Daniel de Vinné: History Of the Irish Primitive Church, together with the Life of St. Patrick. N.
York, 1870
J. Francis Sherman (R.C.): Loca Patriciana: an Identification of Localities, chiefly in Leinster,
visited by St. Patrick. Dublin, 1879.
F. E. Warren (Episc.): The Manuscript Irish Missal at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. London,
- Ritual of the Celtic Church. Oxf. 1881.
Comp. also the works of Todd, McLauchan, Ebrard, Killen, and Skene, quoted in § 7, and Forbes,
Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 431.
The church-history of Ireland is peculiar. It began with an independent catholicity (or a sort of
semi-Protestantism), and ended with Romanism, while other Western countries passed through the
reverse order. Lying outside of the bounds of the Roman empire, and never invaded by Roman
legions,^45 that virgin island was Christianized without bloodshed and independently of Rome and
of the canons of the oecumenical synods. The early Irish church differed from the Continental
churches in minor points of polity and worship, and yet excelled them all during the sixth and
seventh centuries in spiritual purity and missionary zeal. After the Norman conquest, it became
closely allied to Rome. In the sixteenth century the light of the Reformation did not penetrate into
the native population; but Queen Elizabeth and the Stuarts set up by force a Protestant state-religion
in antagonism to the prevailing faith of the people. Hence, by the law of re-action, the Keltic portion
of Ireland became more intensely Roman Catholic being filled with double hatred of England on
the ground of difference of race and religion. This glaring anomaly of a Protestant state church in
a Roman Catholic country has been removed at last after three centuries of oppression and misrule,
by the Irish Church Disestablishment Act in 1869 under the ministry of Gladstone.
The early history of Ireland (Hibernia) is buried in obscurity. The ancient Hibernians were
a mixed race, but prevailingly Keltic. They were ruled by petty tyrants, proud, rapacious and warlike,
who kept the country in perpetual strife. They were devoted to their religion of Druidism. Their
island, even before the introduction of Christianity, was called the Sacred Island. It was also called
Scotia or Scotland down to the eleventh century.^46 The Romans made no attempt at subjugation,
as they did not succeed in establishing their authority in Caledonia.
The first traces of Irish Christianity are found at the end of the fourth or the beginning of
the fifth century.
As Pelagius, the father of the famous heresy, which bears his name, was a Briton, so
Coelestius, his chief ally and champion, was a Hibernian; but we do not know whether he was a
Christian before be left Ireland. Mansuetus, first bishop of Toul, was an Irish Scot (a.d. 350). Pope
Caelestine, in 431, ordained and sent Palladius, a Roman deacon, and probably a native Briton, "to
the Scots believing in Christ," as their first bishop.^47 This notice by Prosper of France implies the
previous existence of Christianity in Ireland. But Palladius was so discouraged that he soon
(^45) Agricola thought of invading Ireland, and holding it by a single legion, in order to remove from Britain the dangerous
sight of freedom. Tacitus, Agric., c. 24.
(^46) Isidore of Seville in 580 (Origines XIV. 6) was the first to call Hibernia by the name of Scotia: "Scotia eadem et
Ibernia, proxima Britanniae insula."
(^47) Prosper Aquitan. (a. d.455-463), Chron. ad an. 431: "Ad Scotos in Christum credentes ordinatus a Papa Coelestino
Palladius primus Episcopus mittitur." Comp. Vita S. Palladii in the Book of Armagh, and the notes by Haddan and Stubbs,
Vol. II., Part II., pp. 290, 291.