273 • 



It also appears that in the earlier part of the interval now under coti- 

 sideration, lived an Abbot Patrick, who is described as much *' given 

 to superstition and founder of the fabulous purgatory, which goeth in 

 Ireland under the name of Saint Patrick's purgatorie ;* so write 

 Ranulphus, monk, of Chester, and Bale, Bishop of Ossory."-f' -en' '^•; 

 fi-^'-In reference to religious doctrine, there is much evidence that 

 prayers for the dead were usual in this interval;J: as in the succeeding 

 centuries ;§ and about the same period the introduction of statues 

 and images in churches, though much controverted, and particularly 

 by two Irish missionary bishops, Clement, who vehemently opposed 

 their use, while Dungal only deprecated their abuse, seems, however, 

 to have been permitted in the Irish churches. An ancient statue of 

 Saint lUand, with mitre and crosier, was preserved in his abbey at 

 Rathlibthen, even to the days of Colgan. In the last page we have 

 seen mention made of a crucifix, " crucifixi Christi effigiem cum 

 cruce," as in 878 ; and in the Abbey of the Virgin, which was built 

 about 948 by some converted Danes, there was a statue of the Virgin 

 with a crown on her head, which was afterwards used at the corona- 

 tion of Lambert Simnel in Christ Church. 



In reference to the ecclesiastical revenues in former times, the 

 founder of a church was obliged to endow it with certain property 

 before any bishop would consecrate it, II and accordingly in Ireland 

 lands sufficient for its uses were assigned to every monastic founda- 



* See on this superstition "Richardson's Folly of Pilgrimages." Among the MSS. of 

 Sydney-Sussex, Cambridge, there is one " de loco Purgatorii in Hibemia, et de milite quodam 

 qui ibi diversas poenas pertulit.'' Another relation concerning it is in the Clarendon MSS ; 

 and in those of Trinity College, Dublin, there remains " Visio Tyndali Hibemi de Purgatorie 

 et inferis." 



f Hanmer, p. 172. Ware's Writers, p. 59. J See Acta Sanctorum ad Martii 6. 



§ See post, Period 4. sects. 3. and 6. 



II ConcU. Braccens. c. 6, cited Stuart's Armagh, p. 616. 



VOL. XVI. N N 



