and personal nay and of their Subjects also both men and women by the dedication of all in a peculiar way to God as hath been said before but were so fervently Zealous even to a degree of excess in this kind that as both Keting and Lucius relate it if St. Patrick would have receiv'd what they offer'd more their Successors should have scarce been left the grazing of four Beasts to bestow on the Church Secondly in particular the great number of those Princes one after another in the succession of so many Ages that notwithstanding all the bloody Feuds and warlike humor of their Nation withdrew themselves in time from sin yea from all the pleasures vanity pomp earthly glory of their condition and by contemning the world for the sake of God made themselves greater than the World A large list of them you may find partly in Keting but more amply and exactly in Lucius And they were those that stripping themselves naked to follow Christ and shutting themselves up in Cloysters made choice of the better part with Mary at the feet of out Lord. Such were the Monarchs 1. Maâ—â—â—hoba who by the prayers of Columbe-Cille recovering from death to life thereupon without delay Anno 610. renounc'd the World enter'd a Monastery profess'd himself a Monk and was after in regard of his holiness made Bishop of Kildare 2. Flaithiortach who likewise though without any such inducement as Maolchoba had in perfect health vigour streingth deliberately chose to dispoil himself of all earthly greatness Goods Employments and exchange them all for a poor monastick Weed in the Monastery of Ardmagh for a penitential course of life within the walls of that enclosure and for a Christian happy death which he found in that same place after nine years more had been over in his holy exercises there 3. Niall Frassach that not only quitted the Crown and Power but the very Soil of Ireland by retiring to the Scottish Isle of Hy and there in Columb Cille's Monastery devoting himself wholly to works of Christian repentance after eight years continual preparation by them for his passage to immortality had it in the year 773. of our Saviour's Incarnation 4. Muirchiortach great Grandchild to Brion Buraimh and one of Ketings Monarchs of Ireland who having resign'd his Royal Authority and together with it whatever else he possess'd or loved on earth put on the habit of a pooor religious man at Lismore where without looking back he ended happily his days 5. Domhnal mhac â—rdghair who according to Colgan as we have seen before was also King of Ireland though in his declining years yet amidst his prosperity retiring to the Abbey of Doire Cholumb-Cilie employing the remainder of his life there in exercises of piety holiness and mortification and lamenting the sins of his former days prepared for encountred and receiv'd death with a serene countenance full of hopes of a glorious Immortality But whether he took upon him the outward profession of a Monk in those exercises there or did not I can say nothing on either side Nor is it very material to know seeing the inward habit of his Soul yielded fruits worthy of true repentance and the severest outward profession of it 6. Ruaruidh O Conchabhair the very last Irish Monarch we have shewn likewise before to have made a religious life under the Habit and in a Cloister of Augustinian Chanon Regulars his last refuge in this World from so many vicissitudes of Fortune There it was he became so truly wise indeed as to prepare only for that other World which being planted far above all the glory of the Sun and all the Circles of time expects only Souls either never tainted with sin at any time or by perfect repentance at least before death throughly purified from its deadly sting And such indeed for making choice either sooner or later of the better part with Mary were those now enumerated Monarchs of Ireland And yet I know not why I might not add to their number Maolseachluinn I. and Brian Boraimh For albeit they never had been either profess'd Monks Anchorites or Clerks nor divested of their Authority Royal nor at all outwardly retired from the cares of the Publick or management of their own domestick affairs or comfort of their Wives and Children yet their piety of life was such as purchas'd for them after death the reputation of holy men Yea S. Cairbre Bishop of Cluan-mhac-Noise when the former died Anno 860. being in extasy beheld his Soul ascending to glory says Lucius And the later has been inserted not only by John Wilson in his Martyrologe but by Henry Fitz Simons in his Catalogue of the Saints of Ireland both these Authors having in this particular followed Marianus Scotus Of the Provincial Kings a far greater number and some of them very early that is in their very youth made the same prudential wise divine choice Aillill Anmbanna King of Connaght led so wonderfully strict a life according to the exactest Rules of Christianity that upon his death it pleased God to shew his Soul to Columb-Cille ascending to Heaven Anno 544. Cormac King of South Leinster about the Year of Christ 567. quitting voluntarily his Kingdom went to Beannchuir profess'd himself there a Monk continued in the same place leading a life truly answerable to his profession till death translated him to happiness Anno 567. which the Irish Church believing has placed him in her Calendar of Saints Aodh Dubh King of Leinster forsaking in the same manner both his Kingdom and whatever else he might enjoy on earth took the Monastical habit and Vows upon him lived accordingly some years in the Monastery of Kildare an underling was after made Abbot then Bishop of the same Cloister and See deceased Anno Christi 638. and in fine was recorded in the Register of Saints Ceallach mhac Reghal King of Connaght made the like exchange of a Kingdom for a Cloister died in the Year of our Lord 703. and is invoked particularly at Lochkinne as their tutelary Patron Ardghal mhac Cathail King of Connaght the very same only that to be further off from all noise of the World he retired out of Ireland to the Monastery of Columb-Cille in the Island of Hy where in the seventh year of his peregrination which was of Christ 786 he ended his mortal course Before him a little that is Anno Christi 739. flourished the good King of Vlster Fiacha mhac Aodh Roin surnamed In Droiched from his continual care of building Bridges every-where throughout his Kingdom to make the ways more passable for Droiched in their Tongue signities a Bridge He was even to admiration vertuously just and equitable to all persons whatsoever Only one Cow taken away by stealth within his Dominion and because peradventure says Gratianus Lucius the Author of this stealth had not been with due severity punish'd he inflicted the remainder on his own person by going a Pilgrimage to Beannchuir In his Reign and
lesser note elsewhere And then I think seven thousand Scholars at one time in one of these Universities to wit Ardmagh c Manusc of Keting Reign of Conchuuair Mhic Donochoe is a considerable evidence how Learning did flourish at that time in Ireland To all which may be added that they were the Irish of those days who gave a beginning abroad if not to the Schools of Oxford for I have an Author by me that says they did so even to these yet certainly to those of Paris and Pavia g Monach. Sangal de Gest Car. Mag. c. 1. apud Canis Tom. 1. Antiq. Lect. yea and to many other great Colleges of Learning in foreign parts or the most famous Monasteries of Europe then that is of France and Germany and Italy have not been at any time reputed Colleges of Learning which yet we know and shall presently see they have and have indeed equally both of Learning and Sanctity been reputed the chief Schools in those parts Finally both Camhden d Supra and Spencer e View of Ireland or Dialogue between Irenaeus and Eudoxus pag. 29. acknowledge that from Ireland our Fore-fathers in Great Brittain the Ancient Saxons or English learned the very form and manner of framing their characters for writing 14. But if their Learning was great as in those Ages from the year of Christ 431. or soon after to the year 820. when the Heathen Danes and Norvegians first invaded them it was esteem'd to be the sanctity of those among them who gave themselves to a religious life was yet much more admirable as their numbers were almost beyond belief in these our days And yet Cambden that excellent Antiquary was convinc'd of both Verily Hieric of Auxer otherwise in Latin Henricus Altisiodorensis whom I mentioned before hath 800 years since written f Vit. S. Germani c. 174. Jocel viâ— S. Paâ— c. 174. that S. Patrick having converted Ireland did so prevail with the Princes and People thereof that he obtained a tenth of all the Lands Goods Cattle and Persons of the whole Kingdom to be dedicated by them to God the Men to be Monks and the Women Nuns forsaking all worldly joys most willingly for a religious life and that every where answerably to the Lands and other goods devoted so to God he built Monasteries apart the one half for Men and the other for Women From whence it came to pass within a very little time says another ancient Author of great credit Jocelinus the Monk in his life of S. Patrick 〈◊〉 174. that there was not a Wilderness nor corner nor place so remote any where in the whole Island but was replenished with perfect Monks and Nuns in so much that Ireland came to be called then by a special name The Island of Saints For says he all those religious persons lived according to the rule given them by S. Patrick in perfect contempt of all earthly things desire of celestial only mortification of their flesh and quitting of their own proper will equal to the Monks of Egypt both in merit and number Besides these testimonies tho very many more of the ancient Writers of all Nations in Europe might be quoted it will be sufficient to quote S. Bernard only in the life written by him of S. Malachias cap. v. where he relates that Ireland sent forth whole swarms of Saints into other parts of the world And therefore I need not add but little more upon this subject than the sense of Cambden and that in his own words as m Britannia tit Ireland P. 67. they are given by his Translator Philemon Holland The Irish Scholars of Patrick says he profited so notably in Christianity that in the Age next ensuing Ireland was termed Sanctorum Patria The native Country of Saints and the Soottish * See before how at that time by the name Scottish were understood only the Irish because as yet Ireland was called Scotia Major Monks in Ireland and Brittain highly excell'd for their holiness and learning yea and sent out whole flocks of most devout men into all parts of Europe who were the first Founders of Luxeu Abbey in Burgundy of Bubie Abbey in Italy of Wirtzburg Abbey in Franckland of S. Galius in Sweitzerland of Malmesbury Lindisfern and many other Monasteries in Britain For out of Ireland came Celius Sedulius a Priest Columba Columbane Colman Aidan Gallus â—ithan Maidulph Brendan and many other celebrated for their holy life and learning Of these Monks is Hieric of Auxerres to be understood when he writeth thus to the Emperour Charls the Bald What should I speak of Ireland which setting light by the dangers of the Sea flitteth all of it well near with whole flocks of Philosophers unto our shores Of whom so many as are more skilful and learned than the rest do voluntarily banish themselves to attend dutifully on the wise Solomon and be at his command Then says he I mean Cambden delivering his further judgment and continuing his relation this Monastical profession although but then newly come up was far different in those days from that of our time They desired to be that indeed which they were named to be they were far from colourable dealing or dissembling Erred they in any thing It was through simplicity not through lewdness much less of wilâ—ul obstinacy As for wealth and these worldly things they so so highly contemned them that they did not only not seek after but also refused the same tho they were offered unto them descended by inheritance For a notable Apophthegm was that of Columbane a Monk of Ireland who as the Abbot Walafride writeth When Sigebert King of the Frankners dealt very very earnestly with him and that by way of many large and fair promises that he should not depart out of his Kingdom answered him in the same sort as Eusebius has reported of Thaddeus namely That it became not them to embrace other mens riches who for Christs sake had forsaken their own Hitherto Cambden who elsewhere m p. 144. tells us that we must not wonder at the austerity of those ancient Irish Monks in their generation that is during those primitive ages of Christianity in Ireland tho nothing indeed can be more wonderful than what is written of them in that kind For says he in very late times Such as gave themselves to Religion there did mortifie their flesh even to a miracle by watching praying and fasting And verily Cambdens relation both of the sanctity and prodigious numbers too of the Irish Monks in those first ages of Christianity in Ireland before the Danish Invasion is abundantly confirm'd by the Irish Chronicles in Dr. Keting b Reign of Louis the Son of Laogirius Son to Nial the Great The Irish call him Lugha mhac Laoghaire mhic Neill Naoighiallaoi where he tells us that the holy Abbot Comghall who about the end of the first and beginning of the second century of Christian Religion in
in the beginning nor progress nor issue of it did they amend So that Almighty God the great Justicier the great Striker of them from above might justly say to them at this time what he had formerly said to the Jews by the mouth of his Prophet Jeremy In vain have Frustra percussi filios vestros disciplinaâ— non receperunt Jerem. 2. 30. I stricken your children they received no correction And the pious Observer of this continual recidivation this fatal contumacy of theirs Dr. Keting might have no less truly either complain'd or acknowledg'd it of them to God than Jeremy did the like of his own People Lord thine Eyes Domine oculi tui respiciunt fidem Percussisti eos non doluerunt attrivisti eos renuerunt accipere disciplinam induraverunt facies suas supra petram noluerunt reverti 5. 3. are upon the truth Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved thou hast consumed them but they have refus'd to receive correction They have made their faces harder than a Rock they have refus'd to return To satisfie the Reader that I speak not hyperbolically or at random in this matter I give here in short a sufficient number of instances that may serve for proofs thereof as I find them in Ketings History Indeed they are there I confess as little intentionally for this purpose as much more to his purpose dispersedly given as they happen'd That is the former part of them in the several Reigns of eight of those eleven Monarchs that by the unanimous consent of the Irish Annals and Historians were undoubtedly such over all Ireland from Maolseachluinn 1. in whose Reign the second Danish War begun to Maolseachluinn II. being the second time elected or submitted to as the Monarch some few years before this long War ended and the latter part of them likewise in the several Reigns of those other six that pretended to be such after this Maolseachluinn II. whereof Ruaruidh O Conchabhar was the last and consequently of all the Irish that were any way such But for saving you a labour I have collected all those instances together and so give 'em now that if you please you may read 'em over in a continual series without interposition of any thing else Where I doubt not you will admire how notwithstanding all the heavy pressures in every Province of Ireland by so many powerful foreign Enemies and so many Battels fought and so much blood lost in the same War by the Irish defending their Countrey against those Pagans they could nevertheless have time and men and blood to spare for so mischievous a work as the fighting and destroying one another so cruelly And yet it seems they wanted none of all not even so early as the third Battel fought by them against the Danes in this very second War For Maolseachluinn I. who had so Victoriously fought the first of these Battels being dead in the 16th year of his Reign and Aodh Fionnleath who had no less bravely fought the second of them departing this life within or immediatly after the next 16 years Flann mhac Sionnadh who then succeeded in the Monarchy and Reigned 38 years gave the fatal beginning to that new series of intestine Broils Depredations Battels Slaughters Murders among the Natives themselves that follow'd Certainly the very first Act of this Monarch I mean the first recorded of him in his Reign by Keting is that he enter'd in hostile manner Plunder'd Ransack'd Preyd the whole Province of Mounster and brought away Captives and Pledges thence And after this though I cannot say how long after the great Battel of Beallach Muidh Mughna was fought between him and holy Cormock the good King of Mounster and Archbishop of Cashel For this vertuous Prince who was both King and Priest together though much contrary to his own judgment and inclination yet by the great importunity of his Mounster Noble-men but chiefly by the advice of Flaithbhiortach mhac Joâ—â—haincine Abbot of Inche-Cathaigh march'd with an Army towards Leinster pretending that this Province ow'd him chiefry as being lawful King of Leath-Mogh But in his entring it he was met and fought and defeated and kill'd both himself and seven lesser Kings with him besides other Nobles by the said Monarch who had of the other side in his Army Cearrbhall mhac Muirregin King of Leinster and ten petty Kings more Besides in this Monarch's Reign Aidheith mhac Laighnigh King of Vlster was murder'd by his own Associates And tho in the Reign of Niall Gluindubh who after the said Flann was the next Monarch for three years only there be nothing recorded of action among the Irish themselves but all against the Danes and this Monarch Niall to have bravely in his own person fought 'em twice though he was kill'd in the second Fight and together with him Donchubhar mhac Maolseachluinn called Riogh Damhna or Tanist to the Monarch of Ireland Aodh mhac Eoghagain King of Vlster Maolmhithe mhac Flannegain King of Breag and Maolchraoibâ—e O Duibh seanaigh King of Oirghiall besides others of chief note and estimation we shall find it otherwise in all and every one of the succeeding Reigns at least until this Danish War is wholly over Donachadh mhac Floinn immediat Successor to Niall for twenty years more in the Soveraignty enter'd as an Enemy the Countries about Athlone where many of his Army were kill'd and among others the petty King of Ibh Failghe In his Reign Fearrghraidh succeeding Ceallaghan for two years in the Kingdom of Mounster was treacherously murder'd by his own followers And in the same Reign Mathgamhain mhac Kinedy Successor to Fearghraidh and a brave constant successful Warrier against the Danes was betrayed in his own House by one Donomhan thence convey'd to Mac Brain King of Eoghanach a Confederate of the Danes shut up in Prison by him and there soon after murder'd by his People Conghallach mhac Mhaolmhithe the next Monarch notwithstanding his bravery against the Danes invaded Mounster with a main Army against his own Countrey-men upon what quarrel I know not Though I find special notice taken of his killing in that expedition the two Sons of Kinede mhac Lorcaine In his Reign also Damhnal Claon King of Leinster and Domhnal O Faolain King of the Desies in Mounster joynd with the Danes From which conjunction follow'd not only many bloody Battels between them and Brien mhac Kinede after surnam'd Boraimh younger Brother and Successor in the Kingdom of Mounster to the foresaid Mathgamhain but the destroying of this Monarch Conghallach himself in the Town of Ardmagh where he was by an Army composed partly of Danes and partly of Leinster-men set upon fought defeated kill'd ending so his ten years troublesome vexatious Reign Domhnal mhac Mairchiortae succeeding him for ten years more in this fatal Soveraignty could be at leisure to make War on Fearrghallach O Ruairck King of Connaght prey all that Province and bring away thence a great number
hand but by stooping and putting down his mouth like a Beast on all sides of the very bathing Cistern or Cauldron at large wherein he had wash'd Which being over the whole Rite and Solemnity of his inauguration was ended and he compleatly install'd in his Kingship of Tirconel So says Cambrensis intimating hereby as if this filthy custom held in that Countrey even in his own time But Keting has abundantly refuted this no less filthy abominable Fiction where he shews at large in the Reign of Brian Boraimh the known solemn decent and significant Rites yea and places too of Inaugurating every King and Prince in all the Provinces of Ireland and who were the Lords or which were the Families that bore the chief Offices at the respective Inaugurations Particularly as to the Prince of Tirconel namely O Donel of whose creation this Fable of Cambrensis must be understood the same Keting shews that the place both of his Election or Inauguration or Investiture was Cill-mhic-Creunain and the chief Officers at it were O Fiorghaill who carried before him and solemnly put into his hand the White Rod which was his Scepter and O Gallechuir who was his Marshal But Gratianus Lucius page 316 of his Cambrensis Eversus takes a little more pains in this particular He tells in the first place how when any was to be created O Donel all the Estates of the Countrey met together upon a certain Hill And how the Assembly being full one of the greatest Peers amongst them rising up and standing in the middle of the multitude with a pure white streight un-knotty Rod in his hand address'd himself to the new Elect in this manner and words Receive Sir the auspicious Ensign of your Dignity and remember to imitate in your Life and Government the whiteness and streightness and unknottiness of this Rod to the end no evil Tongue may find cause to asperse the candour of your Actions with blackness nor any kind of corruption or tye of friendship be able to pervert your Justice Take therefore upon you in a lucky hour the Government of this People and exercise the Power given you hereby with all freedom and security And how these words spoken he deliver'd the Rod into the Prince's Hand and so the whole Solemnity was perclosed In the next place Lucius desires it may be consider'd that the whole controversie in this matter with Cambrensis may be in short reduced to these Queries Whether we ought to believe one Hear-say-mans denial before the affirmation of very many both ear and eye-witnesses Whether Domestick Writers especially those whose peculiar employment calling charge it is are not more likely to deliver the truth of matters to Posterity than a meer Foreigner that not only never was in the Countrey he speaks of as Cambrensis was never in Tirconel but shews himself in too too many Instances a perfect Enemy even to all that wish it well And whether we owe belief rather to publick National Records and Monuments than to the Narration of a private man which was not more purposely invented by some Bard or Ballad-monger than desirously taken up by an invidious Writer Thirdly to these and after these Questions Lucius in effect answers and reasons thus That without question the Irish Chroniclers wrote of these matters to discharge the duty of their place but Girald both in his Topographical and Historical Books of Ireland such as they be yielded so far to passion even that of extream hatred as made him not only obscure the Truth but suppress it even with manifest Lyes and Fictions That no indifferent considering Person can believe that St. Patrick who accurately surveying this Countrey of Tirconel converted all the People of it and together with them instructed so their Prince Conall Gubhan in the austerest principles of Christianity that in a secular habit he lived an Hermits Life would have permitted such filthy dregs of Pagan superstition to remain Jocelin c. 138. had there been any such and this not only among the baser obscure sort of Plebeians but among the very most illustrious the very Princes themselves of the People That if such obvious and conspicuous turpitude had which is not credible escap'd the knowledg of St. Patrick who lived among 'em threescore years assuredly it could by no means have escap'd either the notice or reprehension of those many other Saints who in the succession of so many after-Ages of Christian Religion lived in that very Countrey of Tirconel That above fifty eminent Saints are upon Record of those descended from the Loins of that Conall Gubhan alone whereof the greatest part fix'd their dwelling there and built also there above twenty Monasteries That the two Episcopal Sees of Doire and Rapoth were constituted in those early days in the same most Northern Tract of Vlster wherein as many Bishops and Abbots succeeded one another so many religious Watchmen must be acknowledg'd to have been viewing far and near about them in such manner as it was morally impossible so hideous and withal so publick notorious a blemish could all along even for six hundred years compleat till the time of Cambrensis escape their animadversion That betwixt many of the Bishops and Abbots of those two Dioceses and the Lords or Princes or Kings which you please to call 'em of Tirconel there was often both very great familiar friendship and near kindred too That if the reverence of the Princes did awe other Prelates from reprehending this nasty bestial ceremony of their creation undoubtedly at least among their kinsmen Prelates some would have been found that out of Nature and for the sake of consanguinity would have admonish'd them and procured the reformation of it That no man can believe that the Saints Columb-Cille Bathenus Lasrenus Fergnaus Suibhneus Adamnanus and other most holy men who had both their extraction and birth and their Education too in all Piety in Tirconel and been such fearless undaunted tramplers under foot of all Vice and superstition would not have cut off by the root so hideous loathsom brutish a custom if any such in their days had been That in case these great servants of God had wanted power enough to do so yet surely the more powerful Saints Moelbridius and Malachias Primats of all Ireland who derived their extraction from that Countrey of Tirconel would not have suffer'd the example to continue That hesides it is beyond belief That the very Princes themselves of Tirconel whereof so many were famous for Humanity Liberality Piety Religion would have enter'd on their Princedom by so inauspicious and execrable a Rite Lastly that without any peradventure if they or their People had prov'd herein pertinacious yet so many pious excellent Monarchs of Ireland as we have before seen who had supream Authority over them would not have connived at it So in effect Lucius against this equally injurious vain ridiculous filthy Fiction vented first of any Mortal as the former of Loch Ern by Girald
one more of the same Nature and in the very same Kingdom of Mounster too Where as Keting acquaints us upon the Death of Duibh Lachne next Successour in that Provincial Kingdom to Cormock O Cuilleinan for seven years more the Princes and Gentry meeting chose another Priest nay a Monk to be their King even the Abbot of Inis Catha by name Flaithhiortach mhac Jonmâ—uinein who reigned thirteen years over them And they chose him notwithstanding he had been the chief Adviser of Cormock O Cuillenain so lately that is but seven years before to venture that Battel against Flann mhac Sionnadh the Monarch and the Leinster King Cearbhall mhac Muaregein which prov'd so fatal to that good King and his whole Kingdom of Mounster and to this very Abbot himself troublesom For he was taken Prisoner in it and as such detain'd some time at Kildare by that Leinster King until at the intercession of the Abbess of Saint Bridgets Monastery in that Town he was released and return'd to his own Abbey of Inis-Catha in Mounster Whence after some few years wholly employ'd there in rigid ascetical exercises he was call'd upon and e'en compell'd to take the Royal State of a King So says Keting in his Reign of the said Monarch Flann Where also he notes occasionally an other great Errour of Hanmer in his Chronicle For Hanmer page 88. says that both the foresaid Cormock O Cuillenain King of Mounster but he makes him King of Ireland and Cearbhall O Muirreigein King of Leinster were kill'd by the Danes in the year of our Lord 905. Whereas on the contrary neither was Cearbhall kill'd in that year nor that Battel fought of either side by the Danes but of one side by the Monarch and of the other by Cormock who perish'd therein All which is abundantly testified by the Authentick Irish Book of that very Battel which Book has for Title Catha Bheala Mughna Besides as Keting observes in the same place the Danes attempted nothing at all no not once against the Irish during the seven years Reign of Cormock O Cuillenain over Mounster Nay there was so general a peace over all Ireland for this time so great plenty of all earthly blessings so universal a Reformation of manners and so much devotion and zeal in all sorts of people for restoring what had been destroy'd by the first Danish Wars and other attempts following it that nothing was to be seen more frequent now than every where repairing the old and building new Churches Colledges Hospitals Monasteries Yea the numbers of men dedicated only to a religious life was such at this time that Cormock O Cuillenainn tells in his Psalter of Cashel that in Muingharid formerly call'd the City of Deochaine-assain there was a Monastery with six Churches belonging to it in the same Town wherein the number of Conventual Monks was 1500. whereof five hundred were learnned Preachers five hundred Psalmists to serve constantly in the Choire and four hundred old Fathers applied wholly to Contemplation Such was the happy state of Ireland in the short Reign of the same Cormock over Mounster which must have been at or a little before the year of Christ 914. because this year ended the thirty eight years long Reign of the Monarch Flann mhac Sionna who kill'd in Battel that good King Cormock as we have seen before 70. The Sixth being an addition to what has been said before against Hanmer page 403. gives you to understand How Dionbhuillach son to the King of Denmark invading Ireland with a mighty Force landed in the North and march'd his Army so far as Ardmach How Conchabhar the first Provincial King of Vlster with his own people the Sept of Clanna Ruadhruidh i. e. the Children or Descendants from one Ruadhruidh whom they call Ruadhruidh Mor and with them alone nay with tumultuary small Forces rais'd out of them found himself necessitated to attack these Danes How by the advice of one Geanann Gruadhollas lest the Irish Youth should be contemn'd by the Danish old experienc'd Soldiers Conchabhar used the stratagem of tying Locks of grey wool in form of beards to their cheeks and chins whereby having made 'em seem the more considerable to the Enemy as if they also had been Veterans and then giving a furious charge on Dionbhuillach he defeated utterly all his Danes How these ascititious woollen beards were call'd in their Language Vlladh and from them it was that ever since the Northern Province of Ireland has been call'd in the same Irish Language Vlladh which we in ours call Vlster How that which we have here observed having been the issue of Dionbhuillach's Invasion and the time when it happen'd as Keting writes having also been the Reign of Eochadh Feilioch the Irish Monarch and Author of the Pentarchy who died in the year of the World 5069. that is just a hundred and forty years before the birth of Christ according to the computation follow'd by Lucius nothing can be desired clearer to evict Hanmer's little skill in the Irish History and his manifold Errours in delivering as you have seen before page 386. so many other Invasions of the Danes on Ireland and Conquests therein long before the year of Christ 800. 71. My seventh Note being likewise an addition is to supply what I purposely omitted in my 17th Page There I mention'd occasionally the Picts arriving in Ireland out of Scythia so long since as the Reign of Herimon the first Milesian Monarch of that Kingdom but little more of 'em save only their being made Tributary some Ages after in Scotland by the Irish Indeed when I writ and printed that Page I did not think of enlarging as I have done since And therefore partly for haste and partly for compendiousness I pass'd then over several particulars which I had before me that very time in Keting and he has at large in the foresaid Reign concerning those Picts But seeing I have since though contrary to my first design dilated on other matters I think it not amiss to add somewhat more of that Pictish Nation And this for two reasons The first is because 't is not only of all hands confess'd the Picts had been a warlike ancient People but Venerable Bede represents them as most powerful too in the year of Christ 569. In which year speaking of Columb Cille's landing in their Country from Ireland to convert 'em he has these very words Regnante Pictis Bridio filio Meilochon Rege potentissimo c. The second Because both the time of their first appearing in these parts and their very Original i. e. what Country-men they were or whence they came have continued for many Ages hitherto at least of late they are vexatious Questions As may be seen in Cambden's Britannia where he has given a Title of the Picts and four pages in Holland's Translation of him to resolvethese Questions Though after all he seems to me no nearer the Truth in his conjectural decision of either the one or
Fictions For so himself expresly says Adding withal that such only and no other was the repute they had in the very days of Yore among the best Irish Antiquaries And for this he brings sufficient proofs by alledging their own words Gratianus Lucius is the next Author I make frequent use of to lead me in several remote affairs of the more Ancient Irish And he likewise an Irish man by birth but of the Province of Connaght and as himself professes by name and blood of English Extraction His own proper name and surname John Lynch his Function Sacerdotal and of the Secular Clergy too His employ besides at Galway for some years in our own time was Teaching a School of Humanity as they call it wherein he was excellent In the differences between the Roman Catholic Confederates in the late unhappy War of that Nation he join'd with those of them that were against the Nuncio Rinuccini's Censures for the Cessation with Inchiquin submission to the King and the two Peaces After the surrender of Galway to the English Parliament Army he went to France Where employing his time as became a good Patriot Loyal Subject he wrote printed and publish'd two Latin Books in Quarto with a Dedicatory Epistle to the Congregation of Cardinals de Propaganda Fide against a Factious disloyal Manuscript which one Richard Ferral an Irish Capuccin had some years before written and presented to the same Congregation as a Direction for them in their government of the Church affairs of Ireland the former entitled Alithinologia the Later Supplementum Alithinologiae Some years after that is an 1662. he publish'd under the name of Gratianus Lucius an other Latin Work in Folio intitled Cambrensis Eversus as being a full confutation of the Author that goes by the name of Cambrensis Who this Cambrensis and what the Quarrel was to let you know if I digress a little it may peradventure be worth the while His proper name and surname in English being Gerald Barry that Additional of Cambrensis he had from his native Countrey in Latin Cambria in English Wales His education of a Scholar profession of a Divine Function of a Priest and as I must suppose merits in all brought him in time to be not only Arch-deacon of S. Davids but Tutor to the young Earl of Mortaign Fifth Son to Henry II. Vnder which Qualifications first his zeal for the old Archiepiscopal privileges of that See engag'd him in a long Contest with the See of Canterbury and then his Election to the same See of S. Davids involv'd him in another In so much that however he came to be worsted in both for so he was yet his name has ever since remain'd on Record in the Papal Canons His extraction made him Nephew to Robert fitz Stephens and Maurice fitz Gerald Cousin to Meylerus and Brother to Philip Barry and Robert Barry five of the first chief men that adventured to Ireland of purpose to advance their own fortune by helping on the Restauration of Diarmuid na Ngall King of Leinster His own Genius once and once more his Place carried him to Ireland For twice he was there first to see his kinsmen daily acquiring large possessions by their valour and next to wait on his young Prince Earl John when created Lord of Ireland and sent thither by the King And now as himself confesses being desirous of glory and immortal fame by describing Ireland and informing the World not only of what he knew of the State of that Kingdom then under the English Conquerors but of all former Conquests and State thereof from the beginning he wrote to this purpose five Books in Latin The first three of 'em under the Title of The Topography of Ireland and the other two under that of The Conquest of Ireland by Henry II. Indeed more specious Titles both than his Relations under them do so much as meanly answer Besides that the Title at least of Topography must be very strangely applyed to signifie the Description of a whole Kingdom And yet notwitstanding This together with the History of all former Conquests and other Antiquities of Ireland is that which he promises to give under the same Title That he has very ill perform'd that he has given his Reader 's nothing less than such a History or such a Description we must not wonder He neither could understand the Language nor so much as read the Books whether of History or Chorography written at large by the Natives themselves in their own Character He saw not in any manner nor travel'd nor view'd e'en at a distance above one Third of the Kingdom nor dar'd for his Life venture into either of the other two parts His whole stay in Ireland being the whole extent of Yime employ'd by him in gathering materials for his intended Work was but a year and a half besides an other half years task which he had left to his Companion Bertram Verdon who therefore stay'd so long behind him His Collections at least for such part of 'em as any way pertinently related to his foresaid promise or Titles were certainly extream little but the rest of them no less extream bad and commonly false to boot They were so little that he describes not so much as one County or Tract or Town no not of that very third Part of the Kingdom which he might have seen Vnless peradventure you take for a Description of all Ireland his Fabulous Narrations of four Wells three Islands three Lakes the Fountain head of four great Rivers and the Fall of the greatest of them all by name the River of Shannon into the Northern Sea Tho it be well known That as all these Narrations are such i. â— meer Fables so the one moiety of these Lakes Wells Islands besides the Head-spring of Shannon are within those other parts of Ireland which he never saw nor durst enter As for the History of the former Inhabitants Conquests and other Antiquities of that Kingdom promised by him it is in like manner not only so imperfect but so little in all respects That 1. he has not the least mention of Tuatha-De-Danainn though a powerful People that by a bloody War entirely won it from Feara-Bolg and were possessors of it for a hundred ninty seven Years under the successive Reigns of seven or rather indeed Nine Kings of their own that is until they also in their turn were conquer'd by the Clanna Mileadh about Thirteen hundred years before the Birth of Christ 2. Of those Clanna Mileadh or Descendents from Milesius though they were the People that continued the Possession and Government of Ireland ever since about 2500 years to this very Authors days yet all the account he gives is only in short that they had a hundred eighty one Monarchs ruling successively over that Kingdom but not a word more of their History Polity Laws Conquests abroad Militia or Wars at home may not so much as a bare Catalogue of
