water to drink had all this rigour effectually put in execution against him and rejected even Columb-Cille's Petition for his release though come of purpose out of Scotland to obtain it And so I have done with my Instances nor have I more to say in reference to them Only that although I cannot tell what reasons either of these two Christian Monarchs had for such extream rigour towards Christian Princes of their own Nation though their Prisoners or at their mercy nor can tell as to particulars how considerably this cruel usage did add unto or inflame the former feuds Yet this much I can tell that neither of them had other than a violent death the former murder'd by Aodh Dubh mhac Suibhne the later kill'd in Battel by Brandubh King of Leinster as I have said before upon another occasion And so by consequence I have likewise done with all my special remarks on this large subject of the manifold bloody Feuds of that Nation both in the time of their Paganism and in that of their being under the Gospel of Christ for I intended no more such heer than I have given Which is the reason that now returning once more thither where I was before I conclude at last this long Section with one general remark on that People as they were under the Gospel in the more early Ages of it among them viz. That from the killing of their foresaid Christian Monarch Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh the last we spake of here the Fate not only of the Milesians but other Gathelians whatsoever in Ireland and the Genius of their Kings Princes Nobles and other Martial men continuing for 300 years after him the very same it had been in the Age before him carried them on perpetually from time to time fighting and slaying and murthering one another at home until the four and twentieth of those Christian Monarchs of theirs who died violent deaths by the hands of their own Irish Subjects within the first 400 years of Christian Religion generally planted among 'em by name Aodh Ollann had been slaughter'd in the Battel of Seir by Domhnal mhac Murchadha that immediatly succeeded him Nay until that in this Domhnals Reign which continued 42 years and the Reign of his Successor Niall Frassach which lasted but four besides Colman the Bishop of Laosaine murdered by Vibh Tuirtre the Battel of Beallach Cro between Criomthan mhac Euno and Fionn mhac Airb the Battel of Beallach Gawran between Mac Conchearca King of Ossory and Dunghall King of Vibh Cionsallach kill d therein the Battel of Leagea betwixt Vibh Mbruine and Vibh Mainne the Battel of Corann betwixt Cinneal Gonnail and Cionneal Eoghuin and finally the killing of Combhasgach King of Ibh-Failghe by Maolduin mhac Aodha Beanainn King of Mounster whether in Battel or out of Battel I know not had fill'd up at last brim full the measure of their domestick unnatural slaughters happening within that term of time their first four Centuries of Christianity SECT IV. National sins Very slight causes of War Cormock Ulfada's beard Muireadhagh's Tiriogh's revenge and the three Colla's War on Ferghussa Fogha King of Eumhna Sundry warnings from God to the Irish Christians but not like the judgment at Magh-Sleachta or the other by Loch Earne on their Pagan Predecessors 1. The loss of all their Dominions abroad 2. Those two Epidemical Plagues at home called the Crom-Chonnioll and Buy-Chonnioll 3. Mortality of Kine and great Famil that follow'd 4. Those three or four Inroads made into their Country by the Saxons and Brittons 5. Prodigies with another extraordinary Famin. Notwithstanding all no amendment This instanc'd in the death of the Monarch's Loinnseach Conghall Cinn Fearrghall Foghartach and Kionaoth What of Flaithiortach The flood-gates of the North set open at last to pour Vengeance on this contumacious people Yet they amidst all continue their intestine feuds Witness the Monarchs Aodh Ordnigh Conchabhar mhac Donochadh and Niall Caille A sad Interregnum The particulars of their Bondage under Turgesius The glory of their Learning and Sanctity now gone for ever Scarce delivered from that Bondage when they relapsed again far more enormously than before This also instanc'd 1. In eight of those eleven Monarchs that Reign'd in the second Danish War 2. In the Reigns of those other six following that assumed the title of Monarchs though not allow'd for such by near at least one half of the Provinces Maolseachluinn the Second by his death put an end to the real Monarchy of Ireland among the Irish and Ruaruidh O Conchabhair saw in his own days not only the pretence or shadow of it gone but the very Being of this Nation any more a free People on Earth 24. SUch were the National provocations of Heaven peculiar to that People hitherto i. e. for two and twenty hundred years besides what we shall yet see did happen after above any other Nation of the whole Earth