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BOULOGNE-SUR-MER
The cross marks the ruins of the fortifications built around Caligula's
Tower by Henry VIII.,
King of England.
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER:
ST. PATRICK'S NATIVE TOWN
BY THE
REV. WILLIAM CANON FLEMING,
RECTOR OF ST. MARY'S, MOORFIELDS, LONDON
R. & T. WASHBOURNE
1 2 & 4 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
BENZIGER BROS.: NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, AND CHICAGO.
1907.
Nihil Obstat.
GULIRLMUS CANONICUS GILDEA, D.D., M.R.
Imprimatur.
FRANCISCUS,
Archiepiscopus
Westmonasteriensis.
THIS HISTORY OF ST. PATRICK'S NATIVE TOWN
IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE
RIGHT REVEREND PATRICK FENTON
BISHOP OF AMYCLA
AND
BISHOP AUXILIARY OF WESTMINSTER.
PREFACE.
THE numerous bewildering and contradictory theories to be met with in
books, pamphlets, and reviews concerning St. Patrick's native country are
calculated to provoke a spirit of weary incredulity and impatience.
However, when presenting this book to the public, we may quote the late
Canon O'Hanlon's plea for adventurous writers who still endeavour to solve
the problem: "The question of St. Patrick's country," writes the
distinguished author of the "Lives of the Irish Saints," "
has an interest for all candid investigators far beyond the claim of rival
nations for the honour it should confer. It has been debated, indeed, with
considerable learning and earnestness both by Irish and foreign writers;
yet, as Ireland does not prefer any serious claim to the distinction, of
which she might well feel proud, so can Irishmen afford to be impartial in
prosecuting such an enquiry" (St. Patrick, March 17th).
From a patriotic point of view it might be urged that, although
innumerable books and pamphlets have been written on our subject, not one
too many has seen the light, inasmuch as each of them has served in a
greater or lesser degree to keep the memory of our great Apostle ever
fresh in our minds.
We are deeply indebted to the Rev. Professor Leilleux, who is at
present engaged in writing a "History of the Diocese of
Boulogne-sur-Mer," and to the Abbe Massot, chaplain to the Little
Sisters of the Poor in that town, for having clearly proved to us that
ancient Bononia was called "Bonauen," and Caligula's tower—Turris
Ordinis—was called "Nemtor" by the Gaulish Celts. These
discoveries go far to show that the Apostle of Ireland was a native of
ancient Bononia, now called Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Colgan, who published his "Trias Thaumaturga" in 1647,
assures us in his fifth Appendix, chapter i., that there was an old
tradition in Armorica that St. Patrick was a native of that province; and
the same author adds that several Irish writers adhered to that opinion.
This book, therefore, does not seek to formulate a new theory; its only
object is to gather together many of the records which tend to prove that
St. Patrick was born in Armorican Britain.
Our most grateful thanks are also due to the Very Rev. Canon Gildea,
D.D., M.R., who has kindly read through this book for the "Nil obstat";
and to the courteous Curator of the Library and Museum at Boulogne for
permitting us to make a sketch of Caligula's famous tower and lighthouse,
which was called Turris Ordinis or Turris Ardens by the Romans, and Nemtor
or Nemthur by the Armorican Britons.
WILLIAM CANON FLEMING.
ST. MARY'S, MOORFIELDS,
LONDON, E.C.
CONTENTS.
St. Patrick's Parentage
The Different Birthplaces assigned to St. Patrick
Bonaven Taberniae was well known to the Irish Scots
History of the Town Bonaven, or Bononia
St. Patrick made Captive by Niall of the Nine Hostages
St. Patrick after his Captivity returns to
(Gaul) his Native Country
St. Fiacc's Nemthur was situated in the Suburbs of
Boulogne
St. Fiacc describes St. Patrick's Flight from Ireland
to Armorica
The Scholiast practically admits St. Patrick's Birth
in Armorica
The "Trepartite Life" falls into the Same
Error
All that the Second and Third "Lives" testify
The Fourth "Life"
The Sixth "Life of St. Patrick," by Jocelin
The Fifth "Life," by Probus, proves that St.
Patrick was born in Bononia
St. Patrick's Flight to Marmoutier described by Probus
Britain in Gaul St. Patrick's Native Country
Britanniae in the Plural not appropriated to Great
Britain
St. Patrick calls Coroticus, a British Prince,
"Fellow Citizen"
Summary
The Site of the Villula where St. Patrick was born
ST. PATRICK'S PARENTAGE.
ABOUT the middle of the fourth century a noble decurion named
Calphurnius espoused Conchessa, the niece of St. Martin of Tours. Heaven
blessed their union with several children, the youngest of whom was a boy,
who received at his baptism the name of Succath, which in the Gaelic
tongue signifies "valiant."
Jocelin is responsible for the statement that the parents of the future
Apostle of Ireland took, by mutual consent, the vow of celibacy after St.
Patrick's birth, and that Calphurnius, like St. Gregory of Nyssa, St.
Hilary, and St. Germanus, who were all married men, "closed his days
in the priesthood" (chap, ii., p. 2). "There were thousands of
priests and Bishops," as Dr. Dollinger observes, "who had sons
before their ordination" ("History of the Church," vol.
ii., p. 23, note).
There are others, however, like Father Bullen Morris, who are of
opinion that St. Patrick's declaration in the "Confession" that
his father was "a deacon" is a mistake on the part of the
copyist for "decurion," and, as a proof of this contention, they
point to the words made use of by the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus,
which is admittedly genuine: "I am of noble blood, for my father was
a decurion. I have bartered my nobility—for which I feel neither shame
nor sorrow—for the sake of others." It is difficult to reconcile
this statement with the assurance given in the "Confession" that
his father was a humble deacon. "It is inconceivable," as Father
Bullen Morris argues, "that the Saint, sprung from a noble family,
should base his claim to nobility on the fact that his father, Calphurnius,
was a deacon. On the other hand, the theory that Calphurnius was a Roman
officer fits in with both statements of the Saint" ("St.
Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," p. 285, Appendix).
The same author gives another reason for calling in question this part
of the text of the "Confession" in the "Book of Armagh."
A scribe made an addition to the genealogy of St. Patrick as recorded in
the Book, writing on the margin "Son of Odisseus"; and these
words are actually introduced into the text by Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his
edition of the "Confession," without either note or comment. It
is easy to imagine, therefore, that ancient Celtic writers, with their
passion for genealogies, should tamper with the ancestors of St. Patrick.
Nicholson, a distinguished Irish scholar, was, of opinion that the
addition "a deacon" was mere guesswork on the part of the
copyist, and wrote "incertus liber hic"—"the book is here
unreliable" ("St. Patrick, Apostle of Ireland," Appendix,
pp. 286—288).
Moreover, if the word "a deacon" in the "Book of Armagh"
is the true reading, it must surely be a matter for surprise that St.
Patrick, who sternly enforced the law of celibacy in Ireland as part of
the discipline of the Catholic Church, should describe himself as the son
of a deacon without either comment or explanation, and more especially
when we remember that the Council of Elvira, A.D. 305, and the Council of
Aries, A.D. 314, had enforced the laws of celibacy—"The severe
discipline of the Councils of Elvira and Aries," writes Alzog,
"obtained the force of law and became general throughout the Western
Church" ("Universal Church History," vol. i., chap, iv.,
pp. 280, 281). The practice of clerical celibacy, therefore, existed in
the Western Church probably before Calphurnius was born, and certainly
before he was old enough to get married.
Calphurnius was admittedly a decurion, or Roman officer. Now Pope
Innocent I., in his Letter to Exuperius, Bishop of Toulouse, in the year
405, in answer to a number of questions submitted to him by the Bishop,
stated that there was an impediment to the ordination of men who had
served in the army on account of the loose morality prevalent in the camp.
As the Pope was simply laying down the rules of discipline already
existing in the Church, Calphurnius, being a Roman officer, could not have
been ordained without the removal of the impediment. All this tends at
least to prove that we should read "decurion" for
"deacon" in the "Confession."
According to the "Book of Sligo," St. Patrick was born on
Wednesday (373), baptized on Wednesday, and died on Wednesday, March 17th,
A.D. 493.
The Different Birthplaces assigned
to St. Patrick
BARONIUS and Matthew of Westminster declare that St. Patrick was born
in Ireland, but scarcely any writer of the present day ventures to express
that view. O'Sullivan, Keating, Lanigan, and many French writers contend
that he was a native of Armoric Gaul, or Britain in France. Welshmen are
strongly of opinion that Ross Vale, Pembrokeshire, was the honoured place;
whilst Canon Sylvester Malone attributed the glory to Burrium,
Monmouthshire, a town situated, as Camden narrates, near the spot where
the River Brydhin empties itself into the Usk. The Scholiast, Colgan, and
Archbishop Healy seem to have no doubt as to the Saint's birth at
Dumbarton. Ware believes that a town that once stood almost under the
shadow of the crag possessed a stronger claim; Usher and the Aberdeen
Breviary are equally positive that Kilpatrick was the town. Cardinal
Moran, on the other hand, has convinced himself that St. Patrick first saw
the light of day at a place that once stood near the present town of
Hamilton, just where the river Avon discharges itself into the Clyde. Some
English writers have strongly advocated the claims of a Roman town named
Bannaventa that once stood near the present site of Davantry,
Northamptonshire. Professor Bury, in his "Life of St. Patrick,"
had the doubtful honour of inventing a new birthplace for the Saint; he
tells us that St. Patrick was born at a Bannaventa, "which was
probably situated in the regions of the Lower Severn."
ST. PATRICK WAS NOT BORN IN WALES.
The belief that St. Patrick was born in Ross Vale, Pembrokeshire, is
founded principally on the supposed acceptance of that view by Camden, and
on an old tradition to the effect that St. Patrick, having completed his
missionary labours in Ireland, founded a monastery at Menevia and died
there.
As the authority of the learned Camden carries with it great weight, it
will here be not out of place to quote his own declaration, which is as
follows: "Beyond Ross Vale is a spacious promontory called by Ptolemy
Octopitarum, by the Britons Pebidiog and Kantev-Dewi, and by the English
St. David's land. . . . It was the retiring place and nursery of several
Saints, for Calphurnius, a British priest—as some have written, I
know not hew truly—begot there St. Patrick, the Apostle of
Ireland" ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 32). The same author,
in another place, gives expression to his own views on the subject, to
which, indeed, he does not seem to have devoted very serious study.
"St. Patrick," he writes, "was a Briton born in Clydesdale,
and related to St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, and he was a disciple of St.
Germanus" ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 326).
The Ross Vale theory has, in truth, as little in its favour as the old,
but groundless, tradition that St. Patrick founded a monastery and ended
his days at Menevia. This is plainly contradicted by the Saint's assertion
that after he had landed as a missionary in Ireland he never once left,
and ended his days in the land of his adoption. "Though I could have
wished to leave them" (the Irish), writes the Saint in his
"Confession," "and had been desirous of going to Britain,
as if to my own country and parents, and not that alone, but even to Gaul
to visit my brethren, and see the face of the Lord's Saints. But I am
bound in the spirit, and He who witnesseth all will account me guilty if I
do it, and I fear to lose the labour which I have begun; and not I, but
the Lord Christ, who commanded me to come and remain with them for the
rest of my life, if the Lord prolongs it, and keeps me from all sin before
Him." This statement, which was made by St. Patrick just before his
death, when he wrote the "Confession," could never have been
volunteered if he had once left the country where the Lord had commanded
him to remain for the rest of his life.
THE SCOTCH THEORIES ON THIS SUBJECT.
The Scholiast and Colgan, who identify the Crag of Dumbarton with the
Nemthur of the Saint's nativity, are faced by the unanswerable difficulty
that though Nemthur may be the name of a tower, or may be the name of the
district in which the tower stood, it cannot be the name of a town. The
Saint in his "Confession" states that his father hailed from the
suburban district of a town called Bonaven Tabernise, where he possessed a
country seat, from which he (the Saint) was carried off into captivity.
Bonaven, therefore, is rightly regarded as St. Patrick's native town. St.
Fiacc simply states that St. Patrick was born at Nemthur, but he does not
assart that Nemthur was a town, otherwise he would be at variance with his
Patron, who plainly gives us to understand that he was born at Bonaven
Tabernise, The only way of reconciling this apparent conflict of evidence
is to assume that St. Fiacc is giving the name either of the tower or the
district in which St. Patrick was born, while the Saint is giving the name
of the town of which he was a native, but not the name of the district
which was honoured by his birth.
Dr. Lanigan, however, objects "that no sensible writer, wishing to
inform his readers where the Saint was born, would say that he came into
the world in a tower" ("Eccl. Hist.," vol. i., p. 101).
Nemthur may indeed be a corruption of Neustria, as Dr. Lanigan
suggests; but it must not be forgotten that districts not unfrequently
derive their names from famous monuments that either stand or have stood
in their midst. We have an illustration of this in the very locality where
many believe that St. Patrick was born. The high level on the
north-eastern cliff's of Boulogne is called even at the present time
"Tour d'Ordre," deriving its name from Caligula's tower, which
the Romans called Turris Ordinis, and the Gaulish Celts called Nemtor,
which once stood on the lofty plateau, but is no longer in existence.
