have fasted well, and soon you shall see your home and your native
land.' Soon after, I heard the voice again, saying, 'The ship is ready
for you.' But the ship was not near, but two hundred miles off, in a
district I had never visited, and where I knew no one. Therefore I fled,
leaving the master I had served for six years, and found the ship by
divine guidance, going without fear....
"We reached the land after three days' sail; then for twenty-eight days
we wandered through a wilderness.... Once more, after years of exile, I
was at home again with my kindred, among the Britons. All welcomed me
like a son, earnestly begging me that, after the great dangers I had
passed through, I would never again leave my home.
"While I was at home, in a vision of the night I saw one who seemed to
come from Ireland, bringing innumerable letters. He gave me one of the
letters, in which I read, 'The voices of the Irish ...;' and while I
read, it seemed to me that I heard the cry of the dwellers by the forest
of Foclut, by the Western Ocean, calling with one voice to me, 'Come and
dwell with us!' My heart was so moved that I awoke, and I give thanks to
my God who after many years has given to them according to
their petition.
"On another night, whether within me or without me I know not, God
knows, One prayed with very wonderful words that I could not comprehend,
till at last He said, 'It is He who gave His soul for you, that speaks!'
I awoke for joy. And once in a vision I saw Him praying within me, as it
were; I saw myself, as it were, within myself; and I heard Him praying
urgently and strongly over the inner man; I being meanwhile astonished,
and wondering who thus prayed within me, till at the end He declared
that I should be an overseer for Him....
"I had not believed in the living Divine from childhood, but had
remained in the realm of death until hunger and nakedness and daily
slavery in Ireland--for I came there as a captive--had so afflicted me
that I almost broke down. Yet these things brought good, for through
that daily suffering I was so changed that I work and toil now for the
well-being of others, I who formerly took no care even for myself....
"Therefore I thank Him who kept me faithful in the day of trial, that I
live to offer myself daily as a living offering to Him who saves and
guards me. Well may I say, 'Master, what am I, what is my calling, that
such grace and divine help are given to me--that I am every day raised
to greater power among these unbelievers, while I everywhere praise thy
name? Whatever comes to me, whether happiness or misery, whether good or
evil fortune, I hold it all the same; giving Thee equal thanks for it,
because Thou hast unveiled for me the One, sure and unchanging, in whom
I may for ever believe. So that in these latter days, even though I am
ignorant, I may dare to undertake so righteous a work, and so wonderful,
that makes me like those who, according to His promise, should carry His
message to all people before the end of the world.
"It were long in whole or even in part to tell of my labours, or how the
all-powerful One many times set me free from bondage, and from twelve
perils wherein my life was in danger, and from nameless pitfalls. It
were ill to try the reader too far, when I have within me the Author
himself, who knows all things even before they happen, as He knows me,
His poor disciple. The voice that so often guides me is divine; and
thence it is that wisdom has come to me, who had no wisdom, knowing not
Him, nor the number of my days: thence comes my knowledge and heart's
joy in His great and healing gift, for the sake of which I willingly
left my home and kindred, though they offered me many gifts with tears
and sorrow.
"Many of the older people also disapproved, but through divine help I
would not give way. It was no grace of mine, but the divine power in me
that stood out against all, so that I came to bear the Message here
among the people of Ireland, suffering the scorn of those who believed
not, and bearing derision and many persecutions, and even chains. Nay, I
even lost my patrician rank for the good of others. But if I be worthy
to do something for the Divine, I am ready with all my heart to yield
service, even to the death, since it has been permitted that through me
many might be reborn to the divine, and that others might be appointed
to teach them....
"The people of Ireland, who formerly had only their idols and pagan
ritual, not knowing the Master, have now become His children. The sons
of the Scoti and their kings' daughters are now become sons of the
Master and handmaidens of the Anointed. And one nobly born lady among
them, a beautiful woman whom I baptized myself, came soon after to tell
me that she was divinely admonished to live in maidenhood, drawing
nearer to Him. Six days later she entered the grade that all the
handmaidens of the Anointed desire, though their fathers and mothers
would hinder them, reproaching and afflicting them; nevertheless, they
grow in number, so that I know not how many they are, besides widows and
continent women, who suffer most from those who hold them in bondage.
