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
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
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
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
of these two Writers has treated of the Affairs of that second Difference of Time in Varro especially Berosus He tells us that Berosus both mentioned the Flood and Ark and resting of this on the Mountains of Armenia and continued the series of his Narration downwards all along from the first of Kings after the Deluge even from Noah himself that is for the whole extent of that very Second period or Difference of Time Whence it must follow that however this Time might well and justly be reputed fabulous by the Greeks in relation to themselves and their own Historians yet their ignorance ought to be no rule to conclude other Nations that like to those ancient Egyptians Phaenicians and his Chaldeans in Joseph were from the beginning careful to preserve their Antiquities i. e. their Genealogies Adventures Changes Kings Wars and other Memorable Deeds in publick Registers on Record for Posterity Such are at present the Chineses in the utmost limit of the old World in Asia towards the Rising Sun as the History of Martinus a Martinis abundantly sheweth And that such also in the farthest Land of Europe towards the Setting Sun the ancient Irish have been while their State continued till about five hundred years since may be sufficiently evinc'd by many arguments Among which are those which you may briefly read in this Prospect Former Part Sect. II. page 46 47 and 48. whereunto it will not be amiss to add what both Cambrensis and Neubrigensis do confess that even from the beginning the Irish Nation has ever continued free from any forein Yoak or Conquest till Henry the Second of England's time That is according to Cambrensis has continued so even for so long an extent of time as the successive Reigns of a hundred eighty one Monarchs of their own Countrey and extraction from the same stock had certainly taken up And therefore it must be also confess'd That so long at least they were in a capacity to preserve their own Records And so indeed they did preserve the chiefest of 'em safe even amidst the greatest fury of the two Danish Wars Neither of which how destructive calamitous and heavy soever especially the Former was arrived to the nature of an absolute or total Conquest of the Natives not even for one week or day All which consider'd by indifferent men I hope may be enough to remove out of their way all prejudgment of Criticks from the foresaid observation of Varro against those remote Antiquities of the Irish Nation which you shall meet with in the Former Part of this Prospect What or who were the Authors I have followed it will be but reasonable I should inform you next And I think it as reasonable to tell you That although I have read whatever Cambrensis or Campion or Hanmer or Spencer wrote of Ireland yet in the whole Former Part of this Prospect I have not borrow'd from any one or more of them above one Paragraph of a few lines unless peradventure you account those other to be such i. e. borrowed from them which animadvert upon some few of their many Errours Nor certainly would I have ventur'd on writing so much as one Line of the State of that Kingdom before the English Conquest if I had not been acquainted with other kind of Authors yea Authors not only more knowing but incomparably better qualified to know the ancient Monuments of that Kingdom than they or any other Foreigners that hitherto have gather'd written printed some hear-say scraps of that Nation could possibly be In short when I was a young man I had read Geoffrey Keting's Irish Manuscript History of Ireland And now when my Lord of Castle-haven would needs engage me to write something as you have seen before I remembred how about four or five years since the R. H. Earl of Anglesey Lord Privy Seal had been pleas'd to shew me another Manuscript being an English Translation of that Irish History of Ketings Besides I remember'd to have seen and read Gratianus Lucius when he came out in print some twenty years ago And because I was sâ—re to meet in the Former materials enough for such Discourses upon the more Ancient Irish or State of their Countrey before the English Conquest as were to my purpose and that the Later too might be very useful in some particulars having borrow'd Keting first i. e. that English Manuscript Translation of him such as it is from my Lord Privy Seal I ventur'd to begin somewhâ—â— in the method you have here on so Noble and Illustrious a Subject Though I must confess I am still the more unsatisfied that while I was drawing these Papers you have now before you I could by no means procure the Reading either of Primat Vsher's Primordia Ecclesiarum Britannicarum or Sir James Ware 's Antiquities of Ireland However seeing I have expos'd my self to censure as relying wholly on the ability and sincerity of Keting and Lucius in the performance of their several undertakings I have the more reason to give here this following true account of them Geoffrey Keting was a Native of Ireland in the Province of Mounster as were his Ancestours before him for many Generations though not of Irish but English blood originally He was by Education Study Gommencement abroad in France a Doctor of Divinity in his Religion a Romanist by Ordination and Calling a secular Priest He had by his former study at home in his younger days under the best Masters of the Irish Tongue and the most skilful in their Antiquities arriv'd to a high degree of knowledg in both In his riper years when return'd back from his other Studies and Travails in Forein Parts his curiosity and genius led him to examin all Foreign Authors both Ancient and Modern who had written of that Kingdom either purposely or occasionally whether in Latin or in English And this diligent search made him observe two things chiefly 1. That every one even the very best and most knowing of those Writers were either extreamly out in many if not most of their Relations concerning the State of that Countrey before the English Conquest or rather indeed wholly ignorant of it In so much that like men groping in the dark they related scarce any thing at all well or ill of what had pass'd among the Inhabitants of Ireland far above one and Thirty Hundred years Except only what is by some of them reported of the Learning and Sanctimony of their Monks during the first fervours of Christianity and a very little more of their Wars at home in Ireland with the Danes and even this very little involv'd in a mixture of Monstrous Fables derived from such Romantick Stories as were certainly written at first for meer diversion and pastime only 2. That the generality of those Brittish Authors who have written of that Countrey since the English Conquest are against all Justice and Truth and Law 's of History in the highest degree injurious to the ancient Natives These considerations
seeing him a Widower his former Wife the Scythian Kings Daughter having died before he came to Egypt the gave him one of his own Daughters to Wife 4. Of his departure from Egypt by Sea and various adventures for some years roaming about all the Northern Seas and Isles of Europe 5. Of his return at last to his own Countrey of Spain and the five and forty Battels fought there victoriously by him and under his conduct by his near Cosins the Children of Breoghuin the Son of Bratha who founded Braganza in Portugal against the forein Enemies that invaded that Kingdom then 6. Of the destruction and utter extirpation at least for a good while of all those Foreiners out of Spain by his Valour and Wisdom and which was consequent of his possessing by himself and his foresaid Kinsmen the greater Part of this Kingdom 7. Of his two and thirty Sons part Legitimat but the most part Illegitimat 8. Of the great Dearth in his time all over Spain continuing six and twenty years thro want of Rain 9. And lastly how this Dearth together with several other reasons but particularly that of his minding now the Prophetical Prediction of him by his own Magitian Cathoir some years before That his Posterity should settle in Ireland made him and soon after his death eight of his Sons think upon invading Ireland Tho I say these are matters not wholly foreign to my purpose yet because they are unnecessary it sufficeth to have touch'd 'em lightly And so I proceed to what I intended as more material here to let you know Which is 1. That of those 8. Sons of that Great Milesius for no more of his two and thirty Sons ventured to Ireland who presently after their Fathers death setting forth from Breoghuin's Tower a place in Gallicia long after called Notium but of later years Compostella and putting to Sea with the first convenience and landing in Ireland then when the three Sons of Cearmada ruled there by turns and by their great Valour destroying all three at last in the Battel of Tailtinn and thereby subduing thorowly the whole Nation of Tuatha-De-Danann two only I mean of those eight Brothers survived to rejoyce in their Conquest finish'd by that Battel Eibhir and Erimhon alias Heber and Herimon as the Latins call them the other six being lost by various Chances 2. That Eibhir and Erimhon assuming now the sovereign power of the whole Island after partition made first to themselves then to their Cousins German then to their other Captains and last of all to the common Soldiers of convenient proportions of Land ruling severally over all that is Eibhir in the Southern and Erimhon in the Northern Division the first year in perfect peace together and then falling at odds through the Pride and instigation of Heber's Wife that put her Husband upon having all in both Divisions to himself alone to the end forsooth she might sit and strut upon the three chief Ardes or Heights of Ireland as the only Queen thereof and then coming to a pitch'd Battel and Heber kill'd in it and then Herimon remaining the only King without any Competitor until his death which hapned fourteen years after He was the first of a hundred fourscore and one that as Monarchs of all Ireland successively governed it and the Milesian or Irish Nation the only possessors of it for two thousand four hundred eighty eight years until the landing of Henry the second there in the year of Christ 1172. 3. Cambrensis himself tho Giraldus Camb. Topog. Hiber dist 3. c. xv 17. 