
 
 Works (Gregory the Great) 83. 
 
 Works (Ufisher) 46, 
 
 55, 64, 83, 88, 118, 119, 121, If.O, 
 161, 178, 179, 183, 228,229, 234, 2.i6, 
 237, 261 , 26f,, 273, 286, 293, 297, 306, 
 309, 311, 312, 313, 316, 319, 329, 332. 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Aidan, St.: Talented and pious 197 
 
 missionary to Northumbrians.... 220 
 success of, among Northum- 
 brians 223, 234 
 
 a true Protestant 223 
 
 a man of prayer 223 
 
 faith and practice built on Bible 224 
 
 his teachings 225, 226 
 
 his humility and earnestness... 
 
 225, 220 
 
 founded Lindisfarne 228 
 
 founded Melrose 229 
 
 Alban, St.: Story of his conversion... 171 
 Anglo-Saxons, The : Attacking Brit- 
 ons 45 
 
 fierce war by 52 
 
 conquest of Britain by ,54 
 
 missionaries sent to 1G4 
 
 pestilence among 239 
 
 rearing their temples 217 
 
 monasteries among 228 
 
 monasteries of, similar to that at 
 
 lona 232 
 
 churches of, "exorcised" 26f5 
 
 Arius : Doctrines of 35, 36 
 
 Augustine, of Hippo: Assailing Pel- 
 
 agius 4.3 
 
 addressing him by letter 46 
 
 member of African council 97 
 
 establishing monasticism 290 
 
 Augustine, the Monk : Seeking Eng- 
 land 218 
 
 ordained Mellitus over East 
 
 Saxons 237 
 
 undue credit given to 240 
 
 pretended miracle by 252 
 
 conference held by, at Augus- 
 tine's Oak 251-2.5.-,, 259 
 
 his haughtiness 2.54, 258 
 
 his assumption of authority. ..255-257 
 command to, from Gregory.. 266 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bangor : (Wales) Site of celebrated 
 
 school 55,56,104 
 
 Gildas, Abbot of 57 
 
 (Ireland) Columba, a member of, 104 
 
 monastery at 292,303, 308 
 
 Baptism : Administered to many 
 
 Britons 49, 50 
 
 immersion (trine) 49 
 
 as administered by St. Patrick... 
 
 49, 151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 157 
 
 infant, unpractised 50, 151, 153 
 
 of believers 50 
 
 of Northumbrians 221 
 
 dministered to unregenerate 
 
 idolaters 238 
 
 Baptists: Claim church independ- 
 ence 158 
 
 may claim St. Patrick substan- 
 tially 163 
 
 Bernard: of Clairvaux 273, 274 
 
 on Irish clergy 287, 288 
 
 Boniface: Reference to and oath of.. 
 
 269-271 
 
 opponents to 2S6 
 
 "Book: that of Armagh '. 42 
 
 in existence a. d 8 :i7 124 
 
 contains St. Patrick's "Confes- 
 sion." .. 124 
 
 of the Angel, a fraud 99, 100 
 
 of Kells 300 
 
 of Durrow 300 
 
 Brigit, St.: St. Patrick's helper 99 
 
 Britain: Gospel introduced into 14 
 
 Roman legions in 14 
 
 Tyrians trading with 15 
 
 Christians in, numerous 28 
 
 the birthplace of Helena 33 
 
 bisliops in 34 
 
 Christians numerous in 37 
 
 education in, under Romans 'M 
 
 Roman cities in 41 
 
 341 
 
342 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Britain: Kevival in, A. D. 429 48 
 
