1,1 . 5 the futbor f s Compliments. IEELAND AND SAINT PATKICK IRELAND SAINT PATRICK WILLIAM BULLEN MOEEIS OF THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI Alone amongst the Northern nations, Ireland adhered to the Ancient Faith LORD MACAULAY LONDON AND NEW YORK BUBNS & GATES, LIMITED DUBLIN : M. H. GILL & SON 1891 CONTENTS. PAGE SUMMARY, vii INTRODUCTION, xx ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK, 1 ADRIAN IV. AND HENRY PLANTAGENET, .... 65 ST. PATRICK'S WORK, PAST AND PRESENT, .... 148 THE SAINTS AND THE WORLD, 219 THE FUTURE? .252 INDEX OF NAMES, 299 2057855 S IT M M A E Y. INTRODUCTION. PAGE St. Patrick's undying influence, xix Saints images of the unchanging God xx They rule, while dead sages are made to serve our purposes, . xxi Dr. Todd on St. Patrick's enduring empire, .... xxii St. Martin's life the key to that of St. Patrick, . . . xxiii The " Bull of Pope Adrian," xxiv . Unmeaning and incredible, ....... xxv Rejected by German scholars, xxvi Ireland and " the Revolution," xxvii Card. Newman and Irish rustic theology, . . . .xxviii Faith the power that rules priests as well as people, . . xxix The Catechism and Christian chivalry, xxx ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. Vicissitudes of St. Patrick's history, ...... 1 The Church the true judge of its authenticity, .... 2 The manner in which that history has been attacked, . . 2 Connection of St. Patrick and St. Martin, .... 3 Imperfect records of early Missionaries, ..... 5 His life tested by analogy of Catholic Hagiology, ... 6 Denial of the supernatural is denial of the Saints, ... 7 And with them of all Christian history, 8 Hiddenness of Christianity an evidence of its Divine origin, . 9 Marmoutier, and the Patrician traditions of Touraine, . . 10 At the age of twenty-two St. Patrick joins St. Martin, . . 11 viii SUMMARY. PAGE Harmony of the chronology of the two Saints, . . . .12 The Patria or Fatherland of St. Patrick, 13 St. Patrick's own writings the only safe foundation of his history, 13 St. Patrick a Roman citizen, 14 Theory that Scotland was his birthplace 15 State of Scotland at the close of the IVth century, . . .16 Abandoned by the Romans, 17 St. Patrick's frequent allusions to Ireland as a foreign, and distant country, 19 Incompatible with his alleged Scottish birth, . . . .19 " A stranger and wanderer among barbarian nations," . . 20 His Fatherland more important than his Birthplace, . . 22 Invalidity of the argument based on the Saint's use of the word Britannia, 23 Assertion that Britannias can only apply to Great Britain, . 25 Saint's account of his capture inconsistent with the Scotch theory, 26 Slemish, and the Saint's captivity in Ireland, .... 27 Narrative of his escape, points to Gaul as his country, . . 28 His journey to the ship, took him away from Scotland, . . 28 His first acquaintance with the people near the " Western Sea," 29 He recognises them on his return to Ireland as a missioner, . 31 St. Patrick's account of his journey to Marmoutier, . . .33 The evidence of Probus agrees with the Confession, ... 34 He identifies the line of the Saint's journey to Tours, . . 35 The country between Trajectus and Tours described by St. Patrick, 36 The traditions of St. Patrice, and the Saint's passage of the Loire, 37 The " Flowers of St. Patrick," 38 And the ancient Church of St. Patrick on the same spot, . . 40 Marianas Scottus, and Probus on the Saint's connection with St. Martin, 43 St. Patrick's longevity no longer a difficulty, .... 44 Chronology of his history is supported by that of St. Martin, . 45 Supernatural character of St. Patrick's early lite, ... 46 His austerity and prayers during his captivity, ... 47 The monastery of Marmoutier in the year 393, ... 48 Extent and permanence of St. Martin's work, .... 49 St. Patrick's four years under his guidance, .... 51 Striking resemblance between their lives and work, ... 52 Their success impossible without a supernatural mission, . . 53 SUMMAR Y. ix PAGE St. Patrick's character as revealed by his writings, ... 54 In the Lorica and the Confession we see the Saint in different aspects, .......... 55 St. Patrick's life as supernatural as his work, .... 58 His writings are in keeping with the style of his biographers, . 59 The modern assailants of his Roman mission, .... 59 The argument against the Roman origin of the Irish Church, . 60 "\Yould be equally cogent if applied to the Church in Gaul, . 60 St. Leo and St. Patrick (A.D. 441), 61 Loyalty of France and Ireland to their national Apostles, . 62 The spiritual empire founded by St. Patrick's children, . . 63 The purity of Irish faith the pledge of its future triumphs, . 64 ADRIAN IV. AND HENRY PLANTAGENET. Alleged gift of Ireland to Henry II., 65 Believers in the " Bull " : sources of their information, . . 66 Story of the donation sleeps until the 16th century, ... 67 Supposed origin in 1155, 68 Inconsistent with the relations of Rome and Ireland in 1152, . 69 " Bull" ignores all existing ecclesiastical authority in Ireland, . 69 Confers unlimited spiritual authority upon the king, . . 70 Public and private character of Henry II., .... 71 St. Thomas of Canterbury a check upon the king, ... 73 Appointed Lord Chancellor, 74 Henry dreaded in Rome before his accession, .... 75 Adrian IV. 's nationality a strong argument against the story, . 76 Friendship of the Anglo-Saxons and the Irish, .... 77 Common victims of Norman rapacity, ..... 77 Anglo-Saxons in Irish schools and monasteries, ... 78 History and character of Pope Adrian IV., . . 78 The sufferings of the Saxons under Norman rule, ... 79 Cruelty of the barons, ........ 81 Adrian IV.'s early life and ecclesiastical training, ... 81 The monks of Saint-Ruf revolt against his rule, . . . 82 B. Eugenius III. supports him, and creates him Cardinal, . 82 His work as Papal Legate, and Apostle of Norway and Denmark, 83 Venerated in Rome ; unanimously elected Pope, . . .83 Humbles the pride of the Emperor Frederick, .... 84 His defence of ecclesiastical authority against the civil power, . 85 x SUMMAR Y. PAGE Assertion that Ireland had lapsed from the Christian faith, . 85 Process by which this indictment has been constructed, . . 86 Unsatisfactory state of the history of Pagan, and Christian Ire- land, 87 Religious liberty in Ireland, and England in the 12th century, 88 St. Thomas describes the tyranny of Henry II., ... 89 Condition of Ireland on the accession of the king, ... 89 Pagan foreigners in Ireland : evil influence of the Danes, . 90 Irish missionary enterprise : meagre accounts by native writers, 91 Religious state of Ireland ; the motive alleged for the concession to Henry, 92 Lingard deceived by St. Bernard's oratorical style, ... 93 Character of Giraldus Cambrensis as an historian, ... 94 Exaltation of the Church in Ireland under St. Malachy, . . 95 The Irish discredited by Paganism of Danish settlers, . . 96 Restricted sense in which St. Bernard uses the word barbarism, 97 Importance of the evidence drawn from his Life of St. Malachy, 98 His writings enable us to limit, and explain the charge of " bar- barism," 99 Bishops and princes force St. Malachy to accept the See of Armagh, 100 Sanctity and influence of Irish Bishops in the 12th century, . 101 Pre-eminence of the Archbishops of Armagh, .... 101 St. Malachy at Rome : appointed Papal Legate in Ireland, . 102 Relations between Rome and Ireland, three years before the date of the " Bull," 103 Those relations inconsistent with the alleged motive for the "Bull," Ki4 St. Laurence O'Toole, Papal Legate, resists the Norman invasion, 106 Becomes the object of Henry's unrelenting hostility, . . 1<>6 And the confidential minister of the Pope, .... 107 Sympathy between the Danes, and Normans in Ireland, . . 109 Moral abuses follow the arrival of the Anglo-Norman clergy, . 110 Aspect of the invasion as it appeared to the writers of the ancient Irish Annals, Ill The causes which led to the first Norman incursion,. . .112 The Annals condemn the action of Devmot, king of Leinster, . 