36 37 44. otherwise no great favourer of the Irish does certifie so much by computing from Herimon the first King to Laogirius who was King when St. Patrick landed there Anâ— Christi 432. to preach the Gospel a hundred thirty and one from Laogirius to King Fedlimidius which contain'd 400 years of the flourishing state of Christianity among the Irish three and thirty more and from that period to Ruaridh O Conchabhair who was the Monarch when Henry II. landed as before the whole remainder of that number of a hundred fourscore and one who besides a far greater number of the Provincial Kings under them governed as Sovereign Monarchs of all that Island for so many Ages from the year of the World 2736. Argument enough I think for the Antiquity of the Irish Nation to be no where parallel'd if not peradventure by the Chineses only in the late History written of them by Martinus à Martinâ—s 4. That for their bravery in Martial Exploits to say nothing now of a thousand bloody proofs thereof given by them at home for much above 2000 years fighting almost continually either the Progeny of Heber in general against Herimon's for the Sovereignty or one Province or greater Division Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogh invading the other especially after the Provincial Kings had set up by the Authority of Eoghun Mor or Eugenius Magnus the Monarch about 600 years after the death of Herimon so that very few of their Monarchs in so large an extent of time died other than violent deaths and this in Battel commonly but to say nothing of these proofs given by them at home their manifest Invasions abroad their Plantations and at last even total Conquest of the Kingdom of Albain that part of Great Britain which in after Ages came to be called Scotland from their conquering and planting of it with Colonies of their Children for they themselves were in this part of the World the original Scots as their Countrey now called Ireland or in Latin Hibernia was then the only Countrey named Scotia is an argument which cannot be refuted 5. That the Nation which we call Picts but the Irish in their Language Cruinith having in the reign of Herimon the first Irish Monarch roam'd about by Sea from Scythia till they arrived at last in Ireland and there desiring to inhabit and being denied this request but however directed by Herimon to that part of the now Great Britain which lying Northeast of Ireland was called Albain then and is so still by the Irish and here seated themselves and then multiplying exceedingly for two hundred and fifty years at the expiration of this time upon some difference hapned Aonghus or Aenaeas Ollbhuadhach the VII Monarch of Ireland succeeding Herimon made so sharp and long a War upon them and not on them only but as well on the Northern Britains remaining still their Neighbours as upon the Inhabitants of the barren Orcades the Race of Fir Bholg long before expelled Ireland that in fifty fierce Battels given them he utterly broke their whole strength and made them Tributaries Nor was this the only Conquest made by the Milesian Irish either on the Heathen or Christian Picts and their Associats in Albain For to pass over those six or seven Invasions more of the Irish into Albain under several of their Monarchs from the Reign of the foresaid Aonghus or Enaeas to the
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
About the end of Brian Boraimh's Reign the Kingdom of Ireland being all over in peace and flourishing with all earthly blessings under him and no more Danes left in the Land but such a certain number of Artificers Handy-craftsmen and Merchants in Dublin Weixford Waterford Cork and Limmerick as he thought and knew could be master'd at any time if they dared rebel he sends to his Brother-in-law Maolmoradh mhac Murchoe King of Leinster desiring three special Masts for shipping out of his Woods Maoldmoradh consents and goes himself to see them drawn along by the streingth of men to Cean Choradh the Monarch's House in Tomond A difference happening in the way between those men and thereupon Maolmoradh alighting and helping them to draw one of the beams up a high Mountain which they must have cross'd he toare off the clasp of his outward Robe Which so soon as he came to the Monarchs Court and visited the Queen his own Sister Garmlaigh he desires her to fasten telling her how it was torn off She takes the Robe throws it into the fire burns it before his face and then rebukes him smartly for his unworthy subjection of himself and his people of Leinster to Briean though her Husband And the Monarch Maolmoradh taking to heart her words and turning aside to see Murchoe the Prince Brian's eldest Son playing a game at Chess advises against him on some draught whereby the Prince lost his game Who thereupon fretting and twitting his Uncle this Leinster King told him that his advice formerly given to the Danes at the Battel of Gleann Mama lost them the Field Maolmoradh replyes that his next should prove otherwise The Prince defies him Maolmoradh withdraws goes to bed Supperless and early in the morning unknown posts away to Leinster Where the very next day after his coming he assembles his chief Noblemen represents to them what had past sets them all on fire to renounce their Allegiance to Briean confederate with the Danes and send the Monarch defiance Then he posts immediatly to Dublin engages the chief of the Danes there to send forthwith to the King of Denmark for a strong supply to help him against their mortal Enemy Brian Boraimhe and promises them his destruction And then he prepares at home for War And then within a little more time having seen twelve thousand men under the command of two of the King of Denmark's Sons Carolus Knutus and Andreas landed safely at Dublin and both kindly received them and refreshed them very well he without longer delay by a Herauld bid defiance to Brian and challenges him to fight on Maghnealta a spacious Field at Cluain-Tairbh otherwise Clantarf within two miles of Dublin And Brian with what speed he can joyning together all the Forces of Mounster Connaght and Meath for those of Vlster he neither sent unto nor would stay for as confiding mightily in those he had already out of the three other Divisions and hastning to fight marches directly to the place appointed Maghnealta and sees the Enemy there prepared to receive him viz. sixteen thousand Danes twelve of the new and four of the old ones together with all the power of Leinster headed by their said King Maolmoradh the only Author of this Battel To be short both Armies drawing near and viewing fully one another the fatal sign is given at last and Trumpets sound and skies resound with the terrible shouts of both sides as they closed But Maolseachluin the King of Meath who had been Monarch before Brian Boraimhe and was deposed to give him place the only Monarch of Ireland that from the beginning did survive his deposition finding it now his time to be in some sort revenged on Brian stands off with his Forces of Meath so soon as the signal was given and continues a meer Spectator during the whole time of the Battel without joyning with either side And yet notwithstanding this treacherous carriage of Maolseachluin for it can be term'd no better though after this Fight was over he recovered the Monarchy by it and was the last Monarch of the Milesian Race obeyed or acknowledged as such universally throughout the Kingdom yet I say notwithstanding it the valorous undaunted Prince Murchoe eldest Son of Brian Boraimhe having persuaded his Father to retire into his Tent by reason of his great age for he was now fourscore and eight years old behaved himself with his Momonian and Conacian Forces so bravely and made such and so many furious impressions on every side into the main Battalions of the Enemies that although neither courage nor dexterity nor ambition nor glory nor revenge nor despair proposed unto them respectively were wanting to make the Danish and Lagenian Forces withstand him a very long time and sell the Victory at a very dear rate he won the Field at last or rather indeed his Father and his Army won it after his death For this renowned Prince was kill'd in the Battel And which is far more strange the Father himself Brian Boraimhe the Monarch now after the Field had been clearly gain'd and the remainder of the Enemy scattered into the four Winds was kill'd in his own Tent by one Bruaodor a Dane who in the general Rout leading a party after him was forc'd to fly that way where the Monarch's Tent was pitch'd Whereinto as he pass'd by entring and seeing the Monarch whom he had formerly known he slew him though himself and his followers were presently cut in pieces by those that pursued them Of the Monarchs side besides himself and his Son the Prince were kill'd in this Battel seven little Kings most of the other Nobility both of Mounster and Connaught and 4000 of inferiour degree But of the other side were kill'd first the King of Leinster himself Molmoradh mhac Murchoe the Challenger of Brian to this Battel with his chief Nobles and 3000 common Souldiers then of the Danes the two Sons of the King of Denmark all their great Nobility 6700 of the Souldiers newly come with them and of the old Danes that were before their coming to Ireland 4000 more in all of both sides 17000 seven hundred besides Princes and other Noble men It was fought in the year of Christ 1034. Apr. 22. on good Friday After this Battel we hear but little of the Danes in Ireland Only that the foresaid Maolseachluin who now the second time succeeded in the Monarchy for nine years more until his death took Dublin the next year sack'd it burnt it and killed in it all those Danes that escaped from Clantarff That soon after this again i. e. in the Sovereignty of this same Maolseachluin Huaghaire mhac Duinling mhac Tâ—athil King of Leinster a man of another mind race and interest than Molmoradh mhac Murchoe was gave a mighty overthrow and it the very last given to Siteric the Son of Aomlaibh and the Danes of Dublin who it seems after the Battel of Clantarff and the burning of Dublin next year by Maolseachluin
