the Irish monarchs formerly sat to be crowned; that there was an Irish monarch of the name of Mortough, about the year 513; that his brother Fergus was crowned king of Scot land; that he was the first king of Scotland of that race; that at the abbey of Schone the Scotch monarchs were usually inaugurated upon this stone; and that Edward I. removed it to Westminster abbey, and it is there usually called Jacob's stone. Let the most prejudiced opposer of the antiquity of Irish history point out the interest, the views, the possible motives, which could have induced the Irish monks of the middle ages to forge or invent a syllable of this whole narrative. Let the most morose, fastidious and eagle-eyed critic select one sentence of it, that bears the internal proof of monkish, (whatever it may of heathenish) ignorance and superstition 90. We have referred to some of the more prominent fiction in the ancient history of the Irish, not for the purpose of defending or refuting them, but of furnishing evidence of the historical facts upon which their annalists have engrafted them. Doctor Ledwich's confident boast of his internal and invincible proofs that the apostle of Ireland (St. Patrick) and his history are equally fabulous,* would have escaped notice, did it not demonstrate an expectation, (perhaps a practical conviction) that every depreciation and traduction of the Irish nation, however gross and unwarrantable, would meet countenance and reward, in lieu of merited disgrace and punishment. 91. This professed modern and improved pyrrhonian school, though few in number, Ledwich, Carr, and Gordon, rest their whole system in mere negation. Some writers say they, in some of their works within 213 years after St. Patrick's existence, do not mention his name; therefore he never existed. They believe not the miracles recorded of him by his biographists, therefore, conclude they, he never existed. Dr. Ryves, a master in chancery in 1618, had his doubts about the existence of St. Patrick. He presses them upon Usher and Cambden,† the two great luminaries of British and Irish antiquities; they scout his doubts. Thus master Ryves, discountenanced by the oracular decisions of these eminent men, gave up the pursuit, although his learning enabled him, says Ledwich, to bring it to a fair conclusion. This triumph of hagiography over criticism and eru * Ledwich's Antiquities, p. 66. + Ibid. p. 58. dition, has continued to the present hour. Therefore, infers Ledwich, St. Patrick never existed. Such is the sum of the doctrine of these erudite antiquarians, delegated with a special mission in the nineteenth century, to negative the historical credit of the last 1400 years. 92. We undertake not the task of examining or verifying any one of the miracles reported to have been performed by St. Patrick, but simply, whether or no such a man as St. Patrick ever existed. Were it not for the boasted assurances of Dr. Ledwich, that he is a mere fictitious personage, we should have blushed at the idea of undertaking this redundant function of offering proofs of his existence. The sum total of the proofs of this self-confident antiquarian against St. Patrick's existence in the fifth century, and his having preached the christian gospel to the Irish, is compressible into a very narrow compass. It is limited to the. silence of Venerable Bede in his history of England; the doubts of master Ryves; the hardy assurances of Dr. Ledwich; the zealous adoption of these bold denials by Mr. Gordon, who lays claim to no antiquarian knowledge; and the servile devotion of Sir John Carr, the itinerant knight, of whose tour through Ireland the most authentic part is his formal disclaimer of any knowledge or judgment in the antiquities of the country which he traversed. 93. The first of these objections founded in the silence of Venerable Bede, who lived within two centuries of St. Patrick, is removed by remarking, that the subject of the ecclesiastical history of the English nation would rather check than promote the venerable author's travelling out of his own into the ecclesiastical history of another country, in any matter which was not common to the history of that nation (Gentis Anglorum) which he had in hand. But where cireumstances occurred affecting both countries, we find that old Saxon author speaking faithfully of Ireland, as he does of his own country. This venerable author, amongst the num * Cambden says of this author, "The reverend Bede, whom we may more easily admire than sufficiently praise for his profound earning in a most barbarous age." Remains of a large work concerning Britain, 1605, 4to. p. 183. Pits, whose work upon the famous English writers was published at Paris, 1619, says (p. 130), that he was so well versed in the several