 .'^axon conquest of 54 
 
 division of, by Romans...., 63 
 
 sending helpers to St. Patrick 103 
 
 bishops of, repudiating Augus- 
 tine 255, 256 
 
 Britons: Influencing Anglo-Saxons. 11 
 
 belonging to Celtic race 13 
 
 subjugated by Agricola 14 
 
 adopting Eoman costumes 14 
 
 Greek Christians, preaching to... 16 
 Lucius not king of, as repre- 
 sented 19 
 
 as characterized by Gildas 20 
 
 evangelizing the Picts 166 
 
 evangelistic success among 32 
 
 charge of heresy against 35 
 
 schools among 40 
 
 writings of 40 
 
 many of them Pelagians 44 
 
 attacked by Saxons 45 
 
 religious awakening among 48, 49 
 
 believers' baptism among 50 
 
 monastic schools among 50 
 
 copying Roman elegance 52 
 
 suffering from Roman departure 52 
 
 admitting Saxons 53 
 
 driven to Cornwall and Wales... 53 
 
 held Baptist doctrines 58 
 
 churches of, hostile to Roman- 
 ists 266 
 
 marriage of ministry approved 
 among 285 
 
 Canons: Of Nice and Sardica 
 
 92, 93, 94, 97, 98 
 
 that of Milevi 93 
 
 that of St. Patrick, non-existent 98 
 
 that of Celychyth. 267, 268 
 
 Caedmon: The poet 231,232 
 
 Canterbury: Augustine at 12 
 
 St. Martin's church at 28 
 
 bishops of Rome maintained at.. 176 
 
 baptisms near 218 
 
 archbishop for, appointed 249 
 
 Theodore, archbishop of 264 
 
 new jurisdiction for archbish- 
 ops of 271 
 
 Carthagenians : Rivaled by Greeks.. 15 
 
 Christians: Early zeal of 15 
 
 persecutions of 15 
 
 I PAGE 
 
 Christians: of "Vienne and Lyons. ... 16 
 
 (Greeks) in France 16 
 
 in Britain prosperous 28, 29 
 
 persecution of, by Diocletian.... 29, 30 
 freedom of, under Constantine... 34 
 
 numerous in Britain 37 
 
 forbidden the schools'in Britain 39 
 in Ireland opposed to Pelagian- 
 ism 43 
 
 persecuted by Saxons 54 
 
 enslaved in Ireland 60 
 
 bearing tidings of persecution.... 170 
 renouncing salvation by human 
 
 merit 314 
 
 of Great Britain and Ireland 
 
 believed in heaven direct 332 
 
 Christianity : Origin of, in Britain... 16 
 
 Paul claimed as founder of.. 17 
 
 from East 17 
 
 Eastern origin denied 19 
 
 Rome, reputed founder of. 19 
 
 success of, detailed by Eusebius.. 20 
 
 of Britain 37 
 
 slow growth of in France 38 
 
 in relation to education 39 
 
 destroyed in Britain by Saxons.. 54 
 
 in Ireland 62 
 
 Northumbrians accepting 220 
 
 Church: " Eldest Son " of. 22 
 
 usurpation over ( English) by 
 
 Theodore 264,265 
 
 Scottish, an outlawed commun- 
 ity 267 
 
 Irish, independent of Rome 273 
 
 Irish, protested against Rad- 
 
 bert's view of Eucharist 324 
 
 Churches : In Britain, settled a. d. 
 
 314 34 
 
 interested in Ireland ... 59 
 
 in Ireland independent of the 
 
 pope 85 
 
 in Africa overruled by the pope.. 92 
 of Gaul denied the pope's author- 
 ity 95 
 
 numerous among East Saxons.... 239 
 of ancient Britain essentially 
 
 one Protestant body 250, 251 
 
 of Britain independent of Rome 255 
 of Scots and Britons hostile to 
 
 Romanists 266 
 
 of Ireland independent of Rome 276 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 343 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Clovis and Roman Church 22, 23 
 
