of these two Writers has treated of the Affairs of that second Difference of Time in Varro especially Berosus He tells us that Berosus both mentioned the Flood and Ark and resting of this on the Mountains of Armenia and continued the series of his Narration downwards all along from the first of Kings after the Deluge even from Noah himself that is for the whole extent of that very Second period or Difference of Time Whence it must follow that however this Time might well and justly be reputed fabulous by the Greeks in relation to themselves and their own Historians yet their ignorance ought to be no rule to conclude other Nations that like to those ancient Egyptians Phaenicians and his Chaldeans in Joseph were from the beginning careful to preserve their Antiquities i. e. their Genealogies Adventures Changes Kings Wars and other Memorable Deeds in publick Registers on Record for Posterity Such are at present the Chineses in the utmost limit of the old World in Asia towards the Rising Sun as the History of Martinus a Martinis abundantly sheweth And that such also in the farthest Land of Europe towards the Setting Sun the ancient Irish have been while their State continued till about five hundred years since may be sufficiently evinc'd by many arguments Among which are those which you may briefly read in this Prospect Former Part Sect. II. page 46 47 and 48. whereunto it will not be amiss to add what both Cambrensis and Neubrigensis do confess that even from the beginning the Irish Nation has ever continued free from any forein Yoak or Conquest till Henry the Second of England's time That is according to Cambrensis has continued so even for so long an extent of time as the successive Reigns of a hundred eighty one Monarchs of their own Countrey and extraction from the same stock had certainly taken up And therefore it must be also confess'd That so long at least they were in a capacity to preserve their own Records And so indeed they did preserve the chiefest of 'em safe even amidst the greatest fury of the two Danish Wars Neither of which how destructive calamitous and heavy soever especially the Former was arrived to the nature of an absolute or total Conquest of the Natives not even for one week or day All which consider'd by indifferent men I hope may be enough to remove out of their way all prejudgment of Criticks from the foresaid observation of Varro against those remote Antiquities of the Irish Nation which you shall meet with in the Former Part of this Prospect What or who were the Authors I have followed it will be but reasonable I should inform you next And I think it as reasonable to tell you That although I have read whatever Cambrensis or Campion or Hanmer or Spencer wrote of Ireland yet in the whole Former Part of this Prospect I have not borrow'd from any one or more of them above one Paragraph of a few lines unless peradventure you account those other to be such i. e. borrowed from them which animadvert upon some few of their many Errours Nor certainly would I have ventur'd on writing so much as one Line of the State of that Kingdom before the English Conquest if I had not been acquainted with other kind of Authors yea Authors not only more knowing but incomparably better qualified to know the ancient Monuments of that Kingdom than they or any other Foreigners that hitherto have gather'd written printed some hear-say scraps of that Nation could possibly be In short when I was a young man I had read Geoffrey Keting's Irish Manuscript History of Ireland And now when my Lord of Castle-haven would needs engage me to write something as you have seen before I remembred how about four or five years since the R. H. Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy Seal had been pleas'd to shew me another Manuscript being an English Translation of that Irish History of Ketings Besides I remember'd to have seen and read Gratianus Lucius when he came out in print some twenty years ago And because I was sâ—re to meet in the Former materials enough for such Discourses upon the more Ancient Irish or State of their Countrey before the English Conquest as were to my purpose and that the Later too might be very useful in some particulars having borrow'd Keting first i. e. that English Manuscript Translation of him such as it is from my Lord Privy Seal I ventur'd to begin somewhâ—â— in the method you have here on so Noble and Illustrious a Subject Though I must confess I am still the more unsatisfied that while I was drawing these Papers you have now before you I could by no means procure the Reading either of Primat Vsher's Primordia Ecclesiarum Britannicarum or Sir James Ware 's Antiquities of Ireland However seeing I have expos'd my self to censure as relying wholly on the ability and sincerity of Keting and Lucius in the performance of their several undertakings I have the more reason to give here this following true account of them Geoffrey Keting was a Native of Ireland in the Province of Mounster as were his Ancestours before him for many Generations