Ware's theory, in his own words, is this: "I must dissent from the
Scholiast that Nemthur and Alcuid were the same place; though it must be
granted that they stood near each other, as appears from a passage of
Jocelin: 'there was a promontory hanging over the town of Empthor, a
certain fortification, the ruins of which are yet visible,' and a little
later: 'this celebrated place, seated in the valley of the Clyde, is, in
the language of the country, called "Dunbreaton," that is, the
Fort of the Britons'" (Ware, vol. i., p. 6).
Relying also on Jocelin's statement that Tabernise signified a
"Field of Tents"—"Tabernaculorum Campus"—and on
his unwarranted assertion that the habitation of Calphurnius was "not
far from the Irish Sea," Usher pointed out Kilpatrick, a town
situated between Dumbarton and the city of Glasgow, as St. Patrick's
native town.
Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick," as Canon O'Hanlon has said,
is "incomparably the worst" of the Latin lives of the Saint, and
yet it is on this untrustworthy foundation, and on the contradictions of
the Scholiast, that Usher and Ware rest their respective theories. Usher
discovered a Roman camp at Kilpatrick, and found that the town was
"not far from the Irish Sea," and it is upon this weak
hypothesis that the Kilpatrick theory rests.
The Aberdeen Breviary coincides with Usher, and the lesson referring to
St. Patrick is as follows: "St. Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, was
born of Calphurnius, a man of illustrious Celtic descent, and of Conchessa,
a native of Gaul and a sister of St. Martin, Bishop of Tours. He was
conceived with many miraculous signs at Dumbarton Castle, but was born and
reared at Kilpatrick in Scotland, near the Castle."
But if the Aberdeen Breviary asserts that St. Patrick was born at
Kilpatrick, the Continental Breviaries, as Colgan freely admits, are
equally positive that he was a native of Armoric Gaul.
Cardinal Moran, in an article contributed to the Dublin Review
in the spring of 1880, insisted rightly that the solution of the
difficulty is to be found in the word Bonaven. Bon, or Ban, he tells us,
is a Celtic word which signifies the mouth of a river, and Avon is the
river itself. From this, he argues that the Saint was born at a town which
once stood on the present site of Hamilton, which is situated at the mouth
of the Avon, just where that river discharges itself into the Clyde. The
same argument would apply with equal force to a town situated at the mouth
of the River Aven on the French coast, which flows into the harbour of
Concarneu in Brittany.
Anyone who accepts the authority of Probus, who asserts that Bonaven
Tabernise "was not far from the Western sea," or of the
Scholiast, who is the author of the Dumbarton theory, will see a grave
objection to accepting the Cardinal's solution of the problem: Hamilton is
about fifty miles distant from Dumbarton, and far away from the Atlantic
Ocean.
None of the authors mentioned make any attempt to reconcile the two
contradictory statements of the Scholiast: (1) that St. Patrick was born
at Dumbarton, and (2) that he was captured in Armorica. They have failed
to notice that, if the Saint was captured in Armorica, he could not have
been born at Dumbarton, because he assures us in his
"Confession" that he was captured at his father's home. Even
according to the admissions of the Scholiast, therefore, Bonaven Tabernise,
St. Patrick's home, was situated in Armorica. Usher, Ware, and Cardinal
Moran, while contending that the Apostle of Ireland was born in North
Britain, refuse to accept the Scholiast's statement that he was a native
of Dumbarton.
ST. PATRICK WAS NOT BORN IN GREAT BRITAIN.
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.
ST. PATRICK WAS A NATIVE OF ARMORIC GAUL.
Colgan, when he published his "Trias Thaumaturga" in 1647,
admitted that there was "A constant tradition amongst the inhabitants
of that country that St. Patrick was a native of Armorican Britain, which
tradition several Irishmen endorse," (In Britannia Armorica regione
Gallise natum esse vetus est traditio incolarum istius terrae cui nonulli
suffragantur Hiberni.) (Appendix 5, p. 2.)
Don Philip O'Sullivan, who published "Patriciana Decas" in
1621, strongly upheld this view. Attempts, however, have more recently
been made to prove that St. Patrick was a native of Scotland, but there
undoubtedly existed a tradition in favour of the belief that St. Patrick
came from Gaul to Ireland, and this view is firmly held by Keating and
Lanigan, two of our ablest Irish historians.
St. Patrick narrates in his "Confession" that he was born in
the suburbs of a town called Bonaven, where there was a Roman encampment,
and that, when a youth in his fifteenth year, he was taken prisoner by the
Irish Scots, "the nation to whom he showed tender forgiveness."
The very year of his capture corresponds with the raid of Niall of the
Nine Hostages into Armorica. As the Irish Scots invaded that country just
when St. Patrick had attained his fifteenth year, and as the Saint
declared that he had been taken prisoner by men of the nation which he had
converted, it is more than probable that he was taken prisoner during that
raid.
As Bononia, or Boulogne-sur-Mer, was called Bonauen by the Gaulish
Celts, and as the "v" and "u" are convertible in
Gaelic, the Bonauen of the Gaulish Celts and the Bonaven of St. Patrick's
"Confession" may well be one and the same place. Indeed, there
are arguments which seem to place their identity beyond reasonable doubt.
St. Fiacc declares that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur.
Now, Nemtor was the name given by the Gaulish Celts to Caligula's tower in
the suburbs, and close to the City of Bononia, or Boulogne. St. Fiacc,
therefore, gives the name of the district—for the district about Nemthur
was named after the prominent landmark in its midst, and St. Patrick the
name of the town in the suburbs of which he was born.
According to the Celtic legend, Calphurnius was a Roman officer in
charge of the tower, and was slain on the occasion when his son Patrick
was made prisoner by the Irish Scots.
A close examination, however, of the "Confession" and of the
old Latin lives of the Saint, will, it seems to us, securely determine
which of the four theories—the Scotch, the Welsh, the English, or the
French—concerning St. Patrick's native country, carried with it the
greatest amount of probability.
Bonaven Taberniae was well known to
the Irish Scots
THIS will appear evident from a close study of the
"Confession": "Ego Patritius, peccator, rustissimus et
minimus omnium fidelium, et contemptabilissimus apud plurimos, patrem
habui Calphurnium diaconum, filium quondam Potiti, presbyteri, qui fuit
vico Bonaven Taberniae, villulam enim prope habuit ubi ego in capturam
dedi. Annorum tune eram fere XVI."
"I, Patrick, a sinner, the most uncultured and humblest of all the
Faithful, and, in the eyes of many, the most contemptible, had for father
Calphurnius, a deacon, and the son of Potitus, a priest, who hailed from
the suburbs of Bonaven, where the encampment stood, for he possessed a
little country seat close by, from whence I was taken captive when I had
almost attained my sixteenth year."
The primary meaning of "vicus" is a district, or a quarter of
a city, and "villula" signifies "a little country
seat" (Smith's "Latin and English Dictionary"). The
district of the city of Bonaven alluded to was evidently suburban, because
the house in which Calphurnius and his family dwelt was a "little
country seat," which was, nevertheless, close to ("prope")
the town.
The Saint must have had some special reason for writing the name of his
native town in Gaelic, while the rest of the "Confession" is
written in Latin. There was a very important town in Armorican Britain at
the time, which was called Bononia by the Romans, and Bonauen by the
Gaulish Celts (Hersart de la Villemarque Celtic Legend, pp. 3, 4). In the
days of Julius Caesar its harbour was called Portus Ictius ("Dictionnaire
Archeologique et Historique du Pas de Calais").
O'Donovan, who translated the "Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by
the Four Masters," assures us in a note, under the year 405, that
Niall of the Nine Hostages was assassinated by the banished Prince
Eochaidh at Muir N'Icht, which the translator identifies as Bononia, or
Boulogne-sur-Mer. Keating, on the other hand, narrates that King Niall
received his mortal wound on the banks of the Loire. It is easy to
reconcile the apparent difference between the two accounts, if we assume
that the wounded Monarch was carried in a dying state to join the fleet
which lay at anchor in the fine bay which then formed the outer harbour of
Boulogne, and that he had at least the consolation of dying on board his
own ship.
Muir N'Icht, or Portus Ictius, then possessed the finest harbour in
northern Gaul. From the days of Julius Caesar, Portus Ictius, or the
harbour of Boulogne, was the port from which the Roman troops sailed to
Britain, and the harbour to which they steered on their return. On top of
Caligula's tower there was a lighthouse for the guidance of vessels at
sea. The very fact that King Niall made use of this harbour when he raided
Armorica in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, makes it likely that he
sailed into the same harbour when first invading that country in the ninth
year of his reign. The sons of the soldiers who took part in the second
raid were still alive; and the memories of both expeditions were still
fresh in the minds of the brave Irish Scots when St. Patrick wrote his
"Confession."
The records of both expeditions were undoubtedly read at the annual
Feast of Tara, when the Kings, nobles and learned were accustomed to meet
annually and examine the National records (Keating, pp. 337—388).
The triumphant march of devastation made by the Irish Monarch in the
ninth year of his reign, when he led his troops "from the walls of
Antoninus to the shores of Kent"; the successful raid into Armorica
which commenced with the capture of the Roman encampment at Haute Ville,
Boulogne, and ended in the plundering of the surrounding country, must
have been the burden of many a warlike song whenever the Irish minstrels
chanted the glorious triumphs of King Niall's invincible troops. It is,
therefore, but natural to suppose every man, woman, and child in Ireland
had often heard the name of Bonaven, where the soldiers of King Niall
stormed the encampment, and where the ever-conquering Monarch expired.
St. Patrick, who, according to the "Scholiast," the Fifth and
Tripartite Lives, and Heating's "History" (p. 312), was captured
in Armorica, and who, according to Hersart de la Villemarque and Dr.
Lanigan, was taken captive at Boulogne, was well aware that every Irishman
would know the town to which he was referring when he declared in his
"Confession" that his father, Calphurnius, and consequently he
himself, hailed from the suburban district of Bonaven Taberniae, or
Bononia, where the Roman encampment stood.
History of the Town Bonaven, or
Bononia
THE ancient records of Bononia, or Boulogne-sur-Mer, date back to about
half a century before Christ—to the time when Julius Caesar,
anticipating Napoleon the Great, stood on the north-eastern cliffs of that
town gazing through the Channel mist on the dim outline of that Britain
which he had resolved to subjugate.
At that period two headlands stretched out into the sea for a distance
of three miles—one on the northeastern side of the town, near to what is
now known as Fort la Cresche; and the other from Cape Alpreck, about three
miles lower down on the south-western coast. These headlands, stretching
out into the sea, so encircled a bay as to form it into an outward haven.
The inner harbour of Boulogne was approached by a narrow channel
dividing the north-eastern from the south-western cliffs; and the waters
of the bay, flowing through it and uniting with the River Liane in
covering the present site of the lower town, rushed onwards as far as the
valley of Tintelleries and the vale of St. Martin.
Facing the site of the present town there was an island called Elna,
and on it was built the ancient town of Gessoriac, which was connected
with the mainland by a bridge. Realising the future importance of the
place both for naval and military purposes, Caesar commissioned Pedius, a
native of Bononia, in Italy, to lay out a town on the declivity of the
Grande Rue, leading to Haute Ville, as the upper town and the hill leading
to it are called at the present day. (Bertrand's "History of
Boulogne-sur-Mer," pp. 17, 18. "Walkernaer's Geography,"
vol. i., p. 454).
The walls of the present fortifications of Haute Ville, built in the
thirteenth century, rest on the ancient foundations of the old Roman
encampment. This fact was proved at the time when a tunnelling was made
for the railway from Boulogne to Calais under Haute Ville ("Dictionnaire
Historique et Archeologique du Pas de Calais," vol. i, p. 22). The
circuit of the present fortifications, about 700 yards square, present
to-day the appearance pf the old Roman encampment. "The camp of a
Roman legion," writes Gibbon, "presented all the appearance of a
fortified city. As soon as the place was marked out, the pioneers
carefully levelled the ground and removed every impediment that might
interrupt its perfect regularity. It forms an exact quadrangle, and we
might calculate that a square of 700 yards was sufficient for the
encampment of 20,000 Romans, though a similar number of our troops would
expose to an enemy a front of more than treble its extent. In the midst of
the camp the pretorium, or general's quarters, rose above the others; the
cavalry, the infantry, and the auxiliaries occupied their respective
stations; the streets were broad and straight, and a vacant of 200 feet
was left on all sides between the tents and the ramparts. The rampart
itself was usually twelve feet high, and defended by a ditch twelve feet
in depth, as well as in breadth. This important labour was performed by
the legionaries themselves, to whom the use of the spade and the pick-axe
was no less familiar than the sword and the pilum" ("Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire," vol. i., p. 27.) This gives a faithful
description of the Roman encampment (Castra Stativa) at Boulogne, which is
described by St. Patrick as Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman
encampment was pitched. Bononia, according to Bertrand's "History of
Boulogne," was regarded by the Romans as their "principal
dockyard" in Northern Gaul; and Suetonius, in his "Lives of the
Twelve Caesars," describes it "as the port from which the Roman
legions successively departed for Britain" (p. 283, note).
