P. 12.—The intercourse of Ireland with the Roman provinces is illustrated by coins found in the island. See Proceedings of Royal Irish Academy, ii. 184-8 (1843), on a find of coins (early imperial, from Vespasian to the Antonines) in Faugh Mountain, near Pleaskin, Giant’s Causeway, Co. Antrim; cp. also ib. 186-7; ib. vi. 441 sqq. (1856), a paper by Petrie on coins of the Republic found near Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin; ib. 525, on eight coins (imperial, from Tiberius to Constantine) found near Downpatrick; Proc. of Royal Soc. of Antiquaries of Ireland, xxx. p. 176 (1900), fifteen coins (Constantine) at Tara.
P. 14.—Gaelic settlements in S.-W. Britain. Sources: Cormac’s Glossary, s.v. mogeime (ed. Stokes); the text (of which an extract was printed by Zimmer in Nennius Vindicatus, p. 85) from Bodleian MSS. Rawlinson, B. 502 f. 72 c., and Laud 610 f. 100 a. 1, edited with translation by Kuno Meyer (Y Cymmrodor, 14, 101, sqq.). Cp. also Historia Brittonum, § 14, p. 156, ed. Mommsen. See Zimmer, ib. on these settlements. He determines the date of the composition of the Rawlinson-Laud document as about A.D. 750. The question as to the survival in West Britain of the descendants of an ancient pre-British Goidelic population (maintained by Professor Rhŷs, combated by Professor K. Meyer, see Transactions of Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion, 1895-6, p. 55 sqq.) does not affect the reality of a later Goidelic settlement in historical times. On the Dessi cp. Rhŷs, Studies in Early Irish History, p. 56; Origin of Welsh Englyn, pp. 26, 73, 179 (in Y Cymmrodor xviii. 1905); Celtic Britain (ed. 3), p. 247 sqq.
P. 10.—The statement that Man was never conquered by Rome might have to be modified if, as has occurred to me, the words of Tacitus at the beginning of Agricola 24, naue prima transgressus ignotas ad id tempus gentes crebris simul ac praeliis domuit, record a descent of Agricola on that island. In the context an expedition to Caledonia seems excluded. [Prima is unintelligible. It may be an instance of the common confusion of un with im, ima (for una) having been taken as an abbreviation of prima.]
P. 14.—“Perhaps were conditions of military service.” A stone of Killorglin (now in the Dublin Museum) bears the ogam inscription Galeatos, which Professor Rhŷs explains as genitive of Latin galeatus, a helmed soldier. He thinks that it was a name “first given to a Goidel who had worn the Roman galea, that is one who had served in the Roman army. For one cannot help comparing it with Qoeddoran-i as connected with Petrianae, and the name Sagittarius, of which the genitive Saggitari was found in ogam on a stone discovered at Burnfort, in the neighbourhood of Mallow, in Co. Cork. All three names are presumably to be explained on the supposition of Goidelic touch with Roman institutions, especially the military system; not to mention such Latin names as Marianas, Latinus, and Columbanus, or their significance, so to say, in this context” (reprint from Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Part i. vol. xxxii. 1902, p. 16).
P. 16.—Calpurnius: Confession, 357₄ (Armagh MS. has Calpornum; Cotton MS. Calpornium; Brussels MS. of Muirchu, Cualfarni, 495₇). Properly a nomen, but, like other nomina, adopted as a cognomen. As such, however, it does not seem to occur often. Cp. C.I.L. xiv. 570; iii. Suppl. Pars post. 14354²⁸; viii. 9157.
Ib.—Potitus: Confession, 357₅ (Armagh MS. Potiti presbyteri, and in the margin filii Odissi added in the same hand. It is to be noted that the copy of the Confession used by Muirchu seems to have had simply Potiti presbyteri, 494₇. Hence the inference is suggested that filii Odissi was not in the original text of St. Patrick’s work, but was added in the margin from some other source, and inserted by the scribe of the Cotton MS. in the wrong place—before, instead of after, presbyteri. Potitus, not Odissus, was the presbyter. In the hymn Genair Patraicc, l. 4, Odissus is described as a deacon). Potitus was a common cognomen in the Roman empire; examples will be found in almost any volume of the C.I.L. (e.g. v. 834, 970, 6125, 7436; ii. 1172, 3799, 4006; xiv. 1332₁₁,₇, 3964, etc.).
P. 16.—Calpurnius a decurion: Corot. 377₂₀ decorione patre nascor. That Patrick’s family were British provincials and lived in Britain there can be no question: Confession, 370₁₀,₁₂, and 364₁,₂ (cp. Corot. 375₂₃), passages which prove that Patrick regarded Britain as his native land, and that his family lived there continuously from the time of his captivity till his old age. There is no evidence whatever that they had come and settled in Britain during his boyhood, and his biographer in the seventh century writes unhesitatingly that he was Brito natione, in Britannis natus (Muirchu, 494, 6). Patrick does not say himself that he was of British descent, but the presumption that his family was British is confirmed by his Celtic name Sucat (see below, 291).
