for war, another for history, and the third for law. He was a zealous reformer of abuses, and commenced with the literati. By his order a revision of the national records collected in the Psalter of Tara was made. The loss of an eye, incurred in battle, imposed on him the necessity of abdicating, as, by an ancient law, any personal defect or blemish disqualified a prince for the sovereignty. A similar disqualification existed in Persia.

In the reign of Concovar (A. D. 40) three distinguished poets drew up a digest of the ancient laws, which received the appellation of the "Celestial Judgments." This code was augmented and improved in Cormac's time. His son-in-law, the famous Fingal, or Finn-macCumhal, general of the ancient militia called Fianna Erinn, took an active part in the work.

The na

Carbre II., his son, succeeded Cormac. tional militia was divided into two rival parties, one headed by Oisin, son of Finn, the other by the king of Munster; the cause of the dispute was the right to military precedency. One of the factions bade defiance to the throne itself; but Carbre, supported by all the royal troops, except those of Munster, overthrew it with great slaughter, in a battle in which Oscar, son of Oisin, was slain by Carbre, who fell himself shortly after. Some of Macpherson's forgeries were based upon old songs having this battle for subject.

Five reigns intervened between Cormac's and Murdock's, without any event worthy of the historian's notice. Murdock dethroned a northern usurper, and reduced the palace of Emania to ruins; exploits which, when narrated with tedious detail and pompous words, are sometimes presented to the public as history.

In the beginning of the fourth century, Niall of the Nine Hostages ascended the throne. He was so called from five provinces in Ireland, and four in Scotland, which he compelled to deliver him hostages. He invaded Britain; Stilicho, the Roman commander who opposed him, is celebrated by the poet Claudian. Niall ravaged the maritime districts of north-west Gaul.

HY-NIALLS-LOGAIRE-PALLADIUS.

19

Among his captives was a youth of sixteen, whom he brought home as a slave, and who afterwards became illustrious as the apostle of Christianity to the Irish; this young slave was St. Patrick. Niall was assassinated by one of his own followers near Boulogne, and succeeded by Dathy, the last of the Pagan kings,-a brave, adventurous commander, who invaded Gaul, and forced his way to the foot of the Alps, where he perished by lightning. Niall bequeathed his hereditary possessions to his eight sons. His will was so rigidly observed that, with a single exception, the monarchs of Ireland were chosen from the Hy-Niall race for 500 years. His descendants were divided into four great clans, which, under the distinctive appellations of North and South Hy-Nialls, never ceased to distract the monarchy with their rival ambition and counter-claims, till it fell a prey to the bold and aspiring kings of Munster.

CHAPTER II.

INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. FROM LOGAIRE TO DER

MOD, GRANDSON OF NIALL.—(A. D. 428 TO 722.)

LOGAIRE succeeded his cousin Dathy, A. D. 428; he was the first Christian prince; and his reign, therefore, leads us to speak of the introduction of Christianity into Ire land.

From a passage in Tertullian it would appear that the Christian religion had been introduced into Ireland in the very beginning of the third century, and there is reason to suppose that the Gospel had been preached there still earlier. Palladius, however, was the first bishop of whom we have authentic account. He was sent hither by Pope Celestine. The Pelagian heresy had been propagated before his arrival. Pelagius, according to the best authorities, was an Irishman, and was seconded by his accomplished countryman, Celestius. Sts. Jerome

and Augustine gave him strenuous opposition. The former attacked him with an acrimony no way creditable to his cause or his character; but the latter, notwithstanding his hostility to the religious views of Pelagius, bore willing and generous testimony to his learning, piety, and sincerity. Celestius addressed letters to his parents in Ireland, A. D. 369; a fact which proves that the art of writing had been known in Ireland previously. St. Jerome's abusive attacks on Pelagius indicate that the heresy of the latter had infected many of his countrymen. Britain did not escape the contagion. To repress it there St. German was sent on a mission in 429; he was accompanied by St. Patrick. Palladius was not very successful in Ireland. Flying therefrom, he was wrecked on the coast of North Britain, where he perished.

