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600101605J

* :*•

CONFESSION OP ST. PATRICK,

[tSAHBI^TXD FBOH the OBIODfAI. LATIn] )

%« Inffthttion ani Sttts.

REV. THOMAS OLDEN, A.B.,

CiUKtA Of EDDckbejnple, In the D(H»n of ClorBc.

DUBLIN
JAMES M'GLASHAN, 50 UPPER SACKVILLE-STREET.

//a. a^. JSy

Dublin t Printed by Gborqe Drouoht, 6, Bachelor*i-waIk.

Conttnts.

Page

Preface ....... 1

Introduction . . . . . .9

CHAPTER I.
Of St. Patrick's Birth and Captivity, and of this Confession 43

CHAPTER II.

Having escaped from Slavery^ by flighty he returns to his

Country . . . . . .51

CHAPTER m.

Of his calling into Ireland^ and of many Impediments . 57

CHAPTER IV.

The Fruits of his Mission . . . . .64

CHAPTER V.
He declares with how much disinterestedness he had preached
the Gospel . . . . . .71

ref ate.

It has been remarked by Lord Bacon, in one of his
happy illustrations, that time is like a river, which, as it
flows on, bears on its sor&ce only what is light and
trivial, while all that is solid and valuable sinks beneath
its waters. The history of St. Patrick is an instance of
the truth of this observation ; his real character was for
ages unknown ; his name was associated, in the popular
belief, only with puerile fiibles and ridiculous miracles,
and no one thought of doubting that the doctrines which
he taught were those of the modem Church of Rome.

Of late years, however, it has been otherwise, for ex-
tracts from his writings have been published, and other
proofe given, that the popular traditions were un-
founded, and he has been shown to hav^'higher claims
on our esteem and admiration than was at one time
supposed.

The source from which the most important evidence
has been derived, is the Confession, which has been
brought out of its obscurity, and many passages of great
interest quoted from it, by various writers. But as these,
however accurate they may be, will not supply the place

2 PREFACE.

of the work itsell Ror afford as satisfiictory evidence to
the inquirer, it cannot but be useful to render it acces-
sible to the general reader, by means of an English trans-
lation ; and to enable every one to judge for himself of
the purity of the fiiith originally planted in Ireland.

It was with this object that the following work was
undertaken. The translator is conscious of its many
imperfections ; yet, when it is remembered that the
Confession is of great antiquity — that the Latin is ad-
mitted by the writer himself to be very bad, and that
the mistakes of transcribers are numerous, he feels him-
self in some degree entitled to claim the indulgence of
the critical reader, for any &ults which he may discover
in this attempt to illustrate the text, and to render it
&ithfolly into English.

The highest authorities at home and abroad consider
it the genuine composition of St. Patrick. To this effect
the learned Dr. O'Conor, when quoting the testimony of
Mabillon in its fevour, says, " with him agree Tillemont,
Dupin, Ussher, and others, from whose judgment one
should be rash, or rather mad, who would dissent,
without the strongest reasons."* To these may be added
Sir H. Spelfftan, Dr. Petrie, who states it to be the
general opinion of the learned,^ and Dr. Neander, whose
valuable testimony is given in these words : " This
work bears, in its simple, rude style, an impress that
corresponds entirely to Patricius's stage of culture. There

* Scriptores Ber. Hib. Prol^. i. 105.

^ History of Tara HiU, p. 107, in Trans. B. L A. vol. xviii

PBEFACE. 6

are to be found in it none of the traditions which, per-
haps, proceeded only from English monks — nothing
wonderftd, except what may be very easily explained
on psychological principles. All this vouches for the
authenticity of the piece."*

The only writer of any learning who held a different opi-
nion from these authorities, was Dr.Ledwich, who, having
in his *' Antiquities of Ireland," maintained the strange
position, that no such person as St. Patrick ever existed,
was oblifired to treat this work as a forg^ery. His reasons
for den^g its authenticity are th^ expre*ed: "No
notice is taken of the education of our Apostle under
St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, or his relationship to him ;
of his journeys on the- Continent, and his advancement
to the episcopate of Ireland by Pope Celestine."^ Now,
to the former objections it is easy to reply, that the
Confession is not a history of his life; and, therefore, we
ought not to expect such details : and as to the last, so
fer from affording any ground for suspicion, it is one of the
most satisfeictory internal proofe of its authenticity ; for.

* History of the Christian Religion and Church, by- Dr. A. Xeander,
voL iiL p. 173. Bohn. The learned writer appears to mean, not that there
is " nothing wonderful" in it, but that it contains no notice of the performance
of any miracles by St. Patrick, and nothing of a miraculous character (nichts
wunderbares) which does not admit of an explanation. The allusion is
probably to the dreams mentioned in the Confession, of which the editor offers
an explanation on the above principles (Introd. p. 85). It may be as well
to notice another inaccuracy with respect to St. Patrick, in this transla-
tion of Neander, as it seems to contradict the passage above quoted. It is
said, at page 172 : " His father gave him a careful education ;" which exactly
reverses the statement of the original (keine sorgfaltige ersiehung).

' Chapter xxii p. 348.

4 PREFACE.

had it been a forgery of those later ages, when the
mission of St. Patrick from Rome was invented, so im-
portant a circumstance in his history would not have been
omitted. As Dr. Ledwich, when in search of objections
to the Confession, could not find any better than these,
it is evident that he was led to deny its authenticity, not
by such frivolous pretences, but by his fency that there
was no such person as St. Patrick.

There are five manuscripts of the Confession. One of
these is contained in the Book of Armagh, a compilation
generally assigned to the seventh century, though this
has been doubted by a late writer;' another in the
Cotton Library, which is considered to belong to the
tenth century ; two are in the Cathedral Library of Salis-
bury, and one in the French monasterv of St. Vedastus.
It has been published in the original' language several
times : by Sir James Ware,*" from the first four of these
MSS. ; by the BoUandists,* from the last, which appears
not to be a valuable one; by Dr. O'Conor,** from the
Cotton MS., collated with Ware's edition ; by Sir W.
Betham,* from the copy in the Book of Armagh; this

* Dr. Reeves^ Eccles. Antiquities of Down and Connor, p. 224, who as-
signs one of the treatises in it to the tenth century.

' Opuscula Patricii. London, 1656.

' Acta Sanctorum, at March 17.

** Scriptores Rerum Hibemicarum, vol. i

* Irish Antiquarian Researches. Dublin, 1827. The authorities quoted
before, in evidence of the genuineness of the Confession, had reference to the
text, as generally printed, which, with slight alterations, is the same as that
of the four last MSS. ; yet it should be mentioned that some have thought
the Armagh copy the purest, considering as interpolations those passages in
the others which it wants. But this is not by any means certain, for the re-
currence of the note, "incertus liber hie" (the book uncertain here), in the

PREFACE. 5

MS. does not contain more, than one-half the matter of
the others ; and, as the translation which accompanies
the original, in Sir W. Betham's edition, was made di-
rectly from it, without correction from other sources,
and, moreover, as literally as possible, it has not been of
much assistance in preparing the present edition. It
was last published by S. Villanueva,*^ from the text of
the " Acta Sanctorum." The text used in the present
edition was that of Dr. O'Conor, compared with the
" Book of Armagh," as given in Sir W. Betham's " Anti-
quarian Researches."

The passages of Holy Scripture are not quoted from
the Latin Vulgate, and Sir James Ware says they are
nearer to the Septuagint version. They are probably
taken from one of the translations from the Septuagint,
which were in common use before the edition of Jerome.'
In many cases, also, without intending to quote texts,
his thoughts, flowing from a mind thoroughly familiar
with the Word of God, seem to clothe themselves natu-
rally in Scripture language. He sometimes quotes from
the Apocrypha, as do many other ancient writers ; for

margin of that copy, proves that the MS. from which it was taken, was
in somie places illegible or mutilated; and therefore cannot be altogether
relied on as giving us the original text in its integrity ; and, moreover, it
was the opinion of Tiliemont that, even in the fuller text of the other copies,
some passages are wantmg Q^ U y manque apparemment bien des choses en
un endroit''). There may be interpolations, for there are few works of the
same antiquity into which passages have not crept, either by the mistakes of
transcribers or by design, and one has been noticed (ch. iv. s. 18) ; but, even
if there should be others, th^ do not impair the evidence which the docu-
ment afibrds as to St. Patrick's faith and character.

^ Opuscula Patridi. Dublin, 1836.

> Bingham's Antiq. of the Christian Church, book xiv. ch. iu. s. 17.

b PREFACE.

it was read formerly, as in the Reformed Church at this
day, .. for e:^pl. of life «,d u„«.cdo. of Manner., ..
Jerome saith." On the subject of these quotations, Arch-
bishop Ussher remarks: " Now for those books, true it is,
that in our Irish and British writers some of them are
alleged as parcels of Scripture and prophetical writings ;
those especially that commonly bear the name of Solo-
mon. But so also is the fourth book of Esdras, cited by
Gildas, in the name of ' blessed Esdras the Prophet;'
which yet our Romanists will not admit to be canonical.
Neither do our writers mention any of the rest with
more titles of respect than we fihd given unto them by
other of the ancient fethers, who yet in express terms,
do exclude them out of the number of those books
which properly are to be esteemed canonical.""

There are other works attributed to St. Patrick, the
evidence for which is not quite satisfactory. Of these
the letter to Coroticus is generally printed with the Con-
fession, but Dr. Mason** does not consider it genuine;
and, independently of the words of St. Patrick (chap. i.
sec. 3, 4), from which we gather that he had never writ-
ten anything before, it may be added that there are
some internal proofe that it was not written by the

Religion of the Ancient Irish, ch. i.
° Testimony of St. Patrick, p. 173. The writer says his fother was
a I>ecurio, which can hardly be reconciled with the account given (Confes-
sion, ch. I sec. 1) ; and admitting that it can, *Mt would be difficult,"* says
Dr. Lanigan, " for the sticklers for St. Patrick*s birth in North Britain to
find a Curia or Decurions in Kilpatrick, or any place near it, in the fourth
century.* — (Eocles. Hist i. 126.) Again, the writer says he was bom in
Ireland, and he also seems to quote from the Confession.

PREFACE. 7

author of the Confession. It was the fiishion, in early

times, for those who wished to gain attention to their

compositions, to publish them under some eminent

name ; hence the number of spurious writings which

have come down to us, with the genuine works of the

great lights of the Christian Church.

At first it was intended simply to give notes in illus-
tration of the text, where they were required ; but,

owing to the quantity of matter which accumulated, it
appeared more advisable to prefix it in the form of an
introduction, and to direct the reader's attention to it by
references fi:om the text.

It only remains for the translator to add his earnest
hope that the perusal of this genuine work of St. Patrick,
while it confirms members of the Reformed Church in
the belief that their doctrines are not only those of
Scripture but of antiquity, may, through the Divine
blessing, lead those who have been brought up in igno-
rance of the truth, to " ask for the old paths, where is
the good way, and walk therem, and find rest for their
souls.""*

° Jeremiah, vL 16.

Jntrcbttttion.

Ireland, in the fifth century, was divided into five
provinces, each governed by a king, under whom were
several lesser chieftains. These provincial kings were
themselves subject to the supreme monarch, who re-
sided in the royal palace of Tara ; but they appear not
to have shown much regard to his authority beyond the
payment of a regulated tribute. It might be supposed,
fi'om the way in which some writers have spoken of the
Irish, that even some centuries later than this period they
were mere savages ; but there is no authority for such a
representation as tliis, and if we admitted it to be well
founded, it would be impossible to account for the fact,
that Ptolemy,' who wrote in the second century, has laid
down many towns on his map of Ireland, and that another
writer** of the third century says it had " eleven impor- ^
tant cities." And we have the less reason to doubt
Ptolemy's accuracy in this particular, when we find that
his map of Ireland is much more correct than that of
England, both with respect to the outline of the country
and the position of the fivers and towns which have been
identified. The observation of Tacitus, made nearlv a
century before, may help to account for this : — " The
channels and harbours [of Ireland] were better known
(he informs us) through the resort of commerce and

* 0*Cunor, Scriptores Reram Hibemicaram. Prolegomena, i. 87.
^ Mardaniu of Heraclea, quoted in O'Conor as above, i. 88.

B 2

10 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

traders than those of Britain.''^ Considerabje proof can
also be given from native authorities, that, at the period
at present referred to, the Irish had not only a regular
government, but a system of laws, and judges ;** that they
were to some extent acquainted with the use of letters,^ and
that the coimtry was intersected by roads^ on which vehi-
cles travelled ; that there were various grades of society ;
and we have evidence of their skill in the arts, in the
elegant workmanship of the gold ornaments^ which are
found in such numbers throughout Ireland. These and
other fects which might be mentioned cannot be easily
reconciled with the account given above of the Irish.
Their institutions did not in all respects agree with those
of modem civilisation, and it would be strange to expect
that they should ; but whatever may be said of them,
they indicate a people by no means in a state of barba-
rism. It will be expected that something should be said
here of the pagan religion of the Irish, as it is twice alluded
to in the Confession, and notices of it frequently occur in
the lives of St. Patrick. A ftiU account of it would, in-
deed, be both instructive and interesting; but in the
present state of our knowledge this is impossible. The
* reader must therefore be content with illustrations taken
from our ancient records, of some of the most prominent
of their superstitions. He will be enabled, by means of
these, to form a somewhat correct judgment of the times
in which St. Patrick lived, and thus arrive at a just ap-
preciation of his character and missionary labours.

« Tacitus, Vit. Agric ch. xxiv.

*• Dissertations on the History of Ireland, hy C. 0*Conor, Esq.
• Essay on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill, by G. Petrie,
LL.D.

