It is suggestive how the Armorican tradition seems to manifest itself, either directly or indirectly, in nearly all the "Lives" of the Saint which are considered the best; in St. Fiacc's, in the annotations of the Scholiast, in the "Tripartite Life," in the Fourth "Life," and in the Fifth by Probus. In the Fourth "Life" it is stated that both parents of the Saint were Armorican Britons, and that St. Patrick, except for the accident of his place of birth, was an Armorican Briton. The author of the Fourth "Life," moreover, calls Calphurnius and Conchessa Armorican Britons, which serves to demonstrate that Armorica, even in the early years of St. Patrick, fell under the name of Britannia, and that its inhabitants were called Britons.

In this "Life" is to be found the mistake of the Scholiast, and of the other "Lives" who have adopted his suggestion, that Nemthur was the name of a town, and not of a tower or district, as may be gathered from the history of the tower itself.

The Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives" of the Saint, however, "are filled with fables," according to Canon O'Hanlon. "Their acts seem to have been either borrowed from one another, or are copies of versions taken from the same source" ("Lives of the Irish Saints," March 17th).



THE SIXTH "LIFE OF ST. PATRICK" BY JOCELIN.

"THERE was a man named Calphurnius, the son of Potitus, a presbyter, by nation a Briton, living in the village Taburnia (that is the Field of Tents), near the town of Empthor, and his habitation was nigh unto the Irish Sea. This man married a French damsel named Concuessa, niece of the blessed Martin, Archbishop of Tours, and the damsel was elegant in her form and in her manners, for, having been brought from France with her elder sister into the northern parts of Britain, they were sold at the command of her father. Calphurnius being pleased with her manners, charmed with her attentions, and attracted by her beauty, very much loved her, and from the state of serving maid in his household, raised her to be his companion in wedlock. And her sister, having been delivered unto another man, lived in the aforementioned town of Empthor.

"And Calphurnius and his wife were just before God, walking without offence in the justifications of the Lord, and they were eminent in their birth, and in their faith, and in their hope, and in their religion. And though in their outward habit and abiding they seemed to serve under the yoke of Babylon, yet did they in their acts and in their conversation show themselves citizens of Jerusalem. Therefore out of the earth of their flesh, being freed from the tares of sin and from the noxious weeds of vice by the ploughshare of evangelic and apostolic learning, and being fruitful in the growth of all virtues, did they, as the best and richest fruit, bring forth a son, whom, when he had at the font put off the old man, they caused to be named Patritius, as being the future father and patron of many nations; of whom, even at his baptism, the God that is Three in One was pleased by the sign of a threefold miracle to declare how pure a vessel of election should he prove, and how devoted a worshipper of the Holy Trinity. But after a little while, this happy birth being completed, they vowed themselves by mutual consent unto chastity, and with a holy end rested in the Lord. But Calphurnius-first served God a long time in the deaconship, and at length closed his days in the priesthood. . . ."

Chapter XII.—"As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the furnace tries the gold, so did the hour of trial draw near to Patrick that he might the more provedly receive the crown of life. For when the illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres, already attaining his sixteenth year, he was, with many of his-fellow-countrymen, seized by the pirates who were ravaging the borders, and was made captive and carried into Ireland, and was there sold as a slave to a certain pagan prince named Milcho, who reigned in the Northern parts of the island, even at the same age when Joseph is recorded to have been sold in Egypt. . . ."

Chapter XVII.—"And St. Patrick, guided by his angelic guide, came to the sea, and he there found a ship that was to carry him to Britain, and a crew of heathens, who were in the ship, freely received him, and hoisting their sails with a favourable wind, after three days they made land. And, being come out of the ship, they found a region deserted and inhabited by none, and they began to travel over the whole country for the space of twenty-eight days; and for want of food in that fearful and wild solitude were they perishing of hunger" (Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick," translated by E. L. Swift).

Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick" deserves the harsh sentence pronounced upon it by Canon O'Hanlon: "It is incomparably the worst" of all the Latin "Lives" of the Saint. Jocelin represents Conchessa, St. Patrick's saintly mother, as a niece of St. Martin of Tours, and, almost in the same breath, suggests that either St. Martin's brother, or his brother- in-law, sold Conchessa and her elder sister to Calphurnius, a Briton of Clydesdale, as slaves. Although Conchessa was sold as a slave "at the command of her father," she is said to have succeeded in captivating and marrying her master Calphurnius.