had once more recruited from the Isle of Man and other Islands possess'd as yet by the Danes but were now finally destroyed in Ireland by the said new King of Leinster And lastly as Hackluyt reports in his Chronicle and so does Hanmer too that in the Reign of Muirchiortach mhac Brien who was the fourth after Brian Boraimhe Magnus then King of Denmark would needs venture the attempting Ireland once more to recover what his Predecessors held there but that landing with part of his Fleet before the greater part of them came up he was set upon immediately by the Countrey people and kill'd and his Fleet understanding it return'd presently from whence they came SECT II. The Irish for 2600 years a free Nation They were never subject to nor so much as invaded by the Romans Their Political Government or three Great Councils of Teamhvuir alias Tarach Eumhna and Cruachain The first a Triennial Parliament It 's Laws Feastings and other Ceremonies The strict examination therein of their publick Acts and Monuments What of that nature done in the great Parliament under Laogirius St. Patrick himself being one of the Examiners What matters debated in the Councils of Eumhna and Cruachain The Titles of Duke Marquess Earl Baron Knight not in use with them as neither in Scotland till William the Conqueror's time Their Leinster Militia called Fiona Eirlonn commanded by Fionn mhac Cuuail as General of it Hector Boethius and Hanmer corrected Their other Militia in Mounster by name Dal-Gheass Their celebrated Learning after their Conversion to Christianity Their four chief Vniversities whereof Ardmagh had 7000 Scholars at one time Their wonderful Sanctity i. e. the prodigious Numbers of their holy Monks and Nuns under S. Patrick first and next under the great Abbot Conghall alias Congellus This Abbot in person founded and governed the Monasteries both of Beanchuir in Ulster and Bangor in Wales near West-Chester his Disciples those of Lindisfarn in England Luxeu in Burgundy Bobie in Italy c. They converted several foreign Countreys But Scotland particularly was converted by Columb Cille A special priviledge given him and his Successors the Abbots of Hy. AND so by this time I think enough is said of the Warlike Spirit and Valour of the ancient Irish for so many Ages of the World until that time which was near the Eleventh Century of Christian Religion For as yet the infinite goodness patience and mercy of God expecting still their amendment restrain'd his Justice from bereaving them utterly of that Virtue that masculine bold Heroick Spirit I mean which preserv'd them so long even well nigh six and twenty hundred years a free Nation independent of any other unsubdued undisturb'd uninvaded otherwise and no longer nor no oftner nor with other success or issue than we have seen Not even the old Roman Empire it self whose conquering Eagles made all the rest at least of the Western World and among them all even the very most unaccessible remote recesses of Great Brittain a prey to their uncircumscribed ambition having never at any time had either footing or command or tribute or acknowledgment in Ireland Though we knowwell enough out of History a Tacitus in vit Agric. what a longing they had to be doing there at least to see that Countrey and people which dared receive continually so many fugitives b Cum suum Romani Imperium undique propagassent multi proculdâ—bio ex Hispania Gallia Britannia huc se receperunt ut iniquissimo Romanorum jugo colla subducerent Camden Hibern from their power in Spain and France and Great Brittain and protect them to their face But I am not to dwell or dilate on this Subject nor indeed on any other concerning that Nation the method I prescribed my self and bulk of this Treatise not allowing it 11. What I would in the next place reflect upon and as briefly as I well can is somewhat of their Policy or Government their standing Militia their Learning and their Sanctity when they were a happy flourishing people before the first Invasion of the Danes For their Government besides a Monarch five Provincial Kings and in process of time especially since the first Danish War manyother much lesser Kings they had anciently three great Councils held in three several places the Council of Taragh the Council of Eumhna and the Council of Gruachain all three called in their language Feis Teambrach Feis Eumhna and Feis Gruachain The first was a Triennial Parliament of all the Estates assembled at Taragh in Meath at the Monarch's pleasure about that time of year which we call now All Saints It was ordained first by Ollamh Fodhla the Twentieth Monarch after Herimon to be thenceforth from time to time perpetually observ'd in after Ages It was death without mercy without any hopes of it without any power in the Monarch himself to extend it to any person whatsoever either to â—ssault or wound or strike or draw upon any man attending that great Assembly or to be convicted either of robbery or stealth during the Session of it It was called only for making Laws reforming general abuses revising their Antiquities Genealogies Chronicles and either restoring or preserving peace and love among 'em by feasting together for seven days in one great House And therefore it is notable what Dr. Keting has in the Reign of Tuathall Teachtvair the Monarch of the manner of their meeting and sitting at these Feasts That the Room prepared to receive them all being made of purpose tho very longs yet narrow with Tables set on both sides and both ends and all things ready for the Entertainment and then the Room cleared of all persons whatsoever only the Marshal the chief Herauld or Chronicler and a Horn-winder excepted and then at three convenient little distances of time this Horn-winder calling to Dinner by the winding of his Horn at the first of 'em all the Esquires or Shield-bearers to the Princes and Nobility came to the door and there delivered their Shields to the Marshal who by the Heraulds direction hung them up in their due places over the Tables prepared of the right hand-side for the Estates At the second in like manner all the Taget-bearers to the Generals and other great Commanders of the Militia delivered up theirs and were on the other side of the House placed orderly as the former But at the third all the Kings Princes Estates Military men and other chief Gentry came in and fat down each one under his own Goat of Arms blazon'd on his Shield without any disorder about precedency or of places no man sitting on the outside of the Table nor any Woman at all admitted the Table in one end being for the Antiquaries and in the other for other Officers But to pass over this matter of Ceremony Herauldry and Feasting what I chiefly note in their procedure when they sat in Council or Parliament is their extraordinary care diligence and exactness in providing That all their
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
and that this Cuornâ—ne flying away presently to shelter himself under the wings of Domhnal and Ferghusse the Sons of Muirchiortach mhac Earcha two powerful men in their own Territory and they for his better assurance recommending him to Columb-Cille's protection the Monarch nevertheless lighting on him put him to death for his unpardonable crime at Taragh Which Columb-Cille resented so grievously that he persuaded such Families of the Neales as inhabited the North who by way of distinction from those other Neales living in the South of Ireland were called Clanna Neill in Tuaisgâ—â—art as the said other were Clanna Neill in Disgcâ—art to fight the Monarch while himself pray'd to God for their good success And it seems God was pleased to hear his prayer for humbling the Monarch For the issue of the Battel fought so by those Neales at Cuile Druimhne was that Diarmuid not only saw himself routed but almost his whole Army kill'd in that very Field The second on this occasion Dal-Narruidh and other Vltonians had in a difference twixt Columb-Cille and Comghall shewed themselves unjustly partial against Columb as he thought And therefore he had the Battel of Cuile Rathan fought against them Who this Comghall was I cannot certainly tell tho I think he might be the great Comghall alias Congellus Founder and Abbot of Beannchuir of whom so much has been said before I am sure he and Colum-Cille were contemporaries and of the same Province of Vlster But for being Author of the third Battel Columb-Cille had a much more specious cause it I may presume to interpose my simple judgment than either of the two former Baodhan mhac Niueadha who had been Monarch but one whole year being in some extraordinary danger from his Enemies Columb-Cille pass'd his word in the nature of a Sanctuary to him to keep him safe in that extremity Which Colmane mhac Colmain not regarding he had him set upon and murder'd by the two Cummins viz. Cummin mhac Colmain Bhig and Cummin in hac Libhrein at Carrig Leime in Eich or the Horse-leap in Jomairge And this was the cause that moved Columb-Cille to persuade and be Author of the Battel of Cuile Feadha fought against Colmane mhac Diarmuda It is true That whatever or how just soever the causes of each or all those three Battels had seem'd to Columb-Cille yet the holy Bishop Molaisse was so far from approving any of them that for engaging in them any way he not only most severely reproved Columb-Cille but enjoyn'd him the grievous pennance of departing presently out of Ireland and never more during life to see it It is also true that Columb-Cille with all humility and readiness obeying this injunction departed forthwith to Scotland where the power of God was with him so eminently in converting such vast numbers of Infidels to Christ as if God himself from all eternity had preordained those three Battels to be the occasion of saving the Picts And no less true it is That when the great Parliament of Ireland was summon'd by the Monarch Aodh mhac Ainmhirogh to assemble at Drom Ceatha as they did and sate there thirteen months without intermission or Prorogation debating principally those three things which he proposed to them 1. That of Banishing for ever all the Poets out of the Kingdom by reason of their being an excessive intolerable burden to the People Whereof you may see strange particulars in the following account This was the fourth time the Poets whom the Irish in their Language call Ollamhs were by a general Decree all of them condemn'd to Banishment into Dal-Riada in Scotland by reason of their insolency excessive number and burthen to the People For 1. They beg'd all what-ever seem'd to be most valued by the Noble-men who out of a foolish custom that prevail'd too long could deny them nothing And therefore they had the impudence to beg of this very Monarch Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh the richest and most precious Jewel in all his Treasury and had it 2. Their number was near a third part of the People of Ireland So says Keting if my Copy of his work be right There was a thousand of them that kept Trains of Vnderlings waiting on them continually where-ever they went The chiefest of all had 30 men for his own particular train The next to him 15. and so forth descending every one of them had some number in his own proper retinue to the very last of 1000 leading Poets 3. They were all of 'em with all their numerous trains yearly cess'd on the other Inhabitants of the Kingdom from All-hallows-day till May-day even six entire months of the year And these I think were sufficient reasons to Banish them as I have said they were three several times before this Parliament of Drom-Ceatha had been chiefly called for the same end For you are to understand that after each of their former Banishments they were still harbour'd in the North until they procur'd licence to return to all the other Provinces The first time being a thousand in number at the intercession of Columb-Cille who went in behalf of Conchabhar King of Ulster to meet and invite them they were staid received and maintain'd by him and his Nobles of that Province till seven years were over The second time by Fiachna mhac Baodhaine King of Ulster but for one year only their number being seven hundred The third time by Maobchoba King of Ulster likewise one whole year when their number was full 1200. But this fourth time at the Parliament at Drom-Ceatha tho Colum-Cille had interposed for them all he could yet being convinc'd by the Monarch's reasons he acquiesed at last in what was decreed there not only for the suppression of their multitudes and reformation of their abuses and ease of the People but even for preservation of their own Language Laws Poetry History Genealogy and Chronology arts both useful and delightful to all ingenious Men and civil Nations As 1. That the Monarch Provincial and other lesser Kings and every Lord of a Cantred or Barony should each of them entertain a Poet of his own bestow on him and his Posterity for ever a competent Estate in Lands to live upon and that both his Person Lands and other Goods should be exempt from all publick duties 2. That for preserving the sciences they profess'd there should be some publick Free Schools both appointed and endowed with Lands by the Estates of the Kingdom in general And pursuant to this Decree those two in Breithfne the one at Rath-Ceanaidh the oother at Magh-Sleacht were establish'd 3. That the Monarch's Poet or Ollamh should be the Ard-Ollamh that is Arch-Poet and Arch-Professor of their knowledge and that he should have the appointment of and a superintendency too over the rest 4. And lastly none otherwise or above this number to be allow'd 2. That of deposing Scanlane Mor mhac Ceanfoaladh King of Ossory who was then his Prisoner and committed even by Authority of
