a single Person must evince the same truth So for Spain Alphonsus III. by putting out the eyes of all his Brethren save one that was kill'd Alfonsus IV. with the like cruelty us'd by his own Brother â—aymirus Peter the Legitimat Son of Alphonsus XI depos'd and kill'd by his Bastard Brother Henry Garzias by Sanctius then Sanctius by Vellidus and after so many retaliations all Spain under King Roderic betray'd to the Moors by a natural Spaniard a Subject to that King Count Julian Prince of Celtiberia as Bodin calls him yea seven hundred thousand Spaniards kill'd in the short space of fourteen months next following that hideous treachery must evince mightily the self-same truth So for France those horrible Feuds Combustions Devastations cruelties inhumanities barbarous sacriledges of the late Civil Wars there continued 40 years against four Kings whereof you may read at large in D'Avila and the Holy Ligue and both Henry III. and Henry IV. one after another so vilely murder'd by those devoted Assassins of Hell Jacques Clement and Ravilliac evince it still Lastly and to come nearer home tho in an earlier time even so for England 1. Those eight and twenty Saxon Kings of the Heptarchy part by one another kill'd part by their own Subjects murder'd besides many other depos'd and forc'd to fly away for their lives For as Matthew of Westminster l. 1. c. 3. writes of the very Northumbrian Kings alone four were murder'd and three more deposed within the little time of one and forty years only And therefore it was that Charles the Great of France when the news of the last of them by name Ethelbert being murdered came to his hearing not only resolv'd to stop the presents he was before on sending to England nor only to do the English in lieu of sending them gifts all the mischiefs he could but said to Alcuinus an English man his own Instructor in Rhetorick Logick and Astronomy that indeed That was a perfidious and perverse Nation a murderer of their Lords and worse than Pagans Nay therefore also it was that many of the Bishops and Nobles fled out of this Northumbrian Kingdom and no man dared for 30 years next following venture on being their King but all men declined it and so left them a prey to the Irish Scâ—ts and Danes who by the just judgment of God over-run them and destroy'd them at last on that very occasion principally 2. Since the Norman Conquest besides the horrible rebellion of Henry the 2d's own Children against him and many other particulars which I pass over not only all the calamities miseries cruelties unspeakable evils of the Barons Wars on both sides under King John Henry III. and Edward II. nor only the deposition and murder too of this poor Edward even his own Wife Queen Eleanor and his own very Soâ—thâ—e Prince of Wales having both of them concurr'd in the deposing him and usurping his Crown but the most prodigiously mortal dissentions of Lancaster and York began with the rebellion against deposition and murder of Richard the II. and so bloodily prosecuted for thirty years under Henry VI. and Edw. IV. that besides eleven main Battels fought with infinite slaughter of English men on either side nay even twenty thousand men kill'd besides the wounded in one of them which Polydore calls the Battel of Touton a Village of Yorkshire the excellent Historian Philip Comines tells us of 80 of the Blood Royal destroyed in them and among this number Henry VI. a most vertuous innocent holy King most barbarously murder'd To say nothing of Richard the Third that Usurping Tyrant so justly dispatch'd in the Battel of Bosworth by the Earl of Richmond who thereupon succeeded King by the name of Henry VII and by marrying the Daughter of Edward IV. and thereby most happily uniting in himself and his Queen and Issue the right of the two Houses ended those fatal dissentions of Lancaster and York Dissentions indeed so fatal to England that besides all her best blood at home as we have seen by their long continuance from the year of Christ 1393. to the year 1486. lost Her not only the Kingdom of France but even the more ancient Inheritance of our Kings in the Dukedoms of Normandy Aquitane and whatever else belong'd to the English Crown on that side of the Sea only the Town of Calais with its little Appendages excepted Were it necessary Buchanan could furnish out of the neighbouring Kingdom of Scotland a very large addition of more examples to the purpose of this place But more than enough has been already said to conclude that notwithstanding any thing or expression in either of the two former Sections my meaning could not be to make those bloody Feuds in Ireland or consequents of them so peculiar to the Milesian Race or Irish Nation as if no other People on Earth had been at any time guilty of the like or as horrid The truth is I mean'd only to say That in respect of their long duration perpetual return from time to time for almost five and twenty hundred years compleat and their excessive degree at very many times within that long Succession of Ages especially considering the small extent of Ireland those cruel bloody Feuds were both National and peculiar to that People only Which I think is true notwithstanding that other Nations either much greater or much lesser might have been in some few Instances of time as high nay peradventure much more horrible transgressors in the very same kind than those antient Milesians