Saint Patrick, and the early church of Ireland

Preface

The Myth and the Man — Book of Armagh — Writings oi Saint Patrick — Evidences of Authenticity — Other Ancient Authorities — Modern Writers 7

Chapter I. Home And Parentage

Alcluyd — Good Blood — Potitus the Presbyter — Calpurnius the Deacon, and Decurio — Culdee Cells — Conchessa — First Missions in Scotland — Ninian, a specimen ...« 21

CHAPTER IL

THE YOUNG CAPTIVE.

Patrick Baptized — Foolish Legends — The Lad not a Saint — Pirates — Patrick Sold in Ireland — Tends the Cattle — Rough Days — Remembers his Sins — Turns to God — His Religion 39

CHAPTER IIL

THE ESCAPE.

Dreams — The Fugitive— On Shipboard — A Storm— A Desert — A Strange Spell — Home Again — Dreams of Ireland — Will

be a Missionary , 54

4 CONTENTS,

CHAPTER IV.

THE FAILURES OP PALLADIUS.

Early Missions in Ireland — Churches — Celestine Interested — Palladius Sent — Kot well Received — Goes to Scotland — His Disciples — Servanus — Ternanus 63

CHAPTER V.

SIFTING THE LEGENDS.

Germanus — Stories of Patrick's Wanderings — Climax of Fable — Was Patrick ever at Rome? — Was he Sent forth by the Bishop of Rome? — Silence of Ancient Authors on the Question — Sechnall — Fiacc-^Prosper — Bede — Patrick Confounded with Palladius — Silence of the Confession — ■ Roman Mission a Legend 75

CHAPTER VI.

AMONG THE DATES.

When did Patrick go to Ireland to Preach ? — Where Labour before he Went? — Any ties with Germanus? — Germanus and Lupus in Britain — Glastonbury — Movement in Armorica — Patrick Goes to Ireland — Young at Forty-five 96

CHAPTER VIL

FIRST LABOURS OF PATRICK IN IRELAND.

An Affrighted Herdsman — A Wrathy Master — Patrick not a Pirate — Fury Calmed — Preaching in a Barn — A Church Rises — Patrick's Visit to his Old Master — Repulse — Looking toward Tarah— The Young Benignus — Patrick's Tent before Tarah 110

CONTENTS. 6

CHAPTER Vlir.

THE DRUIDS.

Cutting the Mistletoe — Sacrifices — Baal — Sun-worship — Druids' Doctrines — Priests — Superstitions — Holy Wells — Charms— Beltine Fires — Bards — Scotch Plaids — Irish Hospitality — Danger from the Druids 123

CHAPTER IX.

SAINT Patrick's armour.

Great Feast at Tarah — King sees Patrick's Fire — The Court on the Move — Patrick in the Great Hall Preaching — Dubtach and Fiacc Listen — The Hymn of Patrick , 140

CHAPTER X.

CAUSES OF SUCCESS.

A Commanding Presence — Conall Converted — Mode of Teaching — King's Daughters — Doctrine of the Trinity — Legend of the Shamrock — Treatment of Superstition — The Grom-cruach — Patrick destroys the Great Idol — Pagan Custonds Adopted by Christians — Centres of Influence — Love of Pioneering — Enthusiasm — Patrick's Extended Travels — Daring Spirit — Goes into Connaught — Robbed — Many Baptized — Endurances — Refusals of Gifts — Attention to Young Men — Redemption of Captives — All done in the Name of the Lord — Willing to be a Martyr — Power of Prayer — National Form of Early Christianity in Ireland — Persecution — Patrick's Charioteer dies in place of his Master — The Leinster Men 151 e CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XI.

Patrick's creed.

His Confession — Tillemont's View of it — The Doctrines in it — Occasion of the Epistle to Coroticus — Christian Captives — Noble Appeal by Patrick — An Embassy Scorned — Doctrines of the Epistle 183

CHAPTER XII.

THE CHURCH OF SAINT PATRICK.

