Fictions For so himself expresly says Adding withal that such only and no other was the repute they had in the very days of Yore among the best Irish Antiquaries And for this he brings sufficient proofs by alledging their own words Gratianus Lucius is the next Author I make frequent use of to lead me in several remote affairs of the more Ancient Irish And he likewise an Irish man by birth but of the Province of Connaght and as himself professes by name and blood of English Extraction His own proper name and surname John Lynch his Function Sacerdotal and of the Secular Clergy too His employ besides at Galway for some years in our own time was Teaching a School of Humanity as they call it wherein he was excellent In the differences between the Roman Catholic Confederates in the late unhappy War of that Nation he join'd with those of them that were against the Nuncio Rinuccini's Censures for the Cessation with Inchiquin submission to the King and the two Peaces After the surrender of Galway to the English Parliament Army he went to France Where employing his time as became a good Patriot Loyal Subject he wrote printed and publish'd two Latin Books in Quarto with a Dedicatory Epistle to the Congregation of Cardinals de Propaganda Fide against a Factious disloyal Manuscript which one Richard Ferral an Irish Capuccin had some years before written and presented to the same Congregation as a Direction for them in their government of the Church affairs of Ireland the former entitled Alithinologia the Later Supplementum Alithinologiae Some years after that is an 1662. he publish'd under the name of Gratianus Lucius an other Latin Work in Folio intitled Cambrensis Eversus as being a full confutation of the Author that goes by the name of Cambrensis Who this Cambrensis and what the Quarrel was to let you know if I digress a little it may peradventure be worth the while His proper name and surname in English being Gerald Barry that Additional of Cambrensis he had from his native Countrey in Latin Cambria in English Wales His education of a Scholar profession of a Divine Function of a Priest and as I must suppose merits in all brought him in time to be not only Arch-deacon of S. Davids but Tutor to the young Earl of Mortaign Fifth Son to Henry II. Vnder which Qualifications first his zeal for the old Archiepiscopal privileges of that See engag'd him in a long Contest with the See of Canterbury and then his Election to the same See of S. Davids involv'd him in another In so much that however he came to be worsted in both for so he was yet his name has ever since remain'd on Record in the Papal Canons His extraction made him Nephew to Robert fitz Stephens and Maurice fitz Gerald Cousin to Meylerus and Brother to Philip Barry and Robert Barry five of the first chief men that adventured to Ireland of purpose to advance their own fortune by helping on the Restauration of Diarmuid na Ngall King of Leinster His own Genius once and once more his Place carried him to Ireland For twice he was there first to see his kinsmen daily acquiring large possessions by their valour and next to wait on his young Prince Earl John when created Lord of Ireland and sent thither by the King And now as himself confesses being desirous of glory and immortal fame by describing Ireland and informing the World not only of what he knew of the State of that Kingdom then under the English Conquerors but of all former Conquests and State thereof from the beginning he wrote to this purpose five Books in Latin The first three of 'em under the Title of The Topography of Ireland and the other two under that of The Conquest of Ireland by Henry II. Indeed more specious Titles both than his Relations under them do so much as meanly answer Besides that the Title at least of Topography must be very strangely applyed to signifie the Description of a whole Kingdom And yet notwitstanding This together with the History of all former Conquests and other Antiquities of Ireland is that which he promises to give under the same Title That he has very ill perform'd that he has given his Reader 's nothing less than such a History or such a Description we must not wonder He neither could understand the Language nor so much as read the Books whether of History or Chorography written at large by the Natives themselves in their own Character He saw not in any manner nor travel'd nor view'd e'en at a distance above one Third of the Kingdom nor dar'd for his Life venture into either of the other two parts His whole stay in Ireland being the whole extent of Yime employ'd by him in gathering materials for his intended Work was but a year and a half besides an other half years task which he had left to his Companion Bertram Verdon who therefore stay'd so long behind him His Collections at least for such part of 'em as any way pertinently related to his foresaid promise or Titles were certainly extream little but the rest of them no less extream bad and commonly false to boot They were so little that he describes not so much as one County or Tract or Town no not of that very third Part of the Kingdom which he might have seen Vnless peradventure you take for a Description of all Ireland his Fabulous Narrations of four Wells three Islands three Lakes the Fountain head of four great Rivers and the Fall of the greatest of them all by name the River of Shannon into the Northern Sea Tho it be well known That as all these Narrations are such i. â— meer Fables so the one moiety of these Lakes Wells Islands besides the Head-spring of Shannon are within those other parts of Ireland which he never saw nor durst enter As for the History of the former Inhabitants Conquests and other Antiquities of that Kingdom promised by him it is in like manner not only so imperfect but so little in all respects That 1. he has not the least mention of Tuatha-De-Danainn though a powerful People that by a bloody War entirely won it from Feara-Bolg and were possessors of it for a hundred ninty seven Years under the successive Reigns of seven or rather indeed Nine Kings of their own that is until they also in their turn were conquer'd by the Clanna Mileadh about Thirteen hundred years before the Birth of Christ 2. Of those Clanna Mileadh or Descendents from Milesius though they were the People that continued the Possession and Government of Ireland ever since about 2500 years to this very Authors days yet all the account he gives is only in short that they had a hundred eighty one Monarchs ruling successively over that Kingdom but not a word more of their History Polity Laws Conquests abroad Militia or Wars at home may not so much as a bare Catalogue of
