nly--the east end--is of the Saint's time, the rest is
some centuries later; and of St. Ciarn's oratory at Clonmacnoise--called
in the _Irish Annals_ "Temple Ciaron," or "Eaglais-beag," and, sometimes,
"_Temple-beg_," or "The Little Church," though the original form was
carefully preserved, there was, when I first examined it, more than
forty years ago, apparently no portion of its masonry that was not
obviously of much later times--in parts even as late as the seventeenth
century. Our annalists record the names of Airchinneachs of this oratory
from 893 to 1097.--P.]

[Footnote 73: In reference to this observation, it is scarcely necessary
to refer to the teachings in Scotland of St. Kentigern of Strathclyde in
the first half of the sixth century, of St. Serf of Culross in the
latter, and of St. Palladius and St. Ninian in the earlier parts of the
fifth century, with the more immediate converts and followers of these
ancient missionaries. In his _Demonstratio quod Christus sit Deus contra
Judaeos atque Gentiles_, written about the year 387, St. Chrysostom avers
that "the British Islands ([Greek: Bretanikai nesoi]), situated beyond
the Mediterranean Sea, and in the very ocean itself, had felt the power
of the Divine Word, churches having been found there, and altars
erected." (_Opera omnia_, vol. i. p. 575, Paris edition of Montfaucon,
1718.) Perhaps St. Chrysostom founded his statement upon a notice in
reference to the alleged extension of Christianity to the northern parts
of Britain, given a hundred and fifty years previously by Tertullian,
when discussing a similar argument. In his dissertation _Adversus
Judaeos_, supposed to be written about 210, Tertullian, when treating of
the propagation of Christianity, states (chap. vii.), that at that time
already places among the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, were yet
subject to Christ--"Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero
subdita." (Oehler's edition of _Tertullian_, vol. iii. p. 713.) Among
the numerous inscriptions and sculptures left here by the Romans while
they held this country during the first four centuries of the Christian
era, not one has, I believe, been yet found containing a single
Christian notice or emblem, or affording by itself any direct evidence
of the existence of Christianity among the Roman colonists and soldiers
in Britain. But there is indirect lapidary or monumental evidence of its
propagation in another manner. In England, as in Ge