Whilst Ware and Usher sneer at Jocelin's statement that Calphurnius and Conchessa took the vow of celibacy and devoted themselves to a religious life immediately after St. Patrick's birth, they eagerly adopt Jocelin's statement that the Apostle of Ireland was born at "Empthor," and that the home of The Sixth "Life," Calphurnius was "not far from the Irish Sea," although this untrustworthy author stands alone among the ancient writers in making this assertion.

Although Jocelin is responsible for the statement that St. Patrick fled to the island of Britain after his escape from captivity in Ireland, the subsequent three days' voyage by sea and twenty-eight days' journey by land before reaching his home are fatal to Jocelin's contention, as Professor Bury clearly demonstrates.

Ware's Empthor was near Dumbarton; Colgan's, Dumbarton itself; Usher and the "Aberdeen Breviary" identify it as Kilpatrick; Cardinal Moran rests sure that it is Hamilton, at the mouth of the Avon in Scotland; but St. Patrick's ship, chartered by Heaven to carry him to his "own native land," could, if any of the places named were St. Patrick's native town, have borne him directly almost to his destination, and saved part at least of the three days' journey by sea and the whole of the twenty-eight days' journey by wilderness before joining his relatives.



THE FIFTH "LIFE," BY PROBUS, PROVES THAT ST. PATRICK WAS BORN IN BONONIA.

THE Fifth "Life," written by Probus, an Irish monk, who died at Meyence in the year 859, is regarded as the best of the old Latin "Lives" of St. Patrick; it is considered to be an amended edition of the "Book of Armagh," written by Muirchu Macc-Mactheni, so truly that the blank left by the missing folio in that famous book can be filled in by copying the "History of Probus." (Canon O'Hanlon's "Lives of the Irish Saints," March 17th.)

The "Life of St. Patrick," by Probus, commences as follows:—

"Cap. I.—St. Patrick, who was also called Suchet, was a Briton by nationality. . . . He was born in Britain [in Britanniis], being the son of Calphurnius, a deacon, who was the son of Potitus, a priest, and his mother was named Conchessa, in a district within the region of Bannaue Tiburniae, not far from the Western Sea, which district, as we have discovered beyond doubt, was situated in the province of Nentria, where the giants are said to have formerly dwelt."

"XII.—When he was in his own country with his father Calphurnius and his mother Conchessa, in their own seaside city [city Arimuric] there was a great outbreak of hostilities in these parts. The sons of King Rithmit, coming from Britain, laid Arimuric and the surrounding country waste. They massacred Calphurnius and his wife Conchessa; but their children, Patrick and his brother Ruchti, together with their sister Mila, they took captives to Ireland. They sold Patrick to Prince Milcho, but his brother Ruchti and his sister Mila to another Prince."

Colgan, in his annotations, substitutes Neutria for Nentria (4), and Armorica for Arimuric, Caesar testifies that all the towus on the sea coast of Armorica were called Armoricse (Britannia, vol i. p. 13). "In his own city Armuric" has therefore been rendered "in his own seaside city."

When Probus wrote his history there was no province in existence called either Nentria or Neutria; but there was a province called Neustria, which embraced Armorica or the northern sea coast of Gaul, where St. Patrick was residing in his own native country (in patria) with his parents, when he was made captive. It follows, likewise, that St. Patrick's native town, "Bannaue Tiburnise," according to Probus, was the seaside city in Armorica referred to. The Bannaue Tiburniae of Probus and the Bonaven Taberniae of St. Patrick are evidently one and the same as Bononia, where the Romans were encamped, which, as it has already been proved, was called Bonauen Armorik by the Gaulish Celts.

If any other proof were needed, the description of the province given by Probus as the country formerly inhabited by giants can leave no doubt on the subject.

