entire reigns of Diermot, and of the two grandsons of Muiredach as well as that of Aid, the son of Ainmerech. They received the mass from Bishop David, Gilla and Docus, Britons. Of this class were the two Finians, the two Brendans, Jairlaith Tuam, Comgall, Coemgenus, Ciaran, Columba, Cainecus, &c."* The third order of saints was composed of "holy presbyters and a few bishops, in number, 100. These inhabited desert places, living on herbs, water and alms. They had no private property, and they had various rules, masses and tonsure. Some had their hair shaven in form of a crown, others suffered it to remain in a bushy tuft. They varied as to the celebration of the Pasch, some holding it on the fourteenth, others on the sixteenth day of the moon, with great strictness. These continued during four reigns," &c. "The first order was styled Sanctissimus, most holy; the second Sanctior, the third Sanctus. The first is said to have been resplendent as the sun, the second as the moon, the third as the stars."+ These pious men seem to have been bound by vows to cultivate the deserts in which they lived, for the use of of the poor. Their successors probably gave up the reclaimed land for the joint benefit of the indigent. Hence we find so many commons in the neighbourhood of ancient monasteries. The mandates of SAINT PATRICK were received, with the utmost awe by the people, and most implicitly obeyed by his disciples. For proof of this assertion, let one example suffice. In the year 445, our Irish Apostle, had, for some particular reason, commanded a number of his disciples to abstain from drinking till the time of Vespers. Colman, one of that number, had been occupied with harvest labour, in certain lands called Trian Conchobhair. Ex Brit. Ecel, Ant, p, 474. † Ibid, Prim, Eccl. Brit, p, 515, et soquen. hausted with fatigue, he was afflicted with intolerable thirst; yet he determined to obey the injunctions of his revered preceptor, to the very letter, and refrained from indulging himself, even with a draught of water. Sick ness ensued, and he fell the victim of a too scrupulous and excessive piety. From the singular mode of his death, Colman obtained the name of " Itadhach," or, Colmanus Sitiens. He was the first person inhumed in the burial ground of Armagh cathedral, where his tomb was placed contiguous to a cross which had been erected on the northern side of the edifice, opposite SAINT PATRICK's mansion house.* SAINT PATRICK was succeeded in the see of Armagh, in the year 455, by his disciple SAINT BINEN, or BENIGNUS, the son of Sesgnen, a chieftain in Meath, of whom a short but sufficiently comprehensive account has been already given in this work. On his conversion and baptism, he received from his kind preceptor, the name of BINEN expressive of his mild disposition and noble qualities. This youth was so firmly attached to SAINT PATRICK, that he became his inseparable companion, and, as their mutual friendship and esteem were every day strengthened by reciprocal acts of kindness and attention, he followed his master from his father's house. Instructed by our Apostle in learning and religion, he became eminent for knowledge and piety, and was therefore deemed worthy to succeed him in the see of Armagh. In the year 465, he resigned his bishopric and died, at Armagh, on the ninth of November, 468.‡ Our Apostle, who seems to have exercised a kind of paternal or patriarchal authority over the infant Irish church, had appointed JARLATH, the son of Trena, to succeed SAINT BINEN. The father of this pious divine, • Vita Trip. pars tertia, c. 77. 80. Tria Thaum. p. 311. ↑ Uss, Ind. Chron, p. 520. Tiruchan apud Usser, Brit. Ecel. Ant. p. 455. Ware's Bishops, p. 35. § Usser Ind. Chron. p. 522, Brit. Eccl. Ant. 454. Act. Sanct, p. 307, 1. 5. who was a chieftain of Mudhorn, or Mourne, and of the royal family of the Dalfiatacians or Dynast of HyBressail, or East Ulster, had obstinately rejected the truths of the Gospel, and remained inflexibly attached to Paganism: yet his two sons, Jarlath and Sedna, were not only the disciples of SAINT PATRICK, but became emulous of his Christian virtues. The progress of JARLATH, in particular, was remarkably rapid, and though many of the Irish converts were his seniors, yet in wisdom and piety he excelled them all. He, therefore, was nominated the successor of BINEN, and died, according to the Ulster annals, in 482, being the eightteenth year of his primacy.