P. 17.—Decurions in smaller towns. The evidence is collected in Kübler’s article Decurio in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft. The canabae which grew up at military stations sometimes received self-governing privileges and had decurions (the evidence is for Apulum in Dacia, Moguntiacum, and Brigetio). There is also evidence for decurions in pagi, but only for Africa. Vici and castella were attributed to the larger towns near which they were situated, and had no ordo decurionum (see Cod. Just. 5. 27. 3. 1; 10. 19. 8). We can therefore infer that Calpurnius was a member of the municipal senate of some town in the neighbourhood of the vicus Bannaventa.
Ib.—The condition of decurions or curiales in the fourth and fifth centuries. Chief source: Codex Theodosianus, esp. xii. 1. The subject is well treated and elucidated in Professor Dill’s Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire, Bk. iii. chap. 2 (On the Decay of the Middle Class).
P. 18.—“Sixteen acres or upwards”: ultra uiginti quinque iugera priuato dominio possidens, Cod. Th. xii. 1, 33.
Ib.—“Sinews of the republic”: nerui reipublicae, Novell. Maioriani, vii. 1.
P. 19.—Curials who took orders. Julian’s rescript: Cod. Th. xii. i, 50. Enactments of Theodosius I., ib. 121 (A.D. 390); 123 (A.D. 391; cp. esp. § 5).
P. 20.—Married clergy. Calpurnius and his father are instances of married clergy, belonging to the period of transition, before the principle of celibacy had been generally recognised. Enjoined by the Spanish Council of Elvira in A.D. 305, this principle had not been universally accepted even in Spain, for it was in answer to an appeal from a Spanish bishop that Pope Siricius wrote his Decretal of A.D. 385, laying down the necessity of celibacy. This ruling expressed the rapidly growing tendency in the western churches, yet at a much later time Gallic councils found it necessary to legislate against married clergy. There is therefore nothing surprising in finding married deacons and presbyters in Britain in the fourth century. It is open to any one who chooses to believe that Calpurnius and Potitus gave up family ties before they took orders; but such a belief would be a pure act of faith, superfluous and ungrounded.
P. 23.—The names Patricius and Sucat. The statement of medieval biographers that the name Patricius was first assumed on the occasion of ordination must be regarded as a conjecture to explain the tradition that he had four names. The earliest mention of the four names (Sucat, Magonus, Cothrige, and Patricius) is in Tírechán (p. 302), who found them in a written source. There is no difficulty about Cothrige; it has been recognised (by Todd, Rhŷs, Thurneysen, Zimmer) that it is simply an Irish equivalent for Patricius, with the regular mutation of p to c, which we find in early loan words from the British language (e.g. casc = pascha, cruimthir = premter for presbyter, cp. Zimmer, Early Celtic Church, p. 25). I have pointed out traces of an older (labio-velar) form: Qatrige (“Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 200). I have also shown (ib. p. 201) that, in early tradition, this name was specially connected with Patrick’s captivity, and this supports the view that he was named Patricius as a child (his Irish captors rendered it Qatrige or Qotrige). The genuineness of the name Sucatus (also recorded by Muirchu, Sochet, p. 494), which corresponds to the modern Welsh hygad, “warlike” (cp. Stokes, Trip. p. 616, and the explanation in the scholia on the hymn Genair Patraicc, l. 3), is generally admitted and derives some support from a similar consideration (Bury, ib. p. 201). It is probable that when Patricius went to Ireland as a bishop his name was generally rendered Patraicc (with p), because it now came in its Latin form, and not as a Brythonic word (Patric?). But we have traces of the use of the other form in petra Coithrigi at Uisnech (Tír. 310₂₅) and petra Coithirgi at Cashel (ib. 331). Before the seventh century, the Sprachgefühl for the mutation of foreign p to c had so completely disappeared that the equation Cothrige = Patricius was not recognised, and an absurd derivation for Cothrige was invented (Tír. 302); but it is significant that this etymology was connected with the captivity.
The fourth name Magonus (Tír.: Magonius in later documents) appears in the Historia Brittonum as Maun. It seems to me to be simply the Roman cognomen Magonus (see C.I.L. v. 4609; viii. 9515).[347]
P. 23.—Concessa. There is no reason to doubt the tradition (Muirchu, p. 494) that this was the name of Patrick’s mother. No credit can be attached to the names or existence of numerous sisters (Lupita, etc.) mentioned in later documents. The tradition that Secundinus (Sechnall) was his sister’s son might be regarded as a ground for assuming that he had at least one sister. But it is to be observed that the tradition appears in an extremely suspicious form. In the preface to the Hymn which is called by his name (Lib. Hymnorum, i. p. 3), Secundinus is described as “son of Restitutus of the Lombards of Letha and of Darerca, Patrick’s sister.” But a woman named Dar-erca must have been an Irishwoman, not a Briton; and the expression “Lombards of Letha” for Italy suggests that the statement was not derived from a very ancient source. Secundinus does not appear in Muirchu; in Tírechán he is only mentioned in a list of bishops ordained by Patrick; and in the Additional Notices (p. 346), where he occurs once, nothing is said of kinship. But he is mentioned twice in the Annals.[348] In A.D. 439 (Ann. Ult.) he arrives in Ireland, already a bishop, to help Patrick; and this record must be preferred to Tírechán’s statement that Patrick ordained him. Under A.D. 447 his death is recorded (Ann. Ult. A.D. 448, Ann. Inisf.), in the seventy-fifth year of his age. At that time Patrick cannot have been much more than fifty-eight (see Appendix C, 3), so that he would have been about seventeen years younger than his nephew. This is impossible, except on the supposition that the mother of Secundinus was half-sister of Patrick, daughter of a former wife of Calpurnius.
