1<)2 Mr. PETRIE'S Inquiry into the Origin and 



documents, that St. Patrick not only introduced a form of church into Ireland, 

 which, from veneration to his memory, became a model generally followed for 

 ages after, but that he even prescribed the very dimensions of which the basi- 

 lica*, or more important churches, should consist. This appears from the pas- 

 sages, which I have already quoted, first, from the Tripartite Life of this saint, 

 in which it is stated, that in the plan and measurements of the sacred edifices, 

 which he founded at Armagh, he was guided by an angel, and, secondly, from a 

 passage in the same Life, and likewise from one in the Annotations of Tirechan, 

 which I have also cited at p. 122, in which he prescribes sixty feet as the length of 

 the church of Donaghpatrick, near Tailteann, in Meath, which the prince Conall, 

 the brother of the monarch Laoghaire, was to erect for him, and pronounces 

 a malediction on his race if they should ever diminish it. Thus also, in the 

 notices of the foundations of churches, given in those ancient Lives of the saint, 

 we find it constantly stated that he prescribed the dimensions of which they 

 were to consist, as well as consecrated their foundations, as an example or two 

 will show. Thus, respecting the church of Seincheall, in the present county 

 of Roscommon, it is stated : 



" S. Patricius designauit locu & mesuram Ecclesia? extruendse, qua; vulgo Seincheall .i. vetus 

 cella, appellatur." Vita Tripart, S- Patricii, part ii. c. Iviii. Trias Thaum. p. 137- 



And again in the account of the foundation of St. Fiech's church at Sletty, near 

 Carlow : 



" Mansit autem sanctissimus Episcopus & Abbas Fiecus in ilia Ecclesia de Domnack-Fiec, donee 

 ante se ad coelum scxaginta sanctos ex discipulis prsemiserit Postea autem venit ad eiirn Angelus 

 Domini dicens quod non ibi esset locus resurrectionis eius, sed trans flumen ad occidentem : man- 

 datque quod ibi in loco Cuil-muige dicto, monasterium erigat, singulis officinis locum propriii, & 

 congruum assignans. Monuit enim vt refectorium extruat, vbi aprum ; & Ecclesiam vbi ceruani 

 repererit. Eespondit Angelo vir sanctus, & obedientiae specimen, se non audere Ecclesiam extru- 

 edarn inchoare, nisi prius eius pater & Magister Patricius eius locum, & mensuram metaretur & 

 cosecraret. Patricius ergo monitus, & rogatus venit ad ilium locum ; qui Slepte vulgo .i. monies 

 appellatur, & iuxta Angeli prescription ibi basilica? & monastery jecit & consecrauit fundamenta." 

 Vita Tripart. S. Patricii, part iii. c. xxiii. Trias Thaum. p. 155. 



Indeed that the Irish, who have been ever remarkable for a tenacious adherence 

 to their ancient customs, should preserve with religious veneration that form 

 and size of the primitive church, introduced by the first teachers of Christianity, 

 is only what might be naturally expected, and what we find to have been the 