Yet they stand firm, and God grants grace to many of them worthily to
follow Him.
"Therefore I might even leave them, to go among the Britons,--for
willingly would I see my own kindred and my native land again, or even
go as far as Gaul to visit my brothers, and see the faces of my Master's
holy men. But I am bound in the Spirit, and would be unfaithful if I
went. Nor would I willingly risk the fruit of all my work. Yet it is not
I who decide, but the Master, who bid me come hither, to spend my whole
life in serving, as indeed I think I shall....
"Therefore I should ever thank Him who was so tolerant of my ignorance
and sluggishness, so many times; treating me not in anger but as a
fellow-worker, though I was slow to learn the work set for me by the
Spirit. He pitied me amongst many thousands, for he saw that I was very
willing, but did net know how to offer my testimony. For they all
opposed my mission, and talked behind my back, saying, 'He wishes to
risk his life among enemies who know nothing of the Master'; not
speaking maliciously, but opposing me because I was so ignorant. Nor did
I myself at once perceive the power that was in me....
"Thus simply, brothers and fellow-workers for the Master, who with me
have believed, I have told you how it happened that I preached and still
preach, to strengthen and confirm you in aspiration, hoping that we may
all rise yet higher. Let that be my reward, as 'the wise son is the
glory of his father.' You know, and the Master knows, how from my youth
I have lived among you, in aspiration and truth and with single heart;
that I have declared the faith to those among whom I dwell, and still
declare it. The Master knows that I have deceived no man in anything,
nor ever shall, for His sake and His people's. Nor shall I ever arouse
uncharity in them or in any, lest His name should be spoken evil of....
"I have striven in my poor way to help my brothers and the handmaidens
of the Anointed, and the holy women who often volunteered to give me
presents and to lay their jewels on my altar; but these I always gave
back to them, even though they were hurt by it; and I have so lived my
life, for the hope of the life eternal, that none may find the least
cause of offence in my ministry; that my least act might not tarnish my
good name, so that unbelievers might speak evil of me....
"If I have asked of any as much as the value of a shoe, tell me. I will
repay it and more. I rather spent my own wealth on you and among you,
wherever I went, for your sakes, through many dangers, to regions where
no believer had ever come to baptize, to ordain teachers or to confirm
the flock. With the divine help I very willingly and lovingly paid all.
Sometimes I gave presents to the kings,--in giving presents to their
sons who convoyed us, to guard us against being taken captive. Once they
sought to kill me, but my time was not yet come. But they took away all
we possessed, and kept me bound, till the Master liberated me on the
fourteenth day, and all our goods were given back, because of the Master
and of those who convoyed us. You yourselves know what gifts I gave to
those who administer the law through the districts I visited oftenest. I
think I spent not less than the fine of fifteen men among them, in order
that I might come among you. Nor do I regret it, nor count it enough,
for I still spend, and shall ever spend, happy if the Master allows me
to spend my soul for you....For I know certainly that poverty and plain
living are better for me than riches and luxury. The Anointed our Master
was poor for us. I am poorer still, for I could not have wealth if I
wished it. Nor do I now judge myself, for I look forward daily to a
violent death, or to be taken captive and sold into slavery, or some
like end. But I fear none of these ...but let me not lose the flock I
feed for Him, here in the uttermost parts of the earth....
"I am willing for His sake to shed my blood, to go without burial, even
though my body be torn by dogs and wild beasts and the fowls of the air;
for I know that thus I should through my body enrich my soul. And I know
that in that day we shall arise in the brightness of the sun, in the
glory of the Anointed Master, as sons of the divine and co-heirs with
Him, made in His likeness. For the sun we see rises daily by divine
ordinance; but it is not ordained to rise for ever, nor shall its light
last for ever. The sun of this world shall fade, with those that worship
it; but we bow to the spiritual Sun, the Anointed, that shall never
perish, nor they who do His will, but shall endure for ever like the
Anointed himself, who reigns with the Father and the Divine Spirit now
and ever....
