y." The passage is
improved by a "note," in which the author mentions this as a proof that
such superstitions would not have been necessarily regarded two
centuries ago as inconsistent with orthodoxy. Now, in the first place,
the Catholic Church has always[137] condemned superstition of every
kind. It is true that as there are good as well as bad Christians in her
fold, there are also superstitious as well as believing Christians; but
the Church is not answerable for the sins of her children. She is
answerable for the doctrine which she teaches; and no one can point to
any place or time in which the Church taught such superstitions.
Secondly, the writers of history are obliged to relate facts as they
are. The Franciscan fathers do this, and had they not done it carefully,
and with an amount of labour which few indeed have equalled, their
admirable Annals would have been utterly useless. They do mention the
pagan opinion that it was "the sun and wind that killed him [Laeghaire],
because he had violated them;" but they do not say that they believed
this pagan superstition, and no one could infer it who read the passage
with ordinary candour.

It is probable that Oilioll Molt, who succeeded King Laeghaire, A.D.
459, lived and died a pagan. He was slain, after a reign of twenty
years, by Laeghaire's son, Lughaidh, who reigned next. The good king
Aengus[138] died about this time. He was the first Christian King of
Munster, and is the common ancestor of the MacCarthys, O'Sullivans,
O'Keeffes, and O'Callahans. The foundation of the kingdom of Scotland by
an Irish colony, is generally referred to the year 503.[139] It has
already been mentioned that Cairbre Riada was the leader of an
expedition thither in the reign of Conaire II. The Irish held their
ground without assistance from the mother country until this period,
when the Picts obtained a decisive victory, and drove them from the
country. A new colony of the Dalriada now went out under the leadership
of Loarn, Aengus, and Fergus, the sons of Erc. They were encouraged and
assisted in their undertaking by their relative Mortagh, the then King
of Ireland. It is said they took the celebrated _Lia Fail_ to Scotland,
that Fergus might be crowned thereon. The present royal family of
England have their claim to the crown through the Stuarts, who were
descendants of the Irish Dalriada. Scotland now obtained the name of
Scotia, from the colony of Scots. Hence, for some time, Ireland