113 And stigmatise the invaders as enemies of the Church, . .114 SUMMARY. xi PAGE Political organisation of Ireland in the 12th century, . .115 Similar to that of ancient Greece, and mediaeval Italy, . .116 Normans adopt the customs of, and intermarry with, the Irish, 117 Honour paid by the Normans to Irish women, . . . .117 Exalted position of women in Ireland in Pagan, and Christian times, 118 Tactics of the literary advocates of the " Bull," . . .119 Authority of the collection known as the " Roman Bullarium," 120 The " Bull " of Adrian IV. included in it, on the evidence of English writers, 120 It is destitute of all the formalities which could attest its authenticity, 121 Presents a marked contrast to the genuine Bulls of Adrian IV., 121 The " Bull " tested by comparison with undisputed documents of Adrian IV., 124 His Bulls remarkable for their defence of the rights of 'the Church, 125 Rebukes the king of France for his contemplated Crusade in Spain, 126 And insists on the necessity of consulting the Rulers of the country, . . . . . . . . . .127 The light thrown by this letter upon the supposed transaction with Henry, 128 Strict formality, the characteristic of Adrian's authentic Bulls, 129 The "Bull" not produced by Henry II. until sixteen years after the Pope's death, 130 And thirty-four years after the date assigned to it, . . .131 Relations between John of Salisbury and Pope Adrian IV., . 132 The alleged concession as related in the Metalogicus, . . 133 The " Bull " not mentioned in the 339 published letters of John of Salisbury, . . .133 (.} Notice of it placed at the end of the Mdaloyicm, . . .134 And thus in the position best suited for interpolation, and forgery 134 The passage in Metalogiciis inconsistent with other writings of John of Salisbury, 135 Powers conferred by the "Bull" were those for which the king was contending in England, 136 xii SUMMARY. PAGE Character of the accused the chief element in a charge of forgery, 137 Henry's denial of complicity in the murder of St. Thomas, . 137 His well-known character favours the supposition of forgery, . 138 His invasion of Ireland opposed by the Papal Legate, and Bishops, 139 The King did not produce the " Bull" when it was Ms interest to do so, 140 The causes which have served to give vitality to the " Bull," . 142 Dr. Lanigan's injudicious treatment of the evidence, . .144 His irritation and prejudices carry him further than Giraldus Cambrensis, 145 Lanigan's great authority used against Ireland by her calum- niators, 146 The " Bull " succumbs under its own documentary evidence, . And the bad character of Henry Plantagenet, . . . .147 ST. PATRICK'S WORK, PAST AND PRESENT. Sympathy with St. Patrick's work the test of unity in Faith, . 148 Circumstances forcing us to vindicate his work, . . . 149 Poverty, and unworldliness of the early Irish Church, . . 150 After fourteen centuries they are still her characteristics, . 151 The aspect of the Christian religion disappoints the world, . 151 Ireland perpetuates the simplicity, and sufferings of the Primi- tive Church, 152 Ordeal through which she has passed in the last three cen- turies, 153 Suffers for her loyalty, as well as for her religion, . . .153 Followers of James II. who died in the service of France, . 154 The exodus which followed the fall of the Stuarts, . . .155 Irish religious conquests in spite of the Penal Laws, . . 156 Difficulty of proving the moral pre-eminence of a nation, . 157 In the case of Ireland the evidence is above suspicion, . . 158 The scope of our argument, .160 Mr. Froude the representative assailant of Catholic Ireland, . 161 Mr. Lecky encounters Mr. Froude, 162 And demolishes his English in Ireland, 163 Froude's treatment of the documents relating to the rebellion of 1641, 164 SUMMAR Y. xiii Bnrke's account of Leland's history of that period, . . . 165 Mr. Froude writes a Romance as a sequel to his History, . . 160 His purpose, says Lecky, is to "blacken" Irish Catholics, . 167 The credence which is given to his writings, .... 168 Mr. Froude on Irishmen's teeth, ...... 16f> Mr. Froude appears as a witness on the Irish side, . . . Contradictory judgments in 1877, 1880, and 1889, . . . The proportion between his indictments and his proofs, . . Comparison between his opinions upon Ireland at various periods, 172 Sydney Smith on anti-Irish insanity, 173 Mr Froude's dread of the " assimilating" power of the Irish, . 174 Remarks of Augustin Thierry, and Mr. Lecky on the same subject, 175 Testimony of Mr. Lecky to the moral and religious spirit of the people, .......... 176 Mr. Lecky and Mr. Froude weighed in the balance, . .178 Arthur Young on the virtues of the Irish, .... 179 Mr. Carr and the " manufacture of Irish outrages," . . .181 Irish love of justice, and respect for law, impartially ad- ministered, 182 Mr. Dewar on " Anglo-Hibernian antipathy " and Irish re- serve, .... 183 Mr. and Mrs. Hall's estimate of the character of the Irish poor, 184 Importance of their judgment : extent of their investigations, 185 Dr. Forbes' experience among the middle, and lower classes, . 186 He compares the moral standard of Ireland, with England and Wales, 187 And ascribes the superior morality of the Irish to the practice of Confession, 188 Flippant productions of later writers on Irish social and domestic life, 189 Mill defends the Irish against the charge of laziness, . . 190 Sydney Smith's testimony to Irish truthfulness, . . .191 Beggare, not fair samples of national veracity, . . . .192 Merits, and defects of Trench's Realities of Irish Life, . . 192 The effect it produced in England, 193 Dr. Forbes' defence of Irish veracity, 195 Equivocal answers often due to an imperfect knowledge of English, 196 xiv SUMMAR Y. l'\ UK Generosity of Protestant ministers in rebuking Protestant bigotry, 197 Mr. Trench's pictures of Irish domestic life, . . . .198 "Justice " his remedy for agrarian outrage in Ireland, . .199 His analysis of motives of crime in Ireland and England, . 200 Pre-eminence of the Irish in the purity of family life, . . 201 Sir Francis Head's experience of Irish children, . . . 202 His evidence to the virtue of Irishwomen, .... 203 Mr. Lecky on the Virgin Mother, and the Christian ideal, . 204 Woman raised into a new sphere, 205 The circumstances of Ireland, antagonistic to morality, . . 236 Religion draws blessings from adversity, . , . . 206 And offers the only equality possible in this world, . . . 207 Lord Bacon on the spiritual advantages of adversity, . . 208 Burke on Church and State in Ireland, . . . . 209 The Catholic Church in Ireland and the " Revolution," . . 209 Burke on Jacobinism as the result of " penury and irritation," 210 And anarchy from the use of law for party purposes, . . 211 William IV. on Irish courage, and loyalty, . . . 212 (n.) Perfect equality in the army and navy : its results, . . 213 The hospital and the battlefield, 214 " Spendthrift " Ireland, 215 Are her people really the worse for this ? .... 216 The Religion which gives dignity to poverty, . . . .217 St. Patrick's legacy to mankind, 218 THE SAINTS AND THE WORLD. 1892 The Fourteenth Centenary of St. Patrick, . . .219 The Saints never die, 220 "Modern thought" and modern luxury, 220 Modern world weary of itself, 221 " Spectrum analysis " not the summit of Civilisation, . . 222 Poetry in its relations to history, 223 Poetry the severest test of human character, .... 224 Without Faith it is impossible to describe a Saint, . . . 225 Aubrey de Vere as an historical poet, 226 His spirit as pure and exalted as that of Dante, . . . 227 Like Dante, inspired by Catholic philosophy, .... 228 His St. Patrick has given a soul to lifeless criticism, . . 229 SUM MAR Y. xv PAGE St. Patrick amid the Saints, what Dante is amongst the poets, 230 The battle of the Future between the Church and literature, . 231 The world now asks to see God manifest in man, , . . 232 And we point to the Ada Sanctorum, 232 Tertullian said the soul was " naturally Christian," . . . 233 The despair of the rebel bears witness to this truth, . . 234 St. Edmund the Martyr conquers Carlyle, .... 235 Admiration, inspired by the Saints, impossible in the natural order, 236 Napoleon's estimate of fame, ....... 236 Saints' lives suited to individual tastes, ..... 237 Voltaire and St. Louis of France, ...... 238 Lord Bacon on the sublimity of sacrifice, ..... 239 Philosophy in novels, ........ 240 British classics invincibly Christian, ..... 241 Carlyle "tired to death" with German philosophic "palabra," . 241 St. Paul and " old wives' fables," 242 Marian Evans, alias " George Eliot," 243 Dante a witness to the kindred between genius and sanctity, . 244 How Carlyle missed his place in literature, .... 245 Dante, like St. Patrick, an interpreter of the invisible, . . 246 But the Saint was also its impersonation, .... 247 And for fourteen centuries he has held his own, . . . 248 Cardinal Newman on modern intellectual " self-conceit,'' . . 249 Irish conservatism of the one thing worth preserving, . . 250 THE FUTURE? The Future peopled by our own desires, ..... 252 The Past our only safe informant, ...... 