St. Patrick was born, A. D. 387, in that part of Armoric Gaul known in our times as Boulogne. Having become the captive of Niall of the Nine Hostages, he was carried into Gaul. In the monastery of St. Martin, near Tours, he embraced the sacerdotal state. Having been in formed of the fate of Palladius, and being now bishop, he proceeded to Ireland, where he arrived in the first year of the pontificate of Sixtus III. He decided on making his appearance at Tara during the assembly of the states general. On his way thither he baptized the noble youth Benignus, who afterwards succeeded him in the see of Armagh. When he arrived at Slane it was the eve of Easter, and of Lha Baaltinne. The Saint lighted his paschal fire. It was noticed by Logaire and the Druids, who were exasperated at the impiety. Patrick was brought before the monarch, and spoke with such effect as to convert the king himself and the arch-poet. He subsequently made his appearance at the Taltine games, and wrought many conversions. He destroyed the idol Crom-cruach, and put an end to its worship. His labours extended to the western parts of the kingdom, where, as he informs us in his " Confessions," no missioners had previously penetrated,—a declaration im

THE STUARTS-COLUMBKILLE.

21

plying that in other parts Christianity had been preached before his time. Having visited all the provinces, and converted the great body of the nation, he founded the see of Armagh, and passed the remainder of his days between it and his favourite retreat at Sabhul, in the barony of Lecale. He died, aged 78, March 17, 465. The contemporary fathers of the Irish Church were Ailbe, Declan, Ibar, and Secundinus, the first bishop who died in Ireland.

In

Logaire, if he had ever become a Christian, of which there are doubts, relapsed into Paganism before his death. He was succeeded by Olill, son of Dathy, who was slain in battle. His death made way for the dynasty of the Hy-Nialls. This powerful family enabled the Dalriadan princes (503) to recruit their colony in Scotland. the beginning this included only the Western Isles and Argyleshire; but the Picts having been vanquished by Kenneth, the Scots of Ireland become masters of the country, and founded that kingdom which subsequently gave so much uneasiness to England, and that race of princes which ended with the Stuarts.

The

The reign of Murtagh is remarkable only for the birth (521) of Columbkille,-a name signifying the Dove of the Churches. Columba was descended from Niall of the Hostages, and derived his name, Columba, the Latin for dove, from the gentleness of his character. preaching of Patrick had been followed by the institution of several ecclesiastical seminaries. In one of these, at Clonard, Columba finished his studies. Having founded two monasteries in his native island, he directed his attention to his countrymen in North Britain, who were still mostly Pagan. Having obtained a grant of the small isle of Iona or Hy, from his kinsman, the king of the Albanian Scots, he proceeded thither in 533, with twelve disciples, and erected a monastery and a church. The conversion of the Picts was his next undertaking. He won over their king, and propagated the Gospel through the northern parts of his kingdom: subsequently the Western Isles became the scenes of his most active labours.

While in North Britain, it is conjectured he laid the foundation of that intercourse which subsisted between the Irish and the Anglo-Saxon Christians, and which is so warmly commended by Bede. After a life of piety and active benevolence, St. Columba died in the seventyfifth year of his age.

The next prince who has a claim to our notice is Dermod, great-grandson of Niall. In this reign St. Kieran founded the monastery of Clonmacnois, famous for its nine churches. The last assembly of the nation was held at Tara: a criminal had fled to the abbey of St. Ruan, as a sanctuary, and was dragged from thence and executed at Tara; the enraged abbot went in procession to the palace and cursed it; and no king sat in Tara from that day forth. The malediction was commemorated by the name afterwards bestowed on the monastery,—“ The Monastery of the Curses of Ireland."

St. Columbanus, or Columba, who is often confounded with Columbkille, was born in 559, forty years after the latter. He studied in Bangor, county Down and founded the monasteries of Leuxeuil and Fontaines in France, and of Bobbio, in a sequestered part of the Apennines, where he died, A. D. 615. The character of this churchman was marked by a noble independence, fully displayed in his bold letter to Pope Boniface, in which he addressed the pontiff with little ceremony, and reproached his predecessor, Vigilius, with great bitterness. His coffin, chalice, and staff, are preserved at Bobbio. The town of San Columbano, in Lodi, commemorates him in its name.

A dispute, of which the first documentary notice occurs in a letter of Lawrence, successor of Austin, to the Irish bishops, written in 609, arose between Rome and the Irish Church, concerning the time of celebrating the Easter festival. The subject is of little importance, but the noise it made forces it upon our attention. When St. Patrick entered upon his mission in Ireland, he computed Easter after the method then practised in Rome. From this method the Alexandrian differed; but the dif