m 



truth of the premises would not warrant a conclusion so extensive, 

 their fallacy completely invalidates it. Benignus wrote a life of Saint 

 Patrick about the end of the fifth century ; Probus another, supposed 

 to be of the seventh, which is yet extant. Adamnan, undoubtedly 

 of the seventh century, whose authority primate Usher upholds, men- 

 tions Saint Patrick expressly, and speaks of him as a bishop in that 

 second preface to his work, from which Ledwich himself quotes, 

 (" sancti Patricii episcopi discipulus.")* Cumian, Abbot of lona, 

 of whom Ledwich repeatedly speaks with the highest praise,-f- and 

 who lived in the same century, mentions Saint Patrick in his letter 

 to Segienus,;J; and in the commencement of his Life of Columba, 

 (" Patricius namque primus HibernicC Apostolus, &c.")§ Tirechan 

 at the same time|| wrote "two books of the Acts of Saint Patrick," 

 hereafter alluded to. Nennius, who according to the more received 

 accounts, lived in the seventh, (and not in the ninth century,) fre- 

 quently alludes to him,** as has been shewn above. Alcuin, at 

 the close of the eighth, mentions Saint Patrick in his Life of Saint 



AVillibrord. 



■i 



" Patricius, Kieranus, Scotorum gloriae gentis ; • , 



Atque Columbanus, Comgallus, Adamnanus, 

 Praeclari patres vitae morumque magistri.'' iiKni-.' 



.y:.LXO':i I;: ^-.-; :^:' 

 And the unhesitating belief in his existence, from the eighth to the 



twelfth century, is evidenced by the notices that occur relative to him 

 in that Martyrology, of which Bede proclaims himself the author ;-f-f- 

 in the Roman Martyrology, in those of Usuard, Rhabanus, and 



* Trias Thaum. p. 336. + See Ledw. Antqs. 2nd edit. pp. 107-8-9, and 364-5. 



t Syllog. Ep. Hib. § Trias Thaumat. p. 325. 



II See Ware's Writers, p. 30. ** Britt. Hist. cs. 54, 58, 69, 60, and 61. - 



ft Ad. fin. Hist. lib. 5. c. 24. 



B B 2 