252 Why should there not be peace between the British Govern- ment and the Irish Church ?...... 253 Gustave de Beaumont lifts the discussion to a higher level, . 253 Sees meat human problems best among an unfortunate people, 254 Calamities of Ireland born of fidelity to Religion, . . . 255 Conquest, and confiscation still enduring, .... 255 The wounds of religious wars still deep and living in Ireland, 2"() Religion the only ground which has never sunk under the Irish poor, ......... 257 xvi SUMMARY. PAGE Justice to this religion, not an indifferent matter *x> the rest of the world, 258 Now face to face with power without principle, . . . 25J> Danger of depending on mere economic theories, . . . 260 The Irish priesthood on trial, 261 Sympathy and respect for the poor the secret of their power, . 262 "The only class," says De Beaumont, who "love the lower orders," 265 Solomon, and St. Teresa on contempt and hatred of the poor, . 264 Reverence for the poor the animating principle of political Chivalry, 265 Their spiritual elevation the great problem of modern society, 266 Only secured by a sense of their dignity before God, . . 266 Irish virtue not an ingredient in the blood, .... 267 Their ideal is that of St. Paul, 268 The poor believe in teachers who come down to the same level, 26!> Godless education robs the poor of their eternal birthright, . 27 The Church teaches those virtues by which the State lives, . 271 And the wisest men outside Church are our witnesses to the fact, 272 Attempt to enlist Burke on the side of State education, . . 273 In his opinion, society without religion cannot exist, . . 274 His horror of the Atheistic schools of France, .... 274 His analysis of the limited power of the Catholic priest, . . 275 And the absurdity of supposing the Confessional to be a political engine, 276 Lord Fitzwilliam on the laws which govern the Confessional, 277 And the relations of the priest and the penitent, . . . 277 The Encyclicals of Leo. XIII., 278 And the intellectual preparation necessary for their compre- hension, 27& Religion is self-supporting not so with learning, . . . 280 Cardinal Newman and Higher Education in Ireland, . . 281 His confidence in the Christian foundations of our literature, . 282 His rejection by our rulers, and its consequences, . . . 283 We demand education in our own way Why not 1 . . 285 Catholic adherence to the principle in dubiis libertas, . . 284 Bishop Doyle, and the restraints which religion imposes on the patriot 284 And the value of supernatural principles in the government of the poor, 285 SUMMAR Y. xvi PAGE Cardinal Newman and the Britisli Constitution, . . . 287 It can afford to give liberty because of its security, . . . 287 The Catholic religion in harmony with its best traditions, . 288 Literature stifled in Ireland, 289 Denial of rights is persecution, ...... 290 Great Britain the foremost teacher of Constitutional Liberty, . 291 Catholics more tolerant than Protestants, .... 292 Burke on the coercive power of a State religion, . . . 293 Why he desired the exaltation of the Catholic Church in Ireland, 294 Had his principles prevailed, peace would now reign in Ireland, 295 Christian principles not dead or dying in this Empire, . . 296 The Church has conquered " the Revolution " in Ireland, . 297 And is now the sole bond, and arbiter between rich and poor, . 297 Lilium inter spinas, ......... 298 INTRODUCTION, WHEN it is said that in the history of Christendom there is nothing like the unchanging and sovereign connection of St. Patrick with Ireland, this need not imply that his influence has been more success- ful or more salutary than that of other Saints. For literary purposes it is enough that it should be peculiar ; for it is that which is singular which arouses interest and curiosity : we do not want to be reminded of common things however wonderful. Although the following Essays have been written at long internals, the moral is the same throughout ; and just because there is a moral, and a line of argument, a certain ex parte tone is inevitable, and this, I fear, will prejudice some readers against the conclusions. In the writings of Catholics about the Saints this is unavoidable, for we believe that they are the accredited intermediaries between heaven and earth the greatest, because the only absolute and unquestionable benefactors of mankind. The noblest and the most unselfish human agent xx INTRODUCTION. can rise no higher than his cause. If he is mis- taken, his good intentions will not avail to save himself, and others from the inherent evil which saps the foundations of all things human ; whereas, the mistakes of the Saints are only accidents, and do . not affect the substance of that Divine Truth of which they are at once the organs and representa- tives. We expect to find in the lives and influence of the Saints an image of that consistency : that unity in variety which reveals the co-operation of God. If it were not so they would not be Saints, but mere men like their fellows, the slaves of their surroundings. It is the fashion with those who have no faith in virtues higher than their own, to accuse the bio- graphers of the Saints of painting an imaginary perfection for the purpose of edification. Saints' lives, we are told, must be fictions, because the characters they reveal are as perfect as those of romance ; as if God was not able to do as much as the imagination of man can invent. They are false, it is said, because they do not reveal the weak side of human nature they tell us little or nothing about faults ; but what can we do, when, as so often happened, their contemporaries could not discover their imperfections, although from the very fact that they were consistent Christians they were in perpetual conflict with the world, and exposed to its fiercest criticisms. INTRODUCTION. xxi No men are so consistent as the Saints, for none are so absolutely under the dominion of the fixed and all-embracing law of God ; and when this is mani- fest in men who are types of that burning en- thusiasm which is one form of sanctity, as in the case of Elias, St. Paul, and St. Patrick, the miracle of consistency is all the more wonderful. That such men should be able to guide with unerring eye and hand the fiery chariot of their own souls, and become, moreover, the instructors and masters of the wise and prudent until the end of time, is a spiritual phenomenon which we do not find in other quarters in this mutable and inconsistent world. It is true indeed that we invoke the aid of the poets, philosophers, and politicians of the past, but not as our masters ; it is we who turn them to our own account, taking as much or as little from them as suits our purposes. It would be unreal, therefore, to say that any nation is ruled by its dead sages, whereas, in different degrees and in proportion to the enduring vitality of the faith which they taught, we all feel that Catholic Saints preserve their personal influence from generation to genera- tion. That this has been, and is the case in Ireland is a fact about which Catholics and Protestants are agreed ; and in the following Essays some attempt is made to trace the causes, and illustrate the nature of that influence. No one is more eloquent in his xxii INTRODUCTION, acknowledgments of this fact than Dr. Todd, 1 whose " monumental " life of the Saint, as it has been admiringly styled, is the great stronghold of the Protestant tradition regarding the Apostle of Ire- land ; but whether the Saint that he pictures was likely to have done the work of an Apostle must be left to the judgment of the reader. When it is asserted that a spiritual leader has never relaxed his hold on a people for fourteen centuries, the statement is so extraordinary that we may well pardon those who are incredulous and de- mand proof. But how can this be done, except by going back over the whole period a work beyond the capacity of reader as well as writer *? Surely in such an investigation we may get help from the logic of induction, and if, at intervals in this long period we find the same singular and unmistakable spiritual phenomena in the history of Ireland, we are justified in arguing for their continuity, just 1 Beginning rather timorously to resist theold Protestant theory that the history of St. Patrick is of " recent origin," he gradually rises to the level of his subject, and continues : " It is incredible that a whole nation should have combined thus to deceive themselves ; and it is even more incredible that a mythological personage should have left upon a whole nation so indelible an impression