The "Vita Tripartita," of which a copy was found in the British Museum in 1849, and which was referred both by Colgan and Curry to the sixth century, is to the same effect.

These and other ancient lives of S. Patrick, all of which were written at a time when it is now asserted that Ireland was Protestant, vary in minor details, but they all concur in relating that he was sent upon his mission by the supreme authority of the Vicar of Christ.

One of those beautiful proverbs called Dicta Sancti Patritii, preserved in the Book of Armagh, which was transcribed in the year 807, is to the following effect: "Thanks be to God: you have passed from the kingdom of Satan to the city of God; the Church of the Irish is a Church of Romans; as you are children of Christ, so be you children of Rome." (Liber Armacan, fol. 9.)

S. Columbanus, who had conversed with the disciples of S. Patrick, dying in old age in 615, and who had acquired learning and piety in the great monastery of Bangor, in Ireland, declares that "the Irish are the scholars and disciples of Rome;" and addressing Pope Boniface IV. he wrote, "The Catholic faith is held unshaken by us as it was delivered to us by you, the successors of the holy Apostles."

We are indebted to the eminent German antiquarian Mone for two very ancient hymns of the Irish Church to S. Peter, which he discovered amongst the papers of the old Irish monastery of Reichenau, and which he published from Irish manuscripts of the eighth and ninth centuries in his work entitled "Hymni Latini Medii Evi." Fribourg, 1855.

We regret that want of space does not allow us to copy from Dr. Moran's work these beautiful hymns and their equally beautiful translation. The 4th and 5th verses of one are as follows in original and translation :

Dudum elegit dominus
Petrum ut optimum oleum,
Ut obitaret Dominum
Essetque pastor ovium.

Elaboravit ubique,
Curæ datus historiæ,
Fundamentum dominicæ

Ecclesiæ Catholicæ.

In years long past, in bygone time,
As highest prince, to post sublime,
Was Peter chosen to succeed,
And Christ's ne'er-failing flock to
feed.

Nor clime, nor space, might bound
his zeal,

And pages writ his deeds reveal;
On him, the rock so strong, so sure,
Christ's Church shall ever firm endure.

And the following are the 4th and 5th verses of the other hymn :

Sancto Petro pro merito,
Christus regni cælestium,
Claves simul cum gratiâ,
Tradidit in perpetuum.

Animarum pontificem,
Apostolorum principem,
Petrum rogamus omnium,
Christi pastorem ovium.

The keys which ope the portals blest,
That lead the way to endless rest,
To him Christ gives, with grace to
tend

And guide his flock safe to the end.

Great Pontiff of Christ's chosen band,
Apostles round thee humbly stand!
O'er Christ's true flock strict watch
still keep,

Still guard his lambs, still guard his
sheep.

These hymns were written by an Irishman not later than the eighth or ninth century, possibly earlier, since they may have been composed some time before the manuscripts found were written. Was he a Catholic or a Protestant? They seem to us just such hymns as a devout and educated Catholic of the present day would delight to compose, whilst they could not have been written by a

Protestant.

S. Cummian Fota (i.e. the tall) was born about 590, and died in 661. He was Bishop of Clonfert. A short hymn on the Apostles by this father of the early Irish Church has been preserved to us. One strophe relates to each Apostle, that respecting S. Peter being as follows:-"Rejoice, O New Jerusalem! solemnize the gladsome festivals of Christ, and exult in the commemoration of the Apostles of Peter the keybearer-the first pastor-the mystic fisherman, who with the Gospel net draws in the spiritual fish of Christ." (Moran, 88.)