though not of Irish but English blood originally He was by Education Study Gommencement abroad in France a Doctor of Divinity in his Religion a Romanist by Ordination and Calling a secular Priest He had by his former study at home in his younger days under the best Masters of the Irish Tongue and the most skilful in their Antiquities arriv'd to a high degree of knowledg in both In his riper years when return'd back from his other Studies and Travails in Forein Parts his curiosity and genius led him to examin all Foreign Authors both Ancient and Modern who had written of that Kingdom either purposely or occasionally whether in Latin or in English And this diligent search made him observe two things chiefly 1. That every one even the very best and most knowing of those Writers were either extreamly out in many if not most of their Relations concerning the State of that Countrey before the English Conquest or rather indeed wholly ignorant of it In so much that like men groping in the dark they related scarce any thing at all well or ill of what had pass'd among the Inhabitants of Ireland far above one and Thirty Hundred years Except only what is by some of them reported of the Learning and Sanctimony of their Monks during the first fervours of Christianity and a very little more of their Wars at home in Ireland with the Danes and even this very little involv'd in a mixture of Monstrous Fables derived from such Romantick Stories as were certainly written at first for meer diversion and pastime only 2. That the generality of those Brittish Authors who have written of that Countrey since the English Conquest are against all Justice and Truth and Law 's of History in the highest degree injurious to the ancient Natives These considerations
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
immediately after the great Victory got by Him over the remainders of the Nation call'd Fir-bholg who till then had kept and inhabited that Tract of ground where this Lake did so burst forth on a sudden and consequently That it happen'd before the year of the World 3751. because according to to the Irish Chronology Fiacha Laurainne came to the Crown of Ireland by killing his Predecessor Eochuidh Fuibherghlas in the year of the World 3727. and held it twenty years more or rather to the year of the World 3751. when himself was likewise kill'd by Eochuidh Mumho that succeeded him in the Sovereignty 3. That such and so early to have been the original of this Lake without either bestiality or Well or other enormous or miraculous cause mention'd by any Irish Records or Books Amhirgin the son of Amhalgadh mhic Mholruana had delivered in the Etymological Book which he not only compos'd of all the chief places Countreys Tracts of Ireland but rehears'd before Diarmuid O Cearbheoil the Monarch and other Princes and Peers of the Nation assembled together at Tarach about the year of Christ 500 adding withal in the same Book that some former Historians were of opinion This Lake had a long time yea many Ages after the beginning taken its denomination of Erne a Maid servant to the famous Meabh Chruachain Queen of Connaght drown'd therein Which Meabh Chruachain was Daughter to Eochuidh Feilioch the Monarch Author of the Pentarchy who ended both his Reign and life in the year of the World 5069. that is according to the account follow'd by Lucius a hundred and thirty one years before the Incarnation of our Lord. 4. That hence appears not only the falsity of the Relation it self but the Ignorance of the Relatour Cambrensis in the History of Ireland where he says That Church-Towers were seen in that Lake he describes to have had so prodigious an original insinuating hereby as if Loch Ern had its beginning after the plantation of Christianity in that Kingdom Whereas we have now seen it was broke out even 1427. before the very birth of Christ which was in the year of the World 5199. Besides it is most certain that those high round narrow Towers of stone built cylinder-wise whereof Cambrensis speaks were never known or built in Ireland as indeed no more were any Castles Houses or even Churches of stone at least in the North of Ireland before the year of Christ 838. when the Heathen Danes possessing a great part of that Countrey built them in several places to serve themselves as Watch-Towers against the Natives Though ere long the Danes being expuls'd the Christian Irish turn'd them to another and much better because a holy use that is to Steeple-Houses or Bell-Fries to hang Bells in for calling the People to Church From which later use made of them it is that ever since to this present they are call'd in Irish Cloctheachs that is Bell-Fries or Bell-Houses Cloc or Clog signifying a Bell and Teach a House in that Language And further yet my Author Gratianus Lucius adds out of the undoubted Monuments or Lives both of Columb Cille and S. Patrick that even as early as either of those holy men's time Loch Erne was the same it is now For O Donel writes in his Life of Columb Cill l. 1. c. 88. That