of imaginary services ; an impression which continues to the present day in their fireside lore, their local traditions, their warm-hearted devotion and gratitude ; which has left also its lasting memorial in the ancient names of hills and headlands, towns and villages, churches and monasteries, through- out the country." (Apostle of Ireland, Pref. p. v.) INTRODUCTION. xxiii as the geologist believes in the course of stratas, although he has only dug at the beginning middle and end. I have always held that St. Patrick's relations with St. Martin are the key to some of the greatest perplexities in his life, and that the history of the great Apostle of Gaul is the best set-off which we possess to that of St. Patrick. In both we see how, in those simple days, sanctity in an Apostolic Bishop was the chief quality the times demanded, and how the supremacy of the Apostle, in the absence of all earthly auxiliaries, made the Saint all in all to his disciples, and stamped his personality upon them. Moreover, the critical and historical importance of the Patrician traditions of Marmoutier, the monastery of St. Martin, can hardly be exaggerated. "The most ancient Abbey in Europe," as it is proudly styled by Dorn Martene, its Benedictine annalist, was one of the chief citadels of the learning of the West in St. Patrick's time. Venerated by Clovis and his Francs its traditions carry us on through the ten or more centuries of its Benedictine occupation to our own times. Its records and traditions, as well as those of the neighbouring Church of St. Patrick, are un- broken, and have therefore a value which cannot be attached to the early Church history of Ireland or Scotland, the continuity of which has again and again been broken by barbarian inroads, xxiv INTROD UCTION. and the 3till more destructive invasions of the agents and ministers of Henry Tudor and John Knox. St. Patrick's life in Ireland is the matter of his biography, which I have tried to deal with else- where, so I next take up the study of his work and influence in the twelfth century, the period at which, according to English historians, they were well nigh extinguished. The supposed letter of Adrian IV. to Henry Plantagenet has given a colour- to this most unfounded supposition, and so the dis- cussion of the authenticity of this document has found its way into my pages. Were it not for the argument which it is supposed to carry with it against the character of the Irish Church in the twelfth century, the document itself would not have much importance. It shows a strange ignorance of the constitution of kingdoms in the Middle Ages when the title of Dominux or ''Lord," which was all that Henry II. aspired to in Ireland, and which was all that the English kings claimed until the time of Henry VIII. , is supposed to have been equivalent to that of king. What Dominus meant in the international law of the period is very hard positively to determine, but that it was a title of honour, rather than of authority, is plain from the way in which the English kings themselves, who were vassals of the king of INTR OD UCTION. xxv France treated their own superior, with whom they were in constant and deadly conflict. If, therefore, as is suggested, Pope Adrian IV. had desired to invest Henry of England with a barren dignity similar to that of the King of France as suzerain of the Duke of Normandy, no violence need have been done to the national life of Ireland. Such an idea, however, as we shall see, is in direct contradiction to all that we know of this uncompromising and heroic Pontiff, who rivalled St. Gregory VII. in his consistent resistance to gigantic tyranny. All the Popes have not been equally successful, but as rulers none have ever laid aside that paternal character which their name implies. It was the beginning and the end of their strength as the Fathers of Christendom. The defence of the weak against the strong is the essence of that " priestcraft" which is the only immortal domination; and in what the world calls craft and policy. Catholics worship that Charity of Christ which has subdued the world. It is true that at times Popes have seemed to side with the .strong ; but it was when, in their far-reaching wisdom, they saw that it was the only way of saving the weak. It was so in Ireland when the irresistible Norman Free-Lances, who first came over at the invitation of a native prince, but ultimately by innumerable alliances with native Princesses, even xxvi INTR OD UCTION. more than by arms, 1 had made a permanent settlement in the country. The action of the Popes, therefore, as seen in the various documents subsequent to Adrian IV. which are found in Theiner's collection, does not touch our question. The subject has lately attracted the attention of German scholars, who, as may be expected, are undisturbed by the political or sectarian spirit which has always in- fected the discussion in these countries ; and, as we learn from Dr. Bellesheim's recent German History of the Church in Ireland, the tide of historical opinion in Germany has set strongly against the supposed "Bull of Adrian" and the letter of Alex- ander III., in which the latter Pope is said to mention it. For my part, I have nothing to add to my brief study of this complicated subject, except 1 In 1753 James Fitz-Gerald, Earl of Kildare, in a memorial to George II., remarks of his ancestors, the Geraldines : "By the in- heritance of lands, by inter-marriages with princesses of the king- dom, they became powerful." (Earls of Kildare, by the Marquis of Kildare, p. 285.) The same pacific treaties were also the rule with the other great Norman families. Such was the alliance of Strongbow with Eva Princess of Leinster, a much more important event than that " Conquest," of which the careful and learned Sir John Davies, Attorney-General in Ireland (1612), writes : " Five months after his first arrival, he (Henry II.), departed out of Ireland without striking one blow, or burning one Castle, or planting one garrison among the Irish, neither left he behind him one true subject more than those he found there at his coming over, which were only the English Adventurerers spoken of before . . . and this is that Conquest of King Henry II., so much spoken of." (Discoverie why Ireland was never subdued, ct-c., p. 12). INTRODUCTION. xxvii (at p. 133 n.) to make one additional remark on the supposed testimony of John of Salisbury in support of the claims of Henry Plantagenet, which, as will be seen, I regard as the only argument in favour of the " Bull," the critical value of which is worth discussing. It is certainly a notable fact that in the immense correspondence of this very communi- cative writer, as far as I can discover, there should only be one allusion to Ireland, in a letter to Pope Alexander III. complaining of those clerics who tried to escape from the control of their own bishop by taking refuge in " Wales, England, Ireland, and Scotland." In the concluding Essays we tread upon more dangerous ground. They are studies of St. Patrick's work brought down to our own times, and there are few questions of the day which are more fiercely contested. It is hardly too much to say that at present there is no country in the world where more of the vital interests of mankind are on trial than in Ireland. Longer than any nation in Europe she has been fighting that popular battle for freedom which so often in its frenzy, there as elsewhere, seems to side with " the Revolution," and yet the lawless spirit has never succeeded inattaining permanent dominion over her people and why ? Because in no country in the world is there so large a proportion of loyal and devoted subjects of the Church. The outside INTRODUCTION. world tells us that this is all because of the power of "the priest," that magical impersonal which is supposed to account for so many things in the pages of Mr. Froude and kindred writers; but from whence does his power come ? It is sheer nonsense to say that it is an unreasoning subjection on the part of a people, who, perhaps beyond all others in the world, are able to give a reason for the faith that is in them. This has not escaped Cardinal Newman, with his incomparable gift of finding out the kernel of every- thing. " I recollect," he writes, "some twenty-five years ago, three friends of my own, as they then were, clergymen of the Establishment, making a tour in Ireland. In the West or South they had occasion to become pedestrians for the day, and they took a boy of thirteen for their guide. They amused themselves with putting questions to