Records if no knowledg at least of two Thirds of their Countrey if hunting collecting and hudling together the vainest and falsest and most ridiculous hear-say stories and this forsooth of purpose to gain immortal fame by telling stupendious things not heard before if Satyrs of the people in general so virulent and frequent that in very deed the publishing of 'em may be justly suspected to have been at least a great part of the Authors chief design if a licentious humour and immoderate passion transporting him to the strangest exorbitancy either of praises or dispraises or flatteries or injuries as he stood affected in writing even of his own Party and his own King for company among 'em if his acknowledgment in Usher and the Censure of him by Sir James Ware in a word if so many excellent Qualifications as are enumerated here can render him an Author of Credit or to be follow'd or believ'd in any passage of his foresaid Books that is to any degree of prejudice either against the Irish Nation or contrary to their Chronicles or vain or exotick in it self and not warranted by better authority than his only word I say that if the matter be so indeed then for my own part I must be of opinion that no Author at all how idle or vain or unwarrantable or incredible or false or injurious reproachful and satyrical soever his Relations of any People or Countrey are is to be rejected Tho in all contingencies it must be also confess'd that wherever Cambrensis has delivered any thing to the advantage renown or credit of the Irish Nation his testimony is doubtless above all exception for so much For the confession of an Adversary is valid in all Tribunals and both Bodin and Reason requires it should be so in History Thus having sufficiently inform'd you both of Cambrensis and the true original grounds of the Quarrel of Gratianus Lucius to him I return to the finishing my account of Lucius himself And this I shall dispatch by a little farther addition first of those more special considerations that put him on writing his Cambrensis Eversus and then of his performance therein Those himself gives at large but I shall contract ' em 1. He had often consider'd that altho soon after the coming out of Cambrensis in Germany from the Press two Learned Irish Gentlemen Richard White a Jesuit and Philip O Suillevan a Soldier to undeceive the World and right their injur'd Nation had most exactly and convincingly written each of them at large against his impostures yet through ill fortune their several Books on that subject were lost and no body since had put Pen to paper to retrive this loss 2. By daily conversation among Foreigners he had found That because in so many years since that Francford Edition of Cambrensis nothing appear'd against him in Print his very vilest Relations of Ireland were taken for confessedly true 3. Having read a great number of Books and he thinks all whatsoever written of that Kingdom by English other Brittish Authors and observing how as many of 'em at least as came out since the change of Religion were so unjust to the Irish Nation that amongst all there was not so much as any one Individual who does not either report Fictions or conceal Truths or exaggerate the bad or extenuate the good Things of that People he considered at last that Giraldus Cambrensis was their first pattern 4. And which to him was more grievous yet he considered that ever since the aforesaid German Edition there was not a Book written nor a Cosmographical or Geographical Table drawn there was not I mean a Map or a Card as they are call'd describing the customs or manners of Nations come forth in any part of Europe which was not replenish'd with ugly base reflections on the Irish In so much that in all Countreys and Languages they were on all occasions become a Fable to the Vulgar and object of scorn to others These were the considerations that prevail'd with Lucius to exert his zeal for Truth and Love to his Countrey in taking all the foresaid Books of Cambrensis to pieces laying open the most material of his Errors and Calumnies for it had been endless to pursue him in the more immaterial convincing him every where and therefore when he had finish'd his Work publishing it for the satisfaction of Europe in Latin under the Title of Cambrensis Eversus which may be English'd The Cambrian overthrown How justly it deserves this name others may judg seeing the Book is extant and has been since the year 1622. when it was printed For my own part I can do no less than acknowledg what I think of it my self which is That the Author shews himself very conversant in those Letters we call Polite That above all for knowledg in History both Domestic Forein Sacred and Profane he appears excellently well qualified to write on the Subject he undertook That every where and whatever matter is treated he is very exact in quoting his Authors and where the allegation must depend on Irish Books or Writers he never omits to give 'em by name in the Margin among which are the Annals of Inis Fail the Common Annals the Annals of Anonimus