It will be observed that most of the quotations in the Hibernensis which correspond to canons of Synodus II. are ascribed to Romani or Sinodus Romana. These headings are frequent in the Hibernensis, and it is important to determine what they mean. There are, I think, twelve quotations of this kind[256] which have been identified in non-Irish sources, mostly in the Statuta ecclesiae antiqua. There are, as shown in the above table, six quotations corresponding to canons of Irish origin included in Synodus II. There is one quotation under Sinodus Romana, 33. 1. e, which is found in the circular letter of the three bishops. There are twenty-two (25) quotations which cannot be controlled.[257] There seems to be no case in which a canon referred to as Sinodus Romana can be discovered in the Acts of a synod held at Rome.
Thus out of forty-two (45) “Roman” headings, it is remarkable that only twelve can be identified in non-Irish sources, and of these four are from non-Roman councils, six from the Statuta eccl. ant., two from the decrees of a bishop of Rome. Seven others are from Irish sources. It seems, on the face of it, much more likely that most of the remaining quotations which have not been identified were derived from native sources, seeing that the Acts of the Irish synods before A.D. 700 have not been preserved; it is hardly likely that so many as twenty-two (25) citations of this kind from foreign sources would remain unidentified.
There is a particular indication which seems to me of some significance; 33. 1. e cites a canon found in the circular letter of the three bishops (can. 20), as from Sinodus Romana. 33. 1. f follows with a quotation, evidently from the same context and under the heading item, but not found in the circular letter.[258] The inference, I submit, is that both sections are quoted from the Acts of an Irish synod, in which the canon found in the circular letter was adopted, but without a reference to its origin.
The only theory which seems to me to cover all the facts is that in the Hibernensis, Sinodus Romana (or Romani) designates synods held in Ireland[259] in the seventh century in the interest of Roman reform, and under the influence of its advocates. This view will explain the two categories of canons which can be identified as of Irish origin, and canons which are unidentified. It is also perfectly consistent with the fact that twelve canons have been identified in foreign sources, only that we have to suppose that the compiler took them, not from the original sources, but from the Acts of Irish synods at which they were adopted.
We may infer that the document known as Synodus II. Patricii was taken from the Acts of an Irish synod of the seventh century.
Before we leave the Hibernensis, it must be mentioned that it contains a number of other canons ascribed to Patrick which do not appear in the circular letter. They are fourteen in number,[260] besides two which are found only in one or two MSS.[261] The two most remarkable of these quotations (chapters entitled de eo quod malorum regum opera destruantur and de eo quod bonorum regum opera aedificent)[262] are found in the pseudo-Patrician treatise De Abusionibus Saeculi, c. 9.[263] The most important is 20. 5. b, ordaining an appeal to Rome (cp. [chap. iii. § A], and [App. C, 16]).
The question has now to be considered whether the objections which have been urged against the circular letter of Patricius, Auxilius, and Iserninus amount to a valid proof that it is spurious or has been interpolated.
(1) The sixth canon of this letter enjoins, under penalty of separation from the Church, that the tonsure of clerics be more Romano. We know that in the seventh century the Celtic tonsure de aure ad aurem prevailed in the Irish, as in the British, Church, and this was one of the chief questions in the Roman controversy. The conclusion has been generally drawn that this was the tonsure of Irish clerics in the fifth century, and that the Roman tonsure, the corona (supposed to be an imitation of the spinea Christi corona), was not known in Ireland until the victory of the Roman party in the seventh century. This conclusion relies on the support of a text in the Catalogus Sanctorum Hiberniae, where it is said that in the first period of the Irish Church, including the time of Patrick, one tonsure ab aure usque ad aurem was worn (H. and S., Councils, ii. p. 292). The particular statements, however, of this document are not decisive. If this statement were entirely true, it would follow that Patrick permitted or acquiesced in the native form of tonsure, and cannot have promulgated the canon in question.