' Preface to the Book of Rights, by Professor O'Donovan.

' Confession, ch. y. sec 21, note ; and Tara Hill, pp. 181, 184.

INTRODUCTION. 11

The worship of the sun, which was almost universal in
early times, held a prominent place among the religious
rites of the ancient Irish. They considered it a god, and
accordingly assigned to it the power of rewarding and
punishing, together with the other attributes of Deity.
We have an instance of this in the following passage
from the '* Annals of the Four Masters,** at the year 457
A.D. : — " Laogaire (the king) was taken captive in battle,
and gave guarantees of the sun, and of the wind, and of
the elements, to the people of Leinster, that he would
never come against them any more, if they gave
him his liberty." And in the next year, a.d. 458, it is
recorded: **The sun and the wind killed him, because
he had violated his oath by them."

A practice connected with the worship of the sun,
which still survives in this country, is the lighting of bon-
fires on the 24th of June ; in heathen times these fires
were made on the 1st of May, which is called, to the
present day, in the Irish language, " the day of BaaFs
fire" (La Bealltaine), the sun having been worshipped
under the name of Baal.^ A very ancient notice of this
day occurs, in which it is said — " The Druids used to
make two goodly [lucky] fires, with great incantations
on them, and they were used to bring the cattle between
them against the diseases of each year."' The change
from May to June is popularly attributed to St. Patrick,
and said to have been made in honour of St. John the
Baptist. We have in this practice a strange proof of the
tenacity with which the rites of superstition retain their

I* "Baal and Apollo, or the son, were one and the same among the
Celts." — 0*Conor, Prolegomena, L 24, note.

' Cormac's Glossaiy, quoted in Essay on Tare Hill, p. 84.

12 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

hold on the human mmd ; for at this day, after the lapse
of fourteen centuries, the same custom continues, and
the same power of preserving the cattle from evil is at-
tributed to it.

Besides the sun, the Irish had other objects of ido-
atry. " They worshipped," St. Patrick tells us, " idols
and unclean things." — (ch. iv. sec. 17.) It has been
said that the Irish had few idols, in the proper sense
of the word, and that their religion was of a more
refined kind than that of the inhabitants of Graul
and Britain ; yet the words of the Confession ex-
pressly charge the nation with idolatry, and this is con-
firmed by a very old life of St. Patrick, called the " Hymn
of Fiech," supposed to have been written in the sixth
century —

" Over the tribes of Ireland lay a gloom —
Tribes who worshipped idols ;
They believed not in the true God,
Nor in his proper Trinity."'

But after all, it is only a dispute about words ; for Dr.
Lanigan, who makes the above statement,i^ admits that,
in many cases, they worshipped the rude pillar stones
which are so common throughout the country, and are
generally known by the name of " Dallauns" (properly,
gallan), and hence the Christian missionaries used to carve
crosses* on these in order to draw away the attention

J Stanza xxi.

^ Ecc. Hist i. 280.

* For an instance of St. Patrick's having done so, see Dr. Petrie's Essay
on the Round Towers, p. 132; see also Smith's History of Cork, vol. i.
p. 287. The worship of rade stones existed amongst the nations of antiquity.
Thus .the Ephesians worshipped an object which fell down firom heaven
(to AiariTif), probably an aerolite, but not an image as our translators have
given it. — Acts, xix. 86.

INTBODUCTION. 13

of the people from their superstition, and turn it to the
Gospel of Christ. This worship of pillars was, of course,
as plainly idolatry as the bowing down to images graven
by art and man's device ; but that the Irish had at least
some idols of the latter kind, we have sufficient proof.
They are described in the following extract, which also
contains an account of the cruelties by which their favour
was supposed to be conciliated : —

" Magh Sleacht (the plain of slaughter) is so called
because the chief of the idols of Ireland was there —
namely, CrommCruach, and twelve idols of stone standing
round it, and its head was of gold ; and this was the god
of all the people who possessed Ireland before the arrival
of St. Patrick : to this they sacrificed the first bom of
every of&pring, and the first bom of their own sons.
Tighemmhas, the son of Follan King of Ireland, accom-
panied by the men and women of teland, supplicated

this idol on Samin's day [the 1st of November], with such
adoration, that they lacerated their elbows by felling and
adoring, imtil they inflicted wounds on their foreheads,
and bruised their noses and cheeks even till the blood
came ; hence it is called Magh Sleacht, or the plain of
slaughter."

The worship of wells is another heathen practice,
which is often alluded to in the lives of St. Patrick ; he
is said to have preached earnestly against it, whenever
he found the people engaged in it, " because," says an
old writer, "he had a zeal for God, even for the living
God." A description of one of these wells by an ancient
author is here given. It possesses considerable interest.

The Dinnseanchos quoted in O^Conor, Proleg. i. 22. Magh Sleacht was
in the county of Leitrim.

14 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

as well for the light which it throws on the state of reli-
gion among the people, as for the evidence which it affords
of the earnest and fearless tone of St. Patrick's preach-
ing. He found the people assembled with the Druids,
" to offer gifts to it as gifts to God ;" and having gone
into the midst of them, and shown them the folly of their
superstition, he preached the Gospel of Christ; and, we
are told, " they believed in the Most High God."" The
words of the writer are as follows: —

** St. Patrick came to a well, in a place called Finn
Magh, which the credulous vulgar called the King df
Waters, and in the Irish language, ' sl&n,' that is, ' heal-
ing,' giving it a name from the virtue which they beUeved
to reside in it ; for the ignorant vulgar thought there was
a divinity in the well, or rather that the well itself was a
divinity, and hence they called it the King of Waters,
and worshipped it as a god. The well was square, and
careftdly made, and a large stone of corresponding square
shape covered the opening. It seems to have afforded
an encouragement, if it was not the very cause of the
superstition of the people, that a certain magus [or Druid] ,
who served water as a propitious deity, and accounted
fire hostile, had, when dying, ordered his bones to be
laid under that rock."®

It would appear from this and other notices that they
believed in an inferior deity who presided over the well ;
that they attributed healing powers to it ; and that they
prayed beside it, and offered gifts to it, as gifts to God.
Such was the well-worship of the heathen Irish ; nor has

" TIrecban*8 Annotations in Betham, Appz. zxix. zxx.
® Colgan, Trias Thau.-natugfi, ch. Izx. p. 188.

INTRODUCTION. 15

it died out, as we might have supposed it would, when
the power of the Gospel was brought to bear on it. It
may have been that succeeding preachers of the truth
were not so zealous for God's honour as the first mis-
sionary, or that having for a while disappeared, it revived
again in times of ignorance ; yet certain it is that at this
day the superstition of the Roman Catholic peasantry re-
specting wells is identical with that which St. Patrick so
earnestly opposed. They beheve that a saint presides
over the well ;P they beheve in the healing power of its
waters ; they worship at its margin, looking down into
it; and bfifore they leave, they &sten a piece of rag as a
votive offering on the tree which overhangs it. It would
even seem that they have a con&sed notion that the weU
itself is a divinity, for in passing by a holy well they
kneel down, and sometimes even bare the knee, as if to
abase themselves to the utmost. Nor is this merely the
assertion of one prejudiced against the Roman Catholic
Church, for the same thing has been said, and ample
proof given of it, by writers of high character, belonging
to that Church. It will be sufficient to mention Dr.
O'Conor, a Roman Catholic priest, and one of the most

' It is a carious fact that the saints who are popularly worshipped at wells and
other sacred places are scarcely in any instance really saints of the Church of
Borne. Some of them were the founders of churches, or had some other claim
to be remembered ; but they belonged to the early Irish Church, which was
stigmatized by the Church of Borne as schismatical, and which, paying little
regard to this denunciation, firmly maintained its independence. It is a signifi-
cant proof of the nationality of the Irish Church, that there is no instance of any
church having been called after a foreign saint until the twelfth century, the
time of the English invasion. It should be remembered, too, that the first
Irishman ever canonized by the Pope was Malachy, Archbishop of Annagh
(a.d. 1190), eighteen years after the English invasion. But the Irish pea-
santry, taught to consider it a rin to reason or inquire, worship with equal
veneration the spirits of the schismatical dead and the orthodox saints ci the
Pope. ^

16 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

learned Irishmen of modem times. This eminent writer,
when Dr. Milner, an English Roman Catholic Bishop,
ventured to defend the well-worship of the Irish, de-
nounced it as " one of the vilest practices of Druidic su-
perstition,''*' and again warmly condemned Dr. Milner
for " coining forward in the nineteenth century to ca-
nonize Druidism, and mix it up with the doctrines of
Christianity."' It would not, perhaps, be correct to say
that the Church of Rome teaches this practice ; but its
existence and prevalence are an illustration of the readi-
ness of that Church to permit and encourage any super-
stition which does not interfere with her pretensions ; and
it is perfectly certain that the Roman Catholic priesthood,
in silently permitting, to say the least, such a degrading
superstition, are not animated by the spirit of St.
Patrick, and do not share in his jealousy for the honour
of God.

The heathen Irish " had also their mountain and river-
gods, which, after the custom of the Britons, they adored."
They had likewise many other superstitions, the nature
of which is imperfectly known, and which are not impor-
tant to the purpose in hand ; but there is a curious story
of St. Patrick's having been mistaken for one of these
mountain-gods, which deserves to be set down here.
He and his companions having arrived before sunrise
at a fountain near Cruachan, a royal residence (now
Croghan, in Elphin), sat down there; "and behold in
the morning the two daughters of King Laogaire came
to the fountain after the manner of women to bathe."
On arriving at the fountain, and finding the missionaries
seated there, and perhaps dressed in a manner different
fi'om the natives of the country, they concluded that they

*> Third Letter of Columbanas, Appx. iii. ' Ibi^p. 79.

nrTBODUCTION. 17

must be " men-feiries,' or gods of the earth, or phantoms,"
and began to ask them questions, by which a favourable
opportunity was afforded to St. Patrick of preaching to
them the Gospel of Christ.^ In this and other cases we
notice the connexion of the popular superstition with hills,
which probably were regarded with the same veneration
as the " high places" among the Canaanites. For this
reason, St. Patrick is said to have frequently made these
localities the scenes of his preaching, and hence it is re-
corded in the Hynm of Rech, that

" He pleached of God upon the hins.*"*

The priesthood, to whom allusion has been made, as
presiding over and assisting in the rites of heathenism,
are called " Magi " in the Latin language, and " Druidh"
(or Druids) in Irish : " they had the superintendence of
religious matters, and practised the arts of divination and
sorcery." It is in allusion to the latter practices that
Simon, the " magus" or sorcerer, is called " Simon the
Druid " in the Irish version of the Scriptures. The word
was also used for a sage or wise man, for the Druids were
believed to possess the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
We have an instance pf its use in this sense in Matthew,
ii. 1, where the wise men are called Druids. The in-
fluence which the Druid priesthood possessed over the
people in many countries was immense, and they had

' Viri sidhe. The followhig explanation of this expression is given by
Colgan : — ** Imaginaiy spirits (apiritus plumta$Uci) are called viri ndhe (men
of the hills), because they seem as if to come forth from pleasant hills to
trouble mankind, and hence the vulgar think they live in subterranean dwel-
lings within those hills. These dwellings, and sometimes the hills themselves,
are called by the Irish sidhe^ or siodha" — ^Vit tert. not. 49. The female
form of this compound, hean-sidhe (the banshee), is familiar to most readers.

* Tirechan*s Annotations, in Betham, Appx. p. 27.

" Stonza 14.

18 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

the power of enforcing their wishes to any extent by
means of the practice of excommunication, an object at
all times of the utmost terror to a superstitious multitude.
Its effect has been thus powerftiDy described : —

" If any one, either a private or public individual, will
not submit to the decree of the Druids, they interdict
him the sacrifices : this is their severest punishment.
Those who are so interdicted are accounted in the num-
ber of the wicked, and accursed. Every one leaves
them; every one shuns them when they approach, and
refuses to speak to them, lest any misfortxme should
be&ll him. They cannot be suitors in a court of justice,
nor can any honour be conferred upon them."'

It is generally agreed, however, that the Druids never
had this extreme power in Ireland. Their religion was
much less sanguinary here than in other pla<^, and their
sway over the minds of the people was less in proportion
as their creed was more refined. The following remarks
on this subject are fiill of important truth : —

" The sway obtained by these Druids in other Celtic
coimtries amounted to a thorough and slavish submission
to all their decisions, in civil as well as religious affiiirs ;
they, in short, manned and unmanned those nations at
pleasure, rendering them by their prognostics the most
furious combatants or the most abject cowards. This
prostitution never prevailed to so high a degree in Ire-
land, which we are fiff firom attributing to a less design-
ing set of priesthood, but rather to the constant use of
letters among the people, and to that free and happy ge-

^ Cosar, De Bello GallioOf bk. vl ch. xiiL

INTRODUCTION. 19

nius of the laity for examining into the reason of things.
. . . To this spirit, I say, they for a long time owed
their manhood of mind, and not to their spiritual direc-
tors, who strove to. debase it, and who, however great
their influence at any one particular period, gained them
but by slow and stolen steps, and by a fidlure in those
first principles of religion and government which, when
attended to, formed the happiness of this and of every
other nation.**^

n. — OF ST. pateick's life and peeaching.

The overthrow of heathenism, by the preaching of
the Gospel, had begun to take place very early in
Britain, perhaps before the end of the first century; and
there is reason to believe that the tidings of salvation
were carried into Ireland not very long after. Their in-
troduction was not owing to any one individual, or to a
systematic mission, but to the operation of natural
events, such as the intercourse between Ireland and
Gaul,* the persecutions of Christians by the Roman em-
perors, and the foreign wars of the Irish. By these
means many Christians from abroad became resident in
Ireland, and imparted a knowledge of the Gospel to the
people. Heathenism, however, continued to maintain

* 0*Conor'B Historical DiBsertations, p. 102.