those very Monarchs for he names only the first and last of 〈◊〉 being Feidlimidius whom he mistakes for one more was not King of Ireland but of Mounster only So little he has of the very Milesians or their Antiquities or Actions Except only 1. A few words of the six Sons of Muredus Provincial King of Ulster entring Scotland 2. A slender touch upon the Danish Invasions of Ireland In which notwithstanding he is mightily out both as to the Year of Christ he fixes on for the first of those Invasions viz. 838. and as to the name person feats yea and Nation too of Gurmundus all being meer Fictions borrow'd mostly from Galfridus Monumethensis However with such and many more idle stories in other matters not only impertinent to the Title of his Books or discharge of his Promise nor only not had from any Records or Writings whatsoever as neither from the oral Testimony of men of knowledg or integrity but wholly deriv'd from old Wive's Tales and pastime of Ferry-men and random reports of Soldiers and imposture of some Knaves who fain'd things of purpose to impose on his vain credulity and besides with most vile reflections Invectives Satyrs almost every where against the Irish Nation of his own time their Princes Priests and People generally without sparing any degree not even the very Monks nor even the very Bishops excepted he patch'd up finish'd at last after five years study all his foresaid five Books of Ireland prefixing Dedicatories of some to the King as of other of 'em to Richard Earl of Poictou who soon after was Richard I. of England And now putting an extraordinary value on these Works of his own and no longer able to conceal his ambitious design of glory by 'em he goes to Oxford renews the ancient Roman Rehearsals there in the most publick Audience could be had continues 'em three days together from morning till night allowing a day for each of his Topographical Books And to make his Comedy the more solemn feasts all the meaner sort of that whole City on the firstday on the second all the Doctors Masters and chief Scholars of the Vniversity on the third day the rest of the Scholars the Soldiers too and all the Burgesses of that Place A sumptuous and noble act says Gerald himself glorying of it whereby the ancient Custom of Poets was renewed which neither the present Age nor any former could shew in England But after all he came short of his expectation of glory His little performance and great ignorance his many Fables and evil choice of other materials toâ— yea and his mortal enmity hatred malevolence to the Irish Nation were seen through especially at Court where as himself complains he had too many back Friends to malign him Above all his Satyrs and spleen against the very name of the Irish lai'd him open Nor were the true causes thereof unknown Besides the common concern he had in the destruction of that People for the sake of his Kinsmen there was another more peculiar to himself that continually egg'd him to the greatest violence against them He had even for his own sake very deeply engag'd in a particular controversie with Albinus O Molloy a Cistercian Irish Monk and Abbot of Baltinglass wherein he was worsted Whether any other causes mov'd him I do not know But this I know that in his Second Book of the Conquest of Ireland he desir'd that whole Nation might either be throughly weakned or totally destroy'd yea notwithstanding the Peace but lately concluded and still observ'd by them And that besides in the same Book cap. 36. he prescrib'd the ways to do it I see also that on every occasion as he is perpetually in the greatest extreams even of Romantic praises of his own Relatives Fitz Stephens Fitz Gerald Meyler the two Barrys and all their Brittish Soldiers too his own Countrey-men so of the other side upon the least pique he is no less passionately excessive in charging with and exaggerating the vilest things against the very Normans and English in Ireland tho embarqu'd in the save public quarrel with them against the Irish Nation Witness among others Herveus de Monte Marisco and William Fitz Adelm the King's Lieutenant and Progenitor of the noble Family of Bourks in that Kingdom Nay witness the King himself Henry II. Whom altho during his Life this Author made the Occidental Alexander the Invincible the Salomon of his own Time the most Pious of Princes and his only Fame tho far short of his Merits to have repress'd the fury of all the very Gentils of Europe and Asia too beyond the Mediterranean Sea adding many more Hyperbolical expressions to magnifie him above all truth and reason as for example That his Victoâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 with the Circumference of the Earth and That if you seek after the Limits of his Conquests you shall sooner come to the end of the World than of them yet after this Great Prince's death as David Powel very particularly observes he the same Author Gerald of Wales most bitterly invey'd against him in his Book de Instructione Principis where he so belâ—bed forth the venom of his malevolence that he manifestly discover'd his old inveterate hatred of this King Henry So says Powell Moreover and in reference particularly to his stories of Ireland you may find in Primat Ushers Sylloge pag. 155. how the expostulations of other men and evidence of Truth compell'd him at last to several Retractations among which he confesses that altho he had some of his Relations from persons of credit in that Countrey yet for the rest he had only common report and fame Which if I be not mistaken is in effect to acknowledg that he had common Lyes and Forgeries to authorize them Nay further You may read Sir James Wares Censure of them in his own Antiquities of Ireland cap. 23. where in express terms he says in Latin That Gerald of Wales in his Topography of Ireland has heap'd together so many Fabulous Relations that to discuss them exactly would require a just Treatise And then adds in the same place his own wonder How it should come to pass that some of this very Age tho otherwise grave and learned men have again for Truths obtruded on the World those Fictions of Girald Besides You are to know that notwithstanding so many just exceptions against those Books of Cambrensis yea notwithstanding they had therefore lyen after his death 400 years neglected obscure unknown till Cambden had them printed at Francford an 1602. yet ever since that year they have proved the only chief warrant to all such men of little reading as were delighted in writing ill of the ancient Irish To conclude what I would say on the whole is That if hatred enmity open profess'd hostility and special interest and actual engagement too in the destruction of that ancient Irish Nation if ignorance of their Language and wilful passing by their History even the most authentick of their
the Birth of Christ in the Year of the World 5199. as he does in his Reign of the Irish Monarch Criomthan Niadhnair whom he calls in Latin Criomthanius Niadhnarius Whereby 't is evident he follows the computation of Eusebius holding therein with the generality of the Irish Chronologers and consequently differing in so much from Keting as he does also differ from him and hold with the same generality as to the length of Reign or Life attributed to the two Monarchs Cobhthach Caolbhreag Siorna Saoghallach some others In other matters treated by him in his Cambrensis Eversus he seldom varies from Keting otherwise than by addition of more particulars So you have at last my whole Account and I hope a sufficient one of these two Authors whom I must acknowledg to have been my only chief Directors for what concerns those Irish Affairs treated of in the Former Part of this Prospect I say my only chief Directors c. For I am to inform you now a little farther That as to other matters and some Irish too whether purposely or occasionally discours'd I have not seldom in the same Former Part especially in the V. and VI. Section made use of my own reading and Collections out of other Authors some Ancient some Modern As for example out of Tacitus and the Augustan History Writers and Venerable Bede Cambrensis and Polychronicon I have borrow'd some things out of Roderic of Toledo and Polidore Virgil Harpsfield Bodin William Camden and Buchanan other out of S. Bernard the far greater part of my whole discourse of Malachias out of a French Anonimous Author in Messingham and Sir James Ware 's Book de Praesulibus Hiberniae what I write of Laurase O Tuathail otherwise called in Latin Laurentius Dubliniensis out of Rabanus Jonas Abbas Odericus Vitalis Angligena Notkerus and Spondanus those matters you find related by me of Columbanus Gallus and their Associats besides divers other things out of other Authors And these and those are commonly quoted where I make use of them although sometimes they are not because both Margins being so narrow and Pages so little as you see they are I thought it unfitting to croud them with quotations From the Learned Cambden I seldom recede tho almost as seldom made use of by me in the same Former Part. But the acknowledg'd either purity or elegancy of Buchanan's style makes me no admirer of his skill in the Antiquities of that Nation he writes of Much less can I esteem Hector Boethius in his writing at random of those matters what he had never had but from errant Impostors or certainly himself had forg'd And this without question even contrary to what he had found written by that Irish great Furtherer of his whose name was Cornelius Historicus and his Work entitled Chronicon multarum rerum I mean if this Cornelius was indeed no less by education in the Countrey knowledg in the Language than by birth an Irish man and withal so learned as D. Hanmer page 193. out of Bale and Stanihurst represents him to have been under Henry III. of England about the Year of Christ 1230. that is about 200 years before Boethius had written his History of Scotland Of Hanmer or Campion either though each of them entitles his own Work The History of Ireland nay each of 'em ventures on deducing his Narration from almost the very beginning of times after the Flood I scarce make mention but once or twice where the Subject or leads or forces me to oppose their great mistakes Which certainly are very numerous in both especially in Hanmers Work as this is by much the larger of the two Campion's being only a little extemporary Piece written by him in ten Weeks time as himself confesses in his Dedication thereof * 27 May 1571. To this year Camplon brought his History But Hanmer deduc'd his Chronicle for so he calls it no further than to the year 1286. I suppose he intended to bring it to his own time had he not been prevented by death which seiz'd him at Dublin where he died of the Plague Anno 1064. to Robert Earl of Leicester Nor must we much wonder it should be either so brief or so faulty seeing we have his own farther acknowledgment in his Preface to the Reader That he had never so much as seen any of those Irish Books that treat of matters that happen'd before the English Conquest much less could have any person to interpret them A greater cause of admiration Doctor Meredith Hanmer has given us by making his Chronicle of Ireland so large and yet giving every whit as little of the true Antiquities of Ireland for those times preceding the same English Conquest as Campion before him had e'en a few scraps out of Cambrensis but many more additional meer stories from himself where-ever he had ' em Among which stories however I do not rank his pious Relations of several Irish Saints which take up above 20 leaves of his Chronicle That is from p. 33. to p. 104. But for Edmund Spencer in his Dialogue be-between Irenaeus and Eudoxus bound up in the same Volume as it was at first publish'd in print together with the two former Books of Campion and Hanmer at Dublin an 1635. by Sir James Ware I had 〈◊〉 little occasion to quote him as I could have no other exception against him than what is common to Hanmer and Campion too Save only those two Particulars in his 33 46 Pag. whereof Keting has taken special notice before me viz. 1. The two Saxon Kings Egfrid the Northumbrian and Edgar of England to have had the Kingdom of Ireland in subjection 〈◊〉 That the large spread Irish Families or â—epts of the Birns Tools and Cauanaghs in the Province of Leinster were originally Brittish and those other of the Mac Swines Mac Mahoons and Mac Shehies in the Province of Mounster no less originally English In both Particulars how mightily Spencer is out and without any support either from History or Criticism Keting in his Preface has very sufficiently if not abundantly shewn And therefore I will say no more of Spencer than that although in writing his Faerie Queen he had the right of a Poet to fancy any thing nevertheless in the Historical part of his Dialogue written by him anno 1599. he should have follow'd other Rules I say Historical part c. For I am willing to acknowledg that where he pursued the Political main design of this Dialogue which was to prescribe the ways and means to reduce Ireland a design well becoming him as being Secretary to Arthur Lord Grey of Wilton and Deputy of Ireland under Q. Elizabeth none could surpass him no man could except against him save only those that would not be reduc'd But I digress again For my purpose here in mentioning Spencer should only have been to tell you that in all my Former Part I quote him but once Vnto which if I add in the last place
what I had almost forgotten That I have more than once or twice either quoted Geoffrey of Monmouth himself I hope no man will be scandalized that considers besides the occasion what use I make of him Nay I do persuade my self That to see * Former Part from page 3 5. to pag. 347. And again p. 363 364 369. in five or six leaves of this little Form a pretty just Abridgment of his famed Work i. e. his Seven Books of the ancient History of Great Brittain or supposed Posterity of Brutus cannot be displeasing to those who never saw nor knew where to find the Author himself or his History at large nor perhaps were it lying by them and in their own Language too would have the patience to read it over And now That I gave given what I would say in this Place concerning any of those other Authors whom besides Keting and Lucius I either follow or examine or e'en utterly reject in the Former Part of my Prospect there remains but little more to be Prefac'd to it For to the Latter Part I shall therefore prefix an other Preface but one by so much the shorter by how much it must be proper to that Part alone In which other Preface I mean to observe the same Method I have in this by giving an account of the Writers who shall direct me in that Later Part and how and the reasons why I must therein be guided partly by some of those very men whose testimonials in other matters I slight in the Former What more I would give for Preface here to the same Former Part only are these Particulars 1. That wheresoever I annex to any of those Irish Monarchs treated of by me Capital or other Letters or Figures of Numbers whereby I would signifie what rank they held in their Catalogue for example whether of the Tenth or Twentieth or so forth there I related only to the Catalogue of Milesian Monarchs not to any other containing both Milesian and the other 18. Monarchs of the several Conquests that preceded theirs 2. That although I have endeavoured with all diligence to extract in order those Milesian Monarchs out of Ketings voluminous History which no where adds to any of 'em the number i. e. any such Letters Figures or Words importing it after all I cannot be sure I have not mistaken and this perhaps more than once in adding my numbers But the best on 't is that the errour if any such be is not material 3. That where I speak of 2988 years or sometimes of a year or a few years more or less from the first of the Milesian Conquest in all such places I follow the Account of Keting Who to reduce the Irish Chronology to an agreement not only with his own Computation of the years of the World but with the Relation also of Cambrensis and Polychronicon where they tell us of the Milesians having conquer'd that Kingdom 1800 years before S. Patric's death purposely cut off of the Reigns of several of their Kings so many years as make in all 491. But elsewhere that is p. 496 c. and in the Catalogue I have strictly follow'd Gratianus Lucius and consequently the Irish Book of Reigns as to the number of years the Milesian Kings reigned or Kingdom lasted 4. That for want of Irish Books or Antiquaries to consult with I confess it remains a difficulty with me still How the six Sons of the Ulster K. Muredus as Cambrensis calls him in Latin who in Irish is call'd Muiridhach by Keting even those very six famous Brothers that invaded Tâ—ath-Chruthnigh for so the Irish by a proper name in their Language call'd the Countrey of the Picts which now we call Scotland How I say those very six Brothers go sometimes by the name of the Six Sons of Muiridhach and sometimes again by that of the Six Sons of Eirck Vnless peradventure the same person had those two names of Muiridhach Eirck or that Keting derived their being the Sons of Muredus from Girald of Wales only 5. That if any where in these Discourses of Ireland you meet with some Relations either of Miracles above Nature or Antiquities hard to believe I must beg that you will notwithstanding be so just as at least to believe I have no design to impose either upon your reason or upon your freedom 6. That besides it will be no more than Justice requires of you to persuade your self That no Relatour of matters so far beyond our ken is accountable for his own belief or disbelief of them much less for their objective truth or untruth being or not being in themselves Provided he relates no impossibilities nor absurdities nor contradictions of all other Histories that are esteemed true nor any thing whatsoever out of other Records than Authentick or other Authors than Classick or at least other than such as have been among their own People reputed men of Probity and Reason and acknowledg'd so in such matters as they write of 7. That I have commonly chosen to give the Irish proper Names and Surnames though not in Irish Characters yet in such Italick Letters as answer them because by having them so the Reader may be much better assured that he sees before him the true genuine names whether he can pronounce them rightly or not than he could be if according to the custom of others I had transform'd 'em into the English or Latin either syllables or terminations And yet withal my Copy of Keting being very bad in many places and which I do willingly acknowledg my own skill to correct the Irish Orthography of it very small I must in reason suspect my performance in this matter But neither can the Errours herein be either material or any way considerable 8. That I confess I have taken a quite contrary course to the late Brittish Writers in magnifying so far as good Authority did warrant me the Ancient Irish Nation which they a man would think made it their business to lessen and vilifie all they could But nevertheless I doubt not all judicious impartial men will acknowledg how much more it must redound to the honour of the English Nation to have conquered an ancient civil warlike brave People in the days of Yore than such an obscure barbarous vile hideous generation of men as partly the Cambrian Author partly others that follow'd the pattern left by him represent those Old Inhabitants of Ireland in their time Besides if without any relation to others but on the naked sole contemplation of some excellencies in that ancient People I have suffer'd some transport who can blame me None I believe that considers attentively the import and consequence of this Saying of the Roman Sage though delivered by him on an other subject Some acts of Liberality some of Humanity some of Fortitude had astonish'd us and we began to admire them as perfect Under 'em lay many vices which the appearance splendor of some conspicuous Fact did
as had natural ends to have been As for the Fir-bholgian Tuath-De-Danann Kings tho proportionably fewer e'en of either died violent deaths yet of their 18. which was their whole number fourteen lost their Lives by the Sword But how many or how few soever you please of all these and those Kings of all the Former Conquests ended their days either by the hands of other men or some prodigious judgment of Heaven or means of other extrinsick secondary Causes in such manner as rendred their deaths properly violent the Inferences out of this Catalogue are plain 1. That if we count severally each of those Milesian Princes who jointly or in Association with any other govern'd as Kings of Ireland and withal not count the same Person twice nor count among 'em either Cairbre I. surnamed Ccann-cheit or Feilim I. mhac Conruidh see Numb 98. 99. as indeed we ought not being these Two are the only noted for meer Usurpers because both were chosen one after another by the Plebeians only nay and only too to head their most hideous bloody Rebellion of 25 years continuance against all the Royal Line and as for the former of 'em viz. Cairbre he had not so much pretence of right as to have been either of the Milesian or e'en Gathelian Race but originally a meer Dane I say that if we count so we shall find the whole number of those Milesian Kings as it is in this Catalogue to agree exactly with that which Cambrensis himself 500 years since reported it to have been That is just 181 in all 2. That counting together with these Milesians those â—8 Fir-bholgian and Tuatha-De-Donann Kings who preceded them and withal admitting both Cairbre Ceann-cheit Feilim mhac Conruidh as Kings of Ireland for so they really tho illegally were in their time the Former 5 years till he died a natural death and the Later 20. at the expiration of which he was kill'd in Battel by Tuathal Teachtmhur it must follow that they make in all 201 Kings of Ireland while the Former Three Conquests held one after another 3. That hereunto adding 22 more of the Fourth and Last i. e. our English Conquest the whole Number of the Sovereign Princes of Ireland from Slainghe to Charles II. must be 223. whereof Three were Queens Macha Mary and Elizabeth A PROSPECT OF The State of Ireland c. The Former PART SECTION I. First Planter of Ireland Ciocal First Invader Partholan then Neimh and his four Sons then Fir-bholg then Tuatha-De-Danann and last of all the Eight Sons of Mileadh Fights of the former Invaders Nine of Ferramh Bolg and Nine more of Tuatha-De-Danann ruled as Kings of Ireland Fir-Bholg divide it into two parts Three Septs of these remaining still The adventures of Mileadh His eight Sons conquer Tuatha-De-Danann How Erimhon came to be sole Monarch of Ireland He was the first of 181 Kings of the Milesian Conquest Eoghun Mor 620 years after Erimhon set up the Provincial Kings Picts first appearing They are the first time and together with them all the Islands of Scotland Conquered by Aonghus Ollbuadhach Many Plantations of the Irish in Scotland Niall Naoighiallach's Invasion of that Countrey and an other by the six Sons of Muireadhach Fergus Mor mhac Ercha made the first-first-King of Scots that is of the Irish in Scotland Coilus King of Great Brittain destroy'd by him Three Walls built by the Romans against the Irish Kingdom of the Picts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by these Danish Wars in Ireland Bad success of Roderic the King of Britain's Son The Danes various success They are at the same time plagued as by others so by Ceallaghane King of Mounster most singularly The Monarch Conghallach Mhac Mhaoil Mhithe routs ' emâ— and kills 7000 of them in Battel What of his two next Successors in the Monarchy Briain Boraimh does Wonders in 25 Battels and last of all in that of Clantarff Field Maolseachluin that succeeded him and Hughaire mhac Tuathail King of Leinster destroy the Reliqnes of the Danes The vain attempt of Magnus King of Norvegia to revenge their Fate IReland before that fatal War broke out in the year 1641. had two different Nations like the Twins of Rebecca strugling in its Womb perpetually almost five hundred years the one called by themselves the Ancient Irish the other the Old English or English Irish And indeed the former may justly glory in the Epithet of Ancient since as Cambden himself confesses they fetch Britannia translated by Philemon Holland Edit Lond. Tit. Ireland pag. 64. the beginning of their Histories from the most profound and remote Records of Antiquity so that in comparison of them the Ancientness of all other Nations is but Novelty and as it were a matter of yesterday It is now at least 2988 years since their Fore-fathers the Sons of Mileadh alias Milesius the Spaniard in a Fleet of threescore Sail arrived in Ireland from Gallicia in Spain conquer'd it and left it to their Posterity I say at least Because although Polychronicon and Cambrensis Topog. Dist 3. c. 17. by their saying That from the Arrival of those Milesians in Ireland till the death of S. Patrick their Apostle were efflux'd 1800 years See Jocelin Vit. Saucti Patricii c. 196. agree exactly with Ketings Epocha here yet the Irish Book of Reigns makes the Arrival of those Milesians much earlier that is to this present year of Christ 1680. e'en as long since as 3480 years compleat But I follow Keting's Reformation of that Book and his Account in his Mss History l. 1. whereby he places the Milesian Conquest in the year of the World 2736. after the Floud 1086 after Moses's passing the Red Sea 192. and before the Birth of Christ 〈◊〉 308. Were it to my main purpose which is or only or at least mostly concern'd in those Milesians I could insert here out of Keting the several Plantations and Conquests of that Countrey before they knew it How one Ciocal about a hundred years after the Deluge in a small Fleet of Vessels each Vessel having fifty Men and fifty Women aboard arriving there was the First that planted it How Bartholanus and his three Sons Languinus Salanus and Reterugus with their Wives and as This Author lived as himself writes An 830. under Anaraugh King of Anglesey and Guinech or North-Wales Nennius writes a thousand Fighting Men about 300 years after the Flood Anno Mundi 1956. before the Birth of Abraham 95 years invaded it had many doughty Battels therein with those Aborigines the Issue of Ciocal and Progeny of Cham who come thither from Afric were called Gyants because partly of their stature or corpulency which yet was no way exceeding the tallest growth of other men and partly of their wickedness endeavouring to destroy every where the Descendants or Progeny of Japhet And how this Bartholanus alias Partholan having Conquer'd at last those Aborigines and Affricans his Issue after him were at the end of three hundred
years consumed by a Pestilence not one remaining of them A just judgment from Heaven without peradventure on him who had fled thither as it were from Heaven for having in his own Countrey in Scythia kill'd both his Father and Mother to make way for a Brother of his and their Son to come to the Royal Throne How in the end of 30 years more Nemedus another Scythian some of the Irish Chronologists say he was a son to Bartholanus left by him in Scythia when himself had departed thence with his four Sons Starius Gervale Annin and Fergus in a Fleet of 34 Ships and 30 Marriners in each of them arriving in Ireland overthrew in three Battels the remainder of those Affrican Gyants but was overcome in the fourth And how soon after this defeat Nemedus being dead his People rousing themselves put it to the issue of one great Battel sought at the same time both by Sea and by Land they having 30 thousand at Land and so many more at Sea and the Fight proved so mortal that albeit they had the victory yet they could reap no benefit by it the very Air being so corrupted by the stench of the Carcasses which lay unburied every where for they kill'd promiscuously in every place after that Victory Man Woman and Child of their Enemies that all over the Land there was an universal Pestilence which after seven years more made 'em depart and quit the whole Country leaving only ten Captains to defend those of their People that could not have Shipping against the remainder of the Gygantick Affricans How these Children or Posterity of Nemedus Clanna Neimheadh the Irish call 'em to avoid that dreadful and continual Pestilence departing in a thousand Vessels great and small under the Conduct of three Chieftains Simeon Breac Ibaath and Briotan the other two sailing to Greece Briotan with his adherents Landed in the North of that Countrey which we now call Scotland and with his and their Posterity remaining there gave the denomination of Brittain to this whole Island which is now called Great Brittain as holy Cormac the K. of Mounster and Bishop of Cashel in his Psalter of Cashel together with all the Chronologers of Ireland affirm Wherein surely they have at least much more probability of their side than any late Authors have that derive that name from Brutus or his Romantick History either in Galfridus or in any other For if from Brutus besides other reasons why not Brutannia rather than Britannia How the five sons of Dela viz. Gandius Genandius Segandius Rutheragus and Slanius being the 8th Generation from Simeon Breac and calied in Irish Fir-bholg after 217 years compleat from the former arrival of Nemedus there invaded Ireland with 5000 men of all sorts in their company and studing no great resistance won it entirely routed utterly out of it the remainder of that cursed Generation of Cham the Affrican Giants and divided it into five Provinces or Portions which Division continues till this day How they and four of their Children after them were in succession Monarchs of all Ireland after that Slanius who was the youngest of them all had by force and War upon the rest erected it to a Monarchy though he enjoy'd it but one year Death having given him no longer joy of his Conquest over his Brethren How none before them i. e. none of the former Invaders called themselves Kings they being the first Kings and Slanius among them too as I have now said the first Monarch that Ireland ever had Yet the Reigns of all the nine made not above 36 years in the whole How Eugenius or Eoghun as the Irish Books call him and so they have quite other terminations both for all these and all other Names too expressed by us with Latin terminations being the last of them and prosperously Reigning in peace and plenty over Ireland the Nation whom the Irish call Tuath-De-Danann under their King Nuathad Airgidlaimh as descending from the foresaid Nemedus or Nemeus or Neimh which you please to call him and therefore claiming that Kingdom as their right invaded it fought a great Battel in Connaught with Feramh-Bolg the Generation of Simeon Breac and Neimheadh or Nemedus kill'd a hundred thousand of them and thereby and without much loss to themselves conquer'd the whole kingdom the Reliques of Ferramh-Bolg retiring to the small Islands of Arrain I le Rachluinn and many other about Ireland and Scotland where they continued till such time as Ireland came to be govern'd by Provincial Kings under the Milesians How the Posterity of those Reliques of Ferraimb Bolg being forced away by the Picts had their refuge back again to Ireland and first to the King of Leinster turning Tenants to him for such Lands as he was pleased to lett unto them and next from Leinster because of the heavy rent there to Connaught shifting so in the best manner they could for themselves until by Co-Chulain and Connall Cearnach and the Inhabitants of Vlster they were wholly driven away the second time and quite Banish'd for ever only three Families Sur-names or Septs of them excepted which according to the judgment of some Irish Antiqnaries remain still in Connaght and Leinster as Dr. Keting who also names these Septs does write Adding thereunto this further animadversion as a necessary consequence that these three Families are not of Clanna Gaoidhel or Posterity of Gathelus from whom all the Milesians descended long before either Milesius himself or his Predecessors came into Spain Lastly how according to the Book called Psaltuir Chassil the aforesaid Colony or Nation of Tuatha-De-Danann held the Sovereignty of Ireland for 197 years under seven or rather indeed nine Kings for after Fiacha who was the 6th of them reigned the three Sons of Cearmada by turns yearly But neither to prosecute nor so much as to insert any of these Plantations or Conquests of Ireland by Ciocal or Partholan or Neimhe or Feara Bolg or Tuatha Dee Danann as the Irish names of them are can be much if any thing at all to my main purpose here And though perhaps it might be in some sort material to tell you what a famous man in his Generation nay in a great part of the World Milesius himself otherwise called Galathus in Latin but in Irish Galamh had been Or to tell you 1. Of his first adventuring from Spain to Scythia and serving there as General of the Army under his Kinsman Refloir the great Monarch of that Countrey 2. Of his marrying this Refloir's Daughter and Refloir's growing jealous of his greatness and preparing therefore to dispatch him and his preventing the King by taking away his life and then his quitting Scythia and passing to Egypt by Sea with a Fleet of sixty Sail and his being there employ'd by Pharaoh as General against the King of Ethiopia's Forces warring at that time on Egypt 3. Of the many over-throws given by him to them and Pharaoh's so great favour to him thereupon that
