he wanted the Irish-tongue To whom the King said I will God willing find out for you a good interpreter and Owen being called the King commanded him to goe with Gilbert that with him hee might remaine in Ireland which the knight most willingly assented unto and continued with Gilbert to whom he did carefully minister and was desirous to take the habit of a Monke as being a servant fore-chosen by the Lord. Into Ireland they went and built the Abbey where the Monke Owen was his interpreter and faithfull servant but whensoever the monke Gilbert was private with the Knight hee was very inquisitive of the state of Purgatory and the wonderfull terments which he saw and by experience had learned And from this Gilbert Saltericusis receiveth the relation The aforesaid narration the said Gilbert did often repeate in my hearing saith Henry himselfe according as he had often heard it from the Knight Where I passe over the ignorant and grosse mistake of our Author in making Stephen King of England to have any power of disposing of land in Ireland as by the most learned Primate is justly observed whereas the succeeding King Henry the second was the first who could clayme there Let us proceed to view the severall Actors in this Sceane and whom have we in this Monkish age but all Monks as Henry Matthew Gilbert and Owen to whom adde Florentianus whom anon we shall see enter and act his part too on this stage Of Matthew Paris I have not much to say he being but Henry's transcriber setting aside his affectionate manner of expressing the matter sutable to the superstition of his times and his order setting aside also his partiall taking up ungrounded reports and adding thereunto of his owne many things in that kinde besides what he hath out of Salteriensis But our first Author is Henry of Saltry if we allow it not rather to Gilbert so stirring in the plot of whom Matthew thus By the industrie and diligence of this Monke he meaneth Gilbert and the Knights owne experience this is reduced to writing together with the relation of the Bishops of that Region and of other religious men who to verifie the truth thereof have thereunto given their testimonie How many Bishops or other hands or votes were given to it wee know not no such thing being to be seene But if any I dare assure my selfe Florentianus would be one For that Henry of Saltry was wholly led or rather misléd by these two Florentianus the Bishop and Gilbert the monke Henry's owne words will apparantly discover Gilbert is Henry's first Relator from whom he heareth of this matter in the presence of many others as before was shewed in which number saith Henry there was one present who said he doubted much if any such thing had happened Neither is Henry himselfe fully satisfied in it howsoever credulous enough but desireth further satisfaction therein Therefore to use his owne words when I did heare of all these things I did conferre with two Abbots of Ireland desiring to be better informed of these things One of them answered that he never heard of the like things in his Countrey But the other affirmed that he had often heard of them saying that all of them were true and further adding that seldome any of those that went into that Purgatory did ever returne Which last were it true we might well suspect some foule dealing making some of the Pilgrimes away secretly to confirme their fabulous Legend And whereas this Relator strayneth so farre as to say that few of them returned who went into that Purgatory Wee must imagine that there were but few that would adventure thither For if many did goe in and but few returned how commeth that mincing of the number before that some have gone in who never returned or that other that there were two companies lost and that a third is yet to be taken away not two onely not a small ' some but most perished if this be true Yet before we proceed further let us heare Thomas Messingam how hee doth render these words out of Henry But when I saith Salteriensis had heard all these things I consulted with two Irish Abbots concerning the same whereof one of them answered that all these things were true and testified further that many who went in did never returne In Henry's words it is that seldome any returned in his that many returned not by the ambiguity thinking to hide the other But this is not all We did heare but one of those Abbots speake what said the other of that not a word in Messingam and why because hee did not speake to the purpose For hee had said that in his Countrey he did heare no such thing This is omitted and silently passed over as fearing it might raise some scruple in the businesse which hee desired should runne smoothly without any rub Henry proceedeth Lately also did I speake with one who was Nephew of Patrick the third of that name the Companion of Saint Malachias by name Florentianus in whose Bishopricke as he said that Purgatory was Hence we gather him to be Bishop of Clogher for there that Iland is of whom having curiousâ—y enquired he answered truly Brother that place is within my Bishopricke and many miscarry in that Purgatory and they that perchance returne it was but a chance did by reason of the extreamitie of the torments which they endured alwayes looke pale through a continuall languor wannesse Than which what more ridiculous how