In Add. Notices Lomman (p. 335) is described as his sister’s son, and four brothers of Lomman are named as bishops in Ireland; and (p. 340) a brother of Patrick is mentioned as father of Náo and Naí. It is to be observed that none of the names are Latin. Does Patrick’s statement in the Letter against Corot. 377₁₅ (quis me compulit—alligatus spiritu—ut non uideam aliquem de cognatione mea?) justify the inference that none of his cognati were in Ireland?
[The story which places Patrick’s capture in Armorica (Vit. Trip. p. 16; Probus, i. 12; Schol. on hymn Gen. P., etc.) has obviously no historical value, being clearly prompted by the motive of connecting Patrick with Brittany. It has an interest, however, in preserving the name “Sechtmaide, king of the Britons”—a reminiscence apparently of the Emperor Septimius Severus.]
P. 26.—Men-servants and maid-servants. This addition to the data of the Confession comes from the Letter against Coroticus, 377₁₉.
P. 31.—Port to which Patrick escaped. He mentions the distance himself: ducenta milia passus (Conf. 361₃₃). Wicklow would suit either theory of the place of captivity. Of course the distance must not be pressed too closely, but it is to be remembered that Patrick wrote when he had fuller knowledge of the geography than he can have had at the time of his escape. The reason for conjecturing Wicklow is that it seems to have been a port where foreign ships might be looked for; both Palladius and Patrick landed there. Muirchu calls it portum apud nos clarum (275₁₂).
P. 32.—Suck their breasts: sugere mammellas eorum, Conf. 362₁₈. I conjecture that the origin of this remarkable phrase, which clearly means to enter into a close intimacy, was a primitive ceremony of adoption. Among some peoples, when a child is adopted, a rite of mock-birth is performed; for instance, the child is placed under the dress of the adoptive mother, and creeps out. For the custom of mock-suckling see Frazer’s Golden Bough,² vol. iii. p. 380, note. The make-believe suckling is analogous to, and has the same emblematic meaning as, a make-believe parturition; and it will be admitted that this explanation satisfies perfectly the present context: “I declined to let myself be adopted by them.” It is not necessary to infer that a literal adoption was proposed to Patrick by any of the crew; the expression is merely figurative for a close and abiding intimacy (just as we use colloquially the phrase “to be adopted”).
It has been thought that the expression is taken from the Vulgate rendering of Isaiah lx. 16: suges lac gentium et mamilla regum lactaberis. Even if it were so, the point of the phrase would not be explained, but Mr. White has shown on other grounds the improbability of such a reference. There are no other vestiges of the use of the Vulgate in Patrick’s citations from the O.T., whereas there is unmistakable evidence of his use of an Old-Latin version (see White, Proc. of R.I.A. 1905, p. 231, and the note on the passage).
P. 34.—They came to the habitations of men: Conf. 363₃₁,₃₄ ad homines. This is certainly the right reading, and stood in the MS. used by Muirchu (495₃₂). The Cod. Arm. gives omnes, which is unsuitable in the context.
Ib.—“Thou shalt remain with them two months.” Patrick refers here to a second captivity (363₂₅), and his words (which are not lucid) misled his biographers (beginning with Muirchu) into supposing that he was captured on some later occasion. But I cannot think that his words: et iterum post annos multos adhuc capturam dedi, refer to the two months which he spent with the traders. They come in curiously after the incident of the dream, and before the mention of the two months. Post annos multos cannot naturally be taken of the six years of his captivity in Ireland, but must mean a term of years after his escape. I believe that the sentence is a parenthetical reference to his life-work in Ireland, conceived as a second captivity. “And again, after many years, my captivity was continued.” The motive of this abrupt observation was the preceding dream, to which he attributes great significance; it furnishes, in fact, the interpretation of the dream. The second banishment to Ireland is prefigured by the great stone which lay upon his body, and which he could not resist; the sun which lightened its weight is the divine guiding which made that banishment endurable.
P. 37.—Patrick at Lérins. Dictum Patricii, see above, App. A, i. 3; Tírechán, 302₂₃ erat hautem in una ex insolis quae dicitur Aralanensis annis xxx, mihi testante Ultano episcopo. It seems obvious that the Bollandists and Todd were right in supposing that Aralanensis arose from Lerinensis. The more recent view that Arelate is meant seems very improbable; though the name Arelate may conceivably have influenced the corruption (cp. App. C, 6, ad fin.).
