ook, however,
quotes it from the _Uachongbhail_, a much older authority.

[105] _Write_.--Professor O'Curry well observes, that "such a man could
scarcely have carried out the numerous provisions of his comprehensive
enactments without some written medium. And it is no unwarrantable
presumption to suppose, that, either by his own hand, or, at least, in
his own time, by his command, his laws were committed to writing; and
when we possess very ancient testimony to this effect, I can see no
reason for rejecting it, or for casting a doubt upon the
statement."--_MS. Materials_, p. 47. Mr. Petrie writes, if possible,
more strongly. He says: "It is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive
how the minute and apparently accurate accounts found in the various
MSS. of the names and localities of the Attacottic tribes of Ireland in
the first century, could have been preserved, without coming to the
conclusion that they had been preserved in writing in some
work."--_Essay on Tara Hill_, p. 46. Elsewhere, however, he speaks more
doubtfully.

[106] _Land_.--Four Masters, p. 117.

[107] _Collas_.--They were sons of Eochaidh Domlen, who made themselves
famous by their warlike exploits, and infamous by their destruction of
the palace of Emania.

[108] _Groans_.--Bede, _Eccl. Hist_. c. 12.

[109] _Sources_.--The Abbe M'Geoghegan says that there is a very ancient
registry in the archives of the house of Sales, which mentions that the
King of Ireland remained some time in the Castle of Sales. See his
_History_, p. 94.

CHAPTER VIII.

St. Patrick--How Ireland was first Christianized--Pagan Rome used
providentially to promote the Faith--The Mission of St.
Palladius--Innocent I. claims authority to found Churches and condemn
Heresy--Disputes concerning St. Patrick's Birthplace--Ireland receives
the Faith generously--Victoricus--St. Patrick's Vision--His Roman
Mission clearly proved--Subterfuges of those who deny it--Ancient Lives
of the Saint--St. Patrick's Canons--His Devotion and Submission to the
Holy See.

[A.D. 378-432.]

It has been conjectured that the great Apostle of Ireland, St. Patrick,
was carried captive to the land of his adoption, in one of the
plundering expeditions of the monarch Nial--an eminent instance of the
overruling power of Providence, and of the mighty effects produced by
causes the most insignificant and unconscious. As we are not writing an
ecclesiastical history of Ireland, and as we have a wo