Immortal Feuds of death tyrannical oppressions of the Subject cruelty as well of justice as revenge Treason Conspiracies Rebellions Murders even of their Sovereigns effusion of human blood like water And this without pity without remorse without any cause sometimes but very slight and sometimes vain and ridiculous An arbitration between two religious Monks in a difference deciding against one of them must engage Families and Countrys in Arms to fight it out in Battel and cut one another in pieces A known Murtherer proscrib'd as unpardouable by their most sacred Laws and therefore justly put to death by the Monarch must nevertheless on pretence of his being seiz'd upon after he had been received into the protection of an Abbot be a just cause of rebelling and fighting that very Monarch and killing his whole Army to boot Nay one single Beast a Cow at most but very little worth taken away I know not how from the owner was the only cause of a great Battel fought between the same Monarch and the Provincial King of Connaught and a Battel wherein most of the Gentry of that Province and Mounster too were kill'd As if neither the Assailant nor Defendant tho Christian Kings both could find any other way to satisfie the poor Woman that was rob'd of that Cow or rather indeed as if they had sported so with the lives not only of their Subjects but of their Friends I say nothing of the Candle-snuff or of its firing the Monarch Cormack Vlfada's beard at an entertainment given him in Maig-Breag by Giolla King of Vlster who shuffing a Candle instead of throwing it aside threw it whether by chance or of purpose into Cormack's long beard which presently catch'd and burn'd up to his tresses Only I say That however this ridiculous matter happen'd or pass'd at that time it cost Vlster dear long after Cormack's death That Muireadhach Tiriogh the great Grand-child of this Cormack and sixth King of Ireland after him took it for a pretence to pour an Army of one and twenty thousand men under the command
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
as had natural ends to have been As for the Fir-bholgian Tuath-De-Danann Kings tho proportionably fewer e'en of either died violent deaths yet of their 18. which was their whole number fourteen lost their Lives by the Sword But how many or how few soever you please of all these and those Kings of all the Former Conquests ended their days either by the hands of other men or some prodigious judgment of Heaven or means of other extrinsick secondary Causes in such manner as rendred their deaths properly violent the Inferences out of this Catalogue are plain 1. That if we count severally each of those Milesian Princes who jointly or in Association with any other govern'd as Kings of Ireland and withal not count the same Person twice nor count among 'em either Cairbre I. surnamed Ccann-cheit or Feilim I. mhac Conruidh see Numb 98. 99. as indeed we ought not being these Two are the only noted for meer Usurpers because both were chosen one after another by the Plebeians only nay and only too to head their most hideous bloody Rebellion of 25 years continuance against all the Royal Line and as for the former of 'em viz. Cairbre he had not so much pretence of right as to have been either of the Milesian or e'en Gathelian Race but originally a meer Dane I say that if we count so we shall find the whole number of those Milesian Kings as it is in this Catalogue to agree exactly with that which Cambrensis himself 500 years since reported it to have been That is just 181 in all 2. That counting together with these Milesians those â—8 Fir-bholgian and Tuatha-De-Donann Kings who preceded them and withal admitting both Cairbre Ceann-cheit Feilim mhac Conruidh as Kings of Ireland for so they really tho illegally were in their time the Former 5 years till he died a natural death and the Later 20. at the expiration of which he was kill'd in Battel by Tuathal Teachtmhur it must follow that they make in all 201 Kings of Ireland while the Former Three Conquests held one after another 3. That hereunto adding 22 more of the Fourth and Last i. e. our English Conquest the whole Number of the Sovereign Princes of Ireland from Slainghe to Charles II. must be 223. whereof Three were Queens Macha Mary and Elizabeth A PROSPECT OF The State of Ireland c. The Former PART SECTION I. First Planter of Ireland Ciocal First Invader Partholan then Neimh and his four Sons then Fir-bholg then Tuatha-De-Danann and last of all the Eight Sons of Mileadh Fights of the former Invaders Nine of Ferramh Bolg and Nine more of Tuatha-De-Danann ruled as Kings of Ireland Fir-Bholg divide it into two parts Three Septs of these remaining still The adventures of Mileadh His eight Sons conquer Tuatha-De-Danann How Erimhon came to be sole Monarch of Ireland He was the first of 181 Kings of the