Sammes, in his "Antiquities of Ancient Britain," published in 1676, narrates that the Scythians, or Cymri, were called the offspring of Magog by Josephus. Pouring out in mighty hordes from Scythia, they sacked Rome and plundered the Temple of Apollo in Greece. Some of them settled down in Sarmatia, Germany, and Northern Gaul, generally adopting the name of the lands in which they settled. Strabo is quoted as saying "that the very youths (of the Cymri) were half a foot taller than the tallest men," and Manlius for declaring "that the Cymri were a race so exceedingly tall that other nations seemed nothing in their eyes." The same authority narrates that "when one of the Cymri stood in the ranks he seemed of the same proportion as the others, but when he stepped out a few paces, and came near to the Romans, they all began to be amazed at the sight." On that account the Roman soldiers, as Caesar admits, were filled with consternation at the giants they were called upon to encounter when he marched against their leader, Ariovistus. The Cymri were also remarkable for their exceeding swiftness. Csesar witnessed that they "could lay their hands on the manes of horses and keep pace with them in the race." Tully testifies that it was "their joy and delight to die on the battlefield, and that nothing so tormented them as to die idly in their beds." "No wonder," says Sammes, "that they conquered many nations; distressed the Romans themselves, and were a constant thorn in the side of the Gauls" ("Antiquities of Ancient Britain," cap. 2).

Dr. Smith, in his "History of France," narrates that the Cymri "acquired permanent possession of an extensive territory north of the Loire, including the peninsula of Armorica" (p. 13). Bononia, or Boulogne, St. Patrick's native town, was, therefore, situated in Belgic Gaul during the days of Julius Caesar; but, later on, when the descendants of the Cymri, the Belgic Gauls, were almost annihilated in their fierce contests with the Romans, the same province came to be called Armorica. Sulpicius Severus, as we shall see presently, named the same country Britannia at the time of the Council of Ariminium in the year 359—just fourteen years before St. Patrick was born.

In the year 597 Armorica, or Britannia, became absorbed in the province of Neustria, when the kingdom of the Franks was sub-divided into three separate kingdoms, as Dr. Smith relates: "Sigebert became King of Austrasia (in the Prankish tongue, Oster-rike), or the kingdom of the Eastern Franks; Chilperic was recognised as King Neustria (Ne-oster- rike), the land of the Western Franks. The limits of the two kingdoms are somewhat uncertain; but the river Meuse and the Forest of Ardennes may be taken generally as the line of demarcation. Austrasia extended from the Meuse to the Rhine; Neustria extended from the Meuse to the ocean. Gouthran ruled over the division of Gaul which now acquired the name of Burgundy" ("History of France," p. 42).

Neustria, extending from the Meuse to the ocean, necessarily embraced the whole province of Britannia, or Armorica. That province still retained the name of Neustria when Probus, in the tenth century, wrote the "History of St. Patrick."

The change of the name Armorica to Britannia, and from Britannia to Neustria, together with the fact that the name Britannia, or Brittany, as applied to that particular province in Gaul was forgotten for centuries before any of the old Latin "Lives" of St. Patrick, except the first, were written, must have induced some old biographers of the Saint to interpret the name Britain, mentioned in the "Lives" and in the "Confession," as referring only to the Island of Britain,

With the exception of Probus, who had travelled abroad, the old biographers of St. Patrick, on account of their very limited sources of information, had very little knowledge of the histories of foreign countries, and it is not surprising to find them erroneously supposing that St. Patrick was born in Great Britain, because he mentioned in his "Confession" that he was born in Britain, and had relatives among the Britons.

St. Patrick, according to Probus, was one of the Gaulish Britons, being born at Bonaven, or Boulogne-sur-Mer. Although the Saint, according to Canon O'Hanlon, was a little man, he was descended from a race of giants—the bold Cymri, or Celts. That fact established a relationship of race between the Saint and the nation which he converted.

Camden and Keating narrate that King Milesius and his bold Scots, who successfully invaded Ireland, were descended from the Cymri; and it is remarkable that a fierce battle was fought between the Irish Scots and the Tautha de Danans at Mount Slemish, not far from Tralee, in Kerry, which is identical in name with Mount Slemish, in Antrim—the scene of the Saint's captivity ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 123; "History of Ireland," vol. i., p. 123).

Eochaid O'Flin, a poet quoted by Keating, has left a record of this historical battle:

"The stout Gadalians first the courage try At Sliabh-mis, and rout the enemy: Where heroes pierced with many a deadly wound, Choked in their blood, lay gasping on the ground: Heroes whose brave exploits may justly claim Triumphant laurels and immortal fame."

