rmany, France, etc.,
there exist among the old Roman remains, altars and temples dedicated to
Mithras, originally the god of the Sun among the Persians, with
sculptures and inscriptions referring to Mithraic worship. They have
been found in the cities along the Roman wall in Northumberland; at
York, etc. Various references among the old Fathers seem to show that
when a knowledge of the Christian religion began to spread to the
Western Colonies of Rome, the worship of Mithras was set up in
opposition to Christianity, and Christian rites were imitated by the
Mithraic priests and followers. Thus, for example, the author whom I
have just cited, Tertullian, tells us, in his tract _De Praescriptione
Haereticorem_, chap. 40, that the worshippers of Mithras practised the
remission of sins by water (as in baptism), made a sign upon their
foreheads (as if simulating the sign of the cross), celebrated the
offering of bread (as if in imitation of the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper), etc. (See his _Works_, vol. iii. p. 38, of Oehler's Leipsic
edition of 1854.)]

[Footnote 74: See Dr. Reeves' admirable edition of Adamnan's _Life of
St. Columba_, pp. lxxiv and lxxv,--a book which is a perfect model of
learned annotation and careful editing.]

[Footnote 75: I think it might be well to strengthen your statement by
adducing a few examples--thus, as for example, the remains of a
monastery of Columba's time on an island--now drained--called Lough
Columbkill, in the island of Skye--the churches and clochans, or
stone-houses of the monks, on St. Kilda, and probably many similar
remains on other islands of the Hebrides.--P.]

[Footnote 76: Of St. MacDara of Cruach MicDara, an island off the coast
of Connamara, of St. Brendan in Inis Gloria, an island off the coast of
Errus, and very many more.--P.]

[Footnote 77: Colgan's _Trias Thaumaturga_, p. 129.]

[Footnote 78: _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, p. 195.]

[Footnote 79: _Ecclesiastical Architecture of Ireland_, p. 194.]

[Footnote 80: And which, moreover, had often chancels attached to
them.--P.]

[Footnote 81: _Ibid._, pp. 365, 351.]

[Footnote 82: _Ibid._, p. 351.]

[Footnote 83: I should, perhaps, have written _almost_ always. The very
few exceptions did not at the moment occur to me. Perhaps, indeed, there
is but one exception, that most important one, on Bishop's Island, the
others belonging rather to churches.--P.]

[Footnote 84: _Ecclesiastical Architecture of