Theme of Controversy — Students under Patrick — Cell of Ciaran — Culdee System of Schools — Young Men ordained Bishops — Fiacc made Bishop of Sletty — Certain Conclusions — More Bishops than Churches — Her Synods — Glory of the Early Irish Church — The Decline — Invasions by Danes and English — Henry II. delivers Ireland to the Pope — Two Churches in Ireland — Strange Reversions in History 196

CHAPTER XIII.

LAST DAYS.

Eeform of the Laws — Patrick's Purgatory — Old Age — Toiling to the Last — St. Brigid — Patrick dies — Ireland in griefs — '* Litany of St. Patrick" — Canonization — True Character... 220

PREFACE.

There is profit in *' guesses at tnith," when they expose errors long and widely prevalent. They are like links of circumstantial evidence, no one of them singly of much positive value, but when joined and welded, they make a chain not easily broken. They are probabilities, and, according to their degree of strength, they afford convictions of certainty. I do not claim to set forth in this volume a series of events all of which are the undoubted verities of history. I do claim that the statements are as near to the complete truth concerning the subject treated as it has been possible for me to exhibit them after long and laborious research.

No concession is made to superstition by giving the title of " saint" to the man whose name has become so popular, and, after fourteen hundred years, is still as fresh as the shamrock and green as the emerald. Without the title he would hardly be identified or seen in his distinctive character. A good gospel word was abused when Rome assumed to confer upon eminent Christians the honour of being saints, and limited the term to them. By the New Testament charter we may claim it for all true Christians, however humble or unknown. 7

Was there ever such a man as Saint Patrick ? It was wise to consider this question before attempting to write his Hfe. By some it has been doubted, by a few others denied. But in such cases there has usually been a strong party feeling, or an ignorance of certain original sources of history. There is a distinction to be made between the myth and the man. Imagination has given us a Robinson Crusoe ; the real man was Alexander Selkirk. The Saint Patrick of the ordinary Irish heart is certainly very mythical. The portrait of him was drawn from imagination ; the colours are not those of the fifth, but those of the twelfth or fourteenth century. The deeds are manufactured to order and by the job, and the life is made of the baldest legends. This Patrick is a fully-developed Papist of the time, when certain errors prevailed, which he could not have known in the fifth century. He is constantly working miracles, some of them very trifling, and some of them astounding, beyond all that was ever recorded of a mere man. For his especial benefit divine revelations are made to him, which cause a greater amazement than any ever made to Moses or Paul. He is too wonderful to be real. The myth business was entirely overdone. The manufacturers did not perceive that common sense might some time be restored to the human race.

In the Middle Ages " it was customary with the monks to exercise their scholars in writing the lives of imaginary saints ; asserting that it was a pious and very improving way of exercising the imagination ! ! The best of these fanciful biographies were laid aside for future use ; and after the lapse of a few ages, when their statements could not be disproved, were produced and published as genuine.

It is said the monks of Holywell applied to De Stone, a writer of the thirteenth century, to write for them the life of their patron saint. He asked for materials, but on being informed that they had none, he volunteered to write it without any. In this way the lives of St. Patrick were greatly multiplied, and were filled with the most marvellous legends." *

Dr. Geoffrey Keating, more than two hundred j^ears ago, said: "We are informed by a manuscript chronicle of antiquity that sixty-four persons have severally written the life of this reverend missionary. ' ' As to the ' ' antiquity, ' ' it would not have been so very antique with most of them. Dr. Lanigan, a Roman Catholic historian, felt ashamed of the legend-makers, and he ssljs of these lives that " they are full of fables, and seem to have been copied, either from each other, or from some common repository in which such stories have been collected. It would be idle to mention the many proofs which they exhibit of being patched up at a late period." And Bollandus, one of their learned writers, says concerning them, "They have been patched together by most fabulous authors, and are none of them more ancient than the twelfth century. ' ' This is not said of all the accounts given of Patrick by the annalists, some of whom wrote at a much earlier period. It is said of the fuller lives. In them is seen Patrick, the myth.