many thousands have gone in thither that never saw any torment or sight other than what a fantasticall braine could present in a dreame or that ever changed colour for the matter if they blushed not rather at the foolishnesse of the reports But of this more hereafter Where we see Henry's grounds hee is first told it by Gilbert and confirmed in it by Florentianus demand their cause of knowledge and Gilbret telleth you the report was made to him by Owen himselfe whom if you will beleeve you may for there are we at the height of our evidence Now what reason Salteriensis had to rely on the credit of these men so much as he did will appeare in that these two were his Tutors and instructors whose words he must not question Henry of Saltry an English Monke of the Cistercian Order was by Florentianus an Irish Bishop and Gilbert of Luda Abbot of the Cistercian Monkes instructed in learning and in the precepts of good living as it is in Messingam with whom agreeth Iohn Pits Partly in his owne Monasterie partly by Florentianus an Irish Bishop Gilbert of Luda Abbot of the Cistercians hee was instituted in learning and in the rules of well living of whom also Bale us thus Of him speaking of Henry it was written that he was deluaèd by the impostures of one Florentianus a Bishop of the Irish and deceived by the cunning of Gilbert of
then a being as we are borne in hand so will it seeme much more impossible if the nature of the thing it selfe be looked into for had it been a thing obscure or of none account it would be the lesse wonder that it should be forgotten but being of all other things that which is of greatest note it could not be hid nor neglected nothing deserving to be more or so much remembred as this So O Sullevan writing of Ireland There doth yet remaine that which of all the memorable things of Ireland is most memorable of which I should have spoken in the first place and that is S. Patricks Purgatory saith he Peter Lumbard also the late popish Primate of Armagh writing of the places in Ireland of greatest note doth above all the rest extoll this Purgatory Of all of them the most famous and most holy is that which is called the place of S. Patricks Purgatory and if so it were in those dayes esteemed it ought not it could not be forgotten as it was by all the writers of these former ages Neither will it serve to say that this Purgatory was then in the Infancy therof and not well known or frequented so as much notice to be taken of it at the least so much as in after times for to passe by what before I touched considering it was supposed to be obtained by Patrick from God for the Conversion of the whole Nation and that it did worke that effect by which all must have taken speciall notice of it we shall further find these men to conclude that even in S. Patricks owne time also pilgrimages were very frequent thither for so O Sullevan While S. Patrick lived many went into that Purgatory for the purging of their sinnes whereof some who were doubtfull never returned but they who were armed with a firme and unmoved faith being returned reported that they had seen Hell and endured great Torments that also they had seen great felicity and rest Many saith he went in even in S. Patricks time They flocked thither by troopes saith another by whom many miracles were related of which some are recorded in the Monuments of Antiquity but where are these Monuments The Revelations of men that went in S. Patrick yet living are kept within the said Abby saith the third but yet let the producing of them be pressed and no such can be found such and more than enough of such may be easily found of a late stampe but farre short of S. Patrick or many ages after To come then to the time of the first discoverie that we reade of it the first newes we heare of it was in the age of Steven King of England and that by that Henry of Saltry whom we have before named who flourished about the yeare 1140. many even seven ages after S. Patricks conversion of this Kingdome which was about the yeare of our Lord 432. before which Henry and he also a stranger to the Kingdome and so taking it onely on hearesay we finde not any footsteps of it any where and with him doth Roth one that hath swet in this matter beginne as at the head To our testiâ—…ies at home saith he late ones all as may appeare We have assenting the suffrages of Stangers as of Henry of Saltry and Matthew Paris in that vision of Owen the Knight where we finde two Authors reporting one and the same history it being the first we finde commonly called the History of the Knight these Two againe we must reduce to One The one of these writers borrowing from the other Matthew Paris being also a stranger who lived about the yeare 1245. relating what he doth out of that Henry after whom he lived more than 100. yeares and after Iocelin 60. yeares a long time especially in superstitious times for such a Relation to take head and possible it is considering the times to find many reporters and such also as might be more readie to help it forward by adding to it for the best advantage of which kinde we finde to be in the first place these two first Henry and Matthew as may appeare by the circumstances of the relation of the grounds I meane and inducements for our beleeving the thing of which in the next place without