$30 



from what has been already said, that there could be no paucity of 

 such. The most remarkable were Saint Patrick, who has left behind 

 him two undoubted productions already frequently cited, the Confes- 

 sion and the Letter to Coroticus ; the former speaks itself to have been 

 written a short time before his death, from the passages in it, "quate- 

 nus modo ipse appeto in senectute med,'' and the concluding words, 

 " et haec est confessio mea antequam moriar." Both these docu- 

 ments are considered genuine by Ware, who first published them from 

 very ancient MSS. ; by the Bollandists, who gave a new edition of them 

 from a MS. different from that used by Ware; and by Tillembnt, who 

 expressly mentions their genuineness ; to which we may add that they 

 are acknowledged by Innes, and bear internal evidence of their own 

 high antiquity. 



The next in order is Coelius Sedulius ; Ledwich surmises he was 

 not an Irishman,* but Usher, Colgan, Ware, and Harris, maintain 

 the contrary, and satisfactorily prove their position ;-|" while Stani- 

 hurst wonders, that the country of tliis sacred poet could have been 

 disputed.;}; Some of the most beautiful hymns in the Catholic ser- 

 vice, e. g. " A solis ortus cardine, &c." are taken from this author. 

 Of his merits, Dupin, while he calls him a Scot, thus speaks: " this 

 author had a genius, the style of his poem is noble and great, his no- 

 tions are poetical, and his verses very passable,"§ while Trithemius, 

 also styling him a Scot, enlarges on his qualifications ; his profound 

 knowledge of divinity and humanity, his superiority in verse and 

 prose, his literary labours in France and Italy, his distinguished 

 career in Rome, the quantity of his works, &c.|| 



* Antiquities, p. 349. •(• Ware's Writers, p. 9. 



t " Coelium Sedulium poetam nobilem Hibernum fuisse perspicuum est." 



§ Eccl. Hist, of the fifth century. 



II " Sedulius presbyter natione Scotus, * * * * vir in divinis scripturis exercitatus. 



