thur,
now St. Patrick. The manner of their mention in the Four Masters is as
follows:--

"A.D. 266 was the fortieth year of Cormac McArthur McConn over the
kingdom of Ireland, until he died at Clete, after a salmon-bone had
stuck in his throat, from old prophecies which Malgon the Druid had made
against him, after Cormac turned against the Druids on account of his
manner of adoring God without them. For that reason the Devil (_Diabul_)
tempted him (Malgenn) through the instigation, until he caused his
death. It was Cormac who composed the precepts to be observed by kings,
the manners, tribute, and ordinations of kings. He was a wise man in
laws, and in things chronological and historical, for it was he who
invented the laws of the judgments, and the right principles in all
bargains, also the tributes, so that there was a law which bound all men
even unto the present time. This Cormac McArthur was he who collected
the Chronicle of Ireland into one place, Tara, until he formed from them
the Chronicles of Ireland in one book, which was called (afterwards) the
Psalter of Tara. In that book were the events and synchronisms of the
kings of Ireland with the kings and emperors of the world, and of the
kings of the provinces with the kings of Ireland."

A work of this kind, possible enough in Alexandria, is surely in need of
very definite and unexceptionable testimony to make it credible as a
piece of Irish history. The truly historical fact contained in the
extract is the existence of a book, at the time of the Four Masters,
with a Christian title, and Pagan contents.

To assume anything beyond the existence of early biographies of the
early propagators of Irish Christianity is unnecessary. These had an
undoubted existence; sometimes in prose, sometimes in verse; and it is
these that the annalists themselves chiefly refer to; the character of
whose notices may be collected from the following extracts relating to
the first arrival of St. Patrick.

"A.D. 430.--The second year of Laogar. In this year Pope Celestine first
sent Palladius, the bishop, to Ireland, to preach the faith to the
Irish, and there came with him twelve companions. Nathe, the son of
Garchon, opposed him. Going onwards, however, he baptized many in
Ireland; and three churches, built of wood, were built by him, the White
Church, the House of the Romans, and _Domnach Arta_ (_Dominica Alta_).
In the White Church he left his books, and a desk with the relics of