521 
preface declare concerning these three books, ‘‘ quos ab ipso non Cartha- 
ginensium, sed Cantuariensium vel Cambrensium (si tamen vox jam in 
in usu erat) vel Kilkennensium, &c., monasteriorum Presbyteris nuncu- 
patos fuisse suspicamur.’”’ This statement is reprinted in the Antwerp 
edition of 1700, and the Parisian impression of 1837, But in the quarto 
edition of Bassano, 1797, the far-fetched and very improbable suggestion 
of Cambrensium vel Kilkennensium is wisely expunged. The notice, 
however, of the treatise which Cave gives is not very creditable to either 
his judgment or research—‘‘ Angli cujusdam, vel Hiberni, ut videtur 
opus. Autor erat Augustinus quidam monachus Cantuariensis, seu potius 
Cambrensis, id est Hibernus.’* j 
These writers considered that the name Augustin, as borne by a na- 
tive of the British Isles, suited the church of Canterbury better than 
that of Carthage, as they could hardly conceive an Englishman, much 
less an Irishman, at this early date attaining distinction in so remote a 
quarter. But they seem to have forgotten the extraordinarily erratic cha- 
racter of the ancient Irish Christians, and how widely in Europe their 
traces are discoverable. And if history does not supply us with any 
direct notice of their connexion with the African church, the defect can 
be reasonably accounted for in the obliteration of local records by the 
Saracenic invasion, which commenced soon after our author’s date, and 
reduced the once flourishing church of Africa to misery and extinction. 
A further objection to the proposed substitution of Cantuartenstiwm for 
Carthaginensium is that Doruvernensium would be the more likely term 
were Canterbury intended, as Cantuarii is applied by Bede to the inha- 
bitants rather the place. We must by all means reject the emendation, 
and retain the reading whichis found in all the manuscripts and printed 
copies. The probability that the monastic system of Ireland had its 
model in Egypt, and the mention of Egyptians who visited Ireland in 
the Litany of Aengus, are quite sufficient to justify the supposition that 
the ecclesiastical migrations of the Irish may have included the heats of 
Africa as well as the cold of Iceland. The narrative in Sulpicius Severus’ 
Life of St. Martin would certainly prepare the mind to regard an after 
visit of an Irishman to the same region as no unlikely event. 
Though there are some passages in the treatise which are difficult to 
interpret,{ and indicate the ignorance or carelessness of the copyist, still 
tenable, both for want of authority, and especially because such a grouping of churches 
under one name implies a diocesan distribution, which was unknown in Ireland till many 
eenturies afterwards. 
* Historia Literaria, vol. i., p. 294 (Oxon. 1740). Casimir Oudin’s notice is not 
more satisfactory. See his Commentarius de Scriptoribus Ecelesiasticis, tom. i. col. 944 
(Lips. 1722.) 
+ Sulpicii Severi Dialogus i. Opera, p. 541 (Ed. Hornii). 
{ As, at the close of the prologue: ‘“‘Ab uno enim vestrum, id est, Bathano, post 
patrem Manchinanum si quid intelligenti addidi, et ab altero ut credo saliva oris ejus 
vicem laborum causam suscepi.” 
BR. I. A, PROC.——VOL. VII. 4p 