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
in Ashes during this first Danish War before they were totally subdued give us to understand sufficiently to what degree their everlasting feuds and obstinacy had incensed Heaven An obstinacy it was indeed so strangely so inveterately and unreclaimably fix'd that not even all the present terrors of so many mighty Fleets of those Heathenish cruel Barbarians pouring in Armies and new Supplies continually for so many years together from all the four winds into all their Provinces could remove it or make them relent For 1. Aodh Ordnighe himself the Monarch in whose Reign the Danes begun their first Invasion of Ireland after he had twice in one month prey'd and spoil'd Leinster was by one Maolcannaid in the Battel of Fearta fighting against his own Rebellious Irish Subjects kill'd 2. The next succeeding him namely Conchabhar mhac Donchadha who Reigned 14. years though he had the fortune to die in his Bed and for ought I can find never once in his life to have fought the Danes notwithstanding their sore incursions often made upon his Subjects within that extent of time yet he had the good leisure and took the opportunity of giving Battel to the Galleanguibh his own Country-men at the Fair of Tailtean 3. Again his immediate Successor Niall Caille who was sur-named Caille from his being drown'd in the River of Callon but drown'd as he was attempting to perform a very charitable deed For being to pass this River and seeing it high and therefore having commanded a young man to try it and then observing this youth presently in danger and all others refusing to hazard themselves to rescue him from the violence of the flood he spur'd on his own Horse to do it himself But it pleas'd God that the bank breaking under the fore-feet of the Horse he tumbled down and so was lost This Niall Caille I say Reigning likewise 14 years more and consequently in the very mightiest heat of this former Danish War and therefore a man would think having need enough to employ all his power that way as he did indeed when he gave the Danes Battel at Magh-Ith and worsted 'em too yet withal was so unfortunate as to have whether justly or unjustly I know not at two several times during his Reign and the last of them but a little before that Battel made War on his own Country-men that is with a great Army wasted Leath Cuinn first from Biorrha to Teambhuir and then again Fercaill and Deallbhna Ethra So that I think by these Instances of the only three Monarchs that Reign'd while the first Danish War continued it appears how little Reformation of their bloody Feuds all the terrors of so many mighty Fleets pouring in foreign Enemies continually had wrought in that People at least in their Princes Nobles and other Men of War Which undoubtedly we may justly think to have been it or at least a most extreamly provoking addition to it that by this time exasperated Heaven and even forc'd the Almighty to pour without further delay the very utmost of those evils design'd either by his justice or mercy to punish them For now that is upon the death of Niall Caille in the River of Callainn their Monarchy Kingdom Dominion ceased e'en as intirely at home as it had long before abroad There was no more Monarch in Ireland now but the saddest Interregnum that ever Christian People had or Heathen Enemies could wish 'em None I am sure either of the Milesian or other Gathelian Race No more King henceforth over that People but that barbarous Heathen Tungesius who assumed that title to himself till the days of their bondage which I have before tho only in part describ'd No more now the Island of Saints nor the Mart of Literature in Ireland No more Beannchuir to be seen but in Ashes now a second time and all the Learned holy Monks thereof Murder'd by those cruel Danes and buried under its rubbish No more the Monastery of Fionbhar at Corck which had 700 Conventual Monks and together with them 17 Bishops at one time wholly devoting themselves to a contemplative life No more now the most wonderful Cloister of all for Angelical Visions and Communications under S. Mochada at Ratha first and then at Lismore containing no fewer hundreds of the most stupendious Monks for Sanctity that everhave been in any Age or Nation No more the celebrated Cells of Magh-Bile or any at all of so many other holy places ecchoing forth continually the praises of God No more the renowned Schools of Dun-da-Leathghlaiss Ardmagh Lismore or Cashell No more University nor Academy nor Colledge of Learning in all the Land nor Foregners coming to admire and study in them nor so much as the Natives to enter them but only to stand aloof and weep over their ruins as the Jews did over Jerusalem in the Emperor Adrians time This was the deplorable condition of the Gathelian off-spring in Ireland which the heynous enormity of their no less National than peculiar sins and among the rest their strange contempt of so many fair warnings from God given them continually from time to time above 300 years brought them to at last and kept them in until his Justice was in some measure satisfied For so long he continued the Interregnum of their Monarchs and slavery of all their People under that Heathen Tyrant Turgesius And though I cannot exactly tell at least be positive in it how many years in all this miserable condition of theirs lasted I mean as to the general Bondage of the whole Nation universally in every Province and Part because we do not certainly know in what year of Aodh Ordnighs Reign the Danes first entr'd yet I can say out of Keting that under other Commanders they Warred 12 years on the Irish before Turghesius Landed in Ireland out of Norway with a much mightier Fleet than any of the former That he continued his joynt endeavours with the rest of the Heathen Invaders in carrying on and prosecuting the most cruel War could be against the Natives for 17 years more before he was chosen Captain General of all the Invaders both White Danes Black Danes * So the Irish distinguish 'em calling the Norvegians the White Danes and those arrived from Denmark it self the Black Danes though in their own Language the general or common name they give them and the Easterlings too is Loghlonnuidh which says Keting imports Great Robustious Scourers of the â—ea For Lon in old Irish is a strong man and Loch the Seas and Easterlings which consequently he was in the 29th year of this former Danish War That now he went on furiously spoiling ransacking destroying all before him every where but particularly with several â—leets of small Vessels and Boats all the Islands in Loch Neachach Loch Erna Loch Riogh and other great Lakes of Ireland And that being at last wholly Master of the Field and taking advantage of the Interregnum after Nial Caille's death for none of the
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
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
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
Mounster of the grave Matron c. which frighted him above all other considerations and by his yielding thereupon at last but on this condition that if and whensoever by his means or Ministery God were pleased to restore peace to that Metropolitan See it should be lawful for him to ordain an other in it and return to his former Spouse the poor Bishoprick of Conner Then by his not entring for the two next years either the Cathedral Church or City it self of Ardmagh and not medling with the Revenue while the Usurper Mauritius lived but officiating abroad and discharging so his duty to the Diocess at large without any bloodshed or quarrel Then upon the death of Mauritius when the King and Nobles of the Province came to introduce him and were to that purpose together with him assembled on a Hill near the City but without any armed Troops and intelligence was brought him that hard by there lay in ambush a strong party of the malignant bloody Generation ready to fall on and kill them all not even him nor the King himself excepted Then I say by his withdrawing into a little Church hard by putting himself to prayer and presently obtaining of Heaven such a formidable judgment as ended all the danger and all the controversie too in a trice â—ay all the hopes of that perverse Generation for ever after Even on a sudden such a prodigious tempest of Rain Wind Lightning Thunder which as to the place and persons of the Conspirators turn'd the day to night commix'd all the Elements struck dead their Captain with three other of his principal Associats hung them up on the boughs of Trees for so they were found next morning half burnt and stinking dispers'd all the rest save only three more left groveling on the ground half burnt likewise but some life remaining in them still and yet no harm done by it nor feeling of it by the King or of his company though they stood close by that very place and saw the storm falling on it Then by his entring now into the Metropolitan Church taking the possession of it delivered him by the King Princes and other Nobles of the Land and after their departure exposing himself to the continual danger both day and night impending over his head from that bloody sacrilegious Progeny that breath'd no more now any thing less than mortal revenge in behalf of their Cousin Nigellus that by usurpation and actual possession succeeded Mauritius till he was now compell'd to fly but retaining nevertheless in his own possession still by conveying them away in his flight the chief holy Ensigns of that See the Staff of Jesus and Gospel of St. Patrick which the common people held in such veneration that the possessor of them whoever he was they esteemed the only true Bishop of Ardmagh Then by his overcoming with the Arms of Faith and a Christian resolution to suffer Martyrdom the arms of Flesh and fury and rage of a great man of the foresaid impious Tribe who came of purpose to Ardmagh to murder him For though the King before his departure had made this very man not only to give Hostages but take his corporal Oath that he would inviolably be and keep at peace with Malachias yet without regard of either he soon after in a consult