P. 38.—Island monasteries: Gallinaria, Gorgon, Capraria, Palmaria. See Ambrose, Hexaem. 3, c. 5, insulas uelut monilia; Jerome, Epist. 73 § 6 (Migne, 22, 694) [c. 400 A.D.]; Sulp. Severus, V. Mart. 6, 5 (Gallinaria). For Capraria, see Rutilius Namatianus, De reditu suo [c. A.D. 417], i., 439 sqq.—
and for Gorgon ib. 517 sqq. For cloisters in the Dalmatian Islands see Jerome, Epist. 92. For the Stoechades: Cassian, Coll. 18, Praef. (Migne, 49, p. 1089); Ennodius, v. Epiphanii, 93, medianas insulas Stoechadas (so Sirmond and Vogel; cycladas, MSS.) Lerum ipsamque nutricem summorum montium planam Lerinum, described as sanctarum habitationum loca.
P. 38.—Monastery of Lérins. For the names Lero, Lerina (Lirinus is the form in the best MSS. of Sidonius), see Pliny, Nat. Hist. 3, 5. Strabo, 4, 1, 10 gives the names Planasia and Leron.
The exact date of the foundation of the monastery by Honoratus is unknown, but it cannot have been later than the first years of the fifth century. The earliest reference seems to be in a letter of Paulinus of Nola in A.D. 410, or a few years later (Ep. 51 to Eucherius and Galla in island of Lero; this letter seems to show that the foundation was recent). Tillemont in his note on the question (Mém. ecc. xii. p. 675) quotes and contests the statement of Baronius and Barralis, that the monastery was founded in A.D. 375 (so Alliez), but he does not give the source for this statement. So far as I can discover, the only foundation for it is indicated by Barralis (Chronologia sanctorum ... monasterii sacrae insulae Lerinensis, 1613), p. 190, where he says he found it in quodam membr. codice perantiquo Lerin. MS. We cannot attach any importance to this. Tillemont points out the objections to this date, and founds one of his arguments on the age of Saint Caprasius.
The chief sources for the history of the monastery during the first forty years of its existence are: Hilary, Sermo de vita s. Honorati; Eucherius, De laude eremi, cp. also his other writings; Vincentius, Commonitorium primum et secundum; Honoratus, Vita s. Hilarii. All these works will be found in Migne, P.L. vol. l. Further information is to be gathered in Paulinus, Ep. 51; Faustus, Epp. ed. Krusch (M.G.H.), and ed. Engelbrecht (Vienna Corp. Scr. Ecc.); Homilia de S. Maximo in Eusebii Emiseni ep. homeliae, p. 84, vᵒ sqq. (ed. Gagneius, 1589); Sidonius Apollinaris, Carmen, 16.
Consult Barralis, op. cit.; Silfverberg, Hist. Mon. Lerinensis usque ad ann. 731 (Copenhagen, 1834); Tillemont, Mém. eccl. (xii. art. on Saint Honoratus, with notes; ib. xv. arts. on Hilary, Eucherius, Vincentius, Maximus of Riez; ib. xvi. art. on Faustus); Alliez, Les îles de Lérins, Cannes, et rivages (1860), and Histoire du monastère de Lérins, vol. i. 1862; the articles on Honoratus, Hilary, etc. in the Dict. of Christian Biography; Krusch’s and Engelbrecht’s prefaces to their editions of Faustus.
Pp. 38-9.—Snakes at Lerinus: Hilary, Sermo, c. 3 (1257, ed. Migne).—Fresh water flows in media maris amaritudine, ib. 1258.—In mare magnum recedentia: Eucherius, De laude eremi, c. 1 (701 ed. Migne).—Vines, etc., ib. c. 42.—Anecdote of the tablet of Honoratus: Hilary, Sermo, c. 4, 1261 (mel suum ceris reddidisti).—“Break through the wall of the passions.” etc.: Eucherius, Hom. ii. 836.—Venire ad eremum, etc., Id., Hom. iv. 842.—Manual work was practised at Lérins, Gennadius, de scr. ecc. lxix.
P. 40.—Faustus. Engelbrecht (preface to his ed.) gives reasons for placing the birth of Faustus not long before 410; but they are not absolutely decisive.
P. 47.—Semi-Pelagianism at Lerinus.—Vincentius, author of the Commonitorium (which Neander justly describes as “ein für die Geschichte des Begriffs von der Tradition epochemachendes Buch,” Kirchengeschichte, iii. 262), held semi-Pelagian views (cp. ib. iv. 405). Faustus was also a strong exponent of modified Pelagianism, though severe in condemnation of Pelagianism; his work, De gratia dei et libero arbitrio, is extant (Opp. ed Engelbrecht; Migne, 58, 783 sqq.). On the other hand, Hilary of Arles was a follower of Augustine, and Lupus a decided anti-Pelagian. Cp. Duchesne, Fastes épiscopaux de l’ancienne Gaule, pp. 129-30.