Yery different was the man Patrick. If we strip away the burdening growth of wild ivies, we may get at the

*' Ireland and the Irish, by Kirwan (Eev. N. Murray, d.d.) This title was given to a series of letters published in the K. Y. Observer, 1856, and to which I am much indebted.

genuine sturd}^ oak of liis cliaracter. Even the grossest fables may have a foundation in fact. Often in the legends of the monks there can be traced a thread of historic truth. If we cast away the rubbish without sifting, we may lose a few gems hidden in the mass. If we allow that the so-called miracles of Patrick are most absurd, it does not at all follow that the history is a romance. Dr. Murray said : *' Whilst there are many and good reasons for the rejection of the lives of Saint Patrick as so many monkish fables, as stupid as they are nonsensical, yet that there was a very devoted and greatly useful missionary of that name, endued with apostolical zeal, in Ireland, and about the time to which history refers, we are compelled to admit. ' '

Traditions are of some value in regard to his existence and general history. ' ' The traditions in the Book of Armagh, ' ' says Dr. Todd, ' ' cannot be later than the third half century after the date usually assigned to the death of Saint Patrick. They assume his existence as admitted by all parties and never questioned. Had the story of Saint Patrick been then of recent origin, some remarks or legends in the collection would certainly have betrayed the fact. That the collectors of these traditions indulged in the unscrupulous use of legend strengthens the argument. There were men alive, at the time, whose grandfathers might have conversed with the disciples of the Patrick who was said to have converted the Irish in the latter half of the fifth century. Had the existence of this Patrick been a thing to be proved, or even doubted, some of these men would have been produced as witnesses, and made to tell their experience. ' ' For there was a great assumption made ; it was that Armagh had a right to the jurisdiction over all other churches in Ireland — a claim not generally admitted. To prop it up these traditions were collected. All was based upon the existence and acts of Patrick, and yet in this curious record there is no attempt to prove that he had actually lived in Ireland. A whole people was ready to admit it — so ready indeed that, upon their admission and high regard for the man, is built up a very faulty theory of church authority. The foundation was solid — the structure was of wood, hay, stubble.

"It is incredible that a whole nation could have combined thus to deceive themselves ; and it is even more incredible that a purely 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, the 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 throughout the country. ' ' ^

Nor is this all. There are certain writings which claim to have come from the very pen of Saint Patrick. One is a hymn, which gives us no historic information, but is of great value in a spiritual light. It will be found in chapter ix. , with the reasons for giving it a place in this volume. The only others which I assume to be genuine are the Confessw Patricu, and the Epistola ad Coroticum, Some writers include them both under either one of these titles, or refer to them as the " Cotton MS." It is only in their

* Todd. St. Patrick, preface.

simpler, and doubtless earliest form, that they are thus admitted ; what is evidently interpolated by later hands is almost all rejected. They are quite universally admitted to be authentic and genuine by Protestant historians, some of whom also give a place to certain tracts, such as De Trihus Hahitaciilis. The evidence in favour of the Confession is somewhat stronger than that for the Epistle; but both are adopted, for the following reasons :

1. Their antiquity. They are older than any of the lives extant, and they are largely quoted in almost all the biographies. If one goes to a Romish book-stall, he may find, under their titles, a mixture of facts and ridiculous fables. But the older copies come to us with a more honest face and better credentials. About the close of the eighth century a copy of the Confession was transcribed into the collection entitled the Book of Armagh. The copyist complains that the original was becoming quite obscure, which is no slight evidence of authenticity. At the close are the words, " Thus far the volume which Patrick wrote with his own hand. ' '

This copy is much shorter than those found in later manuscripts. Did the transcriber condense or abridge the copy before him ? So thought Dean Graves, for an et cetera sometimes occurs. But this might only mean that the original was dim by reason of its age, or that only the leading facts of Patrick's life were intended to be preserved in the Armagh collection. It was not, however, the fashion of that age to abridge documents by leaving out the wonders and miracles ; the style was rather to leave out the sober facts of history. If we find in this copy chiefly facts, we may conclude that the miracles were not yet invented. The Epistle to Coroticus is not in the Book of Armagh. But it bears the marks of the same age and authorship. It also quotes the Latin version of the Bible, made before that of Jerome, which Patrick would hardly have used, for the older translation would have won his heart in his younger days.