Reign of Niall the Great surnamed also Naoighiallach Likewise to say nothing how this very Niall not only went himself in Person with a powerful Army thither partly to confirm and partly to enlarge those â—â—antations made there by his Predecessors but was himself the first of Mortals that by his own Authority and at the instance of those Plantations gave the name of Scotia Minor or Scotland the Lesser to that Northern part of Great Britain ordaining all his Subjects to call it so Besides to pass by as well the Invasion as the extraordinary great and famous Plantation made therein by the six sons of that Vlster King Muiredbach whom Cambrensis calls in Latin Muredus either in the Time of Lapghaire the II's being Monarch of Ireland when St. Patrick conquered that Kingdom to Christian Religion or at least somewhat later To pass I say all these matters in silence though otherwise both great in themselves and no less attested by sufficient Authority that I think is very great and very true which Cambden a Title Scots page 26. and before page 128. in his Britannia writes That the Scots come from Ireland after a long War at last in the year of Christ 740. and in one great Battel destroyed the Picts so as there was scarce one of them left alive whereby that whole Nation and very name of the Picts was utterly extinguish'd 6. That besides the Irish Chronicles without contradiction from any tell us how the foresaid Niall the Great surnamed Naoighellach from the nine Hostages taken by him five from the five Provinces of Ireland and four from the Picts and other Inhabitants of Scotland or Albuin not only made the other parts of Great Britain even so far as the South of it tributary but with a mighty Force of Irish Scots Picts and Britons in one Army pass'd the Sea to France landed in Armorica and march'd so far as the River Loyre Where being encamped hewas treacherously kill'd by Eochae King of Leinster whom he had formerly so punish'd and plagu'd that he forc'd him to fly even out of all Ireland and who therefore studying still revenge followed him unknown to France and finding there an opportunity took it For standing one day by chance on the bank of the foresaid River and seeing Niall at the same time on the other Bank not far off he bent his Bow presently and with all his might letting fly at him shot him dead in the place by piercing his head through both scull and brain 7. That moreover Fergus the Great King of all Ireland as Buchanan calls him enter'd Scotland with a puiffant Army gave Battel to Coilus King of the Britons who invaded both the Picts and Irish Plantations together fought him kill'd him overthrew his whole Army was thereupon himself both declar'd and receiv'd the first King of the Scottish Nation inhabiting the North of Great Britain and after this being gone for Ireland as he was returning back again to Scotland was drown'd hard by the Rock which from his fate before it hath ever since been called by the Irish Carig-Fherus now Knock-fergus by the English and that all this Rerum Scoticar l. 1. happened says Buchanan about the time that Alexander the Great enter'd Babylon For albeit the Irish Books agree not with Buchanans relation of this Fergusius the Great not either I say as to his quality of being King of Ireland or as to this time of his Adventure in Scotland or elsewhere mentioning him only as a Brother to Mairchertach Mor mhac Ercha Monarch of Ireland and then fixing both his life and death immediatly after Saint Patricks death that is about 530 years after the Incarnation of our Lord yet since they agree with Buchanan in all other material points related by him of this famous Fergus especially that of his entring Scotland with a great Army being the first King of Scots in Britain I think the allegation of what they so agree upon is mightily to purpose 8. That therefore it is easie to be understood whatever Cambden's admiration be how the Milesian Irish Race were those In his Britannia Tit. Picts p. 115. daring men that having the assistance of the Picts their Tributaries and some few Britons withdrawn to them for protection from the Roman yoke drew forth at one time thirty thousand armed men against Agricola and gave Severus the Emperour so much trouble that of Romans and Associats he lost in one expedition against them fifty thousand men And were yet the men against Dio. whose incursions into the Roman Province here first the Fence was built by Adrian from Edinborough Frith to Cluyd fourscore miles Spartianus in length the foundation of it being laid deep within the ground of huge piles or stakes fastned together like a strong hedg or mound then the work of Turff and Earth by Severus across the Island from one Sea to another then under Honorius the Wall of stone running the same extent eight foot broad and twelve foot high and last of all the Towers and Bulwarks all along the Southern Coast of Britain at convenient distances raised against their landing on that side out of their plundering Fleets 6. That a further argument yet and such as of all hands must be confess'd to shew abundantly their Martial spirit and fortitude in those days of old was their brave defence of their own Countrey at home against the manifold powerful and almost continual Invasions of it from abroad by the Heathen Danes Norvegians and Easterlings at least 200 years For I pass wholly over those little short and inconsiderable Invasions of them either by Egfrid the Saxon King of Northumberland in the year 640. according to Cambden c Britannia Tit. Ireland or rather indeed by his General Berthus in the year 684. as Beda d l. 4. c. 26. has it or by some other Brittish Commanders joyn'd with the Picts at two or three several times in the seventh Century after Christ Of none of these do I take notice because they signifie not much save only the preying and burning at two several times and places a part of the Countrey by the Sea-side and three inconsiderable Fights as they are related in the Irish Books The first under the Sovereignty of Blathmhac and Diarmuid Ruannigh two Brothers ruling peaceably together as Kings of Ireland wherein the Saxon King and thirty of his Nobles were kill'd say the Irish Chronicles without mentioning other loss or any at all of the other side The second under the Sovereignty of Fionachta Fliadhach whereof all the account they give is that Comghusgach King of the Picts and a great many of the Irish were slain in it The third after a few years more under the Monarchy of Loionsiogch mhac Aonghussa fought against the men of Vlster by the Brittons but to their own loss And this is all the Irish Chronicles in Doctor Keting have of these matters So that neither the loss nor Victory
signifying much of either side at least as to Ireland in general by any of these Invasions there was nothing more heard of them or of the Invaders Much less was there ever in any Chronicle or Book that I could see either in English Irish or Latin before Cambden's Britannia came forth any mention made of Edgar King of England how puissant soever he was his having conquered a great part of Ireland and Dublin withal or indeed so much as one foot of Land there nay or so much as his having attempted any such thing And therefore I take no notice of Cambden's old Charter of King Edgar wherever he found it And so I do as little of Buchanan's relation where he writes that Gregory the Great King of Scotland who began his Reign Anno Christi 875. and ended it with his life Anno 902. invaded Ireland with a puissant Army during the minority of Donogh King of Ireland and Tutorship of this young King by Brien and Conchuair beat these Tutors in two several great Fights took Dondalk Droghedagh and Dublin visited here the young King assum'd his Tutorage to himself placed Governours in the strong Towns receiv'd threescore Hostages for their fidelity and with them return'd victorious to Scotland Certainly Ireland never had at any time since the very beginning not even since the first Monarch Slanius who reigned above three thousand years ago any King that was a Minor as Doctor Keting well observes and may be seen by any that reads over in his Chronology and History all the Reigns of the several Monarchs who during that vast extent of time successively govern'd Ireland or had the Title to govern as Monarchs there until it came under the English Power in the year of Christ 1172. There was not one of them all that came to the Soveraignty but either by election of the people or power of the Sword as there was not one in seven but came to it by this latter way that is by killing of his Predecessor Keting in the life of Brian Borumha and this commonly too in Battel Besides their very fundamental Law of Tanistry did exclude a Minor What then must we think where so many thousands descended of Heber and Herimon were at hand to claim their Titles rather than a Minor should have it But to say no more to this feigned Invasion from Scotland nor any thing other than what I have already of those former true however inconsiderable ones from elsewhere in Great Britain and to return back where I was to the Invasions both true and terrible and lasting indeed of the Danes what I would say is that notwithstanding those cruel Heathens had from the year of Christ 820. when they first invaded Ireland in the Reign of Hugh in Irish Aodh surnamed Ordnighe Monarch of Ireland and Airtre mhic Caithil Provincial King of Mounster and after that year all along in the Reigns of both that Monarch and his two Successors Conchauar mhac Donchadha and Niall Caille as likewise of Feilimidh mhic Griomthaine the Latins call him Feidlimidius successor to Airtre in the Kingdom of Mounster in several Fleets the two first one after another landing in Mounster the third in the North the fourth in vibh Cinsallach in Leinster fifth in the Harbour of Limmerick sixth of 60 Sail at the River Boyne seventh of forty Sail on the River Liffy eighth and ninth extraordinary great mighty ones at Lough-Foyle in Vlster poured in continually from time to time for above forty years together those almost incredible Numbers of men related by Hanmor yet the Irish fought 'em still and foyl'd 'em too in eight or nine Battels And although being too much overpowred by the continual supplies of new men coming to their Enemies who were absolute masters of the Seas they after a tedious cruel and continual War became at last for some little season Tributary to their Captain General Turgheise for so the Irish call him by us called Turgesius who now stiled himself King of Ireland lived in the middle thereof at Lough Ribh near the place where now Athlone is had both there and all over the whole Kingdom in every Province and Countrey and almost nook of it his Dane-Raths and other Fortifications made and strong Garrisons planted in 'em yet very soon after the generality of their Princes and people I say the generality for some of them held out still in some inaccessible places of Rocks and Bogs ' and Woods had so yielded to him their wisdom valour enfranchiz'd them most wonderfully in little above one Months time by their utter destruction of this Tyrant all his Heathen Crue For upon his lusting after the beautiful Daughter of Maolsechluin King of Meath and his desiring her of her Father to be his Concubine and the Fathers seeming of purpose to consent and then sending her privately at the Night appointed but attended with fifteen resolute Youths in Womens attire with short Swords under their Gowns and instructions what to do and then when it was very late at Night and all the rest of the leacherous Tyrants great Commanders withdrawn each to his own Apartment their seizing him so soon as he began to be rude with her and the Armour too of all the rest laid together in one heap on a Table in the Hall and then her Fathers rushing in at the same time and killing all those Commanders every one when they expected other Company each one of them one of the young beautiful Damsels as the Tyrant had promised them hereupon I say and upon the word given by Messengers who were ready of purpose flying into all parts the Irish to a man throughout the Kingdom are presently in Arms fall upon the astoâ—ish'd Danes attack and carry their Forts fight their Troops wherever they embody rout 'em kill 'em and pursue the remainders of them to their very Ships getting now away out of the Roads as Wind Weather serv'd ' em As for Turgesius himself Maolseachluin reserv'd him in Fetters for a time and then drown'd him at last in Lough-ainme So that after much about forty years bloody continual and general War at home in all the Provinces and several years most miserable and general thraldom under the yoke of such powerful barbarous and fell Tyrants who left not a Monastery or Church or Chappel standing where ever they came who placed a Lay-heathen Abbot in every Cloyster and endowed Church to gather the Revenues who layed so many times all their Countrey in Ashes who no less than four several times in one Month burnt Ardmagh the most holy See and Metropolitan City then of all Ireland who slew indistinctly for so many years both Priests and Clerks and Laicks and mean and great and rich and poor without mercy and who at last having subdued the miserable remainder imposed those burdens of Bondage on them which were such that if as to the particulars they were not attested by all the Irish Chronicles in
Dr. Keting they would surpass all belief we see how at last and for that present the Irish Nation were by the wisdom of this Maolseachluin King of Meath and by the great Valour and resolution of the rest of their Princes and People delivered I say for that present For pursuant to what has been said before you are to understand now 10. That but a very few years after because in the Keting Polychronicon Reign of the same Maolseachluin mhic Mhaolruanuidh King of Meath who deservedly upon the aforesaid expulsion of the Danes was by the Princes and Nobility made King of all Ireland and continued so until his death i. e. full sixteen years and no more three Norvegian Brothers Amelanus Cytaracus and Ivorus as Polychronicon calls 'em with their Train being come to Ireland in a peaceable manner and under pretence of Trafficking got leave of the Princes of the Land to build three Cities paying Tribute for them Dublin Waterford and Limeric Which they had no sooner finished and strongly fortified than the Irish found Keting themselves engaged in as great a War as the former by new and numerous Fleets both of Norvegians Danes and Oostmans as they call'd 'em then arriving continually from time to time in all the Quarters of the Kingdom The difference only was that the former continued forty years or thereabouts but this War now off and on a hundred and fifty years compleat And when the former began the Irish had no strangers in pay whose Revolt might endanger them but when this began they had a great number even of Danish or other Easterling Foreigners whom immediately upon ending the former War they entertain'd in pay and therefore call'd 'em Bownies to guard their Coasts all round the Kingdom and these every one turned against them now Besides in the former the Irish were all of a mind against the common Enemy but in this they were often divided some of them confederating openly and fighting in conjunction with those forein Enemies against their Native Soil especially the little King of Desies in Mounster and the King of Leinster too not seldom Moreover to end the former War and redeem them from their bondage under Turgesius the stratagem of Maolseachluin was necessary but in this later all along both in the procedure and final issue of it they owed their great and frequent Victories not to any stratagem but under God to pure Valour and manly Resolution But that I may at last come to an issue on this point I will pass over all those Victorious Battels fought by the Irish in the procedure of this second Danish War made upon them As first the Battel of Dromma Damhaigha fought by the foresaid King of Ireland Maolseachluin himself 2. The Battel of Loughfoill by his Successor Aoth Finliath 3. The many Battels in the Reign of Donnchoe mhic Floinn fought by Ceallaghane King of Mounster whereby he not only took Limmerick Cashel Cork and Waterford from the Danes but quite extirpated them at least in his days out of that Province His Sea-fight also with their Fleet before Dundalk which proved extreamly fatal to them Likewise the great slaughter of their fellows in Connaught by the Conacians about the same time Moreover and which was somewhat extraordinary and before Ceallaghane had taken Limmerick the Battel of Roscrea where the Merchants and Townsmen at a great Fair held in that place on Saint Peters day understanding of an Army of Danes coming on them from Connaught and Limmerick under a Danish Earl called Oilsin set forth against them in the best order they could fought them defeated them and kill'd three or four thousand of them in that Field Besides Muirchiortach mhac Neill King of Vlster his killing 800 with their chief Commanders Abilaine Aufer and Roilt and soon after Conuing mhac Neill 1200 more of their Heathen wicked Crue And further yet the Defeat given to Rodoricus the King of Britains Son who Anno Christi 966. as Hanmer says invaded Ireland with a puissant Army but lost both Army and Life by those he invaded 4. The Battel of Muine Broghaine fought by the Monarch Conghallach mhac Maoil Mhithe with the slaughter of 7000 Danes on the spot though with great loss of his own side too 5. and lastly even all those four twenty bloudy Battels fought against the Danes and their Confederats before the Battel of Cluain-Tairbh and fought I say every one of them by that happy victorious Prince until his death Brien mhac Kinedie alias Boraimhe who in the fourth year of the foresaid Monarch Conghallach's Reign came to be King of Mounster and within eight years next following made all Leath Mogha i. e. the Southern half of Ireland acknowledg him their Sovereign and ruled so for seven and thirty years until he was chosen at last Monarch of all Ireland in which last Supremacy he continued flourishing the remainder of his life which after twelve years more he ended victoriously at Cluain-tairf Field And as I do pass over so many former Battels wherein the Irish were victorious in this second War so I shall those many other too wherein they were to some purpose foiled in the same War tho Martial courage tho true Valour may sometimes exert it self no less in the Foil than in the Victory I 'le take no notice neither of the stoning to death Maolguala King of Mounster by those barbarous heathen Foes in the Reign of Aodh Finliath nor of the mighty overthrow given the Leinster men by Jomhar one of their Generals in the reign of Niall Gluindubh nor of Sitric another General of theirs both defeating and killing and that in a more considerable fight also the said Monarch Niall Gluindubb himself nor of the Battel of Biothlane against the Leinster men again under the Reign of Domhnal mhac Muirchirtae nor finally of the Battel of Cille mhoane fought by the Danes and Lagenians both joyn'd together now against their Monarch Domhnal mhac Muirchirtae wherein the King of Vlster Ardgall and Dombnal King of Oirghiellae and many others of great quality were kill'd of the Monarch's side As well every one of these unsuccessful Battels as all the former ten times both in number and weight more successful to the Irish in the second War I willingly pass over to come unto and give you the famous Fight of Cluain-Tairbh at last It was the five and twentieth and last of all the Battels fought so bravely by that victorious King of Ireland Brian Boraimhe himself It was indeed the Battel that put an end to all the Danish hopes in that Kingdom Besides it was if ever any was by mutual consent of both sides a pitch'd Battel and the Field whereon it was fought some weeks before agreed upon between them So that there was no place at all for Ambuscadoes Tricks or stratagems in it but pure Valour must decide the quarrel and win the day The occasion manner and issue of it take thus in short
Hector Boethius makes him a Giant of 15 Cubits high and he was an Irish man both by birth and descent lineally come of his Mothers side in the fifth Generation from Nuatha Neacht King of Leinster and so upward all along from Herimon whatever is reported by D. Hanmer a Page 24. to the contrary in his History of Ireland Hanmer might as well have made the Cappadocian Knight a Saxon as Fionn the son of Cuual a Dane And so might Hector Boethius have as well turn'd Huon of Burdeaux or Amadis de Gaul or the Knight of the Sun or the Seven Champions of Christendom and such like Romances into the very truest Histories as the Fables written of Fionn mhac Cuual and the Captains under him called Fiona Erionn only to entertain leasurable hours and Fancy For the Irish had their Romances too for divertisement They had Bruoidhuin in Chaorhuinn and the Battel of Fionthraghadh or Fentra as Hanmer calls it and the story of Gilladeackuir's Jade and many other such and so among these some also of Fionn mhac Cuual and his Commanders Which yet every one of common sense among the Irish could distinguish from their Chronicles and other Monuments of real story In short these Gentlemen Fionn mhac Cuaal and Fiona Erionn were the stoutest and bravest fighting men of their time in Ireland And they were kept in constant pay by the Monarch Princes and people of that Kingdom to guard the Coasts from abroad and keep all at home quiet With power nevertheless that if the case required it either to suppress a Rebellion or withstand an Invasion or succour Dal Riadac in Scotland the said General Fionn mhac Cuual might make up the standing Forces to seven Battalions that is one and twenty thousand men in all And this is the naked truth concerning these Fiona Erionn so famous in their Generation On which truth many fabulous stories have been superstructed To them may be added those other brave Warriors whether of a later or earlier Generation but as to the reality of things for ought I know of as much bravery and Valour called Dal-Gheasse These were the standing Militia of those fortunate successful Kings of Mounster Ceallaghan and Brian Boraimhe in the second Danish War and the only Gens d'Armes about their persons and continued to be so to the succeeding Kings of Mounster and Leathe Mogh who were Monarchs of Ireland at least bore that Title three of them in succession after the death of that Maolseachluin who immediatly succeeded Brian Boraimhe What number these Valiant men Dal-Gheasse did make I cannot find But see them all along represented for incomparable Warriors till being over-power'd at last by the King of Connaght and Leathe Cuinn and presumed Monarch Torlagh More O Connor they were utterly destroyed a little before the English Conquest and with them the Kingdom of Mounster extinguish'd For this by that Monarch was divided in two and continued so till the English abolish'd them both 13. Of their Learning Historians make no mention till after their conversion to Christianity Which Conversion if we speak of it as to the generality of Ireland was begun by Saint Patrick their Apostle as we have seen before early in the fifth Century that is in the year 431. upon his second landing in that Countrey and compleated by him within threescore and one years more For so long he lived carrying on that holy Work though he had been full threescore and one aged upon this second landing of his when he began it About this time all the Western and Southern parts too of the Roman Empire being over-run by the Goths Vandals Huns Franks and oâ—her barbarous partly German partly Scythick Nations and consequently all kind of Learning for the matter destroyed by them where ever they set footing and the little remainders of the learned Contemplative men retiring still from the noise of Arms and finding themselves no where on the Continent and as little in Great Britain at rest or in safety many of them at last passed over to Ireland That is to a Countrey where as they were told for certain and so it was indeed the Romans never challeng'd any right and consequently neither could the Barbarians on account of such right pretend any quarrel to it and yet a Countrey to admiration religious and holy This of all likelihood was one of the causes or means whereby Ireland began suddenly to flourish above any Countrey of Europe at that time in Learning Besides and to speak without likelihood but by the authority of good Authors for matters of Fact their blessed Apostle St. Patrick himself at his coming thither to convert them in the aforesaid year brought with him besides other Clerks in his own Company thirty Bishops whom himself had in his Journey through foreign parts gathered together and before his shipping for Ireland and for that mission of purpose consecrated because he foresaw the Harvest would be very great and therefore he needed many Workmen So affirmeth an ancient French Author of good repute Henricus Altisiodorensis c Vitae S. Germani cap. 168. who flourish'd in the Emperour Carolus Calvus's Reign Moreover the Irish Chronicles tell us that he also brought along with him all those of Ciniodb Scuit or Scottish that is Irish Nation whom he met abroad any where that were Christians So here you may clearly see between these Bishops Clerks and other Christians the first Seminary of that great Learning in Ireland then when all the other Western Kingdoms and Provinces were grown illiterate barbarous rude However or whatever the causes or the Teachers of that Learning in Ireland were besides these Bishops and Clerks who no man will doubt but they were at least the Chief Instructors in holy Scripture and all matters of Divinity as were also next unto them those other Bishops consecrated by S. Patrick at home in Ireland during the time of his Apostleship even 355. in number says Nennius that is one for every two Churches founded by him in that Countrey and those 3000 Priests Jocelin says 5000 likewise that were not Bishops all of them every one consecrated by himself in this Kingdom it is confessed of all hands and venerable Bede a Histor Anglic l. 3. c. 4 5. 19. l. 4. c. 25. of old and Cambden b Britan. pag. 730. edit London in Fol. an 1607. of late are sufficient vouchers for it That in those dayes the Saxons flowed over into Ireland as to the Mart of good Literature And that when any was wanting here from home it came to be a Proverb He is gone to Ireland to be bred Pursuant hereunto is that Distich in the life of Sulgenus who flourish'd about 700 years since Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi Ivit ad Hibernos sopbia mirabile claros Besides all the Irish Chronicles tell us of the four great Universities in Ireland Ardmagh Cashel Dun-da-Leathghlass and Lismore not to mention many other Colledges of
Ireland built the famous Monastery of Beannchuir in Vlster had 20000 Monks cloistered in several Monasteries under his own government Which is the more credible because S. Bernard six hundred years agoe in his life of S. Malachias Archbishop of Ardmagh and sometime Abbot and Restorer of Beannchuir who died with him at Clara Vallis in France reporteth * Cap. 5. that this Monastery under the first Founder of it the blessed Comghall or as the Latins call him Congellus was the most noble head of many Monasteries and fruitful Mother of many thousands of holy Monks That one by name Luanus a Son of that holy Congregation of Beannchuir was himself alone Founder of a hundred Monasteries in other places That from thence flowed such a prodigious inundation of Saints all over Ireland Scotland and other foreign Nations in those days as we have spoken of before out of Cambden That Columbanus who came to France being another Son of that holy place founded the Cloyster of Luxeu in Burgundy in which the number of Religious men was so great that both day and night the Quire was replenish'd with Singers praising God perpetually by turns even all the 24 hours throughout the whole year without intermission of one sole moment of time That Beannchuir it self the happy Mother of so blessed an Issue had likewise of her own peculiar Conventuals at home constantly praising and serving God such a number that on a time some foreign Pirats Landing there unexpectedly for't was upon the Sea-side to spoil and burn it as they did both found nine hundred Monks in the place whom they slew and burnt altogether most inhumanely as the Histories of that Countrey tell Which Martyrdom and first destruction of this Monastery happen'd says Keting in the Reign of Ceanfolae Monarch or King of Ireland That is as I take it about a hundred and fifty years before the the first Invasion of the Danes Finally that Malachias about 400 years after this first destruction of Beannchuir and a second too by the Danes restored it once more to its ancient religious dedication to God tho not to the like number of Monks and was himself Abbot of it before his being Bishop either of Connor Ardmagh or Down I add in the last place Down because this wonderful Servant of God Malachias against the will of all others resign'd Ardmagh and chose the poor Bishoprick of Down to retire unto of purpose to cultivate the Barbarous Inhabitants hereof as he had successively those of the two former To illustrate with a few more particulars this relation given of the memorable Abbot Congellus I Hanmer p. 62. and 53. can out of Hanmer's Chronicle add passing over his vain attempt to challenge him for his own Countreyman and make him at least of British blood and birth But he soon gives over his claim in the very next page where on better grounds he confesses that Congellus not far from Westchester founded the Monastery of Bangor which then among the Brittons was call'd the Colledg of Christian Philosophâ—rs and was himself the first Abbot of it in the days of King Arthur An. Christi 530. That he also founded the famous Monastery of Benchor as he calls it but the Irish Beannchuir in the Ardes alias Altitudo Vltonum in Vlster which had 3000 Monks and bred and train'd up many singular and eminent men of Learning not only Irish but Brittons Saxons and Scots who dispers'd themselves far and near into foreign Countreys and converted and confirmed thousands in the true faith of Christ That seven years after the founding of this Abbey in Vlster he founded the other near Chester but then return'd again to his former in Vlster where he resteth in peace And besides other particulars to conclude all and acknowledg indeed both the Native Countrey of Congellus and Countrey also of his breeding in holiness that he was born in Dal-Naraidh in Vlster of honourable Parents bred under Abbot Fiontan in Mounster and then at last under Kieran at Cluain-mhac-Noise c. 15. I might here enlarge on the Conversion of many Infidel Nations especially in the North of Great Britain and the Lower and Higher Germany by the power of the words and Example of the lives of those wonderful Irish Monks But having said enough already on this Head of their Sanctity I will dilate no further on it I will not recount any thing not so much as of St. Aidam that holy Bishop of Lindisfarn and great Instructor of King Oswald's Saxon Subjects in Christianity g Beda Histâ—r Eccles l. 3. c. v. vi nor much neither of Columb-Cille himself Only of this later give me leave to deliver a few things As 1. That he was born in Vlster and the Son of Feilimidh the Son of Fergus the Son of Conal Gulbhann the Son of Niall the Great surnamed also Naoighiallach Monarch of Ireland Which I note against some Scottish Authors that contrary to all known truth would make him a Scotchman 2. That his proper name received in Baptism was Criomhthan and the name of Columb-Cille was given him by Children his Play-fellows who because of his Dove-like simplicity and because when he came to them upon a certain day once every week where they with great longing expected him he always came to them immediatly out of the Church or Monastery wherein he was educated at Dubghlaissa in Tirconel therefore they so soon as he appear'd to them cried forth unanimously with one voice Columb ne Cille Whereof his Instructors taking notice at last thought it the will of God he should be so called thence-forward by all others too even as the innocent Children had already and constantly once a week by their joyful acclamations begun to do those three distinct Irish words importing in English the Dove of the Church For in that Language Celumb is a Dove and Ceall or Cill is a Church Monastery or Cell And hence it was that Criomhthan came to be generally called no more Criomhthan but Columb-Cille the middle word at first used by the Children being left out of the composition for brevities sake 3. That having in his youth dedicated himself to a Monastick life and having by stupendious mortification arrived to the highest pitch of holiness he founded the Monastery of Ardmagh otherwise Dear-magh in Latin Campus Roborum as Beda notes He pass'd from thence over to Scotland in the 43 year of his age but of Christ 565. He Preach'd the Gospel Beda l. 3. c. 4. there with so great power that he converted to Christianity all the Picts then inhabiting the more Northern parts of Great Britain He founded here another no less famous Abbey in the Isle of Hy in Latin Iona on which Abbey Connall mhac Conghvill King of Dal-Rheuda not a Pict but an Irish Scot bestowed that Keting in the Reign of whole Island with the Soveraignty thereof to be transmitted to all future Abbots of it for ever He was held in such
extraordinary great veneration both in his life and after his death that as Venerable Bede records it not only all In quibus omnibus scilicet Monasteriis per Hiberniam Britanniam propagatis ex utroque Monasterio idem Monasterium Insulanum in quo ipse requiâ—scit corpore principatum tenat Habere autem solet ipsa Irsula Rectorem semper Abbatem presbyterum cujus juri omnis Provincia ipsi etiam Episcopi ordine inusitato debeant esse subjecti juxta exemplum primi Doctoris illius qui non Episcopus sed presbyter extitit Monachus Beda ibid. the Monasteries propagated in Ireland or Britain from either of those two Abbeys founded by himself were subordinate to this latter of Hy wherein he lived longest and died at last being 77 years aged nor only all the whole Province but even the very Bishops themselves contrary to the custom of the Church in other Countreys were subject to the jurisdiction of all the succeeding Abbots thereof tho Presbyters only by ordination to wit according to the primitive pattern of their first Doctor who was himself no Bishop but only a Priest and Monk In fine he most justly deserved the title which Posterity gave him of the first Converter of the North of Scotland and great Apostle of the Picts as Cambden himself calls him And so he might have call'd him too the great and chief if not the first Instructor in Christianity of all the Irish Scots 4. That although I cannot tell certainly what Venerable Bede means here in the Marginal Note by his omnis Provincia whole Province that is whether he mean all the Kingdom of Scotland as it lies now extended and as then comprehending all the several petty Kingdoms both of Scots and Picts for by the Battel fought in Scotland at Monadoire in the Reign of Diarmuid mhic Cearbheoil King of Ireland by the Family of the Neals against the Picts we understand this Nation of Picts had several petty Kings at that time being they lost in this one Battel together with the Victory seven of them kill'd in the place by those Irish formerly planted there or whether he mean the Kingdom of the Irish in Scotland or which is the same thing of the Scots or Dal-Rheudans only all three signifying the same People or whether only the Dominions of those Northern Picts converted by Columb and there can be no other to be meant by omnis provincia since the Island it self wherein that Monastery was exceeded not five English miles in length yet thus much I can certainly say that Keting tells us in his Reign of Aodh or Hugh Ainmhirioch Monarch of Ireland that Columb-Cille in his Voyages and Journey to the Parliament held by this Monarch at Drom-Ceath in that Kingdom was all along out of Scotland attended not only by 30 Sub-deacons 50 Deacons and 40 Priests but 20 Bishops also to praise God continually and officiate in divine Offices in his company whereby we may somewhat guess at the largeness of that Province whereof Venerable Bede does speak here SECT III. The Scene altered Cause of admiration Bloody horrible feuds begun encreas'd multiplied continued 2600 years No People on earth so implacably set upon the destruction of one another as the Milesian Irish were Above 600 Battels fought between themselves A hundred and eighteen Monarchs slaughter'd Fourscore and six of those very men that kill'd them succeeded immediatly in their Thrones Other strange deaths of several of them Of the whole number of 181 Monarchs not above 29 came to a natural end The Author of this account Battels fought by the Monarchs Caomhaol Tighearnmhuir Tuathal Teachtvair where somewhat of the Plebeians 25 years War Conn Ceadchathach alias Constantinus Centibellis and Mogha Nuadhat King of Mounster What Leath Cuinn and Leatha Mogh import The feuds rather inflam'd than allaid under Christianity Number of main Battels fought and Monarchs kill'd the first 400 years after their Conversion by S. Patrick By two of them the one betwixt the Monarch Fearghall and Murcho O Bruin King of Leinster the other between the Monarch Aodlâ— Ollan and Aodha mhac Colgan King also of Leinster may be guess'd how bloody the rest were Foreign Conquests and Plantations neglected all that while Occasionally somewhat of the Heathen Monarch Dathi's Landing in France with an Army to pursue Niall the Great 's example and of his being kill'd by a Thunderbolt near the Alps and of the ten several Invasions of Scotland by the Irish Pagans and but one if one by the Christian Irish The Families descended from those Irish remaining to this day in that Country A word of those call'd English Scots Columb-Cille himself Author of fighting three of the foresaid Battels in Ireland The heavy pennance during life enjoin'd him therefore by S. Molaisse and his humble performance of it and much greater wonders of him Why the particular of those Battels of Columb-Cille mentioned here The Parliament of Dromceathe in his time Banishment of the Poets one of the three ends it was called for Great Injustice Cruelty Pride c. instanc'd severally in their Monarchs Tuathal Teuchtvar c. Nial Naoighiallach Diarmuid mhac Ceirrbheoil and Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh Some of the Murders and Battels that happened about the end of their fourth Century of Christian Religion particulariz'd HItherto I have briefly run over the Antiquity Martial Exploits Political Government or Grand Councils ordinary Militia and after their Conversion to Christianity the Learning also and Sanctity of the Ancient Irish And so have I think delivered in short all the most glorious Excellencies recorded of that Nation eitheir in their own Monuments or any foreign Histories that I have seen 16. What follows next is on the other side of the Medal to represent unto you not only a mixture of great imperfections with so many excellencies nor only the prevalency of downright evil men against so many good against so prodigiously numerous and great exemplars of virtue living among them after their being enlightned with the doctrine of salvation but according to the vicissitude of all things on earth the change and wane and strange decay and utter fall at last of that People in general from all the glory of their Ancestors And this whether we regard the greatness of their former dominion and power abroad or the more ancient policy of their Government at home or the stupendious fame of their Letters and Holiness every where in those days of old Nay and this alteration too in every point as happening to them even before the English had set one foot in their Country under Henry II. All which I am to represent unto you now because the order of things and both title and nature of this Tract require I should Though I shall nevertheless do it by so much the more briefly by how much I am less inclined to dwell on this subject However I must confess that when I reflect on the most authentick Monuments of