* In the same year, CORMAC, the nephew of King Leogaire,+ succeeded JARLATH, by the appointment of the venerable PATRICK, by whom he had been baptized.‡ He survived SAINT PATRICK, died on the seventeenth of February, 497, and was buried at Trim. The writer of "The Tripartite Life of SAINT PATRICK," states that Primate Cormac was educated in the district of Crich, in Artich, in Connaught, by Bishops Domnal, Comitius, Connetus and Darbon. Afterwards, when he visited Connaught, in the exercise of his Primatial power, each of them presented him with a heifer, through respect and reverence to SAINT PATRICK, who had committed his education to their care. These donations served as an example to the succeeding bishops, and grew into a custom, so that the successors of CORMAC, received similar gifts annually from the Connacian prelates. Primate Nuad, however, released them from such contributions about the year, 810.§ CORMAC was succeeded by DUBTACH, who, in the life of Saint Tigernach, is called "the venerable Duach, the famous archbishop of SAINT PATRICK'S 523. Brit. Eccl. Ant. p. 454, 455. Ware's Act. Sanct. p. 358. Usser Ind. Chron. p. § Tria. Thaum. p. 131, 132, Usser Brit. Eccl. Ant. p. 454, Usser Ind. Chron. p. N see." It is uncertain whether he attained this dignity by the election of the clergy, the nomination of his predecessor, or the appointment of the monarch. He died in the year 513,* and was succeeded by AILILD, (or AILIL, son of Trichen, prince of Hy-Bressail or East Ulster, and of blood-royal descent. This prelate was the second of the same sept, who had ruled the see. From this circumstance, we may infer that even in the infancy of the church, efforts were made to render the primatial dignity and its emoluments, a kind of hereditary property in the royal family. AILILD and his five brothers were disciples of SAINT PATRICK. He himself was a married man at the period of his conversion. On the 13th of January 526, he departed this life, and was succeeded by AILILD, II. who was descended from the same illustrious stock. This prelate having ruled the church for ten years died on the 1st of July, 536.§ DUBTACH II. a línea! descendant of the royal stock of Colla Huais, succeeded AILILD, in the year 536, and died in 518.|| The following prelates in the order below succeeded DUBTACH. DAVID MAC-GUAIRE-HUA-FARANNAN, 548 551 578 THOMIAN OF TOMIAN MAC RONAN, a man of illustrious descent, succeeded MAC LAISIR, in the year 623. • Usser. Index. Chron. p. 526, Brit. Eccl. Ant. 454. † Ware's Bishops p. 37. Usser Ind. Chron. p. 528. Brit. Eccl. Ant. p. 454. Usser Ind. Chron, 529. Ware's Bishops, p. 38, 39. ¶ Ibid. The primacy was justly due to his superior learning and piety. Bede has preserved a fragment of a letter written by the Roman clergy, in the year 639, to this prelate and the other bishops, priests and abbots of Ireland. This epistle related to the Pelagian heresy and to the celebration of Easter, and seems to have been a reply to some questions propounded by the Irish clergy, on the proper time of celebrating that festival.* THOMIAN died on the 10th of January 661, and was immediately succeeded by Segene. In the days of this prelate, Armagh was twice consumed by accidental fire, viz. In the years 670 and 687.+ We learn from the Ulster annals, (whose testimony. is corroborated by that of the venerable Bede,) that in the years 664 and 665, the nation was afflicted with a dreadful pestilence. These annals state that there was an eclipse of the sun, (tenebræ), on the ninth hour, of the kalends of May, A. D. 664. In the course of the summer, the sky seemed to be on fire, and, in August, an awful mortality swept off multitudes of the people. Two thirds of the inhabitants of Ireland are said to have perished during the pestilence.§ Bede, also, asserts that in the year 664, an eclipse of the sun took place, on the 3d of May, at the tenth hour. This was followed by a sudden pestilence which depopulated the southern parts of England, as well as the province of Northumberland, and dreadfully afflicted Ireland. The reader will perceive that our Irish records agree with the English historian, as to the facts of the dark. ness and the pestilence. They, however, do not coincide with him, as to the exact time of the eclipse. Primate Ussher finds by astronomical calculation that Bede is in • Bede Eccl. Hist. 1, 2, c. 19. Vet. Epis. Hib. Syll. p. 22, 23. Bishops, p. 39, 40. + Tria Thaum. p. 294. Ant. p. 491. Ware's Usser Brit. Eccl. § See Scriptor vitæ Geraldi Saxonis apud Usser. Ind, || Bede 1, 3, c, 27, Hist. Eccl. |