[71] Scotichronicon, lib. v. cap. 36. Goodall's edition, vol. i. p. 286.
[72] Such cells or oratories, as relics of the holy men who had been their founders, were always regarded by the Irish, like every other kind of relics, as their bells, croziers, books, etc. etc., with the deepest sentiments of veneration, and their injury or violation—"dishonouring," as the annalists often term it—was regarded as a sacrilege of the most revolting and sinful character. And to this pious feeling we may ascribe the singular preservation to our own times of so many of such buildings—though, indeed, in many instances, they may only retain the general form, or a portion of the walls, of the original structure—owing to the injuries inflicted by time, or, as more frequently, by foreign violence. Thus, in the great Aran of the Tiglach Enda, or "House of Enda," a portion only—the east end—is of the Saint's time, the rest is some centuries later; and of St. Ciarn's oratory at Clonmacnoise—called in the Irish Annals "Temple Ciaron," or "Eaglais-beag," and, sometimes, "Temple-beg," or "The Little Church," though the original form was carefully preserved, there was, when I first examined it, more than forty years ago, apparently no portion of its masonry that was not obviously of much later times—in parts even as late as the seventeenth century. Our annalists record the names of Airchinneachs of this oratory from 893 to 1097.—P.
[73] In reference to this observation, it is scarcely necessary to refer to the teachings in Scotland of St. Kentigern of Strathclyde in the first half of the sixth century, of St. Serf of Culross in the latter, and of St. Palladius and St. Ninian in the earlier parts of the fifth century, with the more immediate converts and followers of these ancient missionaries. In his Demonstratio quod Christus sit Deus contra Judæos atque Gentiles, written about the year 387, St. Chrysostom avers that "the British Islands (Βξετανιχαἱ νησοι), situated beyond the Mediterranean Sea, and in the very ocean itself, had felt the power of the Divine Word, churches having been found there, and altars erected." (Opera omnia, vol. i. p. 575, Paris edition of Montfaucon, 1718.) Perhaps St. Chrysostom founded his statement upon a notice in reference to the alleged extension of Christianity to the northern parts of Britain, given a hundred and fifty years previously by Tertullian, when discussing a similar argument. In his dissertation Adversus Judæos, supposed to be written about 210, Tertullian, when treating of the propagation of Christianity, states (chap. vii.), that at that time already places among the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, were yet subject to Christ—"Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita." (Oehler's edition of Tertullian, vol. iii. p. 713.) Among the numerous inscriptions and sculptures left here by the Romans while they held this country during the first four centuries of the Christian era, not one has, I believe, been yet found containing a single Christian notice or emblem, or affording by itself any direct evidence of the existence of Christianity among the Roman colonists and soldiers in Britain. But there is indirect lapidary or monumental evidence of its propagation in another manner. In England, as in Germany, France, etc., there exist among the old Roman remains, altars and temples dedicated to Mithras, originally the god of the Sun among the Persians, with sculptures and inscriptions referring to Mithraic worship. They have been found in the cities along the Roman wall in Northumberland; at York, etc. Various references among the old Fathers seem to show that when a knowledge of the Christian religion began to spread to the Western Colonies of Rome, the worship of Mithras was set up in opposition to Christianity, and Christian rites were imitated by the Mithraic priests and followers. Thus, for example, the author whom I have just cited, Tertullian, tells us, in his tract De Præscriptione Hæreticorem, chap. 40, that the worshippers of Mithras practised the remission of sins by water (as in baptism), made a sign upon their foreheads (as if simulating the sign of the cross), celebrated the offering of bread (as if in imitation of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper), etc. (See his Works, vol. iii. p. 38, of Oehler's Leipsic edition of 1854.)
[74] See Dr. Reeves' admirable edition of Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, pp. lxxiv and lxxv,—a book which is a perfect model of learned annotation and careful editing.
[75] I think it might be well to strengthen your statement by adducing a few examples—thus, as for example, the remains of a monastery of Columba's time on an island—now drained—called Lough Columbkill, in the island of Skye—the churches and clochans, or stone-houses of the monks, on St. Kilda, and probably many similar remains on other islands of the Hebrides.—P.
[76] Of St. MacDara of Cruach MicDara, an island off the coast of Connamara, of St. Brendan in Inis Gloria, an island off the coast of Errus, and very many more.—P.
[77] Colgan's Trias Thaumaturga, p. 129.
[78] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 195.
[79] Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland, p. 194.
[80] And which, moreover, had often chancels attached to them.—P.