* Lanigan*8 EccL Hist. voL i. p. 14. It is now very generally admitted
that the usages ci the early Irish Church point to a connexion with the
Churches of the East This is particularly evident with respect to the fes-
tival of Easter, in the celebration of which the Irish differed wholly from
the Church of Rome, and when attacked respecting it, defended themselves
by citing the example of St John and the Eastern Churches. See Bedels
Eod. Hist book iii. ch. xxv. There is no difficulty in supposing this
oennexion to have taken place through the south of France, which was colo-
nised by Greeks at an early period, and maintained a constant interoonne
with the East

20 TUE CONFESSION OF 3T. FATBICK.

its ascendancy for a long period ; and though, when St.
Patrick landed here to preach the Gospel, in the early-
part of the fifth century, there were Chriatian converts
and clergy, yet the king and his* chieftains with the
majority of the people, were heathens, and the Dniidic
priesthood was still in power. All obstacles, however,
gave way before his zeal and earnestness in the preach-
ing of the Gospel ; and, at the close of his career, he
could rejoice that he was the instrument, in God's hand,
of gaining over a nation to the Christian fidth.

It will render the Confession more easily understood
by those who are unacquainted with the feels of the
case, to give here an outline of the life of St. Patrick ;
but without entering into particulars, except in a few
instances of peculiar interest. The reader must not ex-
pect to find here any of what Archbishop Ussher has
well called " the pack of ridiculous miracles" with which
the monkish writers have filled their lives of him. He
never clfumed any power of doing miracles, and the
most &mous of those which are attributed to him are
manifest and palpable forgeries.

He is supposed to have been bom about a. d. 372, at
Bannavan, a village of Tabemia, which, according to a
generally received opinion, was Kirkpatrick, near Dum-
barton, at that time within the Roman j^ovince of
Britain; but the deciaon of this matter is of little im-
portance, even if it were possible. His Mher, Calpor-
"■"'' """" " ''""con; his grandfather, Potitus, a priest,
md&ther, Odissus, a deacon. Though
scarcely been noticed hitherto, it is of
! in the inquiry into the nature of the
urch, and of the religion of St. Patrick,
tj for it is quite clear that in the Church
)nged the clergy were not forbidden to

INTRODUCTION. 21

marry ; and it must, therefore, have been differently
constituted from the Church of Rome. In the latter, it
cannot happen that the fiither and son, for several gene-
rations, should be in holy orders, though in a pure and
apostolic Church, like the Reformed Church of these coun-
tries, it constantly occurs. Perhaps, if a conjecture may
be permitted, it is in allusion to St. Patrick's having been
descended from this deacon, whose son and grandson
were also in holy orders, that he is sometimes termed

** The descendant of the Deacon of the goodly household.*"^

In the time of his youth, as well as for ages before,
the province of Britain was harassed by the attacks of
the Irish.* Crossmg the narrow sea which divides the
two countries, they suddenly appeared on the British
coasts, md laying waste the surrounding district, with
fire and sword, hastened home, laden with captives and
spoil. In one of these descents, Patrick and a multitude
of his fellow-countrymen were made captive, and brought

y Book of Rights, p. 225. Dublm, 1847. It is right to say that
Professor O^Donovan, having translated the expression ** hua Deocain" by
'* descendant of the Deacon,** adds in a note, "recte, son of the Deacon, i. e.,
Calpomius ;" but there can be no doubt that he overlooked the following
passage in the Hymn of Fiech, where the same expression is used, and the
name of the Dt^acon in question given, which is not Calpomius, but
Odissus : —

" Mac Calpnim mic Otidhe
Ho Deochain Odisse." — Stanza 2.

The son of Calpomius, tlje son of Otidus (or Potitus),
The descendant of the Deacon Odissus.

The copy of the Confession in the Book of Armagh also mentions his descent
from Odissus.

' Eumenius, speaking before the Roman senate, A. d. 296, describes the
Britons, before Cosar's arrival, as " soils Pictis et Hibernis adsneti hostibns."

SS THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

to the north of Ireland.* Htere he became the property
of four brothers, one of whom, said to have been a chief-
tain of the county of Antrim, purchased him from the
others, and employed him as a shepherd. The capture
and disposal of Patrick and his companions, wicked and
inhuman as it was, is not to be regarded as the result
of the casual inroad of some wandering tribe. It was,
on. the contrary, one of a series of organised expedi-
tions,** which proceeded from Ireland, some of them
under the command of the kings of that country, and all
of them imder their sanction; and we can trace the

connexion between the laws of the country and these
predatory expeditions: for one of the ancient customs

of Ireland was that the chief king gave certain presents

to his provincial kings, and they again others to the
chieftains imder their sway, the presents for each in-
dividual being defined by the Book of Rights. Some
of these presents were bondsmen, or slaves ; and in
many cases it is specified that they are to be captives
from a foreign land, as in the following : —

** The stipend of the King of Brughrigh,
From the King of Eire without sorrow —
Ten tunics brown-red,
Ten foreigners without Irish.***

' Gibbon, generally slow to believe where Irish matters are concerned,
assents to this : " We may believe that in one of these Irish inroads, the
future Apostle was led away captive." — DecUne and FaU, v. 228.

^ From the words of Gildas we might infer that these expeditions were
made at regular intervals : ** Anniversarias prtedas trans maria exaggera-
bant.'»— (yifcfaw, chap. xiv.

• Book of Rights, p. 86. Although the work itself was compiled after
the introduction of Christianity, most of the customs had existed for many
Ages before. The place mentioned above is Bruree, in the county of
Limerick.

INTRODUCTION. 23

And again —

" Entitled is the King of Cineal Aodha
To five ahielda, five slender swords,
Five bondmen brought across the bristling surface of the sea.***^

Such was the custom to which, in all probability, the
Irish nation owed their conversion to Christiaiuty, by
the introduction of St. Patrick among them; an in-
stance of the mercy of God, in bringing good out of
evil, which brings to mind the beautiful narrative of Holy
Scripture, in which the captive Israelite is the means of
converting her master to the worship of the true God.®

It is unnecessary to say anything here of what oc-
curred durin£r his captivity, as nothing^ can be added
to the interesting account wHch he |iyes of himself
during that period. So, passing over his escape from
slavery, and his second captivity and escape, we find
him restored to his parents, and living with them.
They hoped that, after the vicissitudes and sorrows
of his youth, he would have remained with them
thenceforward ; but his mind was filled with other
thoughts ; he remembered the heathenism in which the
mass of the people in Ireland were sunk, and he felt an
impulse, which he knew to be from above, urging him
to devote his life to their conversion. He relates with
feeling the struggle between filial affection and the
sense of duty, and how the latter prevailed (ch. iv. s. 15).
In order to prepare himself for so great an imdertaking,
he set about remedying the deficiencies of his early
education ; and, in pursuance of this object, sought
the instruction of eminent men, and spent a considerable
time at seats of learning, engaged in acquiring know-
ledge. He visited, we are told, Germanus, Bishop of

^ Book of Rights, p. 181. • 2 Kings, ch. y.

24 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

Auxerre, and remained with him a considerable time,
" eagerly appljdng his mind to the attainment of wis-
dom, and the learning of the Holy Scriptures."^ He also
spent some time with St. Martin ; and, having been or-
dained, became a resident among the monks of Lerins,
in the Tuscan Sea, where he continued to prosecute his
studies.

It appears to be impossible to determine by whom he
was consecrated to the episcopal office. Roman Catho-
lics, indeed, usually assert that he derived his consecra-
tion and mission from Pope Celestine ; but Dr. Lanigan,
their principal historian, admits that there is no satisfec-
tory proof by whom he was consecrated, though he be-
lieved him to have come here with a commission from
Pope Celestine. But, as Mr. King has observed, the chief
argument for this notion seems to be," he ought to have
done so, therefore he must have done it."*

So important an event in his life would certainly re-
quire stronger evidence than Roman Catholic writers
have been able to produce; for no one can doubt that on
their theory it would have been the most conspicuous
circumstance connected with his mission to Ireland, and
of all others the most likely to be recorded and remem-
bered ; yet there is no proper evidence for it, and there
are strong reasons for entirely denying it. The Con-
fession, which, among other reasons, was written to ac-

coimt for his coming to Ireland, and to answer the ob-
jections of those who charged him with presumption
for doing so, has no mention of what would have been
the most valid excuse he could offer — the Pope's com-
mands. So fer from this, it contains no trace of his

' Colgan*8 second life of St. Patrick, quoted by King, Ch. His. L 28. j

« King's Ch. His. L 29. ' i

INTRODUCTION. 25

connexion with Rome ; and he repeatedly declares that
his only motives were the inward call which he felt, and
the promises of the Gospel. Again, the Chronicle of
Prosper, his contemporary, never once alludes to him,
although it notices the mission of Palladius, who effected
nothing; nor has Platina a word in reference to him;
writers who enter minutely into the acts of the See of
Rome, and who, it is quite impossible to believe, would
have &iled to ascribe the honour of St. Patrick^s mission
to Pope Celestine, if he had really sent him. It has been
also well observed, that, " if Patrick came to Ireland
as a deputy from Rome, it might naturally be expected
that in the Irish Church a certain sense of dependence
would always have been preserved towards the mother
Church at Rome. But we find, on the contrary, in the
Irish Church afterwards, a spirit of Church freedom simi-
lar to that shown by the ancient British Church, which
struggled against the yoke of Roman ordinances."** From
these fects we may conclude that there are strong pre-
sumptions against his having had any connexion with
Rome, and that the most probable account of his mission
refers it altogether to the Church of France.

The Roman writers do, however, relate the sending
of a bishop named Palladius to Ireland, a.d. 431, and it
is acknowledged that his mission was a &ilure. He re-
mained for a very short time, and died in Scotland, to
which he had passed on leaving Ireland. The following
year, a.d. 432, is that which is generally assigned to the
arrival of St. Patrick, who, accompanied by several com-
panions from Gaul,* landed on the shores of Ireland, to

^ Neander ut sup. p. 174.

* These were fifteen in number, w|th one woman : they afterwvdB obtained
chnrches, and settled in the country. In the vioinity of the place, where one

26 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

commence the work of preaching the Gospel. He first
disembarked on the coast of Wicklow, but not finding
the people inclined to receive him, he set sail again, and,
directing his course northward, arrived at the county of
Down. Here his preaching was attended with remark-
able success, and the prince of the territory, with his
family, became converts to the Gospel. After a short
stay here, he left his companions, and, anxious to return
good for evil, travelled to the place where his former
master lived, with the desire of making known the Gos-
pel to him ; but his efforts to effect his conversion not
being attended with success, he returned, and again
joined his companions in the county of Down.

Soon after this, having heard that the princes and
authorities of the kingdom were to be assembled at the
Royal Palace of Tara, to celebrate the festival of the
King's nativity ,i he saw that an excellent opportunity
was afforded him of preaching the Gospel ; and availing
himself of the circumstance that the festival of Easter
happened at the same time, he resolved to celebrate it
publicly in the vicinity of Tara, " judging," says an old
writer, " that this invincible wedge should be driven into
the head of the whole system of idolatry, by the hammer of
his strong labour joined with fidth, and by the spiritual
hands of his followers, so that it could never more rise up
against the feith of Christ."^ He and his companions, ac-

of them named Lugnat fixed his residence, a sepulchral inscription has been
found, of undoubted antiquity, recording his death. The words are— *^ Lie
Lugnaedon Iklacc limenueh " — Q^ The Stone of Lugnat the Son of Limenueh.")
— Esscu/ on Tara Hillj p. 164. In after times, when the invocation of saints
came to be practised, these Gauls were invoked in litanies.

i O'Donovan. Preface to the Book of Bights, p. 50.

^ Mocutenius in Book of Armagh. Betham, App. p. 4. The doctrine of
the resurrection, which the Gospel alone brought to light, was a leading theme

INTBODUCTION. 27

cordingly, sailing southward, arrived at the moath of the
Boyne. From this they set out for the plain on which Tara
is situated ; and, while on their journey, a circumstance
occurred which impresses us with a fiivourable opinion
of the amiable and winning character of St. Patrick,
and indicates, as has been observed, " the way in which
he is said to have drawn to him those who were to be his
successors in the guidance of the Irish Church." They
had gone to the house of a person of rank, where they
were hospitably received, and invited to pass the night.
Their host withhis fenuly became conyerte to the Gospel,
and when they were retiring to rest, " his young son
gathered St. Patrick's feet between his bosom and his
hands, and would not sleep with his fiither and mother,
but cried to be allowed to sleep with Patrick." In the
morning, when Patrick was getting into his chariot to
leave, and ** had one foot in, and the other on the ground,
the child Benignus held his foot tightly with both hands,
and cried out, * let me go with Patrick, my real fiither."'*
He was allowed to go, and became his constant compa-
nion, and afterwards his successor in the see of Armagh.
Having arrived in the vicinity of Tara on the eve of
Easter, he proceeded to make preparations for celebrat-
ing the festival, and Ughted a large fire about nightfall

of the ApostW preaching. It was thiu St. Paul introduoed the Gospel in
heathen Athens. — Acts, xvii. 18. See also Acts, iy. 2 ; 1 Cor. zv. Per-
haps it was a sense of the importance of this doctrine which rendered the
early British and Irish Churches so sensitive with respect to the festival of
Easter, and caused them to offer so determined a resistance to any change in
it. The circumstances attendant on the festival seemed to derive impor-
tance from the doctrine to wliich it referred ; and when, moreover, it was
used as a means of preaching Uiat doctrine, as in the present faistance,
they were naturally unwilling to alter what tl^y considered an apostolic
practice.

