380 
PATRICK. 
the angel bade ; and the fieKh-meats, being plunged into 
the water, and taken thereout, immediately became 
fifties. This miracle did St. Patrick often relate to his 
difciples, that they might reftrain the delire of their appe¬ 
tites. But many of the Irifli, wrongfully underftanding 
this miracle, are wont on St. Patrick’s day, which always 
falls, in the time of Lent, to plunge flefn-meats into water, 
when plunged in to take out, when taken out to drefs, 
when drefled to eat, and call them ‘ Fifties of St. Patrick.’ 
But hereby every religious man will learn to reftrain his 
appetite, and not to eat meat at forbidden feafons, little 
regarding what ignorant and foolifh men are wont to do.” 
Life and Acis of St. Patrick, &c. now fir ft tranflated from 
the original Latin of Jocelin, the Ciftercian Monk of 
Furnes, who flouriftied in the early part of the twelfth 
century. By E. L. Swift, Efq. 1809. 
Mr. Swift has apologized for introducing the work of 
Jocelin to a Britifti public in the following terms :— 
“ Many and extraordinary are the miracles recorded of 
St. Patrick by Jocelin ; but, without requiring the reader’s 
affent to all thefe, the work ought not to be call afide 
with contempt or ridicule. It tends to eftablifh a point 
which the patriot feeling of every Irifhman would gladly 
fUpport; The exijlence of St. Patrick, and the conveifion of 
oar country by his apojlolic labours: nor can the improba¬ 
bility or the impoffibility of its recorded wonders invali¬ 
date the prefumption. Philofophy may difdain, and 
Pyrrhonifm may deride, the legendary page of old Jocelin; 
but, as miracles of a much higher rank have too often 
met no higher refpeft, let us, before we pity the monk of 
Furnes and gratulate our own fuperior wifdom, confider 
whether implicit belief be not at lead: as fafe as abfolute 
fcepticifm. The occafion, however, of thefe may not 
feldom be traced; the effedfts of natural caufes, operating 
on enthufiaftic minds, were gradually (haded by allegory 
and heightened by tradition, until the original adt was 
exalted into a miracle.” 
The marvellous blefiing which St. Patrick is faid to 
have beftovved upon Ireland of never breeding venomous 
creatures, is currently credited in that ifland, but merits 
■not ferious refutation. Several eminent writers, not 
doubting the fadt of reptiles, &c. not being found in 
Ireland, have attempted to account for it, from the pe¬ 
culiar falubrity of the air and foil, to the manifeft injury 
of the fame of St. Patrick; and they even adduce in- 
ltances of places being alike free from reptiles, in this 
country : fuch as the parifti of Dorchefter, in Oxford- 
ihire, Weft of Watlington ; the manor of Bindley, near 
Bofworth, Leicefterfiiire, &c. &c. Innumerable are the 
other advantages imputed by the Irifli to the partiality 
of St. Patrick for their ifland ; among which may be no¬ 
ticed the Introduction of the Latin Letters, and with them 
the Reman Language, as actually poffeffmg evidences of 
truth. 
The wearing of Shamrock on the Feaft of St. Patrick, 
is attributed-by fome to the following circumftance: 
When he firft endeavoured to plant the feeds of Chriftian- 
ity in Hibernia, he found great difficulty in inculcating 
the doctrine of the Trinity in.the minds of his rude and 
barbarous auditors; and therefore had recourfe to a vi¬ 
sible image to illuftrate his difeourfe. Thus when ex¬ 
pounding that tritheiftical myftery, he held in his hand 
a leaf of the fhamrock, or trefoil, as not only reprefenting 
the' divifibility of the Divinity into three diftinct and 
equal parts, but alfo its junftion or union in one ftemor 
original. This ingenious mode of accounting for the 
wearing of the ftiamrock may poffibly have truth for its 
balls; although it is more probable, that, as the fhamrock 
had been, long before the time of St. Patrick, confidered 
the national badge or emblem, it was originally worn on 
his anniverfary, to mark him as their patron, or tutelar 
faint. His anniverfary in our almanac is marked for the 
17th of March. See that word, vol. xiv. p. 341. 