Milesian Conquest Eoghun Mor 620 years after Erimhon set up the Provincial Kings Picts first appearing They are the first time and together with them all the Islands of Scotland Conquered by Aonghus Ollbuadhach Many Plantations of the Irish in Scotland Niall Naoighiallach's Invasion of that Countrey and an other by the six Sons of Muireadhach Fergus Mor mhac Ercha made the first-King of Scots that is of the Irish in Scotland Coilus King of Great Brittain destroy'd by him Three Walls built by the Romans against the Irish Kingdom of the Picts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by these Danish Wars in Ireland Bad success of Roderic the King of Britain's Son The Danes various success They are at the same time plagued as by others so by Ceallaghane King of Mounster most singularly The Monarch Conghallach Mhac Mhaoil Mhithe routs ' emâ— and kills 7000 of them in Battel What of his two next Successors in the Monarchy Briain Boraimh does Wonders in 25 Battels and last of all in that of Clantarff Field Maolseachluin that succeeded him and Hughaire mhac Tuathail King of Leinster destroy the Reliqnes of the Danes The vain attempt of Magnus King of Norvegia to revenge their Fate IReland before that fatal War broke out in the year 1641. had two different Nations like the Twins of Rebecca strugling in its Womb perpetually almost five hundred years the one called by themselves the Ancient Irish the other the Old English or English Irish And indeed the former may justly glory in the Epithet of Ancient since as Cambden himself confesses they fetch Britannia translated by Philemon Holland Edit Lond. Tit. Ireland pag. 64. the beginning of their Histories from the most profound and remote Records of Antiquity so that in comparison of them the Ancientness of all other Nations is but Novelty and as it were a matter of yesterday It is now at least 2988 years since their Fore-fathers the Sons of Mileadh alias Milesius the Spaniard in a Fleet of threescore Sail arrived in Ireland from Gallicia in Spain conquer'd it and left it to their Posterity I say at least Because although Polychronicon and Cambrensis Topog. Dist 3. c. 17. by their saying That from the Arrival of those Milesians in Ireland till the death of S. Patrick their Apostle were efflux'd 1800 years See Jocelin Vit. Saucti Patricii c. 196. agree exactly with Ketings Epocha here yet the Irish Book of Reigns makes the Arrival of those Milesians much earlier that is to this present year of Christ 1680. e'en as long since as 3480 years compleat But I follow Keting's Reformation of that Book and his Account in his Mss History l. 1. whereby he places the Milesian Conquest in the year of the World 2736. after the Floud 1086 after Moses's passing the Red Sea 192. and before the Birth of Christ 〈◊〉 308. Were it to my main purpose which is or only or at least mostly concern'd in those Milesians I could insert here out of Keting the several Plantations and Conquests of that Countrey before they knew it How one Ciocal about a hundred years after the Deluge in a small Fleet of Vessels each Vessel having fifty Men and fifty Women aboard arriving there was the First that planted it How Bartholanus and his three Sons Languinus Salanus and Reterugus with their Wives and as This Author lived as himself writes An 830. under Anaraugh King of Anglesey and Guinech or North-Wales Nennius writes a thousand Fighting Men about 300 years after the Flood Anno Mundi 1956. before the Birth of Abraham 95 years invaded it had many doughty Battels therein with those Aborigines the Issue of Ciocal and Progeny of Cham who come thither from Afric were called Gyants because partly of their stature or corpulency which yet was no way exceeding the tallest growth of other men and partly of their wickedness endeavouring to destroy every where the Descendants or Progeny of Japhet And how this Bartholanus alias Partholan having Conquer'd at last those Aborigines and Affricans his Issue after him were at the end of three hundred
of the Danes I find but three only Aodh Slaine Colman Rimhigh and Swine Mean that were not in Arms against any at all Subjects or Foreigners who nevertheless were all three murdered by some wicked Irish men their own Subjects and besides them Blaithmhac and Diarmuid Ruannigh two Brothers in like manner joyntly enjoying the Soveraign Power and then Seachnasach immediatly succeeding in all three more that although they were in Arms at home it was not against any of their own People but the two former against the Saxons and Brittons invading them under the leading of their General Brit or Berthus and the third against the Picts Landing in Vlster whom the Forces of that Province overthrew presently and yet he also was murdered by his own People All the rest of the three and thirty Monarchs had their Swords drawn whether justly or injustly I dispute not here against their own Rebellious Subjects at home and these against them So that besides infinite depredations wastings burnings of the Countrey besides the endless harrassing of the poor Peasants and even sometime the violating of Sanctuaries and burning of Churches and killing of Clergy men and Priests and Bishops too for company besides lesser Fights and skirmishes without number you may read in Manuscript in the several Reigns of those Kings Keting above 58 main Battels fought between their Princes Kings and Monarchs within that period of time a period that wanted seven or eightyears of 400. 