The mention of the Scots in this document is important, because it proves that Scottish settlements in North-Western Britain had begun before the middle of the fifth century. This must be taken into account in criticising the notice in Bede, H.E. i. 1, of the origin of the British Dalriada.
[P. 193.]—The outrage on the neophytes: Letter against Coroticus, 375₂₂₋₃₂. The language of Patrick implies that it was the Scots and Picts, not the milites Corotici, who slaughtered some of the Christians:
socii Scottorum atque Pictorum apostatarum quasi sanguine uolentes saginari [see White’s ed.] sanguine innocentium Christianorum quos ego innumerum [? leg. innumerum numerum; Boll. innumeros] Deo genui atque in Christo confirmaui.
The text of the Letter is full of corruptions, some of which may be easily corrected. In the following sentence we should perhaps read:
Postera die <quam> qua crismati neophiti in ueste candida, dum flagrabat in fronte ipsorum <crux>, crudeliter trucidati atque mactati gladio <a> supradictis, <..> et misi epistolam, etc.
Crux or crucis signum may have fallen out before crudeliter. For the sign of the cross and white chrism at baptism, see Warren, Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church, p. 65; cp. p. 217. It was laid down by Innocent I. (Ep. xxv., Migne, P.L. xx. 555) that chrism in pectore might be performed by presbyters, chrism in fronte only by bishops. For the Roman and Gallican baptismal ceremonies see Duchesne, Origines du culte chrétien, cap. ix.
[P. 194.]—There is a difficulty, perhaps only superficial, in Patrick’s narrative in his Letter. He makes Coroticus fully responsible for the outrage, but his language suggests that the message which he had sent to demand the captives before the plunderers left Ireland was not addressed to Coroticus personally; the ruler’s name is not mentioned, and the plural is used (cachinnos fecerunt de illis, 376₄). It is possible, however, that something has fallen out (see last note) before the words et misi epistolam.
[Ib.]—The persons in Strathclyde to whom the Letter against Coroticus was transmitted and who were asked to excommunicate the tyrant are not designated by a more precise expression than sancti et humiles corde (376₂₃). They were, no doubt, the whole Christian community; but there is no indication who was to receive the letter in the first instance. There is apparently a reference to the contemplated transmission of the letter from one place to another in Britain (certainly from Ireland to Britain) by the hands of some famulus Dei in 380₁₉, and the writer is afraid that it might possibly be abstracted. The inference seems to be that it was not to go direct to Alcluith, but to some other place (could it possibly have been Whitern?).
[P. 194.]—The reference to the redemption of captives from the Franks is an illustration from Patrick’s own writings of his knowledge of Gaul. An untenable inference has been drawn from this passage by Sir S. Ferguson and Dr. Stokes, namely, that it must have been written before the Franks “crossed the Rhine and settled in Gaul, i.e. before A.D. 428” (Introduction to Tripartite Life, p. ci). The argument is based on ignorance of Frank history. The Salian Franks in question had been settled west of the Rhine since the time of Julian. Consequently if there was any validity in the argument it would prove that the Letter must have been written before 358 A.D. But the reasoning is invalid. It is not clear whether the Salians are meant; but if they are meant, as they well may be, there is no reason in the world why they should not have carried off captives to their territory in Lower Germany, on the Gallic side of the Rhine, early in the fifth century, whether in the days of Chlojo or before; in fact it is what we should expect in those troubled years from 407 to the campaigns of Aetius in the late twenties. The argument that the Franks must have carried their captives beyond the Rhine is to me unintelligible.
[Ib.]—Legend of the transformation of Ceretic into a fox: Muirchu, p. 498: ilico uulpeculi (sic legendum) miserabiliter arrepta forma. The curious expression (ib.₁₉), ex illo die illaque hora uelut fluxus aquae transiens nusquam comparuit, may possibly have been suggested by the words in the Letter 380₇ referring to Coroticus: miserum regnum temporale quod utique in momento transeat sicut nubes uel fumus qui utique uento dispergitur: ita peccatores et fraudulenti a facie Domini peribunt. Muirchu found that story in an Irish written source (see above, [App. A, ii. 3]).