we shall be clothed.

THE DRUIDS

And now, just as the first chapter of our Manx civil history is lost,
so the first chapter of our church history is lost. That the Druids
occupied the island seems to some people to be clear from many Celtic
names and some remains, such as we are accustomed to call Druidical,
and certain customs still observed. Perhaps worthy of a word is the
circumstance that in the parish where the Bishop now lives, and has
always lived, Kirk Michael, there is a place called by a name which in
the Manx signifies Chief Druid. Strangely are the faiths of the ages
linked together.

CONVERSION TO CHRISTIANITY

We do not know, with any certainty, at what time the island was
converted to Christianity. The accepted opinion is that Christianity was
established in Man by St. Patrick about the middle of the fifth century.
The story goes that the Saint of Ireland was on a voyage thither from
England, when a storm cast him ashore on a little islet on the western
coast of Man. This islet was afterwards called St. Patrick's Isle. St.
Patrick built his church on it. The church was rebuilt eight centuries
later within the walls of a castle which rose on the same rocky site. It
became the cathedral church of the island. When the Norwegians came they
renamed the islet Holm Isle. Tradition says that St. Patrick's coming
was in the time of Mannanan, the magician, our little Manx Prospero. It
also says that St. Patrick drove Mannanan away, and that St. Patrick's
successor, St. Germain, followed up the good work of exterminating evil
spirits by driving out of the island all venomous creatures whatever. We
sometimes bless the memory of St. Germain, and wish he would come again.

THE EARLY BISHOPS OF MAN

After St. Germain came St. Maughold. This Bishop was a sort of
transfigured Manx Caliban. I trust the name does him no wrong. He had
been an Irish prince, had lived a bad, gross life as a robber at the
head of a band of robbers, had been converted by St. Patrick, and,
resolving to abandon the temptations of the world, had embarked on the
sea in a wicker boat without oar or helm. Almost he had his will at
once, but the north wind, which threatened to remove him from the
temptations of this world, cast him ashore on the north of the Isle of
Man. There he built his church, and the rocky headland whereon it stands
is still known by his name. High on the craggy cliff-side, looking
towards the sea, is a seat hewn ou