18. And that you may understand how bloody how destructive indeed those greater Battels might have generally been I will instance here in two of them First in that which they call the Battel of Allmbain wherein about the year of Christ 920. the Monarch Ferghall mhac Maolduin with an Army of one and twenty thousand men invading and fighting Murchoe mhac Bruin King of Leinster who had but nine thousand one hundred and sixty men to oppose him was himself kill'd and together with him seven thousand of his Army on the place besides 269 persons more of them so strangely frighted that they fell into that kind or heighth of frenzy which the Irish call in their Language Dubhghealtacht flying over ground like frighted Fowls from all People they met or saw This ill fortune of this Monarch Fearghall was thought to have happend him because a Party of his men in their march to this Field had spoild a Sanctuary call'd Cillin and the Anchoret there living had curs'd the Monarch and his whole Army Secondly in that which they call the Battel of Seanaigh and Vchaidh fought between the Monarch Aodh Ollan and Aodh Colgan King also of Leinster yea sought with that fury on both sides that besides this Monarch himself mortally wounded and a very great slaughter of his Army and besides Aodh Colgan kill'd together with Bran Beg the petty King of half Leinster nine thousand more of the Leinster men alone remained dead on the Field tho the said Monarch died not of his wounds received here but was kill'd sometimes after in the Battel of Seir. But what I cannot here but particularly take notice of as worthy of special remark are two things The one that this fury of pursuing one another with Battels and Slaughters and Murders even all along from their conversion to Christianity for the extent of 400 years had been so strangely violent that it gave them no leasure at all to think of preserving much less enlarging their former Conquests In their time of Paganism how bloodily soever the several Factions had been commonly bent to mutual destruction yet the prevailing Parties now and then had such generous publick resolutions as to give over at home and employ their Warlike spirits abroad to enlarge their Dominions We have formerly seen their brave exploits in subduing the Orcades Hebrides Isle of Man and then all Scotland and then making the rest of Great Britain tributary and last of all enterprizing on France it self in the decay of the Roman Empire till Niall the Great was no less treacherously than revengfully murder'd there amidst his Army camping on the River of Loyrc as has been said before I might also have added another adventure and enterprize of theirs on France with a resolute Army under the leading of their Monarch Dathi alias Fearadhach who as in the Sovereignty of Ireland so in his design on France succeeded immediatly to the foresaid Niall the Great tho having Landed there and march'd through till he came near the Alps he was here struck dead by a Thunderbolt from Heaven for so the Irish Chronicles deliver his death As they do also the cause of it according to the conjectures of men to have been that he suffered the Cell of a Christian holy Anchorite by name Parmenius to be ransack'd who thereupon cursing this Heathen Sacrilegious King and calling to Heaven for Vengeance that exemplary punishment shewed his prayer was heard by God But whatever the cause of it was the place where it happen'd shews how vigorously he pursued the brave adventures of so many other Pagan Kings and Princes of Ireland to enlarge their Dominions abroad 19. And because peradventure it may be worth the while take here in short a Catalogue of those Irish Monarchs Princes and other chief Nobles who by their first subduing and then planting of Albain as they call it gave it the name of Scotland 1. Aongus Ollbhuathach not the VII Monarch nor Monarch of any number at all but Son to Fiachae Labhruinne the XIV Monarch or King of Ireland for so you must correct what is said of him otherwise before pag. 17. I say this Aongus entred Albuin to recover of the Picts the chiefry due to the King of Ireland his Father Wherein finding them refractory he gave them and the Britains or Aborigines inhabiting at that