ST. PATRICK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 14 September 1899, Page 28

ST. PATRICK.

WHAT WAS HIS RELIGION /

In our last issue we showed that St. Patrick's Confession was not a set exposition of the Christian theological system. It v.ap, os Dr. Todd acknowledges, a brief document, and, in the main, of a personal nature. And yet every statement of doctrine and discipline in it is in full harmony with Catholic teaching. The Apostle of Ireland, for instance, held with the Catholic Church — and against the belief of all Protestant denominations — that the bookß of Tobias, Witthm, and Eeclesiasticvs, are divinely inspired, and quoted them as such. The Jews did not. And thus he preferred tie voice of the Church to that of the Jewish people, as his guide to the true canon of the Old Testament, and attached a greater importance to the traditions of the Church than most Protestant writers are anxious to acknowledge. He held by the monastic system, he made 'monks and virgins of Christ,' he believed in the priestly power of binding and loosing, in supernatural vitiors, in anointing with holy oil?, he invoked the eaiDtP, he pieacbd and practised fasting and works of bodily mortifitation. All this appears in bis Confession and his letter to Coroticus, both of -which are admitted to be his genuine writings. It is easy to decide to which religious system these forms of belief —casually mentioned by the Saint — belong.

THE ROMAN MISSION.

The Lawretce lecturer gives a weak echo to the statement of Dr. Tcdd that St. Patrick rests • the authority of his mission altogether ( n dreams and visions.' The insistence of some Protestant authors on this point has its root in a desire to prove that the Saint in c- ming to Ireland received no sanction fr< m Rome. They make the life of St. Patrick a polemical taitle-grour<l,and in straining to ettablibh their pet contention misrepresent the writiDgs of the Saint, Catholic teaching, and the facts oi history. 1. In the first place, bt. Patrick does Dot, either in his Confession or elsewhere, base his mission solely on visi< ns. He attached fo much weight to the opinion of others, that, as he tells us in lr's Confession, 'he was strongly driven to fall away then and for ever.' More6ver, the Book of Armagh states that he received at his consecration the blessings in the usual manner (secmuhtm morem). His visions and inspirations, says Malort, ' were subordinated to the voice of the Church, through her ministers, in reference to his mission.' 2. Again : Protestant writers misrepresent Catholic teaching and discipline in their endeavours to chow that St. Patrick's mission to Ireland was independent of Rome. Some of them, for instance, imagine that his mission would be non-Roman or anti-Roman, or at 1« ast independent of Rome, unless St. Patrick were sent directly by the Pope or by special papal mandate. No well-informed person would- bold such a supposition. The Popes had no idea of reserving exclusively to themselves the erection oE new bishoprics or the evangelisation of pagan countries. Thus, a saint so strongly ' papal ' as St. Athanasius sent St. Frumentius to convert the Nubians. St. Chrysostom Bent the famous Bishop Willa to the infidel Goths. The same was done by Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, and — pursuant to decree of the Council of Chalcedon — by the Archbishop of Constantinople. And Pope St. Gregory complained to Kings Theodoric and Theodobert that the French bishops did not go and do likewise for the pagan Angles. St. Augustine — who was cent by Pope Gregory to convert the English — received faculties to establish bishoprics and even to appoint his own successor. Other instances in point are easily quoted. Even within comparatively recent times the first Catholic bishop in North America had the privilege of appointing his own successor. Briefly then, both before and after St. Patrick's time national apostles had no need of direct appointment from Rome, and whether with or without such appointment they usually had plenaiy powers os regarded the establishment of dioceses, etc. The need of spreading the Gospel was great, and communication with the Pope was a slow and difficult, and often perilous, undertaking. Hence the Churches of Gaul, Italy, Africa, and Spain, which received the faith from Roman missionaries, had generally the privilege, down to St. Patrick's day, of appointing their own archbithops and bishops. The discipline of the Church in St. Patrick's day neither required his presence nor his consecration in Rome. Still, the saint's mission may have had the direct sanction of the Holy See. It had at least an indirect Roman sanction. This is as certain as that the saint lived. And that sanction was as valid and legitimate as the

