the homeborn, the poorest comes to him who is most mighty: nay, wonderful to relate! a thing never heard of before! that strange bird, the common wood pigeon (Palumbus)[1] dares to write to Father Boniface.'
This paragraph is interesting, as showing that Irishmen in the past, like those in the present, are sometimes disposed to regard the superlative adjective as most important of all the parts of speech. It is certainly an extraordinary introduction for the tirade that follows, in which he unburdens his mind with a vigour of language that is as unique as is the accumulation of compliments with which he begins. He is himself conscious of the fact that what he writes will be distasteful to the authorities at Rome, for at the beginning he endeavours to excuse himself by reminding them that better are the wounds of a friend than the deceitful kisses of an enemy. He then goes on to tell the Pope that 'the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles on account of you who are contending, both of you. For I confess, I grieve at the infamy that attaches itself to the chair of Saint Peter.' He gives as his justification of the right to lecture the Pope in this fashion that, 'we Irish—all of us—though we dwell at the very ends of the earth, are disciples of SS. Peter and Paul, and of all the disciples who by the power of the Holy Spirit wrote the Divine Canon. We receive no doctrine beyond that of the Evangelists and Apostles. We have had amongst us no heretic or Jew or schismatic, but the Catholic faith as it was first handed down by you, that is to say, by the successors of the holy apostles, is still kept
- ↑ By way of showing his humility, he will not call himself Columba, 'the dove,' but only Palumbus, 'the wood pigeon.'
