194 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



non ibant cum eo. Ad quern vir sanctus tota libertate vtens : Miser, inquit, opus quod inchoatum 

 vides, & inuides sine dubio perficietur, perfectum videbunt multi. Tu vero quia non vis, non vi- 

 debis, & quod non vis, morieris : attedito tibi ne in peccato tuo moriaris. Ita est, ille mortuus est, 

 & opus completum est, sed ille non vidit, qui vt praefati sumus, anno eodem mortuus est." Vila 

 Malachice cap. ix. Florilegium Insulce Sanctorum, p. 371. [rectt 373.] 



Though this church is called an oratory by St. Bernard, an appellation not 

 to be wondered at, as applied by one accustomed to the ample and magnificent 

 abbey churches then common on the continent, that it was nevertheless a church 

 of much greater size, as well as greater architectural splendour, than those ge- 

 nerally erected in Ireland up to this period, can scarcely admit of doubt, as the 

 remains of the abbey church of Bangor, extant in the last century, which, there 

 is every reason to believe, was erected in St. Malachy's time, sufficiently indi- 

 cated. Indeed, with the exception of the great church of the primatial see of 

 Armagh, which, if Colgan's translation of the Irish Tripartite Life of St. Patrick 

 can be relied on (which, however, in this instance I doubt), was originally built 

 of the length of one hundred and forty feet, the cathedral and abbey churches 

 of Ireland, anterior to the twelfth century, appear to have rarely or never ex- 

 ceeded the length of sixty feet. This was the measurement prescribed by St. 

 Patrick for the church of Domhnach mor, now Donaghpatrick, near Tailteann, 

 in Meath, and which, there is every reason to believe, was also the measure- 

 ment of the other distinguished churches erected by him throughout Ireland, 

 and imitated, as a model, by his successors. Such also, there is reason to believe, 

 was the usual size of the earliest churches erected by the Britons and Saxons, 

 for it is a curious fact that the first Christian church erected in Britain, and 

 which was traditionally ascribed to the apostolic age, was exactly of the size 

 generally adopted in Ireland after its conversion to Christianity, namely, sixty 

 feet in length, and twenty-six in breadth. This fact appears from the following 

 inscription on a brass plate, which, previously to the Reformation, was affixed to 

 a pillar in the more modern church at Glastonbury, and published by Sir Henry 

 Spelman in his Concilia (vol. i. p. 9). 



&nno post passionem tromini raf . JwoUecim sancti a quitms 3JosepIj al) arimatljia 

 primus erat, &uc itenerant, qui ettlesiam fcuius regni prfmam in fioc loco construxerunt. 

 qui cfiristi [quam cjw'stus] in fjonorem sue matris Sc locum pro eorum sepultura pre- 

 SEncialtter tfetu'cauit. sancto tiaufo mcneuencium arcfjiepiscopo fioc ttstante. Cut' trominus 