Many err in supposing that Gessoriac and Bononia were one and the same
town, originally called Gessoriac, and later, that is to say during the
reign of Constantine the Great, known as Bononia. It is true, however,
that during that Emperor's reign Gessoriac also came to be called Bononia.
It is well to observe that the Morini, or inhabitants of the coast in
the neighbourhood of Boulogne, were converted to Christianity by St.
Firmin about the close of the second century; and that St. Fusian built a
chapel on the banks of the River Liane, which flows through Boulogne, in
the year 275.
St. Patrick, in his "Confession," represents himself and the
fellow-citizens of his youth as Christians who had not observed the
Commandments of God, and who had not been obedient to their priests. At
that time the Northern Britons were pagans; St. Ninian, who flourished
about the year 400, was the first missioner who preached the Gospel to the
Dalraida and Southern Picts. They could not, therefore, have been
described in the year 388, when St. Patrick was made captive, as
Christians who had ceased to practise their religion. "I knew not the
real God," writes St. Patrick, "and I was brought captive to
Ireland with many thousand men, as we deserved, for we had forgotten God
and had not kept His Commandments, and were disobedient to our priests,
who admonished us for our salvation. And the Lord brought down upon us the
anger of His Spirit, and scattered us amongst many nations, even to the
ends of the earth, where now my humble self may be witnessed among
strangers" ("Confession").
St. Patrick made Captive by Niall of
the Nine Hostages
GIBBON narrates that about the middle of the fourth century the
"sea coast of Gaul and Britain were exposed to the depredations of
the Saxons" (vol. i., P- 739); and Bertrand, in his "History of
Boulogne," admits that the city was plundered by the Saxons in the
year 371, but that the invaders spared Caligula's tower and lighthouse on
account of its usefulness for their safe navigation. The silence of local
history concerning two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica in the
years 388 and 402 is not surprising, seeing that French writers admit that
there is practically no history of Armorica or more than a century after
the Saxon raid in the year 371. Gibbon, however, in his history of the
"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," narrates that "the
hostile tribes of the North, who detested the pride and power of the King
of the World, suspended their domestic feuds, and the barbarians of the
land and sea, the Picts, the Scots, and the Saxons, spread themselves with
rapid and irresistible fury from the walls of Antoninus to the shores of
Kent" (vol. i., p. 744). Keating supplements this information by
describing the two raids made by the Irish Scots into Armorica; the first
of which took place in the year 388, and the second in 402, or about that
time. This Irish historian is considered by Professor Stokes to be a most
trustworthy authority. "Keating," writes the Professor,
"had access to the Munster Documents, which are now lost. He gives a
long account of the Irish invasions of England and France exactly
corresponding to the statements of the Roman historian, Amianus
Marcellinus, and to the 'Annals of the Four Masters'" ("Ireland
and the Celtic Church," p. 38, note).
Of the raids of King Niall into Armorica the first is the more
interesting, for it proves, first, that St. Patrick was born in the year
373, and, next, that he was captured neither in North Britain, nor Wales,
but in Armorican Britain.
To escape from these conclusions, Doctor Lanigan, who held that St.
Patrick was born in the year 387, writes as follows: "I find in
Keating but one expedition of Niall to the coast of Gaul, during which he
says, in another place, that St. Patrick with two hundred of the noblest
youth were brought away. . . . This event occurred in the latter end of
Niall Naoigiallach's reign, and not as early as the ninth year of it. . .
. We have no authority," continues Lanigan, "for his having
visited Gaul at any time until the period already given, and which is
clearly marked in Irish history. Our Saint's captivity may be assigned to
403, and to a time not long prior to King Niall's death. Thus the date of
his birth and captivity, considering the circumstances now mentioned, help
to confirm each other, and, combined with his age at consecration,
authorizes his birth in 387" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland,"
vol. i., pp. 137, 138).
Contrary to what Dr. Lanigan has just stated, a close study of
Keating's "History" will prove that King Niall made two raids
into Armorica, the first in the ninth and the second in the twenty-seventh
year of his reign, and the account of the two expeditions is clear and
unmistakable. "There is an old manuscript in vellum, exceedingly
curious, entitled 'The Life of St. Patrick,' which treats likewise of the
lives of Muchuda Albain and other Saints, from which I," writes
Keating, "shall transcribe a citation that relates to St. Patrick.
"Patrick was a Briton born and descended from religious
parents," and in the same place is the following remark: "The
Irish Scots, under Niall the King, wasted and destroyed many provinces in
Britain in opposition to the power of the Romans. They attempted to
possess themselves of the northern part of Britain, and, at length, having
driven out the old inhabitants, these Irish seized upon the country and
settled in it." The same author (of the manuscript) upon this
occasion remarks that from henceforth Great Britain was divided into three
kingdoms, that were distinguished by the names of Scotia, Anglia, and
Britia.
This ancient writer likewise asserts that when Niall, the hero of the
Nine Hostages, undertook the expedition for settling the tribe of the
Dailraida in Scotland, the Irish fleet sailed to the place where St.
Patrick resided; "At this time the fleet out of Ireland plundered the
country in which St. Patrick then lived, and, according to the custom of
the Irish, many captives were carried away from thence, among whom was St.
Patrick, in the sixteenth year of his age, and his two sisters, Lupida and
Darerca; and St. Patrick was led captive into Ireland in the ninth
year of the reign of Niall, King of Ireland, who was the mighty monarch of
the kingdom for seven-and-twenty years, and brought away spoils out of
England, Britain, and France."
"By this expression it is supposed," continues Keating,
"that Niall of the Nine Hostages waged war against Britain or Wales,
and perhaps made a conquest of the country; and it is more than
probable that, when the Irish Prince had finished his design upon the
kingdom of Wales, he carried his arms in a fleet to France and invaded the
country at the time called Armorica, but now Little Brittany, and from
thence he led St. Patrick and his two sisters into captivity.
"And this I am rather induced to believe, because the mother of
St. Patrick was sister of St. Martin, the Bishop of Tours in France; and I
have read in an ancient Irish manuscript, whose authority I cannot
dispute, that St. Patrick and his two sisters were brought captive into
Ireland from Armorica, or Brittany, in the kingdom of France. It is
evident likewise that when Niall, the King of Ireland, had succeeded with
the Britons, he despatched a formidable fleet to plunder the coast of
France, and succeeded; and that he carried away numbers of captives with
him into captivity, one of which, it is reasonable to suppose, was the
young Patrick, who was afterwards distinguished by the name of the Irish
Saint.
"Niall, encouraged by the number of his captives and the success
of his arms in France, resolved upon another expedition, and
accordingly raised a grand army of his Irish subjects for that purpose,
and sent a commission to the General of the Dalraida in Scotland to follow
him with his choicest troops and assist him in the invasion. Niall having
prepared a sufficient number of transports and a full supply of
provisions, weighed anchor with his victorious Irish, and steering his
course directly to France, had the advantage of a prosperous wind, and
in a few days landed upon the coast. He immediately set himself to spoil
and ravage the country near the river Loire. Here it was that the General
of the Dalraida found him, and both armies being joined, they committed
dreadful hostilities, which obliged the inhabitants to fly and leave the
country to the mercy of the invaders.
"The commanding officer of the Dalraida in this expedition was
Gabhran, the son of Dombanguirt, who brought over with him Eochaidh, the
son of Ena Cinsalach, King of Leinster. This young Prince had been
formerly banished into Scotland by Niall, but resolving to be revenged
when opportunity offered, he desired to be admitted as a volunteer in the
service, and was by that means transported into France. The King of
Ireland being informed of his arrival, would on no account permit him to
visit him, nor suffer him in his presence. But Eochaidh soon found an
opportunity to execute his design; for one day, perceiving the King
sitting on the banks of the Loire, he hid himself secretly in an opposite
grove on the other side, and shot Niall through the body with an arrow;
the wound was mortal, and he died instantly" ("General History
of Ireland," pp. 311—313). According to O'Donovan's translation of
"Muir N'Icht," Niall lived long enough to reach his fleet at
Boulogne, where he expired.
Notwithstanding, then, Lanigan's positive assertion, it is quite
evident from Keating's history that King Niall twice invaded Armorica;
first, after he had devastated the Island of Britain in the ninth year of
his reign, when St. Patrick was captured, and again in the twenty-seventh
year of his reign, when he sailed directly from Ireland to Gaul and
expired at Boulogne.
The events may be briefly stated as follows: Niall succeeded Criomthan
in the year 376. In the ninth year of his reign, or A.D. 385, he prepared
an expedition against the Picts, who were harassing the Scots settlers in
North Britain. Having completed his task, he overran England, and finished
his raid by crossing over to Armorica, before returning triumphant to
Ireland with St. Patrick amongst his captives.
Now St. Patrick, who was born in the year 373, passed his thirteenth
and fourteenth years while King Niall was chastising the Picts in Scotland
and ravaging Britain; but he had reached his fifteenth year in the year
388, when the Irish fleet sailed from Armorica to Ireland. The words of
the Saint in his Epistle to Coroticus: "Have I not tender mercy
towards the nation which formerly took me captive," place the Saint's
capture by the Irish Scots beyond doubt, whilst they confirm Keating's
declaration that King Niall captured St. Patrick in his first raid to
Armorica.
The capture of the Saint in Armorica is confirmed by the Scholiast, by
the Tripartite Life, and by Probus. St. Patrick, as we have already seen,
was captured while residing at his father's "villula" in the
suburban district of Bonaven Tabernise, or Bononia, where the Roman
encampment stood. This account harmonises with the "Celtic
Legend," which narrates that at that period, "when Bononia was
invaded by the Irish pirates, a mutiny broke out among the soldiers in the
encampment, which rendered the city an easy prey to the invaders.
Calphurnius, the Roman officer defending Caligula's tower, was slain, and
his son Patrick was carried into captivity" ("La Legende
Celtique per le Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarque," p. 8).
According to the "Book of Sligo," as has been seen already,
the Apostle of Ireland first saw the light of day on Wednesday, April 5th;
not on Wednesday, April 5th, 372, as Usher imagined, for, as Ware points
out, April 5th did not fall on Wednesday, 372, but on Wednesday, 373.
There is overwhelming evidence to prove that St. Patrick died in the year
493, having attained the 120th year of his age. Usher, Ware, the
Tripartite Life, the "Vita Secunda," the "Vita Quarta,"
the "Leabhar Braec," the "Annals of the Four Masters,"
the "Annals of Innisfail," the "Book of Howth," the
"Annals of Tigernasch," the "Chronicon Scotorum," the
"Annals of Boyle," Marianus Scotus, Nennius, Geraldus Cambrensis,
Florence of Worcester, and Roger of Wendover all maintain this. The year
of the Saint's birth may, therefore, be accurately obtained by subtracting
120 from 493, the date of his death. This process will show that St.
Patrick was born in 373, and captured in the very year of King Niall's
raid into Armorica, 388, when the Saint had attained his fifteenth year.
The great age of the Saint at the time of his death, although
marvellous, is not incredible. In Chambers' "Book of Days,"
quoted by. Father Bullen Morris, instances are given of 2,003
centenarians, 17 of whom lived 150 years. Father Montalto, a Jesuit, who
was born in 1689, was present at the Church of the Gensu at Rome in the
125th year of his age, when Pius VII. re-established the Society of Jesus.
In 1881 the photograph of Gabriel Salivar was sent to the Vatican as the
oldest inhabitant of the world. It was proved on convincing evidence that
he had reached 150 years. Thomas Parr, as is well known, attained the age
of 152 years and nine months before he bade adieu to the world.
St. Patrick after his Captivity
returns to (Gaul) his Native Country
"AND on a certain night I heard in sleep a voice saying to me:
'Thou fasteth well; fasting thou shalt return to thy own native
country'" (patria). "And again, after a little, I heard a
response, saying to me: 'Behold thy ship is ready'" (St. Patrick's
"Confession").
St. Fiacc suggests, Probus asserts, and Professor Bury admits that St.
Patrick, after his captivity, fled to Gaul, and not to Great Britain.
Gaul, therefore, and not the Island of Britain, was St. Patrick's native
land.
If either Northern or Southern Britain were St. Patrick's native
country, it seems incredible that the-Saint should be required to travel a
distance of 200 Roman miles, from the North-East to the West of Ireland,
in order to embark for Britain, when Lough Larne is but 30 nautical miles
from Scotland,, and not more than 15 miles from Mount Slemish, and while
Belfast and Strangford Loughs were within easy distance of the place of
his captivity, and more suitable for embarkation than any seaport in the
West of Ireland if North Britain were his destination.
A voyage from the west coast of Ireland to the Clyde would take the
Saint a very unnecessary journey of 200 miles by land to the port of
embarkation, and from thence an equally unnecessary voyage by sea, from
the west around the northern coast of Ireland, past North Antrim—the
county from which he started,—in order to reach Dumbarton, Kilpatrick,
or Hamilton on the Clyde.
There are some indications which suggest that St. Patrick, when
returning to his native country, sailed from Killala Bay. Although Killala
is only 130 miles distant from Mount Slemish, as the crow flies, the Saint
would have had to travel around Slieve Gallion, and make a circuit around
the mountains of Tyrone, which stood directly across the path of a direct
route. Lough Erne, in the County of Fermanagh, and Lough Gill, in the
County of Sligo, and the inland flow of Killala Bay would add to the
obstacles to be encountered, sufficient when all taken together to account
for the 53 miles difference between 130, as the crow flies, and 183
English or 200 Roman miles which had to be travelled before he joined his
ship.