Ussher relies upon the hymn of S. Sechnall or Secundinus, a disciple and relative of S. Patrick, as asserting the Protestant tenet regarding S. Peter and the see of Rome. The passage in his hymn upon which Ussher relies he translates as follows:-" Patrick is constant in the fear of God and immovable in the faith; upon whom the church is built as upon S. Peter, whose apostleship also he has obtained from God, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against him." Even if this translation were correct it would only mean that S. Patrick was chosen to hold that post of honour and jurisdiction and privilege in the Irish Church which belonged to S. Peter in regard to the Universal Church. We are indebted to the Irish Archæological Society for an edition of this hymn. The passage on which Ussher relies forms the third strophe, and runs thus in the original text:

Constans in Dei timore et fide immobilis
Super quem edificatur, ut Petrus, ecclesia:
Cujusque apostolatum a Deo sortitus est
In cujus porta adversus inferni non prevalent.

Of which the literal translation is-" He is constant in the service of God and immovable in the faith as Peter, upon whom the church is built, and whose apostolate he received from God; against whose bulwark the assaults of hell cannot prevail." Ussher's translation would require Petrum in the accusative, which indeed was the reading adopted by Ussher, but is no longer tenable, since the Leabhar Breac and the Dublin MS. of the book of hymns, and also the Roman MS., all read "ut Petrus." So far therefore from depreciating, according to the Protestant view, the prerogatives of S. Peter, it serves to illustrate them.

S. Mochta, of Louth, was a disciple of S. Patrick. He went to Rome about the year 460, and, on account of the previous heresy of Celestius, who was of the Irish nation, he was required to present to Pope Leo the Great his profession of faith, of which a copy, written about 700, was discovered by Muratori in the famous Irish monastery of Bobbio. In this he writes, "If for the fault of one individual the inhabitants of the whole country are to be deemed accursed, let that most blessed disciple, too, be condemned; I mean Rome itself, from which hitherto not only one, but two or three, or even more heresies have gone forth; and nevertheless, none of them could get hold of or contaminate the Chair of Peter, that is to say, the see of faith."

Dif

The monastery of Bobbio furnishes a further proof, for thence to the Ambrosian Library at Milan was brought by Cardinal Frederick Borromeo the missal of S. Columbanus. Mabillon, who published it in 1724, says it was then more than a thousand years old. ferent opinions have been maintained amongst the learned whether this missal was a specimen of the Gallic or of the Irish liturgy, but it seems to us to be proved by Dr. Moran that it is the latter, and was most probably the very Irish liturgy which a writer of the seventh century records was bequeathed by S. Columbanus to the monastery of Bobbio. Among its masses there is one specially assigned for the feast of the Cathedra Sancti Petri," and that apostle is said to have received omne jus gentium Judaorumque, and his are declared to be "the keys of heaven, the dignity of the pontifical chair; so great a power, that what he binds none can loosen, and what he loosens shall be loosed also in heaven; a throne of exalted dignity, where he will sit in judgment on all the nations of the earth.' The first collect of the same Mass thus begins:-"O God! who on this day didst give to S. Peter, after Thyself, the headship of the whole Church, we humbly pray Thee, that as Thou didst constitute him pastor for the safety of Thy flock, and that Thy sheep might be preserved from error, so now Thou mayest save us through his intercession." In the Mass for Sundays it is said that the Divine Redeemer, stretching forth His hand to S. Peter when sinking in the waves, was an emblem of how

"the wavering faith of that apostle was consolidated and he himself confirmed as Head of the Church." And again, on the feast-day of the apostles SS. Peter and Paul, it is declared that "from the whole body of the apostles the Redeemer chose S. Peter as the foundation of the Church, and confirmed his faith, to the great joy of all the disciples." (Moran, 96.) Indeed, this missal corresponds in all essentials with the present Catholic missal, and in itself offers conclusive proof that the Holy Sacrifice of the body and blood of our Saviour was offered then as now. It contains two masses in honour of the Blessed Virgin, one for her general feasts and the other for the Assumption, masses for other Saint-days and masses for the dead; and is in itself a written testimony that the Catholic faith of Ireland, France, and Italy in the sixth century was identical with the Catholic faith of the present day.