the Annals of Tigernacus the Continuer of Tigernacus the Books of Reigns O Duuegan O Donel Colgan Philip O Suillevan Peter Lombard Archb. of Ardmagh Keting Primat Usher Sir James Ware That in a word his performances in this Book against Cambrensis are accurate absolute full and therefore not unworthy the Dedication they bear prefix'd to the Sacred Majesty of Charles II. of Great Brittain our gracious King I say against Cambrensis Because I do abstract wholly from his occasional or incidental Reflections any where on the State of Ireland since the Year 1640. To deliver my thoughts of them is no part of my business here What more concerning Lucius must be directly to the purpose of this place is to let you understand that although Cambrensis Eversus be not a History of Ireland yet because it is in many places fraught with choice Collections out of the Irish Antiquities and in the VIII Chapter occasionally gives together with a Catalogue of all the Monarchs of Ireland under the several Conquests even from Slanius the first of them a brief account of their Reigns and Years of the World or Christ respectively when each King began finish'd his Reign therefore next to Keting I have made the greatest use of him in the Former Part tho no where before page 130. for till I came so far I had him not And out of him particularly it is That in some places I add to such or such Monarchs the Year of the World or of our Saviour Christ's Incarnation Now what Computation is follow'd by him in giving the former Years I mean those of the World albeit he does not himself expresly inform us we may notwithstanding most certainly know by his fixing
publick view 3. That notwithstanding I had on this emergent occasion thought my self eas'd of any further study on a Subject I had no liking to it prov'd much otherwise For his Lordship nevertheless continued his desires that I should prosecute and finish what I had begun and to oblige me to it without hopes of any change in him gave notice in his Preface to the Reader of his Memoir's how the Appendix he had first intended and promis'd of the State of Ireland was grown to such a Bulk as would require its coming out in a Book by its self And therefore I found my self more deeply engag'd 4. That however seeing I was now at more liberty as for Time so for Matter and for Title both I resolv'd to change my first design of so few sheets and write under the Title of a Prospect c. about threescore sheets in all but in the same method and Stile I had already begun with as more agreeable to my purpose of giving though not a strict much less a full History yet the choicest Collections and freest observations too I could derive from or in my way i. e. in several easie plain Discourses make upon the History of Ireland Thirty sheets representing in short the state of that Kingdom from the first Plantation of it after the Flood till the English Conquest and the other thirty what follow'd since for the last five hundred years 5. That because I considered the Form as Printers call it which I had also begun with already and therefore must have continued the same would be too narrow and little for a Volume of sixty sheets not rendred unproportinoably thick I give them divided as in two Parts which I call the Former and Later so in two Volums each apart So much for the Occasion Title Method Form Division of this Treatise As for those matters of Irish Antiquity so strangely far out of our ken discours'd in this Former Part I doubt not some at least or peradventure many of 'em will be excepted against by Criticks in this censorious Age. And that where nothing else can be objected Varro's Three Differences of Time must serve the turn We shall be told How the First having been That which extended from the Creation to the Flood is call'd Obscure and uncertain because we are wholly ignorant of all things happen'd in it The Second which was That from the Flood to the first Olympiad is termed Fabulous by reason of a world of Fables reported thereof But the Third extending frem the said Olympiad to our days is called Historical because the Acts of it are delivered in Histories that are true And indeed I must confess that so said Varro the most learned of the Romans 1700 years ago following herein the Greeks and after him of late our English Cambden who lays so much stress upon this observation of Varro that page 17. Hol. Translat he makes it his only argument to ruin the credit of Geoffrey of Monmouth's new History of Brute But withal I do profess that for my own part I see nothing in it that stresses My reasons are 1. The sayings of Varro how learned soever he was are no Oracles 2. The Histories of the Jewish Nation at least the Books of Moses and several more of the Old Testament Record a great variety of Matters hapned some before the Flood many more after it both the one and the other with all certainty and truth imaginable and yet all of 'em before the First Olympiad which according to Cambden himself was no earlier than the year of the World 3189. though others make it earlier by fifteen years 3. And to wave all kind of advantages from those holy Books which both Jews and Christians repute infallible as being the Oracles of God Josephus in his first Book against Appion a Book written by him 1600. years ago assures us that even the Histories of the Phenicians Egyptians and Chaldeans have recorded likewise with great truth and certainty the Reigns of their own Kings and other memorable things happen'd in their Countreys many hundred years before the first Olympiad yea not a few of them happen'd even long before either Moses or Abraham himself was born 4. There have been several Books written for true History of matters that as the Authors would make us believe happen'd since the first Olympiad nay written partly of some things reported in them to have happen'd fourteen