enjoyed the Sovereign Power of Albain The other two were Mac Con otherwise called Lughae and Criomthan mhac Fiodaigh 4. There went also thither about the year of Christ 150. on his own account with considerable Forces Cairbre Riadfadae Son to the 106. Monarch of Ireland by name Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae who Conquer'd large Dominions for himself in the more Northern parts of that Kingdom and left his Posterity after him there who are those or at least a great and the more ancient part of those called by â—â—da Nistor Eccles l. 1. c. 1. Venerable Bede Dal-Rheudini as being the Inhabitants and first Irish Planters of Dal-Rheuda or as the Irish call it Dal-Riada in Scotland Whether it be not called so from that Cairbre Riadbfadae that is from this surname of his Riadfadae being changed by V. Bede to Rheuda as it might easily be I know not But this I know that Dal which is prepos'd in the composition signifies Part or Lot And so the whole word Dal-Rheuda or Dal-Riada signifies the Part of such a man who was the chief in Conquering it 5. The foresaid Mac Con alias Lughae within a few years more at least within less than thirty purfuing the same examples Landed in Scotland with a power of his Country-men Adventurers For it was from thence he returned back into Ireland to fight the Battel called Maigh Mhuchruimhe wherein being Victorious and killing the Monarch Art Aoinfir he made himself Sovereign in his place 6. This Mac Con's Grand-Son Fiachae Ceanann entring likewise Scotland not only gain'd large possessions but left his Posterity after him to give a beginning to Mac Allin and his Family there who are all descended from him 7. Colla Vais who had been four years tho by Usurpation the 115. Monarch of Ireland when he was by the lawful Heir his own Cousin German Muireadhach Tiriogh defeated in Battel and forc'd to flie adventuring over to Scotland with the two other Collaes his Brethren and rest of his adherents and acquiring great scopes of ground there became the Grandsire of the Clan Ndomnaills both in Scotland and Ireland For all of this Surname in either Kingdom in their several generations or branches derive their extraction in a direct line from this Colla Vais and consequently neither from Herimon or Heber but from i the a Cousin of theirs who was the Son of Breoghuin mhic Bratha of the same stock with Milesius 8. Next after that Colla did Criamhthan mhac Fioda the 120. King of Ireland with a Royal Army invade Albain I mean Scotland He had in his company another very powerful Noble man called Earc mhac Eocha Muingreahar mhic Aongussa And from him the Septs not only of Clann Eirc and Cineall Gabhrain but those of Cineall Conghvill Cineall Naonghussa and Cineall Conriche Anile with their distinct propagations and Families in Scotland ever since to this present are descended 9. Corck mhac Luighdhioch is the next in order that deserves mention Because that by the false and wicked surmises of his Step-mother upon his refusal to consent to her incestuous Lust she was Daughter to Fiachac mhac Reill King of Ely falling into his Fathers displeasure and thereupon forced to seek his fortune in Scotland and arriving there accompanied with such armed Troops as he could raise and then by his own deserts coming into such extraordinary favour with the Scottish King Fearradhach Fionn otherwise called Fionn Chormac that he obtain'd his Daughter call'd Muingfionn to Wife he had issue by her besides other Sons Manie Leambna from whom the Sept of Leambnuidh in Scotland and Cairbre Cruithnioch from whom the Families of Eoghanacht Muighe Geirghin in the same Kingdom were propagated 10. Soon after him Niall Naoighiallach the 121. and most powerful indeed of all the Irish Monarchs that were at any time before or since entred Scotland with so great a force that there was no resisting him But having said enough of him before I need not add to it here 11. In the last place and year of Christ 493. much about ninety three years after the said War-like Prince Niall the Great surnamed also Naoighiallach had been kill'd in France and in the 20. year of Lugha the 125 Monarch Son to Laogirius his Reign the six Sons of Muireadhach * So says Keting in the Reign of Niall Naoighiallach yet formerly in the Reign of Oilioll Molâ— he calls them the six Sons of Eirc mhic Eachae Muinreamhair mhic Eoghuin Mhic Neill King of Vlster being six Brothers of Mairchiartach Mor that soon after came to be Monarch of Ireland namely to the two Fergusses the two Aongussaes and the two Loarns together with other Septs or Families of Dal-Riada in the same Province of Vlster adventur'd for Albain and whether or no they gave the denomination of Dal-Rheuda or Dal-Riada to the Country there mostly possessed by them tho at least for a great part of it planted before as we have seen by the Progeny of Cairbre Rioghfadae †Eochae Muinreamhar of the Progeny of Cairbre Ridhfadae had two Sons Earcha and Elchon From the former the the Families of Dal-Riada in Scotland were descended From the later those of Dal-Riada in Ulster So Keting soys in the Reign of Art Aonsir where he further says that the two Dal-Riades or Families of them have been distinguished by the surname or nick-name of Russach given those of Dal Riada in Ulster the Irish Chronicles are plain and positive herein that they gave to themselves and all their Country-men the Scots of Albion the first King that ever they had of the name of Fergus who was one of those six Brothers And it is he that both the Irish and English Scots have since for his honor surnamed the Great as likewise Fergus I. Not that he was indeed the first Irish or Scottish King of Dal-Rheuda wherein Buchanan and all the rest of his Fellow-Historians that were English Scots are extreamly out for long before that very Fergus there have been many Scottish Kings of Irish descent in Dal-Rheuda but that he was greater than any of the former and the first of his own name that ruled there To conclude so many were the Invasions and so great the Plantations made in that Country by the Irish Milesians and other Gathelians in their time of Paganism that as they Conquer'd so they planted it throughly at last having quite expell'd the Picts And so they kept it possess'd intirely by themselves as Lords thereof for some Ages That is until after the Norman Conquest of England very many of the Saxons retiring thither under their protection others invited in and accompanying William the Scottish King and both of them multiplying mightily they not only made the other Nations which are now called English Scots but by degrees gained from them as we see even all other the better parts of that Kingdom besides the Lowlands I say accompanying William the Scottish King For Stow in his Chronicle tells That
of the three Collaes into Vlster to destroy it and conquer as much Land for themselves in it as they could That in pursuance of this Order they made so sharp War on Ferghus Fogha King of Eumhna there that in seven several Fights against him fought seven days consequently without the interposition of one free day they had the killing and taking of all the Vlster Forces having as they beat 'em still pursued them all along from Cearnagha to Gleann Ruigh That being Masters of the Field they returned back to Eumhna spoil'd it burn'd it and destroy'd it so that never after any King resided there Finally that by this expedition they conquer'd for themselves the large Territories of Modharnaigh Vibh Criomthaine and Vibh mhic Vaise which their Posterities after them did hold while the Milesian Kingdom stood in Ireland But I pass over these matters depending on Cormack's beard not because he and the rest mention'd in this story were Pagans for I shall have occasion yet to speak somewhat tho but little of as great Pagans as they but because peradventure the cause it self was not slight Tho however I must acknowledg the punishment was too severe and unjust as neither inflicted on the Criminals nor on any that ought in such a distance of time to suffer for them much less after legal summons or any respit given them to make reparation under peril of abiding the justice of Arms. But leaving this to the Readers judgment I return back to the Christian Princes where I was before animadverting the sport they made on the sligtest causes that well might be of the lives of so many thousands of other Christians their own faithful Friends and Subjects Yet what I am to consider now is another thing It is That all this while nor they nor their Successors after 'em for 300 years more seem'd any way sensible that the All-avenging God began already to warn them For so in truth he did and that not once nor twice but much oftner within that very term of time even while they were in their full career persecuting one another at home with the greatest violence of deadly Foes In which respect he dealt far otherwise that is much more kindly and mercifully with them than he had done with their Pagan Fore-fathers in that very Land upon whom about a hundred years after their conquering it without any such gracious Fatherly warnings given them for ought we find in History he laid on a sudden the whole weight of his heavy hand in a most prodigious manner at two several times For what could be more dreadfully prodigious than that which I have related before and you may remember here three parts of four of all the people of Ireland together with their Monarch Tighernmhuir who was the tenth from Heber slain in one only night upon Maigh-Sleacht by invisible Demons the Executioners of Gods fury enrag'd against them Or what next to that could be more prodigiously terrible than a rich Plain of forty miles long and fourteen fifteen sixteen miles broad in most places throughly planted and thick of Inhabitants in Vlster to be on a sudden over-flown cover'd over with a deluge of waters burst out of its own intrels and neither Man nor Woman nor Child nor Beast nor other goods of so large a tract of ground to be saved but all in one hour perish'd under this Flood of God's avenging irresistible wrath How-ever because their heinous Idolatry i. e. their universal adoration and prostration of themselves before their grand Idol Crom Chruoigh which by all circumstances was the sin that brought upon 'em the former of those two stupendious Judgments though it was national yet it was not peculiar to their Nation only and because the most beastly of sins whence it has its proper name of Bestiality which brought the latter of the same Judgments on those bestial Wretches that so astonishingly perish'd for it was peculiar only to that tract of ground or rather indeed to them who were Inhabitants of it and no way National or involving or affecting so much as any one other part of Ireland therefore I pass over these punishments as not inflicted either of them upon the Irish Nation for those enormities which I have said before were both National and peculiar to Cambden's Ireland in the County of Fermanagh pag. 106. them Besides Cambden himself declares in particular as to the latter of the said Judgments how the Irish Annals deny those bestial Inhabitants of the destroyed Valley to have been other than certain Islanders out of the Hebrides who being fled out of their own Country lurked there and consequently deny them to have been at all of the Irish Nation much more deny 'em to have been either of the Milesian or Gathelian Race Then Keting tho he tells us particularly Keting in the Reign of the foresaid Tighernmhuir of the breaking out of that Inundation of Water the great Lough Earn which it presently made and so continues ever since yet has not a word of the horrible sin of Bestiality as neither indeed of any other sin or cause whatsoever thereof on the part of the Inhabitants And lastly Cambrensis who is the Girald Cambr. Topog. Hib. dist 11. cap. 9. first Author of this relalation brings no other warrant for it but hear-say Yet be it or be the original of Lough Earn so famous ever since for Fishing what you please what I would be at to tell you here is That after that prodigious eruption of Water in the North and the no less if not far moreâ— prodigious slaughter on Maghsleacha we may call it in English the Field of Adoration in Letrim both which happen'd in the Reign of the self-same King and near the same time about 2900 years ago We do not find in the Irish Chronicles that God had once in any special or visible manner concern'd himself either in warning or punishing that People at least otherwise than by themselves until they became Christians but let them go on securely without controul from him in those National peculiar enormities of their own I mean their immortal Feuds and prodigal effusion of human blood even that of their own Country-men and Kinsmen on every little occasion That nevertheless he continued still their Victories and Dominions abroad unto them and gave them the spoils of Forein Kingdoms to enrich their own at home and all this for causes known to his unsearchable Wisdom but wholly unknown to us at least otherwise than by conjecture that he had peradventure so long contain'd hiâ— Wrath in his mercy for the sake of those vast numbers of holy Men and Women those great Saints who were in after Ages to issue from their Loyns and to carry his glorious Name far and near by Preaching the Gospel and converting so many incredulous Nations to him as they did That after they were become Christians and yet nevertheless pursued the bloody courses of their Pagan Ancestors and not
whole Irish Nation had the ambition or lust or heart or valour now to entitle himself to that Soveraignty which had cost their Fore-fathers so many hundred Battels and such Rivers of blood to conquer it from one another he now usurps the title as he had before the power of King of Ireland though not acknowledged for such by the Irish at least not otherwise than by the meerest Galley-slaves their cruel unjust tormentors may be In fine that how long or how short soever it continued after this although it was indeed unsupportable to any human Creatures not wholly devoid of sense or feeling nevertheless it was no other than the most eminently prophetical Saints of that Nation Columb-Cille and Berchane observing even in their own time the detestable Pride Ambition Injustice Violence Licentiousness Aveâ—sation from all good Government so common and so ingrafted in their great Lords and Chieftains had 200 years before it happen'd fore-told should happen as a just judgment from God upon so sinful a Generation of men And which is very remarkable that Columb-Cille particuly foretold how in that very Monastery which in his time had been founded at Ardmacha such a Heathen powerful Stranger from beyond Seas and such in all respects as Turgheis was should make himself Abbot of it as verily he did upon his chasing away Foranan the Christian Abbot long before he had assum'd the Title of King of Ireland Yea and which I am sure is no less if not more remarkable yet that Berchan in express terms prophesied how under such a Forreign Tyrant every Church or Cili in Ireland should be possess'd by an Abbot of his Gang. 27. Besides I can inform you that altho in regard of the extraordinary mortifications offered and prayers incessantly pour'd out to God by the small remainder of the Irish Clergy who had hitherto saved themselves in uncouth horrid Wildernesses he was mercifully pleas'd as Keting says about this time i. e. after some few years of the universal Bondage to inspire that counsel to Maolseachluinn mhac Mhaolruanuidh the Irish King of Meath which as we have related before destroy'd both the Tyrant himself and all his Armies and Fortifications too on a sudden and consequently set all the Irish Nation free being now restored every private person to his former possessions as the Lords and Princes and Provincial Kings were each of them to his own respective jurisdiction at large and the said Maolseachluinn by common consent made Monarch and so their Policy and power of Dominion at home fully recovered Yet so were not their Riches their Treasures their Gold Silver and Jewels those former spoils of so many forreign Provinces for so many hundred years gathered home to Ireland by their Pagan Predecessors During so many strong impressions of the late conquering Heathen Foe into the very heart and all the most secret recesses of Ireland all were taken by them and carried away by their several Fleets some to Norway some to Denmark and the rest to other Eastern Borderers on the German or Baltick Sea And which was a greater loss to the Learned their Libraries their Books were never recover'd Only the few Religious men that preserv'd themselves preserved also a few of their Books But the greatest loss of all was not only of Learning in the Mart of Litterature but of Sanctity in the Island of Saints Neither the one nor the other was ever at any time after this restor'd in Ireland at least not near the former degree of eminence The only thing the only virtue indeed that after so many great losses revived illustriously and continued eminently conspicuous in that People was their Military prowess their Valour Bravery Fortitude in the second Danish War to say nothing more of their destroying Turgesius and all his Forces by help of that stratagem which ended the first And yet I must confess that all their Martial spirit in that very second War did exert it self in was only in defending themselves at home without any design or thought for ought appears to us of imitating those former Heroes among their Ancestors that carried the terror of their Arms both far and near abroad The truth is they were no sooner enfranchiz'd from the Tyranny of Turgesius than they resign'd themselves wholly to ease and rest and a life of extream unworthy unmasculin laziness Insomuch that they not only neglected all kind of Navigation and provision for it tho they might have considered that the like neglect formerly since they became Christians had been at least one of their greatest banes and that which gave their Invaders the opportunity of attacking them without fear on every Quarter of their Island whether with great or small inconsiderable Fleets but were so far besides blinded that having slighted all the Danish Fortificacations throughout the Land they made none at all in their stead nor indeed in any place not even on the Sea Ports for their own defence from abroad And which was yet more strange would not themselves be at the trouble of guarding so much as any one of all those very Ports but entertain'd in pay some of those very Forreigners their late vanquisht enemies for that employment of greatest trust whom therefore that is from their being hired for pay they call'd Buannacidhs In a word they gave themselves over to Luxury and full enjoyment of the good things of the Land which naturally of it self without much labour was a Country flowing with Milk and Honey and all things else necessary both for life and pleasure But the greatest of Curses expecting them was that by the time and it was but a very short time when they had surfeired on plenty and wantonness they presently says Keting return'd to their old vomit again They renew'd their fatal Feuds divided were at cruel discord fell a persecuting one another like mad as in former times with all kind of hostility This kindled anew the wrath of God against the Nation in general to such an extream that notwithstanding his mercy prevail'd with him still so far as not to bereave them of their Martial Fortitude tho they had so long and so often and so freshly now again abus'd it so mightâ—ly but to expect for a much longer time even two or three Ages yet their amendment and repentance before he would utterly destroy them nevertheless he did without delay permit his justice to set open once more the Flood-gates of the North to pour in the second time upon them those Ministers of his Vengeance the Norvegians Danes and their other barbarous Heathen Associats known to us only by the name of Oostmans or Easterlings and to continue their â—â—undations in Ireland to Plague a Rebellious ungrateful Generation of Christians and plague 'em now for a hundred and fifty years more compleat For as I have already noted elsewhere so long at least did this second Danish War continue heavy upon 'em only some few lucid intervals it had excepted And yet neither
hopes and Leagues together of those that did it Though after all the goodness of God put off a little further still that heaviest of his judgments on the Nation in general which they whether by relapsing again the third time into their accursed Feuds or whether by continuing in 'em at all times and particularly at this of their last delivery from all forein Enemies brought on themselves not only at last but ere very long And yet I must confess it was no sooner than 127 years more were over For so long still even after the second Danish War of a hundred and fifty years continuance had been wholly ended by the destruction of all their Northern and Eastern Invaders whatsoever did the wonderful mercy of God to them expect their amendment certainly a longer period of time than he expected the repentance of the old World when he had warn'd them to it by the building of the Ark. At present he was content only to add to the former losses of this Nation that which really was the last disposition to that heaviest doom expecting them as it was indeed the very last symptom of their dying Commonwealth He removed their Candlestick that is he subverted their ancient Monarchical Government The power and majesty of which as it had been for so many long Ages their only firm prop so it was the only National glory they had left after the destruction made by 200 years continual War with Foreiners of all whatsoever else had been great or illustrious in their Nation But this is now departed like all the rest For after this Maolseachluinn the II. had by death ended his second Reign of nine years continuance there was never more in Ireland any Monarch truly such never any at all I mean universally either obey'd or acknowledg'd or accounted such by the Irish in general at least till Henry the II. nay I might say till James I. of glorious memory reign'd over ' em Yet because I must confess there have been six more in Title and pretension such that succeeded this Maolseachluinn in their several periods of time for a hundred and twenty seven years in all and because the later part of my Instances are delivered in their Reigns I give them also now in ororder 29. Donochadh mhac Brien Boraimh succeeded next to Malseachluinn II. for two and fifty years says Keting and was acknowledg'd by Leath Mogh and the greater part of Ireland In his reign Art Cuilioch O Ruairck King of Breithfne violated spoil'd plunder'd the Sanctuary of Cluain Fearta Breanuinn but on the same day after he had committed this horrible sacrilegious villany was met and fought and defeated by the Monarch In his reign besides the sacking of Waterford by Diarmuid Mhaoil-na-mbho King of Leinster which I pass over because they were at least most of them were Danes that lived there at that time the other famed Sanctuary of Cluan mhic-Noise was in the like impious manner spoil'd by those Irish called the Comhacnuibh though ere long severely punish'd says Keting by a general mortality sweeping both themselves and their Cattel away In his reign Carthach mhae Saoirbhreathaigh King of Eoghanachta Casshell and a great many other Gentlemen of Note were burn'd together in a Thatch-house by Mac Longhargain mhac Dunn Chuan And after all this Monarch himself Dononachadh mhac Brian Boraimh was not only depriv'd of his Kingdom but glad to save his life by flying away and going a poor Pilgrim to Rome where he died in St. Stephen's Abbey Which in short being the whole account we find in Keting of what happen'd to our purpose here in the long reign of this Dononachadh what follows now is out of the Gratianus Lucius p. 81. Author of Cambrensis Euersus For this accurate Writer tho he delivers many excellent things of this Donogh yet he tells us That he was an Usurper on the rights of his elder Brother Teadhg the undoubted Heir of the Crown say the Annals of Innis-Faile and put him into the hands of those Ely-O-Carrol-Men who treacherously murder'd him That in the year 1027. which was the next after Maolseachluinn's death he prey'd all Meath Fingall Leinster Ossory and camp'd for two days near the Walls of Dublin without any opposition That An. 1036. with only one Vessel he fought sunk and took 14 Breithfne Ships and sufficiently reveng'd on 'em their plundering of Cluan Feart That in the year 1050 the Ossorians and Lagenians rebelling he broke again their Stubbornness and in the year 1060. having enter ed Connaght with a good Army he compell'd Ruadhruigh the King of that Proviuce to give him Hostages So much indeed Gratianus Lucius tells us consequently in the first place of this Donochadh mhic Brien Boraimhe But then going on he relates in the next of Diarmuid mhic Donochadh surnam'd Maol-na-Moa King of Leinster Nephew to this very Donochadh O Brian the Mounster King by Dearbhrogil his Daughter That he taking into his care and espousing against this Usurping Uncle the quarrel of young Toirrghiallach who was the Son and Heir of the murdered Teidhg and consequently his own Cousin German to the end this injured youth might be restored to his right made sharp War on the said Uncle Keting's pretended Monarch of Ireland That to the end he begun with Waterford in the year 1037. took sack'd and burnt it In this year 1048. he set upon Glanuson turn'd it to ashes kill'd a hundred of its defenders and brought away 400 more Captives In the same year he wasted all the Desies and return'd with an infinite number of their Cattel and very many Prisoners In the year 1058. he burnt Limmerick plunder'd Inis-Ceath fought Donochadh at the Mountain Croth and routed his whole Army In the year 1061. he made a miserable slaughter of the Momonians at Cuamchoill wasted their Countrey and put all both Houses Stacks and standing Corn into a light flame of fire Anno 1063. he burnt Limmerick the second time forc'd the Momonians to give him Hostages out of all parts of their Countrey nay soon after upon a new rebellion or insurrection of theirs plagued them again and compell'd 'em to new submissions and Hostages which Hostages he delivered all every one to the foresaid Toirrghiallach The next year which was 1064. he beat Donochadh out of all his Kingdom made him fly beyond Seas plac'd Tourrghiallach in his Throne at least of Mounster and in the following 1065. upon intelligence of Donochadh's son Murchadh s setting up for himself he march'd the last time into Mounster suppressed that Insurrection chas'd Murchadh into Connaght receiv'd the third time Hostages from all Mounster and as he had done before put them into the hands of Tourrghiallach now King after his Uncle Moreover this Author writes of the same Diarmuid King of Leinster that besides his pulling down and setting up so whom he pleased in that Province of Mounster he made Connaght also yield having marcht into it with a smart Army harrass'd
it and reduced Aodh O Conchabhar the King of it to such streights that in the year 1061. he was e'en forc'd at last to buy his peace by coming to his House in Leinster and submitting to his pleasure That before this in the year 1048. at three several times he wasted Meath so cruelly so without any discrimination or distinction made 'twixt sacred and profane that he destroy'd with fire even most of the very Churches there and in the year 1053. entring it the fourth time he led away both a very great number of Captives and innumerable preys That for the Danes or Easterlings of Dublin who it seems stood upon terms of Contest with him he in the year 1052. plagued them so mightily by burning not only Fingall but all other Territories round about them on every side and then fighting and worsting and slaughtering a great number of them hard by their own Walls that they were glad at last to proclaim him their King also and wholly submit to his will That notwithstanding all his former Victories he was in the year of Christ 1072 on the 17th of February being Tuesday fought defeated kill'd in the Battel of Odhbhen by Conchabhar O Maolseachluinn King of Meath And lastly this Author tells us That among all the Irish Antiquaries only Keting places Donochadh O Brien only Sir James Ware Diarmuid mhac Mhaoil-na-Moa in the Catalogue of Irish Monarchs So that all the rest of the Irish Writers it seems account neither of them and consequently none at all in their days to have been King of Ireland but hold a meer Interregnum then of the Monarchy But be it so or no it matters not to my purpose being the Instances brought all along in that very long Reign of Donochadh at least over Mounster are true whether Donochadh or Diarmuid or any other Irish Prince in their time was more than a Provincial King or less than a Monarch of the whole Island Toirrghiallach mhae Teidhg mhic Brien Boraimb that is in our Language Terence the Son of Teig the Son of Brien Boraimh is now Successor to Donachadh as in the Kingdom of Mounster and Leath mogh so in the Title of Monarch says Keting Nor do I find that any other opposed this Title of his But one reason hereof might be his ruling peaceably troubling no man nor forcing any thing from either Province or man And therefore they took no exception against the Title whether assum'd by himself or given him by others during his short Reign which was but of twelve years only as most Antiquaries say though some extend it to 22 years the occasion of their difference being that the former count the beginning of his Reign from the death of Diarmuid Mhaoil-na-moa in the Battel of Odhbhen the later take it from the death of Donochadh O Brien at Rome or at least from his deposition and flight However this is unanimously confess'd that as he lived quietly for his own part during his Reign so he died naturally in the 77 year of his Age being the year of Christ 1086. But so did not under his Reign Conchabhor O Maolseachluinn King of Meath For this but lately Victorious Prince was treacherously murthered by his own Nephew Murcho ' mhac Floinn and his head after burial of it at Cluain-mhac-Noise carried to the Monarch then residing at Coann-Chora Who desired to see it because he bore this Methian King no good will for having kill'd though in Battel his dear Cousin his Patron his supporter and Protector Diarmuid mhac Donochadh surnamed Maol-na-moa King of Leinster as we have seen before But his curiosity cost him dear For the head being brought him on good Friday as he was viewing it a little Mouse slipt out of it into his Bosom which so affrighted him especially when he understood how next Sunday the same head was miraculously return'd back to Cluain-mhac-Noise with a gold Ring upon it that he fell presently into a languishing Disease that held him after in cruel pain for several years and never was perfectly over till he died So writes the Author of Cambrensis Euersus And now Muirchiortach mhac Toirrghialbhaigh mhac Teaidhg the great Grandchild of Brien Boraimh and Son to the foresaid Toirrgheallach succeeded his Father in the Sovereignty at least of Mounster Leath Mogh and greater part of Ireland for 20 years says Keting In which Reign though he record nothing proper to our purpose in this place and somewhat extraordinary that very same is yet Gratianus Lucius has enough This Author page 82. and 84. gives a very particular account of the great combustions in it He tells us how upon the death of Toirrghiallach O Brien the last Monarch not only this Muirchiortach his Son but Domhnall the Son of Ardghar the Son of Lochlen King of Tir-Conel contended to some purpose for the Sovereignty of Ireland How the former by fight and spoil subdued the Lagenians and the later in the same manner the Methians How Dombnal had in the year 1088. got the start of Muirchiortach by forcing the King and Kingdom of Connaght to give him Hostages for their future fidelity and then immediatly enter'd Mounster burnt Limmerick demolish'd Ceann-Chora the chief Royal Seat ever since Brien Boraimh's time wasted the whole Countrey thereabouts with Fire and Sword and brought away thence besides an infinite number of Horses and all sorts of Cattel vast Treasures of Gold Silver and Plate How on the other side Muirchiortach besides forcing Dublin three several times banishing Godred the Danish King being there himself proclaim'd King at each time marcht into Vlster with the Forces of Mounster Connaght Leinster and Meath harrass'd it most wofully burnt the Royal Seat of Domhnall there and was thus reveng'd not once but often on that â—rovince marching into it every time with main Forces and scouring all the Coasts of the whole Island with a very numerous well provided Navy How Domhnall had withal so many rebellions of his own Subjects against himself in the very North nay within Tircâ—nnel it self that having as often overcome them all he put out the eyes of some of their petty Kings and others to death How after all the foresaid Muirchiortach King of Cashel or which is here the same thing of Mounster and together with him Flann O Maolseachluinn King of Meath and Ruidhruigh O Conchabhar King of Connaght found themselves necessitated not only to give Domhnall a meeting but even to deliver him Hostages in the year of Christ 1090. How in the year 1104. Domhnal turn'd to ashes that Countrey in Meath called then Ibh Laoghaire and in the year 1112 broke into Fingall prey'd it plunder'd it all over and carried away thence besides their Cattel a very great deal of costly Rayments magnam boum pretiosissimarumque vestium vim illinc retulit says my Author How after so many devastations of the poor Countrey and much blood spilt betwixt these two Contenders and after frequent annual Cessations between 'em
