Section 1032

liveliness of their ftmcj', or the supposed credulity of their readers. They wrote of his studying with St. Germain, of his attending a monastery near the Med- iterranean, and finally of his going to Kome and re- ceiving ordination from the poi)e. All these are mere inventions, and were not put forth till more than live hundred years after St. Patrick's death, and all of them are presented without a shadow of proof. They are not worth}' the time or the space to disprove them. All that is really known of St. Patrick during this interval is from himself. Some time during this long interval St. Patrick had a dream. He says {Conf. 10), " I saw in my dream a man coming to me from Ireland, whose name was Victoricus, with a great number of letters. He gave me one of them, in the beginning of which was this word, Jlibernicecum. While I was reading this, I tliought I heard the voices of the inhabitants who lived near the woods of Floclu crying with one voice, ' ^ye entreat thee, holy youth, that you come here and walk among us.' I was greatly touched in my heart, and could read no more ; and then I awoke." This dream, and the several ac- companj'ing circumstances, led him to believe that it was a call to Ireland, and about it he was variously exercised, sometimes very happy, again strangely per- plexed, till he felt "that the Spirit helped his infirm- ities to pray as he ought." At some time in this in- terval, he says (Conf. 12), "I was brought down ; but it was rather good for me, for from that time, by the help of God, I began to mend, and he prepared me that day for what I should be, which before had been far from me, to wit, that I should have a care and anxiet}"- for the salvation of others. After this I did not think of myself." Perhaps it was on this occa- sion that he made the vow to God (Conf. 15) " that he would go and preach to the Gentiles, and that he would never leave them." Afterwards (Conf. 15) he says, " I left mj' country, ni}' parents, and the many rewards which had been offered to me, and with tears and weeping I displeased them, and some of these were older than myself; but I did not act contrary to my vow (sed gubernante Deo nullo modo consensi neque acquidvi illis, ut ego venirem ad Hiberniam). God directing me, I consented to no one, nor yielded to them, nor what was grateful to myself. God had overcome me, and restored all things. So I went to Ire- land, to pagans, to preach the Gospel." Thus it would seem that he was sent by no one, but relj'ing wholl}' on his divine call, without bishop, pope, or council, he went to win a pagan nation to Christ, and he did it. Of the time or events of his passage to Ireland we have no trustworthy account. From tradition and contemporary history it appears that St. Patrick com- menced his ministrj' in Ireland al)Out A.D. 432, when nearly fortj'-three years of age. His early movements were not noticed. Gildas (A.D. 540) never alludes to him. The venerable Bede (A.D. 731) never mentions his name, but does that of Palladius, his predecessor, and rather tries to attribute the success of St. Patrick to him. There is ample evidence that the early Irish Church was not in repute among the Roman Catholic clerg}' of the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, nor, indeed, fully until the l'2th. Then his mediaeval biographers, in their legendary tales, write much about his move- ments general!}' ; they represent the whole nation as immediately bowing to the new religion, so that Ge- raldns, in the 12th century, doubted the genuineness of the Irish Church because it had not been founded in blood and persecution. But St. Patrick and the ear- ly Irish converts were persecuted, while the common people received the new fiiith with great readiness ; there is evidence that among the ruling classes and the higher order of tlie Druids there still existed a se- cret though smothered opposition to Christianity, which was only kept in check by the masses of the people. St. Patrick writes thus (Conf. 22) : "At a certain time they even desired to kill me, but my time had not