"This I beg, that no believer or servant of the Master, who reads or
receives this writing, which I, Patricius, a sinner and very unlearned,
wrote in Ireland,--I beg that none may say that whatever is good in it
was dictated by my ignorance, but rather that it came from Him. This is
my Confession, before I die."
That is the story of the most vital event in the life of Ireland, in the
words of the man who was chiefly instrumental in bringing it about.
Though an unskilled writer, as he says himself he has nevertheless
succeeded in breathing into every part of his epistle the power and
greatness of his soul, the sense and vivid reality of the divine breath
which stirred in him and transformed him, the spiritual power, humane
and universal, which enkindled him from within; these are the words of a
man who had first-hand knowledge of the things of our deeper life; not a
mere servant of tradition, living on the words and convictions of other
men. He has drawn in large and universal outline the death to
egotism--reached in his case through hunger, nakedness and slavery--and
the new birth from above, the divine Soul enkindling the inner man, and
wakening him to new powers and a knowledge of his genius and
immortal destiny.
Not less vivid is the sense he conveyed, of the world in which he moved;
the feeling of his dignity as a Roman Patrician, having a share of the
greatness of empire; the sense of a dividing-line between the Christian
realms of Rome and the outer barbarians yet in darkness. Yet the picture
he gives of these outer realms is as certainly true. There are the rival
chieftains, each with his own tribe and his own fort, and bearing the
title of king. They are perpetually striving among themselves, so that
from the province of one he must move to the province of another with an
escort, led by the king's son, who receives gifts in return for this
protection. This is the world of Concobar and Cuculain; of Find and
Ossin, as they themselves have painted it.
The world of Find and Ossin, of Cael and Credé, was marked by a certain
urbanity and freedom, a large-mindedness and imaginative power. We are
therefore prepared to expect that the Messenger of the new life would be
received with openness of mind, and allowed to deliver his message
without any very violent opposition. It was the meeting of unarmed moral
power and armed valor; and the victory of the apostle was a victory of
spiritual force, of character, of large-heartedness; the man himself was
the embodiment of his message, and through his forceful genius his
message was effective. He visibly represented the New Way; the way of
the humane and the divine, transforming the destructive instinct of
self-assertion. He visibly represented the divine and the immortal in
us, the new birth from above.
Yet there were tragedies in his apostolate. In another letter a very
vivid and pathetic account is given of one of these. Coroticus, a
chieftain of Britain, and therefore nominally a Christian and a citizen
of Rome, had sent marauding bands to Ireland to capture slaves. Some of
the new converts were taken captive by these slave-hunters, an outrage
which drew forth an indignant protest from the great Messenger:
"My neophytes in their white robes, the baptismal chrism still wet and
glistening on their foreheads, were taken captive with the sword by
these murderers. The next day I sent letters begging them to liberate
the baptized captives, but they answered my prayer with mocking
laughter. I know not which I should mourn for more,--those who were
slain, those who were taken prisoner, or those who in this were Satan's
instruments, since these must suffer everlasting punishment in
perdition."
He appeals indignantly to the fellow-Christians of Coroticus in Britain:
"I pray you, all that are righteous and humble, to hold no converse
with those who do these things. Eat not, drink not with them, accept no
gifts from them, until they have repented and made atonement, setting
free these newly-baptized handmaidens of Christ, for whom He died....
They seem to think we are not children of one Father!"
The work and mission of this great man grow daily better known. The
scenes of each marked event are certainly identified. His early slavery,
his time of probation, was spent in Antrim, on the hillside of Slieve
Mish, and in the woods that then covered its flanks and valleys.
