[NOTICES OF BOOKS.]
I.
1. Essays on the Origin, Doctrines, and Discipline of the Early Irish Church. By the Rev. Dr. Moran, Vice-Rector of the Irish College, Rome. Dublin: Duffy, 1864, pp. 337.
2. History of the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin since the Reformation. By the Rev. Dr. Moran, Vice-Rector of the Irish College, Rome. Vol. I., Part I. Introduction. Dublin: Duffy, 1864, pp. 192.
There are two positions that command the whole field of Irish Church history. The first is the original connection of the Irish Church with the See of Rome; the second is that her hierarchy has remained ever faithful to Rome, especially in the time of the Reformation. Deny either of these, and the whole aspect of our ecclesiastical history is immediately changed. The supernatural virtues that spring from Catholicism nowhere had a fresher bloom than in Ireland. Faith, and hope, and charity, and love for the evangelical counsels were in a special degree the ornaments of the nation which, Saint Patrick tells us in his Confessions, "had been bestowed upon him by the charity of Christ". The schools of Ireland, her art, her literature, her laws, her social customs, all felt the influence of the intense religious feeling that existed throughout the land. The Irish monastic superiors, says a lively French writer, aimed at making their monks saints, and were surprised to find them become poets likewise. Now this rich superabundance of spiritual blessing, as it was the fruit of union with Rome, so also ought it be traced back to Rome as its source under God. And the more marvellous its richness, the more striking the necessity of being able to show that it has come to us through Saint Peter. Besides, all these graces were, if we may use a theological expression, gratiae gratis datae, as well as gratum facientes. They were given to the Irish Church not only to make her the glad mother of saints, but also, and in a singular manner, for the benefit of others. It is, we think, impossible not to recognize in the history of the Irish Church, both ancient and modern, this missionary character. Her cloisters had the gift of sanctity; but did not the odour of this very sanctity draw to her shores crowds of foreign ecclesiastics—Egyptian, Roman, Italian, French, British, and Saxon? Her schools had the gift of wisdom; but did not this wisdom cry out to the men beyond the seas to come and buy of it without price? Where was the bishop's throne encircled by a more dense crown of Priests and Levites than in Ireland? and was it not that many of them might be spared for those places abroad where the little ones were asking for bread, and there was none to break it to them? The flower of her youth thronged her monasteries; she took them to her bosom as children, that she might make them fathers; and among the monks of the West what fathers were more fruitful of good? And in our own day let England, and Scotland, and Australia, and America, and Africa, and India, tell what part Providence has assigned to the Irish Catholics in that wonderful growth of Catholicism which refreshes the heart in these days of indifference and infidelity. To Ireland may well be applied the words used by Saint Gregory Nazianzen, of the Constantinople of the fourth century, when he calls it "the bond of union between the east and west, to which the most distant extremes from all sides come together, and to which they look up as to a common centre and emporium of the faith". This being the case, it becomes a cardinal point to show the unbroken connection between Rome and Ireland through all the chequered course of our history. If she be not sent, how shall she preach?
This central truth is the subject of Dr. Moran's two books, although under a different aspect in each. He could not have rendered better service to our Church than by establishing so clearly and firmly as he has done, that Saint Patrick had his mission from Rome, and that the Irish Church was never merged in the so-called Church of the Reformation. Under any circumstances, such a work would be entitled to our gratitude. But the exceptional circumstances of the times were such as to make its appearance a real necessity. Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, in his Memoir of Saint Patrick, added his honoured name to the list of those who deny that Saint Patrick's mission to our island had any connection with, or sanction from, the Roman Pontiff, Celestine. In his preface to the same work he lays down the theory that the new Irish Church, which was long in opposition to the church of the English Pale, at last combined with it in embracing the reformed creed. In face of such assertions, coming from such a source, and which, as we have seen, strike at the very heart of our ecclesiastical glory, we had need of a work conceived in good temper, executed with scholarly precision, and giving proof as well of extensive acquaintance with our ancient records, as of critical skill in their interpretation. These qualities we find in Dr. Moran's works. In addressing himself to his task, he starts from the principle, that as being a question of facts, it must be discussed on its intrinsic merits, and decided by the mere authority of historical records and critical arguments. To this principle he carefully adheres to the close.
The work which we have placed first on our list contains three essays. The first treats of the origin of the Irish Church and of the labours of Saints Palladius and Patrick; the second, of the Blessed Eucharist; the third, of the Blessed Virgin. The first essay is divided into three parts. Part I. treats of Saint Palladius and Saint Patrick, and is divided into four chapters respectively headed: Mission of Saint Palladius; general sketch of Saint Patrick's history; Saint Patrick's connection with Saint Germanus; Saint Patrick's mission from Rome. In Part II. various modern theories respecting Saint Patrick are reviewed and refuted. Chapter i. refutes Dr. Ledwich's theory that Saint Patrick never existed; chapter ii. refutes the statements of Sir William Betham, that Saint Patrick lived long before A.D. 432, and of Usher, that Ireland possessed a hierarchy long before Saint Patrick's time; chapter iii. examines Dean Murray's theory, that Saint Patrick had no mission from Rome; chapter iv. refutes the opinion of Dr. Lanigan, that Saint Patrick died A.D. 465, and then Dr. Petrie's conjecture, that our ancient writers have so blended together the acts of two Saint Patricks, that it is no longer possible to say which belongs to the Apostle Patrick; chapters v. vi. vii. deal with Dr. Todd's theory reduced to three heads:—1. that Saint Palladius was not a Roman deacon; 2. that Saint Patrick did not commence his apostolate until A.D. 440; 3. that Saint Patrick received no mission from Rome. Part III. sets before us the sentiments of the early Irish Church regarding Rome. Three classes of witnesses are called, in as many chapters, to testify that the ancient Irish acknowledged with filial reverence the divinely given authority of the Holy See. First come the ancient writers, next the canons which regulated the discipline of the Church, then the Irish saints who gave evidence of their sentiments by their pilgrimages to Rome, and by their appeals to the supreme power of Saint Peter's chair.
The second essay treats of the teaching of the ancient Irish Church regarding the Blessed Eucharist. That Christ is really present and offered on our altars for the living and the dead, was held by our Christian fathers as tenaciously as by their Catholic children of to-day. The documents which illustrate this point are arranged by Dr. Moran under the following heads:—1. Liturgical treatises; 2. Penitentials and other records; 3. the words and practice of the early saints; 4. the ancient writers cited by Protestants as favourable to the reformed doctrine. The examination of these witnesses occupies four chapters.