272 



as that of Louth, mentioned by Tigernach at the year 087, (" tectum 

 hospitaUs poenitentium Louthiae.") It has been also already stated,* 

 that on the defeat of the Danes in A. D. 848, the then king of Ireland 

 sent messengers to France, requesting liberty to pass through that 

 country on a pilgrimage to Rome. In 892,-1- according to Ethel wer- 

 dus and Florentius Wigorniensis, three Scots of Ireland sailed thence 

 on a pilgrimage in a leathern boat, willing at any hazard to fly from 

 their polluted country. ;J: (Matthew of Westminster is more particular 

 in his description of their little boat.)§ After seven days' sail they arriv- 

 ed in Cornwall, whence they proceeded to visit king Alfred, and were 

 by him most graciously received ; afterwards they pursued their jour- 

 ney to Rome, " ut soliti crebro Christi magistri petitum," (as Ethel- 

 werd in his barbarous Latin expresses it,) intending to proceed thence 

 to Jerusalem. To one of them particularly Ethelwerd concedes much 

 literary repute. II In 951 the Abbot of Seirkeran died in pilgrimage 

 (" in sua peregrinatione ") at Glendaloch.** Hector Boethius gives 

 a full detail-f-f- of the devotions of Gregory, king of Scotland, when 

 on his taking Dublin, in that expedition of his before alluded to,J|. 

 he made a solemn procession to the then Church of Saint Patrick 



* A)ite, p. 259. 



f Matthew of Westminster and the Saxon Chronicle refer it to 891. 



I " Hibernia stirpe tres viri lecti furtim consuunt lembum taurinis byrsis." — Ethelwerd, 

 ad ann. 



§ See post, sect. 5 of this Period. 



II " Artibus frondens, litenL doctus, magister insignis Scoitorum." — Ad ann. 892. 

 ** Acta Sanctorum, p. 473. 



ft " Cormacus (Episcopus) loci antistes, solemni habitu amictus manibus crucifixi Christi 

 effigiem cum cruce tenens, * * *■ * * Gregorius ***** gquo dissiliens, 

 positis ante Cormacum genibus, Christi effigiem venerabundus est deosculatus. * * » * 

 Tunc ad Deiparse Virginis cedem, inde ad divi Patricii templum voti nomine adequitavit, satris 

 ibi celebri ritu peractis in aream se recepit," — Lib. x. fol. 220. 



XX Ante, p.HeO. 