> Tirechan^s Annotations. Betham, Appendix, p. 19.

28 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

In doing this he violated one of the laws of the kingdom ;
and the King's attention having been drawn to it, he sent
and had him brought before him, at the instigation of the
Magi, who declared that the fire should be immediately-
extinguished, or else it would " get the better of their
fires, and bring about the downfell of the kingdom."
The Druids had, no doubt, heard of the triumph of the
Gospel in other lands, and rightly anticipated that the
new religion, which was spreading throughout the world,
would eventually become diffiised in Ireland also, and
cause the overthrow of their superstition.

The next day, which was Easter Sunday, he preached
before the King and his assembled princes — refuted the
arguments of the Druids, and made several converts,
although the King himself remained an unbeliever. It
was on this occasion of his being seized and brought be-
fore the King, at the instigation of the Druids, and when
in immediate expectation of death, that he is said to
have composed the beautiful hymn afterwards called " St.
Patrick's Armour." It is too long to give entire in this
place, but the conclusion of it affords so clear an evi-
dence of the purity of St. Patrick's feith, that it ought
not to be omitted. It nms thus: " Christ be with me;
Christ before me ; Christ after me ; Christ in me ; Christ
under me ; Christ over me ; Christ at my right ; Christ
at my left ; Christ at this side ; Christ at that side ;
Christ at my back ; Christ be in the heart of each person
whom I speak to ; Christ in the mouth of each person
who speaks to me ; Christ in each eye which sees me ;
Christ in each ear which hears me. At Tara, to-day, I
invoke the mighty power of the Trinity. I believe in
the Trinity, under the unity of the God of the elements:
Salvation is the Lord's, salvation is the Lord's ; salvation
is Christ's. May thy salvation, O Lord, be always with

INTRODUCTION. ^ 29

US.""* Leaving Tara, he travelled westward, and reaching
Westmeath, he preached the Gospel to two brothers,
Fiach and Enda, princes of that territory; the latter of
whom became a convert, and entrusted his son to St.
Patrick, who undertook to educate him." Proceeding
still to the west, he preached in several parts of Con-
naught, with various success. Arriving, at length, at the
sea coast, he ascended the mountain called Cruachin
Aichle (Mount Eagle), and remained there in retire-
ment for some days. He seems to have had this visit in
view when setting out for Connaught; and, in order to
provide for his security in the districts through which
he had to pass, he made an agreement with the sons of a
chieftain in the vicinity, " paying the price of twelve
armed men, that he might be certain of not being ob-
structed in his journey across Ireland by any ill-disposed
people."** His chief object in undertaking this journey
was to preach the Gospel to the people of Foclud, about
whom he had dreamed when with his parents, on his
return from his captivity in Ireland; "for necessity
required that they should go to the wood of Foclud
before the beginning of the year at the second Easter,
on account of the children, who cried, with a loud voice,
saying, * come, holy Patrick, save us ;' "p and his design,
in visiting this mountain probably was to do away with
the superstition of the Irish regarding it; for we are
told that it was esteemed a sacred mountain in heathen
times.*> In consequence of this visit, the name of the
mountain was changed to Croagh Patrick, by which it is
known to this day. There is a tradition relating to the

« Tara Hill, p. 67. » Lanigan, EccL Hist I 288.

* Annotations of TIrechan. Betham, Appendix, p. 24.

^ TIrechan, as before.

^ Betham's Autiqoarian Researches, p. 292.

30 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

proceedings of St. Patrick in this place, which deserves
to be noticed, as an example of the way in which Roman
Catholic miracles come into existence. One of his
biographers states, that when he arrived at the top of
the mountain he was surrounded by vast numbers of
birds; other writers, improving on this simple feet, trans-
formed the birds into demons, and described him as
driving them into the sea at the foot of the mountain.
Another, again, perhaps believing reptiles and demons
to belong to the same genus, adds, that all the venomous
reptiles were collected there from every part of Ireland,
and *' in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.*^ This is
firmly believed by the peasantry at the present day ; and
it is from such lying wonders they derive their ideas of
the character and acts of St. Patrick.

Having left Croagh Patrick, he proceeded to Tiraw-
ley (county Mayo), in which the wood of Foclud* was
situated ; and here remarkable success was granted to
the preaching of the Gospel, the seven princes and twelve
thousand persons having become converts to the Chris-
tian .feith. His preaching was not, however, unattended
with danger; for, before the general conversion took
place, a conspiracy, headed by the Druids, was formed
against him, and he must have been slain had not one of
the princes protected him. In this general reception of
the Gospel was ftdfiUed the wish of the people of Foclud,
whom he had heard in a dream inviting him to come
over and teach them. Leaving Connaught, he next
visited Ulster. Among the occurrences which took
place here, one deserves especial mention, for the light
which it throws on his character. One time, we are

' lianigan, i 250, 252.

' This wood was in and near the present parish of Killala.

nrxBODucTioir. 31

told, when he was resting, on the Lord's day, by the
sea side, he heard a noise and tumult, caused by the
heathen, who were working on that day, making
a rath; and, having called them, St. Patrick forbade
them to work on the Lord's day;' but they disregarded
the words of the saint, and mocked him. The same
writer states that his reverence for the Lord's day was
habitual, and that " he would not travel on any Lord's
day, reverencing that holy season."" From Ulster he
proceeded to Meath. Soon after he turned to the south,
and visited Cashel, where the King became a convert.
Returning again to Ulster, he founded the Church and
See of Armagh, a.d. 455. After this, he spent the rest
of his days in Ulster, and died at Saul, in the county of
Down, his favourite retreat, in the year 492, according
to many authorities.

The outiine here given of the life and labours of St.
Patrick, is taken from the accounts most generally re-
ceived ; but it should be mentioned that the dates are
very conftised and uncertain, and his monkish bio-
graphers have filled their narratives with so many &bles
and miracles, as to throw discredit on his entire history.
This uncertainty led one or two persons of Kttie emi-
nence to doubt the existence of St. Patrick ; and Dr.
Ledwich, taking the same ground, ventured to deny it
altogether; but in this rash and unphilosophical pro-
ceeding, he has not been followed by any one. The
arguments on which he relied are, in many instances,
quite trifling; and it would be needlessly occupying the
time of the reader to notice here more than one or two

* MocuteniaB, Appendix, p. 11. The rath was one of those endosures,
generally surrounded hy a circular rampart, which are erroneonslj called
Danish forts.

• Ibid, p. 14.

32 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

of the most plausible. He adopts the argument of Dr.
Ryves, who preceded him in his doubts, and which is
drawn &om the &ct that Platina, an author of the fif-
teenth century, who wrote the lives of the Popes, does
not mention St. Patrick in his life of Pope Celestine:
but this is only good against those who assert that St.
Patrick had a commission from Rome, an opinion which
has been shown to have no foundation ; and, even on
any supposition, «' you may easily see," says Archbishop
Ussher, " what little credit the testimony, or the silence
rather, of so late an author as Platina is, may carry to
bear down the constant agreement of all our own
writers.''^ Dr. Ledwich again says : " St. Patrick is not
mentioned by any author, or in any work of veracity,
from the fifth to the eighth century ;" but " this objection
would have more weight," as Mr. King has observed,
" if any native authors of those ages could be pointed
to, who ought to have mentioned him, and did not."*'
However, it is not true, for the Confession, written by
himself, is considered, by all the learned, genuine. He
is mentioned in the letter of Cummian to Segienus,
Abbot of lona, a. d. 634 ; by Adamnanus, in his life of
St. Columba, in the same century, to which period the
life of St. Patrick by Mocutenius, in the Book of Armagh,
is generally assigned ; again, in a manuscript in the
Cotton Library, earlier than the time of Bede; and,
finally, in the Martyrology of Bede.* There are then
33 many notices of him in the scanty records of those
ages, as we ought to expect ; but even if this were not
so, and if, as the learned Dr. O'Conor has well observed,

" Usshei's Letters, No. 88, quoted in Lanigan.
"^ King's Church History, voL L p. 15.
* See Lanigan, Eccl. Hist vol. i. ch. ii.

INTRODUCTION, 33

"all these authorities and manuscripts in which St,
Patrick is expressly mentioned, were destroyed, the laws
of just criticism forbid that, after the lapse of so many ages,
and the destruction of so many monasteries and libraries
as formerly existed in Ireland, before the Danish inva-
sions, the silence alone of such authors as remain (sup-
posing such silence), should be admitted in evidence to
overthrow a national tradition so universal in every part
of Ireland, Scotland, and Mann, so immemorial and so
incorporated as that of St. Patrick is with the tradition-
ary usages, names, anniversaries, monastic ruins, and
popular manners of a himdred millions of Irishmen, who
have existed since his time."^^ To the same purpose Dr.
Petrie remarks : " The ancient churches and other
monumental remains connected with his name, found in
all parts of Ireland, as well as the vivid traditions still
universally current, are sufficient to satisfy any candid
inquirer that such a personage must have existed, what-
ever may have been the period at which he flourished."*
Some late writers, instead of rashly denying his exis-
tence, have endeavoured to clear up the difficulties of
the subject, by a critical examination of ancient docu-
ments ; and it has been shown, by Dr. Petrie and others,
that there were in early times two eminent persons of
the name of Patrick, who are mentioned in the most
ancient lives, and whose arrivals and deaths are recorded
in the Irish annals. One of these, called Sen-Patrick,
he considers to have been the real Apostle of Ireland ;
and the other, called Patrick the Archbishop, he identi-
fies with the Palladius who was sent here by Celestine,
and whose mission was a fidlure ; and it is almost certain

^ GoliimbaniM*8 Letter?, No. 8, quoted in King's Ch. His* vol. f. p. 16.
* Dr. Petrie's Essay on Tura Hill, p. 106.

34 THE O0VFE8BIOV OF ST. PATUCX.

tliat die monkub writen of the middle ages, in tbdr
(leeire to a«cribe the honour of the conversion of Irebtod
to a. Pope, have blended the acta of the real Patrick, who
had no connexion with Rome, with tboee of PaUadins,
and thus caused a contusion which is now, perhi^,
inextricable.

HI. — OF THE OOJIFESBIOS.

It was towards the close of his eventful life, that he
set about the composition of his Confession. His object
in writing it was to set before bis contemporaries, and to
record for the benefit of posterity, the mercies of Grod to
himself, and through him to the Irish nation ; to put
them in mind of the £uth which he had preached, and to
impress on their minds that he was influenced only by the
Gospel and its pronuses, and by a call from Christ, to un-
dertake the work of the conversion of the Irish. In doing
this, he gives an account of hia own conversion ; of the
obstacles and difficulties which he encountered before
and after his entrance on the mission ; and answers the
charges which had been brought against him, one of
which was that of presumption in undertaking such a
work, and concludes by reiterating, that he had no other
motive but the Gospel and its promises for coming to
Ireland. There is not a trace of any of the errors of the
Church of Rome throughout the Confession ; and though
we cannot expect to find tenets spoken against which had

INTRODUCTION. 33

acknowledges as the standard of doctrine,'^ and his fre-
quent references to the Word of Grod show a habitual
regard for its authority on all matters connected with
Christian doctrine and practice. He says nothing what-
ever about peforming miracles: it is, therefore, quite
clear that aU the stories regarding them with which
his lives are filled, are the invention of late wnters, for
which he is not in any way responsible.

He appears, indeed, to have considered the dreams
which he mentions, as of Divine origin and intended for
his guidance, a notion which we may account for with
much probability by the belief in a particular Providence
directing him in every act of his life, which he held very
strongly. Carrying this doctrine to excess, he regarded
a dream which harmonised with his own wishes and
hopes, as aDivine encouragement, and acted on it as such.
And if we assent to the common theory, that dreams are
but our waking thoughts, reproduced in various forms,
the instances given in the Confession will not be found
to differ, in this respect, from ordinary dreams. Thus,
what could be more natural than that a captive, languish-
ing for several years in slavery, should have his thoughts
occupied about flight, and should dream of his escape, as
we find St. Patrick did? — (ch. ii. sec. 6.) " Our dreams,"
it has been justly remarked by Professor Stewart, " are
influenced by the prevailing temper of the mind. . . .
Not that this observation holds without exception, but it
holds so generally as must convince us that the state of
our spirits has some effect on our dreams, as well as on
our waking thoughts. ... A severe misfortime,
which has affected the mind deeply, influences our
dreams in a sioiilar way, and suggests to us a variety of

* See the Eighth Article of the United Ghnrcb of England and Ireland.

36 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

adventures analogous in some measure to that event
from which our distress arises. Such, according to
Virgil, were the dreams of the forsaken Dido —

" * Agit ipse fnrantem
In somnis Pius JEneas : semperque relinqui
Sola sibi : semper longam incomitata tndeiur,
Ire viam, et Tyrios desert& quasrere terra. ' ***

We cannotwonder that dreams should present themselves
in unusually vivid colours to a spirit of such impassioned
zeal and high enthusiasm as St. Patrick's ; and when we
combine this with the fe,ct, that he considered every
impulse of his mind as an immediate result of the
Divine agency, it is not diflBcult to see how he was
led to regard even his dreams as messengers from on
high.

Some Roman Catholics have endeavoured to support
the invocation of saints by a passage in the Confession
(ch. ii. sec. 9). In this obscure place, St. Patrick says,
that one night, when asleep, he was afflicted by Satan,
and it was suggested to him, he knew not how, to call
" Helias ;" and he goes on to say — " While I was call-
ing *Helias! Helias!' with all my might, behold the
splendour of the sun fell upon me, and inmiediately dis-
pelled all my heaviness." Now, in the first place, it must
be observed that he says distinctly, " and I believe that
I was aided by Christ my Lord, and that his Spirit was
then crying out in my behalf." From this it is clear that
he invoked no creature, but that his prayer was directed
to Christ, " who aided him." In confirmation of this, it
has been shown that the more ancient biographers of the

b Elements of the Philosophy of the ^amaIl Mind, by Dngald Stewart,
vol. i. p. 385-6. London, 1814.

