Mr. Pbtrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 105 



a conjecture of Tillemont's, founded on certain passages in the Confessio of St. 

 Patrick, which passages, even if authentic, would be indeed a very uncertain 

 guide, but which are in reality not found in the oldest and purest copy of that 

 work extant, namely, that preserved in the Book of Armagh, which is stated to 

 have been transcribed from the original, written by the Saint's own hand. — See 

 Lanigan, vol. i. pp. 135, 136. As already stated, the only notices on this point 

 found in the Irish authorities refer it to 333, or, as Tlghearnach has it, 341. 



2. With respect to the date of his captivity, a few words will also suffice. 

 Ussher, in accordance with the statement of the fact in the Confessio, that he 

 was sixteen years old at the time, assigns it to 388, to agree with the assumed 

 year of his birth ; and Lanigan, in like manner, to suit his theory, places 

 it In 403. The assumption of Dr. Lanigan Is, however, of no weight, as the 

 conclusion on which he founds it has been already shewn to be groundless ; 

 and in this, as in the former case, the Irish Annals of Tlghearnach, which assign 

 his captivity to the year 357, are opposed to the conjectural dates of both. 



3. The year of his mission. This Is the point on which the whole question 

 as to the existence of a second Patrick hinges, and, as stated by Ussher, is that on 

 which nearly all the authorities concur : — " In mortis anno deslgnando, ut vldes, 

 magna est inter istos dlscrepantia : de anno mlsslonis in Hlberniam nulla." — 

 Primordia, p. 880. It might be supposed, therefore, that this point was beyond 

 the reach of controversy, and yet unfortunately it is that on which many learned 

 men have since felt the greatest degree of doubt ; nor has any sufficient evidence 

 been found that would set this important question at rest. The foreign autho- 

 rities for the fact reach no higher than the eleventh century, when, it might be 

 argued, the Irish legends of his life had been worked up and dispersed over 

 Europe, through the innumerable missionaries which Ireland had sent out. 

 The authorities in the Irish Annals on this subject are of uncertain antiquity, 

 and their notices of this, as well as the circumstances connected with it, seem to 

 have been wholly derived from the popular lives of the saint. It is to be 

 regretted that on this important point the authority of the ancient Bodleian 

 MS. of Tlghearnach is wanting, as the portion of it relating to the period is lost ; 

 but there can be little if any doubt that the passages wanting in that copy are 

 preserved in the more modern copies of his Annals in Dublin, called the 

 Chronicum Scotorum, which record the mission of Patrick at 432, but omit that 



VOL. XVIII. 