him on the subject of his religion, and one of them confessed to me on his return that that poor child put them all to silence," "merely," as he adds, "by knowing and understanding the answers in his Catechism ". l How is it that it does not occur to 1 Idea of a University, p. 379. A somewhat similar story was told by the Cardinal's intimate friend, the late Bishop Moriarty of Kerry. A distinguished Protestant visitor at Killarney was present while the Bishop examined the boys in one of his country schools in their Catechism, and on their return home the visitor amused the Bishop by observing : "Well, my Lord, I always had a profound admiration for the dogmatic system of your Church, but really your ethical system seems to me even more wonderful." INTRODUCTION. xxi\ men, sensible in other things, that the power of the priest is the same as the power behind the priest that is, faith in the Divine authority of God and His Church, and in the eternal rewards and punish- ments which respectively attend on obedience and rebellion ? Was it by a magical spell that Peter the Hermit, and St. Bernard flung Europe upon Asia in the Crusades, and not rather by the faith of those who listened to them? It really seems as if hostility to religion so utterly blinds some people, that they are incapable of recognising even its social and political influences. Who are so likely to know the ruling principles in the minds of the Irish poor as priests, who have passed their lives in an interchange of mutual confidence the most perfect and absolute which exists between man and man ? Again and again in the last hundred years the torrent of the " Revolution " has swept over Ireland and dried up again like the showers from her own passionate skies. She has been distrusted and rejected by the Revolution from the days of Buonaparte to our own, and with good reason. A British Premier like Lord Palmerston, is much nearer of kin to the Mazzinian than an Irish Fenian. This has been pointed out by that keen- witted statesman Lord Beaconsfield in one of his political novels, and no people have had bettor opportunities of verifying the fact than those Lon- xxx INTRODUCTION. doii priests whose ministry has brought them into relations with the sick and starving revolutionists of France, Italy, and Ireland, and enabled them to compare their respective tempers. Surely it is not necessary to prove that Catholic faith will always gravitate to obedience and loyalty as soon as the delirium from "oppression that makes wise men mad " has passed away ? Write the lessons of the Catechism on the young brain, and love will give life to knowledge, and the child will remain in the man, unless he becomes an immoral man. From Voltaire and Rousseau to our own day the Revolution abroad has drawn its life from that infidelity which is equally as fatal to morals as to dogma. If a man in his childhood has a Christian mother worthy of reverence and love, the spirit of chivalry will be the spirit of his life, and he will be loyal and true to his sovereign, and to his native land, to his wife, and to his friend. This is one chief argument of my concluding Essay, and under heaven there is no subject better worthy of the consideration of all those who desire to bring peace and consolation to mankind. The first chapter originally appeared in the Dublin Review and the second and third in the Irish Ecclesiastical Record and they are now re- printed with the kind permission of the editors and INTR OD UCTION. xxxi proprietors. I should also observe that I have borrowed a few pages from "St. Martin and St. Patrick," which I have introduced into the en- larged edition of my Life of St. Patrick. THE ORATORY, London, Aug. 15, 1891. CHAPTER I. ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. ALTHOUGH two great names stand together in the title of this Chapter, our business is chiefly with St. Patrick. There is hardly a Saint in the calendar whose history has passed through so strange an ordeal. It was written originally from the testimony of his contemporaries in an age which was eminently one of faith ; and for more than a thousand years it was as little questioned in Ireland as the history of St. Francis amongst the Umbrian vales. Then came the revolt of the sixteenth century against the interference of God in the affairs of men, and from that day to this the history of St. Patrick has been the object of the un- wearied assaults of the adherents of that revolt in English-speaking nations. As a rule they have adopted the plan of attacking in detail; and in history this is always an easy mode of warfare, as facts are indifferent things which never come to 2 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. assist one another unless they are asked. We are also bound to confess that it is a style of attack against which the Acts of St. Patrick are peculiarly defenceless. Fragments of his extraordinary history, torn from their context, and made to stand by themselves, are almost incom- prehensible. It is only when they are brought together that the personality of the Saint is revealed, and we see how his character, work, and even his length of days, are all inseparably bound up in that unity which is the best evidence of truth. We now claim the right of carrying St. Patrick's cause into a higher court, that he may be tried with his peers by the standard of Saints' lives ; and, indeed, this is the only court to which it is worth while to appeal, for they who do not believe in the freedom and supremacy of supernatural power in this world can never understand St. Patrick. At the same time we are very far from assuming that Saints' lives are not subject to criticism as well as other biographies. In many things Saints are like other men, and subject to the same laws ; and, even when they ascend to heights whither our eyes cannot follow them, we are all the while conscious that their road is the same as ours, and that it is only the speed with which they travel which has carried them out of our sight. ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 3 These considerations have induced us to bring together St. Martin and his disciple St. Patrick, in the hope that their lives may give light one to the other; and this is all the more likely as these two Saints were nearly related by the ties of kindred, presented in their lives the same extraordinary union of the mystical and apostolic character, and lived and worked under social conditions which in all essential respects were similar. The history of St. Martin's life has been written by four of the Fathers of the Church SS. Paulinus, Fortunatus, Gregory of Tours, and Sulpicius Severus and his historic figure holds its place with those of Roman Emperors, and the representatives of that colossal power which impressed order and unity on history, as well as on society. Moreover, in study- ing his life, we have the advantage of one biography, that of Sulpicius Severus, which is a masterpiece in its own line, and a key to all the other records of the Saint. On the other hand, when St. Patrick died, at the end of the fifth century, Ireland, in all respects save her faith, was still outside the Eoman world, and in the following century, when she began to take a prominent place in Europe, the Great Empire had passed away, and with it all the land- marks of the past. Moreover, those biographies of St. Patrick, from which all subsequent histories were drawn, are very rude productions : they bear 4 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. the stamp of the age in which they were written, when the Goth, the Vandal, and the Hun had well- nigh obliterated the literature of the world. There is, however, a difficulty which suggests itself here, and demands an answer. Before the century succeeding that of St. Patrick came to a close, Ireland had begun to bear the proud title of " Island of Doctors," as well as of Saints : a title not usurped, but gratefully accorded by those nations who looked to her as the " University of the west". How is it that, as time went on, little or nothing appears to have been done in giving a critical and literary shape to the acts of St. Patrick ? We venture to suggest the following explanation. It is true that during those ages Ireland gave a home to the exiled learning of Europe ; but at the same time she was occupied in another work more absorbing and important than the cultivation of letters. As the Vox Hyberionarum followed St. Patrick from the land which his exile had con- secrated, so it came to pass that scarcely had he left the earth before