time the Northern parts of Great Britain so many overthrows that he reduced them at last to his own conditions making them not only Tributarles but Subjects to the Kings of Ireland which happen'd about 250 years after the arrival of the Iberians there from Spain that is well nigh 2800 years since 2. Aongus surnamed Ollmhucuidh from his extraordinary great Hogs for Muc in their Language signifies a Hog in English the XVI King of Ireland of the Milesian Conquest fought the Picts and Firr Bholg inhabiting the Orcades and other Islands of Scotland and utterly subdued them in 50 Battels For it was he and not the foresaid Aongus surnamed Ollbhuathach or the Victorious that fought them and subdued all those Islanders And therefore by this observation also be pleased to correct what you find otherwise in the foresaid 16 page 3. Many centuries after the sixtieth Monarch of Ireland Reachta Righdhearg crossing the narrow Seas and Landing in Albain as the Irish call that Country still which we call Scotland once more established on the Picts what those other Princes did before him This Reachta Righdhearg was the first of three Irish Monarchs born in Mounster that
Reign of Charles the Great that then Classis Normannorum Hiberniam Scotorum Insulam aggressa commisso praelio cum Scotis innumerabilis multitudo Normannorum extincta est turpiter fugiendo domum reversa est the Norman Fleet having attack'd Ireland the Island of the Scots and given them Battel and an innumerable multitude of the Normans being kill'd in that Fight was forc'd at last to run away shamefully and return home See Gratianus Lucius in his Cambrens Evers page 13. 47. I have insinuated page 57. that they were the Irish who gave a beginning abroad even to the Schools at Oxford And now I add that as Polidore Virgil says King Alfred having in the year of Christ 895. by his Royal Authority approved of Oxford for a place of general studies sent Joannes Scotus Erigena thither ut omnium primus ibi bonas literas doceret the very first publick Professor and Teacher of good Letters there says Pitsius page 162 who further gives this Encomium to Erigena that in Learning or knowledg of the Learned Arts he had scarce his match throughout the World in that Age qui in omni meliori doctrina vix sui similem quenquam in illa Aetate per terrarum orbem habuerit Now it is clearly demonstrable both out of History and the surname Erigena that this very Joannes Scotus Erigena was an Irish man and that not only by Education and breeding as Harpsfield grants he was but by extraction and birth The proofs at large may be seen in Lucius page 148. where he quotes Nicolaus I. the Pope Anastasius Malmsbury Hoveden Westmonasteriensis Vsher and last of all Edward Matthews de Scriptor Angl. Bened. page 166. who particularly notes That this Joannes Scotus was in Latin surnamed Erigena because of his birth in Eriâ— For so Ireland has been always call'd by the Natives to this very day and was then by others too Erigena therefore being the same with Hibernigena you may conclude that if Angligena and Francigena import the one an English man the other a French man born so must Erigena an Irish man by birth Nor is any thing said here of Erigena in any wise inconsistent with Cambden's relation out of the old Annals of the Abbey of Winchester Wherein after telling how King Alfred had recall'd the Muses to Oxford and built three Colledges there one for Grammarians another for Philosophers and a third for Divines 't is further said that in the year of Christs Incarnation 806 being the second year of St. Grimbald ' s coming into England the first Regents and Professors in the Divinity Colledg were St. Naoth an Abbot and holy Cambden translated by Hol. page 378. Grimald a right excellent Professour of the most sweet written Word of holy Scripture All this might be true and yet Erigena be and continue still the first Professour of the Learned Arts and good Letters at Oxford Where I relate page 34. the famous Battel fought at Clantarff by the brave Brian Boraimh I Hanmer pag. 91. pass by Hanmers relation of it Even as I have all along pass'd by many ther of his stories concerning Ireland As for Example 1. That of Gurguntius the son of Belinus King of Great Brittain to have met at Sea about the Isle of Orkney as he return'd from the Conquest of Denmark a Fleet of sixty Sail of Spaniards with Men and Women commanded by the Governour of Baiona seeking some Countrey to inhabit or live in and to have assign'd them Ireland c. 2. That other yet more ridiculous one out of Harding and Mewinus a Brittish Chronieler quoted by Harding * Harding lived in the Reigns of Henry V. Henry VI. and Edward IV. How Gathelus and Scota came to these Northern parts anno Christi 75. 