expressly ascribes his mission thither to a divine vision, or impulse. In which he is followed by his disciple and panegyrist Fiech, as we shall see in the sequel. 3. None of the succeeding Popes notice Celestine's interference with the Church of Ireland: neither the ambitious Gregory I. A.D. 591, who first attempted to bring the independent British and Irish Churches under his jurisdiction, but in vain; nor the imperious Hildebrand, or Gregory VII. who freely acknowledged the full establishment of the Irish Church and State in his Brief*, directed to "Tirlagh, the illustrious king of Ireland, the Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, Nobles, and Christians inhabiting Ireland," dated A.D. 1080; nor the rapacious Adrian †, who, in his * Terdelnacho inclyto regi Hiberniæ, Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Abbatibus, Proceribus, omnibusque Christianis Hiberniam habitantibus. + Adrian's bull is given by Giraldus Cambrensis, Matt. Paris, &c., and lately, by Bishop Burgess, with a corrected Translation. See, also, Leland's History of Ireland, Vol. I. page 8. The claims of the Church of Rome are thus expressed :— Sane Hiberniam et omnes Insulas quibus sol justitiæ illuxit, et quæ documenta fidei Christianæ acceperunt, ad jus B. Petri et Sacrosanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ, (quod tua etiam nobilitas recognoscit,) non est dubium, pertinere. And the Bull hypocritically exhorts Henry to inculcate morality, and to plant Christianity, (i. e. Popery,) in Irę, bull of A.D. 1156, granted the sovereignty of Ireland to Henry II. of England, upon condition of the payment of Peter's pence in Ireland, which never had been paid before; alledging the absurd claim, that "Ireland, and all other islands, were under the jurisdiction of St. Peter and the Holy Roman Church." But is it likely, that these artful and well-informed Pontiffs would have omitted to avail themselves of the apposite and important precedent of Pope Celestine, had they any such to produce? They did not, because they could not. St. Patrick's existence, however, and his mission, have been idly impeached as fabulous, by some modern sceptics, Ryves, Maurice, and Ledwich, objecting, 1, the silence of Platina, respecting his mission by Celestine: 2, the absurd, ridiculous, and extravagant miracles ascribed to the Saint, by his later historians, Nennius, Probus, Joceline, and O'Sullivan; each of them outstripping his predecessor in the wildness of their fictions, in proportion as they receded from the fountain head, the simple and sober accounts of St. Patrick himself. Thus, O'Sullivan, the latest, has foisted land. Stude gentem illam bonis moribus informare, et agas, (tam per te, quam per alios, quos ad hoc, fide, verbo, ac vitâ, idoneos esse perspexeris) ut decoretur ibi Ecclesia [Romana,] plantetur et crescat fidei Christianæ Religio, into his life a long account of St. Patrick's Pur gatory; of which, Joceline, Probus, Nennius, and Fiech never heard, and the Saint himself never dreamed. But to the reality of St. Patrick's existence, and mission, we have the most abundant and satisfactory evidence; resting not solely on written records, but on universal tradition also. A tradition youched by the many remarkable places that still retain his name from time immemorial, in Great Britain and Ireland. The havens, where he embarked, Port Patrick, and where he landed, Ennis Patrick; the Churches and Monasteries which he founded, or built, Ard Patrick, Down Patrick, Domnach Patrick, &c.; the mountains which he visited, Cruagh Patrick, &c.; the Epis copal Sees which he founded, Ardmagh, Clogher, &c.; and the general persuasion of his successful mission, throughout Christendom; which have furnished employment for upwards of sixty writers of his life; all together indisputably evincing both his existence and his celebrity. The written records that establish it, are the genuine remains of St. Patrick; 1st, His Confession, or Epistle to the Irish*, giving an account of the leading circumstances of his life and mission; * St. Patrick's Confession, or Epistle to the Irish, is re published entire in the Appendix to this Essay, No. III. written shortly before his death. It is very ob scure, composed in bald Latin, frequently ungrammatical and unintelligible; but has been evidently corrupted by the ignorance of transcribers, in many places; and he modestly apologizes for its imperfections, as being not written in his native tongue, but in a foreign language (Latin), the niceties or elegancies of which he never had leisure to study, Confess. Sect. 3; but the natural and unaffected simplicity pervading the whole, the profound humility and self-abasement, the ardent piety, zeal and charity that animate it, worthy, indeed, of an Apostle, furnish internal evidence of its authenticity, the most satisfactory and convincing. He wrote also an Epistle to Coroticus, (Charaticus, or Caractacus,) a Gallican Prince, in confederacy with the unconverted Irish, censuring his invasion of Ireland, in the course of which he slew, and carried into captivity multitudes of the Irish Christians; and deprecating his ill treatment of them in the most tender and affectionate strain of pity and compassion. These Epistles were first published by Ware; and to Dr. O'Conor we are indebted for a more correct republication of them lately, in his elaborate work, Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Antiqui, Vol. I., 4to., 1813, Proleg. I., p. 105-113, from two of the oldest Irish MSS., the Cottonian, of 800 years standing, and the Armagh, of 1000, Fiech, his disciple, was, after his conversion, appointed by Patrick, Bishop of Sliebhte, or Sletty, a mountainous range in the district of Leix, now the Queen's County, in Leinster; where he built a famous monastery, called Domnach Fiech, after himself; the ruins of which are still subsisting, about a mile Northward of the town of Carlow. Not long after St. Patrick's death, A.D. 493, and early in the sixth century, he wrote a Poetical Hymn, or Panegyric on St. Patrick, in Irish verse; one of the oldest reliques, perhaps, of the Irish language, abounding in antiquated terms, but deservedly admired for its simplicity and elegance, and still more for its orthodoxy, when properly explained. It was first published by Colgan in his Triadis Thaumaturga, 1647, or Lives of St. Patrick, Columba, and Bridget, with a Latin translation annexed; and has been recently re-published in the Rerum Hibernicarum, Prol. I., p. 90-96, from one of the most antient Irish MSS. the Donnegal; with a new Latin translation by Dr. O'Conor, amending the old one in several places, where it was either faulty or unintelligible. The original text of the Hymn, and an English translation of O'Conor's Latin version, are given in the Appendix of this Essay, No. IV: both, I trust, will prove more satisfactory to Irish and English Scholars and Divines, than Colgan's Irish text, and the English translation of Patrick Lynch, subjoined to a |