2. Their purity. They are not entirely free from errors ; but the errors are just such as we should expect to find in the writings of a man in the decline of the fifth century. An orthodox Augustine was a rare being at a little earlier period. But the older copies of these writings are free from ridiculous legends of miracles and saint-worship. As such fables are contained only in later copies, we may infer that they were foisted in by the makers and mongers of huge fictions. Of the Confession, Neander says: "The work bears in its simple, rude style an impress that corresponds entirely to Patrick's stage of culture. There are to be found in it none of the traditions which, perhaps, proceeded only from English monks [after the Anglo-Saxon invasion in the twelfth century] ; nothing wonderful, except what may be explained on ps3^chological principles. All this vouches for the authenticity of the piece. ' ' ^ Neander knew the edition of Sir James Ware ; that in the Book of Armagh is still purer. I have consulted the Liber Ardmeachce in Sir William Bentham's Irish Antiquarian Besearches.

3. Their design. It was not to prop up certain theories of church government. They were not written in the interest

* Hist. Ch. Church, ii. p. 122, note.

of any party, certainly'- not that of the Roman power. Such a purpose is manifest only in some of the later interpolations, thrust in when it was thought desirable to make the people believe that Ireland had received her great bishop and her Christianity directly from the banks of the Tiber. Dr. Todd says of the Confession, especially : " If it be a forgery, it is not easy to imagine with what purpose it could have been forged." ^ If a " pious fraud," it was by one who thought it important to assume the name and to get forth the experiences of Patrick in accordance with Scripture. Would such a man forge such a document ?

The avowed object was to show why Patrick felt called to preach the gospel to the Irish people ; to declare that he was not sent by man, but by the Lord ; to furnish evidence that God had approved of his mission and labours ; to record some of his experiences; to "make known God's grace and everlasting consolation, and to spread the knowledge of God's name in the earth." He wished in his old age " to leave it on record after his death, for his sons whom he had baptized in the Lord.'* In the proper places I have referred to this work as a defence of himself and his mission, and to the Epistle as a noble appeal for Christian rights and liberty.

4, Their scriptural character. Not the "fathers," but the inspired writers are quoted. "They abound in simple statements of Gospel truth ; but there cannot be discovered in them a single one of those doctrines invented in later times, and set forth as necessary to salvation, in the Creed of Pope Pius IV. The Scriptures are treated by him with '^^SaintPatrick, p. 347.

deep reverence, as infallible and sufficient. In support of his teaching, Patrick appeals to no other authority than to that of the wiitten Word ; and in the few chapters of his Confession alone there are thirty-five quotations from the Holy Scriptures." "^

5. The honesty, humility and gratitude everywhere apparent. The Confession ' ' is altogether such an account of himself as a missionary of that age, circumstanced as Saint Patrick was, might be expected to compose." Says Dr. Todd : "Its Latinity is rude and archaic. ' ' Its tone is : * ' I, Patrick, a sinner, a rustic, the least of all the faithful — ' * " a poor, sinful, despicable man — " not at all " on a level with the apostles — " "appointed a bishop in Ireland, I certainly confess that, by the grace of God, I am what I am."

Yet here an objection has been urged. "Who can believe," asks Casimir Oudin, "if Patrick was a man of learning and celebrity in the fifth century, that he could have written in a semi-Latin and barbarous style?" But it is not claimed that he was a man of learning, educated on the Continent, and passing thirty-five years in monasteries. Such a view is not consistent with what we know of the man. We should expect his pen to move in a rude style. The very objection is rather one of the strongest arguments for the authenticity of these writings. "The rude and barbarous Latinity" does not appear in the tracts concerning the "Three Habitations" and the "Twelve Abuses of the Age ;" one of which has been attributed to

^Ohurcli of St. Patrick, by the Eev. John Wilson, Belfast, 1S60, This is a valuable tract.

Augustine of Hippo, and the otlier to Cyprian. The writer's own account is that he could not write elegantly, for he had not been a student from infancy, and he had been so long among a rude people that his speech had been changed to another tongue. In our times well-educated missionaries in foreign lands, grown familiar with a foreign tongue, can appreciate his difficulty. He did not write as a monk, but as a missionary.