procured by the Primats of Ireland even then when both their Armies stood ready in the Field to fall on they came at last to the old Division of Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogh that is Domhnall to govern absolutely in all the North side of Eisker-Riada and Muirchiortach in all the South of it each stiling himself King of Ireland How this agreement made Muirchiortach falling into a heavy Disease that continued five years his own Brother Diarmuid O Brien seiz'd the Kingdom of Mounster and both he and other Provincial Kings divided among them all Muirchiortach's wealth and possessions while he was yet alive tho extreamly sick but he afterwards unexpectedly recovering made so sharp a War on them all that they were forc'd to quit and restore whatsoever they had so unjustly got In fine how piously both Muirchiortach and Diarmuid ended their days notwithstanding their almost continual Wars during life and health the former at Lismore in the 20th year of his Reign and of Christ 1119. but having first devested himself of all worldly power and care by turning Clerk in that holy place and the later being 73 years old in the Menastery of Columb-cille at Doire now by us called London-derry 27 of his Reign which was of Christ 1121. For so many years I find given him by Colganus in this Elogy of him Donaldus Loghleni ex Ardgaro filio nepos Rex Hiberniae Hibernorumque excellentissimus formae praestantia generis nobilitate animi indole in rebus agendis prosperitate postquam multa munera egenis clementer potentibus liberaliter elargitus fuerat in Roboreto Divi Columbae hoc est in Dorensi Monasterio decessit anno aetatis suae 73. principatus in Hibernia 27. Christi nati 1121. Where I must occasionally reflect on my own mistake in the foregoing 75 page of this little Book and desire the Reader to account it such Indeed there I suppos'd that that Dearmach where Beda says Columbe-Cille had built his famous Irish Monastery was the same with Ardmach But now I see by Colgan's explication of Roboretum D. Columbae that without question that Dear-mach in Latin Roboretum or Campus Roborum for Dair or Doir signifies an Oak in the Irish and Mach or Magh a Field which Beda meant was at the place ever since called by the Irish Doire Columb-Cille as it is of late by the English London-derry and by no means at Ardmagh But to pass over as well that errour of my own as the brief account immediately before this reflection on it given of the pious end those two great Contenders made for peradventure you will say and I confess it freely that neither the one nor the other is to my main purpose here and therefore to return and prosecute only that which is my Province I will now let you see all the glory of the Monarchical or at least pretended Monarchical Power of Ireland which never lasted long not even from Heber's days in any one Family or Sept removing from Mounster to Cannaght and from the O Brians there to the O Connors here Yet leaving still for my part the Question undetermined whether the same Monarchy did not continue for two years longer in Tirconel after it had ended in Tomond and so pass'd immediatly not from Muirchiortach O Brian but from Dombnall mhac Ardghar mhac Loghlin However that was Toirrghiallach mor mhac Ruidhruigh vibh Chonchabhair i. e. Terence the Great Son of Roderick descended of Connor King of Connaght is now possess'd of the Sovereignty of Leath-Cuinn and greater part of Ireland and thereby of the Title of Monarch for 20 years more says Keting For so at least his his own Subjects and followers call'd him I am sure his Reign has furnish'd History with Instances enough on the Subject I treat of At three several times he enter'd the Province 〈◊〉 Mounster with a great and Hostile power of men though the first time having prey'd and spoil'd not only Ard-feanan but Cashel he was set upon in the Rear by part of the Mounster Army and lost Aodh O Heidin King of Biorradh and Muirriadhach O Flacthiorta King of Lower Connaght with a great number of other prime Gentlemen The second time he invaded it both by Land and Sea himself marching by Land in the head of a strong Army and laying all waste about him till he came to Cork where a goodly Fleet says Keting well provided of Seamen and Souldiers which he had sent about to destroy all the Coasts having done their work met him And now this imperious Monarch Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhair glutted with revenge divides Mounster in two equal parts the Southern and Northern Mounster so called Whereof he commits the Southern to Donochadh mhac Cartha's government the Northern to Conchabbar O Brien and so returns home triumphantly to Connaght with 30 Hostages of the best in Mounster But soon after Cormock mhac Cartha King of West-mounster being treacherously kill'd by Toirrghiallach O Brien his own Son-in-law and Gossip and the whole Province of Mounster that is all the parts and power and Title too of it seiz'd by him as the lawful King of it Toirrghiallach mor O Concbabhar the pretended Monarch draws together all the Forces of Connaght Breithfne Meath and Leinster puts himself in the head of them and marches now again the third time into Mounster Where being advanced in so far as Gleann Mhachair and to a place there called Moinmhoir in English the Great Moor Toirrghiallach O Brien the new Mounster King in the head of 9000 men the flower of all that Province meets him and fights him but is so intirely and mightily defeated that Dal-Gheass the chief strength of his Army never before nor after had the like overthrow as being for the matter all destroyed therein And the issue was the banishment of this new unfortunate King to Tir-Eoghuin in Vlster and the division of Mounster the second time between Diarmuid mhac Cormuick mhic Cartha and Teadhg O Brien by the Monarch Such is the account of this Monarch and no more I mean of his Warlike Actions and Exploits delivered by Keting in his Reign But Gratianus Lucius in his Cambrensis Euersus says further of him that he prey'd all the Provinces of Ireland every one That he made his own Son Conchabhar actually and really King of the Dublinians Lagenians and Methians That with his Land Army he destroy'd Tirconel and with his Navy consisting of 190 Ships wasted Tir-Oen and with both reduced both these warlike Countreys of the North. That nevertheless before the end of his Reign his Glory was obscur'd and power humbled by him who came next to succeed in the Monarchy and who begun early it seems to lay the foundation of his own future greatness by making War on this very Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhar himself the Monarch and forcing Hostages from him in the year of Christ 1150. that is full six years before this Monarch's death And that
however he continued in the whole his Reign over Connaght 50 years and according to all the Irish Annals and Historians over Ireland 20. Though says Gratianus according to a more exact severe discussion of the truth if the date of his Monarchy be taken from the death of his Predecessor Mairchiortach O Brien to his own he must have reigned over Ireland 34 years in all or at least 28 if it be continued only till the foresaid Hostages were forc'd from him But I range again For as well this calculation of his years or Reign as his religious preparation for death and his burial and rest close by the high Altar of St. Cieran in the Cathedral Church of Cluan-mhac-Noise is forein to my purpose here And therefore I return again Muirchiortach commonly call'd Mac Loghlenn but immediate Son to Niall and by him Nephew to that Domhnal whom we have so lately seen to have so long contended for the Sovereignty of Ireland and therefore stilâ—d by Colganus King of Ireland upon the death of Toirghiallach mor O Conchabhar assumes that Title of the Irish Monarchy which he had so venturously and early prepar'd for while Toirrghiallach was yet alive and in health Of him at least of any warlike action either of his or indeed of any others in his Reign tho Keting has not a word save only those very few that on an other occasion I have given before page 73. viz. that Mairchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch that succeeded Toirghiallach mor O Conchabhar was in the 18th year of his Reign kill'd by Fearnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brian yet the diligence and accurateness of Gratianus Lucius makes abundant compensation For this Author p. 86. says of the present Muirchiartach first in general That his humour having been wholly Martial and his fortune answerable he over-run all the Provinces of Ireland in a continual course of Victories obtained partly by Battels and partly by the sole terrour of his Name That he subdued them all and forced them every one to give him Hostages That therefore at least He without any contradiction may be admitted next after Maolseachluinn II. for the undoubted King of all Ireland And then after letting us know that this Prince's great Vertues were much eclipsed by the Precipitancy of his anger and that whom prosperity had rais'd to such a heighth adversity at last did throw down as low even to the very earth he particularly recounts how Eochadh King of Vlster not only refus'd to pay any more Tribute or other dues to him but even without any other provocation made War upon him That he being thereupon enraged enters the Territories of Eochadh routs his Forces burns his Lands takes his Vassals and puts them in Fetters Eochadh himself by good luck escaping That after this yea notwithstanding a reconciliation made between them by the intercession and upon the Engagement of the Primat of Ardmagh and Donochadh King of Oirghllae for performance of Covenants on both sides and Eochadh's consequential pardon and reception to grace which to assure him Muirchiortach took the most solemn Oath he could for such it was accounted then in that Kingdom on the Staff of Jesus what this was S. Bernard tells in the Life of Malachias yet ere long whether out of the former cause or any other new one enraging him he had Eochadh's eyes pull'd out of his head and three of his Nobles duos Olingsios Cathasachi O Flahry nepotem most cruelly put to death without any regard to the engagement of the Sureties And to conclude that Donochadh O Cearrbhaoil the foresaid King of Oirghillae one of the Sureties taking to heart so heinous a breach of Faith Oath Covenants and assurance given by himself and therefore resolving to be reveng'd draws to his association the People of Vibhruinne and Comhaicne marches with an Army of 9000 men into Cineal-Eoghain otherwise call'd by them Tir-Eoghain but by us Tir-oen where the Monarch then resided surprizes him unprovided fights the few tumultuary Forces led forth by him routs them and kills him in that Field a man ever before Victorious in all his Encounters whatsoever Yet such was his end in the 10th of his reign Anno Christi 1166 says Gratianus Lucius though Keting says he was kill'd in the eighteenth of his Reign by Fearrnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brien as I have noted before But as their difference in computing the years of the Reign is not material the one beginning it when this Muirchiortach mhac Neill had forc'd his predecessor Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhar to give him Hostages and the other when Toirrghiallach died so neither is it material to know whether any such persons call'd Fearrnibh Fearrmhaighe and O Brien were or were not in that Battel to kill him What is to our present purpose you have it very particularly delivered by the one and not gainsaid by the other And yet upon reflection I must confess I find that I have not delivered all the material things written by Gratianus Lucius in this Reign of Muirchiortach mhac Neill He further writes page 87. that in the Year 1156. even the very first year of it presently after Toirrghiallach mor O Conchabhar's death his Son and Heir and King of Connaght Ruidhruigh O Conchabhar did receive twelve Hostages from Muirchiortach O Brien even that very Mounster King so lately before deprived and banish'd to Tir-Eoghain by the said Toirrghiallach Father to this Ruidhruigh as we have seen already That in the Year 1157. he rush'd into Muirchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch's own peculiar Countrey Tir-Eoghain burnt the fruitful Peninsula there call'd Inis-Eoghain destroy'd all the delicate Gardens Orchards Plantations wasted the whole Region to Cianachty That after this he turn'd his Arms on Mounster Where having first setled the foresaid Muirchiortach O Brien in possession of North Mounster he forc'd Hostages from Diarmuid mhac Cormuic mhic Cartha King of South Mounster to remain with him till Muirchiortach mhac Neill the Monarch did relieve the said Diarmuid That Anno 1158. he enter'd Leinster in like hostile manner with great Force marcht through it to Leiglin being encamp'd there had Hostages brought him from Ossory and Luighis and in the close of all loaded Mac Craih O Morrdha the little King of Luighis with Irons That in the next place he made Inroads into Teabhan driving away thence from the Kerins an exceeding great prey of Cows and with his Fleet afflicted all the Coasts of Tir-Eoghain mightily That in the Year 1161. falling violently on Meath he both compelled the Countreys call'd Vibh Falain and Vibh Faoilghe to give him pledges and then plac'd Governours in them viz. Faolan O Faoelain in the one and Mlaghlin O Conchabhair in the other That after all he made his Conditions of peace with the Monarch deliver'd him four Hostages receiv'd from him in gift the entire Province of Connaght with the one half of Meath and from Diarmuid O Maolseachluinn a hundred ounces of Gold for that
a single Person must evince the same truth So for Spain Alphonsus III. by putting out the eyes of all his Brethren save one that was kill'd Alfonsus IV. with the like cruelty us'd by his own Brother â—aymirus Peter the Legitimat Son of Alphonsus XI depos'd and kill'd by his Bastard Brother Henry Garzias by Sanctius then Sanctius by Vellidus and after so many retaliations all Spain under King Roderic betray'd to the Moors by a natural Spaniard a Subject to that King Count Julian Prince of Celtiberia as Bodin calls him yea seven hundred thousand Spaniards kill'd in the short space of fourteen months next following that hideous treachery must evince mightily the self-same truth So for France those horrible Feuds Combustions Devastations cruelties inhumanities barbarous sacriledges of the late Civil Wars there continued 40 years against four Kings whereof you may read at large in D'Avila and the Holy Ligue and both Henry III. and Henry IV. one after another so vilely murder'd by those devoted Assassins of Hell Jacques Clement and Ravilliac evince it still Lastly and to come nearer home tho in an earlier time even so for England 1. Those eight and twenty Saxon Kings of the Heptarchy part by one another kill'd part by their own Subjects murder'd besides many other depos'd and forc'd to fly away for their lives For as Matthew of Westminster l. 1. c. 3. writes of the very Northumbrian Kings alone four were murder'd and three more deposed within the little time of one and forty years only And therefore it was that Charles the Great of France when the news of the last of them by name Ethelbert being murdered came to his hearing not only resolv'd to stop the presents he was before on sending to England nor only to do the English in lieu of sending them gifts all the mischiefs he could but said to Alcuinus an English man his own Instructor in Rhetorick Logick and Astronomy that indeed That was a perfidious and perverse Nation a murderer of their Lords and worse than Pagans Nay therefore also it was that many of the Bishops and Nobles fled out of this Northumbrian Kingdom and no man dared for 30 years next following venture on being their King but all men declined it and so left them a prey to the Irish Scâ—ts and Danes who by the just judgment of God over-run them and destroy'd them at last on that very occasion principally 2. Since the Norman Conquest besides the horrible rebellion of Henry the 2d's own Children against him and many other particulars which I pass over not only all the calamities miseries cruelties unspeakable evils of the Barons Wars on both sides under King John Henry III. and Edward II. nor only the deposition and murder too of this poor Edward even his own Wife Queen Eleanor and his own very Soâ—thâ—e Prince of Wales having both of them concurr'd in the deposing him and usurping his Crown but the most prodigiously mortal dissentions of Lancaster and York began with the rebellion against deposition and murder of Richard the II. and so bloodily prosecuted for thirty years under Henry VI. and Edw. IV. that besides eleven main Battels fought with infinite slaughter of English men on either side nay even twenty thousand men kill'd besides the wounded in one of them which Polydore calls the Battel of Touton a Village of Yorkshire the excellent Historian Philip Comines tells us of 80 of the Blood Royal destroyed in them and among this number Henry VI. a most vertuous innocent holy King most barbarously murder'd To say nothing of Richard the Third that Usurping Tyrant so justly dispatch'd in the Battel of Bosworth by the Earl of Richmond who thereupon succeeded King by the name of Henry VII and by marrying the Daughter of Edward IV. and thereby most happily uniting in himself and his Queen and Issue the right of the two Houses ended those fatal dissentions of Lancaster and York Dissentions indeed so fatal to England that besides all her best blood at home as we have seen by their long continuance from the year of Christ 1393. to the year 1486. lost Her not only the Kingdom of France but even the more ancient Inheritance of our Kings in the Dukedoms of Normandy Aquitane and whatever else belong'd to the English Crown on that side of the Sea only the Town of Calais with its little Appendages excepted Were it necessary Buchanan could furnish out of the neighbouring Kingdom of Scotland a very large addition of more examples to the purpose of this place But more than enough has been already said to conclude that notwithstanding any thing or expression in either of the two former Sections my meaning could not be to make those bloody Feuds in Ireland or consequents of them so peculiar to the Milesian Race or Irish Nation as if no other People on Earth had been at any time guilty of the like or as horrid The truth is I mean'd only to say That in respect of their long duration perpetual return from time to time for almost five and twenty hundred years compleat and their excessive degree at very many times within that long Succession of Ages especially considering the small extent of Ireland those cruel bloody Feuds were both National and peculiar to that People only Which I think is true notwithstanding that other Nations either much greater or much lesser might have been in some few Instances of time as high nay peradventure much more horrible transgressors in the very same kind than those antient Milesians were at any one time since their Conquest of Ireland from Tuath-Dee-Danan 33. The second point is to do those ancient Milesians the right as to acknowledg what their Histories have at large That amidst all the Feuds and fury of their Arms how bloody or how lasting soever they had several both Monarchs and after the Pentarchy was set up lesser Kings yea some of those too in their time of Paganism and many more as well of those as these after Christianity establish'd that were of great renown among them for other excellent Qualifications becoming their dignity than those only of Martial Vertue and Fortitude In time of Paganism they had their XXII Monarch Ollamh Fodhla so called from his great Knowledg that very name given him importing in Irish as Gratianus Lucius hath observ'd a great master in Sciences and Teacher of all Knowledg to his People It was he that divided the Lands of Ireland into Hundreds call'd by them Triochae-chead and placed a Lord over each Hundred and over each Town of the Hundred a Bailiff an Applotter of Duties and receiver of Strangers to provide Entertainment for them They had their XCI Monarch Conair mor mhac Eidirsgceoil so great a Justiciar so zealous a Prosecutor of all Malefactors that although with great pains industry hazard to himself yet he forc'd at last all kind of Robbers Thieves Vagabonds and Idlers to fly the whole Kingdom and after this during his Reign
the Cattel throughout all parts and Provinces wandred safely in the Fields without any Keeper Besides the magnificent Hospitality of this Monarch is wonderfully celebrated in that Nation Add hereunto this farther happiness of his Reign That in it the weather was so mild from mid-harvest to mid-spring that both Kine and Sheep and other Beasts lay continually abroad in the open air without feeling one sharp breath of wind the Sea covered the very shores at Imbhercholptha then so called after Droichid ath by us now corruptly Droghedae or Tredath with a most prodigious ejection of all sorts of Fish and the fruit-bearing Trees were so laden that they hung down their branches to the very earth They had their CIV Monarch Conn surnamed Ceadchatach whose Reign notwithstanding that prodigious number of Battels sought by him as we have seen before was so wonderfully abounding in all earthly blessings throughout Ireland that when the Writers of after-Ages were minded to express any time of extraordinary abundance or plenty they said it was the Reign of Conn Ceadchatach or Conair Mor return'd again on Earth Now doubtless it could not be otherwise than morally impossible that considering all his Battels there should be so much plenty in every part of the Kingdom had not he as well as Conair Mor before him been as good a Governour as he was a great Warrior And yet on this occasion let me tell you that neither the one nor other excellency could save him from being murther'd Whereof because of the extraordinary contrivance and manner of it I take that notice here which I find in Gratianus Lucius though otherwise it may seem forein to this place and Keting has not a syllable how or where or whether at all this Monarch died either of a natural or violent death But thus in short it happen'd In the 35th year of his Reign which was of Christ 157. being retired without Guards or much attendance at a place then called Tuaihamâ—rois the King of Vlster by name Tibraid Tirigh employed 50 young striplings clad like Maiden Ladies to dispatch him and they did it says Lucius For it is only to him we are beholden as for many other particulars so for this very singular one indeed And if I may conjecture it was or at least might well be thought the pattern whence Maolseachluinn I. when he was yet but King of Meath derived his own stratagem whereby he destroyed the Danish Tyrant Turghesius They had their IVC Monarch Fearrhadhach Fachiuach a Prince of so much Truth in hâ—s words and such integrity in his Life and Actions that from thence he was surnamed Fachtuach signifying in Irish Truth and Integritâ— says the same Author Lucius And it is observable what both he and Keting write of one Moran chief Justice under this King that he had a ring or hoop of such Vertue that when it was put about the Neck of any Judg or any Witness whatsoever at the time the one was to give Sentence or the other to depose upon Oath if either did swerve a title from the right then presently it clasp'd and pinch'd and wrung them so close that to avoid present death by strangling they retracted openly before all the Spectators what they had so wickedly done amiss Whence proceeded that Proverbial wish among the Irish O That he had Moran's Ring about his Neck when they suspect the truth or integrity of any person But to proceed with their Kings They had their CII Monarch Felim surnamed Rachtmhor from his being a Great Maker of excellent wholsome Laws Among which he establish'd with all firmness that of Retaliation kept to it most inviolably and by that means preserv'd the people in peace quiet plenty and security during his Time They had their CIX Monarch Cormock mhac Airt who says Lucius in making good Laws for the Commonwealth and observing them exceeded by much all his Predecessors He wrote a Book of the Institution of a Prince to his Son Cairbre He had the Psalter of Taragh composed In this he gives an account at large 1. of all the noble Irish Families their propagation and relation by blood one to another 2. Of the limits not only of every Province of Ireland but of every Countrey both great and small in each of them 3. Of the Duties Rents Tributes paid usually out of each Province to the Monarch or King of Ireland 4. Of the Duties paid unto the Provincial Kings by the Lords their Vassals 5. And finally of the Rents accrewing to every such Lord from his Tenants any where in the Kingdom The Book also which they call in Irish Sanasan Chormaic and we in English may call the Etymological Dictionary of Cormock is by most ascribed to him though by some to Cormock O Cuillenan the holy King and Archshop of Mounster I pass over his Martial Spirit his Fortune and success in Arms. Tho it was he that when by the surprisal force and rebellious usurpation of Ferghussa Dubhdeadach King of Vlster he had been first dispossess'd of his Royal Mansion of Teamhuir alias Tarach and then affronted with the burning of his Beard as well by the command or direction as by the servant of the same Vlster King Fearghussa for so Gratianus Lucius calls this Northern King tho Keting names him Giolla as I have done before and then after this affront had been banish'd into Connaght yet within a twelve month accompanied with 30 great Lords 50 other Chieftains and fifty thousand men gave Battel at Criombreag to this Usurper kill'd him destroy'd his Army and for the rest of his Vlster adherents banish'd them for ever to the Isle of Man Yea it was he that after this Field was further yet Conqueror of all his other Enemies in 36 Battels more and thereby gave perfect peace to the whole Kingdom for the remainder of his long reign which lasted in the whole forty years And further also it was he that with the Sword of Justice took revenge on the more than savage cruelty of Dunling the Son of Eudeus that murdered those 30 celebrated Virgins living collegially as in the Temple of Vesta at Cluain-fearâ— in Teamhuir all of them of such Royal extraction and quality that each had 30 Virgins more in retinue which made in all Nine Hundred For that unparallel'd Savageness of Dunling this Monarch destroy'd the twelve Tyrants of Leinster who either by approbation of it or defence of him were guilty of it Lastly It was he that whether on this occasion or no I know not But this I know that Lucius writes how it was he that even to a farthing's worth made the Province of Leinster pay the old Boarian Fine impos'd upon them by Tuathal Teachâ—mhor Which this Author says consisted not of 3000 but of 15000 Cows and so many Hogs Mantles Silver Chains Cauldrons of Brass or Coppers that is 15000 of each and each Cauldron as large as that in the Monarch's Kitchin at Tarach which boil'd together at one boyling twelve
Year of Christ 743. not as Cambrensis has it biâ—nnio ante Topog. dist 2. c. 10. adventum Anglorum two Years only but 424 Years before the first landing of Fitz Stephens in Ireland So far is Cambrensis out in his relation of the very time of this matter it happening that a prodigious Whale with three golden Teeth stianded at Carlingford within his jurisdiction each Tooth weighing fifty ounces of Gold he gave one of them to the chief workman-builder of the foresaid Bridges the other two he dedicated to the making of Shrines in the Monastery of Beannchuir for those holy relicks there on which the Countrey people did use to take their most solemn Oaths for ending all Controversies arisen Felim mhac Criomthain alias in Latin Feidlimidius that most famous King though not of Ireland wherein also Cambrensis as in most his other Relations concerning Ireland has most grosly err'd but of Mounster having prosperously reigned 27 years and within that time what by harrassing what by fighting Leath-Cuinn humbled them mightily at last resign'd his Crown retired from all secular Employments all earthly joys pleasures vanities withdrew to a Wilderness turn'd a poor Hermit there continued so the rest of his life devoting himself wholly to God till death call'd him away under the Monarchy of Niall Caille in the Year of Christ 845. For then it was that he departed hence with the Opinion both of a great Saint and of as excellent a Writer too as that Age might have says Lucius The Irish Book call'd an Leabhar Irsi or as Keting expounds it the Book of their Annals has in short this Elogy of him Optimus Sâ—piens Anachoreta Scotorum quievit Contemporary to him was Fionachta-Luibhne King of Connaght who in the same manner exchang'd his Royal Robe for an Hermits Coat and all the attendance wealth delights pomp gayety of a Palace for the laonliness poverty silence obscurity of an uncouth naked solitude to prepare himself for the last day of his life which he ended there Anno 846. Next to this Fionachta in order of time the King of Leinster Dunling mhac Muireadhach retired both from his Kingdom and all worldly things else into the Monastery of Kildare professing Monk and continuing there in the exercises first of an Underling then of an Abbot till in the Year 867. he finish'd happily his course And after him Domhnal son to the Monarch of Ireland Aodh Fionnliach devoted himself to the service of God in the habit and profession of a most godly mortified Ecclesiastick In which condition he received without any fear at all the King of terrours Death in the Year of our Saviour 911. Him although at a great distance of time followed Ruaruidh O Conchabhair King of Connaght I mean the Father of Toirghialiach mor O Conchabhair Monarch of Ireland who in the 20th year after that O Flaithâ—â—iortach had put out his eyes enter'd the Order of Canon-Regulars and among them rendred his Soul to his Redeemer An. 1118. And so did the King of the Dublinian Danes and Leinster Irish Domhnal O Brien son to Muirchiortach O Brien King of Ireland renounce his Kingdom profess Clerk at Lismore and accordingly there continue a life of pennance to his death which happened Anno Dom. 1135. Lastly the religious Devotion of Cathal Cruddhearg King of Connaght Lucius calls him in Latin Cathaldus à rubro Carpo is very much celebrated amongst his Countrymen in all their Histories He after the death of his Wife gave up his Kingdom profess'd Cistercian Monk in the Monastery built by himself at a place in Connaght call'd the Hill of Victory and in the Year of Christ 1224. breath'd out his last in the same religious Cloister The great liberality of this Provincial King to the Church and particularly the large extent of Lands bestowed for ever by him upon that Cistercian Abbey de Colle Victoriae when he built it may perhaps be elsewhere in this Treatise reflected on At present and because I have now done with all the most singular patterns of Piety recorded among the Provincial Kings of that Nation I proceed to those of the most celebrated memory in that respect among their Lesser Kings Such were Damhin mhac Dambinghoirt King of Orghillae departed this life Anno Dom. 560. and Ferrhadhach mhac Duacha parted in the Year 582. whose Souls are said by the Irish Writers to have been shew'd to Columb-Cille ascending to Heaven absque poenis purgatoriis Such was Brian Boraimh's Ancestor in the seventh degree of ascent by name Toirrghiallach by Title or Dignity King of Dal-Gheass or rather indeed says Keting of North-Mounster who in the Year 690. or thereabouts after he had bestow'd all the Islands in his Kingdom on poor strangers to be inhabitâ—d and cultivated by them put on a Monks Cowl at Lismore and for his daily employment either polish'd stones for the building of Churches there or mended High-ways So that he was never idle but discharging continually with his own hands the part sometime of a Stone-cutter at other times that of a poor ordinary Mason or meanest Day-labourer Such Maol-bressal mhac Cearnaigh King of Mogh dornuigh who after quitting the World professing Monk and living in that profession many years like a Saint was kill'd at last by the Danes Anno 847. Such Maolduin King of Oiligh son to Aodgh Ordnigh the Monarch that forsook all whatever was desireable on earth took the same course of a profess'd religious Life in a Monastery for many years never look'd back never took his hand off the Plough till death seiz'd him in the Year of Christ 865. Such also were Maolbride King of Cineal-Gonail and Domhnal King of Cineal-Laoghaire who trampling underfoot all worldly temptations assumed the Monastic habit retired into Cloister'd Cells and for the remainder of their lives which was of many years continued their station there practising only the methods of dying to themselves and living to Christ till the blessed hour came when he call'd them to himself the former Anno 897. the later Anno 882. And after them Donochadh the son of Ceallach and Son-in-law to Donochadh mhac Floinn the Monarch King of Ossory is next recorded as a man of exceeding piety and godliness though never so profess'd Monk nor at all retir'd in outward appearance from the duties of his secular Employment His care of the poor was such that in his time every house in Ossory had three several Bags for daily Collections of Victuals to feed them One that receiv'd the tenth part of every persons meal none at all of the Family no not even of the servants excepted Another design'd for the portion of Saint Michael the Archangel as they call'd it And a third was under the peculiar charge of the good Wife to see all the scraps gathered into it Besides he was himself exceeding bountiful to them And then his devotion at Church frequentation of the Sacrament watch over his own senses delight in all
intended by the reducing the number of Bishops and bounding their Diocesses might have drawn many to come thither 3. The Temporal Estates of the whole Kingdom sitting at the Place and Time questionless occasion'd the coming of many more Ecclesiasticks to that Council than perhaps otherwise would have come What I would principally observe by occasion of that Synod at Rath-Bressail is first how short this number of 26 Bishops in all Ireland comes of that other of 350 Bishops related before page 56. out of Nennius and Jocelin to have been consecrated by St. Patrick in his time for that Countrey But it may be said that was a time of labouring in the conversion of every part of that Kingdom and its Dominions abroad in Scotland and other adjacent Islands To which purpose it was expedient there should be a very great number of Bishops according to the greatness of the Harvest which was all at least as to Ireland at home made up in 35 years Besides that in 61 or 62 years the long term of Saint Patrick's life after he had enter'd on that Harvest e'en so many hundred Bishops as are mention'd by the said Authors might have died in Ireland and the adjacent Islands tho never the fifth or sixth part of them had lived together in any one time And yet I must confess there was in later times and even but a little before this Council a most corrupt custom in Ireland that multiplyed Bishops pro libitu Metropolitani at the sole Metropolitans pleasure as we shall see hereafter and whence that corruption with many other proceeded However to return to my main purpose Muirchiortach O Brien King of Ireland whether alone or in association with Domhnal the son of Ardghal enjoying that Title was so happy as to have by his Royal Authority concurr d unto compass'd and confirm'd this material point of Reformation and establishment of the State Ecclesiastical Hâ—s next Successor Toirrghiallach Mor O Connor notwithstanding all his Wars did manifest his care of the Publick both in civil and Ecclesiastical affairs He built the three chief Bridges of Connaght among which that of Athlone was He had the Cathedral of Tuam solemnly consecrated by a number of Bishops call'd thither of purpose He built a Hospital in the same Town and endow'd it with Lands He setled a yearly Pension for a Divinity Professor at Ardmagh He was so justly severe in punishing Criminals that having imprison'd his own son for some great Offence and rejected for a long time the intercession of several both Princes and Prelats he could hardly at last be induced even by five hundred Priests and eleven Bishops together with the Archbishops of Ardmagh and Cashel appearing before him and interceding for the Prisoner to set him at liberty after a twelve months imprisonment Of his piety besides what I have said already these are further proofs given by Lucius I. That he caus'd the Holy Cross to be carried about Ireland in great veneration 2. That he bestowed great scopes of Land on the Clergy of Tuam on the Successor of Saint Coman a Town and on the Bishop of Cluain-mhac-Noise a number of Silver Crosses Goblets and Chalices And 3. That by his last Will he bequeath'd to several Churches all the costly furniture of his Houses all his Gold and silver Plate all his Jewels all his Horses and Arms even his very Bow and Quiver besides 540 ounces of Gold and 40 marks of Silver His immediate Follower in the Sovereignty Muirchiortach mhac Neill was pleas'd himself in person together with all the Kings and Nobles of the whole Kingdom to be present in the National Synod of that Church held at Ceannannais we call it now Kells in Meath in the first year of his Reign which was of Christ 1152. This Council begun the 7th of March being Dominica Laetare Hierusalem had members of it present seven and twenty Bishops and as many more Abbots and Priors the Archbishops of Ardmagh and Cashel and the Bishop of Dublin besides sive elect being of the number of those 27 Bishops It was in this Council that John Papiron Cardinal of St. Laurence in Damasco sent by Pope Eugenius III. presided In this Council that he by the Authority of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the Apostolical Lord Eugenius condemned Simony execrated Usury enjoyn'd the payment of Tithes In this Council besides that he deliver'd the 4 Palls to the 4 Archbishops Ardmagh Cashel Tuam Dublin Moreover it was in this Council that he ordain'd as it was fit that Ardmagh should be Primat over all And these things being done by him without further delay he departed and on the Ninth of the Calends of May the same Year ship'd for beyond Seas So Keting writes of him and this Council out of the Annals of Cluain Eidhnioch Fiontain in Lease where he transcribes the very Latin words of those Annals Tho according to an other account of his own Giolla Criost or Christianus O Conneric Bishop of Lismore Provincial of all the Monks in Ireland and Legat in ordinary from the Pope in that Kingdom presided in this Council jointly with the said Cardinal But what is more observable in those Annals is That as to the 4 Palls most of the Clergy in this Council and especially those of Dun-da-Leath-Ghlass and Ardmach were dissenting because they held it enough for Ireland to have two Archbishops the one at Ardmach the other in Mounster as formerly The rest concerning this Council and particular names and surnames of those two and twenty Bishops that according to his account composed it for he leaves out the five Elect and all the Abbots and Priors you may read in him I think it needless to transcribe them here And yet I judg it not impertinent on this occasion to mind the Reader of Meredith Hanmer's gross mistake where in his History of Ireland he says 1. That before this time or Council of Ceannannais the Irish had never had any Archbishops 2. That ever since Austin the Monks time or his mission to England from Gregory the Great the Irish Clergy till this time had been subject to the Archbishops of Canterbury Whereas in truth they had all along from St. Patrick's time and by his own special appointment too even two Archbishops the one stiled of Ardmach the other of Mounster first then of Cashel after he came to have his fixed See there the one for Leath-Cuinn and the other of Leath-Mogha Whereof you may see more at large in Keting who in his Reign of Laogirius tells the very motive and chief inducement St. Patrick had for making the second chief Archiepiscopal See and constituting it in Mounster Nay I have my self read in some of the Saints of Irelands Lives though I have not them by me now to quote them mention made of the Archbishop of the Lagenians and his See being sometimes Kildare sometimes Ferns and so I have of the Archbishop of the Conacians too if my memory fail me
