206 



Saint Patrick strongly enforces the mystery of the Trinity, ("jfides 

 trinitatis ;" — " unum Deum in trinitate sacri nominis, &c.") Coelius 

 SeduHus has a whole chapter* in support of this article of faith, in 

 which he mentions the wonders accomplished in the Old and New Tes- 

 tament, " quaenam filius paterno consortio sanctoque spiritu secum ges- 

 serit constitute, ut deitatis una potentia inseperabili semper A'irtute con- 

 spicua, etsimplici majestate sit triplex et triplici majestate sit simplex. 

 Haec est vera fides et firma credulitas. Hanc salutem infelix Arrius ha- 

 bere contempsit, &c.-f* and he also, in many other passages, strongly 

 advocates the divinity of Christ. J Saint Patrick preaches baptism, as 

 does also Sedulius,§ and Cumian's Essay repeatedly inculcates its ne-r 

 cessity. Probus states the questions that were asked, and the form 

 observed in administering it, while Bede writes, that Oswald, Prince 

 of Northumberland, received that sacrament in Ireland, "inter quos 

 (Scotos) exulans ipse (Oswaldus) baptismatis sacramenta, cum his qui 

 secum erant militibus, consecutus erat,"ll a circumstance which Adam- 

 nan had previously related, where he makes an exception from the 

 gentilism of England, " excepto ipso Rege Oswaldo cum duodecim 

 viris, qui cum eo Scotos inter exsulante baptizati sunt."** It would 

 seem from Saint Patrick's Letter to Coroticus, that confirmation was 

 then usually administered immediately after baptism,-f"t" an inference 

 which is perhaps strengthened by the use of the plural number, 



* Opens Pasch. lib. 1. c. 22. 



t Opens Pasch. lib. 1. c. 22. And see also same author, in Epist. ad Philaemon, c. 3. and 

 in Epist. Rom. c. 11. 



X See in Epist. Rom. c. 1. 



§ Operis Pasch. lib. 2. c. 8; and again in Epist. ad Rom. c. 6. 



II Eccl. Hist, lib. 3. c. 3. •* Vita Columbae, lib. 1. c. 1. 



tt " De sanguine innocentium Christianorum, quos ego innumeros Deo genui atque in 

 Christo confirmavi, postera die qua chrisma neophyti in veste Candida flagrabat in fronte 

 ipsorum, &c." 