were at any one time since their Conquest of Ireland from Tuath-Dee-Danan 33. The second point is to do those ancient Milesians the right as to acknowledg what their Histories have at large That amidst all the Feuds and fury of their Arms how bloody or how lasting soever they had several both Monarchs and after the Pentarchy was set up lesser Kings yea some of those too in their time of Paganism and many more as well of those as these after Christianity establish'd that were of great renown among them for other excellent Qualifications becoming their dignity than those only of Martial Vertue and Fortitude In time of Paganism they had their XXII Monarch Ollamh Fodhla so called from his great Knowledg that very name given him importing in Irish as Gratianus Lucius hath observ'd a great master in Sciences and Teacher of all Knowledg to his People It was he that divided the Lands of Ireland into Hundreds call'd by them Triochae-chead and placed a Lord over each Hundred and over each Town of the Hundred a Bailiff an Applotter of Duties and receiver of Strangers to provide Entertainment for them They had their XCI Monarch Conair mor mhac Eidirsgceoil so great a Justiciar so zealous a Prosecutor of all Malefactors that although with great pains industry hazard to himself yet he forc'd at last all kind of Robbers Thieves Vagabonds and Idlers to fly the whole Kingdom and after this during his Reign
it be not the greatest of them all I am sure that as it was very great indeed so the Irish Nation is beholden to a Foreiner namely Adolphus Cypreus for transmitting the remembrance of it to Posterity in his Annals of the Bishops of Sleswick a City in Denmark For these are his own Latin words in the sixth page of that Work Reynerus Rex Danorum LVI potentissimus qui tamen ab excitata fortuna quae ipsi in subjugandis Regnis Sueciae Russiae Angliae Scotiae Norvegiae Hiberniae plurimum favit ad inclinatam pene jacentem descivit Namque ab Hella Hiberniae Rege captus in carcere expiravit sub an 841. In English these Reyner the LVI most powerful King of the Danes who nevertheless from the height of Fortune that favour'd him so mightily in subduing the Kingdoms of Swedland Russia England Scotland Norway Ireland was thrown down as low For being taken by Hella King of Ireland he died there in prison about the year 841. And yet I must observe here with Gratianus Lucius 1. That Cypreus mistook both the name and quality of him that took Prisoner this great Danish King 2. That no King of Ireland nor Provincial nor even other lesser King in Ireland was ever call'd by the name of Hella nor was that name of any body at all known among the Irish 3. That the right Irish name in all likelihood was Oillioll which because hard of pronuntiation Foreiners mistook or chang'd it to Hella 4. That since Christianity planted in that Countrey not even any Oillioll was King among 'em save only the Monarch Oillioll surnamed Molt who was next successour to Laoghaire mhac Neill in the year 458. and was killed in Battel An. 478. And lastly therefore that he must have been some great General of an Army and his name Oillioll that took this great Reynerus and kept him in Prison till he died 68. Another is of the Fatal Stone as they call it and refers to page 378. where I ended my Animadversions on the Scottish Histories concerning Fergus I. Of that famed Stone Keting in his Relations of the People call'd Tuath De Dainainn gives this account 1. That this Nation who were the last possessors of Ireland immediately before the Milesian Race had on their arrival there from Norway brought with them four special Jewels of extraordinary use namely a Sword Lance Pot and the Enchanted Stone which in Irish they call by one name Liath Fail by an other Cloch na Cineamhna this later importing in English the Stone of Destiny or Fortune 2. That after the Milesiaus had conquer'd those Tuath-Da-Danan and consequently got possession of this Stone and after they had not only plac'd it at Teambhuir our Tarach where all their Nobles and people did usually meet to chuse the King of Ireland but ordain'd that the new Elect should sit thereon as son as he did so the Stone under him by vertue of some Magical or Diabolical Charm gave such a mighty loud ecchoing astonishing sound that presently the Election was known thereby far and near 3. That this Oraculous Vertue of it ceased as some say when the Pentarchy was set up in that Kingdom by the Monarch Eochadh Feilioch or as others say about the time of our Saviours birth when throughout the World all the sallacious Oracles of the Gentiles became mute 4. That for its name of Cloch na Cineamhne or Stone of Destiny or Fatal Stone the reason was an old Prophesie deliliver'd of it by Tradition which Hector Boethius rendred thus in Latin Verse Ni fallat Fatum Scoti hunc quocumque locatum invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem But in Irish Meeter it is in Keting thus Ciniodh Scoâ—t saor an Fine man baâ—breag an Faisdine mar a bhfulghid an Liath Fail dlighid flaitheas do ghabhail Importing in both that where-ever the Seottish Nation did find that Stone they should have Dominion Power and Regal Majesty 5. That because of this prophetical Prediction and reputation of it when Fergus that famous Invader of the Picts I mean Fergus Mor mhac Ercho mhic Eochadh muin reamhair as the Irish call and genealogize him from his Father