S. Columb by his special blessing and Prayer to God obtained not only that fecundity of Fish to the Lake which ever since it has been blessed with but that the cataract or Fall of it should be lower than it was before whereby the leap of the Salmon became easier And S. Ewin writes part 2. c. 110. of S. Patric's Life that this great Apostle of Ireland to punish the frowardness of the Lord of the Countrey next adjoyning to the Northern side of this Lake curs'd the same side of it and so bereav'd it of its former fruitfulness Out of which Narrations or Lives whatsoever may be said or thought of the Miracles it is plain enough that so long before these narrow high round Turrets built by the Danes Loch Erne was the same it is at present 5. That Ptolomee who flourish'd about the year of Christ 153. describes Loch Erne in the same manner and place the modern Geographers do calling also the Inhabitants of that Tract Erdini 6. That nothing can be more clear and manifest than Girald and Cambden's contradicting one another or certainly both truth and experience each of them For Cambrensis plainly says that the River of Ban flows out of the Lake he reports to have had the foresaid prodigious original and Cambden no less plainly and positively averrs that Lake which had so strange a beginning to be the Lake Erne and yet all Ireland knows and Cambden himself in several places though more perceptibly to the eye in his Map of Ireland shews that the said River Ban flows not out of Loch Ern but out of another by name Loch Neauch which is at least threescore miles from the Lake Ern. 7. And lastly that there are no such Irish Annals known or heard of in Ireland which impute either that cause or effect of it whereof Cambden speaks to those Hebridians mention'd by him or to any other People or Nation whatsoever So that out of all we may safely conclude the whole Relation of the foresaid infamous Original of Loch Erne to be no better than an old Wives Tale. Which after I had lighted by chance on Gratianus I thought my self the rather obliged to observe here because I had formerly in writing and printing what you have in my 59 page either seem'd to be somewhat persuaded by the Authority of Cambden though only taking up the relation from Cambrensis and withal telling us I know not from whom of Irish Annals in the case or because at least I had not sufficienly cleared so injurious a Report 55. And now let me tell you on this occasion that e'n such another if not yet more injurious ill grounded false Report is that which the same Cambrensis is the only first Original Author of in his Topography of Ireland dist 3. cap. 25. where he tells us That the People of Tirconel a Countrey in the North of Vlster created their King in this barbarous abominable manner That all being assembled together in one place a white Beast was brought before them Unto which he that was chosen to be made King approaching declared himself publickly before them all to be such another that is a meer Beast Whereupon the white Beast was cut in pieces boil'd in Water and that done a bath prepar'd for him of the Broth. Into which entring and bathing and then feeding and all the People too about him feeding in the same manner on the flesh boil'd in it at last he drinks of that very broth wherein he had already bathed and this also not by reaching or taking it out of any Cup or other Vessel nay not so much as out of the palm of his
a Roman Council Much less would their fierceness and resolution in that matter have been so unalterable as to occasion the slaughter of eleven hundred and fifty of their Brethren Monks of the very same Bangor Abbey at one time and place Whereof you may see the particulars in Venerable Bede l. 2. Eccl. Histor c. 2. and in Whelock's Notes upon this Chapter So that Yepez in making Beannchuir a Benedictin Abbey knew not what he said or at least what could be objected against him 65. Why the Staff of Jesus mention'd in my 273. page was so called you may read in Jocelinus an English Monk that five hundred years since at the instance of two Irish Bishops and Sir John Curcy whom he calls Prince of Vlster because as I suppose he was the first Conqueror of it under the English Crown digested the Life of St. Patrick out of many former Lives written of Him by several Authors but written by them in such manner and stile as did not invite Readers It is therefore this Jocelinus that in his Life of St. Patrick cap. 24. gives a pretty large account of that Staff of Jesus Which is in substance That when St. Patrick after a long abode of many years with St. German Bishop of Altissiodorum in France had with his leave at last departed towards Rome in his journey thither he either by divine instinct or Angelical instruction diverted to a certain Island in the Tirrhene Sea of purpose to visit a certain holy Anchoret of great same living there whose name was Justus 2. That upon his arrival after holy salutes and spiritual conference Justus gave him a Staff saying he had receiv'd it from the very hand of our Lord