156 Mr. PETBIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



partite Life of the saint, said to have been originally written by St. Evin in the 

 sixth century : 



" Istis namque diebus sanctissimus Antistes metatus est locum, & jecit fundamenta Ecclesiae 

 Ardmachange juxta formam, & modum ab Angelo prsescriptum. Dum autem fieret hsec fundatio, 

 & metatio formas, & quantitatis Ecclesise sedificandse, collecta synodus Antistitum, Abbatum, alio- 

 rumque vniuersi regni Prselatorum : & facta processions ad metas designandas processerunt, Patricio 

 cum baculo lesu in manu totum Clerum, et Angelo Dei, tanquam ductore & directore Patricium 

 prsecedenti. Statuit autem Patricius juxta Angeli prescriptum quod murus Ecclesise in longitudine 

 contineret centum quadraginta pedes (forte passus) ; sedificium, siue aula maior triginta ; culina 

 septem & decem ; Argyrotheca, seu vasarium, vbi supellex reponebatur, septem pedes. Et ha? 

 sacrae aedes omnes iuxta has mensuras sunt postea erectse." Part iii. c. Ixxyiii. Trias Tkaum. 

 p. 164. 



It maybe objected that the work in which the preceding authority is found 

 is not of the age ascribed to it by Colgan ; but this objection is of little conse- 

 quence to my present argument, as, even allowing the passages it contains, 

 which could not be of this antiquity, and which Colgan considers interpolations, 

 to be, as Dr. Lanigan thinks, a portion of the original text, we have still the 

 acknowledgment of this sceptical critic himself, that the work cannot, by any 

 possibility, be later than the tenth century, and that it is in very great part 

 derived from much older memoirs, and often with such a scrupulous fidelity 

 that, instead of giving the mere substance of them, the very words are retained. 



Seeing then that a great cathedral church was built by St. Patrick at this 

 early period, we have every reason to believe that it must have been of stone, 

 inasmuch as it is spoken of as such by the Irish annalists at the year 838, and 

 that there is no intimation in the whole body of our historical authorities that it 

 was ever rebuilt, though it was undoubtedly often repaired, and had transepts 

 added to it in the twelfth century. And I may remark, as an interesting fact, 

 that, after all the calamities to which this venerable edifice has been subjected, 

 it still retains, in its present splendid re-edification, nearly the same longitudinal 

 measurement as in the time of its original foundation. 



That the stone-church, called Damhliag an t-Sabhaill, was also erected in 

 St. Patrick's time, appears from the Tripartite Life of that saint, as in the fol- 

 lowing passage : 



" Sanctus Patricius igitur cum suis sanctis comitibus ab vna parte, & Darius cum vxore, &, 

 regionis suee quse vulgo Oirthir, id est Orientalis appellatur, proceribus, simul prodeunt ad agrum 