(

INTRODUCTION. 37

saint never understood the prophet Elias to have been
the object of his adoration, but only Christ the Lord f
and in the Life of St. Patrick, by Probus, which is consi-
dered the most valuable of the ancient lives, the incident
is thus described — " When he had thrice invoked Christ
the true sun, immediately the sun rose upon him, and its
light scattered all the mists of darkness, and his strength
was restored, and he feared no more the terrors of devils
nor their evil designs."*^ There seems to have been some
allusion to Helios, the name of the sun in Greek, as con-
nected with Malachi, iv. 2. A similar allusion occurs in
another part of the Confession (ch. v. sec. 24), and
both, perhaps, were suggested by the sun-worship of the
ancient Lish.

It will not be out of place to offer a few remarks on
the notice of monks in the Confession. In the century
preceding the arrival of St. Patrick, the practice of mo-
nasticism had arisen in the East. Its origin is to be traced
to the Decian persecution, when many Christians, having
been compelled to flee for their lives to the deserts of Egypt,
and to remain for a considerable time separated from their
fellow-men, became attached to this mode of life, and
voluntarily continued it when the occasion was over. It
soon became a &shion, and associations of persons were
formed to live together in separation from the world.
Spreading from the East to the West, it became general
throughout Europe ; and St. Patrick himself, educated
in monasteries, and chiefly in that of Lerins, which fol-
lowed an Eastern rule, introduced the practice into Ire-
land. In stating these &,cts, however, it is necessary to

c King*8 Charch History, vol. i. p. 47. The reader will find more on the
subject in this yaluable work,
d The Fifth Life in Colgap, book. L ch. 8.

38 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

guard the reader against the mistake of supposing there
was anjrthing in common between the monasteries of this
age and those of modem times, so far as the evils of the
system are concerned. The difference between the two
was very great, as will immediately be seen by the con-
sideration of the following points : —

1 . The early monks were generally laymen, while the
monks of modem days are generally in orders for the
purpose of saying masses.

2. They were bound by no vows, not even celibacy,
for many monks were married.

3. Nor poverty, for many of them retained their
property.

4. They wore no tonsure, which was considered a
heathen practice, nor did they wear any dress distinct
from that of other people.

5. Above all things, they were diligent in the study
of the Holy Scriptures.®

The monasteries established in Ireland were rather in-
stitutions for educating clergy and others, than what is
now imderstood by the term, and they appear to have
been nearly the same as our colleges, in which the pro-
fessors are generally immarried.

Though few of the ol^ections to the monasteries of
after times, would lie against the system of St. Patrick's
age, the seeds of evil were in it, and in the lapse of ages
they grew and flourished until the monasteries of Europe
brought scandal on the very name of Christianity. It
could not be expected that those evils should be foreseen
by the eminent men who introduced it, but we can per-
ceive how that foundation-truth of the Gospel, justifica-

^ Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, book viii. chap. 8.

INTRODUCTION. 39

tion by fidth, was undermined by it, and how, when
this barrier was overthrown, error and corruption rushed
in and mingled with Christianity : for, the outward renun-
ciation of the world had an inevitable tendency to intro-
duce the notion of human merit, and to render less dis-
tinct the truth, that " by grace we are saved through
&ith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God ;'^
and when this doctrine was even partially obscured, a
new impulse was given to mortification and self-torture,
and thus monasticism alternately corrupting the Gospel,
and flourishing on its decay, gradually arrived at such a
state, that it could no longer be permitted to cumber
the ground, and then the axe was laid to the root of the
tree. It has not been formally condemned by the Re-
formed Church, yet so long as the lessons of experience
are remembered, and the doctrine of justification by
faith only, guarded with that care which belongs to a
vital doctrine of the Gospel, it can never take root
within its precincts.

On the whole, then, when we consider that in the
fifth century the practice was in its infiincy, and that its
evils had not yet developed themselves, we may feel well
assured that the monastic life as introduced into Ireland
imder the sanction of St. Patrick, was entirely free firom
that belief in the efficacy of human merit, that spiritual
pride, and that vain conflict with the impulses which
God has implanted in human nature, which so fiitally
characterise the corrupt system of modem Rome.

With these cautionary remarks, which must be borne
in mind, in studying a work of such antiquity as the
Confession, the reader will be able to form a correct
judgment of St. Patrick Scorn liis own words, he will
find, that holding in its purity, ^^ the fidth once [once
for all] delivered to the saints," his doctrines corres-

40 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

ponded exactly with those of the United Church of
England and Ireland, which accepts nothing as requisite
or necessary to salvation, unless it may be read in Holy
Scripture, or may be proved thereby. It is not meant
to afiirm that the Church of St. Patrick's time was iden-
tical in all respects with the present Established Church ;
nor is this of any importance, if the same pure and an-
cient fidth was professed by the one, as it is by the other.
On this subject, we have the express declaration of the
Church, that, '^ It is not necessary that traditions and
ceremonies be in all places one and utterly alike ; for at
all times they have been divers, and may ,be changed
according to the diversities of countries, times, and
men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's
Word."' It may be said, then, with perfect truth, tliat
the Church of Ireland is, both by direct and clear de-
scent, and by the profession of the same &ith, the ancient
Church of this country. We find in this authoritative
declaration of St. Patrick, no doctrines but those which
she holds, and nothing whatever that she repudiates.
This is evident fi-om the language of his creed,; from the
fervour with which he disclaims all merit of his own,
and attributes everything which was " pure, or lovdy,
or of good report," in his character and actions to the
influence of the Spirit of Grod ; from his mention of
three orders of the ministry, and only three, bishops,
priests, and deacons; from his speaking of a married
clergy, and from his intimate acquaintance with Holy
Scripture, and his deep reverence for its precepts; while
we search in vain for any mention of the Pope, for any
appeal to the paramount authority of the Church, any
allusion to tradition, or notice of the Virgin Mary or the

' Artide xxziv.

INTRODUCTION. 41

Saints, or any trace of the Seven Sacraments, or Pur-
gatory.

It may, then, be justly anticipated, that the dispas-
sionate reader of the Confession, who duly weighs the
facts which bear upon his life and doctrines, will agree
in the remark of the learned Tillemont, though, perhaps,
in a different sense from what he intended, that St.
Patrick was much more like the prophets and apostles,
than the other saints who appeared after them.^

' Lanigan, voL L p. 53.

^t €mkmm of $t ^patmk.

CHAPTER I.

OF ST. Patrick's birth and captivity, and of

THIS CONFESSION.

I Patrick,^ a sinner, the rudest and the least of
all the faithful, and an object of the greatest
contempt to many, am the son of Calpornius, a
deacon, the son of Potitus, heretofore a presby-
ter,^ who lived in Bannavan, a village of Taber- FKtriek,*
nia,« in the neighbourhood of which he had a '^'^'
small &rm ; and here I was taken captive. I was
then nearly sixteen years old ; I was ignoraut of
the true God, and was brought to Ireland in cwried away

* Patricku, He is said to have been called Snocath at his bap-
tism, and to have afterwards obtained the name of Patiicins. It is
supposed to have reference to the rank of his family ; yet we can-
not be oertain of this, for, according to Gibbon, at this period '* the
meanest subjects of the Botnan empire assumed the illastrions
name of Patricias ; wliioh," he adds, " by the converBion of Ire-
land, has been communicated to a whole nation.** — J>eclme and
Folly voL vL p. 229.

^ A pretbjfter. See Introduction, p. 20.

^ Bannavan TabemitB, Dr. Lanigan (Eco. Hist) thinks this was
Bononia, now Boulogne, in France, and supports his opinion with
much learning and ingenuity ; but his arguments are not satisiiac-
toiy ; and a passage occurs in the Ck)nfession (ch. iv. sec. 19), where
Britain, his native land, is distinguished from Gaul, and the two

44 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

Lt rix^"* captivity, with so many thousand persons, as we
yean of age, doserved, becaiise we had turned away jfrom
God, and had not kept his commandments, and
were disobedient to our priests, who admonished
us of our salvation ; and the Lord brought on us
^^kJ) " *^® anger of his fiiry," and scattered us among
many nations, even to the uttermost parts of the
earth, where now obscurity seems to be my lot,
amongst a foreign people. And there the Lord

ughtSSfS '^^^^g^* me to a sense of my unbelief, that I
^^* might, even at a late season, call my sins to re-

membrance, and turn with all my heart to the
Lord my God, who regarded my low estate, and,
taJdng pity on my youth and ignorance, guarded
me, before I understood anything, or had learned
to distinguish betweengoodandevil,and strength-
ened and comforted me as a &ther does his son.
coBftiMSB the Sec. 2. Wlierefore I cannot, and indeed I ought

foodnMi of ' c?

<*«i not, to be silent respecting the many blessings,

and the large measure of grace which the Lord
vouchsafed to bestow on me in the land of my cap-
tivity ; for this is the only recompense which is in
our power, that after being chastened we should
be raised up to the acknowledging of the Lord,
and should confess his wonders before every na-
tion under heaven ; that— »

Mdhi. own There** is no other God nor ever was nor will

countries spoken of in tbdr relative positions to Ireland, in snch a
way as to indicate that Qreat Britain is intended. See also ch. ii
sec 8, note, and Introduction, p. 30.

^ There it. The early Christian writers always stated the
doctrines of the Christian faith in thdr own words, and when any
of the articles was endangered by a prevaiUng error, they enlarged

TflE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 45

be after him except God the Father, without
beginning ; From whom is all beginning ; Who
upholds all things as we have said : And his Son
Jesus Christ whom together with the Father we
testify to have always existed ; Who before the
beginning of the world was spiritually present
with the Father; Begotten in an unspeakable
manner before all beginning ; By whom were
made all things visible and invisible ; Who was
made man, and having overcome death was re-
ceived into heaven to the Father: And he hath
given him a name which is above every name:

on it, and guarded it from misconception; hence the form of these
creeds differs in almost every writer, while the truths are the same
(Bingham's Antiq. of Chris. Church, book ii. ch. vi. sec. 3, and
book X. ch. iv.) The confession of faith now before us is very-
like the Nicene Creed, but it does not contain so many articles,
and it is more diffuse on the Divinity of our Lord. Its close
adherence to Holy Scripture, and the entire absence of those errors
which are embodied in the present creed of the Roman Catholic
Church, are a convincing proof of the purity of St. Patrick's
faith. To set this in a strong light, it is only necessary to mention
a few facts connected with the creed of Pope Pius lY., which at pre-
isent contains the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. This
creed, which was drawn up after the dose of the Council of Trent,
contains theNicene Creed, and in addition to it, the doctrines of Tradi-
tion, Church-interpretation, the Seven Sacraments, Justification by
Works, Transubstantiation, Purgatory, Invocation of Saints, Vene-
ration of Images, Indulgences, and Papal Supremacy; and although
none of the doctrines thus added is oontauied in the Word of God,
the whole is said to form *^ the true Catholio faith, out of which
none can be saved." It follows plainly from this, that any Roman
Catholic who believes his to be the ancient faith, must hold that
St. Patrick was excluded from salvation. It aUo deserves to be
remarked in these days, when Divine honours are given to the
Virgin Mary by members of the Church of Rome, that the creed
of St Patrick is one of the few ancient confessions of faith in whi^
her name is entirely omitted.

46 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow
of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should

(PhiuppiMu, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and Grod:® In
whom we believe, and we await his coming who
ere long shall judge the quick and dead: Who
will render to every one according to his deeds,
and has poured out abundantly on us the gift of
the Holy Spirit, even the earnest of immortality,
whp makes those that believe and obey, to be
the sons of God the Father, and joint-heirs with
Christ; Whom we confess and adore — one God
in the Trinity of the sacred name.

For he himself has said by the Prophet,
" Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will

(ftiiia L 16.) deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me ;" and
again he says, " It is honourable to reveal the

^TobiM, xii. works of God."'

Sec. 3. Although I am imperfect in many
things, I wish my brethren and relatives* to

Andmedi- kuow my dispositiou, that they may be able

conftssion to perccivo the desire of my soul. I am not ig-
norant of the testimony of my Lord, who de-
clares in the Psalm, " Thou shalt destroy them

(FMtn V. 6.) that speak leasing" [felsehood] ; and again, " The

(Wbdom, i. jj^Q^tij ^YibX belieth slayeth the soul ;" and the
same Lord says in the Gospel, " Every idle word

• Lard and God. The reading diflfere somewhat from the Au-
thorised Version and the Vulgate.

f It is honourable. On this and other quotations from the
Apocrypha, see Archbishop Ussher*s Obfleryationa, Preface, p. 6.

