The Writings of Saint Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland/Introduction

by Saint Patrick

Introduction.

HE present edition of the writings of St. Patrick is an attempt to bring out in English the works of that great man, with the necessary addition of historical and critical notes, but with the omission, as far as possible, of all matter which has been made the subject of religious controversy. In the earlier editions of this work, which were issued nominally under the joint editorship of Rev. G. T. Stokes, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Dublin, and myself, a special attempt was indeed made to avoid touching upon every point likely to arouse controversy. It was hoped that an impartial edition of Patrick's works without controversial notes or comments might have been useful and acceptable to Irishmen of various creeds and opinions, as well as to English Christians, who, in general, know little of the great Apostle of Ireland.^[1]

The utter impossibility of publishing in Ireland any work of the kind which would be regarded with equal favour by Roman Catholics and Protestants was abundantly proved in this case. An eminent Irish scholar, a Roman Catholic priest, who died some time after the publication of the earlier editions, was asked to join with me as co-editor of the work, in order to secure its impartiality. He, however, stated that he could not approve of publishing St. Patrick's writings without theological notes, and that he would require to be permitted to point out that even the occasional use by Patrick of the term sacerdos (priest) to indicate a Christian minister was sufficient to prove that St. Patrick believed in the Roman Catholic doctrine of 'the sacrifice of the mass.' Of course under such conditions it was impossible to accept his services. The Irish Catholic, a Dublin Roman Catholic weekly journal, in a review of the work after its publication, similarly maintained that the omission in the work of any discussion of the question whether Patrick received a commission from Rome or not was simply 'the suppression of everything in the shape of argument on the Catholic side!' The work, however, was, on publication, warmly commended by a Roman Catholic prelate in Ireland, but he declined to permit his commendation to be published.

There is no allusion whatever in St. Patrick's writings to his having received any commission from the Pope. If, therefore, he did receive a commission from Rome—a point on which no trustworthy evidence can be adduced—the silence of Patrick on the subject would prove that he attached no such importance to such a commission as his mediæval biographers were disposed to affirm. But, as Dr. Stokes has well pointed out, in his work on Ireland and the Celtic Church (p. 51), the question is, from a Protestant standpoint, of little importance, and if the evidence brought forward in favour of the Roman claim were strong enough we should have no hesitation whatever in admitting the point.

Those who are interested in such investigations can easily consult for themselves the arguments brought forward on the subject in Professor G. T. Stokes' work, and dwelt upon with more fulness of detail in Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland. It is, therefore, unnecessary here to enter upon that thorny subject of discussion. It may be, however, noted in passing, that the first of 'the sayings of Patrick' preserved in the Book of Armagh, and given in the present volume among the doubtful remains of the saint, alludes to the fact of Patrick's having visited Italy. There is nothing, however, to show where those Dicta came from, and therefore they cannot be regarded as conclusive evidence. It is, however, quite true that St. Patrick's autobiography, as set forth in his Confession passes over in silence the events of many years.

In the present work the Latin term sacerdos has been invariably translated 'priest,' presbyterus has been rendered 'presbyter,' and clerici 'clergy.' In some of the Roman Catholic editions the latter term has been translated 'priests.'

It must be observed that early Celtic Christianity was very different in its external form from the Christianity of modern times, whether Roman Catholic or Protestant. Many usages which were afterwards distinct features of the Celtic Church of Ireland, and which appear to have been the growth of later days, are not alluded to in Patrick's writings. St. Patrick's writings are indeed brief and scanty, but are clear enough on the essential points of Christian doctrine. No such exaggerated views on the celibacy of the clergy were held by Patrick as were afterwards prevalent, for he mentions without scruple the fact that both his father and grandfather were clergymen. On the other hand, he speaks with approval of monks and virgins, which were not in his days recluses like those described in Professor G. T. Stokes' ninth lecture. Patrick also quotes passages of the Old Testament apocryphal books which he evidently viewed as inspired Scripture. In spite of all these drawbacks, as Protestants must regard them, the writings of the saint are in the main strongly evangelical, and cannot fail to be perused by all Christians with both pleasure and profit.