Moreover, the woods of Foclut were situated within five miles of
Killala, and St. Patrick in his "Confession" speaks in familiar
terms of the inhabitants who dwell in the neighbourhood of the woods,
whose voices sounded familiar to his ears when far away in Gaul.
This, indeed, would suggest that the Saint had made acquaintance with
them during his flight, for he distinctly states when alluding to the
place of his embarkation: "I had never been there, nor did I know any
one that lived there" ("Confession"). His acquaintance with
the inhabitants of Foclut must have been made after he had journeyed
there, and previous to his embarkation.
Readers of the "Confession" will remember how touchingly he
described the cordial manner in which he was welcomed by his relatives,
who, to use the Saint's own words, "received me as a son, and
besought me that then at least, after I had undergone so many
tribulations, I should never depart from them again. Then in the middle of
the night, a man who seemed to come from Ireland, whose name was
Victoricus, the bearer of innumerable letters, one of which he handed to
me; and I read the beginning of the letter, entitled 'The Voice of the
Irish.' As I was reading the beginning of the letter, I thought that I
heard in my mind the voices who dwelt near the woods of Foclut, which is
near the Western sea, and they cried out: 'We entreat thee, O holy youth,
to come and walk still with us.' My heart was deeply touched; I could read
no more; and I awoke" ("Confession").
Being then in his thirtieth year when he had this vision, St. Patrick
could not be called a youth. He was a youth, however, at the time when he
escaped from his first captivity, and became acquainted with the
inhabitants of Foclut, who appealed to him in the vision as the youth they
had formerly known. They, consequently, besought him to come and abide
with them as he had done formerly, for this is the obvious meaning of the
words "We entreat thee, O holy youth, to come and walk still with
us."
It is probable, therefore, that St. Patrick sailed back from Killala
Bay, the nearest port to the woods of Foclut. It may readily be surmised
that if the saintly youth, so full of holy zeal, had to remain for a few
weeks, or even a few days, whilst the ship was completing its cargo, he
would have time to make friendly acquaintance with the inhabitants near
the woods, who doubtless received the friendless stranger with kind
hospitality.
This gives a simple solution of the difficulty proposed by Professor
Bury, who, relying on St. Patrick's friendly acquaintance with the
inhabitants of Foclut, states that Croagh Patrick, which is not far from
Foclut, and not Mount Slemish, was the scene of the Saint's captivity.
If the ship's cargo consisted chiefly of Irish wolfhounds, so greatly
appreciated in Gaul, as Professor Bury suggests (p. 30), it would take
more than "a day or two" to collect a sufficient number for
exportation. There is nothing stated in the "Confession" to
limit the time that St. Patrick had to wait before the ship, sailed away
from port.
Moreover, in the solitude of Mount Slemish, absorbed in prayer and in
guarding his flock, the saintly shepherd had no opportunity of making any
acquaintance whilst in slavery. "After I had come to Ireland I was
daily attending sheep, and I frequently prayed during the day, and the
love of God and His faith and fear increased in me more and more, and the
spirit was stirred; so that in a single day I have said as many as a
hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that I remained in
the woods and on the mountain. Even before the dawn I was roused to prayer
in snow, in ice and rain, and I felt no injury from it, nor was there any
want of energy in me, as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent in
me." These certainly are not the words of a youth who was in the
habit of journeying from Croagh Patrick to Foclut to make the acquaintance
of the inhabitants. It is, on the contrary, easy to imagine what a
powerful effect a Saint, so stirred by the Spirit of God as his words
express, would have on all with whom he came in contact after he had been
freed from his duties as a shepherd. St. Patrick's history of himself
suggests at least that his acquaintance with others, except those of his
master's household, must have been made after his escape from captivity.
Professor Bury, however, is the latest convert to the opinion that St.
Patrick fled to Gaul, and not to the Island of Britain, after his escape
from captivity in Ireland. The Professor narrates that considerable
regions in Gaul were a desolate wilderness, according to contemporary
rhetorical and poetical evidence, from A.D. 408 to 416, and, therefore, it
might be argued, Gaul suits the narrative of St. Patrick in his
"Confession." He and his companions reached land three days (post
triduum) after they left the coast of Ireland, so that our choice lies
between Britain and Gaul. The data do not suit Britain. We cannot imagine
what inland part of Britain they could have wished to reach which would
necessitate a journey of twenty-eight days per desertum. Suppose
the crew disembarked on the south coast of Britain, and that the southern
regions had been recently ravaged by the Saxons, yet a journey of a few
days would have brought them to Londinium, or any other place they could
have desired to reach from a south port. Moreover, if they had landed in
Britain, Patrick, when he once escaped from their company, could have
reached his home in a few days, whereas he did not return for a few years.
His own words exclude Britain. Having mentioned his final escape from the
traders, he proceeds: "iterum post paucos annos in Britanniis eram
cum parentibus meis." I believe that "post paucos annos"
has been interpreted by some in this sense: "a few years after my
capture." But this is an unnatural explanation. The words naturally
refer to what immediately precedes, namely, his escape. The only thing
that can be alleged in favour of Britain is the intimation in the dream
that he would "quickly come to his native land" (cito iturus
ad patriam tuam). "This, of course," continues the
Professor, "represented his expectations at the time of his escape.
But the very fact that he fails to say that the promise was literally
fulfilled, and glides over the intervening years in silence, strongly
suggests that his expectation was not realised" (Appendix C, pp.
339—340).
Professor Bury, being a Protestant, treats the Divine admonition given
to the Saint as a dream; not as the voice of God speaking to His servant,
but as an ardent desire on the Saint's part which met with disappointment.
Catholics, on the contrary, fully believe that God's promise was
fulfilled, and that St. Patrick did actually return to his own native
country, which the Professor very satisfactorily proves was Gaul and not
Britain. The Armorican theory of St. Patrick's birthplace affords a very
natural and easy explanation of the difficulty which the Saint's return to
Gaul from captivity must present to all who try to prove that he was a
native of Great Britain.
St. Fiacc's Nemthur was situated in
the Suburbs of Boulogne
I.
Natus est Patritius Nemturri
Ut refertur in narrationibus,
Juvenis (fuit) sex annorem decem
Quando ductus est sub vinculis.
II.
Succat ejus notnen in Tribubus dictum,
Quis ejus Pater sit notum,
Filius (fuit) Calpurnii, filii Otidi,
Nepos deaconi Odissi.
III.
Fuit sex annis in servitate,
Excis hominum (Gentilium) non vescebat,
Fuit ei nomen adoptivum Cothriagh
Quatuor Tribubus quia inserviit.
IV.
Dixit Victor(ei) servo
Milchonis, Iret trans fluctus.
Posuit suos pedes supra saxum,
Manet exinde ejus vestigia.
CALIGULA'S TOWER, CALLED NEMTOR BY THE MARINI.
V.
Profectus est trans Alpes omnes,
Trans Maria, fuit faelix expedition
Et remansit apud Germanum
In australi parte australis Lethaniae.
The following beautiful free translation of these verses is taken, with
kind permission, from Monsignor Edward Watson, M.A.'s, translation of St.
Fiacc's ode:
I.
"At Nemthur, as our minstrels own,
Heaven's radiance first on Patrick smiled,
But fifteen summers scarce had thrown
A halo round the holy child,
When captured by an Irish band
He took their Isle for fatherland.
Succat by Christian birth his name,
Heir to a noble father's fame.
Calphurnius' son, of Potit's race,
And deacon Odis' kin and grace,
Six years of bondage he must bear
With faithful fast from heathen fare.
And Cothriagh now his name and due,
Who holding high allegiance true,
Yet served four little lords of earth
(God's servant he of forefold worth)
Till Victor bade him Milchu's slave
To fly across the freeman's wave.
He fled, but first upon the rocky shore
His footprint set a seal for evermore.
II.
Then far away beyond the seas,
In happy flight o'er many a land,
O'er many a mountain on he flees
To face Lethania's southern strand,
Nor rested long upon the road
Until he gained Germain's abode."
St. Fiacc states that the Apostle of Ireland was born at Nemthur—Nemthur,
as all commentators agree, is not the name of a town, but of a tower.
"Neam-thur Hebernica vox est quse coelestem, sive altam turrim
denotat." "Neamthur is an Irish word which denotes a heavenly,
or a high tower" (Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres, Tom i., p.
96—O'Conor).
Assuming that St. Patrick was born in the suburbs, and close to the
town of Bononia, or Banaven, as it has already been proved from his
"Confession," St. Fiacc's declaration that his Patron was born
at Nemthur admits of a very lucid explanation. Nemthur was situated in the
suburbs and close to the town of Bonaven. St. Fiacc gives the name of the
district, but St. Patrick gives the name of the town near which he was
born.
Singularly enough Caligula's famous tower on the sea coast of Boulogne
was called Turris Ordinis by the Romans, but Nemtor by the Gauls, as
Hersart de la Villemarque clearly proves in his "Celtic Legend"
(p. 213), and the tower itself has given its name to the locality where it
once stood, which is called even at the present time Tour d'Ordre—the
French translation of "Turris Ordinis."
The history of this tower, on account of its close connection with the
history of St. Patrick, cannot fail to be interesting. Caligula, or Caius
Caesar, who died A.D. 41, meditated a descent upon Britain, and with that
object marshalled his troops at Bononia. Fearful, however, of the dangers
and fatigues of a long campaign in that inhospitable island, and full of
childish vanity, he determined at length, as Suetonius humorously
observes, "to make war in earnest; he drew up his army on the shore
of the ocean, with his ballistse and other engines of war, and, while no
one could imagine what he intended to do, on a sudden commanded them to
gather up sea shells and fill their helmets and the folds of their dresses
with them, calling them 'the spoils of the ocean due to the Capitol and
the Palatium.' As a monument of his success, he raised a lofty tower, upon
which, as at Pharos, he ordered lights to be burnt in the night time for
the guidance of ships at sea" ("Lives of the Twelve
Caesars," Caligula, p. 283).
"It seems generally agreed," writes Forester, the translator
of Suetonius' Lives, "that the point of the coast which was
signalised by this ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed by
the erection of a high house, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum and
Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of the Morini"
(note, p. 283).
For many centuries this tower called Turris Ordens, Turris Ardens, or
Turris Ordinis by the Romans, and Neamthur by the Gauls, spread its light
over land and sea on the north-eastern cliffs of Boulogne.
A description of the tower is given in the "Memoirs of the Academy
of Inscription," quoted by Bertrand in his "History of Boulogne,"
as follows: "The form of this monument, one of the most striking
erected by the Romans, was octagon. It was entirely abolished about a
hundred years ago, but, fortunately, a drawing of it, made when the
lighthouse was still perfect, is still in existence, and has been
exhibited to the Academy by the learned Father Lequien, a Dominican monk,
native of Boulogne. Each of its sides, according to Bucherius, measured 24
to 25 feet, so that its circumference was about 200, and its diameter 66
feet. It contained twelve entablatures, or species of galleries, on the
outside, including that on the ground floor. Each gallery projected a foot
and a half further than the one above it, and consequently their size
diminished with each succeeding gallery. On the top fires were lighted to
serve as a beacon to vessels at sea. A solid foundation was formed, not
only under the lighthouse, but for some distance beyond the external
walls. It was constructed of stones and bricks in the following manner:
first were seen three layers of stones, found on the coast, of iron grey
colour, then two layers of yellow stone of a softer nature, and upon these
two rows of hard red bricks, two inches thick, and a foot and a half long,
and a little more than a foot broad" ("Bertrand's History of
Boulogne," pp. 13, 14).
"Caligula's tower was built on the north-eastern cliffs, about
half a mile from the sea, but within the suburbs of Boulogne. The constant
encroachment of the tide had reduced that distance to 400 feet in 1544,
when Boulogne was captured, and fortifications built around the tower by
the English troops. Still, however, the merciless waves rushed onward to
the coast, undermining the cliffs more and more, until at length, on July
29th, 1644, Caligula's tower fell headlong with a crash into the sea.
"Passengers from Folkestone to Boulogne gaze with reverence or
curiosity on the Calvary on the northeastern cliffs, which fishermen
salute with uncovered heads when sailing out to reap the harvest of the
sea. Close to the Calvary there is a mass of ruins overhanging the cliff,
which is all that remains of the fortifications built round Caligula's
tower by the English conquerors. The tower itself once stood over the site
occupied by the Hotel du Pavillion et des Bains de Mer, opposite the place
for sea bathing" ("Bertrand's History of Boulogne," pp. 15,
16).
"The Celtic Legend," published by Hersart de la Villemarque
in 1864, clearly shows how the history of Bononia and of its celebrated
tower is connected with his—St. Patrick's—life. One of the legends is
entitled "St. Patrick," and commences as follows: "On the
shore of the channel separating England from France, near the famous place
from which Caesar embarked for the Isles of Britain, a fortified enclosure
was erected overlooking and protecting the coast and territory which
formed part of the possession of the Morini Gauls. This important
strategic point was called in Latin, Tabernia, or the 'Field of Tents' (Le
Champs du Pavilion), because the Roman army had pitched their tents there.