Wandering there with his flocks to the hill-top, he looked down over the
green darkness of the woods, with the fertile open country stretching
park-like beyond, to the coast eight miles away. From his lonely summit
he could gaze over the silvery grayness of the sea, and trace on the
distant horizon the headlands of his dear native land. The exile's heart
must have ached to look at them, as he thought of his hunger and
nakedness and toil. There in deep pity came home to him the fate of the
weak ones of the earth, the vanquished, the afflicted, the losers in the
race. Compassion showed him the better way, the way of sympathy and
union, instead of contest and dominion. A firm and fixed purpose grew up
within him to make the appeal of gentleness to the chiefs and rulers, in
the name of Him who was all sympathy for the weak. Thus the inspiration
of the Message awakened his soul to its immortal powers.
Later, returning with the clear purpose of his message formed, he began
his great work not far from his first place of captivity. His strong
personality led him always to the presence of the chiefs and warriors,
and he talked to them freely as an equal, gradually giving them an
insight into his own vision of life, of the kinship between soul and
soul, of our immortal power and inheritance. He appealed always to his
own inner knowledge of things divine, to the light and power unveiled
within himself; and the commanding genius in his words lit a like fire
in the hearts of those who heard, awakening an enthusiasm for the New
Way. He had a constant sense of his divine mission:
"Was it without divine promise, or in the body only, that I came to
Ireland? Who led me? Who took captive my soul, that I should no more see
friends and kindred? Whence came my inspiration of pity for the race
that had enslaved me?"
The memory of his first victories is perpetuated in the name,
Downpatrick,--that is: the Dwelling of Patrick.--where Dicu son of
Tricem, chief of the district, gave him a tract of land to build a place
of meeting and prayer for his disciples; while the church was being
built, the chief offered his barn as a meeting-place, an incident
commemorated in the name of Saul, on a hill above the town,--a name
softened from Sabal, "a barn." This first victory was won among the
rounded hills south of the Quoyle River, where it widens toward
Strangford Lough; from the hill-top of Saul there is a wide prospect
over the reed-covered flats with the river winding among them, the hills
with their oak-woods in the bends of the river, and the widening lough
with its innumerable islands, its sand-flats lit up with red under the
dawn. The sun sets among the mountains of Mourne, flushing from behind
the purple profile of the hills, and sending golden arrows over the rich
fertility of the plain. The year 432 is the probable date of this first
conversion.
The strong genius of the Messenger carried him after a few months to the
center of power in the land, to Tara with its fortresses, its
earthworks, its great banquet-halls and granaries and well-adorned
dwellings of chief and king. A huge oval earthwork defended the king's
house; northward of this was the splendid House of Mead,--the
banquet-hall, with lesser fortresses beyond it. Southward of the central
dwelling and its defence was the new ringed fort of Laogaire the king,
son of the more famous king Nial of the Hostages. At this circular fort,
Rath-Laogaire, on Easter day, Saint Patrick met the king face to face,
and delivered to him the message of the New Way, telling him of the
unveiling of the Divine within himself, of the voice that had bidden him
come, of the large soul of immortal pity that breathed in the teachings
among the hills of Galilee, of the new life there begun for the world.
Tradition says that the coming of the Messenger had been foretold by the
Druids, and the great work he should accomplish; the wise men of the
West catching the inner brightness of the Light, as the Eastern Magians
had caught it more than four centuries before. The fruits of that day's
teaching in the plain of Tara, in the assembly of Laogaire the king,
were to be gathered through long centuries to come.
In the year 444, the work of the teacher had so thriven that he was able
to build a larger church on a hill above the Callan River, in the
undulating country south of Lough Neagh. This hill, called in the old
days the Hill of the Willows, was only two miles from the famous
fortress of Emain of Maca. It was a gift from the ruler Dairé, who, like
so many other chiefs, had felt and acknowledged the Messenger's power.
Later, the hill came to be called Ard-Maca, the Height of Maca; a name
now softened into Armagh, ever since esteemed the central stronghold of
the first Messenger's followers.