In the present edition we have divided the 'remains' of Patrick into two divisions; the first containing the writings which are probably genuine, the second a few remains of interest which are of doubtful genuineness, but which are, notwithstanding, of considerable interest, and not generally known.

The genuine writings are three in number, namely, Patrick's Hymn, his Confession, and his Epistle to Coroticus. The doubtful remains are (1) the Dicta Patricii, contained in folio 9, a 1, of the Book of Armagh. Their rustic Latinity is some evidence in their favour, though not absolutely conclusive. (2) The Proverbs of Patrick are also of doubtful authorship. There are some strong points in their favour, but it is impossible now to test the statement of the monk Jocelin that they were translated from Irish into Latin. (3) The interview of Patrick with the daughters of King Loegaire, if not certainly a Patrician document, possesses marks of high antiquity. (4) Patrick's Vision of Ireland's Future stands in such marked contrast with the fables in which it is imbedded that it is worth preserving, though not likely to have been authentic. (5) We have added to this edition the remarkable Confession found at Angers, but probably belonging originally to Tours, to which we have appended introductory remarks.

There are other works ascribed to Patrick which, however, have been shown to be spurious by competent scholars. These are to be found in Patrick's Opuscula, edited by Ware^[2] and Villanueva.^[3] No scholar, however, who has read even a few lines of the tract De Tribus Habitaculis, Of the Three Habitations (or the World, Heaven, and Hell), could believe St. Patrick to have been its author, so different in all respects is its Latin style from that exhibited in the genuine Confessio and Coroticus. The same may be said of the tract De abusionibus Seculi, and of others. Some, if not all, of the Canons attributed to Patrick are decidedly productions of a later age. None of them, in the form in which they have come down to us, are earlier than the eighth century. See Dr. Todd's St. Patrick, pp. 485 ff., and Dr. W. Stokes in the Tripartite Life, as also the article by Professor G. T. Stokes, in Smith and Wace's Dict. of Christian Biography.

St. Patrick's Irish Hymn is of great antiquity, although, as Dr. Todd says, 'it may be difficult, if not impossible, to adduce proof in support of the tradition that Patrick was its author.' The Irish hymn is distinctly mentioned in Tirechán's Collectons, that is, in the middle of the seventh century.^[4] It is a composition of considerable force and beauty, written at a time when Paganism was almost supreme in Ireland. The author shared in the general belief of the day that even heathen sorcerers had mysterious powers by which they could work harm to their opponents. The expressions used in the Hymn correspond with the circumstances under which Patrick set out on his missionary visit to Tara to confront in its own stronghold the idolatry which was then rampant in the land.^[5] The very expression 'Creator of doom' in reference to God which occurs twice in the Hymn is evidence in favour of its Patrician authorship. For, according to the Tripartite Life, which embodies some fragments of antiquity, 'my God's doom,' or 'the doom' and 'judgment of my God,' appears to have been one of Patrick's favourite expressions, to which he constantly gave utterance. It is noteworthy, too, that whereas, according to the later legends, Patrick was conscious of possessing extraordinary powers of performing miracles—miracles greater than those performed by the Apostles of Christ—Patrick, in his Hymn, in full anticipation of the dangers which surrounded him, relied on no such powers, but speaks of the protecting hand of that God who has ever been a refuge and strength to His people (Psa. xlvi.). It cannot be denied that even the two earliest memoirs of the saint contained in the Book of Armagh, which MS. was written itself in a.d. 807 (see p. 20), namely, the memoir by Muirchu Maccu-Machthéni, and that by Tirechán, written scarcely later than two centuries after Patrick's death, speak of marvellous displays of miraculous power (see p. 16). No such references to miraculous agency can, however, be detected in the poem, and it is therefore probable that it is of a considerably earlier date than those memoirs.