branches of learning, that Europe scarcely ever produced a greater scholar in all respects; and that even, whilst he was living, his writings were of so great authority, that by a council in England, afterwards approved by the whole church, they were ordered to be publicly read and chanted ber of works which he has left to posterity, wrote a martyrologe for every day in the year, in which he mentions the (as they still are, says Pits) in the solemn service of the church. Selden, Spelman, Stillingfleet, and others are equally loud in commendation of this author. Bishop Nicholson also commends him strongly; and says, he must be pardoned for stuffing his writings here and there with thumping miracles, the natural product of the zeal and ignorance of his age. He also charges him with two much partiality to the Saxons. Pits enumerates, as published amongst Bede's works, besides Martyrologium per singulos dies totius anni, the following which are the works of Probus, who, according to Ware, wrote in the tenth century, Ir. Writ. p. 19; Vitam St. Patricii Episcopi Librum Unum; St. Patricius, qui et Sochet; De Miraculis et obitu ejusdem Librum Unum Domini et Apostolici viri Patris Nostri Patricii (p. 136). Pits composed his work in the reign of Elizabeth, though it were only published some years after his death, viz. A. D. 1619. As to Bede's Martyrologe, Dr. Ledwich endeavours to mislead and misrepresent. He affects to commend Bollandus and Cave, and misquotes them both in adducing their authorities against the authenticity of Bede's Martyrologe. The words of Cave (Hist. Lit. p. 403.) are," which work (namely, the Martyrologe) he testifies in the appendix to his Eeclesiastical History was composed by himself (Bede). But some have heretofore remarked, that what is now handed about has been disfigured by frequent interpolations of others. Concerning this Martyrologe, Molanus, Rosweyd, and particularly Bollandus and his coadjutors (σvvepyoɩ) may be consulted, in their preface to Jan. c. 4. and Prolog, to the month of March, T. 11. § v. et. seq. where they profess to give the genuine Martyrologe of Bede from various ancient manuscripts (so they would have us believe). There appeared also separately an interpolated Martyrologe of Bede, at Antwerp, 1564." These words of Cave evidently deny not the genuineness of that Martyrologe of Bede (which mentions St. Patrick). The Bollandists assume credit for giving the genuine work of Bede. Now, if any persons were likely to have acquired authentic documents upon this subject they were the Bollandists. This was a permanent and select committee of four of the most learned of the society of Jesuits, who resided at the professed house at Antwerp. They were nominated by the General of that order to devote their whole time to the collection and arrangement of the documents which form that immense work of Hagiography, which, from the first of January down to the ninth of October, has swelled to fifty volumes in folio. The work goes under the name of the Bollandists, from father Bolland, the first that was placed at the head of the institution. Rosweyde, to whom Cave refers, was the first who conceived and planned this great and useful work; he was a native of Utrecht, and died in 1629, and the next year Bolland commenced the work. Molanus published an edition of Usuard's Martyrologe, which was so much esteemed as to have been adopted and used as the Roman Martyrologe. It is obvious, that the aggregated contributions of so learned and extensive a body to one work, must have furnished more materials, document and information, than the industry and learning of any individual could attain. The last volume was published in 1786; and the abolition of the order of Jesuits put a stop to this valuable work. Bede thus describes his own Martyrologe of the death of St. Patrick, confessor, in (Scotia) Ireland. Father Soller, the most erudite critic that ever handled the subject of martyrologies, says, that the edition of Bede's Martyrologe, published by Papebroch (one of the Bollandists) was more correct than that published by Plantin. But he and the other learned authors, although they refer to interpolations in Bede, confine themselves to the introduction of some saints that lived after the days of Bede, as did Florus of Lyons. Dr. Ledwich, the avowed oppugner of the existence of St. Patrick, admits, that the Roman martyrology is the oldest in which we find the name of our apostle.