About a mile distant, a group of buildings formed a fairly-sized village,
which at first was called by the Gauls Gessoriac, then Bonauen Armorik,
and afterwards named Bononia Oceasensis by the Roman Gauls, and finally
Boulogne-sur-Mer by the French.
"A light-house, or Nemtor, as it was called in the Celtic
language, kept watch during the night over the camp, village, and sea,
preserving the Gaulish frontier from piratical incursions.
"At the foot of the light-house stood the residence of a Roman
officer named Calphurnius, who had the supervision of the fire in the
tower, amongst the more costly and ornamented houses than the others,
where the free-and-easy life and customs of the Romans found a last
refuge. He lived there attended by domestic and military servants. He had
fought under the Imperial flag and attained the rank of a Decurion (p.
354). . . .
"Forgetfulness of God, disobedience to His laws, which are also
the best laws of human society, led to the ruin both of the colony of
Bononia and of St. Patrick's family. One day a mutiny, from which the
servants of Calphurnius could not have kept aloof, broke out amongst the
soldiers in the camp, just at the time when pirates, who had come from
different parts of the Irish coast and formed themselves into a fleet so
as to plunder the towns on the sea coast of Gaul with greater security,
took advantage of the dissensions amongst the inhabitants of Boulogne and
besieged the town. Fine furniture, carpets, and valuable garments, vessels
of gold and silver, arms and instruments of every kind, everything that
they could seize in the houses, in the town, in the camp, in the rural
dwellings close by, in the stables, in the ox stalls, in the sheep pens:
horses, cows, pigs, cattle and sheep were carried off and placed on board
the ships. Those who attempted any resistance were put to death, whilst
others, undergoing the fate of domestic animals, were sold into slavery.
Amongst the defenders of the colony who perished were Calphurnius, his
wife, and many of his household. St. Patrick was numbered amongst the
captives. The corsairs, having set sail, landed him in Ireland, where they
sold him to a small chieftain in Ulster named Milcho" ("La
Legende Celtique," par le Vicomte Hersart de la Villemarque, Membre
de l'Institut Paris, 1864, Librarie Academique. Dedier et Cie., Librarie
Editeurs, 35 Quai des Augustines).
There is a constant tradition that St. Patrick was a native of Boulogne,
and that tradition is expressed in the Celtic Legend just quoted. Even the
present "Guide Book" of that town (Merridew's, 1905) volunteers
the following information, which, although erroneous as to dates, is
interesting as referring to St. Patrick's connection with the city:
"About the year 249 St. Patrick arrived in Morinia, and for some time
resided at Boulogne" (p. 10). Feather Malbrancq, in his "History
of the Morini," quotes the "Chronicon Morinense," "The
Life of St. Arnulphus," and "The Catalogue of the Bishops of
that See" to prove St. Patrick's connection with the town. Although
it is certain that St. Patrick never presided over that See, the fact of
his being numbered amongst the Bishops admits of an easy explanation if he
was a native of that town.
St. Fiacc describes St. Patrick's
Flight from Ireland to Armorica
ST. FIACC poetically describes St. Patrick's flight to his-own native
country in the fifth stanza of his hymn:
"Then far away beyond the seas,
In happy flight o'er many a land,
O'er many a mountain on he flees
To fair Lethania's Southern strand,
Nor rested long upon the road
Until he gained Germain's abode."
It is evident from this that St. Patrick fled direct to Lethania after
his escape from captivity in Ireland, having received the angel's promise
that he should return to his native land. O'Conor testifies that the Irish
called not only Armorica, Lethania, but all Western Gaul as far as the
Diocese of Auxerre. ("Lethaniam appellabant Hiberni non modo
Armoricam sed et occidentalem Galliam usque ad diocesim Antisiodorensem")
("Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores Veteres Tom," L, p. 91, note).
The Scholiast practically admits St.
Patrick's Birth in Armorica
THE Scholiast, who annotated St. Fiacc's "Metrical Life of St.
Patrick," flourished in the eleventh century, according to Professor
Bury. The scholia of the Scholiast, however, should be received with great
caution, as Lanigan points out: "The scholia of the Scholiast,"
he remarks, "are not the composition of one person. For instance, in
scholion 5, the Letha mentioned in the hymn is properly explained by
Armorica, or the maritime tract on the North-West of Gaul; while in
scholion n it is interpreted of Latium, in Italy. In scholion 9 we read
that on a certain occasion St. Patrick said, 'Dar mo dhe broth,' which is
explained, 'God is able to do this if He choose'; and yet immediately
after it is added that 'Dar mo dhe broth' was a sort of asseveration
familiar to St. Patrick, signifying 'By my God, Judge, or judgment.' On
the whole, it is evident that the scholia, as we have them at present, are
a compilation of observations, some more, some less ancient, extracted
from various writers" ("Eccl. Hist, of Ireland," vol. L, c.
iii., p. 81).
The scholion (i) on St. Fiacc's opening words: "Natus est
Patritius Nemturri"—"St. Patrick was born at Nemthur"—is
as follows: "Nemthur is a city in the Northern parts of Britain, viz.
Alcluid (nempe Alcluida)." By comparing this scholion with the
scholion given later on (c. iii.), it will be seen that the same pen has
not written both scholia. The scholion referred to is this: "The
cause of St. Patrick's captivity was this: His father, Calphurnius, and
his mother, Conchessa, and his five sisters, Lupita, Tigris, Liemania, and
Darerca, Cinnena was the name of the fifth, and his brother deacon,
Senanus, all together travelled from Britain Alcluid southwards over the
Sea of Ictium to Armorican Lethania, or Britannia Lethania, both on
business and because a certain relative of theirs dwelt there, and the
mother of the above-named children, namely Conchessa, was of the Franks,
and a near relative of St. Martin. At that time, however, seven sons of
Fachmad, King of the Britons, broke loose from Britain and plundered
Armorican Britain in the territory of Letha, where St. Patrick happened to
be living with his family. They slew Calphurnius there, and carried off
St. Patrick and his sister Lupita captives to Ireland. They sold Lupita
'in Connallia Murthemnensi' [a territory in Ulster], and Patrick in the
northern parts of the territory of the Dal-aradia."
The contradictory nature of the accounts given by the Scholiast as to
St. Patrick's supposed birth in Alcluid, or Dumbarton, and his capture in
Armorica will be seen by comparing them with the statement made by the
Saint himself in his "Confession": "I, Patrick, a sinner
and the most uncultured and humblest of all the faithful, had a father
named Calphurnius, a deacon, the son of Potitus, a priest, who hailed from
the suburban district of Bonaven Taberniae, for he possessed a little
country seat close by from whence I was led captive." This statement
of the Saint disproves the assertion of the Scholiast that Calphurnius and
his family were on a friendly visit to Armorica when all the calamities
befell them, for the Saint distinctly states that his father hailed from
Bonaven Taberniae, and that he himself was actually residing at his
father's little country seat in the suburbs of that town at the time when
he was forced into captivity.
It is evident, therefore, from the Scholiast that Bonaven Tabernise was
situated in Armorican Britain; and from St. Patrick's
"Confession," that the town from which he was led captive was
his own native town. The Apostle of Ireland could not, therefore, as the
Scholiast suggests, have been born at Alcluid, or Dumbarton. It is curious
to observe how unconsciously the Scholiast connects Calphurnius and his
family with Boulogne. Calphurnius and his family are made to sail from
Dumbarton, over the Sea of Itius or Ictius, to Armorica. Hersart de la
Villemarque has already identified Bonaven under its various names as
Bononia or Boulogne. It was called Itius or Ictius by Caesar, Bononia by
the Romans, and Bonauen Armorik by the Gaulish Celts. The Scholiast,
therefore, when he directs the course of Calphurnius and his family across
the Sea of Ictius, seems to be steering their ship directly to Boulogne.
Nemthur cannot possibly be the name of the town near which St. Patrick
was born, simply because the Saint gives the name of Bonaven, or Bononia,
as the city of his birth. St. Fiacc does not name Nemthur as a town; he
simply tells us that St. Patrick was born at Nemthur, which, as has been
proved, was both the name of the Caligula's tower and of the district in
which that tower stood in the suburbs of Bonaven. The Scholiast is the
first to call Nemthur a town, and evidently puts it down as the ancient
name of Alcluid, or Dumbarton. This is the obvious meaning of the scholion:
"Nemthur est civitas in septentrional! Britanni nempe Alcluida."
Nemthur is a city in northern Britain, namely Alcluid. The "nempe
Alcluida" looks very much like an interpolation, and if an
interpolation, the statement of the Scholiast that Nemthur is a city in
northern Britain, without the addition "nempe Alcluida," might
easily refer to Northern Britain in Gaul where, however, Nemthur was not
the name of a city, but the name both of a tower and of the district of
the city where St. Patrick was born.
Neither the Scholiast, nor those who have adopted his views as to the
Saint's birth at Dumbarton, have ever answered Lanigan's challenge, who
boldly states that the name Nemthur is not to be found in Nennius's
"List of British Towns," which Usher himself had illustrated,
nor in any of the old "Itineraries," or in Ricardus Corinensis,
or in Camden, or Horsley &c. (vol. i, b. 3, p. 91).
The learned Cardinal Moran, in the March of the Dublin Review,
1880, endeavoured to take up the gauntlet and answer Lanigan's challenge
by quoting one of Taliessin's poems from the "Black Book of
Carmarthen," which represents a Welsh hero sailing away with an army
to Scotland and recovering his lost inheritance in a battle fought and won
at Nevthur in Clydesdale.
Besides the fact that no small stretch of imagination is required to
believe that Nevthur and Nemthur are one and the same, nearly all the
poems attributed to Taliessin are regarded as spurious by learned critics,
as Chamber's "Encyclopaedia," under the heading Welsh
Literature, evidently points out.
"Mr. Nash, the author of 'Taliessin and the Bards and Druids of
Wales,' enables us to form an independent judgment on this point, for he
translates some fifty of the poems, and we find that, instead of their
exhibiting an antique Welsh character, they abound in allusions to
mediaeval theology, and frequently employ mediaeval Latin terms. It is
certainly unfortunate for the reputation of the 'Chief of Bards' that the
specimens of his poems, which are considered genuine, possess exceedingly
small merit. The life of this famous but over-rated genius is, of course,
enveloped in legend." Lanigan's challenge, therefore, still remains
unanswered, and a town mamed Nemthur is not to be found in any ancient
history, geography, or map. The error, therefore, of the Scholiast
consisted in stating that Alcluid and Nemthur were identical, but his
statement that St. Patrick was captured in Armorica is historically true.
The "Trepartite Life"
falls into the Same Error
THE following account is given in the "Trepartite Life"
concerning St. Patrick's native town, and the country from which he was
taken captive:—
"Patrick, then, was of the Britons of Alcluid by origin. Calphurn
was his father's name. He was a noble priest. Potit was his grandfather's
name, whose title was a deacon. Conceis was his mother's name. She was of
the Franks, and a sister to St. Martin. In Nemthur, moreover, was the man
Patrick born. . . .
"The cause of Patrick's coming to Erin was as follows: 'The seven
sons of Fachmad, namely—the seven sons of the King of Britain—were on
a naval expedition, and they went to plunder Armoric Letha; and a number
of Britons of Strath-Cluaidh were on a visit with their kinsmen—the
Britons of Armoric Letha—and Calphurn, son of Potit, Patrick's father,
and her mother Conceis, daughter of Ocbas of the Gauls, that is of the
Franks, were killed in the slaughter in Armorica. Patrick and his two
sisters, viz. Lupait and Tigris, were taken prisoners, moreover, in that
slaughter. The seven sons of Fachmad went afterwards to sea, having with
them Patrick and his two sisters in captivity. The way they went was
around Erin, northwards, until they landed in the north, and they sold
Patrick to Miluic, son of Baun, that is, the King of Dal-Araidhe.
"They sold his two sisters in Conaille Muirthemne. And they did
not know this. Four persons, truly, that purchased him. One of them was
Miluic. It was from this that he received the name Cothriage, for the
reasons that he served four masters. He had, indeed, four names" (W.
M. Hennessey's Translation of the "Trepartite Life").
The author of the "Trepartite Life" repeats the contradictory
statements of the Scholiast, namely, that St. Patrick was born at
Dumbarton and captured in Armorica, and it stands refuted by St. Patrick
himsel in his "Confession," who declares that his father hailed
from Bonaven, where the Roman encampment stood, and that he himself was
captured whilst residing at his father's villula, or country seat, close
by the town. Just as we are bound to credit St. Patrick's
"Confession;" the statements of the Scholiast, and of the author
of the "Trepartite Life," that he was simply on a visit to his
relatives in Armorica when captured, must be discredited.
Ignoring the fact that the author of the "Tripartite Life"
and Probus tell the same tale, the Archbishop of Tuam, in his excellent
"Life of St. Patrick," states "that the Scholiast on St.