most direct one could be. No evidence in existence warrants us in believing that there was a departure from the usual discipline of the Church in St. Patrick's case. All the evidence points unmistakably to the Roman and papal character of the Church founded by him in ' green Eire of the Btreams.' So much by way of explanation. It must not be forgotten that we are here dealing with the distant past,' and with a period the contemporary documents of which were to a great extent utterly destroyed partly in internecine war, ibut chiefly in the ravages of the warfare with Danes, Anglo-Normans, and English. But enough remains to prove that all the distinctive features of the Roman Church were strongly impressed upon the early Irish, as upon all the Continental Churches. This evidence is partly direct, partly indirect. But its cumulative force is irresistible. The restricted space at cur disposal this week precludes anything beyond the baldest summary of the leading facts that bear upon the case. The learned Protestant writer, Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his edition of Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (i., p. cxxxv) says of St. Patrick : ' He had a reverent affection for the Church of Home, and there is no ground for disbelieving his desire to obtain Roman authority for his mission, or for questioning the authenticity of the decrees that difficult questions arising in Ireland should ultimately be referred to the Apostolic See.' Another Protestant authority, Wasserschleben, in his edition of the Hibernensis (or eighth century collection of Irish canons), distinctly states that the ancient Irish Church was in unison with Rome, and acknowledged the Pope as its head (p. xxxv.). The canon referred to by both thefe writers. The canon is ascribed by the Book of Armagh to Auxilius, Patrick, and Benignus — proI bably assembled in Synod. It runs as follows :—: — ' Whenever any cause that is very difficult and unknown unto all the judges of the Scottish [i.e., Irish] nation shall arise, it is rightly to be referred to the see of the a T chbishop of the Irish [i.e., of Armagh], and to the examination of the prelate thereof. But if there, by bim and his wise men, a cause of this nature cannot be easily made up, we have decreed that it shall be sent to the Apostolic Pce — that is to say, to the chair of the Apostle Peter, which hath the authority of the city of Rome.' In the older manuscript of the H\hi nu nsi* the decree — of which St Patrick is named as the author — has the following provision : ' If any questions arise in this island, let them be referred to the Apostolic See. Wasserschleben contends that the longer Canon is the original. Others maintain that it is but a pa aphrastic explanation of the shorter one, yet conveying its true meaning. But as Salmon points out: 'As far as the Papal supremacy is concerned, the point is of no importance. Both canons involve that doctrine. Both direct that disputes be carried to Rome. One provides for a preliminary reference to Armagh ; the other does not. And this is the only difference, in substance, between them.'

OTHER POINTS.

Further important side-lights on this question will readily occur to any person who considers (1) where St. Patrick was educated for the Irish mission after leaving home, and (2) the subsequent faith of the people to whom he preached the Gospel. (1) The supplemental leaves in the Brussels manuscript of the Book of Armagh expressly state that ' he fell in with Germanus, a mo6t saintly bishop, a prince in the City of Auxerre, a chief blessing. Here he [St. Patrick] learned for no short period, as Paul at the feet of Gamaliel,' etc. Now St. Germanus had studied the profession of the law in Rome. He was not only the most prominent figure in the Gaulish hierarchy, but we learn from Prospers Chronicle that he was sent by Pope Celestine in A d. 429 as his representative {vice snd) to Britain, with a view to saving it from the Pelagian heresy. In this he was completely successful. The earliest and best authenticated life of St. Patrick, written in the seventh century, and contained in the Booh of Armagh, states that St. Germanus introduced him to the notice of the Pope, and that he was consecrated bishop close to Auxerre by Bishop-Abbot Amatus — perhaps, as Malone suggests, as coadjutor or successor to Palladius. It was while under the tuition of St. Germanus that (as we learn from the Book of Armagh) he received the angelic intimations that the time had come for entering upon the Irish mission. 'He set forth accordingly ,' says Malone, ' and can we have any doubt as to the teaching which our gaint received from the Roman legate Germanus V St. Patrick's canon regarding appeals to Rome was not alone known in the early Irish Church. It was acted upon. A conspicuous instance of this is given in the Paschal Epistle of St. Cummian to Segenus, Abbot of Hy, in 031, published by the Protestant Archbishop Usher. I referred to the controversy which agitated the Irish Church regarding the proper day for celebrating Easter. In that epistle of St. Cummian, Rome is referred to as 'the place which the Loid hath chosen,' ' the fountain of their baptism

