t posterity might imitate its brightness--as
was commanded from above, that in the breast-plate of the chief priest
the names of the twelve patriarchs, the sons of Israel, should be
engraven on twelve precious stones, so that by the sight thereof the
faithful might be moved to imitate the acts of the holy fathers; for it
is most fitting that of those in whose titles we glory, in whose
praises we delight, by whose patronage we are protected, we should
endeavor to conform to the manners, and be confirmed by the examples;
but since the dearth of literature has so much increased, and the
slothfulness to learning so much abounded, very many, fools and
ignorant persons, have ofttimes, lest they should perish from the
memory of the faithful, written the lives of the saints, certainly with
a pious intent, but in a most unhandsome style. Wherefore, in reading
the lives and acts of the saints composed in a rude manner or barbarous
dialect, disgust is often excited, and not seldom tardiness of belief.
And hence it is that the life of the most glorious priest Patrick, the
patron and apostle of Ireland, so illustrious in signs and miracles,
being frequently written by illiterate persons, through the confusion
and obscurity of the style, is by most people neither liked nor
understood, but is held in weariness and contempt. Charity therefore
urging us, we will endeavor, by reducing them to order, to collect what
are confused, when collected to compose them into a volume, and, when
composed, to season them, if not with all the excellence of our
language, at least with some of its elegance. To this our endeavor the
instruction of the threefold instrument which is described to belong to
the candlestick of the tabernacle giveth aid; for we find therein the
tongs, the extinguisher, and the oil-cruse, which we must properly use,
if, in describing the lives of the saints, who shone in their
conversation and example like the candlestick before the Lord, we
should labor to clear away the superfluous, extinguish the false, and
illuminate the obscure, which, though by the devotion we have toward
St. Patrick we are bound to do, yet are we thereto enjoined by the
commands of the most reverend Thomas, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate
of all Ireland, and of Malachy, the Bishop of Down; and to these are
added the request of John de Courcy, the most illustrious Prince of
Ulidia, who is known to be the most especial admirer and honorer of St.
Patrick