Scota, the relict of King Milesius and mother of Heber and Heremon, Kings of Ireland, was slain while fighting in this battle, and buried in the valley at the foot of Mount Sleabh-mis, which after her interment was called Glean Scoithin, or the Valley of Scota. From her the Irish Scots derived their name. The same old bard has sung a lamentation over her grave:—

"Beneath, the vale its bosom doth display, With meadows green, with flowers profusely gay, Where Scota lies, unfortunately slain, And with her royal tomb gives honour to the plain. Mixed with the first the fair virago fought, Sustained the toil of arms and danger sought: From her the fruitful valley hath the name O Glean Scoith, and we may trust to fame."



ST. PATRICK'S FLIGHT TO MARMOUTIER, DESCRIBED BY PROBUS.

IN the XIVth section of the "Vita Quinta" Probus narrates St. Patrick's arrival in Brotgalum, then his journey to Trajectus, from whence he hastened to Marmoutier to join St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, with whom he remained for four years. Colgan, in his annotations (14), identifies Brotgalum as Burdigalum, or Bordeaux. So, too, does Professor Bury, who tells us that Brodgal was the Irish for Bordeaux, and that "Bordeaux was a regular port for travellers from Ireland to South Gaul" ("Life of St. Patrick," Appendix, p. 341).

Trajectus, according to the old maps, was situated on the river Dordogne, about sixty miles from Tours. From Trajectus St. Patrick had to walk a distance of about two hundred miles through a desert before reaching Tours.

"A glance at the map of ancient Gaul," writes Father Bullen Morris, "will show that in St. Patrick's time a great part of the country between Trajectus and Tours well deserved the name of a desert. The network of rivers, tributaries of the Loire, and now known as La Vienne, La Claire, La Gartempe, &c., must have exposed the country to periodical inundations in those days. So from Tours in the north to Limonum, Alerea, and Legora in the south, east and west, we find some 5,000 square miles, which, as far as the ancient map is concerned, give no signs of possession by man. Travellers entangled amidst these rivers and morasses must have advanced very slowly, and thus it appears that both places and time fit in with St. Patrick's narrative. Nature has changed her face along the line of St. Patrick's journey, and there is little now to remind us of its primeval desolation, save that the rivers still preserve some of their old habits, and now and then combine with the inundations of the giant Loire in setting man at defiance.

"Time, however, with its alternative gifts and ravages, has left untouched the traditions regarding St. Patrick's journey. There is something more than antiquarian interest in the feelings of the Christian traveller who visits the spot on the banks of the Loire, where immemorial tradition and an ancient monument mark the place at which the Saint crossed the river on his way to Marmoutier. At about twenty miles from Tours the railway between that city and Angers stops at the station of St. Patrice; the commune is also named after the Saint, and, as we shall see, there is historical evidence that it has been thus designated for at least nine hundred years."

"The first witness whose evidence we shall take on the subject of the Saint's arrival at St. Patrice is one which many believe to have survived since his time, but on this point the reader must form his own opinion. Above the station, on the side of the hill which rises from the banks of the Loire, we find the famous tree which bears 'the flowers of St. Patrice.' For ages past it has been an object of religious veneration with the people of Touraine, and now in our time it is particularly interesting to find that this devotion was shared by that eminent servant of God, Leon Dupont, the Thaumaturgus of Tours. Monsignor C. Chevalier, President of the Archaeological Society, has published a very full account of the tree and of the traditions connected with it, the subtance of which we subjoin, together with the result of personal investigations made on the spot in August, 1881. At this season the tree was covered with foliage so luxuriant, from the ground upwards, that it was impossible to distinguish the stem, and in every respect it presented the appearance of a tree in its prime, without a sign of decay. It belongs to the botanical class Prunus Spinosa, or blackthorn, and it was covered with berries at the time of our visit. These, however, were the evidence of a second efflorescence in the spring. The celebrity of the tree arises from the fact that every year at Christmas time it is seen covered with flowers, and the tradition at St. Patrice, handed down from father to son, affirms that for fifteen hundred years this phenomenon has been repeated at the same sacred season. It matters not how intense the cold of any particular winter; while the ground beneath and the country around lie covered in their white shroud, the "flowers of St. Patrice" unfold their blossoms and bid defiance to the fierce north winds which sweep the valley of the Loire."