3. That of Fredelenus King of Denmark in the Reign of Augustus Caesar to have invaded Ireland and taken Dublin though not by force but by the help of Swallows firing the City with fire tied to their wings though himself was presently forc'd by the Kiâ—g of Leinster to depart and run away to his Fleet. 4. That of Frotho III. King of Denmark when our Saviour was born to have made all Ireland tributary and been Monarch thereof As also that other in him out of Saxo Grammaticus and Albertus Krantzius concerning Frotho IV. thirty years after the former his having sent the Giants and the huge Monster Startucerus to invade the same Kingdom 5. That of King Arthur of Great Brittain and Gillomar King Hanmer page 50 51 and 52. of Ireland Mark King of Cornwall Sir Tristram and La Bel Isod c. though besides the Books of Houth he quotes also Florilegus and Fabian Caxton Holinghed Flemming and Harding for 'em 6. That of his genealogy of Fionn mhac Cuuail and his making this Fionn and his Associats both to have been Giants and of Danish birth whereof I have spoken before page and therefore need not say any more in this place 7. That of his three vast Armies of Foreigners invading Ireland by combination in several Provinces at one time and this to have been the time of Constantine the Great 's Empire at Rome The first of thirty thousand landed at Derry in Vlster and their Navy fired and themselves too in one Battel slain by Conn Ceadchathach one of the Princes of that Province as he calls him The second of a greater number landed at Skerries not far from Dublin but destroy'd in one other Battel by Diarmuid Lambdhearg King of Leinster who says he kill'd six and thirty thousand of them on the spot The third and it much more numerous yet landed in Mounster and utterly destroy'd at Fentra when the Forces of all Ireland encountring them slew seven score thousand of them in that one Field 8. That where ever he had it for he tells not where of the Battel of Garistown and Arcath or as the Irish call it Ardchath fought as he says in the reign of Cairbre Liffor Monarch of Ireland by the seven Kings of that Nation and their Army 65000 Horse and Foot against the Danish Bownies who had been formerly entertain'd by those Princes to defend their Coasts but now rebell'd being 28700 hardy resolute Warriours and fought well-nigh a whole day with equal Fortune so mortally that Horses were up to their bellies in blood until at last Fortune favouring the righteous Cause of the Princes they put these rebellious forein Bownies to a total rout and edg of the Sword all of them although it cost their side also very dear even the lives of four of their Kings and nineteen thousand seven hundred and sixty others All these Relations though given as true ones by Hanmer at large I have pass'd by First because of their manifest repugnancy to all the Irish Chronicles Nay because there is not one word or syllable of any of them in Doctor Ketings Irish Chronicle which yet is an ample Summary of all the Authentick or esteemed Chronicles and Histories of
the dreadful Judg shall judg his People Though whether we must understand here the final persecution of Antichrist and the end of the World and general Judgment of all Nations in the Valley of Josaphat or whether only the last particular desolation judgment and ruin of Rome and of the Papacy it self never to recover more in this World or at least in that place I can say nothing to it of either side But no more of this Prophetical Subject What remains either of Reflection or Addition are the few points that follow I forgot to give them in their due places according to the order of pages hitherto observ'd and therefore I give them here 63. The first relates to that famous Beannchuir Abbey in the North of Ireland whereof I have treated before page 62 c. For concerning the greatness of it you have here an illustrious testimony out of a forein Writer Antony Yepez in his general Chronicle of the Benedictin Order ad ann Christi 565. cap. 2. where speaking of that Irish Monastery he says in express words It was one of the greatest our sacred Religion he means the Benedictin Order had in all Europe nay the very greatest of all that were built in the whole Occident and that no other was comparable to it But for the austerity of their lives the sanctity of their conversation the power of their doctrine and example their supernatural gifts and in a word the extraordinary stupendious hand of God with them in all their undertakings who were profess'd Votaries in that illustrious Cloister we have no less forein and much more ancient Writers than Yepez to inform us And certainly if we may judg of this matter by what such credible Authors have written some eight hundred and some a thousand years since of the Missionaries of that Abbey the disciples of St. Congellus Founder and first Abbot thereof sent abroad into other parts of Europe by him for the conversion of Infidels and reformation