of his own People determines the place and time and manner to dispatch him comes thereupon with his Assassines to Ardmagh and after Evensong had been ended in the Church sends to Malachius as desiring on pretence of peace and friendship to speak with him at his own Lodging But the whole Clergy and People at Church entreat Malaachias beseech him conjure him with tears and lamentations not to go to his death And yet Malachias after some other words of comfort and edification telling them it became not the Disciple of Christ to fear death immediately departs accompanied only with three religious men resolv'd to die with him enters the House sees the Assassins all together in the same Room with that great man their Leader as they were prepared to assassinate him and yet coming up a little nearer finds them all every one strangely seized as with some panick fear appalled astonish'd mute as if they had been Planet-struck as if they were unable to lift up an armed hand against him or any other Nay their very Chieftain instead of giving them the word submitting himself in all humility and obedience and promising to continue both as he did sincerely until his death Then by the submission likewise of Nigellus the Pseudo-Bishop and his yielding up to Malachias the sacred Ensigns which he had hitherto so wrongfully detain'd but now together with them delivering also himself in all humility to the disposal of Malachias Then by the sudden ceasing of a pestilential Disease at Ardmagh so soon as Malachias went about the Town in Procession and pray'd God that in his mercy he would command his exterminating Angel of Justice to put up his bloody Fauchion and spare the people thence forward Then by the dreadful Judgments fallen upon the two remaining chiefest boldest and most blasphemously virulent detractors of his Name a Man and Woman of the accursed Race the man's tongue rotting in his mouth spitting out Worms almost continually for seven days and together with them at last his miserable Soul the Woman turned frantick crying out frequently that she was a strangling by Malachias and in that wretched condition yielding up her ghost Finally by the universal terror fallen upon all his Enemies considering now at last so many Wonders wrought in his behalf and therefore crying one to an other now as the Canaanites did of old concerning Israel Let us fly from the Face of Malachias for God fighteth for him Tho too late indeed for that adulterous generation of Vipers who by this time were all of them every one perish'd without leaving either Heir or other memory behind them save only that of their having continued the sacrilegious possession violation pollution destruction of the Sanctuary of God well nigh 200 years And such indeed were the means and such the degrees and order of them by which the Almighty himself fitted prepared carried on placed at last his beloved Malachias in that full power which he had from the beginning design'd for him undoubtedly of purpose to repair those lamentable ruins reform those horible corruptions enlighten that universal darkness and breath new life again into the whole Body of the Irish Church that really for so many Ages before did seem at least for the greater part of it utterly dead But that which appears to me most admirable in this holy man is that having within three years of his acceptation of the Metropolitical charge of Ardmagh and but a twelve month after his instalment in the See or the Cathedral it self humbled nay brought to nothing all the proud Usurpers restored the Church extinguish'd Barbarism reform d every where throughout the Diocess all degrees of
three men That after some time being weary of their Habitation a ship board they landed again and quitting their ships cross'd many Countreys by Land from this Caspian Sea to the Pontic That here they shipp'd the third time but ere long meeting with an Island by name Caronia they put in and remain'd in it fifteen months where Eibher mhac Taith and Lamghlas mhac Adhnoin died That from hence departing under the Conduct of four Chiefâ—â—ins whereof Caichair the Magician or Druyd was one they arrived at the North end of the Riphean Mountains where the same Caichear prophetically told them * Hereby you are to correct what is otherwise said by a mistakâ— page 13. l. 〈◊〉 and 8. as if this prediction had been made by Caicheir to Milesius himself and but some years before whereas indeed it was made to his Predecessors many Agâ—s before he was born that neither that place nor any other was design'd for their lasting abode or Habitation till they came to the Western Island which we now call Ireland and that not themselves but their posterity after them should come to it That hence again but under the Command of Eibher Gluinfhiann they removed to Gothia where they contitinued a hundred and fifty years even to the eighth Generation from Eibher to Bratha For Bratha who led them hence first of all to Spain was the son of Deaghatha son of Earchadha son of Elloit son of Nuadhath son of Neinuill son of Eibhric son of Eibher Gluinfhionn and consequently was the eighth Generation from this Eibher Gluinfhionn That all the Travels of the Progeny of Gaodhel were first from Egypt to Creet from thence to Scythia from thence to Gothia from thence to South-Spain whether the foresaid Bratha led them and back again in the person of Galamh alias Mileadh Espain or Milesius the Spaniard great Grandchild of this Bratha to Scythia as before we have seen page 12. and thence also again to Egypt and so to Thracia and once more to Gothia and thence to Spain till at last the sons of this Galamh or Mileadh ventur'd for Ireland where they set up their prophesied Rest and long abode ever since to this present day Finally that Galamh alias â—ileadh in Latin Milesius who married the Daughter of Pharaoh Nectonibus king of Egypt and her name also or at least surname Scota for the same or like reason to that which gave so long before to their great Ancestor Niull's Wife Daughter to Pharaoh Cingeris the self-same denomination That I say this Galamh was the nineteenth Generation from Gaodhel Glas and the four and Twentieth from Noah the Builder of the Ark as appears by his Pedigree thus Mileadh son of Bile son to Breoghuin son to Bratha son to Deagatha son to Earchadha son to Alloid son to Nuadhadh son to Neanuill son to Eibhric or Eibherglas son to Eibher Gluinfhionn son to Laimhfhionn son to Adhnoin son to Taidh son to Ogamhuin son to Beaomhuinn son to Eibher Scot son to Sruth son to Easruth son to Gaodhel Glas son to Niull son to Feianusa Farsa son to Baath son to Magog son to Japhet son to Noah or as the Irish call him Naoih 43. And this in substance is the account which Keting has of these matters Though I confess there may be read in him a great deal more of that Scythian King Feinusa Farsa Father of Niull and Grandfather of Gaodhel Glas particularly of his great Learning and the most celebrated School kept in those days on the Plain of Sennaar and of his having studied the Sciences and Languages full twenty years in that place and of his having then employ'd another most skilful man by name Gaodhel but his surname was Ethoir to compose or at least to refine adorn and render copious that Language which ever since from his name is call'd Gaodhelc or Gaodhlec I mean the Irish Language And so likewise it may be found in D. Keting how it was in remembrance and honour of this Gathelus or Gaothel Ethoir the Author or at least Refiner of the Irish Tongue that Feinusa Farsa's foresaid Brother Niull in Egypt gave his first-born Child the self-same denomination or name of Gaodhel alias Gathelus tho sufficiently distinguish'd after by the addition of his surname Glas. But enough of these profound remote Antiquities as Cambden calls ' em And yet I am confident they may be far more easily believed by some and pass'd over by others than oppos'd at least disprov'd by any yea notwithstanding the names of Capacyront in Egypt and Caronia in the Pontick Sea and the Fleet of Pharaoh in the red Sea seized by a thousand of the unarmed Israelits * See Josephus 3. Book of Antiqu c. 6. Where he tells us expresly that all the Israelites were disarmed when Pharaoh pursued them though after that his six hundred Chariots and fifty thousand Horse and two hundred thousand armed Faotmen were drown'd in the Red Sea and the Tide had thrown up their Arms on the other Bank where the Israelites were saâ—ely arrived they armed themselves sufficiently and put under the Command of Niull That I may say nothing at all or scruple or boggle either at the two Scotas Daughters to those two Kings of Aegypt as already you have seen or at the two Scythian Kings of the same name Refloir and both kill'd by the Progeny of Gaodhel Glas the first of them by Taith mhac Daghnon and the second at least two hundred years after by Milesius himself as may be remembred out of the 12th page before But leaving the judgment hereof to the Reader 44. I proceed to my next Reflection which must be on page 8 and 9. There you are told How the children or posterity of Nemedus the Irish call 'em Clanna Neimheadh to avoid a dreadful and continual pestilence of many years 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 King of Mounster and Bishop of Cashel in his Psalter of Cashael together with all the Chronologers of Ireland affirm You are also told that surely in this particular these Irish Chronologers have at least much more probability of their side than any late Authors have that derive that name of Brittain from Brutus or his Romantick History in Galfridus or in any other Lastly you find this Question immediately follows For if from Brutus besides other reasons why not Brutannia rather than Britannia Though in this whole passage I follow'd my Author Keting and particularly for this Question put in the last place or at least for the reason involv'd therein I might also have alledg'd Polydor. Histor Ang. l. 1. Polydore Virgil who
