nus from St. Patrick, on
account of the gentleness of his manner. The holy youth attached himself
from this moment to his master, and was his successor in the primatial
see of Armagh.

Those who are anxious, for obvious reasons, to deny the fact of St.
Patrick's mission from Rome, do so on two grounds: first, the absence of
a distinct statement of this mission in one or two of the earliest lives
of the saints; and his not having mentioned it himself in his genuine
writings. Second, by underrating the value of those documents which do
mention this Roman mission. With regard to the first objection, it is
obvious that a hymn which was written merely as a panegyric (the Hymn of
St. Fiacc) was not the place for such details. But St. Fiacc _does_
mention that Germanus was the saint's instructor, and that "he read his
canons," _i.e._, studied theology under him.

St. Patrick's Canons,[123] which even Usher admits to be genuine,
contain the following passage. We give Usher's own translation, as
beyond all controversy for correctness:--"Whenever any cause that is
very difficult, and unknown unto all the judges of the Scottish nation,
shall arise, it is rightly to be referred to the See of the Archbishop
of the Irish (that is, of Patrick), and to the examination of the
prelate thereof. But if there, by him and his wise men, a cause of this
nature cannot easily be made up, we have decreed it shall be sent to the
See Apostolic, that is to say, to the chair of the Apostle Peter, which
hath the authority of the city of Rome." Usher's translation of St.
Patrick's Canon is sufficiently plain, and evidently he found it
inconveniently explicit, for he gives a "gloss" thereon, in which he
apologizes for St. Patrick's Roman predilections, by suggesting that the
saint was influenced by a "special regard for the Church of Rome." No
doubt this was true; it is the feeling of all good Catholics; but it
requires something more than a "special regard" to inculcate such
absolute submission; and we can scarcely think even Usher himself could
have gravely supposed, that a canon written to bind the whole Irish
Church, should have inculcated a practice of such importance, merely
because St. Patrick had a regard for the Holy See. This Canon was acted
upon in the Synod of Magh-Lene, in 630, and St. Cummian attests the fact
thus:--"In accordance with the canonical, decree, that if questions of
grave moment arise, they shall be referred to the head of ci