Ignoring altogether both the Scotch and Welsh theories as to the
birthplace of St. Patrick, Professor Bury, in his Life of the Saint,
holds that Ireland's Apostle was born in a village named Bannaventa;
not, however, Bannaventa now known as Daventry in Northamptonshire,
seeing that that town would be too far "from the Western sea," but
another Bannaventa somewhere on the sea coast, and "perhaps in the
region of the Severn" (chap, ii., p. 17, and Appendix, 323).
The whole of Professor Bury's new theory rests on a very faint
similarity between Bonaven or Bannaven--the name which the Saint gives
to the town of his birth--and Bannaventa; and on an entirely gratuitous
assumption that there must have been a town named Bannaventa "in the
regions of the lower Severn."
Professor Bury is recognised as a very able historian by the literary
world; his Appendix alone to the "Life of St. Patrick" affords ample
proof of his learning and genius. Nevertheless, he occasionally
indulges in some obiter dicta without historical proof, and at times
lays himself open to the charge of want of historical accuracy. For
instance, he ascribes the origin of the Papal power to a decree of the
Emperor Valintinian III., issued in A.D. 445 at the instance of Pope
Leo, which is supposed to have conferred "on the Bishop of Rome sovran
authority in the Western provinces which were under the imperial sway."
Before that period, he tells us, "the Roman See was recognised by
imperial decrees of Valintinian I. and Gratian as a Court to which the
clergy might appeal from the decisions of Provincial Councils in any
part of the Western portion of the Empire"; that "the answers to such
were called Decretals"; that there were no Decretals before those of
Damasus (366, 384); "that those who consulted the Roman Pontiff were
not bound in any way to accept his ruling"; and that when Pope Zosimus
endeavoured to enforce his Decretals "he was smitten on one cheek by
the Synods of Africa; he was smitten on the other by the Gallic Bishops
at the Council of Turin." "By tact and adroitness," Pope Leo induced
the Emperor Valintinian III. to issue an edict which established the
Papal power over the Western provinces of the Roman Empire. The
Professor explains how Ireland, on account of its geographical
position, was drawn into the Roman Confederation; and it is on that
account that he admits the genuineness of the decree of a Synod held by
St. Patrick, to the effect that in cases of ecclesiastical
difficulties, which the Irish Bishops could not solve themselves, the
Sovereign Pontiff should be asked to give a decision ("Life of St.
Patrick," pp. 59--66).
The Professor's perversion of ecclesiastical history is a blot on his
otherwise excellent "Life of St. Patrick." How can he reconcile these
statements with St. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, which
Eusebius admits to be genuine, or with Pope Stephen's exercise of
pontifical authority in the case of St. Cyprian and the question of
validity of baptism conferred by heretics; or with the celebrated
declaration of St. Irenaeus on the authority of the Church of Rome,
which is as follows: "It is a matter of necessity that every Church
should agree with this Church on account of its pre-eminent authority,
that is, the faithful of all nations"? ("Irenseus contra Hereses," vol.
L, lib. iii., cap. iii., sect. 2, translated by Rev. A. Roberts,
Edinburgh, 1868). Now St. Clement lived in Apostolic times, St. Cyprian
from 200 to 258, and St. Irenaeus flourished between A.D. 150 to 202,
while the Roman Emperors were persecuting the Church. Leaving the
well-defined path of history, the Professor indulges in speculations
which will seem to most people to be without warrant.
St. Patrick's home, he tells us, was in "a village named Bannaventa,
but we cannot with any certainty identify its locality. The only
Bannaventa that we know lays near Daventry; but this position does not
agree with an ancient indication that the village of Calphurnius was
close to the Western sea. As the two elements of the name Bannaventa
were probably not uncommon in British geographical nomenclature, it is
not rash to suppose that there were other small places so called
besides the only Bannaventa that happens to appear in Roman
geographical sources, and we may be inclined to look for the Bannaventa
of Calphurnius in South-Western Britain, perhaps in the regions of the
lower Severn. The village must have been in the neighbourhood of a town
in possession of a municipal council of decurions" (chap, ii., pp. 16,
17).
The Professor quietly assumes without proof that Bonaven and Bannaventa
are one and the same; that "vicus" is used in its secondary meaning of
"a village," and not in its primary signification, "a district or
quarter of a town," in the "Confession"; and while admitting that there
was no other town in Britain named Bannaventa except Bannaventa in
Northampton, as far as can be gathered from "Roman sources of
information," and passing over the fact that Camden's "Britannia,"
which gives the history of every old town in the kingdom, and Horsley's
"Britannia Romana," which performs the same task, make no mention of
any other Bannaventa, whilst old maps and itineraries are equally
silent, the Professor seemingly rests satisfied with his own mere
conjecture, that there may have been another Bannaventa, which was
probably situated in the regions of the lower Severn. Surely a
speculation of this kind may well be called unwarranted.