Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, Sfc. 203 



Indeed, as Dr. Lanigan well observes, Cogitosus could not have written in 

 the manner he has, even after the year 831, when Kildare was plundered by 

 Cellach, son of Bran, as recorded in the Annals of Ulster and of the Four Masters, 

 inasmuch as he (Cogitosus) states that the city of Kildare and its suburbs were 

 an inviolable asylum, in which there could not be the least apprehension of any 

 hostile attack : 



" Maxima base Ciuitas & Metropolitana est ; in cuius suburbanis, quse Sancta certo limite 



designauit Brigida ; nullus carnalis adversarius, nee concursus timetur hostium." Trias Thaum. 

 p. 524, col. i. 



Having now, as I trust, satisfactorily proved the fact that shrines, such as 

 Cogitosus describes, were really in existence at Kildare in the early part of the 

 ninth century, when it is certain that writer must have flourished, I shall only 

 observe, in connexion with this part of his description, that in the shrine of 

 St. Aidan, first bishop of Ferns, now in my possession, and which some of the 

 most skilful antiquaries in Great Britain have assigned to a period not later 

 than the ninth century, but which is probably of a much earlier date, we have 

 still remaining sufficient monumental evidence that the description of the shrines 

 at Kildare, furnished by Cogitosus, was in no degree imaginary or exaggerated. 



The other particulars to which Dr. Ledwich objects, as being altogether 

 fanciful, are as little open to just criticism : we have, indeed, no corroborative 

 evidence of the facts stated as to the crowns, which were suspended over the 

 shrines, or of the painted figures on the partition wall, which divided the nave 

 from the chancel, or of the linen hangings which screened the sanctuary ; nor 

 should we have had even these descriptive notices, so valuable as illustrating 

 the state of the arts in Ireland at this remote time, but that Cogitosus had 

 found it necessary, in order to give a colouring of truth to a legendary miracle, 

 to connect with it a circumstantial description of the church, the accuracy of 

 which could be tested by every one. We know, however, from foreign autho- 

 rities, that all such embellishments were in use on the continent long before the 

 ninth century, and there is no reason to assume that they were unknown to, or 

 unused, by the Irish. Regna, called (rre^ai/aj/xara by the Greeks, were 

 commonly suspended in various parts of the early churches, as will be found 

 noticed in Ciampini's work, De Coronis, &c., 1. i. c. 14, and 1. ii. p. 90. A sin- 

 gular fact is recorded by Du Cange respecting this description of crown : 



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