not But if it do Sir James Ware in his Commentary de Praesulibus Hiberniae supplies it abundantly page 174. concerning Mounster and pag. 243. and 244. concerning Connaght What Authority or Jurisdiction these Archbishops had in those days of old is an other question or whether they had any more than only to be Episcopi primae sedis in their Province or priority of place I can say nothing to it But in this I can be on rational grounds positive That none of the Irish Clergy depended on the Archbishops of Canterbury none of their Bishops received consecration from any of them until Lanfraneus in William the Conquerors time was the Archbishop of that See Nor then nor after neither but for some little time those only of Dublin Wexford Waterford and Limmeric And the reason why these in particular would or did so depend was That their Townsmen and subordinate peculiar Governors were Danes or Easterlings now turn'd Christians And that they suspected the Irish Prelats would not favourably judg or determine of their Elections in behalf of their own Citizens blood or Countreymen to Ecclesiastical Offices but by reason at least of the former Feuds if not those present and remaining still would prefer Irish to them And therefore and further yet because they expected in that behalf impartial dealing and justice if not favour too from the See of Canterbury as being of late brought under the Norman Conquerors originally their own Countreymen they procured License from the Irish Kings to have their Bishops consecrated by the Archbishops of that See whereby it happened that so lately as the Reign of the Monarch Toirrghiallach Grandchild to Brien Boraimh in the Year of Christ 1098. the first Bishop of Waterford was consecrated by Anselmus of Canterbury So says Keting and much more Lucius and most of all on this Subject the most eminently famous Primat Vsher who was both concern'd for his own See of Ardmagh and without question able enough to search into these matters To him may be added Sir James Ware pag. 102. 103 and 104. where he tells us of Patric Donatus O Haingly Samuel O Haingly and Gregory four Bishops elected successively by the Oostmans of Dublin and and consecrated for that See by the Archbishops of Canterbury Lanfrancus Anselmus and Rudolphus but no more for the next Bishop of Dublin was consecrated by Ardmagh Having thus reflected on those Errors of Hanmer I have no more to say in relation to the Council of Ceannannais but that all the advantage benefit glory redounding from it to the Irish Church ought questionless to be attributed chiefly to the foresaid King and Monarch of Ireland Muirchiortach mhac Neill that rendred it both much more august by his own Royal presence and much more effectual by his perfect submission to all its Decrees A further strong argument of great resolutions taken by many of the Kings Princes Nobles Ecclesiasticks of Ireland to restore civility justice learning and above all Piety and holiness of Life once more among their Countreymen was the great number of Monasteries built and endow'd by them within the very last eighty years of their Milesian Government before the final period of it Yea and built by them I mean notwithstanding all the disadvantages of that time especially of that part of it which was taken up by the extraordinary turbulencies happen'd in Ruaruidh O Connor's Reign Who as we have seen before succeeded this Muirchiortach mhac Neill and was himself never since by any of his Countrey or Nation succeeded In the Province of Vlster Anno 1106 the Monastery of Lisgoual near Loch Erne and the Abbey of Carrig whose first Abbot was St. Euodius were founded by Mac-Noellus Mackenlef King of Vlster Anno 1138. an other for the Canons Regular of St. Austin in Feramanach The same Year an other in Louth for the same order by Donogh mhac Ceirrbheoil King of Orghillae And by him at the request of St. Malachias the noble Abbey of Mellifont for the Cistercians Anno 1142. The Abbey of Jonmhair Chinne Traigh alias Newry by Malachias himself besides the celebrated Beannchuir restor'd by him About this time also the younger O Domlsnâ—l as he is call'd â—rince of Tirconnel at the request of St. Dominick by Letters to him built for his Order a Monastery at Doire Cholum Cille which had usually a hundred and fifty religious men In the Province of Mounster not only the Abbâ—y of O Dorne in the County of Kierry the Abbey of Fermoigh in the County of Cork Anno 1140. and the Abbey of Neny or Magio Anno 1148 or 1151 all three for the Cistercian Order but eighteen Monasteries founded by Domhnal O Brien the last King of North-Mounster Among these were the famous Abbey of Holy Cross at Tipperary and St. Peters at Limmeric for the black Nuns of St. Austin and the Monastery de Surio and that call'd Killoulense or de Albo campo and the other Kilmoniense or de Furgio and lately the Cloister â—f Corcamâ—ua or of the fruitful Rock In the Province of Leinster Diarmuid mhac Murcho surnamed Na Ngall the last King of it founded six Monasteries Two of them at Dublin whereof one was for Nons of the Order or rather Reformation of Aroasia the other for Chanons of Aroasia in an Abbey of Monks in Artois St. Austin a third in the County of Kilkenny at Kilclehin a fourth at Atoody in the County of Catherlach the fifth being a great noble Abbey for the Cistercians by them named de Valle Salutis at Baltinglass in the County of Wicklo and the sixth at Ferns in the County of Wexford But Monaster-Euin or de rubra Valle for the same Cistercian Order was founded by Diarmuid O Daoimuse alias Dempsy Lord or at least one of the Lords of Ibh Failghe Anno 1178. Jeripont Abby in the County of Kilkenny Anno 1181. by Donald Fitz Patric King of Ossory The Monastery of Lease or de Lege Dei An. 1183. by Cuchogrius O Moadhirra The Monastery of Dune in the County of Wexford even before the landing of Fitz Stephens there by Diarmuid O Ryan by consent of the Leinster King founded for the Chanons of St. Austin In the Province of Connaght before it was conquered by the English Cathal O Conchabhair surnamed Crombhdhearg founded the Monastery of Benedictin Nuns at Killcreunath the Monastery of Cnockmoigh or de Colle Victoriae for the Cistercians that of Ballin Tohair for the Chanons of St. Augustin and not only endow'd but enrich'd them all with large possessions Add the Monastery of Boyle about the Year 1151 founded for the Cistercian Order Lastly in Meath the King or Prince of it Murcho O Mleaghluinn founded the Monastery of Bectif alias de Beatitudine either Anno 1148. or 1151. for the Cistercians likewise for the Votresses of Saint Augustin or he or some other O Mlaghlin King of that Countrey built the Cloister at Clonard But the Cloister of Shrouil in the County of
known and his name celebrated among all the Clergy and People and Princes of that Province too Then by his returning back to his own Province of Vlster upon the commands of Celsus and Imarius and there presently repairing the old ruins of the famous Beannchuir which till this time lay in rubbish for so many years ever since the destruction of it by the Danes though not without a Titular Lay-Abbot made still by Election of the Lay-Natives who possess'd all the Revenues nor at this very time neither with-such an Incumbent and he both a very powerful man and Uncle also to Malachias himself but on the return of Malachias from Mounster suddenly chang'd and as it were by a powerful touch of the very finger of God himself so mightily chang'd that without delay he resign'd both the place and whole Estate belonging to it yea and his own person also to this holy Nephew's disposition Then by his refusing the Estate building nevertheless the place planting it with some of his own blessed condisciples under Imarius and in obedience to Celsus and Imarius both taking upon him now as well the true Office as the title of Abbot of Beannchuir imitating so in all respects the sanctity of his great Predecessor Congellus though not equalling his number of Monks Then by the glory of Miracles beginning first to appear wrought by him to the astonishment of the beholders as he was at work with his own hands among the Carpenters that were building this Monastery Then by the Election made of him in the thirtieth year of his Age for the See of Conner and his reluctance for a long time and the perseverance of the other side and his submission at last to the positive commands of Celsus and Imarius Then by his entring upon his Episcopal Function there but withal his finding presently as St. Bernard expresly writes He was not sent to men but Beasts That he had never before not even amongst the most barbarous any where observ'd the like No where the People so stubborn as to Manners so bestial as to Rites so impious as to Faith so barbarous as to Laws so headstrong as to Discipline so filthy as to Life Christians by Name but in very deed Pagans not paying Tithes not offering First-fruits not joyning in lawful Marriages not confessing their sins None among them found either to receive or to enjoin penance The Ministers of the Altar few and yet no work among the Laity for those same few no opportunity given them to make use of their Ministery among a wicked generation of people nor they endeavouring it much if not rather scarce any way at all for in their Churches the voice neither of a Preacher nor Singer was heard Then by his Divine Sermons Exhortations Entreaties Visits Prayers Tears Mortification austerity of Life both in publick and private together with the assistance of his 150 Monks that were never from his side overcoming though with great labour yet in a little time all opposition and working so wonderful either a conversion or Reformation which you please to call it of all that Diocess that they are all now become a new people i. e. the People of God now who had been nothing less before and every where now to be seen the repairing of Churches adorning of Altars and Choires resounding now the praises of God and wicked Laws abolish'd and Christian Institutions receiv'd in their place the Churches thronging from every side with people greedy of hearing the Word and Sacraments frequented and confession of sins made and Concubinage yielding to lawful marriage Then by his necessary migration to Mounster when the King of Vlster had on some pretence destroy'd the City of Conner and by the reception he found there from his former Disciple King Cormac who came to meet him now and withal to entertain both him and his 150 Monks of Beannchuir come along with him out of the North. Then by his building here in Mounster the Abbey of Ibrac Monasterium Ibracense St. Bernard calls it King Cormac with Royal munificence abundantly furnishing Gold and Silver and all other necessaries both to finish the building and maintain the Convent after Then by his living there so exemplarily mortifiedly humbly among them as he had elsewhere perpetually even from the first day of his Episcopal Charge at Conner done taking his turn like an other Monk both in reading and serving in the Refectory at meals yea in all the very meanest Offices of the Cloister even that of Cook to dress their meat in the Kitchin not excepted Then by the last sickness of Celsus who had successively ordain'd him Deacon Priest and Bishop and by the choice made by him of Malachias for his Successor and his Letters to all the Princes of the Kingdom especially the two Mounster Kings * Cormack was one of them his Kingdom South-Mounster his name and surname Cormack mhac Cartha his end by a soul murther committed on him by his own Son in Law All which and the revenge of this murder you may see in the former â—ection page 183. to see after his death Malachias install'd in the Metropolitical See of Ardmagh Which for the memory of their great Apostle St. Patrick who living govern'd it and dying chose it for his place of rest was held in such veneration that all the people of Ireland Clergy and Laiety Nobles Bishops Princes and Kings were subject in all obedience to the Metropolitan thereof Then by the Vision about this time but before any notice had of Ceallach's being sick the Vision I say of a Tall ancient venerable Woman appearing to Malachias and upon his demand what she was answering him she was the Wife of Celsus but withal delivering him a Pastoral Staff Then by a real Messenger come from Celsus as he was yet on his death bed alive with his real Staff indeed and by the real delivery thereof by him as he was commanded by Celsus to this man of God Then by the unanimous application of all the Kingdon from all parts made unto him to accept of this Election and by his declining it nevertheless a very long time alledging now his own unworthiness now his poverty and meanness and inability to contend with the powerful Family that hitherto well nigh two hundred years had possess'd that See besides that not even with the death of men their stubbornness could be overcome moreover that to see blood spilt in his behalf or by his occasion did not become him or his calling finally that he was already join'd to an other Spouse the Church of Conner Then after three years continual reluctance by the National Synods meeting on purpose wherein the Pope's Legat Gillaspuic alias Gilbertus Bishop of Limmeric and Malchus Bishop of Lismore were the chief and by their laying their commands upon him adding threats withal to excommunicate him if he resisted any longer and his own reflecting at the same time on the Vision he had formerly had in
other in substance than water yet his Cupbearer had orders to dash it lightly with red that he might seem to drink Wine Secondly towards the poor He never missed a day without seeing now Threescore now Forty and never less than Thirty of them fed in his own presence Besides far greater numbers of them maintain'd out of his Revenue constantly for a long time as we shall presently see As a Bishop he preach'd Repentance continually to the people of that opulent City who were prodigiously immers'd in drunkenness lust contentions rapin blood-shed and all kind of wickedness Yea and as a Prophet too he ceaâ—â—d not with Tears to warn 'em of their general destruction at hand if they did not speedily appease Heaven with unseignâ—d Repentance As a Bishop when this general calamity like the breaking in of the Sea came upon them suddenly in one day in one hour when the City was taken and sack'd and burn'd by Diarmuid na Ngall their incens'd King and his foreign Auxiliaries when their strâ—â—ts were all covered with the bodies of the slaughter'd Citizens and the Gutters ran with blood when the very Clergy were plunder'd and Churches riâ—led of all that was precious in them as a good Bishop I say it was that Laurence at this time first beholding with floods of Tears like an other Jeremy the slaughter of his people before his eyes then taking courage like the good Pastor in the Gospel thrnst himself upon the bloody swords of the Conquerors holding their Arms praying their mercy entreating them for some snatching others from their fury to Christian burial who had their Souls yet panting in their Bodies and when no more could be done by him in any other kind giving himself wholly now to that generous imitation of Tobias As a Bishop it was that although with great hazard still unto himself yet he used that Episcopal freedom with the King and his insulting Commanders that the Clergy were at last permitted their own Habitations and the Churches restor'd their Books and Ornaments As a Bishop he employ'd in the next place all his compassion and all his Revenue I mean what was left thereof unseized by the Military men or undestroy'd by fire yea and all whatever he could procure from others to relieve the few Survivors of the slaughter'd Citizens His very Bowels did yearn over them especially those whom he had so lately seen to flourish in all kind of Earthly happiness and now saw without House to lie in without Cloaths to cover their nakedness without meat or drink to preserve life without other comfort than that of miserable Captives under a most deadly Foe As a Bishop when an other general Famin had in his days lien heavy on all the Land he not only gave daily sustenance for three whole years to five hundred persons reduced before to the worst of conditions plain starving but in several parts of his Diocess provided meat and drink and cloaths and all other necessaries for three hundred more And in the same cruel season of scarcity it was that Mothers reduced to extream want laying their chrisom Babes in the night at his door and in the day also where ever they saw he was to pass he took care of them all providing Nurses from them and though two hundred in number at one time sent them to his own Stewards and Baylisâ—s to be kept on his own Land and when they were come to years of discretion and some abilities of Body recommended them about all the Province with the badg of a wooden Cross in their hands As a Bishop and a Legat too says the Author of his Life he conniv'd at no disorder in the Clergy no vice no sin and least of all at the scandalous one of Incontinency whether in Priest Deacon or sub-Deacon Which fleshly Vice he did so much abominate especially in them and found it so necessary to be proceeded against with vigour that even so great a number as a hundred and forty Priests convict thereof he sent together at one time for Penance and Absolution to Rome though he might otherwise have given them both at home by his own Authority As a Bishop yea as a Father of his Countrey in general he spent the little remainder as well of his Revenue as of his health and Life in crossing the Seas now again from Ireland to England from England to France in both Countreys following and solliciting peace from Henry II. to ease the common calamities of his Nation at this time And now the dissolution of his earthly Tabernacle being at hand how hecoming a most Christian Bishop and a most holy Apostolical Legat indeed not only his very last exemplary Ecclesiastical preparation for it but his very last answer to the Abbot of Auge on that occasion was For in his way through France to Normandy having fallen sick of a Feaver at Abbevil a Cambreusis Vit. apud Sur. gone forward nevertheless to Auge on the borders of Normandy when at a distance he saw the Church of our Lady there prophetically foretold his own departure in that place then enter'd that Church pray'd in it a little while thence gone to his Lodging and Bed sent for Osbert the religious Abbot of that Monastery confess'd his sins to him and receiv'd the holy Viaticum from him then for prosecuting his business to Henry II. dispatch'd his Chaplain David together with his own Nephew to that King on their return the fourth day with the joyful news of their success i. e. of the Peace granted by the same Henry II. to Roderick the Irish King seem'd transported with it for the sake of his Countrey how low soever he knew himself brought by his sickness upon the third day following desired of the said Abbot and his whole Monastery to be as a Member incorporated among them and this accordingly done then presently desired further and pursuant to his desire in all their presence receiv'd the last Sacrament which they call Extreme Vnction having I say pass'd through all these steps and very last Ecclesiastical preparatories for death when the good Abbot Osbertus considering him an Archbishop had according to custom minded him of making his last Will and Testament his Answer was in thâ—se few words Novit Dominus mihi ne nummum quidem sub sole relictum esse The Lord knows that I have not a penny left me under the Sun Besides how like the great Bishop of our Souls weeping over Hierusalem this Bishop of Ireland remembring and lamenting once more for all the condition of his own Countrey brake forth into these Expressions in his own mother Language Ah foolish and sottish People what will you do now who will bring you back from your strayings who will apply Balm to your wounds who will cure you or take care of you at all And this Lamentation which Nature express'd from him ended how then at last like an other Austin he behaved himself in the last moments of his Life
Kingdom been destroy'd but for the enormity of their sins Whereof whoever pleases may see proofs at large in Fitz-Herberts Policy and Religion Part 1. chap. 21. 22. 23 c. yea Jesus the son of Syrach for he may be more easily consulted in every Bible at hand may give to a sober man assurance enough where he says First cap. 10. 8. that the Kingdom is translated from Nation to Nation because of unjust dealings injuries calumnies and various deceits Secondly c. 40. 10. that death and bloodshed strife and the sword oppression famine contrition and scourges were all of them created for the wicked and for them the deluge was made Nay if we consult the Books of Kings read the Prophets run over the Books of Josuah Judges Deuteronomy Chronicles and the rest of the old Testament examine all the Histories of Christendom we shall not find any whole Kingdom or Nation destroy'd but for grievous and horrible sins either of the Rulers or People or Priests or all together Yea we shall commonly find the very quality and species of those transgressions mentioned that brought the vengeance on them However and notwithstanding that further yet we know that bloodshed is one of those four sins that cry to Heaven Gen. X. 11. for vengeance the Voice of thy brothers blood cries to me from the earth said God himself to Cain and that the very second of the Gen. IX 6. Laws he gave to Noe was that whosoever did shed the blood of man his also should be shed after all I dare not affirm positively that either those very Feuds of the Irish how unparallel'd soever in blood or those other transgressions in specie be they what you please were the sins that moved God to pronounce this final doom against them but only in general That their great sins compell'd him to it And how should I indeed For who was the Counsellor Esay XL. 13. Rom. XI 39. of God or who knows any thing of the secrets of his Providence except only those to whom himself was pleased to reveal them Nevertheless I dare acquaint the Reader that although I give but little credit generally and sometimes none at all to the Relations of Cambrensis where he seems rather to vent his passion and write a Satyr against that People than regard either Modesty or Truth yet I will not call in question what he relates l. 2. de Expug Hib. c. 33. of the Prophetical predictions made so many Ages before by the four Prophetical Saints of that Nation Moling Brachan Patrick and Columb-Cille and written by themselves says he in their own Irish Books extant yet in Ireland concerning the final Fate of their Countreymen the old Milesian Race viz. That the people of Great Brittain shall not only invade them but for many Ages continue a sharp cruel and yet doubtful War upon them at home in Ireland sometimes the one and sometimes the other side prevailing That although those Invaders shall be often disturb'd worsted weakned especially and according to the prophecy of Brachan by a certain King that shall come from the desert Mountains of Patrick and on a Sunday-night seize a Castle in the Woody parts of Ibh Faohlain and besides force them almost all away out of Ireland yet they shall continually maintain the Eastern Sea-Coast in their possession That in fine it will be no sooner than a little before the day of judgment and then it will be when they shall be throughly and universally victorious over all Ireland erect Castles every where among the Irish and reduce the whole Island from Sea to Sea under the English Yoak And verily those Prophetical predictions five hundred years since delivered us by Cambrensis as he received 'em from the Irish themselves are the more observable That by consulting the History of after-Ages from Henry II. of England to the last of Queen Elizabeth and first of King James we may see them to a tittle accomplish'd Unless peradventure some will unreasonably boggle at the circumstance of time express'd in these words Paulò ante diem Judicii a little before the day of Judgment Which yet no man has reason to do Because we know not how near this great day which shall end the World may be to us at this very present As for that King foretold as coming from the desâ—rt Mountains of Patric there may be occasion and place enough to speak of him again that is hereafter in the Second Part of this Treatise But whether from this Irish Prophesie either had as for the substance not the exact words of it from Cambrensis for he pretends not to give to us the exact words or had perhaps at least for some part of it from the Irish themselves resorting to Rome in those days the famous Italian Prophet of Calabria Joachimus Abbot of Flore did foretell in his time the utter destruction and eternal desolation that Joachimus Ab. post Tract super cap. X. Isaiae Part 1. de Oneribus sexti Temporis was to come upon the Irish Nation I cannot say This I know 1. That in all his predictions all along in his several Commentaries on Jeremy Esay the Apocalyps c. he pretends to divine Revelation 2. That he lived several years after the Writings of Cambrensis on Ireland had been publick For Cambrensis dedicated one part of them to Henry II. himself who died in the Year of Christ 1189. and the rest to his Son Richard when yet but Earl of Poicton And Joachim was in Sicily with Richard now King of England and Philip Polydore Virgil. in Ricardo primo King of France both wintring there with their Fleets An. 1190. in their way to the Invasion of the holy Land Nay I have my self read his submission of his Works to the See Apostolick dated by himself ten years after which was the Year 1200. of our Saviours Incarnation 3. That being ask'd what the success of this great expedition to the holy Land against Saladine should be his Answer was it should prove unsuccessful and that the time of recovering Hierusalem was not yet come 4. That this prediction of his was punctually true as appear'd ere long 5. That his Prophecy of the old Irish Nation is in these genuin words you read in the Margin * Ex rigoribus horribilis hyemis glacialis flatibus Aquilonis parit Hibernia Incolas furibundos Sed si sequentium temporum terrores praenoscerent internos impetus cogitarene à facie spiritus Domini ferreum pectus averterent se à sempiternis opprobriis liberarent Sed ex quo invicem vertitur furor aspideus involvit tam Clerum quam populum par insultus non video quod superna Clementia ulterius differat quin in â—os exactissimum judicium acuat in stuporem perpetuae desolationis impellat Omnes istos populos Cathedra Dubliniensis astringit Sed Darensium enormis iniquit as totum defaedat ordinem charitatis Et ideo
makes use of the same reason against the derivation of Britannia from Brutus yet having since consulted the learned Cambden's most accurat search into these matters though he has not a word of the Irish History of Briotan nor seems ever to have heard thereof I find nevertheless there may be very probable answers given out of him to that question put by me after Polydore and Keting And therefore I now decline it tho not the History it self of that Scythic Briotan's giving the denomination of Brittain to this whole Island otherwise and whether before or after his time first of all it matters not called Albion As for Abraham Wheloc's Saxon Annotations on Bedes Ecclesiastical History l. 〈◊〉 c. 1. pag. 25. where it is observed that this Island was called Brutaine and Brutannia from the name of Brutus I am not moved thereby because the Saxons had that name from the Britons themselves and the Britons though they write it Brutaine with u yet pronounce it Brittain with an i. as I am told by men skilful in their Tongue they commonly do in other words written with u. pronounce i. However I am content to acknowledg here that in putting the foresaid question I suppos'd more than I ought and that I pass'd over in silence for a worse the far better and more probable reasons nay the convincing reasons indeed What these are you may see at large in Buchanan and before him sufficiently enough for some part of them in Polydore who both the one and the other demonstrate the whole story of Brutus to be a meer Fiction though Henry of Huntingdon and the Author of Polychronicon otherwise reputed good Historians thought fit to recommend to all posterity the Fable out of Gâ—ffrey of Monmouth as an undoubted Truth However we are told I am sure by Geffrey for I have him by me That rutus was son to Silvius the son of Ascanius whom undoubted Monuments of Antiquity assure us to have been son to Aeneas and Founder of Alba on Tiber and Third King of the Latius That this very Brutus at the Age of sixteen having by chance in hunting the Deer kill'd his said Father King Ascanius and being therefore banish'd Italy went to Greece That here assembling together seven thousand Trojans descended from those who had been brought prisoners thither when Troy was burn'd and heading them he made War on Pandrasus the King of Greece defeated his Armies forc'd his Towns and took himself Prisoner and kept him so till by mutual agreement Ignoge the Princess Daughter to this King was given him to Wife and for a Portion with her besides a great mass of Gold and Silver a strong Fleet of three hundred and four and twenty sail well provided of all kind of necessaries That now putting to Sea with his Trojans and so great a Fleet to seek his Fortune elsewhere and coming to a desert Island by name Largecia the Oracle of Diana there admonish'd him to steer his course for Albion That in his way thither besides destroying a Fleet of Pirats that set on him at Sea and spoiling all Mauritania in Afric from end to end landing in France he first overthrew in Battel Groffarius the Pictish King of Aquitain plunder'd his Towns over-run his whole Countrey and theâ— again in a second mighty Battel defeated both the same Groffarius and all the other eleven Kings of France with their Forces That having perform'd these Wonders there he set sail for Albion which was inhabited then by Giants These were a prodigious Race of See Buchanan l. 2. page 43. Impres Amsterd anno 1643. where he gives an account of this no less ill-contrived than Monstrous Fable added by some later Author than Geoffrey of Monmouth as if Geoffrey himself had not store enough of indeed very stupendious Lyes Monsters some of them twelve Cubits high and all of them or at least their Predecessours before 'em begot by Incubi i. e. Fayery Devils on the thirty Daughters of Dioclesian King of Syria and his Wife Labana who the first night of their marriage kill'd their thirty Husbands and for that cause being forc'd to Sea by their said Father in a ship without Mariners or Pilot after long wandring and hovering arrived at last in Albion a meer Desart then Where it seems notwithstanding they were provided for by those wicked Aery Daemons that lay with them and procreated of them this horrible Race of Giants That upon his landing here at a place called Totnes where all the Giants were in a body to hinder his descent he fought them overthrew them pursued 'em all over the Island destroyed them utterly every where That having done so he divided the whole Countrey among his Followers gave them the name of Britons and to it that of Brittain from his own name both then begot Children especially three by name Locrinus Albanactus and Camber then built the famous City of new Troy since called London by corruption of the word Luds Town because one of his posterity King Lud not only repair'd it but strengthened it with a Wall and Towers and Bulwarks and then last of all before his death making three Royal Divisions of Brittain and erecting each into a Kingdom bestow'd the first of them together with the supreme sovereignty of the other two in some cases on his eldest son Locrinus called then from his name Loegria by us now England the second on his second son Albanactus from whose name 't was called Albania though Scotland after and on his third son Camber the third of those Divisions termed likewise from his name Cambria comprehending at that time not only the Countrey now called Wales but whatever is on that side of the Severn That by these brave Princes and their issue after 'em the Noble Cities of York Edenburg Carlisle Canterbury Winchester Shaftsbury Bath Leicester the Tower of London Westchester and Caer-Leon upon Vsk were from the foundations built and finish'd and the Brittish Nation and Kingdom most gloriously maintained at home and enlarg'd abroad even in the very Continent well-nigh all over Europe That not only Ebrancus the V. King of Great Brittain after Brutus and Builder of York with a numerous Fleet invaded France ransack'd it all over and return'd home triumphantly with the richest spoils thereof nor only his twenty sons which he had by twenty several Wives conquer'd all Germany under the command of one of themselves called Assaracus and possess'd it a long time after but Belinus and Brennus sons to Dunvallo Mulmutius the Nineteenth King as Belinus himself was the XX. made an absolute Conquest first of all the Kingdom of Gaul now called France and soon after of all Italy not Rome it self excepted which they took and burnt to ashes That Cassibellanus the Lxv. of the Brittish Monarchs when Julius Caesar invaded them at two several times fought him defeated him both times and the second time made him fly to France in such despair that he never more return'd That
in like manner Claudius the Roman Emperour though come in person with a mighty power of Legions and Auxiliaries into Brittain found it his safest way to run away in two great Battels from the victorious Army of Guiderius and Arviragus the Lxvii and Lxviii Brittish Monarchs one after another in so much that Claudius was content at last ' een fairly to capitulate for Peace with Arviragus by sending to Rome for his own Daughter Gennissa and giving her in marriage to him nay and leaving him too the Government wholly of all these Provincial Islands for so Geoffrey calls them in this place That Severus how great soever both a Souldier and Emperour he was found it a desperate business to fight in Great Brittain against the Brittons when he saw himself receiving his death's wound from Fulgenius in that Battel whence he was carried dead and buried in York That under Vortigern their Lxxxvi Monarch Hengistus the Saxon invited in by him landed the second time in Great Brittain with an Army of three hundred thousand Heathen Foreigners and yet Aurelius Ambrosius the next Brittish King after Vortigern fought him in the head of all his formidable Forces and in a plain Field overthrew both him and them all nay pursued them in their Flight till he reduced them to nothing and the whole Island of Brittain to its native liberty from any Foreign Yoak Nor had his Victories a period here but over-run Ireland also where he took Prisoner in a great Battel the Monarch of that Countrey Gillomar and then brought away Choream Gigantum the Giants Monument of stones from the Plains of Kildare in that Kingdom which he set up on Salisbury Plains in England That Arthur who was likewise save one the next King of Great Brittain for he was son to Vter Pendragon that Reign'd immediately before him subdued all England Scotland Ireland the Isles of Orkney Denmark Norway Gothland along to Livonia France and as many Kingdoms in all as made up XXX Yea moreover i. e. after so many great and mighty Conquests and besides the killing too of Monsters and Giants fought even Flollo and Lucius the two Lieutenant Generals of the Roman Emperour Leo kill'd them both in France and the later of them I mean Lucius in the head of a dreadful Army consisting of four hundred thousand men all which he overthrew and ruin'd That although by occasion of some unhappy quarrels among the Britons themselves under Catericus their Lxxxxvi King a bad man the Saxons to be reveng'd on them wrought King Gurmundus the late African Conqueror of Ireland to come from thence into Great Britain with an Army of a hundred sixty six thousand Heathen Africans and burn spoil and destroy the better parts thereof and after put and leave the Saxons in possession of all he could which was that whole Countrey then called Loegria now England as distinguish'd both from Scotland and Wales meaning by Wales the ancient Kingdom of Cambria which comprehended all beyond the Savern and that notwithstanding the Saxons had by such means got possession of all Loegria and held it for several years they were beat out again so soon as the Britons agreed amongst themselves meeting at Westchester and chusing there Caduallo for their King who bravely recovered the whole Island every way round even to the four Seas and kept both Picts and Scots and such of the Saxons as were left alive or permitted to stay in perfect obedience to the British Crown during his own Reign which lasted forty years in all and that so did Cadwallador after him during his In short that as the progeny of Frute continued free independent successful glorious in the first period of their Monarchy under sixty six Kings of their own during at least a thousand years and forty from the landing of Brute till the Invasion of Julius Caesar and as for the next period which took up five hundred and nine years more till the landing of Hengistus the Saxon albeit the Roman power and glory did sometimes lessen sometime ecclipse theirs yet they preserved still their freedom and Laws and Government under twenty other Kings of their British Nation successively reigning over them and paying only a slight acknowledgment of some little tribute to the Roman Emperours nay and this same but now and then very seldom so in the third or last period of it containing somewhat above two hundred and fifty years from the said landing of Hengistus to the twelfth year of Cadwallador they upon the Romans quitting them not only restor'd themselves under Aurelius and Arthur by their own sole valour to the ancient glory of their Dominion but maugre all the opposition of the Confederated Saxons Picts and Scots now and then rebelling against them enjoyed it under the succession of seven Brittish Kings more from Arthur to Cadwallador yea Malgo the fourth of this very last number when the six foreign Provincial Countreys as Geoffrey calls them viz. Ireland Island the Orcades Norway Denmark and Gothia had rebell'd anew was so fortunately brave as by dint of Sword to have reduced them all again to their old subjection under Great Brittains Empire Add moreover that Cadwallador himself albeit the last of this Trojan Race wielding the Sâ—â—pter of Great Brutus enjoyed the same Glorious Power that his Predecessours had before him over the whole extent of this Noble Island That the total change and utter downfal of the Brittish Government happening after in his days proceeded only from an absolute Decree of Heaven and mighty Anger of God incensed against the Brittons for their sins but neither in the whole nor in part from any Power of the Saxons or other Enemies or men upon Earth That the immediate visible means which God made use of to destroy them irrecoverably were 1. A most bloody fatal Division after some years of this Cadwallador's reign happening among them yea continuing so long and to such a degree that between both sides all the fruitful Fields were laid waste no man caring to till the ground 2. The consequence of this waste a cruel Famine over all the Land 3. A Plague so prodigiously raging that the number of the Living was not sufficient to bury the Dead That the Almighty's hand lying so heavy on them by so dreadful a Pestilence was it alone that forc'd Cadwallador in the twelfth year of his Reign to retire for some time into Little Britanny in France That after ten years more when this Epidemical Plague had been wholly over and Cadwallador prepared to ship his Army and return a voice of Thunder by Angelical Ministery spake to him from Heaven commanding him aloud to desist from his Enterprize and telling him in plain terms it was decreed above unalterably The Race of Brutus should bear no more sway in Great Brittain till the time were come which Merlin had prophecied of to King Arthur And to conclude all That in pure obedience to this Voice of God it was that Cadwallador giving
