SELECTION OF WORKS DEALING WITH THE VARIOUS Carbery, Ethna: In the Celtic Past (Stories of Ancient Ireland). Henderson, Geo., M.A., Ph.D.: Fled Bricrend, the Feast of Briciu, Irish Hull, Miss Eleanor: The Cuchullin Saga in Irish Literature. Hyde, Douglas, LL.D.: A Literary History of Ireland, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Jones, the Rev. Wm. Basil, M.A.: Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynedd (North Wales). Joyce, P. W.: Social History of Ancient Ireland. Jubainville, H. D'Arbois de: Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais et la Mythologie Celtique. Cours de Litterature Celtique. Keating's History of Ireland (Translated by Jno. O'Mahony). Meyer, Kuno: The Courtship of Emer, Translation (without Text) Archaeol. Rev., 1888. MacGeoghegan Abbé: History of Ireland. MacNeill, Eoin: Some Phases of Irish History. Nutt, Alfred: The Voyage of Bran: Essays on the Irish "Other World" or Pagan Heaven and on the Celtic Doctrine of Re-birth. Ossian and the Ossianic Literature. Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles. O'Curry, Eugene: Manuscript Materials of Irish History. O'Donovan, Jno., LL.D.: Annals of the Four Masters (Translation and O'Halloran's History of Ireland. Ossianic Society: Transactions of. Petrie, Geo.: On the History and Antiquities of Tara Hill. Rhys, Jno., M.A., D.Litt.: Early Irish Conquests of Wales and Dumnonia: in Proc. Roy. Soc. Antiq., Ireland, 1890-91. Stokes, Whitley, D.C.L., LL.D.: Bruden Da Derga: the Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel; Rev. Celt. XXII. Sullivan, W. K., Ph.D.: Introduction to O'Curry's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish. Tain bo Chuailnge (The Táin). Wakeman, Wm. F.: Handbook of Irish Antiquities: Pagan and Christian. Wilde, Sir Wm., M.D.: Catalogue of Irish Antiquities. The Boyne and Blackwater. Wood-Martin, Col. W. G.: Pagan Ireland. Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland, 1902. CHAPTER XVIII IRISH CHRISTIANITY BEFORE ST. PATRICK WHILE St. Patrick was unquestionably the evangeliser of Ireland, there is now hardly a doubt remaining in the minds of the scholars that Christianity had foothold on the Island before he came—and long before, think some. In A. D. 431, a year before the coming of Patrick on his Christian mission, Palladius (who, by one authority, John Sichard, is even said to have been himself an Irishman) was sent by the Pope "ad Scotos in Christum credente"-to the Irish believing in Christ -which words clearly show Rome to have been impressed with the fact that the Irish Christians then were of some numerical importance. "It is universally admitted," says George Stokes, "that there were Christian congregations in Ireland before Palladius came." It is an interesting curiosity to find told among the ancientsas recorded by Eusebius and Nicephorus-that some of the apostles visited the Western Islands. Julian of Toledo says that James addressed a canonical letter from Ireland to the Jews in Spain. And Vincentius of Bauvais says that James, the son of Zebedee, preached in Ireland and that when he returned to Jerusalem— where he was martyred-he took with him seven Irish disciples. Usher quotes Nicephorus' Ecclesiastical History as saying that Simon Zelotus brought the Gospel to these islands, and was crucified in Britain. St. Paul is also mentioned as having been in these Western lands. Reference has been made to the tradition of Conal Cearnach's visit to Jerusalem. Richardson (Prael. Ecc. History) says he brought back the faith to Conor MacNessa, and others of the Ultach, and that several Irish went to Jerusalem to be baptised. While the foregoing are set down as interesting curiosities, it is still an easy matter to conclude, as a result of the frequent intercourse between Ireland and the Romanised possessions of both Britain and Gaul, and of the interchange of war captives and refugees likewise, and the coming and going of travellers, that the doctrines of Christianity, which in the early centuries were promulgated with such ardour and spread to the earth's ends with such amazing rapidity, must have been conveyed to Ireland from many sources, and through many channels-and that these new strange doctrines must have been many times examined and frequently debated by the scholars at the Irish courts, ever eager to discuss the doings of the outside world. Although Christianity did not obtain a hold upon the minds of the mass of the British people until Augustine, to some extent, and the Irish missionaries, in the main, carried the doctrines of Christ to them, it is known that there was Christianity in Britain in the latter half of the first century of the Christian Era-obviously conveyed there by ardent Continental Christians in the Roman legions. And at the Council of Arles (in the year 314) a few British bishops were in attendance. Bollandus says that Palladius probably found in Ireland more Christians than he made. And that some Irish Christians figured prominently on the Continent of Europe in the pre-Patrician days is fairly well established by Continental records. "It is evident," says Dr. Todd, "there were Irish Christians on the Continent of Europe before the mission of St. Patrick, some of whom had attained to considerable literary and ecclesiastical eminence." He refers to, among others, Mansuy or Mansuetus of Toul, and says that in all probability he was an Irishman, distinguished as an eminent Christian missionary about a century before Patrick. Mansuy was sent from Rome to be first Bishop of Toul (in Lorraine). His tenth century metrical biographer, the abbot Adso, shows that Mansuy's Irish nativity was then taken for granted: "Insula Christicolas gestabat Hibernia gentes, (Hibernia's soil was rich in