history of Christian missions. Orthodoxy advanced side by side with the Frankish domination. The rude warriors of Clovis, once beyond the local boundaries of their ancestral faith, found themselves in the presence of a Church which was the only stable institution in the country, and bowed before a creed, which, while it offered infinitely more to the soul and intellect than their own superstitions, presented everything that could excite the fancy or captivate the sense. Willingly, therefore, did they follow the example of their king, and for one that embraced the faith from genuine, a thousand adopted it from lower motives. And while they had their reward, the Frankish bishops had theirs too, in constant gifts of land for the foundation of churches and monasteries, and in a speedy admission to wealth and power. CHAP. II. A.D. 508. Degeneracy of the But the Frankish Church was not destined to evangelize the rude nations of Europe. The internal dissen- Frankish Church. sions, and constant wars of the successors of Clovis, were not favourable to the development of Christian civilization at home, or its propagation abroad. Avitus of Vienne, Cæsarius of Arles, and Faustus of Riez proved what might be done by energy and self-devotion'. But the rapid accession of wealth more and more tempted the Frankish bishops and abbots to live as mere laymen, and so the clergy degenerated, and the light of the Frankish Church grew dim. Not only were the masses of heathendom lying outside her territory neglected, but within it she saw her own members tainted with the old leaven of heathenism, and relapsing, in some instances, into the old idolatries". A new influence, therefore, was required, if the light of the Frankish Church was to be rekindled, and the Germanic tribes evangelized. And this new influence was at hand. But to trace its origin, we must leave the scenes 1 Neander, V. 4. 3 Perry's Franks, p. 488. CHAP. II. of the labours of Ulphilas and Severinus, for two sister isles high up in the Northern Sea almost forgotten amidst the desolating contest, which was breaking up the Roman world. We must glance first at the origin of the Celtic Church in Ireland and the Scottish highlands, whose humble oratories of timber and rude domes of rough stone' might, indeed, contrast unfavourably with the prouder structures of the West, but whose missionary zeal burnt with a far steadier flame. We must, then, turn to the shores of Kent, where the story of Clovis and Clotilda was to be re-enacted, and a Teutonic Church was destined to arise, and send forth, in its turn, missionary heroes amongst their kindred on the continent, not more zealous, perhaps, or more loving, but more practical and more judicious than their Celtic forerunners. 1 Petrie's Round Towers, I. 158193, and Mr Mure's Characteristics of Old Church Architecture in the Mainland and Western Islands of CHAPTER III. THE CHURCH OF IRELAND, AND THE MISSION OF ST PATRICK. A.D. 431-490. Sed Deus vicit in me et restitit illis omnibus, ut ego venirem ad Hibernas gentes evangelium prædicare.-S. PATRICII Confess. Ir is not our intention to enter upon the vexed and diffi- CHAP. III. cult question how far Christianity had spread in Ireland during the first four centuries of our era. Without press ing the boast of Tertullian that parts of the British islands never visited by the Romans had received the faith; or the authorities collected by Archbishop Ussher1, which would make us believe that the introduction of Christianity into the island was due to the labours of Apostles, we may accept it as certain that at a very early period Christian communities were established here, and that their introduction originated in the commercial relations which we know from Tacitus obtained in the earliest times between Ireland and the continent of Gaul. Palladius. Whatever uncertainty, however, hangs over the dawn Mission of of Irish Christianity, begins to disappear about the middle of the fifth century. From the Chronicles of Prosper we learn that in the year A.D. 431, the attention of Pope Ce- A.D. 431. lestine was drawn to the wants of this distant island, and 1 Tertullian, Lib. adv. Judæos, C. VII. Euseb. Dem. Evang. III. 7. Niceph. Hist. Lib. III. 1. Ussher's Brit. Eccl. Antiq. c. XVI. Works, VI. 286. Lanigan's Eccl. Hist. of Ireland, I. 2. 