The Hymn in the original is written in a very ancient dialect of Irish, and hence the meaning of some words and phrases is somewhat uncertain. It is one of those compositions termed by the Latin name of Lorica, or 'breastplate,' the repetition of which was supposed to guard a traveller like a breastplate from spiritual foes. This popular belief is alluded to in the Irish preface, which will be found in note 1 on the Hymn, The translation of the Hymn in our first edition was taken from that set forth by Dr. Todd in his St. Patrick, pp. 426-9.^[6] The translation there given was mainly the work of Whitley Stokes, and was a great advance upon the earliest version given by Dr. Petrie (see notes on Hymn at the end of book). The translation in the present work is in the main the improved version of Dr. Whitley Stokes. The alterations made in the older translation are all noted, and the grounds for them set forth in the critical notes. There are two MSS. of the Hymn, one in the Liber Hymnorum in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, the other in the Bodleian copy of the Tripartite Life. The Hymn of Patrick has been set to music as a sacred cantata by the late Sir Robert Stewart, Professor of Music in the University of Dublin, and was performed for the first time in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1888. See remarks on Mrs. Alexander's Version, p. 110.

In the present edition we have given the hymn in the ancient Irish from the MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, accompanied by a translation of it into the modern Irish language. The latter translation has been made by the late Rev. James Goodman, M.A., Professor of Irish in the Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/22 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/23 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/24 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/25 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/26 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/27 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/28 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/29 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/30 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/31 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/32 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/33 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/34 Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/35

 

1. These expectations were not wholly unfulfilled. Four thousand copies of an 8vo. edition in pica type, published at sixpence sewn, and one shilling in cloth, were disposed of in a little more than eighteen months. This in itself must be regarded as a very creditable fact. But the price at which the work had been issued was unremunerative, and although a sum of £30 was subscribed in answer to an appeal by the Irish Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, that sum was wholly insufficient to print successive editions of the work, and to meet other necessary expenses. Hence the work was offered to the Religious Tract Society, and accepted by that Society for publication in their 'Christian Classics' Series.
2. St. Patricii qui Hibernos ad fidem Christi convertit adscripta Opuscula. Opera et studio J. Waræi, Eq. Aur. Lond. 1656.
3. Sancti Patricii, Ibernorum Apostoli. Synodi, Canones, Opuscula et Scriptorum qui supersunt Fragmenta: scholiis illustr. a Joachimo Laurentio Villanueva, Presbyt. Dublini apud R. Graisberry, 1835.
4. Tirechán is said to have written his Collections of matters connected with St. Patrick 'from the lips or book' of Ultan (died 656), whose pupil he was. This Ultan was (A.D. 652) Bishop of Clonard, which in later times formed part of the diocese of Meath. The Collections of Tirechán form part of the miscellaneous matter contained in the MS. known as the Book of Armagh. According to Tirechán, four special honours were to be paid to him in all the monasteries and churches of Ireland. 1. The festival of St, Patrick's death, though in Lent (March 17), was to be celebrated by three days' festivities, during which all kinds of good food and flesh meat might lawfully be partaken of. 2. There a special mass was to be offered up in his honour on that day (offertorium ejus proprium in eodem die immolari). 3. The hymn of Secundinus, written in honour of St. Patrick, was to be sung during the whole time. 4. At all times of the year they were to sing Patrick's Irish hymn (canticum ejus scotticum semper canere). See Dr. Whitley Stokes, Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, p. 333.
5. It was on this occasion that St. Patrick is related, in the later legend, to have illustrated the doctrine of the Trinity by the three leaves united into one in the shamrock. Dr. Fowler, in his edition of Adamnan's Life of S. Columba (p. xxxiii.), observes on the latter point: 'The use of the trefoil as an emblem in Ireland is very ancient, but probably of pagan origin. None of the early or mediæval Lives, however, connect it with St. Patrick, and the legend seems not to be found earlier than A.D. 1600. It is not mentioned by Colgan, who wrote in 1647.'
6. St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland: A Memoir of his Life and Mission, with an Introductory Dissertation on some early usages of the Church in Ireland, and its historical position from the establishment of the English Colony to the present day. By James Henthorn Todd, D.D., Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Regius Prof, of Hebrew in the University, and Treasurer of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co. 1864.