Saint Patrick and the Western Apostolic Churches
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SAINT PATRICK AND THE WESTERN APOSTOLIC CHURCHES: OR The Religion of the Ancient Britains and Irish, not Roman Catholic : AND I THE ANTIQUITY, TENETS AND SUFFERINGS OF THE ALBIGENSES AND VVALDENSES. NE W- Y O R K: AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION, 156 Chambers-st a few doors West ot the Hudson River Rail Road Depot. 1857. 151277 ^99 The substance of this work was published by the American Pro tebtant Society, under the title of " A Sketch of the History of the Western Apostolic Churches," by the Eev. Dr. Brownlee. A con siderable part has been added to the narrative of St Patrick and the Irish Churches from a work since published in Ireland, by the Rev. Alexander Kino, of Dublin. The account of the Waldenaea has been brought down to the present day. D. FANSHAW, PRINTER and stereottper, 85 Ann-street, corner of Nassau. > :'. SAINT PATRICK: THE KELIGION OF THE ANCIENT IRISH NOT ROMAN CATHOLIC. " The Irish Church never acknowledged the supremacy of foreigners." — St. Jbar to St. Patrick. HIS EXISTENCE. The ludicrous fictions of Roman Catholics respecting St. Patrick have induced many sober Christians to doubt whether there ever existed such a person. But if ancient and unquestionable docu ments may be credited, there was, beyond dispute, such a man. We can no more ques tion the existence of St. Patrick than of king Alfred* " * We refor the reader to Archbishop Usher's book, On the Religion professed by the ancient Irish, p. 15, &c. and the authority quoted by him ; also to the historian Mosheim, under his details of the fifth century, part i. and the authors there quoted and referred to. \ 4 SAINT PATRICK, It is proper to remark, in reference to his title of " Saint," that among primitive Chris tians, in the early ages, the word Saint seems to have been used, perhaps invariably, as our modern word Reverend. It expressed, at first, veneration for the real virtues of godly pas tors ; by degrees it became a general title of men in the sacred office. Hence Saint Ibar, the predecessor of Saint Patrick in Ireland; hence St. Cormic, and St. Columbkille. This title, in those apostolic times, was as different, in its use and design, from that of modern Popery, as the title of St. Paul is from the title of Judas. The Saint Patrick of the primitive and ancient Irish Church is a totally different character from the Roman Catholic Irish Saint Padraig* We are inclined to think that we must admit that St. Padraig was either an impostor, * This is the true and correct name, as any one may see by looking into Butler's Lives of the Saints, vol. i. p. 317, Dublin edition. Hence the quotations of Butler, — " Domnack- Padraig ;" and " Sabhal Padraig." By this name we shall carefully distinguish the Irish Roman Ca tholic saint from the immortal Christian, St. Patrick. AND THE WALDENSES. or a merely fictitious character. If this man really converted the ancient Irish to Chris tianity, meaning the Roman Catholic religion, then he must have lived in the first or second century, when Christianity was first propa gated in Britain and Ireland. But this cannot be ; — for, first, Popery, as we shall presently see, was not cradled, nor even born, in Ireland in those days. And, second, the authors of St. Padraig's stories do not pretend that he lived before the begin ning of the fifth century.* Those, therefore, who represent him as the first preacher of the Gospel in Ireland, and the person who con verted the Irish, hold him up as an impostor, in the face of all historical facts. We are inclined, we say, to view this Pa- draig as a mere fictitious character, grafted upon that of St. Patrick. And he bears the same relation to the latter, as the characters in Sir Walter Scott's historical romances, clothed by that inimitable writer's fancy, in all their glory and poetry, bear to those of * See Butler's Lives of the Saihts, i. 313, 6 SAINT PATRICK, sober and real history. When Popery tri umphed over Ireland, some seven centuries after St. Patrick was in his grave, the foreign emissaries of Rome never could root out of the mind of the native Irish their profound veneration and love of St. Patrick. He lived in their songs, in their mountain tales, in their wild and sweet music, in their unconquerable affection for his pure and simple Christianity. The foreign priests and partizans of Rome, therefore, retained something like his name, if not the very name ; they placed him a few centuries before his real time, or, rather, they placed the date of Irish Catholic Christianity before the days of its real Christianity: then, in addition to this, they clothed him with miraculous powers; they held him up as a genuine hermit, and a true Romish fanatical ascetic. They make him perform eight hun dred pious genuflexions in a day ; one third of the night he chants half of the Psalms ; one third he lies on a cold stone pavement, ' with a block of granite for the pillow of his- white hairs ; and one third he stands up to the breast in cold water! On one occasion AND THE WALDENSES. he sails from Scotland, and again to England, upon a millstone ; on another he feeds a com pany of friends on his only cow; and the next day she is alive, and grazing, as usual, in his meadow! A child half devoured by hogs he raises from the dead, and makes en tire ! Even the more cautious Butler says, — "he converted all Ireland by his preaching and miracles." And in his eulogy on him, he adds, that " he restored sight to the blind, healed the sick, and raised nine dead persons to life;" and " expelled, by his benediction, venomous creatures from Ireland!"'* Hence, St. Padraig is a pure fiction of the foreign Roman emissaries, palmed on the suc cessors of the ancient Irish Christians, whom, as usual, by frauds and imposture, they con trived to sink, by degrees, into the characte ristic ignorance of Romanism ; and thus they prepared them to receive at their hands any fictions, even the most incredible and absurd. And thus the deluded and brutalized children of the famous primitive Irish Christians are * Butler, i. 317. 8 SAINT PATRICK sunk so -ollns to believe (he Popery of Borne and the romances of St. Padraig to be THE GOS PEL of Christ, and the preaching of the VENERABLE AND APOSTOLIC St. PATRICK ! Such was the origin of St. Padraig ; and such haa been the fearful result .of this fiction, wielded by the Romish invaders of Ireland! HIS LIFE AND LABOES. Although the time and place of his birth are still questions of curious inquiry and critical disquisition with many, it seems probable, from the laborious investigations of Dr. Lanigan and others, that St. Patrick was born in Armoric Brittany, in Gaul, near the site of the modern Boulogne, about the year 387. In his sixteenth year he was carried captive into Irelaihd ; and after his release, and study for the ministry, he entered on his mission about the year 432. His first attempt to convert the fire-wor shipping pagans was made on the coast of Wicklow. Here he met with violent opposition, which AND THE WALDENSES. obliged him to sail northward, and attempt to prosecute his mission near the scene of his former bondage, in the county of Antrim, where Dichu and several of his subjects soon embraced the Christian doctrine, and were baptized. St. Patrick having travelled about, preach ing, during the latter end of the year 432 and part of 433, until the approach of Easter, de termined on celebrating that festival near Tarah, in the county Meath. Here he had an opportunity of preaching the Gospel before the king and the states-general of the kingdom • and as this is one of the most remarkable passages in his life, and connected with differ ent interesting particulars, and as it is, besides, a fact on which all authorities concur, we shall be more particular in narrating the circum stances. We shall give the account in Dr. Lan- igan's words : — ' ' On the following day, which was Easter- eve, or Holy Saturday, St. Patrick continued his journey, and arrived in the evening at a place called Ferta-fer-feic, now Slane. Having got a tent pitched there, he made preparations 10 SAINT PATRICK for celebrating the festival of Easter and ac cordingly lighted the paschal fire about night fall. It happened that at this very time the king, Leogaire, and the assembled princes, were celebrating a religious festival, of which fire worship formed a part. There was a standing law, that at the time of this festival no fire should be kindled for a considerable distance all around, until after a great fire should be lighted in the royal palace of Te- moria or Tarah. St. Patrick's paschal fire was, however, lighted before that of the palace, and being seen from the heights of Tarah, ex cited great astonishment. On the king's in quiring what could be the cause of it, and who could have thus dared to infringe the law, the Magi told him that it was necessary to have that fire extinguished immediately; whereas, if allowed to remain, it would get the better of their fires, and bring about the downfall of his kingdom. Leogaire, enraged and troubled on getting this information, set out for Slane with a considerable number of followers, and one or two of the principal Magi, for the purpose of ^ exterminating those violators of the law.