White — Latin Writings of St. Patrick. 



277 



the menseryants and maidservants of my father's house ? I was 

 freehorn according to the flesh. I am horn of a father who was a 

 decurion, but I sold my noble rank, I blush not to state it, nor am I 

 sorry, for the profit of others. In short, I am a slave in Christ to a 

 foreign nation on account of the unspeakable glory of the eternal life 

 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord* 



11. And if my own know me not, a prophet hath no honour in his 

 own country. Perchance we are not of one and the same fold nor have 

 one God and Father. As He saith : He that is not with me is against 

 me, and he that gathereth not ivith me scattereth abroad. It is not 

 meet that one pulleth down and another huildeth up. I seeh not mi?ie 

 own. 



It was not my own grace but God that put this earnest care i?ito my 

 heart, that I should be one of the hunters ox fishers whom long ago God 

 foretold would come in the last days. 



12. Men look askance at me. What shall I do, Lord? I am 

 exceedingly despised. Lo, around me are Thy sheep torn to pieces 

 and spoiled, and that too by the robbers aforesaid, by the orders 

 of Coroticus with hostile intent. Far from the love of God is 

 he who betrays Christians into the hands of the Scots and Picts. 

 Raveniyig wolves have swallowed up the flock of the Lord, which verily 

 in Ireland was growing up excellently with the greatest care. And 

 the sons of Scots and the daughters of chieftains wlio were monks and 

 virgins of Christ I am unable to reckon. Wherefore, Be not pleased 

 with the wrong done hy the imjust ; even unto hell it shall not please 

 thee. 



13. Which of the saints would not shudder to jest or feast with 

 such men ? They have filled their houses with the spoil of dead 

 Christians. They live by plunder. Wretched men, they know not 

 that it is poison, they offer tlie deadly food to their friends and sons : 

 just as Eve did not understand that verily it was death that she 

 handed to her husband. So are all they who do wrong. They worh 

 death eternal as their punishment. 



14. The custom of the Eoman Christian Gauls is this : — They 

 send holy and fit men to the Franks and other heathen with 

 many thousands of solidi to redeem- baptized captives. Thou slayest 

 as many and sellest them to a foreign nation that knows not God. 

 Thou deliverest the members of Christ as it were to a brothel. What 



