blessed the
island and all the dwellers therein, and commended them unto Christ.

Now understand ye how it was the custom of Patrick, as of the other
ancient saints who abided in the islands, to have with them cymbals,
for the expulsion of evil spirits, for their own bodily exercise, to
proclaim the hours of the day and night, and for I know not what other
causes. One thing, however, is certain, that many miracles are known
to have been performed by the sound or the touch of these cymbals.
Therefore at the Lord's Supper, the blessed Patrick going forth of his
retirement into public view, rejoiced with his presence the whole
church of the saints who were born of his preaching unto Christ. And
there he discharged his episcopal office, the which he always joined
with those sacred seasons; and thus went he forward in the work of
salvation.

CHAPTER CLXXIV.

_The Saint titheth Hibernia and the Dwellers therein._

Then at the Paschal tide, his accustomed devotions being finished, he
went round the whole island with a holy multitude of his sons whom he
had brought forth unto Christ; and everywhere teaching the way of the
Lord, he converted to, or confirmed in, the faith the dwellers therein.
And all the islanders, unto whom had come even the knowledge of his
name, for this so strange and wondrous miracle surrendered themselves
to him and to his doctrine, as to an angel of light, and devoutly they
obeyed him for their peculiar apostle. Then this most excellent
husbandman, seeing the hardness of the Lord's field to be softened, and
the thorns, the thistles, and the tares rooted forth, labored to
fertilize it so much the more abundantly with the increase of
profitable seed, that it produced good fruit not only to the increase
of thirty or sixty, but even of an hundred-fold. Therefore he caused
the whole island to be divided with a measuring line, and all the
inhabitants, both male and female, to be tithed; and every tenth head,
as well of human kind as of cattle, commanded he to be set apart for
the portion of the Lord. And making all the men monks, and the women
nuns, he builded many monasteries, and assigned unto them for their
support the tithe of the land and of the cattle. Wherefore in a short
space so it was that no desert spot, nor even any corner of the island,
nor any place therein, however remote, was unfilled with perfect monks
and nuns; so that Hibernia was become rightly distinguished by the
especi