Fiacc whilst expressly declaring that Nemthur, St. Patrick's birthplace,
was in North Britain, namely, Ail Cluade, adds that young Patrick, with
his parents, brother and sisters, went from the Britons of Ail Cluade over
the Ictian Sea, southwards, to visit his relatives in Armorica, and that
it was from Latevian Armorica that Patrick was carried off captive to
Ireland. The Scholiast here confounds the Armoric Britons of the Clyde
with the Armoric Britons of Gaul, or Letavia, who had no existence then at
so early a date. No doubt they were kindred Britons, but the name
Britannia and Britons were not at that time given to Armorica of
Gaul" (Appendix i., p. 585).
Nothing is here said by His Grace about Probus or the "Tripartite
Life," who agree with the Scholiast that the Saint was captured in
Armorica. When treating of Britannia in Gaul, it will be proved from the
"Sacred Histories of Sulpicius Severus" that Armorica was called
Britannia when the Council of Ariminium was held in the year 359. It is
evident, however, that the author of the "Tripartite Life" was
firmly convinced that St. Patrick was captured in Armorica, from the
description he gives of the flight of his captors: "The seven sons of
Fachmad went afterwards on the sea, having with them Patrick and his two
sisters in captivity. The way they went was northward around Erin, until
they landed in the north, and they sold Patrick to Miluic."
From this narrative it is evident that the captives were carried by the
fleet northwards around Erin until they arrived in the neighbourhood of
Lough Larne, Antrim, where St. Patrick was sold as a slave. The captors
afterwards sailed southwards and sold St. Patrick's sisters at Louth. They
must, therefore, as Father Bullen Morris surmises, have sailed around the
western coast of Erin after sailing away from Armorica. It is clear, as
the same writer does not fail to observe, that such a course cannot fit in
with the Dumbarton theory: "A voyage northwards from the mouth of the
Clyde would take the Irish fleet to the North Pole" ("Ireland
and St. Patrick," p. 26).
The Scholiast and the author of the "Tripartite Life" are of
opinion that St. Patrick was made captive by the seven sons of Fachmad,
King of Britain, who are represented as making a raid into Armorica.
Jocelin declares that the capture was made by pirates. The Second, Third,
and Fourth "Lives" are unanimous in stating that the Saint was
captured by the Irish Scots. St. Patrick's own words in the Epistle to
Coroticus, "Have I not tender mercy on that nation which formerly
took me captive?" leave no doubt as to his capture by the Irish
Scots. Colgan endeavours to harmonise both accounts by suggesting that the
sons of Fachmad were British exiles in Ireland, who fought under the
standard of King Niall when he invaded Armorica, and that they may have
been the actual captors of the Saint.
All that the Second and Third
"Lives" testify
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).
THE FOURTH "LIFE"
"SOME say that St. Patrick was of Jewish origin. After Our Lord
had died on the Cross for the sins of the human race, a Roman army,
avenging His Passion, laid Judea waste, and the captive Jews were
dispersed amongst all the nations of the earth. Some of their number
settled down among the Armorican Britons, and it is stated that it was
from them that St. Patrick traced his origin." This may be gathered
from the book of Epistles composed by himself, "on account of our
sins, and because we had neither observed the precepts of the Lord nor
obeyed His Commandments, we are dispersed to the uttermost ends of the
earth."
"But, however, it is more credible and more certain that he speaks
of that dispersion into which the Britons were driven by the Romans, in
order that they might become possessed of the land near the Tuscan Sea
which is called Armorica. After that dispersion, therefore, his parents
went straight to Strath Clyde. There St. Patrick was conceived and born,
his father being 'Kalburnius,' and his mother Conchessa, as he testifies
in the book of his Epistles: 'I am Patrick, the son of Kalburnius, and
Conchessa is my mother.' St. Patrick was, therefore, born in a town called
Nemthur, which signifies a heavenly tower. This town was situated in Campo
Tabernise, which is called the Field of Tents because, at one time, the
Roman army pitched their tents there. In the British tongue Campus Tabern
is the same as Campus Tabernaculorum.
"XV.—But the first cause of his coming to Ireland, and the
sequence of events which hurried him there, are not to be passed over in
silence. By the divine providence of God, it so happened that in his
tender years he should be led to that nation, so that in his youth he
should learn the language of the people, whose apostle he was afterwards
destined to become. At that period Irish fleets were accustomed to sail
over to Britain for the sake of plunder, and to bring back to Ireland
whomsoever they made prisoners. It chanced, therefore, that the venerated
youth, with his sister, named Lupita, should be taken captives amongst
others. Some have written that the Saint at the time was but seven years
of age. It seems to me, however, more credible what he himself states:
'When I fell into captivity I was sixteen years of age.' He was taken to
Ireland and sold in the northern regions to four brothers, whom he served
with a simple and devout heart. On that account he was called Cothraigh.
But he had four names, for he received the name of Suchet at baptism; he
was called Magonius by Germanus, Bishop; lastly, when he was elevated to
the Episcopal dignity, he received his fourth name, Patrick."
It is suggestive how the Armorican tradition seems to manifest itself,
either directly or indirectly, in nearly all the "Lives" of the
Saint which are considered the best; in St. Fiacc's, in the annotations of
the Scholiast, in the "Tripartite Life," in the Fourth
"Life," and in the Fifth by Probus. In the Fourth
"Life" it is stated that both parents of the Saint were
Armorican Britons, and that St. Patrick, except for the accident of his
place of birth, was an Armorican Briton. The author of the Fourth
"Life," moreover, calls Calphurnius and Conchessa Armorican
Britons, which serves to demonstrate that Armorica, even in the early
years of St. Patrick, fell under the name of Britannia, and that its
inhabitants were called Britons.
In this "Life" is to be found the mistake of the Scholiast,
and of the other "Lives" who have adopted his suggestion, that
Nemthur was the name of a town, and not of a tower or district, as may be
gathered from the history of the tower itself.
The Second, Third, and Fourth "Lives" of the Saint, however,
"are filled with fables," according to Canon O'Hanlon.
"Their acts seem to have been either borrowed from one another, or
are copies of versions taken from the same source" ("Lives of
the Irish Saints," March 17th).
The Sixth "Life of St.
Patrick," by Jocelin
"THERE was a man named Calphurnius, the son of Potitus, a
presbyter, by nation a Briton, living in the village Taburnia (that is the
Field of Tents), near the town of Empthor, and his habitation was nigh
unto the Irish Sea. This man married a French damsel named Concuessa,
niece of the blessed Martin, Archbishop of Tours, and the damsel was
elegant in her form and in her manners, for, having been brought from
France with her elder sister into the northern parts of Britain, they were
sold at the command of her father. Calphurnius being pleased with her
manners, charmed with her attentions, and attracted by her beauty, very
much loved her, and from the state of serving maid in his household,
raised her to be his companion in wedlock. And her sister, having been
delivered unto another man, lived in the aforementioned town of Empthor.
"And Calphurnius and his wife were just before God, walking
without offence in the justifications of the Lord, and they were eminent
in their birth, and in their faith, and in their hope, and in their
religion. And though in their outward habit and abiding they seemed to
serve under the yoke of Babylon, yet did they in their acts and in their
conversation show themselves citizens of Jerusalem. Therefore out of the
earth of their flesh, being freed from the tares of sin and from the
noxious weeds of vice by the ploughshare of evangelic and apostolic
learning, and being fruitful in the growth of all virtues, did they, as
the best and richest fruit, bring forth a son, whom, when he had at the
font put off the old man, they caused to be named Patritius, as being the
future father and patron of many nations; of whom, even at his baptism,
the God that is Three in One was pleased by the sign of a threefold
miracle to declare how pure a vessel of election should he prove, and how
devoted a worshipper of the Holy Trinity. But after a little while, this
happy birth being completed, they vowed themselves by mutual consent unto
chastity, and with a holy end rested in the Lord. But Calphurnius-first
served God a long time in the deaconship, and at length closed his days in
the priesthood. . . ."
Chapter XII.—"As, according to the testimony of Holy Writ, the
furnace tries the gold, so did the hour of trial draw near to Patrick that
he might the more provedly receive the crown of life. For when the
illustrious boy had perlustrated three lustres, already attaining his
sixteenth year, he was, with many of his-fellow-countrymen, seized by the
pirates who were ravaging the borders, and was made captive and carried
into Ireland, and was there sold as a slave to a certain pagan prince
named Milcho, who reigned in the Northern parts of the island, even at the
same age when Joseph is recorded to have been sold in Egypt. . . ."
Chapter XVII.—"And St. Patrick, guided by his angelic guide,
came to the sea, and he there found a ship that was to carry him to
Britain, and a crew of heathens, who were in the ship, freely received
him, and hoisting their sails with a favourable wind, after three days
they made land. And, being come out of the ship, they found a region
deserted and inhabited by none, and they began to travel over the whole
country for the space of twenty-eight days; and for want of food in that
fearful and wild solitude were they perishing of hunger" (Jocelin's
"Life of St. Patrick," translated by E. L. Swift).
Jocelin's "Life of St. Patrick" deserves the harsh sentence
pronounced upon it by Canon O'Hanlon: "It is incomparably the
worst" of all the Latin "Lives" of the Saint. Jocelin
represents Conchessa, St. Patrick's saintly mother, as a niece of St.
Martin of Tours, and, almost in the same breath, suggests that either St.
Martin's brother, or his brother-in-law, sold Conchessa and her elder
sister to Calphurnius, a Briton of Clydesdale, as slaves. Although
Conchessa was sold as a slave "at the command of her father,"
she is said to have succeeded in captivating and marrying her master
Calphurnius.
Whilst Ware and Usher sneer at Jocelin's statement that Calphurnius and
Conchessa took the vow of celibacy and devoted themselves to a religious
life immediately after St. Patrick's birth, they eagerly adopt Jocelin's
statement that the Apostle of Ireland was born at "Empthor," and
that the home of The Sixth "Life," Calphurnius was "not far
from the Irish Sea," although this untrustworthy author stands alone
among the ancient writers in making this assertion.
Although Jocelin is responsible for the statement that St. Patrick fled
to the island of Britain after his escape from captivity in Ireland, the
subsequent three days' voyage by sea and twenty-eight days' journey by
land before reaching his home are fatal to Jocelin's contention, as
Professor Bury clearly demonstrates.
Ware's Empthor was near Dumbarton; Colgan's, Dumbarton itself; Usher
and the "Aberdeen Breviary" identify it as Kilpatrick; Cardinal
Moran rests sure that it is Hamilton, at the mouth of the Avon in
Scotland; but St. Patrick's ship, chartered by Heaven to carry him to his
"own native land," could, if any of the places named were St.
Patrick's native town, have borne him directly almost to his destination,
and saved part at least of the three days' journey by sea and the whole of
the twenty-eight days' journey by wilderness before joining his relatives.
The Fifth "Life," by Probus,
proves that St. Patrick was born in Bononia
THE Fifth "Life," written by Probus, an Irish monk, who died
at Meyence in the year 859, is regarded as the best of the old Latin
"Lives" of St. Patrick; it is considered to be an amended
edition of the "Book of Armagh," written by Muirchu
Macc-Mactheni, so truly that the blank left by the missing folio in that
famous book can be filled in by copying the "History of Probus."
(Canon O'Hanlon's "Lives of the Irish Saints," March 17th.)
The "Life of St. Patrick," by Probus, commences as
follows:—
"Cap. I.—St. Patrick, who was also called Suchet, was a Briton
by nationality. . . . He was born in Britain [in Britanniis], being the
son of Calphurnius, a deacon, who was the son of Potitus, a priest, and
his mother was named Conchessa, in a district within the region of Bannaue
Tiburniae, not far from the Western Sea, which district, as we have
discovered beyond doubt, was situated in the province of Nentria, where
the giants are said to have formerly dwelt."
"XII.—When he was in his own country with his father Calphurnius
and his mother Conchessa, in their own seaside city [city Arimuric] there
was a great outbreak of hostilities in these parts. The sons of King
Rithmit, coming from Britain, laid Arimuric and the surrounding country
waste. They massacred Calphurnius and his wife Conchessa; but their
children, Patrick and his brother Ruchti, together with their sister Mila,
they took captives to Ireland. They sold Patrick to Prince Milcho, but his
brother Ruchti and his sister Mila to another Prince."
Colgan, in his annotations, substitutes Neutria for Nentria (4), and
Armorica for Arimuric, Caesar testifies that all the towus on the sea
coast of Armorica were called Armoricse (Britannia, vol i. p. 13).
"In his own city Armuric" has therefore been rendered "in
his own seaside city."
When Probus wrote his history there was no province in existence called
either Nentria or Neutria; but there was a province called Neustria, which
embraced Armorica or the northern sea coast of Gaul, where St. Patrick was
residing in his own native country (in patria) with his parents, when he
was made captive. It follows, likewise, that St. Patrick's native town,
"Bannaue Tiburnise," according to Probus, was the seaside city
in Armorica referred to. The Bannaue Tiburniae of Probus and the Bonaven
Taberniae of St. Patrick are evidently one and the same as Bononia, where
the Romans were encamped, which, as it has already been proved, was called
Bonauen Armorik by the Gaulish Celts.
If any other proof were needed, the description of the province given
by Probus as the country formerly inhabited by giants can leave no doubt
on the subject.