 Coliuan, bishop: Brave in defense of 
 
 Protestant Britons 248 
 
 returning to Ireland 249 
 
 Columba: From school at Bangor... 104 
 
 work of, among the Picts 160 
 
 trained in St. Patrick's school.... 182 
 
 his descent and biographers 182 
 
 his preparation for work 183, 184 
 
 work in Ireland ... 185 
 
 his ability and consecration. .185, 186 
 
 success of his work 187-189, 304 
 
 sailing for lona 190 
 
 founding the community 192 
 
 engaged in multiplying Script- 
 ures 196 
 
 his doctrine evangelical 199 
 
 no claim to pardon sin 200 
 
 preached the " word of God" 201 
 
 no good "Life "of... 202 
 
 effort for King Brude 203, 204 
 
 his name commemorated 206 
 
 his services non-liturgical 207 
 
 power in prayer 207, 208 
 
 a peacemaker 209 
 
 incidents of his life 211-216, 322 
 
 his literary work 215 
 
 associates of 216 
 
 not a bishop 283, 284 
 
 vision of. 330 
 
 death of. 330, 331 
 
 did not go to purgatory 331 
 
 Columbanus: Mission ot, to conti- 
 nent 160, 304, 305 
 
 his appeal to Canon of Constan- 
 tinople...; 161 
 
 rule of, for monks 19S 
 
 reference to 296, ?,?.2 
 
 spiritual teaching of 317 
 
 Commentaries: In monasteries... 295-298 
 that of " Wurtzburg Glosses " 297, 298 
 
 that of Sedulius 316-319 
 
 Confession: St. Patrick's 124-145 
 
 Consecrations : Of Saxon Protestant 
 
 Churches 266 
 
 of Westminster Abbey 267 
 
 Cornwall: People of, ancient Britons 277 
 Councils: That of Aries, France, 
 
 A. D. 314 34 
 
 that of Trent, A. D. 156?,. ..35, 321, 332 
 that at Nice, a. d. 325 36, 92 
 
 PA6E 
 
 Councils: That atSardica.A. d. 317,36, 91 
 
 that at Arimiuum, a. d. 3-^0 37 
 
 Hilary of Poictiers on 37 
 
 that at Whitby, a. d. 664 86 
 
 that at Chalcedon, A. D. 451 92 
 
 that of Africa, a. d. 419 97 
 
 that of Constantinople, a. d.381, 160 
 
 that of Celychyth, a. v. 816 267 
 
 that of Brevy 281 
 
 Creed: St. Patrick's 128 
 
 of Constantinople 158 
 
 Druidism: in Britain 13 
 
 overthrown .* 14 
 
 renounced by Cormac MacArt, 
 
 king of Ireland 109 
 
 warred on from lona rJ4 
 
 hostility of 204 
 
 Dumbarton : St. Patrick's birthplace 
 
 at 63 
 
 plundering raids against 66 
 
 East Saxons : Apostasy among 12, 220 
 
 territory of. 237 
 
 Mellitus ordained bishop of. 237 
 
 king of, baptized 238 
 
 numerous churches among 239 
 
 Easter: Epistle regarding 118 
 
 observance of, by Columbanus... IGO 
 
 dispute respecting 
 
 244, 251, 254, 260, 262, 265 
 Elfric's sermon, read on 327 
 
 Episcopacy: In Irish church 282 
 
 Erigena, John Scotus 324-328 
 
 Fiace: Hymn of. 88, 315 
 
 Germanus: Visits Britain 48 
 
 administering baptism 49, 50 
 
 churches named for him 51 
 
 the friend of St. Patrick M 
 
 Gospel: First conquests of 23, 24 
 
 introduction into Britain 25 
 
 in Britain, A. D. 63.. 26 
 
 success of, mentioned by Tertul- 
 
 lian 26, 27 
 
 extended in Britain by monastic 
 
 schools 54 
 
 success of, in Ireland 103 
 
 received by Northumbria. 234 
 
 Greeks: Succeeding Carthapenians, 15 
 Gregory, tlic Groat : .'^ilcnce of, as to 
 
 St. Patrick's success 83 
 
344 
 
 GENERAL IXDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Gregory, the Great: bringing evil to 
 
