II.

The Ancient Church of Ireland: A few Remarks on Dr. Todd's Memoir of the Life and Mission of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland. By Denis Gargan, D.D., Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Royal College of Saint Patrick, Maynooth. Dublin: Duffy, 1864, page 120.

In this work Dr. Gargan reviews and refutes some of the opinions advanced by Dr. Todd in his Memoir of Saint Patrick. He selects six of these opinions as specially deserving of animadversion. 1^o. That Diocesan jurisdiction did not exist in Ireland before the twelfth century; and under this head he examines the inferences drawn by Dr. Todd from the testimonies of Saint Anselm, Saint Bernard, the enactment of the English Synod of Cealcythe, and the authority of Bycus. 2^o. That the Irish Church underwent decline during the sixth and seventh centuries. For this opinion Dr. Todd adduces as abundant evidence, 1. a prophecy put into the mouth of Saint Brigid by Aumchad, or Animosus, in his life of that saint; 2. the testimony of the Abbess Hildegardis, in her Life of Saint Disibod, or Disen, Abbot of Disemberg; 3. the Life of the Gildas, in which startling charges are brought against the Irish Church. Dr. Gargan shows in detail how far these testimonies are from being abundant evidences on which to ground so serious a charge. 3^o. That Saint Patrick and other early saints of Ireland were not free from superstition. As proof of this, Dr. Todd cites the Confession of Saint Patrick, his Lorica, and his toleration of pagan superstitions. The second order of saints, according to Dr. Todd, "were unable to divest themselves of the old superstitions of their race". These proofs are severally overthrown by Dr. Gargan. 4^o. That Saint Patrick was illiterate and ignorant, and that the story of his education under Saint Germanus is false. Saint Patrick's Confession is the principal argument adduced to prove the first assertion, and the absence of all allusion to Saint Germanus in the Confession and in the Hymn of Secundinus is the reason for the second. 5^o. That Saint Patrick had no commission from Pope Celestine. Under the head of Dr. Todd's negative arguments, Dr. Gargan examines the silence observed about the mission from Rome:—1. in the Confessions, and the Epistle to Coroticus; 2. in the Hymn of Saint Sechnall, or Secundinus; 3. in the Hymn of Saint Fiacc; 4. in the Life of Saint Patrick in the Book of Armagh. Under the heading, "Dr. Todd's Chronological Difficulties against the Roman Mission of Saint Patrick", the author refutes the arguments drawn from various sources to show that Saint Patrick did not commence his apostolic life in Ireland before A.D. 440, wherefore, Pope Celestine having died A.D. 432, the mission from Rome cannot be admitted. Finally, 6. the incompleteness of the memoir is brought as a charge against its author. "With all that Dr. Todd has written concerning our apostle, we are left strangely at a loss to know whether the form of Christianity which he introduced into our island in the fifth century was in harmony or at variance with Catholicity as then prevailing in the east and west, and as still prevailing in all churches in connection with the chair of Peter" (page 107). This is a grave charge indeed, and we agree with the learned professor in believing that it seriously interferes with the claims which Dr. Todd's work has to be considered a guide in the questions that every now and then are agitated concerning the Irish Church. In the face of this well-grounded charge of incompleteness, how can the Press say that "no one will be qualified to do justice to that vexed and intricate question, who has not made himself master of the facts connected with the early institution of that Church, of which Dr. Todd has shown himself the truthful and laborious expositor"?