As the Second and Third "Lives of St. Patrick" are practically and
almost verbally identical up to the end of Section XL, the same
translation up to that point will suffice for both.
"Patrick was born at Nemthur. He had a sister named Lupita, whose
relics are preserved at Armagh. Patrick was born in the Field of Tents.
It was called Campus Tabernaculorum because the Roman army, at some
time or other, pitched their tents there during the cold winter season.
"IV.--The boy, however, was reared at Nemthur. . . .
"XI.--This was the cause of his exile and arrival in Ireland: An army
of Irish Scots embarked, as usual, in their ships, and forming a large
fleet sailed over to Britain, and brought back from thence many
captives and carried them to Ireland, the captives numbering altogether
one hundred of both sexes. Patrick was, as he himself testifies, in his
sixteenth year at that time."
The following addition is given in the Third "Life": "Patrick, who was
also called Suchet, was sprung from the British nation, and his country
and the place where he was born was situated not far from the sea. His
father's name was 'Calburnius,' the son of a venerable man named
Potitus; but his mother, Conches by name, was the daughter of
Dechusius. Both parents of this holy man were devoted to religion."
Controversially speaking, neither of these two "Lives" are of any
value. Nemthur is not identified with Dumbarton, and it is not clearly
stated whether the Irish fleet raided the island of Britain or
Armorican Britain, or whether St. Patrick was descended from the Island
or Armorican Britons. A recent writer lays much stress on the fact that
the British word Tabern is used to denote a tent field in the Second,
Third, and Fourth "Lives," but the argument does not carry with it much
weight, for according to Camden the British and Gaulish Celts spoke the
same language, so that it is just as favourable to Armorica as to the
island of Britain (" Britannia," vol. i., p. 11).