 Anglo-Saxon Church 219 
 
 command of, to Augustine 266 
 
 Hilda (St.) : Abbess at Whitby 86 
 
 talented and useful 230 
 
 lona : Attempt to make it Romanist. 98 
 
 Columba identified with 186 
 
 founded by Columba 191 
 
 ruins at 192 
 
 the inmatefe of 193 
 
 its development 194 
 
 monks of, engaged in preparing 
 
 Scriptures for circulation 196 
 
 marriage permitted at 198 
 
 no intercessor at, but Christ 213 
 
 plundered by Danes 215 
 
 missionaries for Anglo-Saxons 
 
 from 217 
 
 Anglo-Saxons' monasteries like.. 232 
 
 bishops subject to abbot of. 2s3 
 
 Ireland: Description of. 59 
 
 St. Patrick, a missionary to. ..59, 60 
 
 call of St. Patrick to 69 
 
 Palladius sent to 72 
 
 people of, converted 73 
 
 Christian congregations in, be- 
 fore, A. D. 431 74 
 
 St. Patrick's labors in, successful 76 
 
 gospel victorious in 103 
 
 gospel preached in, by St. Patrick 164 
 
 country of the Scots 166 
 
 Columba's work therein 185 
 
 influence of Scriptures in 205 
 
 furnishing refuge to the perse- 
 cuted 249 
 
 churches in, Baptist as to bishops 282 
 school of the West 308 
 
 Kentigern, St. Mungo: A Briton 178 
 
 his work in Scotland and Wales, 
 
 179, 180 
 spurious miracles connected 
 with 180 
 
 " Lebar Brecc," The: account of 
 St. Patrick's Roman commis- 
 sion in 79, 80 
 
 story of 3t. Patrick in 108 
 
 quotation from 119 
 
 St. Patrick's words of Bible, in... 162 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Leo, the Great : Rescript of. 95 
 
 Lindisfarne: Colman, bishop of 195 
 
 seeof Aidanin 223, 228 
 
 trained men going from 2-8 
 
 Finan, bishop of 238 
 
 Londonderry: Fame and siege of, 
 
 188, 189 
 Lord's Supper: Celebrated in two 
 
 kinds 322 
 
 a figurative sacrifice 323, 328 
 
 transubstantiation of denounced 
 
 324-826 
 Lucius (King) : Not known to Gildas, 20 
 
 not mentioned by Eusebius 21 
 
 unmentioned by Gregory 21 
 
 not " eldest son " of churchr 23 
 
 reputed founder, St. Martin's 
 church 28 
 
 Malachi (St.) : Primacy of 287, 288 
 
 Marriage: Of ministry 285-288 
 
 of monks and nuns, 289-291, 293, 311 
 
 Melrose: Founded by Aidan 229 
 
 Cuthbert trained therein 229 
 
 Mercia : Finan, the missionary to... 235 
 
 dimensions of 236 
 
 Carey, and Judson's ancestors, 
 born in 236 
 
 Monasteries: That at Hippo 290 
 
 that founded by St. Brigit 292 
 
 that at Bangor, oldest.. ..292, 303, 308 
 
 monks at, married 298, 311 
 
 employed for study of Scripture, 293 
 
 that at Clonard^ 293,299, 302 
 
 commentaries written in 295-298 
 
 were Bible societies 299, 300 
 
 Scriptorium in 301 
 
 theological seminaries 302 
 
 home and foreign mission so- 
 cieties 303-307 
 
 that at St. Gall 306 
 
 Irish and Scotch schools 308-310 
 
 that of Seventh Day Baptists 311 
 
 Muirchu Maccu-Mactheni: His no- 
 tice of St. Patrick 87, 318 
 
 story by 107, 108 
 
 account of Patrick at Tara ..115, 11^ 
 
 Ninian : Sent to Picts 85, 295 
 
 mentioned by Bede 87 
 
 welcomed by the Picts 171 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 345 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Ninian: Born a. d. 360, in Wales 173 
 
 of exalted character and success 174 
 
 eminent as a commentator 175 
 
 no marks of Romanism in his 
 work 176 
 
 Northumbria: Edwin, king of 219 
 
 missionary field of Aidan 220 
 
 Oswald, king of 222 
 
 Christianized 2.]:j 
 
 extent of 2U 
 
 persecution in 2G2, 263 
 
 Oswald (king): Mentioned by Bede.. 86 
 
 of saintly character 222 
 
 appointing a see for Aidan 223 
 
 interpreting for Aidan 223 
 
 a brave soldier 226, 227 
 
 his liberality 227 
 
 head of Protestant Church 241 
 
 Palls : Insignia of pope's commis- 
 sion 272,278 
 
 four brought from Rome 273 
 
 requested 275, 276 
 
 Palladius : Sent to Ireland 72. 73 
 
 name of, confounded with St. 
 