over his designed return and instead thereof going to Rome and soon after dying there upon the 12th of the Calends of May in the Year of our Lord 689 left his Countrey a prey to the Saxons who till then could never subdue it nor prevail against the Brittons but were themselves always overthrown and forc'd all along e'n by so many Brittish Kings in succession from Aurelius and Arthur to Caduallo either to fly the Land or submit to their mercy All which in substance and much more at large we are told by Geoffrey * Galfridus Monumetensis in his Latin History de Origine Gestis Britannorum printed at Paris by Ascensius Badius Anno 1517. But the fourth Book of this Romantick story iâ— wholly taken up with the deceitful Propâ—ecies of Merlin though Prophecles much augmented says Neubrigensis by additions of Geoffrey's own inventive Brain which he foisted in as Merlin's Nor has been ashamed to endeavour to make us believe that Merlin was a great and wonderful and true Prophet indeed yea notwithstanding that Merlin's own Mother confessed him to be the Son of an Incubus Devil See Galfridus himself l. 3. c. 3. of Monmouth in his seven Books of History and out of him by others Only besides my summing up the number of Kings and fixing the period of times and contracting the whole story and digesting it into this order and Method give me leave to except the particular of Dioclesian the Syrian King 's thirty Daughters and the Incubi Devils with their Gigantic procreation For this I had from Buchanan's relation of it l. 2. Rer. Scot. as added by some others to supply a defect of so much in the new History of Galfridus 45. But as William of Newbery commonly called in Latin Neubrigensis this Geoffrey's own Contemporary in England has in Proemio Histor five hundred years since reflected with much freedom and tartness on the Vanity incredibility and falsity of his History in general and more particularly on that part of it which represents King Arthur such a wonderful Heroe so has in later times Polydore Virgil first and after him George Buchanan ruin'd the very foundation of the whole Fabrick I mean the very Being or Existence of Brute himself at any time on Earth And certainly in my opinion the reasons of Polydore seem convincing enough to any unbyass'd man For says he l. 2. Histor Anglic neither Titus Livius nor Dionysius Halicarnasseus nor any of those other Authors that most diligently write of Roman Antiquities have one syllable of this Brutus Nor could any thing concerning so much as either his Name or Existence be fetch'd from the ancient Annals of Great Brittain seeing that five hundred years or thereabouts before this new History of Galfridus had been contriv'd Gildas I mean the true and not the supposititious one complain'd that if ever the ancient Britons his Countrey-men had any such or other Annals at all they were undoubtedly either perish'd in the War at home or carried away so far abroad as no news could be had of them Besides the particular of the taking of Rome by Belinus and Brennus quite over-throws all both Fabrick and foundation of this New History if we compute the times set down in it and compare them with those in the Greek and Roman Chronicles For in this New History not only Brute is said to have conquer'd Albion about the tenth year after his Father Silvius had been kill'd which was the year of the World 4100 but the two Brothers Belinus and Brennus sons to Molmutius the XX. King and they the XXI Generation from Brute are said to have taken Rome about four hundred years after the same Brute had conquer'd this Island And yet according to the Epitome or account of times both in Eusebius and all other as well Greek as Latin Histories Rome was taken by Brennus and his Gauls even after full seven hundred years and ten had been over from the foresaid year wherein Brute is said by the new History to have enter'd Albion So that by this new History Brennus must have taken Rome three hundred and ten years before it was really taken at all Then which I think nothing can be desired more convincing to ruin both the Fabrick and foundation of this Romance of Brute And so in effect has Polydors thought before me But if you would have more yea many more unanswerable arguments on this Subject you may consult George Buchanan where he has them at large L. 2. Histor Scot. For as it ought to be no part of my purpose here to compare or confront so many or indeed any of those vain particulars in the new History of Brute either with the Commentaries of Caesar or Annals and History of Tacitus or his Life of Agricola or Venerable Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English or the Saxon Chronology publish'd by Wheloc or the most ancient Monuments of the Irish or any other sacred or profane of so many other Kingdoms of Europe or with Reason it self so it is neither any part of it to dilate or give those manifold arguments of Buchanan though they be directly home against the very foundation of the same new History or the Being or Existence at any time of Brute It sufficeth me in this place to have given the reasons of Polydore against it My purpose here being no other than in relation to the above passage in my eighth and ninth page to conclude out of all That the Irish Cronologers and Historians have at least much more probability on their side in asserting unanimously that their true Briotan who descended of Nemedus and planted a Colony in the North part of this great Island so early was he that gave the whole Island the denomination of Brittain from his own name than they on the other side have who if the arguments hitherto be conclusive tell us in effect that a false and forged Brutus one that never was in Being should have given it And indeed the Authority of the Irish Monuments in the Psalter of Cashel an authentick Book of Irish Histories written above eight hundred years since by so great and knowing and holy a man as Cormack who was at the same time both King and Bishop of Mounster and the further derivation of the more remote Antiquities inserted in it from that other Book much more ancient yet which above one thousand two hundred years since in the composing or collecting of it out of all the former Chronicles of that Nation from the very first Plantations of it had been in the Parliament or National Assembly of all the Estates at Tarach under Laogirius the Monarch supervised and agreed upon by the choicest Committee they could appoint of three Antiquaries three Kings and three Bishops whereof S. Patrick himself was one over-ballances by much the credit of Geoffrey of Menmouth in his new History of Brutus written by him no earlier than Henry II. Reign and opposed nay quite run down by his own
Contemporaries so soon as it came out Which notwithstanding and whatever else I have given any where in this Reflection on my own foresaid eighth and ninth page I desire may be understood by the Reader as I intended it i. e. without any prejudice or diminution of the great and known both Antiquity and bravery of the Brittish Nation whencesoever they have truly derived the name of Brittons for themselves or that of Brittain for their Countrey Of the former I mean their Antiquity Julius Caesar is a witness beyond exception where he speaks in his Commentaries L. v. of the inland people of Brittain as if they had been Aborigenes without any derivation from elsewhere abroad quos natos in Insula memoria proditum dicunt says he Of the later both Tacitus and Beda Writers no less unexceptionable have recorded to Posterity very considerable Instances The one in his Annals and History and Agricola's Life telling their fierce Fights and sometimes their successes too against the Roman Generals in their own Countrey Great Brittain The other in his Ecclesiastical History of England acknowledging several great Victories had by them both in the same Island their own Countrey over his Countreymen the Saxons that invaded them nay particularly telling us in the 16th chap. of his First Book of two very special Victories the first under the leading of Aurelius Ambrosius the second in Black more about that place where Scarborough Castle is now called by Polidore in his History Mons Badonicus adding withal that after the first overthrow given by them although sometimes worsted yet they continued the War with great resolution worsting also not seldom their Foes until at last they hem'd them in about the said Hill or Mountain Badonicus and made a mighty slaughter of them there Which happened says Bede in the forty fourth year after the first landing of the Saxons Above all the Defence made by the Reliques of them in Wales after their Kingdom had been utterly destroy'd upon Cadwallador's withdrawing to France yea made and continued by them for seven hundred years and their fighting so long for their Liberty against the Saxons first and Normans after till they obtain'd honourable Conditions at last from Edward I. are sufficient arguments of their Martial Spirit and brave Souls however Fortune frown'd upon them And as I ought to be so ingenuous in acknowledging what I have now done concerning that Nation in general so likewise in reference to Jeffry himself I will be so just as to acknowledg what he says of the hand of God that lay so heavy upon them at last even to their utter destruction by the mortal Feuds and cruel Famine and most destructive of all the Pestilence that follow'd For besides this one particular of those three heavy scourges from God which I must confess are attested by V. Bede himself l. 1. cap. 12 14. there is little else of truth to be acknowledg'd in the whole Summary given before of that Romantick History of Galfridus Tho Richard White of Basingstoke has in our days written and printed a Latin History of his own pursuing in most particulars the good Example given by him and to make it the more known has prefix'd unto it an Epistle Dedicatory to Albertus Arch-Duke of Austria c. 45. In my 13. page I spake somewhat of the causes moving the eight sons of Milesius after his death to think seriously of invading Ireland But I might have added How their consultation about this matter was held in Breoghuin's Tower in Gallicia How it was from thence they employ'd Ith or Ithius their Uncle on the Father's side as being son to Breoghuin their great Grandfather in a ship well provided and man'd with a hundred and fifty stout Soldiers to discover the state of Ireland How Ith having landed in Mounster and there understood that Cearmada's three sons who as three Kings ruled Ireland alternatively were together at Oileach Neidh in the North but at some difference among themselves about the Jewels of their Ancestors went thither by Land accompanied with a hundred of his men the ship failing about with the rest to meet him there How being come to Oileach and honourably received by the sons of Cearmada and because he was a stranger and consequently indifferent in their dispute being chosen Arbitrator of it he decided their quarrel to all their satisfaction first by dividing the Jewels equally betwixt them and then exhorting them to mutual love and peace adding withal very much in praise of their delightsom plentiful Countrey How when he had taken leave of them to return to his ship for Spain the eldest of the Three reflecting on the high praises he gave the Land and fearing his design should be to bring others to invade them breaks his jealousie to the other two and with their consent and some armed Troops pursues Ith overtakes him fights him routs his men wounds himself deadly and leaves him in that condition of a dead man groveling on the Earth at a place called from that Fight and his Name Magh Ith. How the few survivers of his men headed by his own son carried away his body a shipboard where he died of his wounds but they nevertheless arrived in Spain and coming to their Cousins the eighth Brothers exposed it before them all of purpose to excite and hasten their revenge And in the last place how that although as well these as those i. e. all the Milesians in general and their Cousins and adherents made this killing or this murder which you please to call it committed on the said Ithius and his men the pretence of their Invasion and War and consequently of the justice of their quarrel and following Conquest of that Countrey by them yet the whole History makes it plain That 't was no other indeed but a meer pretence being Ithius went thither as a meer Spy to discover the Countrey and that they were resolved to invade it upon their return whetâ—er he had or had not met with any injury or pretence of injury there All which I note of purpose here because it may be usefully in the second Part of this Treatise on another occasion related to again 46. In the mean while and in this very place the Reader will give me leave to observe a thing that may prevent some question or some admiration about the sons of Cearmada chusing Ithius their Arbitrator For it may be peradventure ask'd how they understood one another or what Language did he or they speak their sâ—ntiments in or was it by Interpreters they Discours'd c. But the Irish Historians prevent such demands by telling us that all the several Invasions of Ireland only the first plantation of it by Ciocal which properly was no Invasion excepted whether by Partholan or Neimhedh or Feaâ—a-bolg or Tuath-Dâ—-Danan were by Scythians descended from Japhet who for their Language had the Irish Tongue Gaodhlec as 't is called originally by it self common to them all no