supplicating voices reached his dis- ciples from Britain, Gaul, Germany, Switzerland, and even Italy; and we know how Columba, Columbanus, Fridolin, Gall, and legions of mission- aries responded to the appeal, and how the Scoti, so long the terror of Europe, returned to their old battle-fields, as the messengers of the gospel of ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 5 peace and love. Deep learning and patient criticism could hardly be expected to flourish side by side with that spirit of apostolic enterprise which then absorbed the energies of the nation. To the Missioner, learning is rather an instrument than an end. 1 We may also add that the scanty and im- perfect records of other great Missionaries in the fourth and fifth centuries show that this was the rule in other countries as well as Ireland. If we are right in this supposition, it may account for the fact that the records of St. Patrick in the Book of Armagh, which was composed about the year G50, and in later writings on the same subject, are little more than transcripts of some one of the original lives of the Saint, 2 copied by the scribe in the same rough state as he had found them. While we take this as evidence of the value which then attached to these ancient writings, we are at the same time 1 From its origin, as Cardinal Newman remarks, Irish scholar- ship was rather scientific than literary. "As Rome was the centre of authority, so I may say Ireland was the native home of specula- tion ; " then, as now, divine truth was the favourite object of its contemplations. See also Montalembert's account of the dialectical contests of St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury (A.D. 668-690), with his Irish disciples, and O/.anam's amusing description of the dismay of Aclhuin when the Irish grex philosophorum with their daring speculations invaded the schools of Charlemagne. Idea of a University, p. 485. Moines d'Occident, v. 48. La (Urilisation Chretienne cliez les Franca, p. 606, 5ne ed. - This is the opinion of Mr. O'Curry as regards the Book of Armagh. MS. Materials of Irish Hist., p. 347. 6 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. inclined to think that in our present very imperfect knowledge of the relative importance of these works, almost as much harm may be done to the Saint's history by the indiscriminate defence, as by the total rejection of these records. The defenders and the assailants of St. Patrick's history have again and again joined issue on verbal and other immaterial difficulties ; hence the main points have been over- looked, and the Saint's history has been hidden in the dust of critical conflicts. By the main points we mean those great features in the life of the Apostle of Ireland which are in keeping with the analogy of Church History and Catholic hagiology : features which, as we have already observed, are the inimitable seal of that unity in variety of which the Church is the perfect revelation in the spiritual order. The Communion of Saints is the creation of the prayer of Christ for the unity of the Redeemed, and it is this divine gift which enables us to recognise our forefathers in the faith. It teaches us what a Saint must have been, and what things are irreconcilable with the saintly character. This discernment, which is an hereditary instinct in Catholic nations, becomes a science under the guidance of the Church : the science by which she discerns the presence of heroic sanctity in the souls of men, and it is by the help of this science that Catholic writers are enabled to show how the ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 7 Saints in successive ages are revelations of one and the same Master, and continue to shine with His light as the peaks of a mountain chain retain the brightness of the setting sun. If anyone objects that this style of argument merely lifts a Saint above the dust of earth to hide him in the clouds of heaven, we can only answer that this difficulty is inherent in the subject for a re- ligion without mysteries is a contradiction in terms. In our turn we may ask, what becomes of Saints' lives, and of the history of Christianity itself, when dealt with in any other manner 1 ? Is there any other way of treating the history of super- natural events, which can obtain the adhesion of any two reasonal beings ? The truth is that un- believers are driven to deny the very existence of Catholic Saints as a consequence of their rejection of a supernatural order. Hence Christian history has been presented to us by some modern writers as an effect without a cause : a drama with the omission of the principal part. We do not mean to say that such writers are at all diffident in suggesting causes ; but they are imaginary, and demand the simultaneous evolu- tion of imaginary and incredible men and women as agents and recipients. When historians give us facts for causes : when we are asked to content ourselves with an explanation which only brings us 8 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. back to the same point : when the pleasure-seeking Roman, who revelled in seeing other men devoured, is supposed to have been unaccountably smitten with the desire of being devoured in turn : when we are told that the fanaticism and superstition of a few Galilean fishermen silenced and captivated the philosophy of Greece and Rome, and that warlike and barbarous nations knelt to the Cross from a natural sympathy with shame and sorrow, we can only say that it is rationalism, not faith, which asserts its independence of reason and common- sense. There is no event in the world's history which bears any resemblance with its conversion to Chris- tianity. There had been changes before, but they were only new fashions of things that were old, and whether Persian, Macedonian, or Roman ruled him, man remained the same. Then came a message such as he had never heard before. It was uttered in many tongues, but its purport was ever the same as that of St. Remigius to Clovis, Burn thai -which you adore, and adore that which you have burned, and it was received as true even by those who had not the courage to obey. It was a message that took man captive, and forced him on to suffering and death as if it were some conqueror regardless of human life, yet all the while he felt that then for the first time his will w r as his own, free from the ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. y tyranny of the passions, and capable of standing alone against the world. Everywhere the result was the same, and therefore, although records may be defective, or altogether wanting, we conclude that the cause was identical. It was not royal edicts, nor State protection which converted the world : the secular arm may protect, it cannot give the faith. Everywhere the message from heaven came from human lips which had been touched by the fire of the Seraphim, and its evidence that it came from above lay in the fact that it asked nothing from men but a hearing. The idea of bringing St. Martin and his disciple St. Patrick together after the lapse of nearly fifteen centuries was first suggested by a visit to JVlarmoutier, the ancient monastery of St. Martin, 1 and a study of the immemorial and abiding traditions of Touraine; 1 Marnioutier stands on the bank of the Loire about two miles from Tours, and is now in the possession of the " Religious of the Sacred Heart". It was the cradle of Western Monasticism centuries before lona and Lindisfarne and Luxeuil were peopled by the dis- ciples of SS. Cohunba and Cohnnbanus, and, like the Irish Monas- teries, it eventually accepted the general rule of St. Benedict. The Abbey was destroyed in the Great Revolution, and in 1847 the site was purchased and saved from profanation by the Venerable Mere Barat. Nothing remains of the more modern Abbey save the wall, and the great gateway before which B. Urban II. preached the Crusade ; but it may be said that the ruin of the Abbey has restored the Marnioutier of the fourth century, for the caves and catacombs where St. Martin and his disciples dwelt are now seen io ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. and we hope to be able to prove that they are in such perfect harmony with the ancient Irish bio- graphies of St. Patrick that it is as if a hand was stretched forth from Gaul to take up the broken chain of his history. The chain is a long one, as the links must be looked for in the writings of authors of different nations from the sixth to the twelfth century ; and, if this gives interest and dignity to the subject, it also enhances its difficulty. In the first place, it is necessary to investigate the evidence for the fact that St. Patrick and St. Martin were together at Marmoutier, and that the former at once set out to join St. Martin on his escape from captivity in Ireland : not that we ourselves have any doubts upon the subject, but because many modern writers have practically dis- missed the consideration of this part of the Saint's history. The reader will understand how this has come to pass when we observe that the fact of St. Patrick's personal relations with St. Martin carries with it the proof of our Saint's extraordinary age of 120 years, and overthrows the theory of his connection with Scotland ; and we believe that if very much as they were in the Saint's time, and the civilised, a.s well as the Christian world, if the distinction is possible, owe a great debt to those who have preserved, and now keep watch over a sanctuary which has been the spiritual birthplace of many nations. ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. n we succeed in proving the Saint's longevity, and in refuting the Scotch theory, all the chronological difficulties in his history will disappear. As regards authorities for that history, we are safe in saying that St. Patrick's own writings not only stand first, but that all other testimony must be subject to them. In the next rank we place the Tripartite Life, and that by Probus, and our object now is to show how these two biographies supply what is omitted in the Saint's writings, and that from a combination of the three we can construct a com- plete and consistent narrative. The author of the Tripartite, and Probus tell us that St. Patrick joined St. Martin at Tours, and put himself under his direction. The latter writer also fixes the time of his stay at four years. St. Patrick died A.D. 492, and he himself tells us that he was " about sixteen years of age " (fere sedecim) " when carried captive to Ireland, and that he re- mained six years in servitude"; he was, therefore, in his twenty-second year when he escaped. Now St. Martin died A.D. 397. Ninety-five years, therefore, intervened between his death and that of his dis- ciple. As St. Patrick was twenty-one years of age or twenty-two incomplete at the time of his escape, if we add to this the four years of Probus, then the 120 years of St. Patrick's life follow as a necessary consequence of his con nee- 12 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. tion with St. Martin ; we have the beginning and the end. 1 Thus we find that the combined evidence of the Tripartite Life, and the Life by Probus, and the chronology of St. Martin's history, make it absolutely certain that St. Patrick joined St. Martin as soon as he made his escape from his captivity in Ireland ; but St. Patrick tells us that it was to his own country (patrid) that his steps were then directed, and so we find ourselves at once face to face with the much-debated question 1 It is not from want of other evidence that we dwell on this argument. The authorities for St. Patrick's longevity are over- whelming ; indeed, we believe that there is not a dissentient voice amongst ancient writers. For the fact that the Saint attained the age of 120 years we have the testimony of : 1. The Tripartite Life. I 10. Book of Howth. 11. The Four Masters. 12. The Chronicum Scotorum. 13. Marianus Scottus. 14. Nennius. 15. Giraldus Cambrensis. 16. Florence of Worcester. 17. Roger of Wendover. 2. The Book of Armagh(Tirechan). 3. The Vita Secunda. 4. The Vita Quarta. 5. The Lebhar Brecc. 6. Annals of Tighernach. 7. Annals of Ulster. 8. Annals of Boyle. 9. Annals of Innisfail. The four writers whose names are italicised add one or two years to St. Patrick's age, but this is probably owing to confusion arising from the fact that many ancient writers dated from the Incarnation, rather than from the Birth of Christ. Anyhow, we have here testi- monies which might be still further multiplied, that St. Patrick's longevity was a fact universally accepted by historians from the sixth century down to the time of Father Colgan, and Ussher, both of whom are on our side. ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 13 of his nationality : a question the importance of which is much enhanced by the fact that upon it hangs the whole chronology of the Saint's life. Our position is this : We are convinced that his own writings are the only records of his life in which we can place unlimited trust, and that all other evidence, however ancient, must be put aside if it does not fit in with that of the Saint himself. At the same time, we are in no way inclined, with Tillemont, to confine ourselves to the Confession and Epistle of St. Patrick, to the exclusion of the ancient lives, and we believe that if this acute critic had had the evidence of their value which we now possess he would have treated them with more respect. There can be no question that some of them embody the testimonies of eye-witnesses to St. Patrick's missionary career in Ireland, evidence which, day by day, is more and more fully corro- borated by historical and archaBological investiga- tions, while their simplicity and minuteness of detail and freedom from all that mechanism which betrays the special pleader, unite in imprinting upon them that seal of authenticity which dis- tinguishes histories written in the childhood of nations. At the same time we are of opinion that a decided line must be drawn between the evidence of contemporary Irish writers, which bears on St. Patrick's mission in their own country, i 4 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. and their testimony regarding the events of his life in other lands, just as we should accept the statements of a contemporary Japanese writer as regards St. Francis Xavier's mission in Japan, without expecting accuracy as to the events of the Saint's early life in Navarre. We shall now proceed to string together the evidence which, while it binds St. Patrick to St. Martin, at the same time establishes the fact that the country of St. Martin was also the patria, or fatherland, of St. Patrick ; and as this point, once established on his own testimony, carries with it the refutation of all contradictory theories, it will only be necessary to meet them indirectly. We shall confine ourselves to the Bollandist text of St. Patrick's writings ; it is the one to which reference can most easily be made, and it is pro- bably the best. In his account of his parentage and country, St. Patrick tells us that his grand- father and father bore respectively the names Potitus and Calphurnius, which, like his own, were common Roman names, and that his father was a Decurio, 1 and in more than one place the Saint refers to the nobility of his birth in language which clearly points to his Roman origin. He 1 Decurio, under the Bomans, was both a civil and military title. St. Patrick's connection with the military family of St. Martin favours the view that Calphurnius was a soldier. ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 15 tells us that when he was nearly sixteen years of age he was carried captive to Ireland from his father's villa, which was near the village (vicus) of pjonavem Tabernise. The following is the account as it stands, in his own words : " I was led away captive into Ireland with thousands of others, and deservedly, because we had turned away from God, disobeying His commands, and rebelling against His priests, who taught us the way of salvation, and the Lord brought upon us the wrath of His indignation, and scattered us among many nations, even to the end of the earth (etiam usque ad ultimum terras) ". It is clear that the boy at this time was living with his Roman father in the midst of a large Christian population, in some peaceful country place, which was evidently supposed to be secure from invasion. Now, taking into account the state of North Britain at the end of the fourth century, is it possible to reconcile this narrative with the theory that the neighbourhood of old Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, the ancient Alcluith, on the frontier of Argyleshire, was the place to which St. Patrick here alludes ? It is evident from the Saint's words that he was in his own country, and in the midst of his own people, and not merely on a visit as some have stated. Our first step, therefore, must be to find out what, at this time, was the state of the Roman province of 1 6 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. Valentia, at the northern extremity of which stood