' Brethren and relatives. Who had oppoaed his coming to Ire-
land.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 47

that men shall speak, they shall give account
thereof in the day of judgment." Therefore, I ^^bT'
ought in great fear and trembling, to dread this
sentence on that day when no one shall be able
to withdraw or hide himself, but all must give an
account even of the least sins before the judgment-
seat of Christ the Lord. And for this reason, al-
though I have for some time meditated writing, 2f2>^te
I have hesitated until now ; for I feared that I
should &11 under the censure of men, because I
have not studied like others who have enjoyed
the great advantages of becoming acquainted
with the Holy Scriptures in both ways equally,**
and have never changed their language from in-
&ncy, but have rather always approached to per-
fection, for I have to translate my thoughts and
speech into a foreign language.*

Sec. 4. And it can be easily proved from the
style of my writing, how I am instructed and SSriSiS!'^
learned in discourses, " for (says the Wise Man) **®°'
by speech wisdom shall be known, and learning (Ecciu».iT.a4)
by the word of the tongue." But what does it
avail to offer an excuse, however true, especially
when accompanied with presumption? Since I
now in my old age attempt what I did not at-
tain in my youth, for my sinsJ prevented me from

^ Both wayi equally, " In the Greek as well as in the Latin
version, or in the version of Jerome as well as in the old Italic." —
Cf Conor,

^ Foreign hmgv/age. The oonsciousness of his inability to write
with purity and correctness had hitherto deterred him, for ** what-
ever knowledge of Latin he possessed was very mnch imp^iired by
the admixture of the Irish language.'*— ^TW/iemonC

^ Sint, He appears to mean that his sinful neglect of divine

48 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICE.

confirming what I had not before [my conver-
sion] thoroughly examined. But, who believes
me ? and yet to repeat what I stated before, I
was taken captive when a youth, nay, rather,
when almost a beardless boy, before I knew what
I ought to seek or to avoid. Wherefore, at this
day I am greatly ashamed and afraid to expose

OB Moountof my unskilfrdness because I am unable to explain

Y»tcd rtyit. myself with clearness and brevity of speech, as
the Spirit greatly desires, and all the feelings of
my mind suggest. But if I had been gifted like
others, I woidd not have been silent, inasmuch
as a recompense was due from me. Perhaps,
there are some who think that in this I put my-
self forward, although I am ignorant and slow
of speech, but [they should remembef that] it is

(i«i«ii,Txxii. written, " The tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak peace,"^ and how much more
ought we to attempt [this work] " who (says he)

(Acto,xiii.47) are the epistle of Christ (who was set for salva-
tion unto the ends of the earth) written in your
hearts, if not eloquently, yet powerftdly and

(J Cor. ill. 2, enduringly, not with ink, but with the Spirit of

^•^ the living God."

(Ecciuf. Tii. Sec. 5. And, again, the Spirit testifies, " Rus-
ticity was ordained by the Most High."* Where-

things in early youth, had unfitted him then and long afterwards
for bearing witness to the truth, that ^* the Gospel is the power of
God unto salvation.*'

^ Peace, The Authorised Version and the Vulgate have
" plainly."

^ BusticUy. The Authorised Version translates it " husbandry,''
blit I have given it the meaning which, from the context, he
seems to have attached to it.

15.)

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 49

fore,™ at the first, I [undertook this work] though
a rustic, a fugitive, and moreover, unlearned and
incapable of providing against the future, but
this I know most certainly, that — especially be-
fore I was humbled — ^I was like a stone that lay
in the deep mire, and He, who alone is power-
ftd, came, and in his own mercy, raised me, and Tiut he might

* T 1 ^ t not be un-

lifled me up, and placed me on the top of the gj**^^*®
wall," fi'om which it is my duty to cry aloud, in
order to make some recompense to the Lord for
all the benefits temporal and eternal, beyond
man's conception, which he has bestowed upon
me. But, wherefore, do you wonder, O great
and small, who fear God? And you, rhetori-
cians" of the Gauls, who are ignorant of the
Lord? Hear, then, and inquire who has stirred
me up, who am a fool, out of the midst of those
who are esteemed wise and skilled in law, and

°* Wherefore. The connexion seems to be supported by pas-
sages of Scripture, and the reasons mentioned : " I overcame the
feeling of unfitness for preaching the Gospel, which my imperfect
education and unpolished manners gave rise to in my mind at the
outset, and I now feel justified in repressing similar feelings re-
specting the Confession, by similar arguments."

* Tcp of the wall. Granted to him the high privilege of
proclaiming the Gk)6pel to the Irish people. The reader will
notice the allusion to the description of Christians as *^ lively
stones " forming the spiritual house of God. — 1 Peter, ii. 5 ; Ephe-
sians, ii. 21, 22. Nothing can be more opposed to the Roman
Catholic doctrine of merit than this beautifiil passage.

o Rhetcridana, We may gather from the context that some of
these men, who, as he tells us, were esteemed wise, and learned,
and eloquent, had expressed astonishment that Patrick should
undertake an office for which, in their eyes, he was so ill-fitted ;
to this, he replies with St. Paul, I OormtbianB, i, 26-29. Gaul

50 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

powerful in eloquence, and in everything, and
inspired beyond others (if haply it be so) me, the
bywhomhfl object of this world's hatred? [It was Grod]
Ti^tod. ^ provided that if I were worthy, I should during
my life, fidthftdly labour with fear and reverence
and without murmuring, for the good of the
nation to which the love of Christ transferred
and gave me, in fine, that I should serve them
with humility and truth.

was flamoos in early times for its rhetoricians and pleaders;

Javenal, who wrote in the first century, alludes to it, as —

"Oallia yel potini nutricula caualdioorum
Africa.**— 5a/ir0, vii. U8.

And again,

M Gallia caniidioM docait fiuimda BritaniUM.**— 5a/ire, zt. 1 1 .

r " n

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 51

CHAPTER II.

HAVING ESCAPED FROM SLAVERT BY FLIGHT,
HE RETURNS TO HIS COUNTRY.

Sec. 6. In " the measure, therefore, of the
fidth" of the Trinity, it is my duty to make
a distinction [of persons] without regarding any
censure of danger; to make known "the ^ of SJur^M..''
God," and " everlasting consolation," and to pro-
claim the name of God everywhere, feithftdly
and fearlessly, that after my death I may leave
[the knowledge of it] to my Gallican brethren,*
and my sons whom I have baptised in the Lord,
many thousands in number. And I was neither
worthy nor deserving that the Lord should so
fevour me, the least of his servants, as after such
great afflictions and difficulties, after captivity,
aft;er many years, to grant me so large a mea-
sure of his grace for the conversion of this
nation, [a blessing] which, in my youth, I never
either hoped or thought of.

But after I had come to Ireland,* I was em-
ployed every day in tending sheep, and I used
ofl»n in the day to have recourse to prayer, and ^^^^ ^

•Uvery he ii

* GaXHoan brethren. The persons whom he bronght with him
from Gaul, to assist in preaching the Gospel to the Irish. — Intro-
duction, p. 25, note.

^ Htberionem, Ireland is called by this name in the Itinerary
of Abtoninns also.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

greatly de-
YOted to
pnyer,

and ia ad-
monished of
his deliver-
ance.

He flees,
trusting in
Ood,

the love of God was thus growing stronger and
stronger, and the fear of Him and faith were
increasing, and the Spirit, so that in a single
day I have said as many as a hundred prayers,
and in the night almost as many ; and I used to
remain even in the woods and on the mountain,*
and used to rise to prayer before daylight, in the
midst of snow, and ice, and rain, and I felt no
injury from it, nor was there any sloth in me ;
because, as I now see, the spirit was then fer-
vent within me. And there one night, in a
dream, I heard a voice saying to me, " thou dost
well to fast, and shalt soon return to thy coun-
try;" and again, after a little time, I heard a
response saying to me, " behold, thy ship is
ready ;" and the place** was not near, but per-
haps two hundred miles off, and I had never
been there, nor was I acquainted with any one
there.

Sec. 7. And after this I took flight ; and
having left the man with whom I had been six
years, I came in the strength of the Lord, who
directed my way to good ; and I feared nothing
until I arrived at the ship ; and, on the day of
my arrival, the ship had moved out from her
berth, and I spoke to them, saying I had money
to pay for my passage with them;« and the

c Mountain, Slemish (Sliabh Mis), in the county of Antrim,
near which his master lived.

^ The place. It is useless to attempt to decide what port this
was.

* Ut haberem unde namgartm cum, ilUs. This is contrary,
however, to the statement of Probus, who says {Jib, l ch. iv.)

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 53

master^ was displeased, and replied angrily,

" don't at all think to go with us ;" and when I

heard this, I withdrew from them, to go to the

cottage where I was lodging ; and on my way I

began to pray, and before I finished my prayer

I heard one of them crying out loudly after

me, "come back at once, for those men are^^*^^;^^

calling you ;" and I returned immediately to jJ^p^ ****

them, and they began to say to me, " come, for

we receive you in good fidth ; make friends with

us in what manner you please." And then I

gave up the thought of fleeing, on account of

the fear of God, yet I hoped they would [before

long] say to me, " come in the faith of Jesus

Christ," because they were Gentiles. And when

I had thus obtained my desire, we immediately

sefsaiL

Sec. 8. After three days we arrived at land,
and for twenty-eight days* we journeyed through

they would not admit him because he could not pay for his pas-
sage. The Book of Armagh gives abirem for haberenij the mean-
ing of which might be that he would go to some point from which
he could embark, as the ship was already under sail. Allowing
the former, however, to be the correct reading, the master may
have refused to receive him, knowing liim to be a fugitive slave ;
for, according to the Irish bards, the distinction of ranks in
Ireland was indicated by the colours of the dress long before the
Christian era. Keating says, ** Tighemmhas established it as a
custom in Ireland, that tiiere should be only one cohw in the
clothing of a bondman, two in that of a plebeian, three in that of
a soldier,** &c — Fonu Feata adr Eirin, at the year a. m. 2811.

' Master, He seems to have been a kind of supercargo, and
to have had but a temporary connexion with the ship.

' Twentif^ht daye. This fact is fatal to Dr. Lanigan's sap
position that Boulogne was the native city of St Patrick. If it
were so, and if the party were going there, the easiest course

54 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

When they a descrt ; when, their provisions becominff ex-
luffer ftom hausted, they siiflFered severely from hunger ;

hnnger in the ' •/ J o »

dewrt, and one day the master said to me : ** What do
you say, Christian? your God is great and all-
powerfiil; can you not then pray for us, since
we are in danger of perishing by famine, for it is
very improbable that we shall ever see the fece
of man again." And I plainly said to them :
" Turn fidthftiUy and with your whole heart to
the Lord our God — ^for to him nothing is impos-
sible — that he may send food into your path to-
day, even until you are satiated, for it abounds
he obuini everywhere to him." And, with God's help, it
by his pray- happened so ; for lo, a herd of swine appeared in
the way before our eyes, and they killed many
of them, and remained there two nighte, much
refreshed ; and they were relieved [from hunger]
by their flesh, for many of the party had sunk
from exhaustion, and were left scarely alive by
the way-side. After this they gave the greatest
thanks to God, and I was honoured in their
eyes.

Sec. 9. And from that day forth they had
food in abundance. They also found wild honey,
and offered part of it to me ; and one of them
said, " this is offered in sacrifice** thanks to

would have been to sail directly to Boulogne ; yet, aocording to
him, they sailed to Treg^er, in Normandy, and then, at the risk
of their lives, travelled for twenty-dght days through a wilder-
ness, where there were no pnnnsions obtainable, to reach a port
which was little farther from them, hi the first instance, than that
to which they sailed.

^ Offered in saaifiee, ThiB referred to the honey which the

THE COlfFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 55

God:" after that I tasted no more. But the««di8de-

' livewd from

same night, while I was asleep, Satan, of whom ^e awauu of
I will be mindM as long as I shall be in this
body, tempted me strongly, and fell on me
like a great rock, so that I was unable to
move my limbs; but I know not how it was
suggested to me to call Helias,* and at this
moment I saw the sun rise in the heavens,
and while I was calling, Helias, Helias, with
all my might, behold, the splendour of the
sun fell upon me, and immediately dispelled
all my heaviness; and I believe that I was
aided by Christ my Lord, and that his Spirit was
then crying out in my behalf ; and I hope it
will be so in the day of my adversity, even as
the Lord says in the Gospel, " it is not ye that by the power
speak, but the Spirit of your Father which
speaketh in you." Not many years after, I was (Matt. x. 20.)
again taken captive ; and, on the first night that
I remained with them, I heard a divine response
saying to me, " you shall be two months with
them ;" and it happened so, for on the sixtieth
night the Lord deUvered me out of their hands.
Behold, in the journey he provided for us food.

heathen offered in sacrifice to his God. The conduct of St Pa-
trick here proves that the Scriptures were "a lamp unto his
feet, and a light unto his path;" for, in refusing to taste any more
food on this occasion, he evidently had in mind the injunction of
St Paul— 1 Corinthians, x. 28, 29.

' Helias. See Introduction, pp. 36, 87. It has been well remarked
by Dr. Mason, that they who suppose St Patrick here to have
invoked Elias, make the same mistake as the Jews when they
said of our Lord, " Behold, he calleth Elias.''

56 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

and fire, and dry weather, daily, until on the
fourteenth day we came to men. As I have
above mentioned, we journeyed for twenty-eight
days through a desert ; and, on the night when
we arrived at the abodes of men, we had no
provisions remaining.

THE CONFESSION OF ST PATRICK. 57

CHAPTER III.

OF HIS CALLING INTO IRELAND, AND OF MANY

IMPEDIMENTS.

Sec 10. And again, after a few years, I was in ^^^1"°*^*'

Britain* with my parents, who received me as a

son, and besought me earnestly that then at least,

after so great tribulations as I had endured, I should

not go away from them any more. And there

I saw in a vision of the night a man whose name

was Victoricius,** coming as if from Ireland with

innumerable letters, one of which he handed to

me, and I read the beginning of the letter, which

ran thus, " The voice of the people of Ireland ;"

and while I was reading aloud the beginning of

the letter, I thought at that very moment I heard

the voice of those who were near the Wood of

Foclud,* which is by the Western Sea,<* and

they cried out thus as if with one voice, " We being inyited

*' ,_ to Ireland by

entreat thee, holy youth, to come and walk still a dream,
among us." And I was very much pricked to

* BritcamUs. The word is in the plural, as indndiog all the
islands near Britain.