Christ 498. the time of Fergus Mor as they call him son to Ercho Nephew to Eochadh Muinreamhar and of his five Brothers with him invading the North of Brittain And Tigernacus who commonly delivers in Latin what was done abroad as what was done at home in Irish has of the present subject this following passage Fergus Mor mhac Ercha id est Fergusius Magnus Erci filius cum Gente Dalrieta partem Britanniae tenuit ibi mortuâ—s est c. That is Fergus Mor the son of Erch with his people of Dal-Riada possess'd himself of part of Brittain and died there about the first year of the Popedom of Symmachus Which was the year of Christ 498. as Primat Vsher has rightly observed Besides the old Irish Book containing the Synchronism or if I may so speak the contemporariness not only of the Monarchs and Provincial Kings of Ireland but of the Kings in Albania too expresly relates how it was in the twentieth year after the Batâ—â—l of Ocha that the six sons of Ercho viz. the two Enguses the two Loarns some Copies have Coarns and the two Ferguses whereof one was this Fergus the Great pass'd over into Albania I say nothing how Nennius translated into Irish among O Duncgans Miscellanies says it was in the sixth Age of the World 〈…〉 〈…〉 the Dal-Riadans had conquer'd part of the Countrey of the Picts and the Saxons enter'd on other parts of Great Brittain Nor do I insist on O Duucgan himself though he most minutely prosecutes this Adventure of Ercho's Children telling the Families issued from them in Scotland which he calls Albain what Lordships or Lands each of them was possess'd of there and what Forces by Land or Sea they usually raised But what I am particularly to observe is that of all hands among the Irish Annalists and Historians it is without any contradiction admitted That this Fergus the Great son to Ercho is the same with Fergusius I. King of the Scots though in Boethius Major Buchanan c. called in Latin the son of Ferchardus That the foresaid Battel of Ocha wherein the Irish Monarch Oillioll Molt perish'd was fought in the year of Christ 478. And that from this year to the year 498. there is no man but sees the just interval must be those twenty years on expiration whereof the foresaid Book of Syncâ—ronisin relates the passing of Fergus Mor to Brittain And the issue of all must be that certainly as to this particular either all the ancient Irish Annals and Monuments besides the late Histories of Keting and Lucius are extraordinary false or Buchanan and Hector Boethius and all other Scottish Authors follow'd by them are extreamly out Even so far out as to have at least inverted the whole succâ—ssion descent line and genealogie of their Kings by giving us a Catalogue with the Lives and Reigns of two or three and forty Kings as descended Lineally from Fergusius I. before he had been existent on Earth For Congallus is the Xliiii King in Buchanan c. and yet the eighteenth year of this very Congallus according to Buchanans computation must have been the year of our Lord 498. in which all the Irish Records place the landing of Fergus Mor in Scotland tho the very first of the Catalogue in him and other Historians follow'd by him Moreover and which yet is no less considerable than any of the former Arguments we may take notice that Buchanan and his Authors make Reuda the sixth King of those in his Catalogue descended from Fergus Then which nothing can be more plain against all the Irish Antiquities To say nothing of V. Bede in his Eccles Hist l. 1. cap. 1. whom you may consult at leasure But for the Irish Chronicles I am sure they tell us particularly that the Monarch of Ireland Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae had three sons call'd the Three Carbry's viz. Cairbre Muisck from whom the Tract of Musckry and Cairbre Baisckin from whom the Land of Corca bhaiskin both in Mounster has denomination and Cairbre Riada alias Riadhfada That this last of the Three was the first Irish Conqueror of the Countrey in Albania which bore his name being called in Irish Dal-Riada in English the Part of Riada and by Latin Writers Dal-rieta Dal-Reuda and the Inhabitants Dal-Reudini as Bede calls ' em And that his foresaid Father the Irish Monarch Conaire mhac Mogha Lauae having reign'd in Ireland eight years was kill'd in the year of the World 5364. being the year of Christ 165. Whence it must follow that his said son Cairbre surnamed Riada in Irish though by V. Bede and others called Reuda must have invaded the Picts and possess'd himself of that part of their Countrey named from him at least three hundred years before the time of Pergus the Great who as we have seen before invaded not Albania till the year of Christ 498. So wide in this very particular of Reuda is the Irish account and History from the Scottish in Buchanan How to reconcile the difference in either particular being it is so great and concerns so great a succession of Kings and Ages too for at least 819 years I leave to such as shall please to concern themselves in it more than my purpose in this place requires I should my self But let them withal take these further Animadversions to thought 1. That the Father of this Fergusius the Great however you call him Erck Ercho Ercha or either as Buchanan has it Ferchardus or any other name whatsoever was never King of Ireland as no more was Fergus Mâ—â— himself notwithstanding Buchanan's intimation to the contrary but only a Brother to Muirchiortach the Irish Monarch that reign'd over all Ireland from the year of Christ 503 to the year 527. wherein he was murder'd 2. That Joannes Major himself though a Scotchman has in his little History of Great Brittain cap. X. reflected on that Vulgar Errour in the Annals of Scotland where they place Fergusius I. before Reuda's time 3. That Hollingshed in his English Translation of Hector Boethius professes himself to be of Opinion That very many of those Kings related by the Scottish Histories to have reigned successively one after another in Scotland were such as neither successively nor in Scotland but together at the same time reigned part of them in Ireland and part in other adjacent lesser Islands 4. That Gratianus Lucius in his Camb. Evers page 93. adds moreover Himself to think not improbably that the Scottish Authors borrowed a great number of their Kings from those indeed that were Pictish Kings Where to ground this Opinion of his he produces an old Irish Translation of Ninnius I mean as to the Catalogue of Pictish Kings in that ancient Author and fixes in particular on eighteen of them by name among which is one Gregory albeit Gregory be the Lxxiii King of Scots in Buchanan's Catalogue and that King too in whom Buchanan glories so much as to record him to posterity by the
few That in the most famous place call'd Degsestan i. e. the stone of Degsa almost his whole Army was slain That nevertheless in the same Fight Theobaldus Brother to this Ethelfride with all the Force headed by him was in like manner kill'd And that from that time forward to this very day says Bede meaning the day when he writ this none of all the Scottish Kings had been so daring as to give Battel to the English Nation Which being the words of Bede truly rendred in English and the years of his Age being 59. when he ended all his Works and consequently this History as himself says and seeing also that he was born Anno Dom. 677. it follows That so long at least as 136 years after Degsestan Fight the Scots engag'd not against the English But whether after this term expir'd they attack'd them again before they had ruin'd the Pictish Kingdom and at the same time seiz'd so great a part of the Northumbrian I know not 54. What you might have perus'd already page 129 as derived either from Cambrensis or Cambden or both viz. of the original eruption of the great Vlster Lake call'd in Irish Loch Erne and cause thereof is abundantly refuted by Gratianus Lucius in his Book entitled Cambrensis Eversus page 132 and 133. Which having not seen before my own foresaid 127 page had been wrought off the Press makes me give now this other which as it is much fuller so I doubt not a much better and truer account in every respect of that matter The Relation of Cambrensis Topograp Hib. d. 2 c. 9. may be rendred thus in English There is in Vlster a Lake of vast extension thirty miles long and fifteen broad unto which as they say a wonderful chance gave beginning In that Countrey which is now the Lake there was in very ancient times a most vitious Nation but chiefly and incorrigibly above all other People of Ireland given over to that sin we call Bestiality And there was amongst them a Prophetical saying That so soon as a certain Well of that Countrey were at any time left uncovered for out of reverence to it proceeding from barbarous superstition it had both a covering and signature or lock it should presently overflow so prodigiously as to drown the whole Countrey thereabouts Which accordingly happen'd on this occasion One of the Countrey Women having open'd it to bring Water home it chanc'd that before she had throughly done she heard her Child a little distance off crying and going in haste to still him she forgot to cover the Well Whereupon it overflow'd on a sudden so strangely that not only the Woman her self and her Child with her but all the People universally and all the very Cattel too of the whole Countrey for very many miles were as by a particular and Provincial Deluge covered overwhelmed perished utterly in the Waters As if the Author of Nature had judg'd that Land unworthy of Inhabitants which had been conscious of such enormous turpitude against Nature And indeed that such had been the original of this Lake it is no improbable argument that the Fishermen upon it do manifestly in fair serene weather see under them in the Water Church Turrets which according to the fashion of those in that Land