The next witness is the old parish church, dedicated to St. Patrick, which stands about thirty yards from the tree. Its old charters and records show that it dates back from the beginning of the tenth century. One old charter, bearing the date of 1035, contains a deed of gift of some lands adjoining the church of St. Patrick. The church stood on the Roman road between Anjou and Tours. "Thus," concludes Father Bullen Morris, "ancient records and immemorial traditions complete our story, and set St. Patrick on the high road to St. Martin at Marmoutier" ("Ireland and St. Patrick," pp. 35—40).



BRITAIN IN GAUL ST. PATRICK'S NATIVE COUNTRY.

UNLESS it can be proved that there was a province called Britain in Gaul, and another Britain quite distinct from the Island of Britain, it would be useless to argue that St. Patrick was a native of Gaul. The Saint represents himself as a native of Britain; and even Probus, who is credited with believing that St. Patrick was a native of Armoric Gaul, distinctly states that the Saint was born in Britain (natus in Britanniis). It is, however, not difficult to prove that there was a province in Gaul called Britain (Britannia) even before the birth of St. Patrick.

Strabo, in his "Description of Europe," narrates in the Fourth Book that about 220 years before Christ, Publius Cornelius Scipio, the father of Scipio Africanus, consulted the Roman deputies at Marseilles about the cities of Gaul named Britannia, Narbonne, and Corbillo. Sanson identifies Britannia with the present town of Abbeville on the Somme. Dionysius, the author of "Perigesis," who wrote in the early part of the first century, mentions the Britanni as settled on the south of the Rhine, near the coast of Flanders.

Pliny, in his "Natural History," when recounting the various tribes on the coast of Gaul, mentions the Morini and Oramfaci as inhabiting the district of Boulogne, and places the Britanni between the last-named tribe and Amiens. (Pliny, lib. i., cap. xxxi.; Carte's "General History of England," vol i., p. 5).

"The Britanni on the Continent extended themselves farther along the coast than when first known to the Romans, and the branch of that tribe mentioned by Dionysius as settled on the coast of Flanders, and the Britons of Picardy mentioned by Pliny, were of the same nation and contiguous to each other. Dionysius further adds that they spread themselves farther south, even to the mouth of the Loire, and to the extremity of Armorica, which several writers say was called Britain long before it came into general use (Carte, p. 6).

"Sulpicius Severus, in his "Sacred Histories," gives an account of the Bishops summoned by the Emperor Constantius in the year 359 to the Council of Ariminium n Italy. Four hundred Bishops from Italy, Africa, Spain, and Gaul answered the summons, and the Emperor gave an order that all the Bishops were to be boarded and lodged, whilst the Council lasted, at the expense of the treasury. Whereupon Sulpicius, writing with pride of the action taken by the Bishops of the three provinces, Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia, makes use of the following words: "Sed id nostris, id est. Aquitanis, Gallis, et Britannis, idecens visum; repudiatis fiscalibus propries sumptibus vivere maluerunt. Tres autem ex Britannia inopia proprii, publico usi sunt, cum oblatum a ceteris collationem respuissent; sanctius putantes, fescum gravare, quam singulos" (Lib. ji,, p. 401).

"The proposal seemed shameful to us, Aquitanians, Gauls, and Britons, who, rejecting the offer of help from the treasury, preferred to live at our own expense. Three, however, of the Bishops from Britannia, possessing no means of their own, refused to accept the maintenance offered by their brethren, deeming it a holier thing to burden the treasury than to accept aid from individuals" (Lib. ii., p. 401).

If any doubt exists as to the Britannia referred to, it is solved in the same book, p. 431. Sulpicius Severusi an Aquitanian by birth, speaks of the trial, condemnation and punishment of the Priscillian heretics by the secular Court at Treves in the year 389. Prisciallanus and his followers, Felicissimus, Armenianus, and a woman named Euchrosia were condemned to death and beheaded, but Instantias and Liberianus were banished to the Island of Sylena, "quas ultra Britanniarn sita est" (which is situated beyond Britain). Although it is not precisely known where the Island of Sylena was situated, except that it was somewhere beyond Britain, the Britain referred to surely must be Britain in Gaul, for it is incredible that the Gauls should possess a penal settlement in the North of Scotland, where Sylena must have been situated, if the words "beyond Britain" refer to the Island of Britain.