2 Vita Agricolæ, c. 24 A.D. 431. CHAP. III. that he dispatched hither a bishop named Palladius. But the words of the chronicler do not explain the precise object of his mission. "To the Scots believing in Christ,' he writes, "Palladius ordained by Pope Celestine is sent as the first bishop'." These words are ambiguous, and have excited considerable discussion, on which we need not enter. Whether the purpose of the coming of Palladius was to preside over already existing Churches, or to check, as some have supposed, the inroads of the Pelagian heresy, it appears certain that he landed with twelve companions on the confines of Wicklow, and after some opposition, owing to the hostility of one of the Irish princes, succeeded in baptizing a few converts, and erecting three wooden churches2. But his stay was of no long duration; from some unexplained cause his work did not prosper, and he retired to Scotland with the intention of proceeding to Rome, but died some little time after at Fordun in Kincardineshire3. St Patrick. But within a year he was followed by another missionary, who was destined to produce very different results. The form of the great "Apostle of Ireland" is almost lost in a halo of extravagant and miraculous legends. By some", in consequence, his very existence has been doubted; and to extract the truth from the mass of fable with which his life and labours have been well-nigh buried, is a work of considerable difficulty. In the following sketch we shall 1 "Ad Scotos in Christum credentes ordinatus a Papa Celestino Palladius primus Episcopus mittitur." Prosper. Chron. A. D. 431. Bede, H. E. 1. 13. Jaffe's Regesta Pont. Rom. p. 52. Innes' Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, I. 52. 2 "Nathi, son of Garchu, refused to admit him; but, however, he baptized a few persons in Ireland, and three wooden churches were erected by him, [namely] Cell-Fhine, Teach-na-Romhan, and Domnach Arta. At Cell-Fhine he left his books, and a shrine with the relics of Paul and Peter, and many martyrs besides. He left these four in these churches: Augustinus, Benedictus, Silvester, and Solinus." Annals of the Four Masters, I. 129. 3 Nennius, Hist. Brit., Gale, Script. XV. p. 94. Lanigan, 1. 39. Innes, p. 65. Hussey n. in Bede, 1. 13. 4 See Scholl. de Ecclesiastica Britonum Scotorumque Historiæ fontibus, pp. 61–69. A.D. 387? confine ourselves as much as possible to the information CHAP. III. derivable from authentic sources, the short treatise of St Patrick, entitled his Confession, his letter to Coroticus, and the canons of one or two councils assembled by him, and shall make but little use of the lives of the saint drawn up in an age of credulity by Probus and Jocelin'. early years. The true name of the "Apostle of Ireland" was Suc- His birth and cath." He was born of Christian parents; his father Calphurnius was a deacon, his grandfather Potitus a priest2; though an ecclesiastic, Calphurnius appears to have held also the rank of Decurion3, and may, therefore, have been of a Roman or provincial British extraction. The birthplace of the saint is uncertain, and has been hotly disputed. Bonaven Tabernia is the locality mentioned by himself in his Confession, as the residence of his parents. By Lanigan and Döllinger the place thus indicated has been identified with Boulogne in Normandy, while Archbishop Ussher, Ware, Innes, and other eminent authorities place it in Scotland, and identify it with the present Kirkpatrick, between the castle of Dumbarton and the city of Glasgow. The weight of evidence seems to favour the latter conclusion, and of the various years, which have been assigned for his birth, the balance of authorities seems to point to A.D. 387 as the most probable'. 1 "Among the various monuments of his (St Patrick's) history," says Father Innes, "nothing appears to me a more proper voucher and more assured foundation to go upon, than the short writing called his Confession, which is generally esteemed his own work, is quoted by the ancientest authors of his life, and contains an account of him as an apostolical man, incomparably more answerable to that character than any one of his lives or all of them put together." Civil and Ec clesiastical History of Scotland, p. 35. See also Gallandii Prolegomena de S. Patricio, and Gieseler, II. 81 n. |