The point is that its own solidarity with the rest of Christendom, and consequent respect for the Bishop of Rome as the head of Christendom, were axioms of theory, however little they were acted on in the sixth century, in the Irish Church. And such must have been the teaching of Patrick himself. Patrick, spiritually reared in the Gallic Church, must (without direct testimony to the contrary) be presumed to have shared in the attitude of Gallic churchmen to the Roman see. It was not, indeed, the attitude of unquestioning obedience and submission of later ages. What it was has been fully explained in [chap. iii.] ad fin. and in [chap. viii. § 4].
Reference must be made to another passage in Columbanus, which might be thought to prove something more (Ep. 5, p. 171).
Nos enim sanctorum Petri et Pauli et omnium discipulorum divinum canonem spiritu sancto scribentium discipuli sumus, toti Iberi, ultimi habitatores mundi, nihil extra evangelicam et apostolicam doctrinam recipientes: nullus hereticus, nullus iudaeus, nullus scismaticus fuit; sed fides catholica, sicut a vobis primum, sanctorum videlicet apostolorum successoribus, tradita est, inconcussa tenetur.
In this assertion of the orthodoxy of Ireland, the words which I have italicised might be taken to imply that Ireland received the Catholic faith directly from the Popes. This would be a misinterpretation. The words can only refer generally to the transmission and maintenance of orthodox doctrine at Rome.[417]
The text of the canon of appeal (Hibernensis, 20, 5, b) is as follows:—
Si quae difficiles[418] questiones in hac insula oriantur, ad sedem apostolicam referantur.
It is referred to in the Liber Angueli (356₁₁), where the claim of Armagh to decide a causa ualde difficilis is laid down; but if Armagh does not succeed in settling the question, then ad sedem apostolicam decreuimus esse mittendam [sc. causam]. It is further stated:
hii sunt qui de hoc decreuerunt id est Auxilius Patricius Secundinus Benignus.
If these names are selected from the signatories of a synod at which the canon was passed, the presence of Secundinus, who died 447-8 (see [App. B, note p. 292]), shows that the synod must have been held before that year. Benignus would have been still a presbyter.[419]