It is evident that if Sulpicius, who was born in 360—thirteen years before St. Patrick—could speak of Armorica as Britannia, and the Armorican Bishops as Britons, when he wrote his "Sacred Histories," it cannot be a matter of surprise that St. Patrick, if born in Armorica at a later period, should speak of himself as a Briton, and say that he had relatives among the Britons.

Armorica was called Britannia by Sulpicius Severus, but Sidonius Apollinarus, who flourished some time after, called the same country Armorica. It was not, however, unusual, as Carte points out, for the same people and the same country to be called by different names; for example, the Armorici and the Morini were one and the same people, whose names had the same signification—dwellers on the sea coast. (Carte, p. 16; Whitaker's "Genuine History of the Briton," pp. 216— 219.)

As the historians just quoted are not concerned with the history of St. Patrick, but are simply tracing the origin and history of the Britons, their testimony is impartial.

Even Camden admits that Dionysius places the Britons on the maritime coast of Gaul, and renders his verses into English:—

"Near the great pillars of the farthest land, The old Iberians, haughty souls, command Along the continent, where northern seas Roll their vast tides, and in cold billows rise: Where British nations in long tracts appear And fair-haired Germans ever famed in war."

The early existence of the Britons in Armorica did not depend on the settlement of the veteran Britons, who, having served under Constantino the Great, were rewarded by a gift of the vacant lands in Armorica, as William of Malmesbury narrates in his "History of the Kings"; or on the still larger settlement of Britons who fought for the usurper Maximus, which Ninius mentions, in the mysterious reference which embraced the whole country "from the Great St. Bernard in Piedmont to Cantavic in Picardy, and from Picardy to the western coast of France." The latter settlement took place between the years 383 and 388. The British refugees, who fled in terror from the Picts, Scots, and Saxons, may indeed have added to the numbers of Britons in Gaul from time immemorial, but they certainly were not the first to give the name Britannia to that country.



BRITANNIAE IN THE PLURAL NOT APPROPRIATED TO GREAT BRITAIN.

IT has been often urged, without any solid reason, that the plural Britannise used for Britain in the "Confession" can only refer to Great Britain, because that country was sub-divided by the Romans into five distinct provinces. The reason given cannot be convincing, because Catullus, who died in the year 54, used the plural for Britain before the Roman sub-divisions were made, when he wrote, "Nunc timent Galliae, timent Britanniae"—Caesar, "the Gauls and the Britons fear." The plural was used by St. Patrick when writing the "Confession" nearly one hundred years after the Romans with their divisions had left the country. It was used by Probus, who undoubtedly referred to Armoric Britain when writing about St. Patrick's native country, for he tells us in the plural that the Saint was born in Britain (natus in Britanniis). The plural was, therefore, used both for Britain in Gaul and for the Island of Britain.

The word Britannia occurs three times in the "Confession." In the "Book of Armagh" the name appears always in the plural, whilst in the Bollandist's copy of the "Confession" the name is printed once in the singular and twice in the plural. St. Jerome uses the singular always when referring to Britannia; and St. Bede, in his "History," uses the plural and singular indiscriminately. Whenever Britannia is mentioned, the context alone can guide us in distinguishing which Britain is meant. ("Ireland and St. Patrick," by the Rev. Bullen Morris, pp. 24, 25).

St. Patrick also mentions Gaul in the plural ("Gallias"), for although the whole country was subdivided into three separate nationalities—the Gauls, the Aquitanians, and the Britons—as Sulpicius Severus had already mentioned, the three provinces were called Gallise, or the Gauls, by the Romans. Galliae in the plural, therefore, either meant the whole country or any one of its sub-divisions, and the context alone could determine which province was meant.

Having these facts in mind, it is easy to interpret the words of St. Patrick: "Though I should have wished to leave them, and had been ready and very desirous of going to Britain [Britanniis], as if to my own country and parents; and not that alone, but to go even to Gaul (Gallias) to visit my brethren, and to see the face of the Lord's Saints, and God knows how ardently I wished it but I was bound in the Spirit, and He Who witnesseth will account me guilty if I do so—and I fear to lose the results of the labour which I have begun. And not I, but the Lord Jesus Christ, Who commanded me to come and remain with them for the rest of my life—if the Lord so will it, and keeps me from every evil way, that I should not sin before Him" ("Confession").