the city (urbs) Alcluith of the Venerable Bede. Towards the end of the fourth century the Eomans were gradually withdrawing their legions from Britain for the defence of the heart of the Empire, and then began that terrible period of desolation which at length drove the British into the net of their Saxon conquerors. Wave after wave of hardy warriors from Caledonia poured down upon the effeminate inhabitants of the south. and the fountain-head of that fierce northern torrent was precisely the spot where the Saint's father, Calphurnius, is supposed to have planted the family villa. Now, whatever may have been the military defences of the Crag of Dumbarton in the year 388, the idea that a Roman officer would have established his home in the open country, anywhere in its neighbourhood, is simply incom- prehensible : as easily can be imagined that a British officer would set up a country house for his wife and children in the woods of Zululand in time of war. It was at the close of this century, and the beginning of the fifth, that the clans above men- tioned seemed on the point of subjugating the south as well as the north of Britain. The Western Highlands, and the country about Loch Lomond, were held by the Scots, whose armies were recruited ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 17 by a continued stream of their countrymen from Ireland. The Picts held the eastern counties, while, according to Gibbon, the Attacotti, 1 a ferocious tribe of cannibals, were in possession of the country where now stands the modern Glasgow. In the year 367, in the reign of the Emperor Valentinian, these clans bore down upon the south; the Roman legions were routed, and London besieged, and although, upon the arrival of Theodosius, father of the emperor of that name, with an army from Gaul, the enemy was repulsed, there is no reason to suppose that the Roman rule was ever again re-established in North Britain, or that the title of Valentia then given to it was ever more than a barren one. Indeed, Lin- gard tells us that long before this time the northern province had been abandoned by the Romans, 2 and as the campaign of Theodosius took place A.D. 368-9, we have nineteen years of increasing desolation still to account for until St. Patrick's captivity in the year 388. 1 Roman Empire, ch. xxv. sec. 2. This writer quotes St. Jerome on the cannibalism of the Attacotti. The Saint had seen some of the tribe in Gaul serving as auxiliaries in the Roman army. Gibbon, however, takes it on himself to append the word Scotos after Attacotti, to the text of St. Jerome, but he must have known that his view was not shared by St. Jerome, who distinguishes between these nations in the same sentence, and in several other passages of his works. Gibbon probably argued that the ready acceptance of Chris- tianity by the Irish of that age was a sufficient reason for identifying them with this cannibal nation, and correcting St. Jerome. -Hist, of England, vol. i. p. 62. 1 8 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. From that time until the complete abandonment of Britain by the Romans, A.D. 409, all the ancient records of Britain tell the same tale of havoc and woe. Gildas attributes her calamities to the fact that about the year 383 the flower of her youth deserted her to follow the tyrant Maximus into Gaul ; and Ussher gives their number at 30,000 soldiers and 100,000 plebeians, and informs us that they settled in Brittany, where, according to William of Malmesbury, a colony of their countrymen had preceded them in the time of Constantine. 1 When we complete the picture with the account which Venerable Bede gives us of North Britain at the end of the fourth century, 2 the conclusion is forced upon us that the desolate border-land of "Caledonia, stern and wild," was not likely to offer an}^ temptations to a marauding expedition, and that it was one of the last places in the world where we should expect to find either the country residence of a Roman nobleman, or a large and peaceable Christian popu- lation. For this introductory argument we claim no more than the balance of probabilities in support of what seems to us . the decisive testimony of the Saint's own writings, in which, when giving an 1 Works of Gildas, sec. 14, ed. Giles. Ussher, Antiq. Britton. Eccl., p. 107. Gul. Malmsb., Gesta Begum AngL, lib. i. sec. 1. 2 Bk. i. sec. 12. ST. iMARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 19 account of his return from captivity, he leads us step by step from Ireland back to what he calls his "own country" (patria), and satisfies us that this country was Gaul. Before, however, we begin to take up the chain of positive proof, we must direct attention to St. Patrick's repeated allusions to his sense of the immense distance which separated him from his native land. His frequent recurrence to this point shows that he regarded his second and voluntary exile as one of his greatest claims on the gratitude of the Irish people ; but his language would be devoid of meaning if in the first instance, on his way into exile, his captors had done no more than bring him down the Clyde and across to Antrim a voyage as short as it was familiar to the people he was addressing. The Confession of St. Patrick and his Epistle to Corocticus, taken together, occupy six folio pages in the Ada Sanctorum, of the Bollandists, and it is remarkable that in this brief space there are as many as eight passages in which the Saint dwells on this point, and we observe that in whatever way he alludes to his captivity and mission, he always speaks of the Irish as a foreign nation (gem extera). In two other places * he uses this term to designate nations at a distance viz., in alluding to the heathen Franks as con- 1 Epist., sec. 7. 20 ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. trasted with the Gauls, and to the Scots and Pints in Caledonia; and even in these passages we find an indirect testimony in favour of our position, for, in the first instance, the style of his language is that of a native of Gaul when speaking of her enemies, and in the other that of an inhabitant of Ireland to whom Caledonia was a strange and unknown land. It is curious to observe how vivid recollec- tions of the past impart colour and intensity to his language whenever he alludes to his own captivity. He uses forms of expression which tell of one who felt that he had been carried, as it were, to another world. No one save a Eoman citizen brought up amidst those proud traditions which made the Em- pire the limit of the world could speak as the Saint does of being " dispersed " with his fellow- captives " amongst many nations, even to the end of the earth" (usque ad ultimum terrce). Again, on his return to Ireland as a missioner, his expres- sions are precisely of the same character, as will be seen from the following extracts : " We are the Epistle of Christ to the ends of the earth, not elo- quent, but still for all that written in your hearts, not with ink, but by the spirit of the Living God ". " A people lately coming to the faith, whom the Lord hath gathered from the ends of the earth." " Yea, rather, for the love of God, I am a stranger and a wanderer amongst barbarian nations : God ST. MARTIN AND ST. PATRICK. 21 Himself is witness that it is so." " The children of God, whom He hath lately sought for at the ends of the earth." " According to the flesh, I am of noble blood, for my father was a Decurio : I have bartered my nobility (I feel neither shame nor sorrow) for the sake of others ; in a word, I am delivered in Christ to a foreign nation for the ineffable glory of that everlasting life which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." l Now, bearing in mind all the circumstances of time and place, we argue that it is impossible to reconcile these extracts with the view that North Britain in the year 372 was the fatherland of St. Patrick, while they are quite natural in the mouth of one born of Roman or Gallo-Roman parents in any part of Gaul, which, in our Saint's time, was probably the most Roman of all the subjugated countries of the Empire. 2 It is not our intention to entangle ourselves and our readers in the controversy concerning the pre- cise place in Gaul where St. Patrick was born : our only concern here is with his nationality, as evi- denced by his own language and his relations with St. Martin. We regard this point as much more important than the identification of his birthplace. 1 Confessio, cap. i. sec. 4 ; cap. iv. sec. 16. Epistola, sec. i. iv. and v. - Lagrange, Vie de S. Paulin