6. The neglect into which the older form of these writings fell is some evidence of their truth. They did not serve the purposes of a Church which has coolly laid claim to all the saintly characters from the time of Abel to the beginning of the fifteenth century. She has swelled the catalogue of saints, but she has never been content with the original records of good men. She has added to them whatever suited her purpose, and cast into the shade the original documents. Thus has she done wdth the Holy Scriptures, How much has she added to the first simple accounts of Mary and Peter, and even our Lord ! Her very neglect of the original records is an argument for their authenticity. It sets theto apart from the legends which were manufactured in her interest. It distinguishes the true coin from the cheap counterfeit, the latter having become very profitable to Rome. Her authors have not been content to publish these unvarnished writings of an honest Christian missionary. There was not enough of the wonderful, the monkish, the Romish element in them. They were cast into a dark corner, according to her manner of putting to silence the witnesses of truth. The real Patrick has been slumbering his thousand years. It is time for him to rouse, and in rising up he will throw off the vast heaps of superstitions piled upon him to keep him quiet.

Here, then, is a footing upon these ancient documents. Assuming their genuineness, we may be guided to some knowledge of the life, the labours and doctrines of Patrick. What agrees with them we shall accept from all sources within reach ; what is inconsistent is rejected.

Among the oldest of the ' ' Lives' ' is the brief Hymn of Fiacc, or St. Fiech, who seems to have been a disciple of Patrick. If he composed such a poem, he may have sung it as a converted bard ; but a later hand is apparent in a few miracles added to it. I have before me a tri-form copy, containing the original Irish, the Latin version of Colgan, and an English translation by the anonymous author of a Life of St. Patrick. * The collection of ' ' Lives' ' in Colgan' s Trias Thaumaturga is valuable, if defects in quality can be made good by superabundance in quantity, the THpartite Life being the only one worthy of much regard. The reading of Joceline's Life of St. Patrick almost disgusted me with the subject, but it was refreshing to find one of the latest Komish writers saying, *' How derogatory from common sense have the biographers of our saint acted, and particularly Joceline ! ' ' Our modern author, however, is not clear of the same fault.

Almost all my previous researches might have been spared had I received at an earlier day the work entitled St. Patrick^ Apostle of Ireland; a Memoir of his Life and Mission^ with an introdicctory dissertation on some early

* Baltimore: John Murphy, 1861. 2 usages of the Church in Ireland . . . hy James Henthom Todd^ D. D. To this learned work by an Episcopal clergyman, and ' ' an antiquarian declared to be thoroughly versed in Irish history, ' ' my indebtedness is gratefully acknowledged. His brother, the Rev. Wm. Gr. Todd, in his Church of St Patrick^ has proved that the ancient Church of Ireland was independent of Home.

Other works have been consulted, such as the Historia Britonum of Nennius; Ecclesiasticae Historiae Gentes Anglorum, of Bede ; Britannicarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, of Ussher; Annales Ecclesiastici of Baronius; Memoires Ecclesiastique, par M. de Tillemont; Le Grand Dictionnaire, par M. Louis Moreri ; Biographic Universelle ; Annales Hiberniae, ab Thoma Carve ; Collectanea de Bebus Hibernicis, by Charles Valiancy ; Les Moines d' Occident, par le Comte de Montalembert ; Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints; Ledwich's Antiquities of Ireland; Annals of Ireland, by the Four Masters; Neander's Memorials of Christian Life ; Ecclesiastical Histories of Ireland, by Brenan, Carew, Lanigan and Wordsworth; Sir James Ware's History and Antiquities of Ireland; McLauchlan's Early Scottish Church ; Soames' Latin Church during iVnglo-Saxon Times ; Lappenberg's History of England under the Anglo- Saxon Kings ; the several Histories of Ireland by Keating, Macgeoghan, Moore, Haverty, O'Halloran and O'Connor; and the General Histories of the Christian Church by rieury, Neander, Mosheim, Kurtz, Cave and Collier.

