Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, tyc. 2y 



Thus translated by Colgan : 



" 1174. B. Florentius Gormanus, Archimagister, seu sup-emus moderator scholce Ardmachance, 

 ac omnium totius Hibernice Doctor egregius, in diuinis Sf humanis scientijs peritissimus ; postquam 

 annis viginti uno in Francia et Anglid operam studijs nauasset, <fy aliis posted viginti annis scholas 

 Hibernice tanquam Prcefectus rexisset, ipsdferid quarto ante Dominicam Remrrectionis, pie in Domino 

 obdormiuit." Trias Thaum. p 310. 



The reader has now materials laid before him from which to judge, whether 

 Vallancey was justified in stating that the above passage in Cormac's Glossary 

 refers to the Round Tower of Kildare, or to the Christian St. Bridget, and that 

 ba po an a ppicjnam means " very great was her Afrion tower, or house of 

 benediction." 



General Vallancey next tells us that " the pagan Irish worshipped Crom 

 cruait, the same god Soraster adored, in fire, first on mountains, then in caves, 

 and lastly in towers : this fire-worship, says Irish history, was introduced by 

 a certain draoi, named Midhghe, a corruption of Magiusch, which in Persian 

 signifies, nailed by the ears," &c. 



On this I have to remark, that, as I have already stated, Irish history says 

 nothing about the worship of fire in towers, nor that Crom Cruait (recte Crom 

 Cruach) was worshipped in fire in any manner, but on the contrary, that he 

 was worshipped under the form of a large idol ornamented with gold and silver, 

 and surrounded by twelve lesser ones of brass, typical emblems, as it might be 

 conjectured, of the sun and the twelve signs of the zodiac. See the legend 

 given in full in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, as published by Colgan in 

 Trias Thaum. p. 133. Neither does Irish history state that fire-worship was 

 introduced by a certain draoi, or Druid, named Midhghe, though it must be 

 confessed, that an inference to that effect might be drawn from the romantic 

 history of the first colonies of Ireland, in which it is stated, that on the landing 

 of the Nemedians, the second colony after the deluge, who came hither from 

 Greece, a certain Druid, named Midhe, lighted the first fire for them in the tenitory 

 of Meath, which is said to have thence received its name from him; and that all 

 this colony were obliged to pay him and his successors a tribute for the liberty 

 of lighting their fires annually from this original fire. . This story is preserved 

 in the Book of Leinsfer, a vellum MS. of the twelfth century, in the Library of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, H. 2. 18, fol. 157, a, b ; and, whatever may have been the 