touching upon the passages of that Pilgrimage which well examined would afford abundant matter for its owne confutation but that I referre to the following Chapter The proceedings in Matthew and Henry are these in substance for the particulars were tedious That there was a certaine Knight by some called Egnus but of others and more commonly Oenus as in Matthew Paris whom herein I follow This Owen was borne in Ireland and followed Steven King of England in his Warres from whom returning into Ireland his native Countrey to visit his parents and after some time taking into a serious consideration the great disorders of his ungodly life past he doth apply himselfe by way of confession to an Irish Bishop I know not whether Florentianus bishop as I conceive of Clogher he who did labour so much with Salteriensis to worke in him a beliefe of this Purgatory of which after This Bishop whosoever he was being about to enjoyâ—e our delinquent his Penance is prevented by Owen of himselfe making choice of going into S. Patrick's Purgatory notwithstanding the earnest solicitation of the Bishop to the contrary but being resolved The Bishop dismisseth him with Letters to the Prior of that Purgatory by whom after fifteene dayes exercise and preparation he is admitted and shut up alone in the Cave After whose returne we have him the Author of a very strange relation the ground-work of all that followed in that kind as that through that Cave he did passe into many subterraneall spatious Rooms and Passages by which he is led into all the corners of that Generall Purgatory as it is called this againe guiding him into Hell it selfe these two supposed not to be farre distant over which by the benefit of a bridge he passeth into Paradise the same Paradise out of which our first Parents were cast from whence and all this in a few houres is he back againe at the entrance of the Cave In all which what incredible and portentous reports we meet shall be referred to its owne place to be revised and examined Our Pilgrim now returned goeth another Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and thence backe againe into England where hee doth certifie the King of his resolution of forsaking the World and wholly addicting himselfe to a Religious life At which time saith Matthew or Salteriensis rather whose discourse is verbatim in Matthew It happened that Gervasius Abbet of the Monastery of Luda obtayned leave from the King of England for to build an Abbey in Ireland and to that end hee sent a Monke called Gilbert to the King that he might have the grant of a place for the Abbey Gilbert comming to the King did complaine that
of Ireland and from the Pryor and Convent of the said Purgatory with others of great credit As also by other cleere evidences that the said Nobleman hath duly and couragiously performed that his pilgrimage we have therefore thought sit favourably to give unto him Our Royall testimonie concerning the same And to the end there may be no question made of the premisses and that the Truth of them may more clearely appeare unto all men We have thought good to grant unto him these our Letters sealed with our Royall Seale Given at our Pallace at Westminster the 24. day of October Like Letters and of the same Date hath Nicholas of Ferrara a Lumbard See here to what an height from so obscure a beginning it is now risen not onely visited from all parts but also Tested in so high and eminent a manner and that as you have heard done with so great deliberation and advice as a matter of the greatest consequence Yet how farre the Teste runneth you see that it is but onely of The due performance of the pilgrimage And here it is to be observed that in the times of Edward the third of England the Esteeme of this Purgatory was at the height after it had been rising thereunto 186. years for so long it is betweene Henry of Saltry anno 1140. and Edward the third anno 1326. And within the compasse of this Kings Raigne wee shall finde much more noyse of it and pressing to it even from farre then eyther before or after as that of Ramon the Spanish Viscount Anno 1328. if wee beleeve the date in the beginning of his Raigne of whom wee shall hereafter have occasion more largely to discourse together with that following being 37. yeares after Yet in the said Kings raigne also That I meane which wee finde Recorded in the Registrie of Ardmagh sent unto me by the now most learned Primāte for the furthering of this worke being Letters recommendatory from Milo Archbishop of Ardmagh in the yeare 1365. on the behalfe of certaine Pilgrims The words are these Milo by divine permission Archbishop of Ardmagh Primate of Ireland to the religious and prudent man the Pryor of Saint Patricks Purgatory in Loghderg within the Diocesse of Clogher And to all others the Cleargie and Laitie within the Province of Ardmagh everlasting health in the Lord. Iohn Bonham and Guidas Cissi comming to us have related that they have for devotions sake gone in pilgrimage and visited many holy places and that they are desirous for the health of their Soules to see the place called the purgatory of Saint Patricke our Patron which is in the Diocesse of Clogher aforesaid Wee doe therefore entreat and exhort in the Lord all and every by whom these strangers shall passe that you would entertayne and