P. 42.—Victoricus: appears transformed into an angel in Muirchu; and in later biographers the name is changed to Victor. In Tírechán (330₂₂) we meet a Victoricus whom Patrick ordained bishop for Domnach Maigen.
P. 43.—Pelagius, a Scot, but probably born in Britain. See Bury, “The Origin of Pelagius,” in Hermathena, xxx. p. 26 sqq., where the evidence is set out. Zimmer holds that he was born in Ireland (Pelagius in Ireland, pp. 18-20). For a general account of the Pelagian theory and the course of the controversy, see Harnack, History of Dogma, vol. x.
P. 47.—Patrick’s reluctance to go to Ireland: cp. esp. Conf. 365₁₉, contra, Hiberione non sponte pergebam donec prope deficiebam (cp. Ps. 18.37, White).
P. 49.—Autissiodorum.—For the connexion of Patrick with Auxerre see Muirchu, pp. 496, 272; cp. Hymn Gen. Patr. 19, 20 (p. 98, Lib. Hymn. vol. i.). The authenticity of the record that Patrick received his theological training in Gaul is borne out by the desire to visit the brethren in Gaul which he expresses in the Confession, 370₁₂.—For Amator, see Appendix C, 9. For Iserninus and Auxilius: Muirchu, p. 273; Add. Notices, p. 342 (Patricius et Isserninus, 1. epscop Fith, cum Germano fuerunt in Olsiodra ciuitate, etc., a passage which shows that Iserninus was an Irishman); and Appendix C, 9. The notice in Ann. Ult. s.a. 439 might seem to imply that Iserninus was already a bishop when he went to Ireland in that year; but Tírechán says that Patrick ordained Eserninus at Killcullen. See below, p. 310.
Pp. 49-50.—Patrick ordained deacon: Confession, 365₁₂ (see Appendix C, 9). Patrick discouraged in his enterprise: Conf. 371₁₁, multi hanc legationem prohibebant, etc.
P. 50.—Germanus: see Appendix A, i. 7, on the Vita Germani of Constantius, and W. Levison’s monograph there cited. On the apparent inconsistency of the statement that he held a military command with the fact of his civil career (see Levison, op. cit. p. 117).
P. 51.—Germanus in Britain: Prosper, Chron. s.a. 429—the source for the fact that Germanus was sent by Celestine as his representative ad insinuationem Palladii diaconi. We are not told whether Palladius was a deacon of Rome or of Auxerre. It is to be observed that this notice is strictly contemporary; the first edition of the Chronicle was published only four years later. Constantius, in the V. Germani, does not mention the part played by Celestine. He represents the mission of Germanus, with whom Lupus of Troyes was associated, as decided by a synod of Gallic bishops which assembled in response to an appeal from Britain (c. 12). It is difficult to say how far we should be justified in accepting the statement of Constantius and reconciling it with Prosper’s, in the sense that a Gallic synod decreed the mission and Celestine sanctioned and approved it (so Tillemont, Mém. ecc. xv. 15, and others). But it may be so far correct, that an appeal was made from Britain to Gaul, probably to Auxerre, and that Auxerre enlisted the intervention of Rome. The question is discussed in Levison, op. cit. pp. 120-2.
Ib.—British Pelagians: Agricola was prominent. Writings of a British Pelagian are edited by Caspari, Briefe, Abhandlungen und Predigten aus den zwei letzten Jahrhunderten des kirchlichen Alterthums (1890), who ascribes them to Agricola. For Fastidius cp. Tillemont, xv. 16, 17; but Mr. H. Williams seeks to defend him against the charge of heresy (Transactions of Society of Cymmrodorion, 1893-4, p. 71 sqq.).
P. 52.—Pelagianism in Ireland: see Zimmer, Pelagius in Ireland, 22-24.
Ib.—Patrick’s false friend: Confession, p. 365, 366: esp. 366₁₃, et comperi ab aliquantis fratribus ante defensionem illam [see below, note on p. 202], quod ego non interfui nec in Brittanniis eram, nec a me orietur [I would read oriebatur: “without any prompting from me”], ut et ille in mea absentia pro me pulsaret.
P. 54.—Mission of Palladius: Prosper, Epit. s.a. 431, ad Scottos in Christum credentes ordinatus a papa Celestino Palladius primus episcopus mittitur. It has been pointed out by Zimmer that this notice probably owes its insertion in the Chronicle to the circumstance that Prosper was at Rome in this year (Celtic Church, p. 32). The mission of Palladius is also referred to rhetorically by Prosper in his Contra Coll. c. xxi.; Migne, P.L. li. p. 271: ordinato Scotis episcopo dum Romanam insulam studet seruare catholicam, fecit etiam barbaram Christianam (sc. Caelestinus).