Sammes, in his "Antiquities of Ancient Britain," published in
1676, narrates that the Scythians, or Cymri, were called the offspring of
Magog by Josephus. Pouring out in mighty hordes from Scythia, they sacked
Rome and plundered the Temple of Apollo in Greece. Some of them settled
down in Sarmatia, Germany, and Northern Gaul, generally adopting the name
of the lands in which they settled. Strabo is quoted as saying "that
the very youths (of the Cymri) were half a foot taller than the tallest
men," and Manlius for declaring "that the Cymri were a race so
exceedingly tall that other nations seemed nothing in their eyes."
The same authority narrates that "when one of the Cymri stood in the
ranks he seemed of the same proportion as the others, but when he stepped
out a few paces, and came near to the Romans, they all began to be amazed
at the sight." On that account the Roman soldiers, as Caesar admits,
were filled with consternation at the giants they were called upon to
encounter when he marched against their leader, Ariovistus. The Cymri were
also remarkable for their exceeding swiftness. Csesar witnessed that they
"could lay their hands on the manes of horses and keep pace with them
in the race." Tully testifies that it was "their joy and delight
to die on the battlefield, and that nothing so tormented them as to die
idly in their beds." "No wonder," says Sammes, "that
they conquered many nations; distressed the Romans themselves, and were a
constant thorn in the side of the Gauls" ("Antiquities of
Ancient Britain," cap. 2).
Dr. Smith, in his "History of France," narrates that the
Cymri "acquired permanent possession of an extensive territory north
of the Loire, including the peninsula of Armorica" (p. 13). Bononia,
or Boulogne, St. Patrick's native town, was, therefore, situated in Belgic
Gaul during the days of Julius Caesar; but, later on, when the descendants
of the Cymri, the Belgic Gauls, were almost annihilated in their fierce
contests with the Romans, the same province came to be called Armorica.
Sulpicius Severus, as we shall see presently, named the same country
Britannia at the time of the Council of Ariminium in the year 359—just
fourteen years before St. Patrick was born.
In the year 597 Armorica, or Britannia, became absorbed in the province
of Neustria, when the kingdom of the Franks was sub-divided into three
separate kingdoms, as Dr. Smith relates: "Sigebert became King of
Austrasia (in the Prankish tongue, Oster-rike), or the kingdom of the
Eastern Franks; Chilperic was recognised as King Neustria (Ne-oster-rike),
the land of the Western Franks. The limits of the two kingdoms are
somewhat uncertain; but the river Meuse and the Forest of Ardennes may be
taken generally as the line of demarcation. Austrasia extended from the
Meuse to the Rhine; Neustria extended from the Meuse to the ocean.
Gouthran ruled over the division of Gaul which now acquired the name of
Burgundy" ("History of France," p. 42).
Neustria, extending from the Meuse to the ocean, necessarily embraced
the whole province of Britannia, or Armorica. That province still retained
the name of Neustria when Probus, in the tenth century, wrote the
"History of St. Patrick."
The change of the name Armorica to Britannia, and from Britannia to
Neustria, together with the fact that the name Britannia, or Brittany, as
applied to that particular province in Gaul was forgotten for centuries
before any of the old Latin "Lives" of St. Patrick, except the
first, were written, must have induced some old biographers of the Saint
to interpret the name Britain, mentioned in the "Lives" and in
the "Confession," as referring only to the Island of Britain,
With the exception of Probus, who had travelled abroad, the old
biographers of St. Patrick, on account of their very limited sources of
information, had very little knowledge of the histories of foreign
countries, and it is not surprising to find them erroneously supposing
that St. Patrick was born in Great Britain, because he mentioned in his
"Confession" that he was born in Britain, and had relatives
among the Britons.
St. Patrick, according to Probus, was one of the Gaulish Britons, being
born at Bonaven, or Boulogne-sur-Mer. Although the Saint, according to
Canon O'Hanlon, was a little man, he was descended from a race of
giants—the bold Cymri, or Celts. That fact established a relationship of
race between the Saint and the nation which he converted.
Camden and Keating narrate that King Milesius and his bold Scots, who
successfully invaded Ireland, were descended from the Cymri; and it is
remarkable that a fierce battle was fought between the Irish Scots and the
Tautha de Danans at Mount Slemish, not far from Tralee, in Kerry, which is
identical in name with Mount Slemish, in Antrim—the scene of the Saint's
captivity ("Britannia," vol. ii., p. 123; "History of
Ireland," vol. i., p. 123).
Eochaid O'Flin, a poet quoted by Keating, has left a record of this
historical battle:
"The stout Gadalians first the courage try
At Sliabh-mis, and rout the enemy:
Where heroes pierced with many a deadly wound,
Choked in their blood, lay gasping on the ground:
Heroes whose brave exploits may justly claim
Triumphant laurels and immortal fame."
Scota, the relict of King Milesius and mother of Heber and Heremon,
Kings of Ireland, was slain while fighting in this battle, and buried in
the valley at the foot of Mount Sleabh-mis, which after her interment was
called Glean Scoithin, or the Valley of Scota. From her the Irish Scots
derived their name. The same old bard has sung a lamentation over her
grave:—
"Beneath, the vale its bosom doth display,
With meadows green, with flowers profusely gay,
Where Scota lies, unfortunately slain,
And with her royal tomb gives honour to the plain.
Mixed with the first the fair virago fought,
Sustained the toil of arms and danger sought:
From her the fruitful valley hath the name
O Glean Scoith, and we may trust to fame."
St. Patrick's Flight to Marmoutier
described by Probus
IN the XIVth section of the "Vita Quinta" Probus narrates St.
Patrick's arrival in Brotgalum, then his journey to Trajectus, from whence
he hastened to Marmoutier to join St. Martin, Bishop of Tours, with whom
he remained for four years. Colgan, in his annotations (14), identifies
Brotgalum as Burdigalum, or Bordeaux. So, too, does Professor Bury, who
tells us that Brodgal was the Irish for Bordeaux, and that "Bordeaux
was a regular port for travellers from Ireland to South Gaul"
("Life of St. Patrick," Appendix, p. 341).
Trajectus, according to the old maps, was situated on the river
Dordogne, about sixty miles from Tours. From Trajectus St. Patrick had to
walk a distance of about two hundred miles through a desert before
reaching Tours.
"A glance at the map of ancient Gaul," writes Father Bullen
Morris, "will show that in St. Patrick's time a great part of the
country between Trajectus and Tours well deserved the name of a desert.
The network of rivers, tributaries of the Loire, and now known as La
Vienne, La Claire, La Gartempe, &c., must have exposed the country to
periodical inundations in those days. So from Tours in the north to
Limonum, Alerea, and Legora in the south, east and west, we find some
5,000 square miles, which, as far as the ancient map is concerned, give no
signs of possession by man. Travellers entangled amidst these rivers and
morasses must have advanced very slowly, and thus it appears that both
places and time fit in with St. Patrick's narrative. Nature has changed
her face along the line of St. Patrick's journey, and there is little now
to remind us of its primeval desolation, save that the rivers still
preserve some of their old habits, and now and then combine with the
inundations of the giant Loire in setting man at defiance.
"Time, however, with its alternative gifts and ravages, has left
untouched the traditions regarding St. Patrick's journey. There is
something more than antiquarian interest in the feelings of the Christian
traveller who visits the spot on the banks of the Loire, where immemorial
tradition and an ancient monument mark the place at which the Saint
crossed the river on his way to Marmoutier. At about twenty miles from
Tours the railway between that city and Angers stops at the station of St.
Patrice; the commune is also named after the Saint, and, as we shall see,
there is historical evidence that it has been thus designated for at least
nine hundred years."
"The first witness whose evidence we shall take on the subject of
the Saint's arrival at St. Patrice is one which many believe to have
survived since his time, but on this point the reader must form his own
opinion. Above the station, on the side of the hill which rises from the
banks of the Loire, we find the famous tree which bears 'the flowers of
St. Patrice.' For ages past it has been an object of religious veneration
with the people of Touraine, and now in our time it is particularly
interesting to find that this devotion was shared by that eminent servant
of God, Leon Dupont, the Thaumaturgus of Tours. Monsignor C. Chevalier,
President of the Archaeological Society, has published a very full account
of the tree and of the traditions connected with it, the subtance of which
we subjoin, together with the result of personal investigations made on
the spot in August, 1881. At this season the tree was covered with foliage
so luxuriant, from the ground upwards, that it was impossible to
distinguish the stem, and in every respect it presented the appearance of
a tree in its prime, without a sign of decay. It belongs to the botanical
class Prunus Spinosa, or blackthorn, and it was covered with berries at
the time of our visit. These, however, were the evidence of a second
efflorescence in the spring. The celebrity of the tree arises from the
fact that every year at Christmas time it is seen covered with flowers,
and the tradition at St. Patrice, handed down from father to son, affirms
that for fifteen hundred years this phenomenon has been repeated at the
same sacred season. It matters not how intense the cold of any particular
winter; while the ground beneath and the country around lie covered in
their white shroud, the "flowers of St. Patrice" unfold their
blossoms and bid defiance to the fierce north winds which sweep the valley
of the Loire."
The next witness is the old parish church, dedicated to St. Patrick,
which stands about thirty yards from the tree. Its old charters and
records show that it dates back from the beginning of the tenth century.
One old charter, bearing the date of 1035, contains a deed of gift of some
lands adjoining the church of St. Patrick. The church stood on the Roman
road between Anjou and Tours. "Thus," concludes Father Bullen
Morris, "ancient records and immemorial traditions complete our
story, and set St. Patrick on the high road to St. Martin at Marmoutier"
("Ireland and St. Patrick," pp. 35—40).
Britain in Gaul St. Patrick's Native
Country
UNLESS it can be proved that there was a province called Britain in
Gaul, and another Britain quite distinct from the Island of Britain, it
would be useless to argue that St. Patrick was a native of Gaul. The Saint
represents himself as a native of Britain; and even Probus, who is
credited with believing that St. Patrick was a native of Armoric Gaul,
distinctly states that the Saint was born in Britain (natus in Britanniis).
It is, however, not difficult to prove that there was a province in Gaul
called Britain (Britannia) even before the birth of St. Patrick.
Strabo, in his "Description of Europe," narrates in the
Fourth Book that about 220 years before Christ, Publius Cornelius Scipio,
the father of Scipio Africanus, consulted the Roman deputies at Marseilles
about the cities of Gaul named Britannia, Narbonne, and Corbillo. Sanson
identifies Britannia with the present town of Abbeville on the Somme.
Dionysius, the author of "Perigesis," who wrote in the early
part of the first century, mentions the Britanni as settled on the south
of the Rhine, near the coast of Flanders.
Pliny, in his "Natural History," when recounting the various
tribes on the coast of Gaul, mentions the Morini and Oramfaci as
inhabiting the district of Boulogne, and places the Britanni between the
last-named tribe and Amiens. (Pliny, lib. i., cap. xxxi.; Carte's
"General History of England," vol i., p. 5).
"The Britanni on the Continent extended themselves farther along
the coast than when first known to the Romans, and the branch of that
tribe mentioned by Dionysius as settled on the coast of Flanders, and the
Britons of Picardy mentioned by Pliny, were of the same nation and
contiguous to each other. Dionysius further adds that they spread
themselves farther south, even to the mouth of the Loire, and to the
extremity of Armorica, which several writers say was called Britain long
before it came into general use (Carte, p. 6).
"Sulpicius Severus, in his "Sacred Histories," gives an
account of the Bishops summoned by the Emperor Constantius in the year 359
to the Council of Ariminium n Italy. Four hundred Bishops from Italy,
Africa, Spain, and Gaul answered the summons, and the Emperor gave an
order that all the Bishops were to be boarded and lodged, whilst the
Council lasted, at the expense of the treasury. Whereupon Sulpicius,
writing with pride of the action taken by the Bishops of the three
provinces, Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia, makes use of the following
words: "Sed id nostris, id est. Aquitanis, Gallis, et Britannis,
idecens visum; repudiatis fiscalibus propries sumptibus vivere maluerunt.
Tres autem ex Britannia inopia proprii, publico usi sunt, cum oblatum a
ceteris collationem respuissent; sanctius putantes, fescum gravare, quam
singulos" (Lib. ji,, p. 401).
"The proposal seemed shameful to us, Aquitanians, Gauls, and
Britons, who, rejecting the offer of help from the treasury, preferred to
live at our own expense. Three, however, of the Bishops from Britannia,
possessing no means of their own, refused to accept the maintenance
offered by their brethren, deeming it a holier thing to burden the
treasury than to accept aid from individuals" (Lib. ii., p. 401).
If any doubt exists as to the Britannia referred to, it is solved in
the same book, p. 431. Sulpicius Severusi an Aquitanian by birth, speaks
of the trial, condemnation and punishment of the Priscillian heretics by
the secular Court at Treves in the year 389. Prisciallanus and his
followers, Felicissimus, Armenianus, and a woman named Euchrosia were
condemned to death and beheaded, but Instantias and Liberianus were
banished to the Island of Sylena, "quas ultra Britanniarn sita est"
(which is situated beyond Britain). Although it is not precisely known
where the Island of Sylena was situated, except that it was somewhere
beyond Britain, the Britain referred to surely must be Britain in Gaul,
for it is incredible that the Gauls should possess a penal settlement in
the North of Scotland, where Sylena must have been situated, if the words
"beyond Britain" refer to the Island of Britain.