The Messenger passed on from chief to chief, from province to province,
meeting with success everywhere, yet facing grave perils. Later
histories take him to the kings of Leinster and Munster, and he himself
tells us that the prayer of the children of Foclut was answered by his
coming, so that he must have reached the western ocean. It was a
tremendous victory of moral force, of the divine and immortal working
through him, that the Messenger was able to move unarmed among the
warriors of many tribes that were often at war with each other;
everywhere meeting the chiefs and kings, and meeting them as an equal:
the unarmed bringer of good tidings confronting the king in the midst of
his warriors, and winning him to his better vision.
For sixty years the Messenger worked, sowing seed and gathering the
fruit of his labor; and at last his body was laid at rest close to his
first church at Saul. Thus one of the great men of the world
accomplished his task.
IX.
THE SAINTS AND SCHOLARS.
A.D. 493-750.
It would be hard to find in the whole history of early Christianity a
record of greater and more enduring success than the work of St.
Patrick. None of the Messengers of the New Way, as they were called
first by St. Luke, unless the phrase is St. Paul's, accomplished
single-handed so wonderful a work, conquering so large a territory, and
leaving such enduring monuments of his victory. Amongst the world's
masters, the son of Calpurn the Decurion deserves a place with
the greatest.
Not less noteworthy than the wide range of his work was the way in which
he gained success. He addressed himself always to the chiefs, the kings,
the men of personal weight and power. And his address was almost
invariably successful,--a thing that would have been impossible had he
not been himself a personality of singular force and fire, able to meet
the great ones of the land as an equal. His manner was that of an
ambassador, full of tact, knowledge of men and of the world. Nor can we
find in him--or, indeed, in the whole history of the churches founded by
him--anything of that bitter zeal and fanaticism which, nearly two
centuries nearer to apostolic times, marred the work of the Councils
under Constantius; the fierce animosity between Christian and Christian
which marked the Arian controversy. The Apostle of Ireland showed far
more urbanity, far more humane and liberal wisdom, far more gentleness,
humor and good feeling, in his treatment of the pre-Christian
institutions and ideals of Ireland than warring Christian sects have
generally been willing to show to each other.
It was doubtless due to this urbane wisdom that the history of the
conversion of Ireland is without one story of martyrdom. The change was
carried out in open-hearted frankness and good-will, the old order
giving place to the new as gently as spring changes to summer. The most
marvelous example of St. Patrick's wisdom, and at the same time the most
wonderful testimony to his personal force, is his action towards the
existing civil and religious law of the country, commonly known as the
Brehon Law. Principles had by long usage been wrought into the fabric of
the Brehon Laws which were in flat contradiction to St. Patrick's
teaching of the New Way. Instead of fiercely denouncing the whole
system, he talked with the chief jurists and heralds,--custodians of the
old system,--and convinced them that changes in their laws would give
effect to more humane and liberal principles. They admitted the justice
of his view, and agreed to a meeting between three great chieftains or
kings, three Brehons or jurists, and three of St. Patrick's converts, to
revise the whole system of law, substituting the more humane principles,
which they had already accepted as just and right. These changes were
made and universally applied; so that, without any violent revolution,
without strife or bloodshed, the better way became the accepted law. It
would be hard to find in all history a finer example of wisdom and
moderation, of the great and worthy way of accomplishing right ends.
We have seen the great Messenger himself founding monasteries, houses of
religious study, and churches for his converts, on land given to him by
chieftains who were moved by his character and ideals. We can judge of
the immediate spread of his teaching if we remember that these churches
were generally sixty feet long, thus giving room for many worshippers.
They seem to have been built of stone--almost the first use of that
material in Ireland since the archaic days. Among the first churches of
this type were those at Saul, at Donaghpatrick on the Blackwater, and at
Armagh, with others further from the central region of St. Patrick's
work. The schools of learning which grew up beside them were universally
esteemed and protected, and from them came successive generations of men
and women who worthily carried on the work so wisely begun. The tongues
first studied were Latin and Irish. We have works of very early periods
in both, as, for instance, the Latin epistles of St. Patrick himself,
and the Irish poems of the hardly less eminent Colum Kill. But other
languages were presently added.
[Illustration: Valley of Glendalough and Ruins of the Seven Churches.]