P. 56.—Churches said to have been founded by Palladius: See V₂24 = V₄28 (= W source) = V. Trip. p. 30. In Cell Fine “he left his books and the casket with relics of Paul and Peter, and the board on which he used to write” (V. Trip. trans. Stokes). In Donard were preserved the relics of “Sylvester and Solinus” (V₄; Solonius, V. Trip.). Acc. to V₄ the Tech na Romhan was founded by the disciples of Palladius. For the identification of this name with Tigroney, see Shearman, Loca Patriciana, p. 27. Shearman has attempted to identify the site of Cell Fine with the ancient cemetery of Killeen Cormac (near Colbinstown in Kildare on the borders of Wicklow). He supposed that Killeen has not here its usual sense of “little church,” but stands for “Kill Fhine,” so that the name would mean “the church of the clan of Cormac”; and he supposes that the saint Abbán maccu Cormaic was buried here. It cannot be said that he has made out his case. His argument largely depends on his view that the remarkable bilingual inscription preserved in the graveyard is connected with the poet Dubthach maccu Lugair—a view which must be rejected (see below, p. 305). The same sources mention the landing-place of Palladius. Muirchu (p. 272) has no local details, and only notes his failure in general terms. The feri et inmites homines, who would not receive his doctrine, evidently mean especially Nathi son of Garrchu, who is mentioned in other sources as opposing Palladius.
P. 59.—Patrick’s preparations. Cp. Muirchu, 275₁₀.
P. 59.—Companions of Palladius: Augustinus et Benedictus, Muirchu, 272₃₁. The thought strikes one that they might have brought some intimation from Ireland that Patrick would be acceptable as successor to Palladius. If Palladius died in Dalaradia, and these companions came with a message from Dalaradian Christians, this might have been a motive for Patrick’s special connexion with that region of Ireland.
Pp. 61 sqq.—Position of the Roman see. For what I have said on this subject I must acknowledge my particular obligations to the important study of M. E.-Ch. Babut, Le Concile de Turin, 1904. His chief object is to determine the date and circumstances of the Council of Turin (Sept. 417), but the book is of much wider scope. For the position of the apostolic see in the latter half of the fourth century, Rade’s Damasus, Bischof von Rom, 1882, is important.
P. 70.—Kingdom of Cashel. Cp. the remarks of Rhŷs, Studies in Early Irish History, p. 31.
P. 74.—Solar worship. Patrick, Confession, p. 374. Cormac’s Glossary, s.v. indelba. It has been suggested that a circle on an inscribed (ogam) stone, which seems to be oriented, at Drumlusk, near Kenmare, is connected with solar worship (Macalister, Studies in Irish Epigraphy, ii. 116-7). Cp. H. Gaidoz, “Le dieu gaulois du soleil et le symbolisme de la roue,” Rev. arch. 1884 and 1885.
Ib.—Pillar worship. Patrick, ib. p. 369. For the idol Cromm Cruach, see p. 306. Cp. the stone of worship (ail adrada) in Ancient laws, iv. 142.
P. 76.—For white dress of Druids, see Tírechán, p. 325-6. For their tonsure see Appendix A, i. 4.
P. 79.—Muirchu, 273-4. “Adzehead” was evidently meant as a nickname for the tonsured monk. I have given the oracle as it is found in Muirchu’s Latin rendering. He must have known the prophecy in a different form from the Irish version which is preserved in the glosses on the Hymn Genair Patraicc (Liber Hymnorum, i. p. 100): “Adzehead will come, over the mad-crested sea, his cloak hole-head, his staff crook-head, his table in the west of his house; all his household will answer Amen, Amen.” See Atkinson, ib. ii. 181-2, and my article on the “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 203 (in Hermathena, 28, 1902).
P. 81.—Patrick’s landing-place in Ireland. Muirchu, p. 275. Palladius had landed at the same place (Vit. Trip. p. 30; V₂, 24 and 25). Todd (St. Patrick, 338 sqq.) thought that the circumstances of the landing of Palladius were transferred to Patrick, it being unreasonable to suppose that both missionaries should have landed at the same place. This is a bad argument. For, in the first place, Inber Dee may have been the usual port for ships from South Britain; and, in the second place, nothing was more natural than that Patrick should first go to the region in which his predecessor had been active. And if this is admitted there is nothing unreasonable (Todd’s second objection) in supposing that the chieftain Nathi MacGarrchon, who (according to Vit. Trip. p. 30, V₂, 24) opposed Palladius, should also have opposed Patrick (V₂, 25). It is more to the purpose that Muirchu says nothing of Nathi, but it may be observed that his opposition might help to explain why both bishops remained such a short time in Wicklow.