and Grandfather whom the Scottish Historians call Fergus I. would be created K. over hisown conquering Nation the Scots of Pictavia or Albania in Great Brittain he sent to his Brother Mairchiortach Mor mhac Ercha then Monarch of Ireland for this fatal Stone and had it over into Scotland of purpose that by sitting on it when he was created King he might assure the establishment of his Crown and power of his own People in his new conquer'd Kingdom 6. That for many ensuing Ages it remain'd there for a monument either of Religion or Superstition being in the same manner and to the same purpose sate upon by the succeeding Kings of Scotland till Edward I. of England in the current of his Victories had it brought away out of the Abbey of Scone to the Abbey of Westminster Where ever since it has been kept placed under the Royal Chair which the Kings of England usually sit in at their Coronation 7. That in the memory of our Fathers that prophetical Prediction of it and the ancient Scots which you have but now seen was fulfill'd in England too when James VI. of Scotland was crowned King of England at Westminster and has ever since continued to be more and more verified in the succession of Charles I. of glorious memory and Charles II. our present most gracious King For by the line of Maine mhic Cuirek mhic Luighc they are descended through a World of Generations of ancient Scots the Milesian Irish from Heber who as has been already noted elsewhere being the son of Milesius and in a joint Sovereignty ruling with his Brother Herimon was three thousand years since King of all Ireland And this is the account which Keting where he treats of Tuath-De-Danainn gives of that fatal Stone Save only that he makes no express mention of Charles II. nor could indeed as who died himself in the Reign of Charles I. But nevertheless he express'd his mind sufficiently as to the purpose of that Fatal Prediction by naming his Father and Grandfather both I am sure his expression of joy in the same place for their having successively come to be Kings of England Scotland France and Ireland must have involv'd the concomitant wishes of his heart for their posterity after them to attain and continue the same glory while time shall be And therein he has me to join with all my very Soul 69. The Fifth may be referr'd to page 155. where I treated briefly somewhat of Cormock O Cuillenain that excellent pious holy man who was at the same time both Arch-Bishop and King of Mounster and continued so for seven years together that is even all along till he lost his life in the Battel of Mughna For to this rare Example of the same man's being both King and Priest may be added
this King William of Scotland Fol. 152. after he had been taken Prisoner by Henry II. of England carried over to Normandy confin'd at Roan until he compounded for his Ransom return'd back to England set free at York upon his paying down 4000 c. and now being on his journey home and seeing the Noble-men his own Subjects would come no nearer than Pembels in Scotland to receive him therefore took with him many younger Sons of such of the English Nobility as shew'd him most kindness in the time of his Imprisonment That he entertain'd them and detain'd them and bestow'd on them great Estates and Possessions in Scotland which he took from such as had rebell'd against him there That this of their waiting on him to Scotland was in the year of Christ 1174. And that their names were Bailliol Brewse Soulley Moubrey St. Clare Hay Giffâ—rd Ramsey Lanudell Biscy Berk Ley Willegen Bâ—ys Montgomery Valx Colenuille Friser Granâ—â— Gâ—â—lay and divers others 20. Yet my meaning is not to assert positively that the foresaid last Invasion or Plantation made by those Vlster Dal-Rheudans and six Sons of Muredus King of Vlster had been made in the time of Irelands Paganism I know it happen'd in the 20th year of the Sovereignty of Lugha mhac Laoghaire Monarch of Ireland which was of Christ 493. and consequently the very next year after Patricks death according to Ketings computation tho according to Jocelinus it must have been the next saving one I know also it is supposed by the Writers of this holy mans life especially Jocelinus c. 191. that even three and thirty years before his death all Ireland together with the Isle of Man and all other Islands then subject to the Irish had been throughly and wholly converted to Christian Religion by him Which makes it indeed very probable that this last expedition of the Irish into Scotland was wholly consisting of Christian Adventurers And yet I am not certain of it for these reasons 1. Because Jocelinus c. 49. and others tell us that notwithstanding all the prodigious wonders done by S. Patrick and many of them in the very presence of Laogirius the Monarch Father to this Lugha he was never converted but died in his Infidelity being kill'd at Greallach a Village near the River Liffy in that Country which we now call the County of Kildare by a Thunder-bolt shot at him from Heaven Tho Keting partly attributes this Vengeance of God fallen on him to his perfidious breach of solemn promise made by him upon Oath invoking the Sun Moon and all the Planets to attest it Which Oath he made to obtain his Liberty when he was foiled and taken Prisoner in the Battel of Ath-Dara by the Lagenians and Criomthan mhac Euno the contents of it being to remit for ever the heavy Borâ—imh