^ Victorichu, From this simple mcident has originated the
fable of an angel called Victor, who held firequent conversations with
him, and directed him as to his proceedings. — Lan. i. 144.

* Fodud, This wood was situated in and near the parish of
Killala, btfony of Tirawley, and county of Mayo.

' WetttmSea. The Atlantic Ocean.

58 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

the heart, and could read no more, and so I
awoke. Thanks be to God, that after very many
years the Lord has granted to them according to
their cry.

Sec. 11. And on another night [some one],
I know not, God knows, whether in me or near
me, spoke in most eloquent language, which I

IrMd*JoS!°" heard and could not imderstand, except that at
the end of the speech he addressed me thus,

(ijohn.iu. "Who for thee laid down his life T and so I

16.)

awoke full of joy, and again I saw one praying
on me, and I was as it were within my body,
and I heard him over me, that is, over the inne^
man, and there he prayed fervently with groan-
ings, and during this time I was full of astonish-
fnent, and was wondering and considering who
it could be that was praying in me ; but at the
end of the prayer he declared that it was The
Spirit ; and so I awoke, and remembered that
the Apostle says, " The Spirit also helpeth our
infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the spirit itself maketh
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be

^"SS)' uttered," that is, expressed in words : and again,
" The Lord our Advocate makes intercession for

(1 John, iL us." And when I was sorely tried by some of
my elders,*' who came and [spoke of] my sins as
an objection to my laborious episcopate ; on that
day in particular I was almost driven to fidl
away, not only for time, but for eternity ; but
the Lord spared a convert and a stranger; and

* Elder$. His elder relatives and fHend8.^Xaf^9fan.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 59

for the honour of his name he in his mercy
powerftdly succoured me in this severe afHiction, hearercomet
because I was not entirely deserving of censure
as regards the blame and disgrace now brought
on me. I pray God they may not be accounted
guilty of the sin of laying stumbling-blocks [in
a brother's way.] After thirty years they found
me, and charged against me the word which I
confessed before I was a deacon.

Sec. 12. From anxiety of mind, I told my
dearest friend in sorrow what I had done in my
boyhood one day, nay, rather one hour, because
I was not yet used to overcome [temptation] . anxietiw,
I know not, God knows, if I was then fifteen
years of age, and from my childhood I was not
a believer in the true God, but continued in
death and unbeUef until I was severely chas-
tened ; and in truth I have been humbled by
hunger and nakedness, and on the other hand,
I did not come to Ireland of my own desire,'
nor until I was almost worn out, but this proved
rather a benefit to me, for thus I was corrected
by the Lord, and he rendered me fit to be at
this day what was once fer from my thoughts,
so that I should interest or concern myself for
the salvation of others, for at that time I had no
thoughts even about myself. And in the night
succeeding the day when I was reproved by
being reminded of the things above-mentioned,

' Ncn ^(mU pergebam. He always attributes his mission to
a Divine calL See ch. y. see 20.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

(Zecharioh,
ii. 8.)

obitmctions,

I saw in a vision of the night my name written
against me* without a title of honour, and
meanwhile I heard a Divine response, saying to
me, " We have seen with displeasure the face
of the [Bishop] elect, and his name stripped of
its honours." He did not say thus, " Thou hast
seen," but, " We have seen with displeasure," as
if he there joined himself with me ; even as he
has said, " He that toucheth you toucheth the
apple of my eye." Therefore I give thanks to
him who has comforted me in all things, that he
did not hinder me jfrom the journey which I had
proposed, and also as regards my work which I
had learned of Christ. From this trial I saw
more clearly that I possessed no little strength,
and my fiiith was approved before God and
men.

Sec. 13. Wherefore I say boldly, I fear no
reproaches of conscience now or hereafter. God
is my witness that I have not lied in what I have
stated to you, but I feel the more grieved that

' Scriptum erat contra faciem meatn. On this obscure passage
the BoUandists say, " There seems to be an allusion here to some
book against the mission of St. Patrick, in which * his name being
stripped of its honours,' he was simply designated Patrick, without
any title of honour or mark of episcopal dignity." — Acta Sancto-
rum^ March 17. But perhaps a more probable conjecture would
be that he saw in his dream a picture of his own face, with the
name Patrick written opposite. It is said that pictures with the
names of all the objects written opposite, still exist in the Greek
monasteries, and that many of them are aa old as the fifth centuiy.
See Preface to Curzon's Monasteries of the Levant It is also usual
on ancient coins.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 61

my dearest friend,** whom I trusted even with ud wron«i.
my life [should have been the cause] of my being
rewarded with such a response ; and I learned
from some brethren, that before that defence,* on
an occasion when I was not present, and when
I was not in Britain, and with which I had no-
thing to do, he defended me in my absence.
He had also said to me with his own mouth,
" You are to be raised to the rank of Bishop."
What could have influenced him that he should
afterwards before all, good and bad, and myself,
publicly throw discredit on me with respect to
an office which he had before spontaneously and
gladly oflered? There is a Lord who is greater
than all — I have said enough. But yet I ought J^hichSr""*'
not to hide the gift of God, which was given me p«'don».
in the land of my captivity: because I sought
him earnestly then, and I found him there, and
he preserved me from all iniquities ; so I believe,
" because of his spirit that dwelleth in me," and ^"J*"'
has worked in me even to this day ; God knows ^•'pno
if it were man who had spoken to me,J I
would perhaps have been silent for the love
of Christ.

^ Dearest friend. The Bollandists suppose this to mean Germa-
nus, Bishop of Auxerre.

* Defennonem iUam. Perhaps he means that some prohibition
was laid on him, for the Gauls used the word ^^ * defendo* and its
derivatives in that sense." — Bollandists,

i Spoken to me — ^i. e., in the vision before-mentioned. His
meaning seems to be, that if one of his brethren had called his
attention to the indignity ofiered to him in depriving his name of

62 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATBICK.

Sec. 14. Wherefore I give unceasing thanks

to (jod, who preserved me faithfiil in the day of

my temptation, so that I can this day confidently

ia au ihingi otkr up mv soul as " a livincr sacrifice " to Christ

giving tiunki r J o

«oQod» my Lord, who preserved me fi'om all my trou-
bles ;^ so that I may say, " Who am I, O Lord,
or what is my calling, that thou hast granted me
so much of thy Divine presence ? So that at this
day I can constantly rejoice among the nations,
and magnify thy name wherever I may be, not
only in prosperity, but in adversity [teaching
me] that I ought to accept with a contented
mind whatever may be&U me, whether good or
whomant- evil, and always give thanks to God, who
Mif to Mm. showed me that I should believe in him for ever
without doubting, and who heard me that al-
though I am ignorant, I should in these last
days attempt to undertake so holy and wonder-
ful a work, so that I should imitate those who the

its honour, he would not have noticed it, remembering the ex-
ample of his Master, Christ, but in conseqaence of his dream, he
now looked on it as an indignity offered to Christ in the person of
one of his servants.

k TroiMes. St. Patrick is reckoned among the martyrs in the
Book of Obits of Christ Church, Dublm, and his daim to the
title is thus explained in Colgan: **Nor is he unfitly called a
martyr who evermore bore the cross of Christ in his soul and
body; who, continually warring with Druids, with idolatrous
kings and chieftains, and with demons, exposed his body to a
thousand kinds of death, and had a heart always ready to endure
them, thus presenting himself a living sacrifice to the Ix>rd.*' —
Trias, Thaum, p. 168.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 63

Lord long since foretold should preach his Gos-
pel " for a witness to all nations" before the end i?i***?!T»

^ ^ ToAr, 14.)

of the world, which has been so accomplished as
we have seen. So we are witnesses, that the
Gospel has been preached up to the limits of
human habitation.

64 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FRUITS OF HIS MISSION.

Sec. 15. But it is long to detail the particulars
of my labours even partially. I will briefly say
how the God of piety often liberated me from
slavery ; how he delivered me from twelve dan-
a^rSJilTpre- g^rs by which my soul was perilled, besides
ft^M? many snares and troubles which I cannot enu-
merate, nor will I do injustice to my readers ;
[yet I cannot altogether be silent], while I have
a master who knows all things even before they
come to pass, as he does me a poor helpless
creature. Therefore, the Divine response fre-
quently admonished me [to consider] whence I
derived this wisdom, which was not in me, who
neither knew the number of my days nor was
acquainted with God ; whence I obtained after-
wards so great and salutary a gift as to know or
to love God, and also that I should give up my
home and parents. And many oflers were made
to me with weeping and tears, and I incurred
displeasure there from some of my elders, con-
trary to my wish ; but under the guidance of
God I in no way consented, nor gave in to
uidbMtowed them; yet not I, but the grace of God which
f**^of prevailed in me, and resisted them all, in order

and seal to
propagAtc the

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 65

that I might come to preach the Gospel to the
people of Ireland,* and bear with the ill-treat-
ment of the unbelieving, and that I should be
reproached as a foreigner, and have to endure
many persecutions, even to bonds, and that I
should give up my free birth for the good of
others.

Sec. 16. And I am ready at this moment to
lay down even my life with joy for his name's
sake, if I were worthy, and thus I wish to bestow
it even unto death, if the Lord should so &vour ^^^"^
me. Because I am greatly a debtor to God, who
has bestowed his grace so largely upon me that
multitudes should be bom again to God through
me, and afterwards confirmed,** and that of these,
clergy should be everywhere ordained for a
people lately coming to the fidth, whom the Lord
took from the extremities of the earth, as he pro-
mised long before by his Prophets. " The Gen- and to bring
tiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the ScSSt?"
earth, and shall say, Surely our fethers have in-
herited Kes, vaniiy .and thirigs wherein there is no
profit ;** and again, "I have set thee to be a^JJI^.^'
light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldst be for
salvation unto the ends of the earth;" and thus I (^^*"*-
wish to await the promise of him who in truth

* Hibemas gmiea. The Irish nations, or tribes.

^ Pottmodum congummareKtur, These words are not in the
copy of the Confession in the Book of Armagh. The word con-
summare was used in the sense of confirmation ; as, e. g., by
Cyprian — " ut signaculo Dommi consuimmeniun'* — quoted in Potter
on Church Government, p. 190.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

(Matthew,
viii. 11.)

(Matthew,
iv. 19.)

(JeremUh,
XTi. 16.)

according to
the coninuuid
of Qod,

(Matthew,
zzyiii. 19,
20.)

(MerkfZrL
15, 16.)

(Matthew,
zziT. 14.)

and the <va-
cletof the
prophet!,

never deceives, which is thus given in the Gk)s-
pel — " They shall come from the east and west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and
Jacob." So we hold that believers shall come
from all the world.

Sec. 17. Therefore we ought to fish well and
diligently, as the Lord tells us when he says,
" Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men ;"
and again he says by the Prophets, " Behold I
send you many fishers and hunters, saith the
Lord," &c. Wherefore there is great need that
we should so set our nets that a vast assemblage
and multitude may be caught to God ; that there
may be everywhere clergy to baptise and exhort
a people who need and desire it, as the Lord ad-
monishes and teaches us in the Gospel, saying,
" Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptising
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you;
and lo I am with you alway, even unto the end
of the world ;" And again he says, " Go ye into
all the world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall
be saved." " And this Gospel of the kingdom shall
be preached in all the world for a witness unto
all nations ; and then shall the end come." And
again, the Lord speaking by his prophet says —
<* And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will
pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, your old
men shall dream dreams, your young men shall

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 67

see visions ; and also upon the servants and upon
the handmaids in those days will I pour out my
spirit f and in Hosea he says, " I will call her my ^^^^^ **• 2»)
people which was not my people, and have mer-
cy on her that had not obtained mercy ; and it
shall come to pass that in the place where it was
said unto them, Ye are not my people, there
shall they be called the children of the livinff (Ho«», i. lo,

_. ftnd ii 23 ")

God." Wherefore, behold, how the Irish who
never had the knowledge of God, and hitherto
worshipped only idols° and unclean things, have
lately become the people of the Lord, and are
called the sons of God.

Sec. 18. The sons and daughters of Scottish
princes appear to be monks* and virgins of Christ.
And there was one blessed Scottish® maiden,' ^1*^ ""c*^

' fruit that

very £dr, of noble birth, and of adult age, whom many men
I baptised, and after a few days she came to me,
because, as she declared, she had received a re-
sponse from a messenger of God, desiring her to
become a virgin of Christ, and to draw near to

c Idols. See Introduction, pp. 12-13.

^ Monks. See Introduction, pp. 87-39.

* Scotti^. Ireland was called Scotia, and the people Scots, until
the eleventh centuiy. ** It was," says Bede, " properly the country
of the Soots" (^proprie patria Scotorvm). As to the origin of the
name, Dr. Petrie observes, " The people of Ireland, according to
all the Shanachies, were called Fenii, Gael, and Sooti, from three
of their celebrated progenitors." — Tara Hill, p. 99.

' Maiden. This incident, which comes in so abruptly, is not in
the Armagh copy, and looks very like an interpolation ; it is
thought to have been inserted to &vour the story that St. Brigid
was baptised by St Patrick.

68 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day from
that, she with most praiseworthy eagerness,
seized on that state of hfe wliich all the virgins
of God like\\Tse now adopt, not with the will of
their parents, nay, they endure persecution and
unfounded reproaches from their parents, and
nevertheless the number increases the more ; and
■ndmany as to thosc of our kiud*^ who are bom there, we

virgins enter

toe monartic know uot the numbcT, except widows and con-
tinent persons. But those [virgins] who are
detained in slavery are the most severely af-
flicted, yet they persevere in spite of terrors
and threats. But the Lord gave grace to
many of my handmaidens, for whether as much
[as they ought or not] they zealously imitate
him.

