181 



before Saint Patrick's arrival in 432, for the accurate annals of Ulster 

 and Innisfalen, fix his death in the year 526, and Declan survived 

 him, as appears from the tract called Declan's Life, and from the Acta 

 Sanctorum, p. 608, (" Ailbeum Episcopum, qui obiit vivente S. De- 

 clano.") Ibar is expressly named in several lives of Saint Patrick, as 

 having been his disciple, and his death is referred to the year 500 by 

 the before-mentioned annals, while the history of Keiran is so wholly 

 fabulous, as to be unworthy of a moment's credit.* 



Palladius was decidedly the first bishop, sent in 431, to gather this 

 little flock into the fold. "Ad Scotos in Christum credentes, ordinatus 

 a Pap'^ Celestino, Palladius primus Episcopus mittitur," an explicit 

 record from Prosper,*!* to which Nennius adds a more difficult and 

 not less certain commission, "missus est Palladius episcopus primitus 

 a Celestino Pap^l Romano ad Scotos in Christum converte7i(los."j^ 

 The success of the mission was, as is usual in such cases, exaggerated at 

 Rome, and the same Prosper hesitated not to say§ that all Ireland- 

 was Christianized by this appointment of Celestine. Such enthusi- 

 asm was, however, then without foundation, for, as Harpsfeld states, || 

 Palladius encountered so many difficulties, at least in the work of con- 

 version, so much obstinate heathenism, that he left the country in 

 despair, and died in Scotland. Nennius had previously attributed** 



* See Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. vol. 1. p. 30. 



f Chron. ad. ann. 431, and see post, in this Period. 



♦ Hist. Britt. c. 54. 



§ " Nee segniore cura ab hoc eodem moibo (Pelagiano) Brittannias liberavit, quando quos- 

 dam inimicos gratia;, solum suae originis occupantes, etiam ab illo secreto exclusit oceani : et 

 ordinate Scotis Episcopo, dum Romanam insulam studet servare Catholicam, fecit etiam 

 barbaram Christianam." — De Gratia et Lib. Arb. contra Cassianum, c. 41. 



II Hist. Eccl. Angl. lib. 1. c. 21. 



*• "Prohibitus a Deo per quasdam tempestates, quia nemo potest quidquam accipere in 

 terra nisi de coelo datum illi fuerit. Et profectus est ille Palladius de Hibernia ad Brittan- 

 niam, et ibi defunclus est in terrd Pictorum." — Hist. Brit. c. 54. 



