Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 333 



St. Maidoc, or Aidan, the first bishop of Ferns, the age of which, in the opinion 

 of some of the most skilful antiquaries of Great Britain, can hardly be later 

 than the eighth century. 



It will be observed that the whole of the ornament on this side is produced 

 by the interlacing of a number of flat bands, having a line running down their 

 centre, as well as five small circles, ornamented with a bead ; and I should re- 

 mark, that, unlike the case of the Book of Armagh, the ornaments are produced, 

 not by a stamp, but by a carving in very low relief, or, as the French term it, 

 grave en creux. 



The two leather cases from which the preceding illustrations have been 

 copied, are, as far as I know, the only specimens of the kind remaining in Ire- 

 land, or, as I should suppose, in the British Islands ; yet it cannot be doubted 

 that such leather cases were anciently as common in Ireland as the sacred 

 books, shrines, and other reliquaries, which they were designed to preserve, 

 such oases being necessary, in consequence of the usage of the Irish, to carry 

 the honoured memorials of their primitive saints from place to place on neces- 

 sary or important occasions : and hence these relique covers are provided 

 with broad leather straps fastened to them at each end, by which they could be 

 suspended round the neck. 



And these covers, as we may suppose, shared, in some degree, the venera- 

 tion paid by the people to the sacred treasures which they contained. The 

 reliquaries thus sent through the districts of the patron saints, most usually for 

 the collection of dues or offerings to the church, were generally known by the 

 name of Minister, a term signifying " a travelling relique," being compounded 

 of the words mionn, a relique, and aiycjie, of journey, as it is explained in an 

 old glossary in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, H. 1, 15, p. 975, though 

 it would, with equal probability, appear to be derived from the Latin ministe- 

 rium, as being employed for the service of the Church. But the leather cases 

 made to carry such reliquaries, were known by the term polcnpe, which was 

 applied, at least in later times, to a satchel for books, as it is thus explained in 

 an old MS. Irish glossary preserved in Trinity College, Dublin, H. 3, 18, 

 Polaipe, .1. airtm Do reij liubain, "polaire, i. e. a name for a book satchel." 



The original application of the word, however, to the leather cases in which 

 the sacred books and reliquaries were carried, is proved by our most ancient 