 Patrick's 74 
 
 Tirechan's reference to 77 
 
 ordained by Pope Celestine 81 
 
 laboring in Pictland 177, 178 
 
 Papal Rome : Relation of, to pagan- 
 ism 21 
 
 mission efforts of, delayed 22 
 
 its commission of St. Patrick 80 
 
 appeals to 91 
 
 canon commanding appeals to.... 99 
 Niuian's connection with, ceased 175 
 failure of, among East Saxons, 
 
 240, 241 
 
 guilty of bribery 244 
 
 persecuting Protestant Chris- 
 tians 247,248 
 
 seeking authority in Britain 
 
 253-256, 272, 273, 277-279 
 atrocities of, in Northumbria, 262, 264 
 " " Wales and Scot- 
 land.. 280 
 
 Paschasius Radbert : Novel view of 324 
 
 Scotus opposed to 325,326 
 
 Paulinus (Suetonius) : Destroying 
 
 Druids 13 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Paulinus: Missionary work of.. ...13, 221 
 
 Pelagius: War against 36 
 
 a Briton 41 
 
 an eminent scholar 42, 295 
 
 his errors 43 
 
 character of, unblemished 43 
 
 assailed by Augustine 43 
 
 followers defeated in debate 44 
 
 a writer of force 46 
 
 made many friends 46 
 
 among ablest of British Chris- 
 tians 47 
 
 monks, in his time 289 
 
 Pelagianism : In Britain, a. D. 425..,. 44 
 
 defeated 44 
 
 revived 45 
 
 outbreak of, in Wales 55 
 
 Persecution : Cruelty of, under Dio- 
 cletian 29-31, 169 
 
 St. Alban martyred in 29, 80 
 
 discontinued by Galerius 31,32 
 
 against Britons by Saxons 54 
 
 of anti-Romanists 247, 248 
 
 of Scots 262-268 
 
 Picts, the: Invading Britain 45 
 
 opposed by Gerraanus 48 
 
 ferocious warriors 52 
 
 Ninian sent to them 85 
 
 success of Columba among 160 
 
 united with Scots 166 
 
 evangelized by Britons, 166, 168, 170 
 
 unconquered by Romans 169 
 
 work of Columba among 304 
 
 Protestants: Original inhabitants of 
 
 Britain, such 250 
 
 interest excited by 258 
 
 pope afraid of spirit of 269 
 
 Irish, conspicuous evangelists of, 310 
 
 Purgatory: No belief in 330-332 
 
 Religious Liberty : favored by St 
 
 Patrick 162 
 
 by Columba and Columbanus 
 
 163, 164 
 
 dear to Scots 259 
 
 Romans: Legions of, in Britain 14 
 
 favoring education 39, 40 
 
 cities of, in Britain 41 
 
 removing from Britain 51,5.' 
 
 not attempting conque<;t of Ire- 
 land 59 
 
346 
 
 GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Romans unable to conquer the Picts. 169 
 
 Schools: Among Britalns 40 
 
 monastic, established 50, 51 
 
 Bible studied in 54 
 
 that at Bangor 56, 303, 308 
 
 that at Whitby 86,229, 230 
 
 that of St. Patrick 103, 105 
 
 that at Durrow 118, 187 
 
 that at Londonderry 186 
 
 that at lona 186, 189 
 
 no rules at, of celibacy and pov- 
 erty 198 
 
 the brotherhood of, supreme...... 199 
 
 that at Melrose 223 
 
 that at Lindisfarne 223, 228 
 
 those of Lismore and Slane 309 
 
 Scots, The: Possessed an earlier 
 
 home than Caledonia 105 
 
 missionaries from, successful in 
 
 England 240, 241 
 
 did not train their converts 242 
 
 bribery seduced their con- 
 verts 24.3,244 
 
 disputes of, with Romanists.. .244-248 
 
 Romish institutions hated by 259 
 
 papal libel on 260 
 
 expulsion of, from England. ..262, 263 
 compulsory uniformity repug- 
 nant to... 264 
 
 churches of, hostile to Roman- 
 ists 266 
 
 church of, outlawed 267 
 
 Scriptures, The : Studied in schools, 56 
 
 texts from,-cited 57 
 
 copies of, multiplied at lona and 
 
 elsewhere 197 
 
 beuefits of, in Ireland 205 
 
 ministry of, sanctioning mar- 
 riage 286 
 
 St. Patrick's disciples versed in.. 291 
 Secundinus: Alphabetical hymn of 
 
 88, 89, 104 
 makes a grand character of St. 
 
