speak of Saint Patrick.

It is a curious fact, that Dr. Ledwich quotes the second preface to the life of Saint Columba, as the known work of Adamnan. In pages 104 and 105 he discusses the meaning of the word Hy or Iona, which (as he hints,) was a compound of the word Ai or Ei, oval, and the Pictish term Oras. He then tells us, that "this accidental compound, which, in Hebrew signifies a dove, as columba does in Latin, did not escape the notice of the learned in Hi. ADAMNAN, one of its abbots, remarked it, and, from what he says on the occasion, there is reason to believe, that Greek and Oriental literature was not unknown in that seminary." He then subjoins, verbatim, the three first lines of this very preface, in proof of his assertion. Now, in Adamnan's work, a few lines below the passage thus quoted by the learned Doctor, distinct mention is made of Saint Patrick and his episcopal office. That this circumstance should have escaped his observation is truly astonishing. Surely

else he must have perceived a passage visible, on the slightest glance, to the most inadvertent reader.

Again, in page 106, our antiquary refers his readers to another part. of Adamnan's life of Columba, to prove that the saint had paid respect to a bishop at the

Bede and Tirechan

consecration of the eucharistic elements; and he cites the same author to shew that Columbanus was styled "Episcopus Laginensis," bishop of Leinster. In page 103, he quotes "Adamnan's Vita Columbæ, passim."

In Adamnan, therefore, we have the authority of a writer who is praised by Bede, quoted liberally by Ussher, approved of by Ware and Harris, and appealed to by Dr. Ledwich himself.

Bishop Tirechan wrote two books of "The Acts of Saint Patrick," an account of which, he says, he received from the mouth, or the book of his preceptor, bishop Ultan. His work was extant in Ware's time, and Ussher, in whose possession it was, quotes many passages from it, in his treatise "De Prim. Eccl. Brit.‡ and "Brit. Eccl. Ant.§ Tirechan wrote about the year 650, and his master Ultan died in 655.

Express mention is also made of Patrick in the Martyrology of the venerable Bede, who died in the year 735.|| Dr. Ledwich, however, endeavours to invalidate this testimony, in the following curious manner" Saint Patrick is," says the Doctor, "in Bede's Martyrology. Whether he ever composed such

Page 106. ↑ Ware's writers, (Harris's Edit.) p. 30. Page 829, 835,848, 853, 887, 899, § Page 435, 492,460.16 Kal. Ap. in Martyr, Bede.

speak of St. Patrick.

a work is very doubtful, as he barely hints at it, in one of his compositions. Cave's opinion of that passing under his name, is by no means in its favour."* A singular argument truly! Bede hints at a Martyrology which bears his name; therefore it is doubtful whether he ever composed such a work! But let us examine the passage to which, probably, our antiquary alludes, and which he chooses to style a hint. Bede,† in a retrospective discussion, entitled "Recapitulatio Chronica totius operis, et de persona auctoris," enumerates the volumes he had written, and amongst these, his Martyrology, in the following specific manner :— Martyrologium de natalitiis sanctorum martyrum diebus,

in

quo omnes quos invenire potui, non solum qua die, verum quo genere certaminis vel sub quo judice, mundum vicerint, diligenter adnotare studui.”—“ A Martyrology of the natal days of sainted martyrs, in which I have diligently studied to note down, not only on what day, but in what kind of contest, or under what judge, all whom I could find, were able to overcome the world."—A pretty broad hint this, indeed! Bede says, totidem verbis, that he wrote a Martyrology; therefore "it is doubtful whether he ever composed such a work!" Yet he praises God for having permitted him to finish the series of writings which he recapitulates, and amongst these, he accurately describes and enumerates his Martyrology.t

Ant. page

60.

+ Lib. 5, cap. 24. et sequent.

Dr. Ledwich gives no reference to the place where this hint may be found very judicious omission.

Dr. Ledwich's argument

Cave writes thus concerning Bede's Martyrology :"Martyrologium.-Quale opus a Beda compositum fuisse, fidem facit in appendice ad Historiam Ecclesiast."*

66

Martyrology.-That such a work was composed by Bede, he assures us in an appendix to his Ecclesiastical History.”—Cave indeed alleges that the text in common use is interpolated; but he by no means classes the passage respecting Saint Patrick, (of whose existence he entertained no doubt,) amongst such interpolations. Yet, relying on that writer's dictum, and on Bede's singular, hint, Dr. Ledwich boldly asserts, "that St. Patrick was not heard of when Bede died, in 755."+

If the mere assertion of an individual, that a book, generally deemed genuine in the literary world, had been interpolated, ought to be received as proof that it was not written by the author whose name it bears, we must lose all confidence in the most valuable works

of antiquity. Nay, we must reject the Scriptures themselves. Dr. Priestly and others assert that they are interpolated in sundry places. Shall we, therefore, deny their authority? No, nor even admit that these writings are interpolated, until better proof shall have been advanced than the mere dictum of that philosopher. Let Dr. Ledwich shew, by just reasoning grounded on probability, that the particular passage relative to Saint Patrick, as it stands in Bede's Martyrology, is an

Cave's Hist. Lit. vol. i. p. 615. ↑ Page 67, 2d edit

relative to Bede, examined.

interpolation. Then, and not till then, will his argument be valid.

Bede was born at Weremouth, in Northumberland, in the year 672, and educated at the monastery founded by the famous Benedict Biscop. In him, therefore, we have a credible voucher, who lived in part of the seventh and eighth centuries, for the existence of Saint Patrick. In the ninth century, Nennius makes explicit mention of our Irish apostle. In the intermediate time betwixt Bede and that author, there were very few, if any, historic writers in Great-Britain. Milton, in his "History of England to the Norman Conquest,"+ complains, that "after Beda had surceased to write," the historian becomes destitute of materials, and it left to "obscure and blockish chronicles," which he thinks Malmesbury and Huntingdon "interlined with surmises and conjectures of their own." And William of Malmesbury himself says, that "the death of Beda was fatal to learning, and particularly to history, in England. The knowledge of past events was buried in the same grave with him, and has thus continued, even till our times." It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that little, if any, notice has been taken of Saint Patrick, by Saxon writers, betwixt the days of Bede and Nennius.‡

• Bed. ad fin, Epitom. Hist. Eccl. et in Vita Weremouth. † Page 47. dit. London, 1706. W. Malms. 1. 1, c. 3,