It is evident that if Sulpicius, who was born in 360—thirteen years
before St. Patrick—could speak of Armorica as Britannia, and the
Armorican Bishops as Britons, when he wrote his "Sacred
Histories," it cannot be a matter of surprise that St. Patrick, if
born in Armorica at a later period, should speak of himself as a Briton,
and say that he had relatives among the Britons.
Armorica was called Britannia by Sulpicius Severus, but Sidonius
Apollinarus, who flourished some time after, called the same country
Armorica. It was not, however, unusual, as Carte points out, for the same
people and the same country to be called by different names; for example,
the Armorici and the Morini were one and the same people, whose names had
the same signification—dwellers on the sea coast. (Carte, p. 16;
Whitaker's "Genuine History of the Briton," pp. 216—219.)
As the historians just quoted are not concerned with the history of St.
Patrick, but are simply tracing the origin and history of the Britons,
their testimony is impartial.
Even Camden admits that Dionysius places the Britons on the maritime
coast of Gaul, and renders his verses into English:—
"Near the great pillars of the farthest land,
The old Iberians, haughty souls, command
Along the continent, where northern seas
Roll their vast tides, and in cold billows rise:
Where British nations in long tracts appear
And fair-haired Germans ever famed in war."
The early existence of the Britons in Armorica did not depend on the
settlement of the veteran Britons, who, having served under Constantino
the Great, were rewarded by a gift of the vacant lands in Armorica, as
William of Malmesbury narrates in his "History of the Kings"; or
on the still larger settlement of Britons who fought for the usurper
Maximus, which Ninius mentions, in the mysterious reference which embraced
the whole country "from the Great St. Bernard in Piedmont to Cantavic
in Picardy, and from Picardy to the western coast of France." The
latter settlement took place between the years 383 and 388. The British
refugees, who fled in terror from the Picts, Scots, and Saxons, may indeed
have added to the numbers of Britons in Gaul from time immemorial, but
they certainly were not the first to give the name Britannia to that
country.
Britanniae in the Plural not
appropriated to Great Britain
IT has been often urged, without any solid reason, that the plural
Britannise used for Britain in the "Confession" can only refer
to Great Britain, because that country was sub-divided by the Romans into
five distinct provinces. The reason given cannot be convincing, because
Catullus, who died in the year 54, used the plural for Britain before the
Roman sub-divisions were made, when he wrote, "Nunc timent Galliae,
timent Britanniae"—Caesar, "the Gauls and the Britons
fear." The plural was used by St. Patrick when writing the
"Confession" nearly one hundred years after the Romans with
their divisions had left the country. It was used by Probus, who
undoubtedly referred to Armoric Britain when writing about St. Patrick's
native country, for he tells us in the plural that the Saint was born in
Britain (natus in Britanniis). The plural was, therefore, used both for
Britain in Gaul and for the Island of Britain.
The word Britannia occurs three times in the "Confession." In
the "Book of Armagh" the name appears always in the plural,
whilst in the Bollandist's copy of the "Confession" the name is
printed once in the singular and twice in the plural. St. Jerome uses the
singular always when referring to Britannia; and St. Bede, in his
"History," uses the plural and singular indiscriminately.
Whenever Britannia is mentioned, the context alone can guide us in
distinguishing which Britain is meant. ("Ireland and St.
Patrick," by the Rev. Bullen Morris, pp. 24, 25).
St. Patrick also mentions Gaul in the plural ("Gallias"), for
although the whole country was subdivided into three separate
nationalities—the Gauls, the Aquitanians, and the Britons—as Sulpicius
Severus had already mentioned, the three provinces were called Gallise, or
the Gauls, by the Romans. Galliae in the plural, therefore, either meant
the whole country or any one of its sub-divisions, and the context alone
could determine which province was meant.
Having these facts in mind, it is easy to interpret the words of St.
Patrick: "Though I should have wished to leave them, and had been
ready and very desirous of going to Britain [Britanniis], as if to my own
country and parents; and not that alone, but to go even to Gaul (Gallias)
to visit my brethren, and to see the face of the Lord's Saints, and God
knows how ardently I wished it but I was bound in the Spirit, and He Who
witnesseth will account me guilty if I do so—and I fear to lose the
results of the labour which I have begun. And not I, but the Lord Jesus
Christ, Who commanded me to come and remain with them for the rest of my
life—if the Lord so will it, and keeps me from every evil way, that I
should not sin before Him" ("Confession").
St. Patrick's relatives resided in the Gaulish province of Britain, and
the disciples of St. Martin—"the Lord's Saints"—lived at
Marmoutier in the province of Gaul. St. Patrick's natural desire was first
to visit his relatives in Armorican Britain, and next to renew his
friendship with the followers of St. Martin at Marmoutier, but God had
decreed that he should spend all the rest of his days in the land of his
adoption.
Gaul was not only the name of the whole country, which embraced three
provinces—Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia—it was also the name of one
of the provinces. As Gaul in its widest sense was a different country from
the Island of Britain, so the province of Gaul was quite distinct from the
province of Armoric Britain. The Gauls, Aquitanians, and Britons, all
possessing, as Csesar testifies, separate governments and different
nationalities, regarded one another as distinct races. Thus Sulpicius
Severus represents a Gaul as addressing some Aquitanians as follows:
"When I think of myself as a Gaul about to address Aquitanians, I
fear lest my uncultured speech should offend your too refined
ears"—"Sed dum cogito me hominem Gallum inter Aquitanos verba
facturum, vereor ne offendat nimium urbanas aures sermo rusticior"
(Dialogue 20).
St. Patrick calls Coroticus, a
British Prince, "Fellow Citizen"
IT is objected again that St. Patrick called the followers of Coroticus,
who were Britons, his fellow citizens, and that, therefore, the Saint and
the island Britons are of the same nationality.
The objection is founded on St. Patrick's "Epistle to Coroticus,"
in which the following words occur: "I have vowed to my God to teach
this people, although I should be despised by them, to whom I have written
with my own hand to be given to the soldiers to be forwarded to Coroticus.
I do not say to my fellow citizens, nor to the fellow citizens of the
pious Romans, but to the fellow citizens of the devil, through their evil
deeds and hostile practices."
As the Romans had abandoned Britain long before the letter to Coroticus
was written, it is somewhat difficult to understand the precise meaning of
the words just quoted: "I do not say to my fellow citizens, or to the
fellow citizens of the pious Romans," unless some of the soldiers of
Coroticus were, like St. Patrick, Roman freemen. The word
"citizen" in the Roman sense was as wide as the extent of the
Roman Empire.
Although the soldiers of Coroticus are also called "fellow
citizens of the pious Romans," no one would surely dream of saying
that the soldiers of Coroticus and the pious Roman were actually of the
same nationality. St. Patrick could, therefore, call the soldiers of
Coroticus in the same sense his "fellow citizens," without
implying that he was of the same race. If, however, the soldiers of
Coroticus were Roman freemen, they would be fellow citizens of St. Patrick
and fellow citizens of the Romans, although of different nationalities.
The indignant protest made by the Saint in the same letter, that
"free-born Christian men are sold and enslaved amongst the wicked,
abandoned, and apostate Picts," greatly favours our interpretation of
"fellow citizens."
It must, however, be acknowledged that there is a considerable amount
of obscurity about the meaning of the words, which are so confidently
interpreted as signifying that the Apostle of Ireland was a native of
Great Britain. But the words as they stand cannot be fairly assumed to
prove that St. Patrick was a "fellow countryman" of the soldiers
of Coroticus, unless they prove with equal force that the Romans were of
the same nationality as the soldiers of Coroticus. The quotation proves
too much and, therefore, it proves nothing.
Summary
HAVING given the different theories concerning the native country of
St. Patrick, and having faithfully quoted all that the Seven old Latin
"Lives" of the Saint have narrated on this subject, and given
our reasons for accepting the Armoric theory as the most reasonable
solution of the problem, it will be advisable to give a brief summary of
the arguments brought forward to prove that St. Patrick was an Armorican
Britain, born at Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Boulogne-sur-Mer, or ancient Bononia, was called by the same name,
"Bonaven," as the town in which St. Patrick implies that he was
born. Boulogne possessed a Roman encampment, and it was, therefore,
Bonaven Taberniae, mentioned in the "Confession."
Caligula's tower, on the north-eastern cliffs, in the town and within
the suburbs, was called "Turris Ordinis" by the Romans, but
"Nemtor" by the Gaulish Celts, as Hersart de la Villemarque
states in his "Celtic Legend."
It is certain that Niall of the Nine Hostages made use of the Port of
Boulogne when he invaded Armorica in the twenty-seventh year of his reign,
and that he died at that port after his assassination.
It is probable that Niall sailed to Boulogne when invading Armorica on
the first occasion, for he was carrying his arms into the same country, of
which Boulogne was the principal port, and the only one used by the Romans
when invading England.
The return "of Niall" from his first expedition into-Armorica
with captives, including St. Patrick, on board in the year 388,
corresponds precisely with the fifteenth year of St. Patrick, who was born
in the year 373. This fact is not only testified by Keating, but by
Hersart de la Villemarque in his "Celtic Legend," who narrates
that Calphurnius, St. Patrick's father, was a Roman officer in charge of
Nemtor, near which his family resided in a Roman villa, and that
Calphurnius was slain, and St. Patrick made captive by a hostile fleet
that came from Ireland.
As Nemtor was not only the name of the tower, but the district of the
tower, and situated within the suburbs of Bonaven, St. Fiacc's account of
his patron's birthplace, which simply gives the name of the district, and
St. Patrick's statement that his home was in the suburban district of
Bonaven, harmonise together.
The Scholiast and the author of the Trepartite "Life," by
admitting that the Saint was captured in Armorica, annul their assertion
that he was born in Scotland, because St. Patrick distinctly states that
his family hailed from Bonaven Tabernise, or Boulogne, and that he was
captured while residing at his father's villula. The Scholiast and
Tripartite "Life" consequently admit that Bonaven Taberniae was
situated in Armorica.
The impression that Bononia, or Boulogne, was St. Patrick's native town
is confirmed by Probus; he narrates all the misfortune that overtook
Calphurnius and his family whilst they were quietly living in their own
native country (in patria), and in their own seaside city in Armorica.
Armorica was then included in the Province of Neustria, one of the
sub-divided kingdoms of the Franks, and it was on that account that Probus
states that St. Patrick was born in Neustria.
Ware, Usher, and Cardinal Moran, who cling to the Scotch theory of St.
Patrick's birth, all contradict the Scholiast, who asserts that St.
Patrick was born in Dumbarton; whilst those who hold fast to the Dumbarton
theory make frantic efforts to convert the Crag into a heavenly tower.
St. Patrick, after the vision, in which he was told that he should
return to his own native country, sailed to Gaul and not to the Island of
Britain.
It had been proved on the authority of Sulpicius Severus, who was born
in the year 360, that Armorica was called Britannia, and the Armoricans
were called Britons when the Council of Ariminium was held in the year
359—fourteen years before the birth of St. Patrick. The Saint, when
writing his "Confession" in 493, when the province had even a
stronger claim to the name, could emphatically say, if he was born in
Armorica, that he was a Briton and had relatives amongst the Britons.
The Site of the Villula where St. Patrick
was born
FRENCH archeologists point out the "Hotel du Pavillion et des
Bains de Mer," facing the sea-bathing place at Boulogne, as occupying
the site from which Caligula's tower, Nemthur, once lifted its head into
the heavens and shed its light over land and sea. On the frowning cliff
which casts its shadow over the hotel there is a mass of hard brick
ruins—the last remnants of the fortifications built round Nemtor when
Boulogne was captured by the British troops in 1544.
Calphurnius's villula was evidently situated somewhere on the plateau,
called Tour d'Ordre, between the tower and the town, for St. Patrick, in
his "Confession," assured us that his father's home was near to
("prope") Bonaven, a statement which he would not make if the
villula stood on the sea-coast beyond the tower. It is, therefore, certain
that the site of the villula still exists somewhere not far inland from
the ruins alluded to.
THE PRESENT FORTIFICATIONS AND SITE OF THE ROMAN
ENCAMPMENT AT BOULOGNE.
Although Nemtor was undermined by the sea and fell into the waves in
1649, a picture of the tower as it once stood in all its glory is still to
be seen in the museum of Boulogne, and the curator very kindly permitted
the writer of this little history to get the drawing copied, so that the
sons of St. Patrick might be permitted to view Nemtor, which Calphurnius
lost his life in defending, and which gave a name to the district in which
St. Patrick was born.
If this brief history of St. Patrick's native town has succeeded in
identifying ancient Bononia, now Boulogne-sur-Mer, as St. Patrick's
birthplace, then the whole plateau of Tour d'Ordre, on the north-eastern
cliffs of Boulogne, where the villula of Calphurnius once stood, will
become sacred in the eyes of the spiritual sons of St. Patrick throughout
the wide world.
PRINTED BY ST. VINCENT'S PRESS, 333 HARROW ROAD, LONDON, W.
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