P. 83.—Sea-journey from Wicklow to Ulidia. Dr. Gwynn suggests that Muirchu (who seems to have visited Ulidia, see Appendix A, ii. 3) made this journey himself. Patrick’s visit to Inis Patrick is also mentioned by Tírechán (p. 303), who seems almost to imply that it was the first place he visited in Ireland. According to Tírechán’s account he proceeded from the islands off Skerries directly to the plain of Breg (the visit to Ulidia is not mentioned). Here we have a Meath tradition, at variance with the Ulidian tradition reproduced by Muirchu. It is perhaps impossible to decide between them. There can be no doubt that Patrick was active both in Down and in Meath; the question at issue is only one of chronological order. Muirchu worked the Ulidian episode into a narrative which originated in Meath, but this proves nothing for the superior authenticity of either. And on the other hand, the motive which probably influenced Muirchu in accepting the Down tradition that Mag Inis in Ulidia was the first field of Patrick’s labours—namely the bishop’s desire to visit and convert his old master, and pay him the price of his freedom—cannot have very much weight, even if we accept the tradition that Patrick was a captive in north Dalaradia. In my narrative I have adopted Muirchu’s order, but without any decided opinion that it is right. If, as I think, Dalaradia was the destination of Palladius when he left Wicklow, there may have been a good reason for Patrick’s proceeding thither first. If the tradition that his first Easter in Ireland A.D. 433 was celebrated at Slane is accepted, very little time is left for his labours in Ulidia.
P. 84.—Patrick’s landing-place in Dalaradia. Muirchu, p. 275. The ostium Slain was identified by J.W. Hanna in a rare tract, An Enquiry into the True Landing-place of St. Patrick in Ulster, printed at Downpatrick in 1858. The river flows into the lake at Ringban, about two miles from Saul, dividing the townlands of Ringban and Ballintogher (see Ordnance Map). Mr. Hanna discovered that the name Slaney was still in use for the river, and this furnished him with the identification. Since he wrote, the name has been forgotten. The church of Ballintogher is called the church of Bally-bren in the Taxation of Pope Nicholas; offering the same word by which the mouth of Strangford Lough, fretum quod est Brene, was known to Muirchu (see further on the locality, O’Laverty, Diocese of Down and Connor, i. 216 sqq.).
Ib.—Dún Lethglasse. For the striking remains of the fort, also called Rathceltchair, see Mr. Westropp’s valuable study on the forts of Ireland in Transactions of R.I.A. vol. xxxi. p. 586, where it is cited as an instance of the mote type of fort. It has a platform separate from the central mound, and the mound is surrounded by three ramparts thirty feet wide.
Ib.—Dichu. The proof of Dichu’s reality[349] is supplied by the petition (Muirchu 296₁₀) ut nepotes Dichon qui te benigne susceperunt misericordiam mereantur et non pereant. Nepotes Dichon means the Hy Dichon, Dichu’s tribe; and, though susceperunt may be an error for suscepit, the text is not inconsistent with the story. There is further confirmation in the independent testimony to the existence of Rus or Ros, son of Trechim, said to have been Dichu’s brother. (See Appendix, C, 12; on the Senchus Mór.) Rus is said to have lived at Derlus (V₂ c. 31 = V₄ c. 37, Vit. Trip. p. 38, cp. V₃ c. 33), which was at Mrechtan, now Bright. It has been conjectured that the Castle of Bright stands on the site of Derlus (O’Laverty, op. cit. i. p. 148), and the Protestant church is supposed to be on the site of the ancient church (ib. 147).
P. 86.—For Skerry, cp. Reeves, Eccl. Ant. pp. 83-4.
P. 87.—Sabul, Saul (see Reeves, op. cit. pp. 220 sqq.).
P. 90.—Tassach at Raholp. That he was stationed in the neighbourhood of Saul is implied in Muirchu 297₁₀. For his connexion with Rathcolpa see Mart. Dung. April 14; schol. on Genair Patraicc hymn, l. 53 (Lib. Hymn. i. p. 102). There are ruins of an ancient church, known as Church-Moyley, described in Reeves, Eccl. Antiq. p. 39.
P. 90.—Loarn at Bright. V. Trip. p. 38, V₄ c. 37, V₂ c. 31. It was recorded in a common source of V. Trip. (p. 40) and V₂ (c. 32) that near Bright Patrick converted Mochae, who afterwards founded a church at Noendrum, now Mahee island in L. Strangford (ob. 497, Ann. Ult. and Tigernach). O’Laverty has much to say on this, op. cit. i. 143-4. For Bright, cp. Reeves, op. cit. p. 35; for Noendrum, ib. pp. 10, 148 sqq., 187 sqq. It is a legitimate inference from the silence of our authorities, that no church at Dún Lethglasse was founded by Patrick. For its history see Reeves, op. cit. 141 sqq., 220 sqq. The first bishop recorded is Fergus, whose death is placed in Ann. Ult. at A.D. 584 or 590.
P. 91.—Mudebroth. Dr. W. Stokes interprets Dei mei indicium (Trip. p. 289), but cp. Atkinson, Lib. Hymn. ii. p. 179.
Ib.—Druimbo, Collum bouis. Cp. O’Laverty, op. cit. p. 228 note.
