200 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



commented upon, inasmuch as the very arrangement of the church into a dou- 

 ble nave necessarily required a double number of windows to light it. 



If, indeed, as Dr. O'Conor well remarks, he had described these windows 

 as having been glazed, it might have afforded a historical argument against 

 the supposition that he lived in the sixth or seventh century, inasmuch as 

 glass was not usual in the windows of churches in England till the close of 

 the latter ; but even that would be no evidence to prove that he did not flou- 

 rish previously to the twelfth, as the use of glass might have been introduced 

 into Ireland long before that age through the intercourse of the Irish with 

 Italy and Gaul, or the constant influx of English and other illustrious foreigners, 

 who visited Ireland for education. But, as Cogitosus makes no mention of 

 glass in the windows of the church of Kildare, it is to me an evidence not only 

 of the truth of his description, but also of its antiquity, though as I have 

 already stated, and as I shall presently prove, that antiquity is not so great as 

 many have imagined. It is evident, at all events, that if he had been, as Dr. 

 Ledwich asserts, fabricating a fanciful description of this church, while glazed 

 windows were still of rare occurrence, he would not have neglected so impor- 

 tant a feature of splendour. 



But, according to Dr. Ledwich, what evinces the work of Cogitosus to be 

 supposititious is his description of the monuments of St. Bridget and Conlaeth 

 on the right and left of the altar at Kildare : " They were not only highly 

 finished with gold and silver ornaments, with gems and precious stones, sus- 

 pended gold and silver crowns, but the wall of the chancel was painted with por- 

 traits." If, however, Dr. Ledwich had been better acquainted with the antiquities 

 of Ireland, which he undertook to illustrate, he would not have seen in any of 

 these particulars features inconsistent with the truth of history. The custom of 

 adorning the shrines of saints, in the manner described by Cogitosus, is of higher 

 antiquity than the time of St. Bridget, and was derived from the primitive 

 Christians, who thus decorated the tombs of the martyrs. See Buonarotti, Os- 

 servazioni sopra alcuni Frammenti di Vetro, pp. 133, 134. And that the Irish 

 ecclesiastics, from the first introduction of Christianity into the country, not only 

 possessed the art of manufacturing all the sacred utensils belonging to the altar, 

 in an equal degree of excellence with the cotemporaneous ecclesiastics abroad, 

 can be proved by an abundance of historical evidence. The three artificers of 