hundred years after that Olympiad which yet we know to be most faculous Witness among so many other the foresaid Geoffrey of Monmouth's seven Books of History to say nothing at all of Annius Viterbiensis But to return back to Josephus it is also remarkable how in the same Book against Appion he wonders not a little at those who as to matters of Antiquity suppose the truth ought only to be gather'd from the Greeks Whereas indeed says he whatever is written by the Greeks is new and of late memory and has been done in the World in a manner but yesterday And this he proves in the same place at large Besides he shews that albeit their knowledg or practice not only of other Arts and Sciences but of any kind of Letters had been very late yet the latest of all among 'em was that of History That herein even after they had given themselves industriously to it they were notwithstanding very imperfect uncertain short their chiefest Authors contradicting one another in what they wrote as knowing there were no ancient Records not even in Athens it self to check their falsity nor Laws to curb their Liberty of writing what they pleas'd at random and what they wrote being so little as to other Countreys of the World that of Rome it self though very powerful within Italy in those times and so near home they seem'd for some Ages wholly ignorant That even their most curious Writers and among 'em Ephorus by name were so ignorant of the Gauls and Spaniards as to have thought the later a People denominated of one only City and related the manners both of the one and the other to be such as neither are nor at any time were among either Finally that their knowledg of other Nations was a long time so extream little as to have extended only to the bordering Thracians and the Inhabitants of the Sea Coasts lying Easterly and Westerly not far from Greece all other Inland or untraffiquing nay and all trassiquing too so they were far remote Countreys being utterly unknown to them Moreover and more nearly to our present purpose it is observable how so excellent so unbyass'd a Writer as Josephus undoubtedly is not only has in the same Book this very expression That he presumes not for matter of Antiquity to compare his own Jewish Nation with the Chaldeans Egyptians or Phaenicians but for certainty and truth highly celebrates in particular the Phenician Historian Dius and the Chaldean Berosus And yet we know from him that as well the one as the other
those very Monarchs for he names only the first and last of 〈◊〉 being Feidlimidius whom he mistakes for one more was not King of Ireland but of Mounster only So little he has of the very Milesians or their Antiquities or Actions Except only 1. A few words of the six Sons of Muredus Provincial King of Ulster entring Scotland 2. A slender touch upon the Danish Invasions of Ireland In which notwithstanding he is mightily out both as to the Year of Christ he fixes on for the first of those Invasions viz. 838. and as to the name person feats yea and Nation too of Gurmundus all being meer Fictions borrow'd mostly from Galfridus Monumethensis However with such and many more idle stories in other matters not only impertinent to the Title of his Books or discharge of his Promise nor only not had from any Records or Writings whatsoever as neither from the oral Testimony of men of knowledg or integrity but wholly deriv'd from old Wive's Tales and pastime of Ferry-men and random reports of Soldiers and imposture of some Knaves who fain'd things of purpose to impose on his vain credulity and besides with most vile reflections Invectives Satyrs almost every where against the Irish Nation of his own time their Princes Priests and People generally without sparing any degree not even the very Monks nor even the very Bishops excepted he patch'd up finish'd at last after five years study all his foresaid five Books of Ireland prefixing Dedicatories of some to the King as of other of 'em to Richard Earl of Poictou who soon after was Richard I. of England And now putting an extraordinary value on these Works of his own and no longer able to conceal his ambitious design of glory by 'em he goes to Oxford renews the ancient Roman Rehearsals there in the most publick Audience could be had continues 'em three days together from morning till night allowing a day for each of his Topographical Books And to make his Comedy the more solemn feasts all the meaner sort of that whole City on the firstday on the second all the Doctors Masters and chief Scholars of the Vniversity on the third day the rest of the Scholars the Soldiers too and all the Burgesses of that Place A sumptuous and noble act says Gerald himself glorying of it whereby the ancient Custom of Poets was renewed which neither the present Age nor any former could shew in England But after all he came short of his expectation of glory His little performance and great ignorance his many Fables and evil choice of other materials toâ— yea and his mortal enmity hatred malevolence to the Irish Nation were seen through especially at Court where as himself complains he had too many back Friends to malign him Above all his Satyrs and spleen against the very name of the Irish lai'd him open Nor were the true causes thereof unknown Besides the common concern he had in the destruction of that People for the sake of his Kinsmen there was another more peculiar to himself that continually egg'd him to the greatest violence against them He had even for his own sake very deeply engag'd in a particular controversie with Albinus O Molloy a Cistercian Irish Monk and Abbot of Baltinglass wherein he was worsted Whether any other causes mov'd him I do not know But this I know that in his Second Book of the Conquest of Ireland he desir'd that whole Nation might either be throughly weakned or totally destroy'd yea notwithstanding the Peace but