P. 102.—Foundation of Trim. Additional Notes, 334-6 (translation with notes in Todd’s St. Patrick, 257 sqq.). The name of the wife of Fedilmid is given as Scoth Noe (= flos recens). Lomman is said to have been a son of a sister of Patrick (335₁₃). The legendary character of the story is obvious; but there seems no reason to doubt the Trim traditions which it involves—the co-operation of the Briton Lomman with Fedilmid and his British wife and their son Fortchernn. Lomman’s name appears in the Martyrologies (Tallaght and Donegal) under October 11.
P. 104.—The legend of the Easter fire at Slane and Patrick’s visit to Tara is told in the text after Muirchu, who used an older (probably Irish) source. It is very briefly summarised in Tírechán (p. 306); he differs from Muirchu as to the number and names of the Druids. Todd has the merit of having seen that the whole story is unhistorical and that it is absurd to draw any chronological inferences or treat seriously its chronological implications. On the other hand, historical motives clearly underlie the story, as I have sought to show in the text. It may be said that the celebration of Patrick’s first Easter at Slane may be a historical fact. It is evident that this was a tradition at Slane; and it is quite possible that Patrick may have spent his first Easter there for the purpose of baptizing converts, as Easter was at that time one of the chief occasions for that ceremony. We may regard this as a possibility; but we are only entitled to say that there must have been some motive for the location of the fire at Slane. It is a nice problem whether the scriptural parallels (the contest between Moses and the magicians, and the Book of Daniel), which pervade Muirchu’s account, were first introduced by Muirchu himself, or presided at the original composition of the legend. I am inclined to adopt the second alternative; and to hold, with Todd (though he does not clearly distinguish Muirchu from Muirchu’s source), that Patrick’s contest with the Druids took place “at the first Christian passover or Easter celebrated by him in Ireland,” because the similar contest of Moses occurred shortly before the first passover of the children of Israel, in the land of Goshen (as Muirchu—following his source?—points out). Zimmer’s view, that the motive of Muirchu in giving prominence to the story of Patrick’s first Easter was connected with the Easter controversy in the seventh century (Celtic Church, p. 81), has been noticed above, Appendix A, ii. 3; but if Muirchu was specially interested in it on that account, the Easter question had certainly nothing to do with the origin of the legend, which must be far older than the seventh century. For Beltane fires cp. Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. 259 sqq.; for fires on Easter Eve, ib. 247 sqq.
[There is a remarkable notice in the Calendar of Oengus that on April 5 “on the great feast of Beccan MacCula, with a victory of piety excellent Patrick’s baptism was kindled in Ireland” (transl. Stokes, p. lxvii.). This obviously refers to the Slane legend, but the date April 5 must have a different origin, as Easter did not fall on that day in 433. During Patrick’s episcopate it fell only once on April 5, viz., in A.D. 459, whether on the 84 or 84 (12) cycle. The notice therefore suggests that in that year there was a baptismal ceremony which was remembered; and it might be conjectured that it was the occasion of the raid of Coroticus, which probably occurred towards the end of Patrick’s life. See cap. ix. and notes.]
P. 104.—High festival at Tara (Feis Temrach). The holding of such an assemblage by Loigaire is recorded in Ann. Ult. s.a. 454 (cp. s.a. 461), and by his successor Ailill Molt, s.a. 467 (alternative dates 469, 470). According to the Book of Rights (p. 7), such conventions were held every seventh year; other traditions represent them as triennial (cp. Todd, St. Patrick, p. 416). But these notices in the Annals suggest that they were not held at stated periods in the fifth century, but were summoned at the pleasure of the High King for special purposes. This is especially suggested by the notice (Ann. Ult. s.a. 461) that Loigaire lived seven years and seven months after the Feast of Tara, as if it were a unique, not a recurring, event in his reign; and the statement is inconsistent with a septennial as well as with a triennial period. The periodic convention contemplated by the Book of Rights was held at Samhain (Nov. 1).
P. 105.—The company driving over the plain of Breg might possibly contain a reminiscence of the custom of a Flurumritt, as described by Mannhardt, Der Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstämme, 397 sqq. In the Archduchy of Austria it was the custom for the sons and servants of the house to ride round the fields at Easter, vor Sonnenaufgang im schnellsten Laufe. Other instances of such early processions are cited. The custom of proceeding ad laevam against the sun with malicious intent, seems still to exist near Lough Case in Mayo. There is a pile of stones near the lake “round which stations are made desiul [rightward], except in the case of maliciously disposed persons, who occasionally come on the sly in the dead of night, and go round widdershins in order to raise storms to destroy crops and kill cattle” (Professor Rhŷs, Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Part iii. vol. viii. 5th series, 1898, p. 233).
P. 110.—The Burg in Eiffel district (on first Sunday in Lent): Mannhardt, Baumkultus, p. 501. Compare also the practice of the Gallic Druids described by Caesar, B.G. vi. 16, and the material collected by Mr. Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. 319 sqq.
P. 111.—Burning of Sandan. Cp. Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. 168 sqq.
P. 112.—Mode of burial of Loigaire. Tírechán, 308₄: the text should be read as follows:—