83 



religion into Spain ;* while Sir W. Ouseley is cited by Vallancey, 

 as having discovered a Persian geographical MS. of high character, 

 in which Ireland, the expensive dresses of its people, and their 

 devotion to the rites of Magism or fire worship, are particularly men- 

 tioned.-f Even the very name of Bel, still retained in the Irish 

 Beltinne, evidences the Phoenician origin of the worship, as is demon- 

 strated from Sanchoniatho, quoted by Eusebius, who says of the latter 

 people, that they raise their hands to heaven in honour of the sun, 

 whom they rank as their only God, calling him Lord of heaven, 

 Baal Samen ;;J; which Roustan almost translates into his ancient his- 

 tory, " Les Pheniciens furent idolatres, ils adoroient le soleil sous le 

 nom de Baal, qui signifie seigneur ou Roi."§ It is also remarkable, 

 that Grian, which signifies the sun in Irish, is an epithet of Apollo 

 according to Virgil, who thence sometimesll styles him Grynaeus. 



Although Saint Patrick does most certainly, in his said Confes- 

 sion,** somewhat harshly insinuate, that idols were objects of Irish 

 worship in his time; and although some of his biographers conse- 

 quently speak of them,-f-f yet, it would seem as if the zeal of the 

 missionary had mistaken for idols the rude altars, stones, pillars, and 



• "Cultum igitur induxerant Iberes in Hispaniam, qualis apud eos et locis finitimis obti- 

 neret. At Iberes gentesque vicinae Coelum et Solem Lunamque venerabantur." — De Orig. et 

 progr. Idol. lib. I.e. 33. 



t Coll. Hib. vol. 7. p. 210. 



i " T««- jiUfccf ejeyso J15 rtvs »v^*t»vi dt^cs t»» HXi«>, t«1)t«» y*} ^n" Si«» fv«^i^«ir ft»t»f, 

 »«^«»9ti Kw{<«y 1iisX-'Sufcr,y naXivtrtt" — Praeparat. lib. 1. c. 7. 



§ Histoire Ancienne, vol. 1. p. 41. || Eclogue 6. v. 73. ^neid iv. v. 345. 



** " Unde autem Hiberione, qui nunquam notitiam Dei habuerunt nisi idola et immunda 

 usque nunc semper coluerunt." — Confess, p. 16. 



t+ See Jocelin, cs. 56 and 74, and Tripartite, p. 2. c. 3 1 ,and p. 3. c. 29. The Tripartite should 

 perhaps be considered with more propriety an Irish authority, the proportion of Latin having 



been comparatively small, until Colgan gave the whole in the Latin language See Lani^an's 



Eccl. Hist vol. l.p. 86. 



M 2 