lately concluded and still observ'd by them And that besides in the same Book cap. 36. he prescrib'd the ways to do it I see also that on every occasion as he is perpetually in the greatest extreams even of Romantic praises of his own Relatives Fitz Stephens Fitz Gerald Meyler the two Barrys and all their Brittish Soldiers too his own Countrey-men so of the other side upon the least pique he is no less passionately excessive in charging with and exaggerating the vilest things against the very Normans and English in Ireland tho embarqu'd in the save public quarrel with them against the Irish Nation Witness among others Herveus de Monte Marisco and William Fitz Adelm the King's Lieutenant and Progenitor of the noble Family of Bourks in that Kingdom Nay witness the King himself Henry II. Whom altho during his Life this Author made the Occidental Alexander the Invincible the Salomon of his own Time the most Pious of Princes and his only Fame tho far short of his Merits to have repress'd the fury of all the very Gentils of Europe and Asia too beyond the Mediterranean Sea adding many more Hyperbolical expressions to magnifie him above all truth and reason as for example That his Victoâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 with the Circumference of the Earth and That if you seek after the Limits of his Conquests you shall sooner come to the end of the World than of them yet after this Great Prince's death as David Powel very particularly observes he the same Author Gerald of Wales most bitterly invey'd against him in his Book de Instructione Principis where he so belâ—bed forth the venom of his malevolence that he manifestly discover'd his old inveterate hatred of this King Henry So says Powell Moreover and in reference particularly to his stories of Ireland you may find in Primat Ushers Sylloge pag. 155. how the expostulations of other men and evidence of Truth compell'd him at last to several Retractations among which he confesses that altho he had some of his Relations from persons of credit in that Countrey yet for the rest he had only common report and fame Which if I be not mistaken is in effect to acknowledg that he had common Lyes and Forgeries to authorize them Nay further You may read Sir James Wares Censure of them in his own Antiquities of Ireland cap. 23. where in express terms he says in Latin That Gerald of Wales in his Topography of Ireland has heap'd together so many Fabulous Relations that to discuss them exactly would require a just Treatise And then adds in the same place his own wonder How it should come to pass that some of this very Age tho otherwise grave and learned men have again for Truths obtruded on the World those Fictions of Girald Besides You are to know that notwithstanding so many just exceptions against those Books of Cambrensis yea notwithstanding they had therefore lyen after his death 400 years neglected obscure unknown till Cambden had them printed at Francford an 1602. yet ever since that year they have proved the only chief warrant to all such men of little reading as were delighted in writing ill of the ancient Irish To conclude what I would say on the whole is That if hatred enmity open profess'd hostility and special interest and actual engagement too in the destruction of that ancient Irish Nation if ignorance of their Language and wilful passing by their History even the most authentick of their
Beeves and twelve Hogs Add further yet as part of this heavy Leinster Fine says Lucius 30 either white or red Cows with their Calves of the same colour 30 brass Collars for those Cows to keep them quiet in their stabling and 30 other brazen ties for their feet also to keep them gentle at their milking Where nevertheless I must take notice that Lucius in this Account does much vary from Keting and that whatever may be thought of all other particulars of it surely the number of 15000 Cauldrons or Coppers as we call them now of that capacity seems to me somewhat incredible But leaving this to the Readers indifferency what is more proper here may be read in the same Author Lucius where he tells us next of this Monarchs port and magnificence in House-keeping which though very great indeed is however I think credible enough He had eleven hundred and fifty Waiters that serv'd him ordinarily at Table in his great Hall at Tarach And this Hall was by himself built of purpose to answer in its capacity the entertainment and attendance of a great King It was 300 Foot long 30 Cubits high and 50 Cubits broad with fourteen Doors opening into it And the daily service of Plate the Flagous and Cups of Gold Silver and precious stone at his Table there consisted of a hundred and fifty pieces in all What is besides delivered of this Monarch is That which among the truly wise must be more valuable than any worldly magnificence or secular glory whatsoever He was to all mankind very just and in his later days through the mercy of God very pious also religious towards him That so strangely powerful on a sudden were his inward illuminations That in plain terms he now refus'd his Druids any more to worship their Idol Gods That soon after he openly professed he would no more worship any but the only true God of the Universe the Immortal and Invisible King of Ages as the great Apostle calls him And finally that those Priests of the Devil by their Necromantical adjurations and ministery of damned Spirits raised from Hell God permitting it wrought his destruction by choaking him as I have said before For in such manner and for such a cause died this great and happy King of Ireland An. Christi 266. But whether he may or may not therefore be rank'd among the true Christian Martyrs I leave others to judge And the same question might peradventure be rationally put though not I confess with the same advantage of the circumstance of violence from an external