156 POPE VERSUS PURGATORY. ancient. Cæsarius (quoted by Keating) who lived five hundred years (says mine author) after Christ, asserts, "whoever doubts whether there be such a place as purgatory, let him go to Scotia-let him enter into the Purgatory of St. Patrick, and he will no longer doubt the pains of Purgatory.* Previous to the Reformation, and when the twilight of knowledge began to peep upon Christendom, Patrick's Purgatory began to lose its character, so much so, that even the Pope ordered it to be destroyed as a filthy nest of superstition and of evil deeds; and in the annals of Ulster for the year 1497 we find the following record: "The Dean of St. Patrick's Purgatory in Lough Derg was in this year cashiered by the guardian of Donegal, and sent by the bishop, under the authority of the Pope, to the deanerie of Lough Ern on St. Patrick's day; the people understanding out of the book of the Knight, and other ancient books, that * Whoever wants to see a bigot historian's account of Lough Derg, and the incidents connected with its purgatory, let him consult Philip O'Sullivan's Catholic History of Ireland, where he will see a most savoury and veracious narrative of what happened to a Spanish viscount. ALSO THE KING; 157 this was not the purgatory which Patrick had from God, although the people resorted to it." But soon again Purgatory was restored* to its pristine honour and renown. It was too profitable a * As a specimen of the estimation in which Patrick's Purgatory was held before the reformation, we subjoin the following certificate from the primate of Ireland, to two French priests, of their having entered the Purgatory ; "To all children of our mother the church, to whom these testimonials shall come, Octavianus, by the grace of God, and of the See Apostolic, archbishop of Armagh, primate of all Ireland, wisheth everlasting salvation in the Lord, wishing you without question to credit what followeth; seeing it is a holy and meritorious thing to give testimony unto the truth chiefly seeing our Saviour Jesus Christ came down from heaven to bear witness of the truth.' Hence it is by these presents we make known unto you, that John Garhi and Francis Proly of the city of Lyons, priests, and John Burgess their boy and servant, the bearers hereof-men of good repute, and piously affected, did visit the Purgatory of the holy Confessor St. Patrick, the Apostle for Ireland, within which the sins of men even in this world are purged. And the holy mountain in which the said holy confessor did fast without temporal meat, forty days and forty nights, together with other places of holy devotion, and things of greatest observation in Ireland; and that afflicting their bodies in fasting, and according to the ceremony of that place, they did for a certain time remain in that purgatory as it clearly appeareth unto us; and that by the power of Christ our Redeemer, they did contempla. 158 AND BY HIM OVERTHROWN. concern for friars not to be kept a going, and therefore, in 1632, we find that the superstitions of the place had arisen to such a shameful height, that the state ordered Sir James Balfour and Sir William Stuart, to seize unto his Majesty's use, this island of Purgatory, and accordingly we find that Sir William proceeds to the island, and reports that he found an abbot and forty friars, and that there was a daily resort of four hundred and fifty pilgrims, who paid eight pence each for admission to the island. Sir William further informs the Privy Council, that in order to hinder the seduced people from going any longer to this stronghold of Papistry, and wholly to take away the abuse hereafter, he had directed the whole to be defaced and utterly demolished; therefore the walls, works, foundations, vaults, &c. tively encounter all the frauds and fantastical temptations of the devil, devoutly so finishing the purgatory and deserving the merits and prayers of the said saints to the Most High. Whom by these presents we receive into the protection of our church of Armagh, and of the said holy Confessor, whose manner of life and conversation we recommend unto you all, of which we are confident, having for two years conversed with them."-Ex Registro Octaviani-in Bibliotheca Rev. Patri Jacobi Ardmachani, 1485. GEESE AND CORMORANTS. 159 he ordered to be rooted up, also the place called St. Patrick's bed, and the stone on which he knelt; these and all other superstitious relics he ordered to be thrown into the lough, and he made James M'Grath, the owner of the island, to enter into recognizances that he should not in future permit the entrance of Jesuits, friars, nuns, or any other superstitious order of Popery to enter therein. Having thus given the modern and ancient state of this purgatory, it is time to think of leaving it; and, I confess, I prepared to turn my back on this stronghold of superstition without a desire ever again to visit it. I considered that I was withdrawing myself from the exhibition of a stationary satire upon human reason, where the craft of the cunning had made a successful experiment on the extreme credulity of uneducated man. A large flock of well-fledged, comfortable geese, headed by a very solemn-looking grey gander, was sailing under the sheltered side of the island, and hove in sight just as we were about to depart. I think geese are very much belied when made the representatives of stupidity or folly; but, in the common acceptation, they might be considered, in the ab 160 AUTHOR'S IMAGINATIONS. sence of pilgrims, as fit substitutes to frequent this island. A black cormorant, with outstretched neck, passed over our heads on his way to exercise his voracious propensities on some of his fishing haunts on the lake: if the Pythagorean system could be entertained in fancy for a moment, it might be imagined that in the metempsychosis, this all-devouring bird represented one of the old priors of this purgatory who had lived on human credulity, and battened on the terrors and fears of man. As I put my foot into the boat and pushed off from the island, I observed that the priest's house, which was contiguous to the little pier that served as a place for embarking and disembarking, had a large window that fully commanded the ferry, and from whence could be observed the whole line of march of the pilgrims as they descended from the ridge of hills that surrounded the lake and approached the ferry-in fact, no man could draw near the ferry, or embark for the island without being accurately noticed by one stationed in this window. And, as we rowed away from the island, I busied my mind with supposing the various characters of priests and friars that have sat in that window, observing the freights of |