I have not discussed at tedious length the question of Saint Patrick's birth-place, but have frequently pointed out evidences that it was on the Clyde. The opinion that it was Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Gaul, seems to be quite modern. Its chief supporter is Dr. Lanigan, who ingeniously brings forward no little learning on the subject, but all his trimming of antiquated names can hardly satisfy us that his Bononia Tarvannse was Patrick's Bonavem TaberniaB, where the great missionary tells us his father dwelt. We can find half a dozen places in Gaul once called Bononia, ^ and a score of Taberniae ; and possibly by Dr. Lanigan' s mode of reasoning we might show that Saint Patrick was born at the Three Taverns [Tres Tabernas)^ where Paul met his Christian brethren. This would bring the "Apostle of Ireland' ' near enough to Borne, in his childhood, to please the most ardent papal admirers. The opinion that he was born on the banks of the Clyde, or somewhere in North Britain, is supported by Fiacc and his scholiast, the author of St. Declan's Life, Probus, Sigibert (quoted by Ussher), Cave, Ware, Joceline, Fleury, Tillemont, Bailet, Albaa Butler, Macgeoghan, Baronlus (?), Moreri, Spottiswoode, Camden, Collier, Lappenberg, Thorpe, Henry, Gibbon, Neander, Milner, Wordsworth, J. C. Robertson, Hetherington, D'Aubigne, McLauchlan, Giesseler, Kurtz, Mosheim, Todd, Beeves and other writers, both Protestant and Boman Catholic.

Truth and fact have been most earnestly sought, and the attempt is to present them intelligibly and impartially. I have given to many statements the heavy shading of a doubt, and I only ask for them the benefit of a probability. A plain mark has been put upon every silly legend, which it seemed proper to notice in order to make clear the points ^j^Anthon's Class. Diet.

of the case, or to bring upon some popular superstition its deserved ridicule.

If the name of Saint Patrick were less known ; if it had fallen into obscurity ; if we had to rescue it from oblivion, as that of Hyppolitus or that of Paleario has been rescued, and if he were not so commonly portrayed in colours that do not at all suit his complexion, — ours would be an easier task. It would be less difficult to meet the popular views. In telling the truth about him we must come in conflict with the common opinions. Men will take down their histories and cyclopedias and read the usual stoiy, shake their heads, call in question what we relate, and examine the subject no further ; I can only ask them to follow up my references.

If any one attached to the Roman Catholic Church shall read this volume, let him not suppose that we dishonour the great man whom he reveres as the patron saint of all Irishmen. Far from it ; we would have him honored in his true character. If such a reader will adopt the ancient religion of Saint Patrick, he will find himself almost a modern Protestant. At all events, he will go to the Word of God as the only authority in matters of faith, and the only source of light to guide him in the way of life. It is not so much our aim to set forth the man Patrick as it is to illustrate the principles by which he was controlled in the labours that have made his name renowned. The record of his toils and triumphs ought to be instructive, if a late writer says truly, "From all that can be learned of him, there never was a nobler Christian missionary than Patrick. ' *

SAINT PATRICK.

CHAPTER I.

HOME AND PARENTAGE.

'p^(i^ cottages^ near little towns, great men have

been born. God makes his earnest workers

of dust, that he may have all the glory.

When looking for the birth-place of Saint

Patrick we turn to Scotland. The voyager on the

deck of the vessel that steams up the Clyde will

have his eye upon a lonely, rugged rock that rises

almost three hundred feet above the water, and is

now crowned with a castle. It was once called

Alcluyd,* the Eock of the Clyde. It gave its

name to a fort on its top and a town at its foot.

There, on their own frontier, the ancient Britons

resisted the Northern Scots and Picts. Border

strifes made it a place of death. The old songs

tell of the rivers running red with blood. It

* Alcluith, Alcluaid, Alcluada, Alclyde. In Ossian's poems it is Balclutha. See my preface.

seems to have been a stronghold of the Romans, who built one of their walls from Alcluyd across the country to the Frith of Forth. To them the Britons yielded and looked for defence during several generations. It is supposed that these Romanized Britons united with the tribes of Southern Scotland and formed the Cumbrian league, or the kingdom of Strathclyde. Their capital was Alcluyd, which they named Dunbriton, "the hill of the Britons/^ whence the present name of Dumbarton. Four miles from it, toward Glasgow, on the line of the old Roman wall, is the modern town of Kilpatrick, which claims to be the birth-place of Saint Patrick. The Christian year 397 is the most probable date of his birth.