cause concerning Connor the first Provincial King of Vlster made by the Monarch Eochuidh Feilioch himself the Author of the Pentarchy about 400 years before the Birth of Christ This Connor's Druyd or Magitian which you please to call him having it seems the spirit of Prophecy as you see in the Book of Judges that Baldam though otherwise a Heathen wicked Idolater had the like on a day speaking his Raptures to Connor and among other things delivering much of the Son of God that was to come down from Heaven to save mankind and was nevertheless to suffer the most cruel death of the Cross from his own beloved Countrymen the Jews whom he came to save before any others Connor says Keting on the hearing of all became so affected first with the stupendious mercy of God to Sinners and then presently so transported against the ungrateful Jews that being in a great Wood at the time of this Discourse he drew his Sword fell a slashing and cutting the Trees about him on every side with the greatest fury could be imagining he had before him still those cruel men that put our Saviour to death and continued so long in this passionate action of transport till by over-heating himself and the opening thereby of some old wounds he had in his shull he died What the Reader may answer to the foresaid Quere in relation to either of these two Kings I know not But think nevertheless what St. John Chrysostom would have answer'd it very consequently at least in reference to the former had the case been debated by him when he wrote his Three Books de Providentia Dei to Stargirius a holy Monk that notwithstanding his holiness was through the permission of God either possess'd or obsess'd or both by the power of the Devil It was also in the time of Ireland's Paganism that Niall the Great surnamed Naoighiollach in Latin Noui-obses in English Niall of the Nine Hostages because says Colgan in his Trias Taumatorge from Vlster Connaght Mounster Leinster the Britons Picts Dal-Rheudans and Morini a People of France in all nine Nations he had Hostages did reign the CXX or CXIX Monarch of the Irish Of whose great cruelty in his judgment given against Eochuidh King of Leinster because I have so particularly spoken before I will not conceal now what I have since observ'd in Gratianus Lucius of the extraordinary favour of God unto him For such we must undoubtedly acknowledg it to have been seeing it was no less than a heavenly illustration of his mind with the beams of Christianity to that degree as turn'd him wholly to a new man of perfect holiness Nor yet less than that above a hundred years after his death his Body on the opening of his Shrine or Tomb which I take to have been on Cruach Phadruig in Connaght whither the Army brought his Body from France was found entire without any corruption Nay nor a jot less than that a Christian Bishop namely St. Cernachus infected with the Leprosie was perfectly cured by visiting and lying down in that very Shrine of this Great Niall Naoighiallach So writeth Gratianus Lucius quoting for his Author Colgan And so I have done with those few of the Kings of Ireland in the time of Paganism that besides many more of that very time and their Catalogue have been for several great Excellencies other than those of warlike bravery or success renown'd in that Nation 34. But after Christianity had been among the people of Ireland universally preach'd and establish'd yea and all along from time to time in the succeeding Ages not even those very Ages following the horrible desolations by the Danish Wars excepted they had questionless notwithstanding all their intestin Feuds many more both Monarchs Provincial Kings and other lesser Kings too famous in their generation as well for other great Vertues especially those peculiar to Religion as for those of Martial fortitude and Valour Yet because I perceive this little Book to swell insensibly beyond my design I pass over much of that which otherwise I would have willingly mention'd in this place And therefore what I can briefly on the present Subject observe is First in general the wonderful Devotion Zeal Religious Liberality of the first Christian Monarchs Provincial Kings and other great Lords of Ireland who upon their first conversion not only parted so readily with the whole Tenths of their Estates real
immediately after the great Victory got by Him over the remainders of the Nation call'd Fir-bholg who till then had kept and inhabited that Tract of ground where this Lake did so burst forth on a sudden and consequently That it happen'd before the year of the World 3751. because according to to the Irish Chronology Fiacha Laurainne came to the Crown of Ireland by killing his Predecessor Eochuidh Fuibherghlas in the year of the World 3727. and held it twenty years more or rather to the year of the World 3751. when himself was likewise kill'd by Eochuidh Mumho that succeeded him in the Sovereignty 3. That such and so early to have been the original of this Lake without either bestiality or Well or other enormous or miraculous cause mention'd by any Irish Records or Books Amhirgin the son of Amhalgadh mhic Mholruana had delivered in the Etymological Book which he not only compos'd of all the chief places Countreys Tracts of Ireland but rehears'd before Diarmuid O Cearbheoil the Monarch and other Princes and Peers of the Nation assembled together at Tarach about the year of Christ 500 adding withal in the same Book that some former Historians were of opinion This Lake had a long time yea many Ages after the beginning taken its denomination of Erne a Maid servant to the famous Meabh Chruachain Queen of Connaght drown'd therein Which Meabh Chruachain was Daughter to Eochuidh Feilioch the Monarch Author of the Pentarchy who ended both his Reign and life in the year of the World 5069. that is according to the account follow'd by Lucius