Jesus Christ himself but to be given him 3. That after this St. Patrick discoursing with other men who lived in the same Island at some little distance from the Cell of Justus whereof some appeared brisk and young others old even to decrepit age and understanding that those extream old men he saw were the very genuin sons of those other that appear'd young and enquiring how that could be One of the same young men both to remove his admiration which was great and to satisfie his demand gave him this answer We says he from our childhood through the mercy of God have been always given to works of mercy and our door was open to every Traveller that for Christ's sake desired either Victuals or Lodging On a certain Night we received a stranger with a Staff in his hand and according to our best ability treated him with all necessaries and kindness Next Morning upon his departure he blessed us nor only blessed us but moreover spake these words unto us viz. I am Jesus Christ whom in person you have this Night receiv'd into your House who so often before have receiv'd me in my servants And then he delivered the Staff he had in his hand to the man of God our spiritual Father commanding him to keep it for a certain Pilgrim by name Patrick who after many days should arrive here and upon him to bestow it Which command given he presently ascended into Heaven and we have ever since remained in the same state of youthful countenance briskness and vigour of body we were in at that time But our sons that were but little children then are now according to their age come to be decrepit as you see them 4. That when St. Patrick had heard all he gave God thanks and after a few days longer conversation with Justus proceeded on his Journey carrying in his hand that holy Staff appointed by God himself to be an instrument for his servant Patrick to work therewith prodigious things in Ireland as the Rod of Moses had formerly been for effecting the famed Wonders in Egypt the greatest difference betwixt them being that this of Jesus brought health and life to the Irish Nation but that of Moses death upon the Egyptian So in effect Jocelinus mostly concerning the original of that Staff Unto which he addeth cap. 170. concerning also the powerful Virtue of it That by lifting it up on high and threatning with it St. Patrick after a long Fast of forty days and forty nights join'd with continual fervent Prayer forc'd together out of all parts of Ireland all venomous Animals whatsoever to the Mountain call'd in Irish Cruachain Ailge in the West of Conaght and from thence precipitated them into the Western Ocean lying under this Mountain and this with such a blessed riddance to the whole Island as to have left or have rendred it ever since incapable of harbouring any creature alive that were Poisonous though brought into it from other Countreys How Keting understands this later point we have seen before And for Gerald of Wales though he acknowledg both the Vertue and name of that Staff calling it Virtuosissimum baculum Jesu the most powerful Staff of Jesus yet he says withal that the Origin of it is as uncertain as the Virtue is most certain Adding immediately in the same place That in his own time and by his own Countrey men the Brittish Conquerours that noble Treasure for so he calls it was translated from Ardmagh to Dublin What became of it since I cannot tell But this I find in St. Bernards Life of Malachias that this Staff of Jesus and the Text of the Gospel that was St. Patrick's own Book or that used by himself were the two most precious Jewels not only of the Church of Ardmagh but of any in the whole Kingdom of Ireland That they were held by all the Irish in the greatest veneration above all other holy Reliques whatsoever but more especially the Staff as being that which our Saviour Christ himself had both carried in his own divine hand fram'd by his own peculiar workmanship and recommended in such a special manner to be given to his Apostolical servant Patrick I find moreover in David Rooth the late Roman Catholick Bishop of Ossory's Elucidations upon Jocelin whatever may be objected by Criticks against this History of the Staff of Jesus answer'd For if their Exception be against our Saviour's appearing on Earth after his Ascension to Heaven from Mount Olivet he remits then to St. Ambrose where he tells in his Oration against Auxentius how very long after that time our Lord appeared to S. Peter at a Gate in Rome entring that City And if it be against any such Wonder-working power in the Staff it self though by divine Ordinance or consecration of it for such uses he desires them to consider not only the Rod of Moses in Egypt and brazen Serpent in the Desart nor only the brazen Statue of our Saviour erected at Caesarea Eusebius l. 7. Hist c. 18. and Sozomen l. 5. c. 21. Philippi otherwise called Paneas by the Woman in the Gospel cur'd by our Saviour of an Issue of blood but also the torn Cloak and poor Staff of the Egyptian Anchoret Senuphius wherewith Theodosius the Great arming himself