Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 107 



though not consecrated bishop, at the same time with Palladius, and that con- 

 sequently on the death of the latter he proceeded no farther than Gaul to receive 

 the Episcopal dignity, and was accordingly consecrated there by a bishop, 

 Amathus, Amatorex, or Amator. But this again Involves a new difficulty, as 

 this Amatorex, according to the Scholiast of Fiach, and several of the lives, was 

 Bishop of Auxerre ; and, as the only bishop of that name had died fourteen years 

 before, it is manifest that he could not have consecrated Patrick a bishop at the 

 period assigned. To meet this objection. Dr. Lanlgan, while he acknowledges 

 that no other Galilean prelate of the name is found in the history of the times, 

 offers another equally Improbable conjecture, namely, that his consecrator was a 

 Bishop Amandus of Bordeaux, and that the name Amandus might have been 

 easily changed into Amatus, Amathceus, or Amator. But with those who may 

 be disposed to consider the true era of Patrick as earlier than that usually assigned 

 to him, this conjecture will have but little weight, and the statement respecting 

 Amatorex of Auxerre will carry evidence in favour of the truth of their hypothesis. 



From the preceding observations it will be evident that the authorities 

 hitherto quoted are Insufficient to establish the mission of a second Patrick, if 

 the claim of Palladius to the name be allowed. It remains then to Inquire how 

 far the Confessio and the lives in the Book of Armagh sustain this assumed fact. 



And, first, of the Confessio, it may be briefly stated, that this interesting 

 document, which the learned generally have considered genuine, does not. In 

 that most ancient and uninterpolated copy preserved In the Book of Armagh, 

 contain even a single passage which would throw the slightest light on the 

 obscurities of the question. It might, in fact, be equally applicable to any 

 earlier Patrick as to the reputed one of this period. 



The collections in the Book of Armagh, relating to the Life of Patrick, are 

 supposed, apparently with justice, to have been written in the seventh century, 

 and their authority must therefore be taken in preference to that of all the later 

 lives, which are evidently but systematized amplifications of them. Yet it will 

 be seen that even in those documents the statements are so vague and contradic- 

 tory that nothing very conclusive can be gleaned from them. The first of these 

 lives, which, In a ruder style, is nearly the same in substance as that published 

 by Colgan under the name of Probus, is ascribed by Ussher to Maccuthenius, a 

 writer of the seventh century. In this life no statement of the consecration or 



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