St. Patrick's relatives resided in the Gaulish province of Britain, and the disciples of St. Martin—"the Lord's Saints"—lived at Marmoutier in the province of Gaul. St. Patrick's natural desire was first to visit his relatives in Armorican Britain, and next to renew his friendship with the followers of St. Martin at Marmoutier, but God had decreed that he should spend all the rest of his days in the land of his adoption.

Gaul was not only the name of the whole country, which embraced three provinces—Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia—it was also the name of one of the provinces. As Gaul in its widest sense was a different country from the Island of Britain, so the province of Gaul was quite distinct from the province of Armoric Britain. The Gauls, Aquitanians, and Britons, all possessing, as Csesar testifies, separate governments and different nationalities, regarded one another as distinct races. Thus Sulpicius Severus represents a Gaul as addressing some Aquitanians as follows: "When I think of myself as a Gaul about to address Aquitanians, I fear lest my uncultured speech should offend your too refined ears"—"Sed dum cogito me hominem Gallum inter Aquitanos verba facturum, vereor ne offendat nimium urbanas aures sermo rusticior" (Dialogue 20).



ST. PATRICK CALLS COROTICUS, A BRITISH PRINCE, "FELLOW CITIZEN."

IT is objected again that St. Patrick called the followers of Coroticus, who were Britons, his fellow citizens, and that, therefore, the Saint and the island Britons are of the same nationality.

The objection is founded on St. Patrick's "Epistle to Coroticus," in which the following words occur: "I have vowed to my God to teach this people, although I should be despised by them, to whom I have written with my own hand to be given to the soldiers to be forwarded to Coroticus. I do not say to my fellow citizens, nor to the fellow citizens of the pious Romans, but to the fellow citizens of the devil, through their evil deeds and hostile practices."

As the Romans had abandoned Britain long before the letter to Coroticus was written, it is somewhat difficult to understand the precise meaning of the words just quoted: "I do not say to my fellow citizens, or to the fellow citizens of the pious Romans," unless some of the soldiers of Coroticus were, like St. Patrick, Roman freemen. The word "citizen" in the Roman sense was as wide as the extent of the Roman Empire.

Although the soldiers of Coroticus are also called "fellow citizens of the pious Romans," no one would surely dream of saying that the soldiers of Coroticus and the pious Roman were actually of the same nationality. St. Patrick could, therefore, call the soldiers of Coroticus in the same sense his "fellow citizens," without implying that he was of the same race. If, however, the soldiers of Coroticus were Roman freemen, they would be fellow citizens of St. Patrick and fellow citizens of the Romans, although of different nationalities. The indignant protest made by the Saint in the same letter, that "free-born Christian men are sold and enslaved amongst the wicked, abandoned, and apostate Picts," greatly favours our interpretation of "fellow citizens."

It must, however, be acknowledged that there is a considerable amount of obscurity about the meaning of the words, which are so confidently interpreted as signifying that the Apostle of Ireland was a native of Great Britain. But the words as they stand cannot be fairly assumed to prove that St. Patrick was a "fellow countryman" of the soldiers of Coroticus, unless they prove with equal force that the Romans were of the same nationality as the soldiers of Coroticus. The quotation proves too much and, therefore, it proves nothing.



SUMMARY.

HAVING given the different theories concerning the native country of St. Patrick, and having faithfully quoted all that the Seven old Latin "Lives" of the Saint have narrated on this subject, and given our reasons for accepting the Armoric theory as the most reasonable solution of the problem, it will be advisable to give a brief summary of the arguments brought forward to prove that St. Patrick was an Armorican Britain, born at Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Boulogne-sur-Mer, or ancient Bononia, was called by the same name, "Bonaven," as the town in which St. Patrick implies that he was born. Boulogne possessed a Roman encampment, and it was, therefore, Bonaven Taberniae, mentioned in the "Confession."

Caligula's tower, on the north-eastern cliffs, in the town and within the suburbs, was called "Turris Ordinis" by the Romans, but "Nemtor" by the Gaulish Celts, as Hersart de la Villemarque states in his "Celtic Legend."

It is certain that Niall of the Nine Hostages made use of the Port of Boulogne when he invaded Armorica in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, and that he died at that port after his assassination.

It is probable that Niall sailed to Boulogne when invading Armorica on the first occasion, for he was carrying his arms into the same country, of which Boulogne was the principal port, and the only one used by the Romans when invading England.