in among so many other mostly too bare names of other pretended Brittish Kings Neither has he any more of the very Second Coilus than that he was the son of King Marius and the Father of King Lucius the First Christian King of Great Brittain and that having in his youth been bred at Rome he continued after e'en all along his Reign both devoted to the Roman State and in Peace with all his Neighbours And therefore the rest of the story in Buchanan either of this or any other Coilus must be a later additional Invention and in reference to the real true Records of Antiquity as ill contrived as might be though answerably enough to the foundation laid for such a superstructure of the new History of Brute and his Descendants But since we are occasionally return'd again to this famed Work of Galfridus Monumetensis whereof you have elsewhere so lately had from my own reading it over a pretty just Summary give me leave here to let you see out of others as just a censure of it Give me leave to tell you that Alanus Copus has compared it with Ovids Metamorphosis and Lucians Tales That William Neubrigensis has spent even three whole Leaves in Prooem Hist to demonstrate by instance of particulars how it is wholly compos'd of the most improbable incredible and ungrounded Lyes that ever were invented That Cambden also in his Britannia relates to others who stick not to say it is all patch'd up of untunable discords and jarring absurdities yea compos'd of such Milesian Fables such intolerable meer inventions of the Authors own brain that the Roman Church at last thought fit to enroll it in the Index of Prohibited Books Yea that Cambrensis himself though a Britton by birth and blood and as desirous of the glory of his Countrey-men as any could be gives it nevertheless the Character of a fabulous History as you may see in his Description of Wales cap. 7. Nay that in his Itinerary of Wales l. 1. c. 5. he tells us that and the occasion and manner how the Devils were seen leaping and skipping and dancing on it However and though it be manifest that as well these Censures as the Summary aforesaid are sufficient even each of them apart to ruin the story of Coilus and Fergus in Buchanan which derives originally from Galfridus and ultimately relies on his invention I shall nevertheless give now another Argument shewing more peculiarly how little Faith ought to be given him in his Catalogue of Brittish Kings and consequently none at all to his naming of Coilus among them In his Seventh Book Chap. V. where he so confidently relates the mighty Battel fought and overthrow given by King Arthur in France to those four hundred thousand Romans and their Auxiliaries mentioned before part Europeans part Asians and the rest Affricans under many Kings come to assist the Roman Emperour against Arthur he has also the brazen brow to invent not only those three names of the Emperour himself and his two Lieutenant Generals which we have seen before but many more of the Auxiliary Kings viz. Epistrephus King of Greece Mustemphar King of Parthia Aliafatina King of Spain Hirtacus King of Affric Boetus King of the Medes Sextorius King of Libya Teucer King of Phrygia Xerxes King of the Itureans Pandrasus King of Egypt Misipsa King of Babylon Politetes Duke of Bithynia Teucer Duke of Phrygia Evander of Syria Ethion of Boetia sure it should be Beotia Hippolitus of Creet c. whereas indeed there were no such names or men and most of these Countreys named by him in the last place were but Provinces then under the Roman or Constantinopolitan Empire and no Kings nor Dukes but only Presidents ruling them under the Emperour Wherefore if he could so boldly invent such a list of Kings abroad in the World for the sixth Age of Christianity wherein he could be so easily disproved by a thousand arguments we have no reason to think that for home and those early Ages of the World wherein he could not be disproved by any Records he did otherwise than meerly forge his Catalogue of Brittish Kings And these are the Reasons that moved me to this Reflection upon that story of Coilus and Fergus in Buchanan as related out of him in my foresaid 19th page And the same reasons or at least a sufficient part of them makes me likewise not insist now upon the name of Notium which you have seen before page 13. given to Breoghuin's Tower in Gallicia It was I doubt not borrowed by Keting from Hector Boethius who says in express terms that place was called first Brigantia but after Notium and last of all Compostella I know there is a Promontory in Dâ—smond the South of Mounster which is by Cambden in his Map of Ireland called Notium but whether from any of that name in North Spain or elsewhere I know not 54. But what is more material to be noted occasioually in this place is Buchanans account of Fergus and the rather because he seems to give it from the Scottish Historians in general He says that this very Fergus pretended by him to have been the over-thrower of Coilus and by Hector Boethius to have also been the son of Ferchardus King of Ireland was the Founder of the Scottish Kingdom in Albania and first of all the Kings of the Scots inhabiting Great Brittain That he came to Albania or Scotland about the time of Alexander the Great 's taking Babylon almost 331. years before the Birth of Christ And that within twenty four years more having reign'd in all so long in his return from Ireland whither he had gone back from Scotland to quiet some disturbances there he perish'd at Sea in a Tempest near that Rock in the North of Ireland which from his wrack hard by is ever since call'd in Latin Rupes Fergusii in Irish Carrig-Fhearuis by us Knock-Fergus So says Buchanan and so said before him Hector Boethius and some others of his Countreymen Historians both he and they either seeming to know nothing at all of those Annals and Books whence only the real true History of their Antiquities could be known or else wittingly and willingly to have taken up a fabulous story of purpose to establish a glorious succession of a hundred and seven Kings of the same Nation reigning one after another from that Fergus I. to James VI. even for above 1900 years Whatever the cause might be the one or the other or perhaps which is likely enough both together it is plain out of the antient Annals and other Histories of Ireland which are indeed the only Fountain of all such truly real Scottish Antiquities as concern at least the Irish Invaders and time of their Invasion of any part of Great Brittain that Buchanan and those follow'd by him have created the said Fergus I. King of the Scots in Albania even 819 years before he landed from Ireland in Brittain For those Irish Monuments fix on the year of
Title of Gregory the Great which he says was deservedly given him by his own People 5. That although in Buchanan's account this very Gregory began his Regn an Christi 870. and finish'd it by his death anno 892. and consequently was not only King of Scots but of Scotland being the Pictish Kingdom there at least as 't is commonly suppos'd had been utterly destroy'd full thirty years before the very first of his Reign yet if his being either King of Scotland or King of Scots be no truer than Buchanan's Relation of his invading Ireland fighting a great Battel victoriously there against the two Protectors or Tutors of the young King Duncanus a Minor and then visiting this young King at Dublin where he resided and then appointing new Tutors for him and last of all taking with him to Scotland threescore Irish Hostages out of the several Provinces of Ireland I dare say there was never any such thing or Person or Prince as Gregory King of Scots For besides what I have given before page 23 24. to disprove this great fiction of Gregory the Great either conquering or at all invading Ireland 't is clear out of all the Irish Antiquities recording the Danish Wars that not the Irish nor any Irish King Minor or not Minor did possess Dublin at that time but the Danes And indeed to confirm this truth the Annals of Vlster tell us that in the year of our Lord 871. two great Danish Captains viz. Ainlaph and Juor came from Albania to Ath-Cliath alias Dublin with two hundred sail and an exceeding great Prey of English and Brittons and Picts whom they brought Captives to Ireland So that Dublin most certainly was in the Reign of that Gregory of Scotland not under any Monarch or other Irish King as no more was it in a hundred and fifty years following but in the power of the Danes who were at least the first Re-builders of it much about the same time that Buchanan supposes it to have been the Metropolitan City of Ireland tho it came not to be so till Henry the Second's Reign For he indeed was the first King or Lord of Ireland that ever kept his Court there and by appointing it the Residence of his Vice-Roys gave it in a little time so great splendor that the Forger seeing it so in his own time thought fit in much earlier times to place his forged Irish Monarch of Gregory of Scotlands story Duncanus in it as in the Royal Mansion of the Kings of Ireland Whereas to the contrary nothing is more known in the Irish Histories than that the City of Tarach full twenty miles from Dublin was the Royal Seat of the Kings of Ireland till its destruction by the first Danish War and in the same days Dublin at best but a very mean place respectively 6. That nevertheless as I am apt enough to believe that allowing Cambden the liberty of an hyperbolical expression he has upon sufficient grounds told us that the Earls of Argile derive their Race from the ancient Princes and Potentates of Argile by an infinite descent of Ancestors so I am verily persuaded that by how much the Genealogy of Kings must be more narrowly sifted than that of any Subjects by so much Gratianus Lucius has upon surer grounds exactly derived in a direct Line the descent of James the sixth of Scotland and first of Great Brittain not only through so many Kings his Predecessors of Scotland from the ancient Kings of Argile up along to Fergus I. nor only from those before that very Fergus through fourteen Generations up to Reuda but even before this Reuda through fifty three Generations whereof Twenty four were Monarchs of Ireland up along to Herimon the first sole absolute Monarch of the Milesian blood in that Kingdom even so long since as Three thousand years wanting only seven Nay I am likewise persuaded that he has also very exactly in two other Lines carried up the descent of the same King James through thirty one other Monarchs of Ireland to the said Herimon as also in a fourth and fifth Line through four and twenty more of the Irish Monarchs and here I mean twenty four more wholly different from all those fifty six already given of Herimons Race up along to Heber who being the stock in these two last Lines makes the 25th King of Ireland in this number ascending upwards for so he was during his short life in a joynt Sovereignty with his foresaid Brother Herimon 7. That undoubtedly this derivation of King James through so many Lines for three thousand years and from the Loins of eighty one Irish Monarchs besides all the truly real both Kings of Scotland and Kings of Scots or Dal-Riada and Argathelia in Scotland given us at large by Gratianus Lucius in his Camb. Evers page 242. 243 and 244. as it is by many degrees a much more ancient so it is a much more glorious derivation of the Royal Pedigree than either Buchanan or Boethius or Major or indeed any other Scottish Historian nay or even any Scottish Herald whatsoever among those called English Scots was capable to make even so much as in any manner well or ill as being wholly ignorant of the Irish Antiquities which they could neither understand nor read if they had had ' em And these are the Animadversions I desire them take to thought who shall either persuade themselves they can reconcile the difference 'twixt the Scottish and Irish Histories concerning Fergus or except against me for laying it open how justly soever the story of Him and Coilus given by me page 20 out of Buchanan has put a necessity on me to do so here There is a passage in my 21 page that says The Romans built Towers and Bulwarks all along the Southern Coast of Brittain at convenient distances against the landing of the Irish on that side out of their plundering Fleets Herein also I followed my Author Keting if I understand him rightly But having since consulted Cambden I found that either Keting had mistaken the matter or I him For the truth is that albeit in relation to the Caledonians or Picts and Scots inhabiting or those driven at that time to the Countreys lying North of Grahams Dyke the foresaid Towers or Castles must be acknowledg'd built in the South yet in relation to the whole Island of Great Brittain or to us now in England they were not so Which and whatever else concerning either that Dyke or Wall of the Romans that you may the more fully understand take this following Extract out of Cambden according to Hollands translation of him Camden in his Scotia and Sterling Sheriffdom Julius Agricola observing the narrow land or Streight by which Dunbritton Frith and Edenborough Frith are held from commixing fortined this space between with Garrisons So as all the part this side was then in possession of the Romans the Enemies remov'd and as it were driven into another Island In so much as Tacitus judg'd
Conchabhar Abhraruadh was King before him for one year only but before him Lughadh Sriabhndearg had continued Monarch six and twenty years compleat That this same Lughadh married the King of Denmarks Daughter and before his Reign immediately an Interregnum of five years had been which followed upon the murder of Conair Mor mhic Eidirsceoil and before this Interregnum the same Conair Mor had reigned full seventy years in great prosperity That after the foresaid Crioffan Niadnair those who immediately succeeded in the Sovereign power of Ireland were Fearrhadlach for twenty years then Fiacha Fionn for three and after him Fiocha Fionnolladh for twenty seven years more That these those in all seven Monarchs were every one of them kill'd in such and such manner and by such and such men of their own very Nation That after the seventh of them had been slaughtered by the Athaghtuachi or Countrey Boors and Plebeians in their General conspiracy against all the Royal and noble Blood the same Athatchtuachi set up for King of Ireland one Cairbre surnamed Ceannchait or Caitcheann from his Cats face an Irish man indeed by birth but by descent originally that is in the Ninth generation before come out of Denmark as one of the King of Denmark's sons who had accompanied Lauradh Loinnsioch returning with Anxiliaries from France to recover his inheritance the Monarchy of Ireland which Lauradh did Anno 3727. according to the computation followed by Gratianus Lucius Lastly that this Usurper Cairbre Caitcheann was at the end of five years kill'd and all his rebellious rout of Peasants and their partakers overthrown by the Nobles headed then by the rightful Heir of the Monarchy Tuathal Teachtmhor who thereupon was received as such being now the C. Monarch of the Milesian Race And all these matters together with so many other particular appendants on them within the Reigns of those eight or nine Monarchs which Reigns compriz'd the whole Reign and Life too nay much more time before and after than the whole Reign or Life either of Augustus in the Roman Empire the Irish Antiquaries give us most exactly at large And yet not a syllable of Fredelenus nor of either of the Frotho's no nor indeed of any other forein King or Prince or Adventurer so much as invading Ireland within or near that time though they wanted not occasion in Lughad's Reign and in Caibre Ceannchaits as we have seen to reflect on such matters if any such had really been The same or like argument though but a Negative one yet founded on the general silence of all the Irish Annals Chronicles Histories in the greatest concern of their Nation must be to every indifferent person a clear proof and conviction enough against the vain relations of Hanmer and Campion c. borrowed by them out of Cambrensis as by him from Geffrey of Monmouth I mean at present only those Fables of their great Brittish Heroe King Arthur's forcing the Irish Kings to pay him Tribute and their appearing at his great Court and City of Caer Leon upon Vsk and the Irish Monarch that as they idly fain was contemporary and tributary to him to have been called Gillemer In any of the Irish Annals Chronicles Histories there is not a syllable of any part of these matters no not so much as of Arthur's attempting once at any time on Ireland or picking or having any quarrel with any of the Kings or Lords there Nay Keting does quote Speed himself though a late English Auhor asserting in effect the whole to be a meer fiction and that Ireland was neither subject nor tributary to Arthur And the Keting in his Preface same Keting is positive herein that there was never any King of Ireland by name Gillemer Besides that Muirchiortach Mor mhac Ercha was not only Monarch of Ireland when Arthur was King of Great Brittain but in peace and amity all his life with him Where it may be added that if Arthur was created King of Great â—rittain in the 18th year of his age and was kill'd Anno 542. as Buchanan says he was then Buchanan l. 5. Rer. Scot. in Goran Rege XLV certainly the said Muirchiortarch Mor and his two next Successours immediately following one another Tuathal Maolgharbh and Diarmuid mhac Cearbheoil were those three Kings or Monarchs of Ireland that by succession were contemporary to the whole Reign of Arthur which if Buchanan be judg consisted of 24 years And yet there was no quarrel at all by any of them with Arthur much less subjection to him Also it may be added That as Keting says Fergusius the First of Scotland was Brother to the foresaid Muirchiortach King of Ireland And consequently that the Subjects of Muirchiortach were great Conquerors in the Northern parts of Great Brittain at that very time Yea that as Buchanan himself in the Reign of Goranus the XLV King of Scotland in his Computation and History relates it The great Battel of Humber wherein Arthur was not only defeated but mortally wounded nay in effect lost both Kingdom and life was fought against him by an Army of Irish Scots however in confederacy and conjunction with the Picts and some Brittons led in the same Field by Modrocdus against him Out of all which may be seen how unlikely the stories of King Arthur in Polychronicon Hanmer Campion c. which relate to Ireland are How improbable that must be of Westmonasteriensis in his years of Christ 497. and 592. which attributing the Monarchical power of Ireland to one Gillamurius alias Gillimer one that was never heard of in Ireland represents him notwithstanding as taken there by King Arthur and thereupon the rest of the Irish Princes e'en plainly forc'd to yield themselves all and do homage to Arthur How vain also is that of Cambrensis to the same purpose written before telling us It is read that the famous King of the Brittons Arthur had the Kings of Ireland his Tributaries and that some of them waited on him in his great Court of Caer Leon. But above all the candor and ingenuity of honest Galfridus the first forger of these among so many other Fables appears in grain however Cambrensis had not the confidence either to quote him for it or to mention at all Gillamurius though a part of it And yet notwithstanding any thing hitherto either in this place or elsewhere said I doubt not the posterity of the ancient Brittons have just reason if not to glory of King Arthurs Trophies at least to be sorry for his untimely Death and heartily wish their Ancestours had not deserv'd to see their blooming hopes in him so suddenly vanish Though at the same time I must ingenuously confess there are but too too many reasons able to suspend any judicious knowing man's belief of what even Buchanan himself has in our own days transmitted to Posterity for authentick Truths of this famous Kings renowned glorious performances viz. That he had continually been for many years but most particularly
of Wales 56. Of Aonach Tailltinn the most celebrated Irish Fair both for Antiquity and resemblance of the Olympic Games of Greece exhibited therein which I only mention'd in my foresaid 95 page the Author was Lugha Lambfhada the Twelfth King of Ireland after Slanius but Third of the Nation called Fir-bholg e'en so long since as betwixt two and three hundred years before the Milesians conquer'd that Kingdom The occasion this When the Ninth and last Fir-bholgian King of the Posterity of Dela by name Eoghan was kill'd in Battel and the Kingdom seiz'd by new Invaders the Nation of Tuadedainin it happen'd that Tailtinn Daughter to Madhmor King of South-Spain but Widow and Queen to the said Eoghan having married Eochadh Garbb a Nobleman of the new Conquerors bred the foresaid Lugha with great care and kindness in his youth Wherefore he when he came to the Crown retaining thereof a most grateful remembrance and holding himself bound to requite her love in the best manner he could thought fit to ordain as accordingly he did for a perpetual memory of her one and thirty days in all viz. the fifteen immediately preceding our first day of August and the other fifteen next following it to be solemnly kept in all Ages both by a general concourse of the bravest men out of all parts of the Kingdom at a place in Meath called Tailtinn from her name and by all sorts of manly Games and Exercises there as those of Running Hunting Wrestling Leaping Vaulting Tilting c. and by prizes also given to the Victors That so lately before the English Conquest as the year 1168. Ruaruidh O Conchavair the last Irish Monarch held this great Fair of Tailtinn and exhibited those Olympick Games with much solemnity For so Gratianus Lucius has told us in his Roman phrase Ludos Taltinos dedit as we have seen elsewhere And the same Author adds That the Calends or first day of August though in after-times among Christians at least those of the Roman Church dedicated to the Chains of St. Peter and therefore in the Roman Calendar call'd Petri ad Vincula has nevertheless in all Ages been as it is at present in memory of the foresaid King by all the Irish Nation call'd in their Language Lugh-Nasa which imports in English the Remembrance of Lewis for Nasa is remembrance and Lugh the same with Lewis or Luis But Keting says that Queen Tailtinn whom he honour'd so much had been his own Wife though whether in a third Venture or no he does not say 57. There is mention made page 122 and 213 of the Monarch Ollamh Fodhlas's having ordain'd in every Town a Receiver and Entertainer of Strangers But the particulars of that Ordinance and practice of it as I find them in Keting and Lucius being very singular I thought fit to give here the rather because the Character of Gens inhospita that is an inhospitable Nation is given the Irish by Gerald of Wales Top. dist 3. cap. 10. so much against Truth And certainly for what concerns the more ancient times it will appear out of what here follows of their extraordinary care to provide entertainment for all Comers that their Hospitality in those days of yore was unmatchable in Europe I am sure it was so in any place or Countrey that ever I have read of The dignity of an Entertainer says Lucius no where else used was among the Irish bestow'd only on those descended of Noble Families Nor was any capable of it that was not Lord Proprietary of seven Towns I mean Feeding Towns as Keting says the Irish call in their Language all towns whatsoever properly such Bailte Biatha each Town consisting of twelve Plow-lands of Irish Measure which is three or four times twelve of English He must besides have had seven Ploughs continually going and withal been Master of seven Herds of Cows each Herd consisting of a hundred and twenty full His Mansion House so seated as to have been accessible by four several ways A Hog a Sheep a Beef always ready in the Pot or on the Spit to the end that every hour without delay whoever came might be instantly fed The like number of Beasts ready kill'd and fley'd to be put to the fire as the former was taken up Every order and degree of men according to their quality had their Entertainment both meat and drink assign'd by Rule so as the Entertainer if he defrauded any was certain to be fined for it by the proportionable lessening of his immunities and other Priviledges Sundry sorts of drinks were serv'd in sundry sorts of Cups In Glass Wine in Brass Water in Silver Whey in white Cups of Ash Beer and in brown ones made of Fig-tree Milk Hitherto Lucius in his Camb. Evers page 130. Who yet farther adds in the same place out of Keting what you will peradventure no less if not much more wonder at the exceeding great number of those Free-cost entertaining Towns or Houses deputed in such Towns by the publick throughout Ireland In Connaght 900. in Vlster the like number in Leinster 930. in Mounster a 1030. 58. In my 217 page there is likewise upon a far other occasion some little mention made of the victorious Monarch Tuathal Teatchtmhor though much more elsewhere before in one or two places However this place is that which as I was reviewing it has brought to my remembrance what follows here out of Keting As 1. That before his time Ireland was equally divided into Mounster Leinster Connaght and Vlster each of these Divisions meeting at a place and of the sides of a great stone fix'd in that place called Visneach which is in the Countrey that goes now by the name of West Meath 2. That when he had after twenty five years war totally subdued the Plebeian Rebels and restor'd both the Gentry to their Estates and the true Royal Blood and Heirs to their respective Provincial Kingdoms he thought fit to take as he accordingly did with their consent from each of those Divisions a considerable Tract of ground which was the next adjoyning to Visneach one East an other West a third South and the fourth on the North of it and appointed all four under the name of Meath but as comprehending our Counties now of East and West Meath to belong for evermore to the Monarchs own peculiar Demain for the maintenance of his Table 3. That on those four several portions he built four several Kingly Pallaces for himself and his Heirs viz. Tleaghtghae on that of Mounster side Tailltin House on Vlster's an other at Tarach on Leinster's portion and the fourth on the West of Visneach taken from Connaght ordaining withal great Solemnities at each of them to be kept on certain days yearly for ever At Tlaghtghae the sacred but Idolatrous Fire to be kindled on our All Hallows Eve All Magitians of the Kingdom to come thither that night and sacrifice to their Deities in that Fire All the other Fires throughout the Kingdom to be
call'd Leabhar na Geart i. e. the Book of Rights or Dues a Book beginning with these words Dligh gach Riogh O Riogh Cassil and a Book written wholly by S. Benignus himself 1200 years since that the particulars of that stately Progress are set down as here they follow Bestow'd by him that is by the King of Cashel when he went that Progress on the King of Cruachain a hundred Swords a hundred Cups of Plate a hundred Horses and a hundred Mantles Receiv'd from this Cruachain or Connaght King half a years entertainment and the Rising out as they call it of all the Countrey waiting on him to Tirconail Bestow'd by him on the King of Cineal Gonuill twenty Rings twenty pair of Tables which they call'd Fithchioll and twenty Horses Received a months entertainment and the rising out of that Countrey along with him to Tir-oghain Bestow'd by him on the King of Oileach fifty Silver Cups and fifty Swords Receiv'd a months entertainment and the waiting of the Countrey on him to Tullenoge Bestow'd by him on the Lord or Chieftain of Tullenoge thirty Silver Bowls and thirty Swords or Lances Receiv'd twelve days entertainment and waiting on as elsewhere to Oirgialluibh Bestow'd by him on this King I mean of Oirghialluibh eight shirts of Mayle sixty Coats and sixty Horses Receiv'd a months entertainment at Eambaine with the rising out into Vlster against Clanna Ruidhruidh Bestow'd by him on the King of Tarach 30 shirts of Mayle thirty Rings a hundred Horse and thirty Harpers Receiv'd there a months entertainment and the four chief Families accompanying him thence to Dublin Bestow'd by him on the King of Dublin ten Women ten Ships and ten Horses Receiv'd a months entertainment and this Kings Company into Leinster Bestow'd by him on the Leinster King thirty Cows thirty Ships thirty Horses and thirty young Maids which they termed Cumbhall Receiv'd two months entertainment i. e. one months from Vpper Leinster and another from the Lower which they call Jachter Laighion Finally to the Tanist of the same Low-Leinster thirty Horses thirty shirts of Mayle and 30 Swords And this was the costly splendour of that general Progress of the Mounster Kings over Ireland in former Ages when they thought fit to make or undertake it Which Feidlimidius alias Felim mhac Criomthain King of that Province did in his Reign and this no longer since then the 845 year of Christ for he enter'd upon that Kingdom An. Dom. 818. and retir'd from it to lead an Eremitical Life in the 27th yearafter What the Original or Rise of it was or what right a Provincial King of Mounster could pretend to such a Progress I do not find Nor do I know what moved Keting to desire the Reader not to account him the Author of the Relation Or why so contrary to his custome elsewhere generally throughout his whole Chronicle he quotes here the Author It had been indeed very well and much to be wish'd that he had done so all along for his other Relations But here perhaps he thought fit to do it of purpose to decline the invidious Censure of those of other Provinces for magnifying so much his own Province of Mounster without so good a warrant as Benuin's Book Whatever his motive was the Relation it self puts me upon some occasional observations here which shall be in all three First Observation That Dublin must have been a considerable place in the days of Benuinn seeing it had then or at least before his time a King and was a Kingdom of it self different from that of Leinster And therefore that however or whenever it was first after that time destroy'd yet surely none of those three Norvegian Brethren Amelacus Sitaracus Juor was the first Founder but only the Repairer and Fortifyer of it a little before the second Danish War In which persuasion I 'am fix'd by considering that in the Chorographical Tables of Ptolomy who flourish'd under the Emperour T. Aurelius Hadrianus Antoninus Pius in the year of Christ 153. the People Eblani and the City Eblana is placed where Dublin has always been And therefore Eblana in Ptolomy is the very self-same Town we now call Dublin the Latin Writers Dublinium and Dublinia the Welsh Britons Dinas Dulin the English Saxons in times past Duplin and all from one of the two original Irish names of it The first of them was Dubh-linn which imports a black Depth of Water that was there And the second not only was but is still among all sorts of Irish not as Cambden has it Bala-Cleigh but Bala-Ath-Cliath importing not the Town upon Hurdles but the Town of the Ford of Hurdles Which nevertheless is consistent enough with the Tradition that when Dublin was first built the foundation was laid upon Hurdles by reason the place had been deeply moorish I could here add out of Cambden not only that Saxo Grammaticus writes how it was pitifully rent and dismembred in the Danish Wars but also that in the Life of Griffith ap Synan Prince of Wales 't is read that Harald of Norway when he had subdued the greatest part of Ireland built Deuelin I could likewise add my own animadversions on both the one other passage viz. That the Irish Chronicles make no mention of any Harald either conquering any part of Ireland or building or so much as repairing Dublin That neither does the Author of Polichronicon agree in the one or other point deriv'd from that Life Nay that according to him Sitaracus or Sitric was the Noruegian Builder of Dublin And yet I could further add that what Cambden has next out of the foresaid Life may be very true For after telling us his own opinion of the above Harald to be That he was Harald surnamed Harfager i. e. of the Fair Locks or Tresses who was the first King of Norway he adds that his Lineal descent goes thus in that Life Harald begat a Son named Auloed alias Abloicus Aulafus and Olauus Auloed begat another Auloed this had a Son by name Sitric King of Dublin Sitric begat Auloed whose Daughter Racuella was Mother to Griffith ap Synan born at Dublin whilest Tirlough reign'd in Ireland And all these matters and much more relating to them I could dilate upon were they to my purpose here But they are not because my purpose here is only to trace up the antiquity of Dublin as far as I can And this I have done before out of Ptolomy by shewing that City to have been famous in his time which was above 1510 years since But how long before is a thing wholly buried in oblivion for want of Records And therefore I pass to my Second Observation Which is to give the original of those Clanna Ruidhruidgh against whom the King of Oirghillaedh alias Vriel with his People was bound to wait on the Mounster Kings in their Progress And this I do because their name is very frequent both in the Irish Histories and in all the Provinces of Ireland among the