* died in the year 735; and he informs us, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, that he had then written his Martyrologe; and his biographers fix this to the year 731. The accurate Fleury puts the death of St. Patrick in the year 460. Less than two centuries, therefore, intervened between the death of St. Patrick and the publication of Bede's Martyrologe. Florus's Martyrologe, which was written about 830, is, ac- cording to Soller, but an augmentation of Bede. Bede 94. The greater antiquity of the Roman martyrologe, draws the death and commemoration of St. Patrick to closer approximation. As no fixed period has been given to the publication of the Roman martyrologe, though we find its use traced up to the sixth century, the conclusion is, that the existence of this apostle in Ireland is established by authority prior to that of venerable Bede. Many of the foreign critics have spoken with strong and very proper se, verity of the incredible legends of St. Patrick; but the fables which enthusiastic ignorance, or pious credulity, have introduced into the legendary lives of this holy man, no more disprove his existence, than the fictions of the ancient birth-days of the holy martyrs," in which I have studied diligently to note all that I could find, not only on what day, but also in what manner of combat, and under what judge, they overcame the world." This minute description of his own Martyrologe, the candid antiquarian, Dr. Ledwich, palms upon his reader in these words: "Whether be (Bede) ever composed such a work is very doubtful, as he barely hints at it in one of his compositions!!!" In the second volume for March, Prol. xiv. where the Bollandists give Bede's Martyrologe verbatim, are contained these few simple words, which head the article for the 17th of March. In Scotia S Patricii Confessoris. Led. Ant. p. 69. Father Soller published a superb and very learned folio edition of Usuard's Martyrologe at Antwerp, A. D. 1714; in which, for the 17th of March, is commemorated St. Patrick, in these words (p. 159): In Scotia natalis Sancti Patricii episcopi et confessoris qui primus ibidem Christum evangelizavit. HIST. IREL. VOL. I. 4 phillids or bards negative the succession of the Milesian race of sovereigns. The judicious Tillemont,* in his notes to the life of St. Patrick, says, that seeing no solid ground for crediting the marvellous stories of his life, as reported by his biographers, he confines himself to St. Patrick's letter to Corotic, which is generally esteemed genuine and authentic; and to his confessions, which the Bollandists also believe to have been written, as a sketch of his own biography, by the saint himself. Admitting, therefore, Dr. Ledwich's quotation from the Bollandists, that the general matter of the life of St. Patrick was put together by most fabulous authors, and that none of it was compiled before the twelfth century,† yet the writing of his life by the Bollandists, and by Tillemont (as well as Baronius+ Fleury, and numerous other both critical and censorious authors), proves to demonstration, that these modern biographists believed in his existence as much as they discredited the legendary tales of his too credulous biographers of the middle ages. None of them could believe he had written letters to the excommunicated Prince Corotic, or penned his own confessions, had they disbelieved his existence. 95. To these foreign testimonies of St. Patrick's existence let us add the authority of the most respectable of our * Vol. xvi. p. 78. + Ab auctoribus fabulosissimis cansurcinata, nec ulla sæculo duodecimo priora. We mention Baronius as a person, who had more opportunity than any other author, that ever wrote upon the mission of St. Patrick, to verify the fact of his existence, and of his having been sent by pope Celestin from Rome, to complete the conversion of the Irish, which had been begun by St. Palladius, whom this pope had sent into Britain for the particular purpose of opposing the Pelagian heresy, before he proceeded upon his further evangelical labours, at the commencement of which he died. "Ipso autem eâ in legatione vitá functo, cum in Hyberniam quoque evangelium intulisset, Patricius captum ab eo opus absolvit.' Bar. 1. v. p. 555, Ep. a Ludov. Aurelio. His Ecclesiastical Annals are comprized in twelve large folio volumes, each word of which was written in the cardinal's own hand writing, without the aid of an amanuensis. He had every opportunity of verifying these facts, having for many years had the care of the library of the Holy See. The well-earned eulogy of our erudite and critical Cave, places his authority beyond the touch of the sceptic sciolists of these days of infidelity, “In hoc opere præclaré quidem de Antiquitate Ecclesiastica meruit. Me certe ex eo non parum profecisse haud invitus agnosco. Prolog, xxii. This honourable testimony of an English divine is most credible and creditable to both parties, especially as the object of the eulogy is complained of, for manifesting too intense a bias to exalt the prerogative of the Roman pontiff. |