receive them courteously And that of the goods which God hath bestowed upon you you would afford them some charitable helpe not suffering asmuch as in you lyeth any molestation or disturbance to bee given them By which meanes we doubt not but that you shall be partakers of that their devout labours Dated in the Citie of Downe the fifteenth day of March in the yeare of our Lord one thousand three hundred sixty and five And of our Consecration the fift It were easie to exceed in testimonies of this kinde yet will I adde onely One more being 120. yeares after This in the yeare 1485. about the beginning of the Reigne of Henry the seventh King of England That it may be seene how long it held up in that great esteeme These are Letters Testimoniall of Octavianus Archbishop of Ardmagh given to certaine French Pilgrims Unto all the Children of our mother the Church to whom these our letters Testimoniall shall come Octavianus by the grace of God and of the See Apostolike Archbishop of Ardmagh Primate of all Ireland wisheth everlasting salvation in the Lord wishing you would without question credit what followeth Seeing it is an holy and meritorius thing to give your Testimonie unto the Truth chiefly seeing our Saviour Christ the Sonne of God came downe from heaven into this world to beare witnesse of the truth Hence it is that by these presents we make knowne unto you that Iohn Garhi and Francis Proly of the Citie of Lyons Priests and Iohn Burgesse their boy and servant the bearers hereof Men of good repute and piously affected did visit the Purgatory of the holy Confessor Saint Patricke the Apostle of Ireland within which the sinnes of offenders are even in this world purged And the mountaine in which the said holy Confessor did fast without Temporall meate forty dayes and fortie nights together with other holy places of devotion and things of greatest observation in Ireland And that afflicting their bodies in fasting and prayer according to the Ceremonies of that place they did for acertaine time remaine in that Purgatory as it cleerely appeareth to us And that by the power of CHRIST our redeemer they did contemplatively encounter all the fraudes and fantasticall temptations of the Devill devoutly so finishing their pilgrimage and desiring the merits and prayers of the said Saint to the most High whom by these presents we receive into the protection of us our Church of Ardmagh and of the said holy Confessor whose manners life and perfection we doe recommend unto you all of which wee are confident having two yeares conversed with them Which few among infinite others will sufficiently declare the wonderfull rising and as strange continuance of this purgatory that from the times of Henry of Saltry that I may not with others rise higher untill this of Octavianus Ann. 1485. that is for 345. years For after this did it begin to Decline againe For we finde it solemnely demolished within twelue yeares after in the yeare 1497. during the Reigne of the said King Henry the seuenth of which in its due place Yet if what hath beene said seeme strange unto any that eyther so obscure a thing should so befoole the world into so great an admiration of it or that so generall a delusion and of so long continuance should on so small or no grounds be mantayned let him consider the slavish feare into which by the Popish Doctrine of purgatory the world had bin brought with feare whereof many have all their lives long been held in bondage being told that all the sorrowes in this life labours want banishments prisons shame miseries calamities wounds nay death it selfe are nothing to the paines of purgatory All which with how great cost men seeke to redeeme is not unknowne Hence those Masses and prayers for the soules departed that they might bee eased if not delivered of those paines Hence those large Legacies both of Lands and Annuities bestowed for the continuance of that charitable worke But the hazards are great and much uncertaintie is there in this course And first for the Rich and the most bountifull in this kinde it may happen that the care
it Where men doe tell strange tales that long ageâ— Saint Patricke built a solitary Cave Into the which they that devoutly goe By purging of their sinnes their Soules may save Now whether this Report be true or no I not affirme and yet I not deprave And here may M. Burton for his deep search into the secrets of Nature be fitted with a place such as we could wish I would saith he have a convenient place to goe downe with Orpheus Vlysses Hercules Lucians Menippus at Saint Patrick's Purgatory at Trophonius denne Hecla in Island Aetna in Sicily to descend and see what is done in the bowels of the earth But I proceed to what remayneth That seeing we cannot sinde the Author of it which Messingam conceiveth not to bee so materiall yet that we see the use of it and why it is called a Purgatory Wee have before seene the solemnitie and strictnesse of of the Pilgrimage so great paines deserveth some great and large benefit And greater cannot be if that be true which Ranulphus reporteth and yet but by heare say of it There is Saint Patrick's Purgatory that was shewed at his prayers to confirme his preaching and his lore when he preached to misbeleeved of sorrow and paine that evill men should suffer for her wicked workes and of