it be not the greatest of them all I am sure that as it was very great indeed so the Irish Nation is beholden to a Foreiner namely Adolphus Cypreus for transmitting the remembrance of it to Posterity in his Annals of the Bishops of Sleswick a City in Denmark For these are his own Latin words in the sixth page of that Work Reynerus Rex Danorum LVI potentissimus qui tamen ab excitata fortuna quae ipsi in subjugandis Regnis Sueciae Russiae Angliae Scotiae Norvegiae Hiberniae plurimum favit ad inclinatam pene jacentem descivit Namque ab Hella Hiberniae Rege captus in carcere expiravit sub an 841. In English these Reyner the LVI most powerful King of the Danes who nevertheless from the height of Fortune that favour'd him so mightily in subduing the Kingdoms of Swedland Russia England Scotland Norway Ireland was thrown down as low For being taken by Hella King of Ireland he died there in prison about the year 841. And yet I must observe here with Gratianus Lucius 1. That Cypreus mistook both the name and quality of him that took Prisoner this great Danish King 2. That no King of Ireland nor Provincial nor even other lesser King in Ireland was ever call'd by the name of Hella nor was that name of any body at all known among the Irish 3. That the right Irish name in all likelihood was Oillioll which because hard of pronuntiation Foreiners mistook or chang'd it to Hella 4. That since Christianity planted in that Countrey not even any Oillioll was King among 'em save only the Monarch Oillioll surnamed Molt who was next successour to Laoghaire mhac Neill in the year 458. and was killed in Battel An. 478. And lastly therefore that he must have been some great General of an Army and his name Oillioll that took this great Reynerus and kept him in Prison till he died 68. Another is of the Fatal Stone as they call it and refers to page 378. where I ended my Animadversions on the Scottish Histories concerning Fergus I. Of that famed Stone Keting in his Relations of the People call'd Tuath De Dainainn gives this account 1. That this Nation who were the last possessors of Ireland immediately before the Milesian Race had on their arrival there from Norway brought with them four special Jewels of extraordinary use namely a Sword Lance Pot and the Enchanted Stone which in Irish they call by one name Liath Fail by an other Cloch na Cineamhna this later importing in English the Stone of Destiny or Fortune 2. That after the Milesiaus had conquer'd those Tuath-Da-Danan and consequently got possession of this Stone and after they had not only plac'd it at Teambhuir our Tarach where all their Nobles and people did usually meet to chuse the King of Ireland but ordain'd that the new Elect should sit thereon as son as he did so the Stone under him by vertue of some Magical or Diabolical Charm gave such a mighty loud ecchoing astonishing sound that presently the Election was known thereby far and near 3. That this Oraculous Vertue of it ceased as some say when the Pentarchy was set up in that Kingdom by the Monarch Eochadh Feilioch or as others say about the time of our Saviours birth when throughout the World all the sallacious Oracles of the Gentiles became mute 4. That for its name of Cloch na Cineamhne or Stone of Destiny or Fatal Stone the reason was an old Prophesie deliliver'd of it by Tradition which Hector Boethius rendred thus in Latin Verse Ni fallat Fatum Scoti hunc quocumque locatum invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem But in Irish Meeter it is in Keting thus Ciniodh Scoâ—t saor an Fine man baâ—breag an Faisdine mar a bhfulghid an Liath Fail dlighid flaitheas do ghabhail Importing in both that where-ever the Seottish Nation did find that Stone they should have Dominion Power and Regal Majesty 5. That because of this prophetical Prediction and reputation of it when Fergus that famous Invader of the Picts I mean Fergus Mor mhac Ercho mhic Eochadh muin reamhair as the Irish call and genealogize him from his Father and Grandfather whom the Scottish Historians call Fergus I. would be created K. over hisown conquering Nation the Scots of Pictavia or Albania in Great Brittain he sent to his Brother Mairchiortach Mor mhac Ercha then Monarch of Ireland for this fatal Stone and had it over into Scotland of purpose that by sitting on it when he was created King he might assure the establishment of his Crown and power of his own People in his new conquer'd Kingdom 6. That for many ensuing Ages it remain'd there for a monument either of Religion or Superstition being in the same manner and to the same purpose sate upon by the succeeding Kings of Scotland till Edward I. of England in the current of his Victories had it brought away out of the Abbey of Scone to the Abbey of Westminster Where ever since it has been kept placed under the Royal Chair which the Kings of England usually sit in at their Coronation 7. That in the memory of our Fathers that prophetical Prediction of it and the ancient Scots which you have but now seen was fulfill'd in England too when James VI. of Scotland was crowned King of England at Westminster and has ever since continued to be more and more verified in the succession of Charles I. of glorious memory and Charles II. our present most gracious King For by the line of Maine mhic Cuirek mhic Luighc they are descended through a World of Generations of ancient Scots the Milesian Irish from Heber who as has been already noted elsewhere being the son of Milesius and in a joint Sovereignty ruling with his Brother Herimon was three thousand years since King of all Ireland And this is the account which Keting where he treats of Tuath-De-Danainn gives of that fatal Stone Save only that he makes no express mention of Charles II. nor could indeed as who died himself in the Reign of Charles I. But nevertheless he express'd his mind sufficiently as to the purpose of that Fatal Prediction by naming his Father and Grandfather both I am sure his expression of joy in the same place for their having successively come to be Kings of England Scotland France and Ireland must have involv'd the concomitant wishes of his heart for their posterity after them to attain and continue the same glory while time shall be And therein he has me to join with all my very Soul 69. The Fifth may be referr'd to page 155. where I treated briefly somewhat of Cormock O Cuillenain that excellent pious holy man who was at the same time both Arch-Bishop and King of Mounster and continued so for seven years together that is even all along till he lost his life in the Battel of Mughna For to this rare Example of the same man's being both King and Priest may be added
the other then Buchanan has before him nay wider from it as to the later Question than either Campion or Hanmer or any other follow'd by them These for so much had the good luck to yield to the Authority of V. Bede in his Eccles Histor l. 1. c. 1. where he expresly tells us to this purpose 1. That when the ancient Britons had possess'd themselves of the Southern Parts of this Noble Island which derives its name from them it happen'd that the Nation of Picts departing from Scythia entring the Ocean wind-driven to Ireland landing there desiring the Inhabitants the Scots to afford 'em Elbow-room for Cohabitation and being denied this but nevertheless directed by 'em to the Northern Tract of Great Brittain and withal promis'd their assistance if need should be to conquer it by force they by this direction and promise encourag'd put to Sea presently for that same Northern Tract and landing therein made it their habitation 2. That wanting Women and desiring Wives of the Scots they had 'em on this condition That whenever the succession to the Crown amongst their People should chance to be controverted the Female's line Royal should prevail and the King be chosen thence Which is even to this day observ'd among the Picts says Bede speaking of his own time 3. That they had a peculiar Language of their own For in the same Chapter he notes particularly how according to the number of the Five Books of Moses wherein the Divine Law had been written Brittain in his time praised God in five divers Languages viz. those of the English Britons Scots Picts and Latins this last made common to them all by their studying the Holy Scriptures Yet notwithstanding this plain account of the Picts given by V. Bede as to their great Antiquity or Time of their first appearance in these Western Islands and the Countrey whence they came to them being that of Scythia not only Buchanan but Cambden by little Criticisms and other weak conjectures would fain persuade us they had only been a part of the ancient Britons retired from the South and power of the Roman Legions in the same Island of Great Brittain c. into the more uncouth inaccessible Northern parts thereof That they were no earlier known by the name of Picts than the Reign of the Roman Emperours Diocletian and Maximian Herculeus And that their Language differ'd not in substance but only in a certain kind of Dialect from the Brittish Tongue spoken by the rest of their Countrey-men the other Brittons But the words of Bede are clearer and his authority greater than the arguments they bring are able to elude or impeach Nor indeed can any thing more be desired to end these two vexatious Questions concerning that Pictish Nation save only the particulars given by Keting out of the most ancient authentick Records of Ireland These are of such irrefragable authority that I am persuaded were they known to Cambden he had never disputed the matter At least I believe he should not if he had well consider'd of it The Irish were the Nation that by the confession of all sides from the beginning press'd longest and hardest of any upon that Northern Countrey inhabited by the Picts in Great Brittain They were the Nation that by degrees conquer'd so many of their Provinces planted so many Colonies in 'em establish'd a King of their own over the same Provinces long before the Romans attack'd either Yea they were the Nation that utterly subdued at last the whole Pictish Kingdom and extinguish'd in it the very name of Picts Wherefore it is plain that as the Irish were most concern'd so they had the best means of any to know both the time of their first appearance and Countrey too from whence they came as the Picts themselves were pleas'd to tell ' em And seeing it is no less plain out of what has been said elsewhere in these Discourses that the Irish Nation in all times had their publick Registers wherein with the greatest care and certainty could be all the Concerns of their People both at home and abroad together with all other matters they thought fit were recorded it must follow that their account of the Pictish Nation as to those two controverted points ought in reason to silence any other fancied by men of later days Now in that Irish account besides what you have seen already out of Venerable Bede there are many more particulars given at large by Keting out of the Psalter of Cashel whereof the chief heads are these 1. That in Thracia this People we call Picts serving Policornus the King of that Countrey in his Wars for pay but under a General and other Commanders of their own it happen'd that their General whose name was Gud understanding for certain how the King had design'd to ravish his beautiful Daughter if he could not otherwise make her his Whore prevented him by taking away his Life 2. That thereupon this Gud flying immediately with those of his Soldiery who were resolv'd to run his fortune put to Sea where he found convenience and roam'd up and down till he arriv'd in Gaule where being well entertain'd by the King of that Kingdom his Daughter's beauty prov'd the second time his bane after he had built or at least began the building of Pictavis from his People so called we call it now Poictiers For then observing that this Gaulish King also had the same design upon her that the Thracian had he saw there was no abiding there without sacrificing her honour to his Lust And therefore in all haste but as privately as he could he put to Sea again with his own People where he was toss'd so long till the occasion of all his woe his beautiful Daughter died and soon after he and his People arriv'd safe in Ireland at a place call'd in the Irish Tongue Inbher Slaine or the Mouth of the River Slane in Leinster which now we call the Haven of Weixford 3. That one by name Criomthann Sciatbheal being then Commander of Leinster under Herimon the First Milesian Monarch of Ireland hearing of their landing came to them and seeing them brave men entertain'd 'em willingly of purpose to assist him in fighting some Brittish Troops whom the Irish Books call Tuath Fiodhgha whose Lances and Arrows were poison'd to such degree that whoever was wounded by 'em could have no cure but Death 4. That after this League of Friendship made one of the Picts called Trosdan a great Magitian understanding of the common danger from those poison'd Weapons advis'd the said Leinster Commander to provide against the day of Battel a 150 white milch crumple-horn'd Cows to be milk'd all together when the Fight began the Milk put into a Hole prepar'd of purpose hard by and the wounded men to run presently and bath therein which being observ'd the effect prov'd answerable to expectation and the Brittains were quite overthrown with the loss of most of their Lives upon the spot 5.
That upon this success at least not long after it the Picts looking big growing unruly and even aspiring to the Command of that whole Province of Leinster but the Monarch Herimon made acquainted with it drawing together a greater Power then they dared fight they were compell'd to accept of his Terms and hye them away out of hand with his directions and assistance for the Northern parts of Great Brittain 6. That nevertheless before their departure they obtain'd of Herimon three Irish Ladies by name Beanbhreasi Beanbhuais and Beanbhuaisdhne who had been the Widows of three of Herimons Commanders and taken these names from 'em kill'd in the late War with Tuath-De-Danann and these were all the Women they could obtain at least then though upon that very condition told us by Bede The first of 'em married to Cathluan the chief Commander now of the Picts for it seems his Father Gud was before this time departed the World the other two married to two more of their Nobles Nor could any of them obtain leave to stay in Ireland but only six viz. Trosdan the foresaid Magitian Soilean Vlpre Neachtan Nar Aongus and Leatan who had possessions given them for ever by Herimon in the Countrey of Breagh Mhoigh now call'd by us East and West Meath 6. That the foresaid Cathluan was the first King of the Picts in Cruithin-Tuath or Tuath Chruinigh for by both these compound names indifferently the Irish Books call that Countrey in the North of Brittain which the Picts erected to a Kingdom and call it so properly enough as importing in English the Lordship Lordship or Dominion of the Picts the simple word Tuath signifying in Irish a Lordship and Cruinigh the Picts themselves 7. That after him in a succession reign'd in the same Countrey at least in some part of it and of the same Pictish Nation Threescore and Ten Kings more to Constantine the last of ' em And these being the Heads of those particulars that concern them in the Psalter of Cashel written by the Holy Cormock O Cuilenain Arch Bishop and King of Mounster eight hundred years since and by consequence written either immediately before or immediately after I am sure much about the time of their last fatal overthrow by his Countrey men the Irish and their Issue in Scotland we need no longer question either the time of that Pictish Nation 's first appearance or the Countrey they came from to the Western parts of Europe As neither indeed whence they deriv'd the custom of painting themselves They might have learn'd this from the Agathyrsi in Thracia if themselves had it not before yea they might be the first that us'd it in Great Brittain and the Brittons might have only had it from them for any thing said to the contrary And they came as early to Ireland and Scotland both as the Reign of Herinton the first Milesian Monarch of Ireland after he had kill'd his elder Brother Heber to whom he was but joyn'd in Sovereignty while Heber lived Nay we need not question how long this Pictish Kingdom lasted For seeing it began at least as early as Herimon's death I mean by this account in the Psalter of Cashel and that by Primat Vshers account it continued to the year of Christ 840. then we must conclude that according to Gratianus Lucius's computation of the years of the World and years also of all the several Irish Monarchs Reigns the Pictish Kingdom lasted 2623 years in all For this Author fixes the death of Herimon in the year of the World 3516. and the Birth of Christ in the year 5199. as Eusebius Caesariensis one of the Fathers of the first General Council of Nice did long before him What more I have to say in reference to the Picts their Kingdom or Kings is That as I was writing this Reflection Mr. Langhorn's Introduction to the History of England being brought me by chance and looking it over I observ'd That altho the ingenious Author gives no more light therein concerning the Countrey whence those Picts came first to Ireland and thence to Scotland nor of their Leaders name nor of the time of their arrival amongst us than other late Writers especially Campion and Hanmer did before him who call that Leader King Roderick and say this Roderick came to Ireland from Scandia alias Scandinavia which goes under the name of Scythia Germanica or the German Scythia yet he gives therein page 197 a Catalogue of the Brittish Kings and years of their several Reigns partly out of John Fordon's M. S. Scoto-Chronicon and partly out of Hector Boethius who adds to the 76 Kings in Fordon five more So that both numbers put together make just the very same number of Pictish Kings which the Psalter of Cashel has Though I must confess there is no other agreement in any point between that Psalter these Authors either as to the names of those Kings or years of their Reigns or total sum of these years Neither is there in that whole Catalogue any Roderick either as first or last or any at all of them nor any thing near his name The very same you may assure your self of Cathluan whom nevertheless you have seen before out of the Psalter of Cashel to have been the first Pictish King As for the total sum of the years of their Reign which by casting it up out of the several Reigns every body may see is 1165. it plainly comes short by 1452 years of the former account derivable from the Psalter of Cashel and Vsher Lucius Besides it necessarily must suppose the Pictish Kingdom began in Scotland e'en four hundred years full before any Picts landed in Scotland or came from Scandinavia to Scotland or Ireland which does not stand with the time of their coming set down by our new Historians and last of all by Langhorn himself As for the names express'd in that Catalogue all I can say is that if we give credit to Nennius a Brittish Author that liv'd as himself writes an Christi 830. under Anaraugh King of Anglesey and Guinech if besides we suppose his Book rightly translated into Irish in O Duvegans Miscellanies and if withal we believe that Gratianus Lucius quoting both would not impose upon us nor I on you or my self what follows must be That we give no kind of credit to the foresaid Catalogue drawn out of Fordon and Boethius not even I mean as to those names of the Pictish Kings contain'd therein For the same Gratianus Lucius after letting us know in his Cambr. Evers page 93. That himself had a Copy of those Miscellanies and among 'em the Catalogue of all the Pictish Kings written by the said Nennius then presently though upon another occasion names five and forty of 'em and I am sure that of this very number tho only a part of Nennius's Catalogue there are at least six and twenty names that have no affinity with no resemblance at all nor imitation of any in the whole Bedâ—oll
of Boethius and Fordon as I find this given by Langhorn So much of the Picts And therefore now to my Eighth Note Which as it refers to several places of this Book particularly to page 5. and all other pages indeed where I suppose the Milesians either to have possess'd themselves of Ireland as early as the year of the World 2736. or not to have continued longer a free People under their own Laws and Kings then about 2500 years so it is meerly occasion'd by what I said but now in my Seventh Note concerning the extent of time which the Pictish Kings must have lasted according to the Chronology of Lucius and Vsher In short I must on this occasion tell you here That as to the Milesian Kingdom 's answerable extent of Time Keting and Lucius agree Save only That Keting as himself professes in his Preface following that computation of the years of the World which allows only 4052 years from the Creation to the Incarnation and consequently in this coming short 1138 years of the computation of Eusebius would needs reform the Irish Regnal for so they call the Book of their Reigns by shortning the Reigns of several of their Monarchs by so many years in all as amount to above four hundred that is 491 years and this of purpose to make the whole extent of Time and the several Periods from the first Plantation of Ireland by Partholan to the Reign of Ruaruidh O Conchabhar the Last Irish Monarch of the Milesian Race agree the better with his own foresaid Computation of the years of the World And Lucius on the other side as he follow'd Eusebius's Computation of the same years of the World which is that commonly follow'd by both Greeks and Latins says Sixtus Senensis * Biblioth S. l. 2. page 46. verb. Adae Genealogia so he held stiffly and throughly to the Irish Regnal as to the years of each Milesian Monarch's Reign And therefore the difference 'twixt these two Writers in relation to Ireland or to any period or extent of the periods of Time since its first Plantation is only that of near five hundred years during the Milesian Monarchy In all other points concerning this matter they both agree As for Example That Ireland was first planted by Partholan about three hundred years after the Deluge that his Posterity continued there three hundred years and the next Invaders Clanna Neimheadh 217 more and after them the Nation call'd Fir-bholg thirty six and after these another Nation by name Tuath-De-Danann for 197 years and then immediately the Milesians coming in continued since to the year of Christ 1172. So that Keting and Lucius being throughly agreed in all these points their difference about the whole extent of their several periods mention'd before can be no other than that of Keting's voluntary cutting off from the Milesian Reigns about five hundred years Or rather indeed especially if we consider how Keting himself confesses he did so and for what end he did it even contrary to the Irish Regnall we may conclude there is no difference at all as to the undoubted extent of all those several Periods of Time though Keting place the Milesian Epocha in his year of the World 2736. and Lucius the very same Epocha in his year of the World 3500. For albeit this diversity of placing it argues 1172. years difference between 'em in stating the years of the World and that Keting chose rather to follow the far more likely computation of Augustinus Torniellius in his Annales Sacri Profani * Torniel Sext. M. aetat ad an 4052. ab Orbe condito ad eundem Christi passione redemptum come out a little before Keting's time though he makes no mention of them or him than be led by that of Eusebius who was himself most probably misled by the grand Errour of the Septuagint Version * See Sixtus Senen Biblioth S. â— 2. page 45. but more at large l. 5. page 440. where he shews that the computation of Eusebius as to the years only from the Creation to the birth of Abraham exceeds the Hebrew true computation in One thousand two hundred thirty six years Nay in the former Place he shews that whereas from the Creaation to the Flood Moses counts only 1656 years the Septuagint Interpr exceed him in 786 years So that by their supputation to the Flood only the number of years is 2242. From which diversity the great contention arose betwixt the Hebrews and the Greeks in computing the years of the World So says he l. 2. pag. 45. verb. Adae Genealogia yet no difference at all as to stating strictly the extent of Time or number of years which the Milesian or other former Conquests or Plantations of Ireland had continued can be deduced thence Only it argues that either the one or other was mistaken in the number of the years of the World or in fixing ' em Which is enough to be said on this Subject occasionally And therefore I will only add here what as occasionally comes now to mind That whether in my Title-page by the year of the World 2736 you understand the year accounted such according to the computation of Torniellius and Keting or the other accounted such by Eusebius and Lucius I am neither way my self nor any thing in this Book concern'd Though otherwise I would as to this point much rather hold with those than these retaining nevertheless all due veneration to the name of Eusebius as who had been not only one of the Three hundred and eighteen Nicene Fathers and Bishop of Caesarea in Palestin but worthy as Constantine the Great said of him to be Bishop of the whole Earth The Ninth and last Additional Note has no reference that I can remember to any thing said before in any of my pages However I give it because I see Gratianus Lucius thought it not unconducing to the honour of the Ancient Irish For it is in short That the Warlike Nation of the Heruli who inhabited some Northern Islands and other Tracts near Germany a Nation too well sometimes known to the Roman Provinces harrass'd by them did glory in their two Kings Dathen and Aordon as descended from the Irish and that Suria born of an Irish Lady descended from the Kings of Ireland had the supreain Power of Biscay an 870 as absolute Princess thereof which she transmitted to a long succession of Descendants from her Whereof you may see Gratianus Lucius page 299. where he quotes Wolfgangus Lassin de Migrat Gent. l. 13. And so Reader you have at last an end of all my additional Notes and consequently of all whatever I thought necessary to say according to the design and method of this little Tract of the Ancient Irish as they were a free Nation about 2500 years under their own Laws and Government For indeed my design hitherto as you may easily perceive was either only or at least chiefly to represent them as they appear'd
ancient Irish Septs even at this very time In short as their name turn'd English must be the Children or descendents of Roderick for thus we render the Irish name Ruadruidh so they had that name as they lineally derive their descent not from either of the two Irish Monarchs call'd by that name though to pass by the later who was the very last of all the Milesian Kings of Ireland yet the former of them was so long before as the LXX Monarch in order of the same Milesian Race who came to the Sovereignty of Ireland in the year of the World 4907 that is before the birth of Christ 392 years but much earlier from Ruadhruidh mhac Sithghe that descended from Ir one of the eight Sons of Milesius Which Ir being dead before or at least upon the first partition of Ireland betwixt the two surviving Brothers Heber and Herimon and their Cosins and the foresaid Ruidhruidh mhac Sitghe succeeding in the Lot of Ir which was in the North he establish'd both himself and his posterity there and in process of time became the great stock of a most numerous warlike stubborn People and among 'em Lords and Princes and Kings too whereof such as continued still within that portion of Ir Northern Division are by the rest of the Irish call'd Na Faoir Vlltaigh which words import in our Language the right Vlster men And not only they that so remain'd within that Vlster Lot but those that issued from them into the other Provinces of Ireland where many of 'em acquir'd large Territories have always gone under the name of Clanna Ruidhruidh and by it are distinguish'd still from all other Families descended either from Herimon or Heber or Ith or any else whatsoever of those very first Milesian Conquerours Of those of them who had so issued forth into other Provinces are the progeny of Connall Cearnach in Lease a Territory of Leinster and those Septs in Connaght which go by the peculiar name of Comhaicne Chonnacht besides other Families in Corcaigh Moruadh and Kiarruigh parts of Mounster Third Observation is That so many rich Presents made in one Progress by a Provincial King must argue Ireland to have been at least in those days of Paganism whereof Benuinn writes for he himself flourish'd about 1200 years since a Countrey fraught with exceeding great Riches And verily there are several other strong arguments to persuade us it was so 1. The golden Mines discover'd there under the X. Monarch of the Milesian Conquest by name Tighernmhais and a long time after made use of In so much that the Countrey abounding with gold the next Monarch after him viz. Munemhon who died in the year of the World 3872. ordain'd that all the Gentry should wear golden chains about their Necks And his next Successor Allerghoid's reign is noted in the Irish Chronicles for golden Rings therein first used in that Nation 2. The great number of Silver shields made by the command of Euno Airgtheach the Xvii Monarch of the Milesian Conquest and together with Caroches and Horses bestow'd by him on persons of Worth He reign'd seven years and in the year of the world 3882. was kill'd in Battel by his successour having first derived from those Silver Targets the surname of Airgtheach which imports Silver'd 3. The numerous company of Goldsmiths every where in that Kingdom I am sure that as Keting in Tighernmhais's reign takes special notice of his name who was the very first Master Goldsmith in those days so does Gratianus Lucius enough of latter days I mean as to that matter of the great number of Goldsmiths in 'em among the Irish For in his 118. p. he observes out of O Duuegan that even S. Patric had in his own private Family of them at work three namely Essuus Bidus and Tassachus He further adds that scarce in the Irish Histories may be found an instance of any Chalices Vials or Utensils whatsoever dedicated to holy uses at the Altar or in the Church other than of pure Gold or Silver Besides that the very coverings not only of Reliques but of Books all of Silver and Gold were so many throughout that Kingdom since it became Christian as might easily persuade any indifferent man that of necessity their number of Goldsmiths must have been very great 5. The spoils of foreign Countreys which for so many long Ages the Irish gather'd home to Ireland as elsewhere in this Treatise has been said 5. Their being so excellently seated for Trading that in those days of old they were mightily frequented by Merchants out of Spain France Great Brittain c. but without question much more than Great Brittain was For proof we have the testimony of so knowing and sure a Writer as Cornelius Tacitus in his Life of Agricola where speaking of Ireland in reference to Brittain he has these words Melius aditus portusque per commercia negotiatores cogniti signifying That the Havens and Ports of Ireland were better known by Commerce and Merchants than those of Brittain 6. The ounce of Gold yearly paid for every Nose in Ireland to the Danish Victors whilst their Dominion lasted there which also we have seen before out of Keting 7. The acknowledgment of Gerald of Wales himself even for his own time that is for the time following the horrible desolation of that Countrey by the long and cruel Danish Wars and the frequent continual plundering of it by the Norvegians and other Easterlings for about a hundred and fifty years at least Yet Gerald who in the second or third Age after so much Riches had been carried away thence by those plundering Heathens was an Eye-witness himself of what remain'd still even in King Hen. II. reign professes that Ireland at this very time abounded with Gold For Aurum quoque quo abundat Insula are his own words Expug Hib. l. 2. c. 15. where if you joyn with it his seventeenth Chapter you may observe him not only in three several places referring to and exaggerating this very subject of the Irish Gold but withal supposing in the last of them that without Irish Commodities Commerce our Island of Great Brittain could not subsist Besides I might peradventure to the same purpose of shewing the plenty of Treasure among the Irish and that even but a very little time before the days of Cambrensis I am sure I might pertinently enough for shewing their liberality and Piety both extended even to Forein Parts alleadg out of the Chronicle of St. James's Benedictin Cloister seated at the West-gate of Reinsburg alias Ratisbona in Germany those vast sums of Gold and Silver besides the great proportion of other rich Donaries bestow'd by the Mounster King Conchabhar O Brien surnamed Slapparsalach and other Irish Princes upon Dionysius Christianus and Gregorius three successive Irish Abbots of that Cloister and sent unto them by their own Irish Messengers come of purpose out of Germany at three several times and with the Emperour Conrad's Letters
commending them that came last Unto those and these Messengers was delivered so great and Royal a sum by the foresaid King of Mounster that thereby this Cloister was from the very foundations not only re-built in a little time so magnificently that for the stateliness of the Work it surpass'd all other to be seen in those days any where but moreover to maintain it and the Monks therein for ever purchased both within that very City of Reinsburg and abroad in the Countrey in Houses Lands Villages Towns a mighty great Revenue and perpetual Estate And yet after all supererat ingens copia pecuniae Regis Hiberniae there was remaining still an exceeding great quantity of the King of Ireland's money says the said Chronicle For so that Author calls the above Conchabhar O Brien though only King of Mounster the time of whose Reign was from the year of Christ 1127. when it began to the year 1142. when he ended both it and together with it his Life in a Pilgrimage at Kildare I say nothing of the mighty rich Presents which he sent and were carried from him and presented in his name to the Emperour Lotharius the II. by some of the noblest Peers of Ireland who had receiv'd the Cross for going to the holy War at that time in Palestine But there are two particulars which on this occasion coming to remembrance I cannot pass over in silence The one is concerning Marianus Scotus a famous man among the Learned specially Chronologers For in that Reinsburg Chronicle which speaks of Gregory the third of those Irish Abbots now mention'd we have this account of him 1. That after the same Gregory upon the death of his predecessour Christianus was chosen Abbot to succeed him in the foresaid Cloister of Reinsburg and therefore gone to Rome to be consecrated by the Pope who then was Adrian IV. an English man at that very time turn'd Monk in this Cloister egregius Clericus Hiberniensis nomine Marianus c. an excellent Irish Clerk by name Marianus a most learned man who a long time at Paris had publickly taught the seven Liberal Arts and other Sciences and was there Master to this very Adrian who now presided in the Apostolical Chair at Rome when the foresaid Gregory was admitted by him to Audience 2. That among other questions Adrian enquiring of Gregory concerning Marianus his old Praeceptor at Paris Gregory answered him thus Master Marianus is well and having forsaken the World lives with us a Monk at Reinsburg 3. That hereupon the Pope delivered himself in these words God be thanked says he For throughout the Catholick Church we do not know under an Abbot such an other man so excelling in Wisdom Prudence Wit Eloquence good manners humanity dexterity and other divine gifts as my Master Marianus c. Hitherto the very words of that Reinsburg Chronicle done only into English Which I have therefore given here out of Camb. Evers page 164. because I would restore that famous man to his own native Countrey Ireland notwithstanding his surname of Scotus What time he flourish'd we may gather hence being we know that Pope Adrian IV. whose Instructor in the Sciences he was died in the year of Christ 1159. the fourth year and tenth month of his Pontificate The other particular shews how the Irish had been five hundred years before piously munificent to Foreiners come to lead religious lives with them at home in Ireland as we have but lately seen they were five hundred years after to those of their own Natives that devoted themselves wholly to the same Life among Foreiners abroad I must confess there are many more Instances in History to shew the same thing but this one extracted by Cambden Cambden in his country of Maio. out of V. Bede l. 1. Eccles Histor cap. 4. may be sufficient in this place Colman an Irish Bishop found a place in Ireland meet for building a Monastery named in the Scottish that is Irish Tongue Mageo And he bought a part of it which was not much of the Earl whose possession it was to found a Monastery therein but with this condition annex'd to the sale that the Monks residing there should pray for the Soul of him that permitted them to have the place Now when he had in a very little time with the help of the said Earl and all the Neighbour Inhabitants built this Cloister he plac'd the English men there who were thirty in number leaving the Scots behind him in the Monastery which he had before built in a small Isle on the West of Ireland by name Inis-Bofindhe that is the Island of the white Cow And that Cloister which he had built within the Land is inhabited even at this day by English men For it is the same which of a small one is grown great and usually call'd Mageo And now having this good while turn'd all to better orders it contains a notable Covent of Monks who being assembled there out of the Province of England according to the Example of the reverend Fathers under regular disciplin and a Canonical Abbot live in great continency and sincerity by the labour of their own hands Hitherto Bede And Cambden where he treats of the County of Maio in Connaght adds that if he deceive not himself that place named Mageo in Bede is the very same that now we call the Town of Maio the Head of that Shire Which to be true not only the neerness of Inis-Bofindhe where Colman left the Irish Monks whom together with those English he took along with him from Lindisfearn in Great Brittain * Ann 664. according to the Saxon Chronology printed with Bede by Wheloc but the right Irish name of Maio confirms For in that Language 't is call'd Magheo even at this day But 't is high time now to end a digression which though at first occasion'd by my reflecting on Felim mhac Criomthain 's costly Progress about Ireland has after by degrees of it self insensibly spun out to this length 61. Although you may see for above four leaves together that is from page 190 to page 199. very much as well of the great Actions and fortunate successes of the last Irish Monarch Ruaruidh O Conchabhair in his youth as of the total Ecclipse of his glory yea and pitiable change of his Royal State in his old days to the miserable condition of a poor private flitting forlorn Exile and all proceeding from the unnatural cruelty of his own very Son nevertheless amongst those former smiles of Fortune favouring him had it occurr'd I had surely mention'd the General Assembly or Parliament of all the Estates of Ireland which he held with great solemnity in the first year of his Reign being the year of Christ 1166. at a place which Gratianus Lucius in his Camb Evers page 161. calls in Latin Athboylochia perhaps that Town which now we call Athboy in Meath and the Irish in their Language Bale-Ath-Buoy But which foever or where