as they call it or Fine which he challeng'd from them as due to him and all other Monarchs after him 2. Because this very Monarch Luigha in whose Reign that Expedition of the Vlster Dal-Rheudans and six Sons of Muredus happen'd tho he lived and continued his Sovereignty 15 years longer was nevertheless at last struck likewise dead by a Thunderbolt and the Irish Antiquaries of those times have interpreted this Judgment on him as a just punishment of the great disrespects and dishonour done by him to the same extraordinary wonderful Servant of God And these are my reasons for doubting For it seems not likely that if Lugha had been converted he would after his Conversion have so behaved himself towards that Saint as to incense Heaven to punish him in so dreadful a manner And as unlikely it is that in case he had so mis-behaved himself during his Infidelity he would not after his Conversion have repented so heartily thereof as to merit the Saints prayers for him to God at least for diverting so terrible a judgment And then we know how far the example of a wicked Monarch might have prevail'd with other wicked men to keep them still in their Infidelity But be this conjecture true or false nay be it suppos'd for certain that Lugha and all Ireland every one and consequently those six Sons of Muireadhach King of Vlster with their Dal-Rheudans were Christians then when they enter'd Scotland it appears notwithstanding out of the Irish Chronicles that as they were the first so they were the last and only Adventurers any where abroad out of Ireland since its Conversion to Christianity the War-like humor of its Monarchs Princes and Nobles being always after that wholly imploy'd at home in destroying one another Insomuch that they gave not themselves either opportunity or leisure to look after not so much as the paiment of Chiefries or Tributes due to them from their Dominions abroad in the Islands or Terra Firma it self of Scotland Not one of all their Monarchs for ought appears in their History having at any time since entertain'd no not a thought of employing their Arms that way save only Aodh mhac Aiumhiriogh the 10th undoubted Christian Monarch who propos'd it in his great Parliament at Drom Ceatha and was generously resolv'd upon it ' until by the customary obstacle of a Civil War at home he was not only soon diverted from that resolution but himself kill'd in the Battel of Beluigh Duin Bholg fought against him by Brandubh King of Leinster as this Brandubh also not long after was by his own Lagenian Subjects in the Battel of Cam-Chluana By all which you may perceive that Christian Religion wrought so little on that People towards the abatement of their mortal feuds that under it even in its first four hundred years among them their Princes were much more fatally engaged in pursuing one another with fire and sword and horrid slaughters to the utter undoing of themselves and weakning of their Country and making it an easie prey to Foreiners after than their very Pagan Predecessors had been whereof so many had extended their Dominions far and near and still enlarged and kept them for so many Ages abroad whatever in the mean time their dissentions were at home And this is one of those two things I would especially remark here 12. The other is That not even the greatest holiness of some of their very greatest and most justly celebrated Saints has been exempt from the fatality of this genius of putting their Controversies to the bloody decision of Battels tho they foresaw the death of so many thousands must needs have followed or at least be hazarded to follow Even Columb-Cille himself so religious a Monk Priest Abbot so much a man of God was nevertheless the very Author Adviser Procurer of fighting three several Battels namely those of Cuile-Dreimbne Cuile-Rathan and Cuile Feadha The first on this occasion At a Parliament held at Taragh by the Monarch Diardmuid mhic Fergusse Ceirrbheoil it happened that contrary to the most sacred and severe Laws of that priviledg'd place one Cuornane mhac Aodh had kill'd a Gentleman
consequence would not be govern'd not even in Ecclesiastical affairs but by some of their own without dependance on any other except only the Prelat of that See which from the beginning of Christianity had prescribed some right over them all But enough on this Subject relating to Malachias the former of those two extraordinary Saints rais'd by God in the decrepit Age of the Irish Monarchy The later of them was a Leinster man of Noble Descent his Irish name and sirname Laurace O Tuathil in English Laurence Tool his Father Muirchiortach O Tuathil Lord of Imaile and peradventure some other small adjoyning Tracts in the County of Wickloe his Mother Inghin J. Bhrian i. e. one of O Brian's Daughters and he the youngest of all their Children But for the name of Laurence a name so unusual in that Countrey then 't was given him on this occasion Being born his Father sent him to be Christened at Kildare by Donachadh Lord of that Countrey of purpose to let him know by this Gossipred he was reconciled to him for before they had been at some distance and therefore those that carried the Child were commanded by the Father to Christen him Conchabhar this being that Nobleman's surname who was to be Godfather But a person reputed in that Countrey then such an other as Merlin had been of old among the Brittans meeting