 Patrick 89 
 
 had knowledge of Greek and 
 
 Latin 104 
 
 Sedulius: Commentary of... ..316, 319, 329 
 
 St. David 55 
 
 St. Patrick: Birthplace of 
 
 40, 63, 04, 65, 68 
 
 PAGS 
 
 St. Patrick: kidnapped 41, 64 
 
 father of 41, 285 
 
 compared with Pelagius 47 
 
 baptized in a well 49.) 
 
 administered immersion 49 
 
 became a missionary to Irish. ..59, 60 
 
 ordaining and edifying 62 
 
 held as a slave 66 
 
 a Briton 67 
 
 born about a, t>. 360 69 
 
 unskilled as a scholar 69 
 
 his call to preach 69, 70 
 
 letter of to Coroticus 70, 71 
 
 in Ireland long before supposed 
 
 papal mission 72 
 
 his work ignored by papal 
 
 authorities 73 
 
 confounded with Palladius 74 
 
 his vision 75, 315 
 
 a missionary to Ireland before 
 
 end of fourth century 76 
 
 stories of by Tirechan 77, 78 
 
 had no papal commission 80 
 
 his "Confession" 80-82 
 
 his work unnoticed by Gregory.. 83 
 
 attached to Gallic brethren 84 
 
 not spoken of by Bede 85 
 
 Bede had knowledge of him 87 
 
 reason for non-mention of by 
 
 Bede 87 
 
 did not go to Rome '"§8) 
 
 hymns in praise of. 88 
 
 specimen of Bible Christianity... 90 
 explanation of supposed Roman 
 
 commission 90 
 
 close relations of, to France 96 
 
 reputed canon of, non-existent... 98 
 
 helped by St. Brigit.. 99 
 
 of humble mind 101 
 
 persevering and wise 102 
 
 helpers of, from Gaul and Brit- 
 ain 103 
 
 various works of. 105 
 
 of powerful intellect 105 
 
 preaching to King Loeghaire's 
 
 daughters 105, 106 
 
 of great courage 105, 106 
 
 his visit to Miliuc 107 
 
 his visit to King Loeghaire 
 
 108, 314, 316 
 visit of, to Tara 112, 113, 115, 116 
 
GENERAL INDEX. 
 
 347 
 
 PAGE 
 
 St. Patrick : His relation to miracles 116 
 
 his knowledge of Irish 116 
 
 his magnetic power 116 
 
 reliance of, upon God 117 
 
 his brethren, Baptists 117 
 
 results of his work 118 
 
 quotations regarding 118-123 
 
 "Confession" of 124-145 
 
 his letter to Coroticus 145-150 
 
 his creed 128, 159, 316 
 
 his adherence to scriptural bap- 
 tism 152, 154, 155-157, 251 
 
 held to the independence of 
 
 churches 158 
 
 ordained his own tishops 160 
 
 agreement with modern Bap- 
 tists IGl 
 
 his words about the Bible 162 
 
 St. Patrick and religious liberty 162 
 
 remarkable as a missionary 164 
 
 substantially a Baptist 164 
 
 reference to conversion of Irish. 290 
 his disciples versed in Scripture. 291 
 
 he preached Christ 315 
 
 he preached conversion 316 
 
 opposed to purgatory 330 
 
 Taliessyn : Extracts from. 
 
 261 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tara: Capital of Ireland 110 
 
 people met at Ill 
 
 the feast at Ill, 112 
 
 St. Patrick's visit to 112, 113 
 
 The Deer's Cry (liymn) 114, 115 
 
 Tirechan: An unreliable biogra- 
 pher of St. Patrick 77, 78 
 
 St. Patrick's selection of a bish- 
 op in 286 
 
 Tyrians : Supplanted by Carthage... 15 
 
 Virgin Mary : Intercessory office of 
 
 not mentioned 321 
 
 Wales: Eomish authority in 277, 278 
 
 peculiar circumstances of ac- 
 quirement 278, 279 
 
 Protestantism of, a sacrifice to 
 
 Rome 279 
 
 Wall, Roman: Built against Picia 
 
 and Scots 167 
 
 West Saxons: Chad, bishop of 240 
 
 Whitby : Council at, A. D. 664 86 
 
 school at 86 
 
 Whitefield : Used as illustration..242, 243 
 
 " Wiirtzburg Glo.sses " 
 
 297, 298, 308, 309, 312-314, 315, 316 
 318-320, 328, 329. 
 
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