1 1 6 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. 



of Christianity In Ireland popularly called Patrick, namely, Sen-Patrick, and 

 Patrick the Archbishop ; and, that the attempts of Dr. Lanigan to shape a con- 

 sistent life of the Irish Apostle, by making him identical with the Sen- Patrick 

 of the Irish and Glastonbury authorities, can only be sustained by an unwar- 

 rantable rejection of the most ancient records bearing on the subject, and by 

 substituting in their place conjectures either wholly gratuitous, or, at best, 

 founded on documents of inferior credit. 



2. That the most ancient Irish annals appear to make a distinction between 

 the first Patrick and the second, the one being called St. Patrick, or Sen-Patrick, 

 and the second Patricius Archiepiscopus et Apostolus, an epithet which is obvi- 

 ously applicable to the Patrick of Celestine ; and that while the death of the 

 latter is placed in the year 492 or 493, the death of the first Patrick is placed by 

 the same annalists in 458 or 461. 



3. That the acts of these two Patricks have been so blended together by 

 the biographers — if they may be so called — of the supposed apostle's life, that it is 

 now impossible to separate them, or to determine, with any degree of certainty, 

 the acts which properly belong to either; though this much may perhaps be 

 gathered, that the first, or Sen-Patrick, appears to have preceded the mission of 

 Palladius; that he was the author of the Confessio, and the Irish Hymn, which 

 last is now first published in this memoir, if these productions be not spurious ; 

 andj that he died about the year 461, and was interred at Glastonbury, whither he 

 had retired, as it would appear, previously to the mission of the second Patrick. 



4. That the acts of the second Patrick are so feebly supported by ancient 

 historical evidences with respect to dates, time and place of birth, death, and 

 burial, and every thing except his mission, as to lead to the suspicion that even 

 on this point there may have been a fabrication, and that he may have been no 

 other than the Palladius of the Roman authorities, whose life is involved in an 

 equal degree of mystery. 



In support of this perhaps novel conjecture many facts from the ancient lives 

 and other authorities might be adduced, of which a few will suffice : 



1. That the oldest Irish authorities shew that Palladius was also called 

 Patrick. 



2. That the Roman authorities, as well as Bede, while they record the 

 mission of Palladius, are wholly silent respecting Patrick. 