In the year 1470, being the eleventh of Edward the 
Fourth, an order of Knights of the Garter was inftituted 
in Ireland: though, for reafons which have eluded re- 
fearch, this order was abolifhed fo early as twenty-four 
years’after its eftablifhment. On the nth March, 1783, 
a new order was inftituted, denominated “ Knights of the 
Illuftrious Order of St. Patrick,” of which his majefty, 
his heirs, and fucceffors, were ordained perpetual fo- 
vereigns, and to which feveral of the molt eminent cha¬ 
racters under the united monarchy of Great Britain and 
Ireland, have been eleCted knights. See the article 
Knighthood, vol. xi. p. 822. and Heraldry, vol. ix. 
P- 77 3 - 
PA'TRICK (Simon), a learned Englifti prelate, was 
the fon of a mercer at Gainfborough in Lincolnfnire, 
where he was born in the year 1626. After being well 
grounded in grammar-learning by an excellent claflical 
mailer, in 1644(16 was fent to the univerfity of Cambridge, 
where he was admitted a fizar of Queen’s College. He 
took his degree of B. A. in 1647, and in the following 
year was chofen fellow of his college. In 1641, he pro¬ 
ceeded M. A. and about the fame time received holy 
orders from Dr. Jofeph Hall, the ejeCled biftiop of Nor¬ 
wich. Soon afterwards he became domeftic chaplain to 
fir Walter St. John of Batterfea, who prefented him to 
that living towards the beginning of the year 1658. 
About this time he commenced author, by publifning 
his “ Mehfa myftica; or a Difeourfe concerning the Sa¬ 
crament of the Lord’s Supper : to which is added, a Dif¬ 
eourfe concerning Baptifm,” 8vo. This piece was fol¬ 
lowed, in 1659, by another, entitled “The Heart’s Eafe; 
or, a Remedy againft all Troubles ; with a confolatory 
Difeourfe, particularly directed to thofe who have loft 
their Friends and dear Relations,” i2tno. which has un¬ 
dergone numerous impreffions. In 1661, Mr. Patrick 
was eleCted mafter of Queen’s College, notwithftanding 
the king’s recommendation of Mr. Anthony Sparrow : 
but, the affair being brought before the king and council, 
judgment was foon given againft Patrick 3.and fome, if 
not all, of the fellows who had voted for him were ejeCted. 
Upon the ejection of Dr. Manton from the reCtory of St. 
Paul’s, Covent Garden, under the aCt of uniformity in 
1662, Mr. Patrick was prefented to that benefice by the 
earl of Bedford; and he endeared himfelf very much to 
the pariftiioners, not only by his excellent preaching and 
exemplary manners, but particularly by his conftant re- 
fider.ee with them during the dreadful time of the plague 
in 1665. In the year 1666, being defirous of proceeding 
in divinity, his difguftat what had taken place in his old 
college determined him againft keeping his afts at Cam¬ 
bridge, and he therefore entered of Chrift-Church-col- 
lege, Oxford; where he was at firft incorporated B. D. 
and foon afterwards admitted D. D. About the fame 
time he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to the king. 
In the year 1672, he was made a prebendary of Weftmin- 
lfer; and was for fome time fub-dean of that church. 
His next promotion was to the deanery of Peterborough, 
in 1679; where he completed and publiftied, but not be¬ 
fore the year 1686, “The Hiftory of the Church at Peter¬ 
borough,” folio, from the manufeript of Simon Gunton, 
formerly a prebendary of that church. This work was 
conliderably enlarged by the editor, who added a fupple- 
ment containing a fuller account of the abbots and biinops 
of Peterborough than had been given by Mr. Gunton. 
During the reign of king James II. Dr. Patrick, at the 
hazard of all that was dear to him, fliowed his zealous at¬ 
tachment to iheproteftant religion, by writing and preach¬ 
ing againft the errors of the church o( Rome. In the 
year 1686, he ably fuftained his part in a conference with 
two Romifh priefts in the king’s prefence, of which the 
following account is given by biftiop Kennet in the third 
volume of his Complete Hiftory of England. “The Pro- 
teftant champions were, Dr. Simon Patrick, and Dr. 
William Jane, profeffor of divinity in Oxford. Thofe 
on the Popifli fide were one Gifford, a doftor of the 
Sorbonne, 