joy and blisse that good men shall receive for her holy deeds He telleth that who so suffereth the paines of that Purgatory if it be enjoyned him for penance he shall never suffer the paines of Hell but he shall die finally without repentance of sinne as the example is set more fully out at the Chapters end Where he speaketh of the History of Owen the Knight of whom before But his translator Trevisa teacheth us better doctrine But truly no man may be saved but if he be very repentant whatsoever penance he doe And every man that is very repentant at his lives end shall be sickerly saved though he never heare of Saint Patricks purgatory What the effects are of the suffering those paines of which Ranulphus did speake we were before told by Vitriacus That it purgeth him that undergoeth them But it was not for purging men that Saint Patricke did intend it for they of the ancientest that make Saint Patricke the founder of it speake onely of that infernall fire of the damned not of any purging flames of which Giraldus Cambrensis thus While the Holy Man disputed with that incredulous nation of the infernall paine of the reprobate and the eternall and true life of the Elect after death that so great so unusuall so strange a noveltie might by what they should see make a sure impression in the mindes of these infidels through great feruency of prayers he deserved to obtaine for that stiffe-necked people the great admirable and profitable demonstration of both upon Earth a demonstration of both saith hee that is of eternall blisse and joy which who will say is seene or found in Purgatory a place of torment And the torments also of which he made demonstration was of that which they doubted the infernall paines of the reprobate And thus much did Thyraeus speake before That these incredulous men doubting of the paines and punishment of the damned and requiring some visible demonstration of it hee made a Circle in the earth c. As for that other That God had further revealed to Saint Patricke that in that place there was a purgatory of which before it is but a late fancie and on better considerations brought in to helpe the matter Now that the eternall torments of Hell should purge is surely a new thing and such as none of them I suppose will take upon him to defend This is that if any that was shewed by Saint Patricke neyther did he but shew it to terrifie those that doubted of them which needed not to continue the worke being finished and they now beleeving Yet let it be supposed that in that place the paines of Purgatory may be understood and that not the reprobate but the truely contrite is there purged being by Divels drawne through fire and water and a thousand dangers as Vitriacus would have it Yet I hope they will not say that this Fire or Water or I cannot tell what thousand dangers doe purge them that suffer them not And will they say that all who in our dayes goe into this Purgatorie doe lye frying in such flames or be frozen in water or runne any such dangers at all Sure I thinke they will not And if any should common experience would crie them downe Since the writing hereof saith Campian the Iesuite I met with a Priest who told mee that he had gone that pilgrimage and affirmed the order of the premisses but that for his owne part he saw no sight in the world save onely fearefull dreames when hee chanced to nodd and they said hee were exceeding horrible Neyther is it thus onely in these dayes but if wee looke many ages before it will bee found no otherwise and well may it be doubted if ever it were more Iohn Stow in his Annals of England hath a discourse to this purpose of Iohn Froissart the French Historian who lived Annâ— 1395. about 244. years since after Henry of Saltry 255. much alâ—ut the middle time it is this About this time Sir Iohn Froissart Chanon of Chymay in the Earledeme of Heynault as himselfe reporteth came into England He demanded of Sir William Lisle who had beene with the King in Ireland he meaneth Richard the second the manner of the Hole in Ireland that is called Saint Patricks purgatory if it were true that was sayd of it or not Who answered that such an Hole there was and that himselfe and another Knight had beene there while the King lay at Dublin and sayd they entred into the Hole and were closed in it at the Sunne-set and abode there all the night and the next morning issued out againe at the Sunne-rising Hee said that when hee and his fellow were entred and past the Gate that was called the Purgatorie of Saint Patricke and that they were descended and gone downe three or foure paces as into a Cellar a certaine hot vapour rose against them and strake so into their heads that they were faine to fit downe on the stayres which were of stone And after they had sate there a season they had great desire to sleepe and so fell into a sluâ—â—ber and slept there all night In which sleepe they had marvailous dreames otherwise than they were wont to have in their Chambers but in the morning after they had issued out they had cleane forgotten their dreames and visions Thus Stow of Froissart whose owne relation if it be rather desired is as followeth I John Froissart knowing peace to be concluded by Sea Land between the English the French had a great desire to see England towards which I presently tooke shipping where