a hundred and thirty one years before the Incarnation of our Lord. 4. That hence appears not only the falsity of the Relation it self but the Ignorance of the Relatour Cambrensis in the History of Ireland where he says That Church-Towers were seen in that Lake he describes to have had so prodigious an original insinuating hereby as if Loch Ern had its beginning after the plantation of Christianity in that Kingdom Whereas we have now seen it was broke out even 1427. before the very birth of Christ which was in the year of the World 5199. Besides it is most certain that those high round narrow Towers of stone built cylinder-wise whereof Cambrensis speaks were never known or built in Ireland as indeed no more were any Castles Houses or even Churches of stone at least in the North of Ireland before the year of Christ 838. when the Heathen Danes possessing a great part of that Countrey built them in several places to serve themselves as Watch-Towers against the Natives Though ere long the Danes being expuls'd the Christian Irish turn'd them to another and much better because a holy use that is to Steeple-Houses or Bell-Fries to hang Bells in for calling the People to Church From which later use made of them it is that ever since to this present they are call'd in Irish Cloctheachs that is Bell-Fries or Bell-Houses Cloc or Clog signifying a Bell and Teach a House in that Language And further yet my Author Gratianus Lucius adds out of the undoubted Monuments or Lives both of Columb Cille and S. Patrick that even as early as either of those holy men's time Loch Erne was the same it is now For O Donel writes in his Life of Columb Cill l. 1. c. 88. That S. Columb by his special blessing and Prayer to God obtained not only that fecundity of Fish to the Lake which ever since it has been blessed with but that the cataract or Fall of it should be lower than it was before whereby the leap of the Salmon became easier And S. Ewin writes part 2. c. 110. of S. Patric's Life that this great Apostle of Ireland to punish the frowardness of the Lord of the Countrey next adjoyning to the Northern side of this Lake curs'd the same side of it and so bereav'd it of its former fruitfulness Out of which Narrations or Lives whatsoever may be said or thought of the Miracles it is plain enough that so long before these narrow high round Turrets built by the Danes Loch Erne was the same it is at present 5. That Ptolomee who flourish'd about the year of Christ 153. describes Loch Erne in the same manner and place the modern Geographers do calling also the Inhabitants of that Tract Erdini 6. That nothing can be more clear and manifest than Girald and Cambden's contradicting one another or certainly both truth and experience each of them For Cambrensis plainly says that the River of Ban flows out of the Lake he reports to have had the foresaid prodigious original and Cambden no less plainly and positively averrs that Lake which had so strange a beginning to be the Lake Erne and yet all Ireland knows and Cambden himself in several places though more perceptibly to the eye in his Map of Ireland shews that the said River Ban flows not out of Loch Ern but out of another by name Loch Neauch which is at least threescore miles from the Lake Ern. 7. And lastly that there are no such Irish Annals known or heard of in Ireland which impute either that cause or effect of it whereof Cambden speaks to those Hebridians mention'd by him or to any other People or Nation whatsoever So that out of all we may safely conclude the whole Relation of the foresaid infamous Original of Loch Erne to be no better than an old Wives Tale. Which after I had lighted by chance on Gratianus I thought my self the rather obliged to observe here because I had formerly in writing and printing what you have in my 59 page either seem'd to be somewhat persuaded by the Authority of Cambden though only taking up the relation from Cambrensis and withal telling us I know not from whom of Irish Annals in the case or because at least I had not sufficienly cleared so injurious a Report 55. And now let me tell you on this occasion that e'n such another if not yet more injurious ill grounded false Report is that which the same Cambrensis is the only first Original Author of in his Topography of Ireland dist 3. cap. 25. where he tells us That the People of Tirconel a Countrey in the North of Vlster created their King in this barbarous abominable manner That all being assembled together in one place a white Beast was brought before them Unto which he that was chosen to be made King approaching declared himself publickly before them all to be such another that is a meer Beast Whereupon the white Beast was cut in pieces boil'd in Water and that done a bath prepar'd for him of the Broth. Into which entring and bathing and then feeding and all the People too about him feeding in the same manner on the flesh boil'd in it at last he drinks of that very broth wherein he had already bathed and this also not by reaching or taking it out of any Cup or other Vessel nay not so much as out of the palm of his
