Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 45 



under the water, (" sub undis conspiciunt,") and repeatedly shew them to strangers, (" extraneis fre- 

 quenter ostendunt,") that they were towers for ecclesiastical uses, necessarily meaning for the uses 

 of a religion general at that retrospective date, as sun-worship was, though he uses a term which in 

 its more ordinary application is confined to Christianity, (" ecclesiasticas turres,") while he adds 

 that they were built agreeably with the custom of Ireland, " more patrife." Were they belfries he 

 would naturally have termed them " campanilia," were they for any other then known Christian 

 purpose, he would have been sure to name it; but he saw, as every one must see, that these " eccle- 

 siastics turres," were for the uses of a religion peculiar to Ireland, and that part of Scotland colonized 

 from Ireland.' " Essay on the Ancient History, $c. of Ireland: Transact. E. I. A. vol. xvi. pp. 139-141. 



Now, whatever may be the value of this allusion of Giraldus to the Towers, 

 it will be obvious to every dispassionate inquirer that Mr. D' Alton has assigned 

 to it a degree of importance, to which it is by no means legitimately entitled. 

 The remark of Cambrensis was obviously a mere incidental one, made without 

 any view to the question of the age or uses of the Towers ; and the only safe 

 conclusion that could be drawn from it would be, that the Towers were consi- 

 dered as ancient in his time. And, what places this beyond controversy is, that 

 the same writer makes a similar incidental allusion from whatever cause it 

 may be, not hitherto noticed to the Tower of Kildare, which still exists, and 

 which is characterized by features of Christian architecture that will leave no 

 doubt of its real era: but, while he applies to this Tower the very identical 

 epithet, turris ecclesiastica, given by him to the imaginary towers of Lough 

 Neagh, he says not one word that would imply his supposing it of pagan times ; 

 whereas, his words, on the contrary, clearly show that it was then one of a 

 group of Christian edifices. Mr. D' Alton, therefore, had no ground for transla- 

 ting the word " ecclesiasticas" by " religious," or for supposing that so skilful a 

 Latinist as Giraldus could have used the word in a sense alike unwarranted by 

 its etymology, its pagan acceptation, and its universally received meaning in his 

 time. The words must be understood in their established meaning as eccle- 

 siastical Towers, that is, Towers connected with, or belonging to, Christian 

 churches, and in no other, because the word ecclesia, from which ecclesiasticus 

 is formed, was never applied by any Christian writer but to a Christian con- 

 gregation, or the building in which such a congregation assembled. Neither is 

 there greater weight in Mr. D' Alton's remarks, that were they belfries, he 

 (Cambrensis) would naturally have termed them "campanilia," and that were 

 they for any other then known Christian purpose, he would have been sure to 