and of their wisdom.' The Synod of Magh Lene, in 630 despatched deputies to Rome ' as children to their mother ' — says St. Cummian, one of the Fathers of the Synod — ' in virtue of the precept that if disagreement shall arise between cause and cause,' eto. The decision of Rome on the question was promptly adopted on the retarn of the deputies in or about a.d. 633. The primacy of St. Peter — which involves that of his successors — was clearly acknowledged, as Salmon clearly shows, in the early Irish Church. Thus the Bobbio Missal, an Irish manuscript of the seventh century or earlier, in one of the Masses of his feast, deolares that God had made him ' the head of the Church after Himself.' In the ancient Hymnology St. Peter is styled ' the Supreme Pastor,' ' the Key-bearer,' • the First Pastor,' and is addressed as ' ruling the kingdom of the Apostles.' Claudine, a ninth century Scripture commentator, sayo that he ' specially received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the princedom of judicial authority,' and that all who separated themselves ' in any manner from the unity of his faith or society can neither be absolved from che bonds of sin, as such, nor enter the gate of the heavenly kingdom. St. Columbanus, writing to Pope Boniface IV. in 613, refers to Rome as ' the head of the Churches of the world,' ' the principal see of the orthodox faith,' and to the Pope as ' the pastor of i pastors,' 'the prince of the leaders,' 'the first pastor,' 'the highest,' 'the greatest,' etc., (Migne's Patrologia). The Brussels manuscript referred to above gives Mactheni's Latin Life of St. Patrick (seventh century) which styles Rome ' the head of all the Churches of the whole world.' A similar expression occurs in the Third Life of St. Patrick, as well as in the Fifth Life, by Probus— both of which are set down as tenth century compositions. The devotion of the early Irish people towards the Holy See, the pilgrimages of the early Irish saints to Rome, the papal character of the Christianity established by the Irish missionaries on the Continent of Europe and of the Churches in the neighbouring countries with which the Irish people were in those days in constant communication, are matters that the limitations of available space forbid us entering upon. The ordinary reader will find sufficient to interest and instruct him in Salmon's Ancient Irish Church (Gill, Dublin, 1897), which proves incontestably in how thorough accord the early Irish Church was with us in its government, doctrine, and liturgy — in its acceptance of our canon of Scripture, our principles of Church authority, our sacramental and penitential system, the use of holy oils, the invocation of saints, veneration of images and relics, fasting, praying for the dead, exorcisms, the use of blessed palms, incense, holy water, the sign of the cross, and all the doctrines and practices that are distinctly Roman. To this faith the Irish people have clung in sunshine and storm ever since St. Patrick's days. The present and continuous faith of Ireland is the best evidence of the faith which St. Patrick held. It is written not in canons and decrees only, nor in epistles, but ' in the fleshy tablets of the heart.' And like the faith of the Romans, from which it is derived, it is ' spoken of in the whole world.' If any claim that there is a note of discord between, say, the teachings of St. Patrick and St. Columbanus, or between the so of St. Columbanus and St. Laurence O'Toole, or between him and the present Catholio Primate of Armsgh. the burden of proving that divergence falls upon them. Thus far they have signally and hopelessly failed. All the documents that have come down to us through the wreck of ages tell the same way— and that is in favour of the papal and Catholic character of the early Irish Church.