them in the High-way charg'd them to call him Laurence assuring them he would himself that night excuse them to their Lord and then adding prophetically in Irish Verse This Child shall be great on Earth and glorious in Heaven he shall command over great multitudes both of rich and poor and Laurence shall be his name When he was but ten years old his Father delivered him an Hostage to Diarmuid the King of Leinster In which condition notwithstanding the innocency of his Age he suffer'd incredible miseries even to extream want of Raiment and Food in a desert place among barbarous people where he had been for two years confined At the expiration of which being return'd back in exchange of other Prisoners though not delivered to the Father himself but to the Bishop of Gleann-da-Logh and his Father coming on the twelfth day not only to see him but to desire the Bishop to learn of God by Lot which of his children he should dedicate to an Ecclesiastick Life and he taking this opportunity and telling his Father That with his leave he himself would be that Child the Father surpriz'd with joy takes him presently by the right hand and offers him up perpetually to God in that holy place dedicated to St. Keuin both Cathedral Church and Abbey the one govern'd by a Bishop the other by an Abbot Where Laurence proves in a little time so singular a proficient in all Virtue that the Abbot dying the unanimous consent both of the Monks and Nobles of the Countrey Voted him Abbot and forc'd him to accept of it in the 25th year of his Age. And now it begun to appear more eminently what spirit he was of For the more he was honour'd the more he abased himself the stricter guard he kept on all his senses and the more intent he was upon his holy ascetick Exercises Above all that Virtue which is the bond of perfection that Virtue which shall never be evacuated but after Faith and Hope are ended shall remain that Virtue which by relieving the afflictions of other mortals makes the Reliever a God to them as Pliny speaks in his Panegyrick to Trajan Charity I mean did at this time shew what power she had over the Soul of Laurence He was no sooner made Abbot than a general Famine oppressing all that Countrey four years continually he no less continually employ'd himself in relieving all that were in want especially the poorer sort with corn and cattel and all the Revenues of his Abbey Revenues that were very great yea far surpassing those of the Bishoprick Nor must we admire they should be so It was one of the most famous ancient Monasteries of the Kingdom founded at first by St. Keuin as we call him but the Irish Ceaghin the Latins Coenginus a person though illustrious for his Royal extraction yet much more celebrated as well for the admirable austerity of his Life as for his manifold prodigious Miracles which made him after his death be assumed Patron both of the Town Abbey Cathedral Church and whole Diocess of Gleann-da-Loch where he lived and died Besides none but Noblemen's children were elected Abbots and the Noblemen themselves of the whole Diocess had by ancient custom their Voices in the election of them as well as the Monks However the large Revenues of the Abbey as they came short of the necessities of the poor in that long and general Famine so they did of the charity of Laurence as may be well concluded out of what follows hereafter Much about the time this Famine had ended the Bishop of Gleann-da-Loch dying he was chosen to succeed But notwithstanding all the importunity of the Electors he declined it though pretending only his un-Canonical Age. Yet so he could not soon after the Archbishoprick of Dublin For Gregory the First Archbishop of this See being dead Laurence by the unanimous consent of the Clergy and People of Dublin says Waraeus was elected Commentar de Praesul Hiber Archbishop and being at last by continual importunities drawn to yield was consecrated at Dublin by Gelasius Primat of Ardmagh and other Bishops Anno 1162. just fourteen years after the death of Malachias in France What more Waraeus thought fit to record of him is That presently after consecration he changed the secular Canons of his Cathedral Church into Regular of the Order of Aroasia whose habit and rule of Life himself also took upon him now That about eleven years after he built the Choire and Steeple with an other addition of three new Chappels to Trinity Church in that City That in the Year 1179. he went to the General Council held then at Rome under Alexander III. That according to the Author of his Life he was there made Legat of Ireland by that Pope soon after return'd back and exercis'd his Legatin Authority in Ireland That Gerald L. 2. expugn Hib. c. 23. Barry commonly call'd Cambrensis seems to intimate he never had been permitted to return to Ireland sed ob privilegia aliqua zelo suae Gentis impetrata but for some priviledges obtain'd from the Pope in that Council for his Countrey prejudicial to the Royal power of Henry II. was detained a long time partly in England partly in France until at last falling sick in his Journey he died at Auge in Normandy the 14th of Novemb. 1180. or as others have it 1181. Finally that in the Year 1225. he was canonized by Pope Honorius III. and his Relicks translated to Trinity Church in Dublin Which being the brief account given by Waraeus of this great Servant of God he leaves us for the rest that is