ties, we
sent such as we knew were wise and humble men to Rome." But there is yet
another authority for St. Patrick's Roman mission. There is an important
tract by Macutenius, in the Book of Armagh. The authenticity of the
tract has not, and indeed could not, be questioned; but a leaf is
missing: happily, however, the titles of the chapters are preserved, so
there can be no doubt as to what they contained. In these headings we
find the following:--

"5. De aetate ejus quando iens videre Sedem Apostolicam voluit discere
sapientiam."

"6. De inventione Sancti Germani in Galiis et ideo non exivit ultra."

Dr. Todd, by joining these two separate titles, with more ingenuity than
fairness, has made it appear that "St. Patrick desired to visit the
Apostolic See, and there to learn wisdom, but that meeting with St.
Germanus in Gaul he went no further."[124] Even could the headings of
two separate chapters be thus joined together, the real meaning of _et
ideo non exivit ultra_ would be, that St. Patrick never again left
Germanus,--a meaning too obviously inadmissible to require further
comment. But it is well known that the life of St. Patrick which bears
the name of Probus, is founded almost verbally on the text of
Macutenius, and this work supplies the missing chapters. They clearly
relate not only the Roman mission of the saint, but also the saint's
love of Rome, and his desire to obtain from thence "due authority" that
he might "preach with confidence."

[Illustration: ANCIENT SWORD, FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE R.I.A., FOUND
AT HILLSWOOD, CO. GALWAY.]

[Illustration: SCULPTURES AT DEVENISH.]

FOOTNOTES:

[110] _Christ_.--"Ad Scotos in Christum credentes ordinatur a papa
Caelestino Palladius et primus episcopus mittitur."--_Vet. Lat. Scrip.
Chron. Roncallius_, Padua, 1787.

[111] _Wicklow_.--Probably on the spot where the town of Wicklow now
stands. It was then called the region of Hy-Garchon. It is also
designated _Fortreatha Laighen_ by the Scholiast on Fiacc's Hymn. The
district, probably, received this name from the family of _Eoichaidh
Finn Fothart_, a brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles.

[112] _Armagh_--Fol. 16, a.a.

[113] _Patricius_.--This name was but an indication of rank. In the
later years of the Roman Empire, Gibbon says, "the meanest subjects of
the Roman Empire [5th century] assumed the illustrious name of
Patricius."--_Decline and Fall_, vol. viii. p. 300. Hence the confusion
that arose among