of Boethius and Fordon as I find this given by Langhorn So much of the Picts And therefore now to my Eighth Note Which as it refers to several places of this Book particularly to page 5. and all other pages indeed where I suppose the Milesians either to have possess'd themselves of Ireland as early as the year of the World 2736. or not to have continued longer a free People under their own Laws and Kings then about 2500 years so it is meerly occasion'd by what I said but now in my Seventh Note concerning the extent of time which the Pictish Kings must have lasted according to the Chronology of Lucius and Vsher In short I must on this occasion tell you here That as to the Milesian Kingdom 's answerable extent of Time Keting and Lucius agree Save only That Keting as himself professes in his Preface following that computation of the years of the World which allows only 4052 years from the Creation to the Incarnation and consequently in this coming short 1138 years of the computation of Eusebius would needs reform the Irish Regnal for so they call the Book of their Reigns by shortning the Reigns of several of their Monarchs by so many years in all as amount to above four hundred that is 491 years and this of purpose to make the whole extent of Time and the several Periods from the first Plantation of Ireland by Partholan to the Reign of Ruaruidh O Conchabhar the Last Irish Monarch of the Milesian Race agree the better with his own foresaid Computation of the years of the World And Lucius on the other side as he follow'd Eusebius's Computation of the same years of the World which is that commonly follow'd by both Greeks and Latins says Sixtus Senensis * Biblioth S. l. 2. page 46. verb. Adae Genealogia so he held stiffly and throughly to the Irish Regnal as to the years of each Milesian Monarch's Reign And therefore the difference 'twixt these two Writers in relation to Ireland or to any period or extent of the periods of Time since its first Plantation is only that of near five hundred years during the Milesian Monarchy In all other points concerning this matter they both agree As for Example That Ireland was first planted by Partholan about three hundred years after the Deluge that his Posterity continued there three hundred years and the next Invaders Clanna Neimheadh 217 more and after them the Nation call'd Fir-bholg thirty six and after these another Nation by name Tuath-De-Danann for 197 years and then immediately the Milesians coming in continued since to the year of Christ 1172. So that Keting and Lucius being throughly agreed in all these points their difference about the whole extent of their several periods mention'd before can be no other than that of Keting's voluntary cutting off from the Milesian Reigns about five hundred years Or rather indeed especially if we consider how Keting himself confesses he did so and for what end he did it even contrary to the Irish Regnall we may conclude there is no difference at all as to the undoubted extent of all those several Periods of Time though Keting place the Milesian Epocha in his year of the World 2736. and Lucius the very same Epocha in his year of the World 3500. For albeit this diversity of placing it argues 1172. years difference between 'em in stating the years of the World and that Keting chose rather to follow the far more likely computation of Augustinus Torniellius in his Annales Sacri Profani * Torniel Sext. M. aetat ad an 4052. ab Orbe condito ad eundem Christi passione redemptum come out a little before Keting's time though he makes no mention of them or him than be led by that of Eusebius who was himself most probably misled by the grand Errour of the Septuagint Version * See Sixtus Senen Biblioth S. â— 2. page 45. but more at large l. 5. page 440. where he shews that the computation of Eusebius as to the years only from the Creation to the birth of Abraham exceeds the Hebrew true computation in One thousand two hundred thirty six years Nay in the former Place he shews that whereas from the Creaation to the Flood Moses counts only 1656 years the Septuagint Interpr exceed him in 786 years So that by their supputation to the Flood only the number of years is 2242. From which diversity the great contention arose betwixt the Hebrews and the Greeks in computing the years of the World So says he l. 2. pag. 45. verb. Adae Genealogia yet no difference at all as to stating strictly the extent of Time or number of years which the Milesian or other former Conquests or Plantations of Ireland had continued can be deduced thence Only it argues that either the one or other was mistaken in the number of the years of the World or in fixing ' em Which is enough to be said on this Subject occasionally And therefore I will only add here what as occasionally comes now to mind That whether in my Title-page by the year of the World 2736 you understand the year accounted such according to the computation of Torniellius and Keting or the other accounted such by Eusebius and Lucius I am neither way my self nor any thing in this Book concern'd Though otherwise I would as to this point much rather hold with those than these retaining nevertheless all due veneration to the name of Eusebius as who had been not only one of the Three hundred and eighteen Nicene Fathers and Bishop of Caesarea in Palestin but worthy as Constantine the Great said of him to be Bishop of the whole Earth The Ninth and last Additional Note has no reference that I can remember to any thing said before in any of my pages However I give it because I see Gratianus Lucius thought it not unconducing to the honour of the Ancient Irish For it is in short That the Warlike Nation of the Heruli who inhabited some Northern Islands and other Tracts near Germany a Nation too well sometimes known to the Roman Provinces harrass'd by them did glory in their two Kings Dathen and Aordon as descended from the Irish and that Suria born of an Irish Lady descended from the Kings of Ireland had the supreain Power of Biscay an 870 as absolute Princess thereof which she transmitted to a long succession of Descendants from her Whereof you may see Gratianus Lucius page 299. where he quotes Wolfgangus Lassin de Migrat Gent. l. 13. And so Reader you have at last an end of all my additional Notes and consequently of all whatever I thought necessary to say according to the design and method of this little Tract of the Ancient Irish as they were a free Nation about 2500 years under their own Laws and Government For indeed my design hitherto as you may easily perceive was either only or at least chiefly to represent them as they appear'd