19'^ 



the era of Saint Patrick, on the ipse dixit of this document, the world 

 is called upon to believe, sometimes that the apostle Patrick lived 

 centuries before 430, sometimes that he laboured in his mission 

 partly before and partly after A, D. 430, (Researches, p, 287,) again, 

 that Patrick was Palladius and Palladius was Patrick, (Researches, 

 pp. 266, 287, and 2970 At pages 278 and 283, the doctrine is 

 changed, and there are two Patricks, and at p. 290 there are three, 

 so stubborn an opponent is this Irish apostle ; and yet strange to say, 

 if the whole MS. were evidence, there is not one peculiar passage in 

 it cited by Sir William, that could support any of the above para- 

 doxes. The work contains a few lives of Saint Patrick, (similar to 

 those published by Colgan,* and attributing quite as many miracles 

 to him,) a work of Aidus, a confession of Saint Patrick, defective on 

 comparison with those hitherto known, a letter of Saint Jerome to 

 Pope Damasus, a text of the gospels, epistles, acts of the apostles, 

 and a life of Saint Martin of Tours : but in all these not one word to 

 ground the assertion with which Sir William commences, or to shake 

 the authority of immemorial Church history. 



We had almost intended to overlook the copious quotations which 

 Sir William furnishes, as collections of Tirechan, in said book of 

 Armagh, with inferences that they demonstrate the age of Saint 

 Patrick, as earlier than that commonly fixed, and also that his mission 

 was a sinecure, Ireland being then " a nation of Christians." We 

 are, however, quite at a loss to know from what innuendos, applied even 

 to these collections, any such conclusions can be drawn. We find 

 Tirechan expressly mentions that Saint Patrick was subsequent to 

 Palladius, and that he encountered Magi as in full influence in several 

 parts of the island, but that God gave him the whole island. Yet 



• Resea'ches, p. 258. 