Sec. 19. Wherefore, although I could have

wished to leave them, and had been ready and

most desirous to go into Britain, as if to my pa-

thlthecwnot rents,^ and country, and not that alone, but had

^SVhich been ready to go as &r as Graul to visit my

mencedT"" brethren, and to see the feces of the Lord's

' Owr hind. Those who were converted to the Goepelf and
bom agam of incorruptible seed ; namely, ** by the word of God,
which liveth and abideth for ever.*'

^ Parents. '* As St. Patrick was far advanced in life at the time
he wrote the Confession, it seems more probable that the term
parentea, in this passage, is to be understood, not of parents in
the English sense of the word, but of reUtives. This acceptation
of pareHtes had crept mto use as far back as the time of St. Jerome,
and hence the Italian^/Miren^, and the French, />aren«.** — Lanigan
Eoc. Hist, vol. i. p. 128. ,

mar-

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 69

saints;^ God knows that I greatly wished it,
but I am " bound in the spirit," who " witness- ^^' "•
eth" that if I do this he sets me down as guilty.
I also fear to lose the labour which I have com-
menced, and yet not I, but Christ the Lord, who
commanded him to come and be with them the
remainder of my life. If the Lord willed it so,
and guarded me against " every evil way" [it
was] that I should not sin before him. I hope
[to do] that which I ought, but I trust not my-
self so long as I shall be " in this body of death," tJ^J!!'
because he is strong who daily endeavours to **°*^
subvert me from the faith and chastity which I
have proposed to myself, even to the end of my
life, to Christ my Lord ; but the carnal mind, Jjjj^^
which is enmity, always draws me to death — that ^^'
is, to unlawfully accomplishing desires; and I
know in part why I have feiiled to live a per-
fect life, as well as other believers ;J but I confess

^ Lord's mints. *' That he stood in pecaliar oounexion with
the religioas men of the south of France is evident fix>m this
passage." — Neander, The Island of Lerins, now St. Honorat,
in which St. Patrick spent several years of his life, is not far from
the south coast of France. It will be noticed that St Patrick
speaks in the text of Gaul as beyond Britain, and as he was
writing in Ireland, it follows that the island of Great Britain is
meant, and not Brittany, as some have thought.

1 Sictit et ccBteri credentes. His meaning evidently is " while
conscious that all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God," I am, through Divine grace, so acquainted with my
own heart, as to be in some measure aware of the cause of
my failure — to know the "sin that does so easily beset me."

con-
his
weak-

THE CONFEBSION OF ST. PATRICK.

to my Lord, and I Ue not, from the time that I
knew him (that is, from my youtJi), the love, and
fear of God increased in me — so that up to this
time, by the grace of God, " I have kept the
fiuth."

Tlitit ere^s^ei nmaia trne believers b
other pasaages — as (cb. uL sec. IS),
bam," which does not mean that he was
nominal Christian ; and agahi (ch. iiL 14), '
creiisreiB.''

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 71

CHAPTER V.

HE DECLARES WITH HOW MUCH DISINTERESTEDNESS
HE HAD PREACHED THE GOSPEL.

Sec. 20. Let him who pleases deride and insult
me,* I will not be silent, nor will I conceal the
signs and wonders which were ministered to me
by the Lord, who knew all things many years
before they existed, as it were, even " before the
world began," wherefore, I ought to give thanks
without ceasing to God, who often pardoned my
folly even out of place, and not in a single in-
stance only ; that his anger was not fierce, against
me, but that he granted me the privilege of Entering on
being a labourer together with Him, and I did ary work**"
not immediately acquiesce, as it had been pointed dei»yr^
out to me, and as the Spirit prompted. And
the Lord had compassion on me, among thou-
sands of thousands, because he saw in me a
readiness of mind. But I was perplexed as to
what I should do about my condition, because
many were endeavouring to hinder this mission,
and were talking among themselves, behind my
back, and saying, " why does he endanger his

* IntuU me. ** He seems to allade to a sort of munnuriiig
against him, originating, it wonld appear, in a spirit of rivalry
and jealousy which actuated some of the Christians, who were in
Ireland before his mission." — Laniffon, vol. L p. 285.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATBICK.

life among enemies, who know not the Lord?**

CSitS^td ^ ^8a not with malicious intent they said this,

ti^of '^^'^ "^^ because they did not approve of it, as I also

oth«n, understood (I myself bear witness) on account

of my imperfect education. And I did not im-

piediately recognize the grace which was then

m me ; but now I am aware of what I should

have known before.

^ec. 21. I have now, therefore, simply in-
formed my brethren and fellow-servants who
believed me, why I have preached and preach
stiU, to confirm your faith. Would that you too
may aim at nobler things, and succeed better in
them; this shaU be my glory, because "a wise
(r— . I.) son is the glory of his father." You know, and
God knows, how I have lived among you from
he declare. ^^ ^^^^^"^ ^P' faithful in the truth, and sincere
Jmonltoi'^ ^^ ^^^^' ^ ^^^® ^^^^ °^^® known the feith to
heathen. those pcoplc amoug whom I dwell, and I will

continue to do so. God knows I have not over-
reached any of them, nor do I design it, from
fear for the interests of God and his Church,
lest I should excite persecution for them and all
of us, and lest the name of God should be
blasphemed by me, because it is written, " Wo

* Youth. It is generally supposed that he came to Ireland to
preach the Gospel in the sixtieth year of his age. Whether this
was so or not, these words are no difficulty, as he may refer to
the six years of his youth which he spent in captiyity, when that
great change was wrought in his heart which he speaks of m the
earlier part of the Confession. At that period, his piety and zeal
for divine truth were as conspicuous as at a later period of his
^e — a fact which he here appeals to their experience to confinn.

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 73

to the man by whom the name of God is bias- i^^^Mcm,

, , p •' ^ »ciT. 16.;

phemed;" for, though in all things I am un-
skilled, yet I have endeavoured to be on my
guard, even with Christian brethren and virgins
of Christ, and religious women, who, of their
own accord, used to bestow gifts upon me, and
to place their ornaments^ on the altar; but I re- •°*?'°Yj'I

■^ ' despised gifts,

turned them again to them, and they were
offended at me for doing this. But I was ani-
mated by the hope of immortality, to guard
myself cautiously in all things, so that they
should not find me unfeithfiil, even in a tittle,
and that I should not give room to the unbe-
lievers, even in the least, to defame or detract
from the ministry of my service.

Sec 22. But, perhaps, when I baptised so"*d*»p**»«^'
many thousand men, I hoped to receive from
some of them even half a scriptula?<* Tell me,
and I will give it back to you. Or, when the
Lord ordained clergy by my weak ministry, did and ©rdsined
I confer that gift on them gratuitously ? If I have gratuitously,
asked of any of them even the value of a shoe,® i s*™- »"• ^
tell it — tell it against me, and I will repay it to

^ Ornaments, Laige numbers of golden ornaments, of various
kinds, are constantly found in Ireland, which belong to a very
remote period. Dr. Petrie notices two golden torques, found on
Tara Hill, which cannot be of later date than the sixth century.
— Ea9€Uf on Tara Hill, pp. 181-184.

' Dimidwm tcnptula. The screapall was a coin used by the
ancient Irish, which weighed twenty-four grains, and was of the
value of three-pence. — Petrie's Essay on Round Towers, p. 214.

* Calceamenti, like Samuel (1 Sam. xii. 8), and St. Paul
(Acts, XX. 83), he calls the people to witness his integrity and
disinterestedness while among them.

74 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

you. I rather expended whenever it appeared
requisite ^money] for your sakes ; and I went
among you everywhere for your sakes, in con-
stant danger/ even to those distant parts beyond
which there were no inhabitants, and where no
one had ever come to baptise, or ordain clergy-
men, or confirm the people ; [and] the Lord assist-
ing me, I adopted every means for your salvation,
using all diligence and zeal. And during this
time, I used to give rewards to kings,* because
I gave hire to their sons, who travel with me ;
and thus they abstained from seizing me with my
1^ rf Mi*^* companions. And, on one day, they desired ex-
own property, ceedinglv to kill me ; but the time had not yet

M well by o •/ ' «/

▼ioience, comc, and they carried off everything they
found with us, and fettered me with iron ; but,
on the fourteenth day, the Lord loosed me from
their hands, and whatever was ours was restored
to us, through the power of God, and by means
of the attached friends whom we had before
provided.

Sec. 23. But you know how much I expended
on those who were the judges,** through the dis-

' Dcmger, EBs disregard of danger appears in the maimer in
which he attacked the Dmidic religion not long after his arriyal.
(Introduction, pp. 27, 28.) On that occasion the King was
almost penmaded to be a Christian, bat as it frequently happens
in the case of weak-minded and ignorant people, he oonld not
bring himself to leave the religion in which he was bom.
*' Kiall, my fttther (he replied) commanded me not to belienre, but
desired me to be buried on the heights of Tara, like men in hos-
tile array." — Tirethan, quoted m <^ Book of RighU, p. 226.

' Renoards to kings. See an instance in Intiodnction, p. 29.

** Judges, " He means the Irish Brehons, or judges, who held

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 75 I

tricts that I more frequently visited, for I think
I paid them the hire of fifteen men^ — no small
sum — that you might enioy me, and I you, •• t>y lihewi

•'_ 1X1 • .. expenditure;

always in the Lord. I do not regret it, nor is it
sufficient for me. I still spend, and, moreover,
will spend. The Lord is able to grant me after-
wards to expend even myself for your sakes.
Behold, I call God to witness to my soul that I
lie not, nor have I written to you to give you
an opportunity of gratifying my love of flattery,
or my avarice, nor that I might hope for honour
from you. For sufficient to me is the honour
which is not seen, but believed in from the
heart ; but the &ithful one who has promised it
never lies. But I see that now, in the present
world, I am exalted beyond measure by the
Lord ; and I was not worthy nor fit to be thus
&voured by him, since I know most certainly
that poverty and calamity suit me better than
luxury and riches, and Christ the Lord also was
poor for us. But, wretched and unhappy that I be poor after
am, even if I wished for wealth, I now have it of chHBt,
not; neither do I judge myself [to want it],
because every day I disregard either the danger
of being put to death, or overreached, or brought
into slavery, or of becoming a stumbling-block
to any one. But I fear none of these things,

their oonrts on the hilla, and decided cauMS according to tiie
Druidic laws."— 0' Conor.

' FifUem men. O'Conor thinks this refers to the eric, or pecu-
niary compensation for violating the law ; but it may, with more
probability, be referred to his having hired them as an escort —
8e€ Jntroduction^ p. 29.

76 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

relying on the promise of the Heavens ; for I
have cast myself into the hands of the Omnipo-
tent God, who reigns everywhere : as the pro-
phet says, " Cast thy burthen upon the Lord,

(Pi. It. 22.) and he shall sustain thee."

Sec. 24. Behold, now I commend my soul
to God, who is feithfiil, whose mission I perform,
lowly that I am. But because he accepts not
the person, and has chosen me to this office,
that I alone, of the very least of his people,
should be his minister, " What shall I render

(p«dm cxvi. unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me ;"
and what shall I say, or what shall I promise
to my Lord, for I see that I should have had
nothing, imless he himself had given it to me;
but I will search my heart and reins, because I

for whom he am ardently desirous and ready that he should

■SfeTany- givc mc to driuk of his cup as he has granted
to others who have loved him. Wherefore, may
God never permit that I should lose his people
whom I have acquired in the ends of the earth.
I pfay God that he may grant me perseverance,
and that he may vouchsafe to permit me to bear
&ithful witness to him, even unto my death.
And if I ever effected anything good on account
of my God whom I love, I entreat him to grant
me this, that with those converts and captives I
may pour out my blood for his name, even

evenmwrtyr- though I should be dcprfved of buTial, or my
dead body be miserably torn limb from limb
by dogs or wild beasts, or though the birds of
the air should devour it. I believe most cer-
tainly that if this should happen to me, I have

THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK. 77

gained my soul with my body ; for without any

doubt we shall rise one day in the brightness

of the sun, that is, in the glory of Christ Jesus

our Redeemer, the son of the living God, "joint- iS!"7?29o

heirs with Christ," and to be conformed to his

image, since of him, and through him, and to

him, we shall reign. For that sim which we

see, rises daily at God's will for our sakes ; but

it shall not rule for ever, nor shall its splendor Jo^wwch*

continue, and woe to its unhappy worshippers,J fo?7JSr^

for punishment awaits them. But we believe in p*^""*

and adore the true sun, Christ, who never shall

perish, nor shall he who does his will, but

shall abide for ever, as Christ also shall abide

for ever, whose reign with God the Father

Omnipotent, and with the Holy Ghost, was

in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

Amen.

Sec. 25. Behold again and again I briefly set
forth the words of my Confession. I bear
witness in truth and joy of heart, before God
and his holy angels, that I never had any
occasion, except the Gospel and its promises,
to return to that nation from which at first
I escaped with diflSculty. But I pray those He repeats
who beheve in and fear God, whoever mayrion.
think fit to look into or receive this writing
which I, Patrick, a sinner and unlearned,
wrote in Ireland, that no one may ever say,
if I have demonstrated anything, however

J Wor^ippera. On the worship of the Sun in Ireland, see
Introduction, p. 11.

78 THE CONFESSION OF ST. PATRICK.

weak, according to the will of God, that it
was my ignorance. But do you judge, and let
it be most firmly believed, that it was the
gift of God. And this is my Confession,*^ be-
fore I shall die.

^ Confession — i. e., This is my declaration respecting myself, my
life, my motives, and my teaching, which, in the near prospect of
death, I place on record, for the use of the present and future
times.

THE END.

Dublin : Printed by GsoROK Drovoht, 6, BacbelorVwalk.

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