The return of Niall from his first expedition into-Armorica with captives, including St. Patrick, on board in the year 388, corresponds precisely with the fifteenth year of St. Patrick, who was born in the year 373. This fact is not only testified by Keating, but by Hersart de la Villemarque in his "Celtic Legend," who narrates that Calphurnius, St. Patrick's father, was a Roman officer in charge of Nemtor, near which his family resided in a Roman villa, and that Calphurnius was slain, and St. Patrick made captive by a hostile fleet that came from Ireland.

As Nemtor was not only the name of the tower, but the district of the tower, and situated within the suburbs of Bonaven, St. Fiacc's account of his patron's birthplace, which simply gives the name of the district, and St. Patrick's statement that his home was in the suburban district of Bonaven, harmonise together.

The Scholiast and the author of the Trepartite "Life," by admitting that the Saint was captured in Armorica, annul their assertion that he was born in Scotland, because St. Patrick distinctly states that his family hailed from Bonaven Tabernise, or Boulogne, and that he was captured while residing at his father's villula. The Scholiast and Tripartite "Life" consequently admit that Bonaven Taberniae was situated in Armorica.

The impression that Bononia, or Boulogne, was St. Patrick's native town is confirmed by Probus; he narrates all the misfortune that overtook Calphurnius and his family whilst they were quietly living in their own native country (in patria), and in their own seaside city in Armorica.

Armorica was then included in the Province of Neustria, one of the sub- divided kingdoms of the Franks, and it was on that account that Probus states that St. Patrick was born in Neustria.

Ware, Usher, and Cardinal Moran, who cling to the Scotch theory of St. Patrick's birth, all contradict the Scholiast, who asserts that St. Patrick was born in Dumbarton; whilst those who hold fast to the Dumbarton theory make frantic efforts to convert the Crag into a heavenly tower.

St. Patrick, after the vision, in which he was told that he should return to his own native country, sailed to Gaul and not to the Island of Britain.

It had been proved on the authority of Sulpicius Severus, who was born in the year 360, that Armorica was called Britannia, and the Armoricans were called Britons when the Council of Ariminium was held in the year 359—fourteen years before the birth of St. Patrick. The Saint, when writing his "Confession" in 493, when the province had even a stronger claim to the name, could emphatically say, if he was born in Armorica, that he was a Briton and had relatives amongst the Britons.



THE SITE OF THE VILLULA WHERE ST. PATRICK WAS BORN.

FRENCH archeologists point out the "Hotel du Pavillion et des Bains de Mer," facing the sea-bathing place at Boulogne, as occupying the site from which Caligula's tower, Nemthur, once lifted its head into the heavens and shed its light over land and sea. On the frowning cliff which casts its shadow over the hotel there is a mass of hard brick ruins—the last remnants of the fortifications built round Nemtor when Boulogne was captured by the British troops in 1544.

Calphurnius's villula was evidently situated somewhere on the plateau, called Tour d'Ordre, between the tower and the town, for St. Patrick, in his "Confession," assured us that his father's home was near to ("prope") Bonaven, a statement which he would not make if the villula stood on the sea-coast beyond the tower. It is, therefore, certain that the site of the villula still exists somewhere not far inland from the ruins alluded to.

[Picture: THE PRESENT FORTIFICATIONS AND SITE OF THE ROMAN ENCAMPMENT AT BOULOGNE.]

Although Nemtor was undermined by the sea and fell into the waves in 1649, a picture of the tower as it once stood in all its glory is still to be seen in the museum of Boulogne, and the curator very kindly permitted the writer of this little history to get the drawing copied, so that the sons of St. Patrick might be permitted to view Nemtor, which Calphurnius lost his life in defending, and which gave a name to the district in which St. Patrick was born.

If this brief history of St. Patrick's native town has succeeded in identifying ancient Bononia, now Boulogne-sur-Mer, as St. Patrick's birthplace, then the whole plateau of Tour d'Ordre, on the north- eastern cliffs of Boulogne, where the villula of Calphurnius once stood, will become sacred in the eyes of the spiritual sons of St. Patrick throughout the wide world.

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PRINTED BY ST. VINCENT'S PRESS, 333 HARROW ROAD, LONDON, W.

THE END