of evil Christians there needs no more to convince us that Beannchuir was a most perfect Seminary of the most truly vertuous and wonderful Monks on Earth For Example of St. Gallus the Irish call him in their Language Gall who was one of the twelve that in one Mission at one and the same time went thence with Columbanus who was the thirteenth of them and Prefect of this Mission thus writeth St. Notkerus Balbulus in his Martyrologe 17 Cal. Nov. that he converted the people of Switzerland and Suevia from Idolatry confirm'd his preaching to them with the power of Miracles and that him the divine goodness made Apostle of the Allemaigns as by whom that Nation which he had found enveloped in Paganism was enlightned with true Religion and brought from the darkness of ignorance to the Sun of Justice who is Christ So and much more in short writeth the said holy Notherus of this great Apostle of the Allemaigus St. Gallus from whom or whose Monastery the Town of St. Gall so famous even at this day hath been called As for the particulars as well of his stupendious austerity as Miracles above Nature they may be seen at large in his Life extant in Messingham and Surius written originally by Walafridus Strabo But for Columbanus himself a Leinster man born and but twenty years old when he went to Sea from Beannchuir Head of that Mission whoever please to read over seriously his Acts written about a thousand years since by one of his own well-nigh Contemporaries Abbot Jonas must needs I think be suspended in admiration of a man so prodigious in all respects I cannot be otherwise my self when I observe the whole course of his Life in Ireland France Burgundy Allmaign and last of all in Italy where he died Nor verily does e'â—n Caesar Baroniug himself after so many other both ancient and modern Authors seem less affected with admiration where he speaks thus of him ad an Christi 612. It appears says he to have proceeded from an extraordinary favour of God that so great a man come from Ireland to France should in the most profligate times illustrate the Church A man of such transcendent merits that if any would in some things equal him to Elias I should not think he err'd Whereas in this most holy man living with his disciples in the Wilderness besides wonderful abstinence and the most exact observance of all Monastick Rules and other his eminent Virtues may be observ'd so great a zeal of the honour of God and fortitude of Soul to reprove evil Princes Who also herein was the more like to Elias that he wanted not Pâ—rsecutors not even a new Achab and another Jezabel as you your self may find by reading his Life But truly his banishment out of Burgundy by King Theodorick at the instigation of the wicked Queen Brumchildis that bane that Murdress of ten Kings for she destroy'd so many some by poison and some by other damnable ways and his Journey thereupon to Italy appear'd to be no other than a long continued Triumph for his victory over Kings and their detestable cruelty yea and a wonderful Triumph indeed because accompanied with so many prodigious signs and Wonders wrought by him every where as he went along So says Baronius in the foresaid place wholly without doubt suspended in admiration of what himself does so relate of this stupendious man of God Whose prophetical Spirit also in foretelling King Lotharius so positively and precisely that within three years the two other Kings Theodorick and Theodobertus should be destroy'd and he Lotharius succeed them by that time and be Monarch of all France the same Baronius ad eund an particularly relates As also he doth the quarrel of Bruinchildis to Columbanus and only cause of his banishment to have been His exhorting the said King of Austrasia Theodorick to marry a Wife and turn away his Concubines For she apprehended that a regnant Queen or which is the same thing a lawful Wife would surely at long running turn her out from the management of State-affairs which Whores could noâ— And then again our great Annalist the same Baronius ad an 615. returning once more to that heavenly Man and telling us of his death in Italy after he had founded there the most renowned Cloister of Bobium as he had formerly done before his banishment that of Luxovium in Burgundy he delivers it with this Elogium of him This year says he that Wonder-working Adorer of God Columbanus the terrour and scourge of evil Kings departed this Life Which Elogium given by so eminent a Cardinal Historian because there Ordericus Vitalis Angligena in his Book of Ecclesiastical History needs no more be said of Columbanus I will only add the testimony of an ancient English Author whom I suppose to have lived and died in forein parts a Monk of Vtica many hundred years since though lately printed in the History of the Normans published by Andreas du Chesne Anno 1619. They cannot be