The letter of Columbanus to Pope Boniface was written soon after the saint had settled in Italy, and deserves to be specially noticed, because some expressions from it have been quoted as implying a want of due respect to the Pope. It is addressed, "To the most beautiful Head of all the Churches of the whole of Europe, to the beloved Pope, the exalted prelate, the most reverend overseer, the pastor of pastors," &c. Subsequently the popes are styled, "the masters, the steersmen, the mystic pilots of the ship spiritual, i.e. the Church." Whilst of his countrymen he says, "We are the scholars of S. Peter and S. Paul and of all disciples subscribing by the Holy Ghost to the divine canon; all are Irish inhabitants of the remotest part of the whole world, receiving nothing save what is evangelic and apostolic doctrine. None of us has been a heretic, none a Jew, none a schismatic; but the faith just as it was at first delivered by you, the successors of the holy Apostles, is held unshaken." And at the close of his letter he adds, "We are, as I said before, bound to the Church of S. Peter. For although Rome is great and illustrious, yet it is only through this Chair that she is great and renowned amongst us."

As this letter of S. Columbanus is thought by some Protestants to favour their views, let us see how they endeavour to use it. Dean Murray may be considered as comprising their views.

1. In the first place, then, they appeal to the general language of the letter, which they say is "too strong to allow us to suppose that the Irish monk who used it considered Pope Boniface, whom he was addressing, to be the head of the Church."

The language of S. Columbanus is often strong. Indeed the whole letter is written with frankness and liberty, and with all that energetic earnestness which we might expect in one who had grown old not only in the practice of virtue, but also in the apostolate of Gaul and Italy. He, however, reminds the Pontiff that he writes "not as a stranger but a friend--a disciple-a servant," and

he adds, as if anticipating the difficulty which Dean Murray would one day seek to deduce from the freedom of his words, "therefore, freely will I speak, for I address our spiritual masters, the steersmen and pilots of the mystic ship."

2. The next difficulty they find is in the doctrine of S. Columbanus, by which they say he asserts that "it was possible for the See of Rome to forfeit apostolic honour by not preserving the apostolic faith." This is a corruption of the original text, which is, "Ut ergo honore Apostolico non careas, conserva fidem Apostolicam, confirma testimonio," &c., and is an exhortation to the Pope to preserve and confirm the apostolic faith by such means as became the Pastor of Pastors. What did S. Columbanus mean when he exhorted the Pontiff to preserve the faith? Did he look upon Pope Boniface as a simple bishop, whom he exhorted not to be dilatory in defending the cause of truth? No, he addresses him as the common father and pastor of the whole universe. He says, "The Catholics of the whole world, the sheep, are affrighted by the approach of wolves; wherefore use, O Pope, the whistlings and the well-known voice of the true shepherd, and stand betwixt the sheep and the wolves, so that, casting away their fear, the sheep may in everything find thee to be the first pastor." again, he exhorts the holy Pontiff, "Set, in a manner, higher than all mortals, and exalted near unto the celestial beings, lift up thy voice as a trumpet, that thou mayest show their wicked doings to the people of thy Lord entrusted to thee by Him." Nor is even this sufficient; he adds, "I strive to stir up thee as the prince of the leaders; for unto thee belongeth the peril of the whole of the Lord's army." And then he again addresses him, "Thou hast the power of setting all things to order of beginning the war-of arousing the leaders-of commanding arms to be taken up-of drawing forth the ranks into battle array, &c." "fear

And

ing, do I moan unto thee alone, who from among the princes art the only hope, having authority through the privileges of the apostle Peter. Surely nothing can be more unprotestant than this! S. Columbanus reminds the Pope that he is bound to be at his post, and he declares that that post is the office of the first pastor, who holds the care of the fold of Christ-the guardianship of the people of God. Surely few writers have more clearly than this asserted the privilege of S. Peter's See; and, reading these passages, the mind recognizes instinctively the same spirit that dictated the words of the alarmed apostles when the storm raged around them, and they cried out to the Redeemer, "Domine, non est tibi curæ quod perimus." It is with such sentiments, and with such sentiments only, that S. Columbanus appeals to the Roman Pontiff to watch and preserve the flock of Christ from impending danger.