243 



The author of the ancient Life of Saint Dageus, extols the great 

 ingenuity of the holy man, in making various articles of iron, brass, 

 and the precious metals for the use of the church, such as bells,* 

 cymbals, crosiers, crosses, caskets, boxes, pixes, chalices, little altars, 

 vessels for the holy oil, and cases for books, some of them plain, but 

 others richly inlaid with gold and silver, and precious gems.-f* Cela- 

 nus's description^ of the cup of a king of Teffia,§ speaks it to have 

 been a work of wonderful beauty and skill. Adamnan expressly men- 

 tions blacksmiths, ("fabros ferrarios.")]] Dagius is stated to have been, 

 " S. Kierani faber tam in ferro quam sere,^'** while in the Tripartite 

 it is stated, that " Asicus sanctus fuit faber <xris Patritii ; * * * 

 fecit pro S. Patritio altaria et sacros codices quadrangulares et patenas 

 quadrangulares . "-f -|- 



* The use of bells in the Irish churches, even so early as the days of Saint Patrick, has 

 been just alluded to, ( ante, p. 242, and see Mason's Statistical Survey, vol. 2. p. 440.) 

 The celebrated Gildas is said to have sent Saint Brigid a small bell cast by himself, (Trias 

 Thaum. p. 605, and Acta Sanct. p. 183.) Adamnan mentions bells for the more speedily 

 gathering the people to church, and it has been already shewn, {ante, p. 180,) that Saint Nen- 

 nius's bell and those of other venerated persons, were tendered to be sworn upon. Iron bells 

 appear also to have been introduced in the churches, constructed by the Irish missionaries in 

 Iceland, (see Ant. Celt. Scand. p. 15.) In the monasteries of France and Italy, they were also 

 used in the seventh and eighth centuries, (see Ledwich's Ant. second edition, pp. 161-4.) 



f " Plurima de ferro et aere, de auro atque argento, uteusilia ad usum ecclesiae pertinentia 

 artificiose manus ista operabitur ; * * » * quod totum postea completum est. Idem 

 enim Episcopus Abbatibus aliisque Hibemife Sanctis campanas, cymbala, baculos, cruces, 

 scrinia, capsas, pixides, calices, altariola, chrismalia, librorumque co-opertoria, quajdam ho- 

 rum nuda, quaedam vero alia auro atque argento gemmisque pretiosis circumtexta * * * 

 ingeniose ac mirabiliter composuit." — Acta Sancton p. 733. " ■ 



X See O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. 4. p. 167. 



§ A district extending over parts of the present Counties of Westmeath and Longford, 

 which, immediately, after the English invasion, was allotted to the D'AItons, Petits, and 

 Tuites. 



II Vita Columb. lib. 3. c. 9. •• Acta Sanctorum, p. 374. 



-t-|- Lib. 2. c. 39. 



I I 2 