Christian grace; There Mansuy saw the light, there lived his noble race.) Near Toul more than half a century before Patrick's day, in the time of the apostate Julian, and, say some, in the presence of Julian, was martyred St. Eliphius, with his brother, Eucharius, and their sisters-who, says Peter Merss, were Hibernians of royal blood. Rupert of Luitz, in his "Life of St. Eliph," says, too, that he was son of the King of Scotia (Hibernia). Mt. St. Eliph where he is buried still commemorates him. St. Eliph did great missionary work in the city of Toul, suffered imprisonment, and afterwards converted four hundred people. Usher states that St. Florentinus who was imprisoned by Claudius, and converted and baptised ninety-six men and women fellow prisoners as well as his jailer, Asterius, "was a glorious confessor of Christ, born in Ireland." It is by no means certain, however, that Florentinus flourished before Patrick. The poet, St. Sedulius (in the Irish, Siadal), is asserted to be Irish by many authorities, from Trithemius who called him "Scotus Hybernienses," down to present day scholars. Dr. Sigerson says it was this poet and Irishman who first introduced into Latin poetry the Irish rhyme and assonance, which, at that time, were cultivated only in Ireland. His most noted work, "Carmen Paschale," earned for him the title of the Christian Virgil. Sedulius travelled much in Southern Europe and in Asia. He dedicated a work to the Emperor Theodosius. By far the most brilliant Continental celebrity claimed for Ireland before the days of St. Patrick, is undoubtedly Celestius, the disciple of Pelagius, who drew world-wide attention to himself in the very first years of the fifth century. This noted man's nationality is disputed, but amongst those who have gone into the subject there is fair consensus of opinion that he was at least Irish in blood if not also Irish by birth-either Irish of Ireland, or Irish of the Irish colony in Scotland. For those who would deny his Scotic (Irish) origin there is no way of getting around the allusions in St. Jerome's abuse of him, where once he calls him a "stupid fellow, loaded with the porridge of the Scots," and again, "a huge and corpulent Alban dog who can do more with his claws than with his teeth, for he is by descent of the Scotic nation." He was a well-known lawyer in Rome about the year 400 when he began espousing the heretical doctrines of Pelagius, so warmly, persistently and aggressively, that he overshadowed his master. Those who would argue that he is not Irish have to admit that he showed the eloquence, persuasiveness, aggressiveness of a true Irishman. He went to Carthage to preach against St. Augustine. He spoke before the Patriarch in Constantinople and before the Pope in Rome. Both by Imperial and Ecclesiastical decree he was expelled again and again from both Rome and Constantinople. But this only increased his vigour, his ardour, and his militancy. He is said to have won over to his side Pope Zosimus in 416-whom it took all the powers of Augustine and Jerome to win back again. This man who would not be downed, turned up at the Council of Ephesus in 431, espousing, against the. Pope, the cause of the patriarch, Nestorius, in the great Nestorian controversy. He was excommunicated by the Ephesian Council. He had been condemned by the Senate of Carthage twenty years earlier-but that had not dampened his ardour or dulled the edge of his word. There is mention made by Gennadius of three epistles said to have been written by this fighter, "to his parents in Ireland"— before he espoused the cause of Pelagius. It is Dr. Douglas Hyde's conclusion that the Scot whom St. Jerome abuses is not Celestius, but his heresiarch master, Pelagius. He says: "Pelagius was an Irishman, descended from an Irish colony in Britain. Lanigan concludes that Celestius "of Pelagius, the most able favourite," surely seems Irish. Usher, O'Connor, Petrie and Stokes hold the same opinion. And Dr. Todd sums up his conclusion in the following words: "Be this as it may, it must suffice to observe that St. Jerome manifestly speaks of an Irishman who was a professor of Christianity, engaged in the controversies of that day. This is unquestionable evidence that there was at least one Irishman on the Continent of Europe at that early period who was a Christian." Pelagius was the genius, and Celestius the brilliant talent, of the great Pelagian controversy. The brothers Moroni, who wrote the life of the Irish evangeliser, and patron saint, of their city Tarentum, St. Cataldo (Irish, Cathal), say that he came there in the second century-but other evidence, which we may treat of later, would show that he was ante-Patrician. So much for the claims of Continental Irish Christians before St. Patrick. Now to return to the claims made for Irish Christians living in Ireland. Many of the old Irish authorities, and indeed a few of the modern, urging that Christianity had not a disputed, but firm, foothold in some parts of the South, say that four of the well-known Irish saints flourished and preached to native congregations before Patrick began his mission-Saints Ailbe of Emly, Declan of Ardmore, Ibar of Beg Eri, and Ciaran of Saighir. Colgan indeed says that not only were these four prePatrician, but eight or nine other old Irish saints, also. It is Hyde's opinion that the pre-Patrician claims made for Declan and Ailbe are substantiated. "We have it from the most ancient Acts of our Saints," says Colgan, "written one thousand years ago and up, that there were in Ireland not only many believers of Christ, but also many distinguished for sanctity, before Patrick and Palladius came." There is a tradition of Ailbe that in the beginning of the fifth century, returning with fifty companions |