are not only narrow and high but round withal and that they often shew them to passengers wasted over this Lake who are strangely astonished at the sight and cause You are also to note That the River which abundantly flows out of the same Lake being one of the nine Principal Rivers of Ireland namely the Ban did even from the beginning that is ever since the time of Bartholanus though in a much smaller stream flow from the foresaid Well all along that Countrey other Waters falling into it still as it went farther off Hitherto Gerald of Wales But to this Relation of his it will not be amiss to add what Cambden says applying it and interpreting and making this nameless Pool to be the famous Loch Erne of so many miles in length and breadth and the People destroy'd to have been some Hebridians got thither Beyond Cavan says he Cambden's Ireland in Hollands Translation of it page 106. West North Fermanach presenteth it self where sometimes the Erdini dwelt a Countrey full of Woods and very boggish In the midst whereof is that famous and greatest Meere of all Ireland Loch Erne stretching out forty miles bordered about with shady Woods and passing full of inhabited Islands whereof some contain a hundred two hundred three hundred acres of ground having besides such store of Pikes Truots and Salmons that the Fishermen complain oftner of too great plenty of Fishes and of the breaking of their Nets than they do for want of draught This Lake spreadeth not from East to West as it is describ'd in the common Maps but as I have heard those say who have taken a long and good survey thereof first at Bel Tarbet which is a little Town farthest North of any in this County of Cavan it stretcheth from South to North fourteen miles in length and four in breadth Anon it draweth in narrow to the bigness of a good River for six miles in the Channel whereof standeth Iniskellin the principal Calste in this Tract which in the year 1593. was defended by the Rebels and by Dowdal a most valiant Captain won Then coming Westward it enlargeth it self most of all twenty miles long and ten broad as far as to Belek near unto which is a great downfal of Water and as they term it that most renowned Salmon's Leapue à common speech among the Inhabitants thereby is That this Lake was once firm ground passing well husbanded with Tillage and replenish'd with Inhabitants but suddenly for their abominable buggery committed with Beasts overflown with Waters and turn'd to a Lake Though Almighty God says Giraldus Creator of Nature judg'd this Land privy to so filthy Acts against Nature unworthy to hold not only the first Inhabitants but any other for the time to come Howbeit this wickedness the Irish Annals lay upon certain Islanders out of the Hebrides who being fled out of their own Countrey lurked there So he Against these Relations the one of Giraldus Cambrensis and the other of Cambden though the later as to the original of this Lake is wholly grounded on the former Gratianus Lucius opposes many Reasons 1. That all the Irish Annals and Histories who treat of Loch Ern attribute the original of it not to the overflowing of any Well or River but to a meer eruption of Waters out of the very entrails of the Earth without any kind of mention of Bestiality or other sin of the Inhabitants which might at all any way deserve it 2. That this Eruption happened in the Reign of Fiacha Lauranne * But Keting says it happen'd under the Reign of Tighermhais alias Tightermhuir forty six years before Fiacha Labhraina came to be King King of Ireland
put out then and under great penalties not kindled again but from or out of this holy Fire of Tlaghtghae And every house in the Kingdom as receiving from this new consecrated Fire and because the ground of Tleaghthae had been formerly the Mounster King's Dominion to pay him yearly three pence for ever At Visneach House or that which he had built hard by and West of it on the ground taken from the Connaght King he ordained That each May day for ever a general Meeting of all the Nobility should be held which Meeting they call'd in their Language Morhail Visneach and it may be English'd the Magnificence of Visneach That two great Fires should be made at this Meeting and betwixt them both all beasts sacrific'd to their great God Beile which Keting conceives to have been the same with Belus for expiating their sins appeasing his wrath and obtaining from him favour for the following year That the same day and hour in every District or Territory of the whole Kingdom two such other Fires should be made for the like purpose that is for all the respective Inhabitants to resort unto them with their Heathen Priests and sacrifices In fine that every Chieftain and person of Quality come to the said great Meeting at Visneach should present the Connaght King with a Horse and compleat harness for a Horseman as a Chiefry reserv'd to him for that ground Where Keting adds that from these yearly Paganical Fires at Visneach and elsewhere made in those days of Idolatry to honour Beall it is that ever since even along to this very day the Irish call the first of May Lae Beall-tine which imports in English Beali's Fire day for in their Tongue Lae is day and Tine is Fire At or near the Palace of Tailltionn he by a new Ordinance of his own commanded the ancient Fair called Aonach Tailltinn whereof we have spoke before to be kept yearly on Lammas day with much more solemnity and a far greater conflux of people than ever And there it was that Wedding-matches were usually treated agreed upon concluded betwixt the Parents of young Folks And by this Monarchs new Law every couple marrying there paid six shillings eight pence which the Irish then did call Vinghe Airgiod an ounce of Silver to the King of Vlster as an acknowledgment of his having formerly been Lord of that portion But for Tarach alias Teambhuir where he had built his fourth Royal Palace I find nothing ordained by him concerning any solemnity or Assembly there And the reason I suppose might be that even the very greatest and most solemn Assembly of all the Estates in Parliament either to make new Laws and repeal the old or to exercise any other Acts of Supream Jurisdiction had been already both by Law and Custom fix'd in that place ever since Ollamh Fodhlas's Reign that is full 1200. years wanting only seventeen before Tuathal Teachtmhor came to be King No more do I find any duty or Chiefry payable to the K. of Leinster Whereof I conceive also the reason might have been That indeed as Keting elsewhere and upon an other occasion than this here observes Cairbre Niafearr the very first King of Leinster had full two hundred and six years before Tuathal Teachtmor's time pass'd away both his own right and that of his Successors after him in the foresaid portion of Land wherein Tarach was built and for ever made it over by way of sale and bargain to Connor the first King of Vlster and his Successours after him in lieu of his beloved Daughter by name Feilim Nua Chrothach or Felicia the Beautiful whom Cairbre had bought so dear to be his Wife So dear I say because that fourth portion from Visneach to the Eastern Sea being in his time and until this bargain made part of Leinster contain'd three Cantreds of Land of the very best in Ireland even all the Land which now goes under the name of the County of Meath I mean East-Meath along to Droghedagh besides Fingale and all the other Lands too on that side of the River Liffy to Dublin But if you desire to know what or how much Land a Cantred means being I have told but now of three Cantreds in this Fourth portion Cambrensis in his Hiber expug l. 2. c. 18. answers that as well in the Irish as Brittish Tongue by a Cantred is meant that proportion or quantity of Land which usually contains a hundred Villages And whether Keting disagree in this signification of that word I know not certainly because I know not how much Land Cambrensis would assign to a Village or Villa his Latin term Of this I am certain that Keting assigns according to the Irish account but thirty Feeding Towns or Bailite â—iath as he calls ' â—m to a Cantred every one of them containing twelve Plow-lands and every Plowland a hundred and twenty acres of Irish measure which is commonly three or four times greater than the English And this is both reflection and digression enough occasion'd by the mention made of Tuathal Teachtmhor the Irish Monarch in my foresaid 217. page 59. My next Reflection is to correct an Error which I observe in my 229. page For there and whether through my own mistake or the Printers I know not it is said That Connor the first Provincial King of Vlster was made so by Eochuidh Feileach the Monarch and Author of the Pentarchy about 400 years before the Birth of Christ whereas indeed it could not be so much by at least two hundred and eighteen years Because this Monarch Eochadh Feileach who made that Connor King of Vlster could not make him King before himself was Monarch and this he was not before the year of the World 5057. in which he kill'd his Predecessor and possess'd his Throne Now according to the Chronology of Lucius that year of the World was just one hundred forty two years before the Birth of our Lord because says he this Birth hapned in the year of the World 5199. after the deluge 2957. and in the 8th year as some say or as others in the 12th year of the Monarch of Ireland Criomthain Niadnairs Reign Now 't is plain that from the year 5057 to the year 5099. no more efflux'd but 142 years 60. The review of my 229. page and what is given there of that happy King of Mounster Feilim mhac Criomthain brings to my thoughts here a passage in Keting that is very lingular both for the Author and matter of it The Author is holy Bennin as the Irish call him in their Language whom the Latins call St. Benignus even that very beloved Disciple of St. Patrick their great Apostle who was consecrated and install'd by him in his own days and in his own stead Arch-bishop of Ardmagh And the matter is the magnificent and costly progress of the Kings of Cashel in former times about Leath Cuinn and Leath Mogh throughout all Ireland And says Keting it is in the Irish Book
and marching confidently in the head of his Troops against an infinite number of Enemies who in one terrible Host came to fight him obtain'd that miraculous Victory over them which is recorded by Metaphrastes and Glycas Annal. Part. 4. and Baronius too ad an 388. Even that very same wonderful Victory which the Winds and Tempests fighting for him and 〈◊〉 their own Darts upon his Enemies he obtained against Maximus the Tyrant and which Claudian the Christian Poet has so divinely celebrated in heroick Verse part whereof speaks thus to Theodosius himself O nimium dilecte Deo cui fundit ab antris Aeolus atratas hyemes cui militat Aether Et conjurati veniunt ad Classica venti Besides that pious learned Bishop of Ossory desires it be considered that the former History of the Staff of Jesus has no less illustrious famous approv'd Authors than those of the later History of the Staff of Senuphius are But whether it be or be not so my design here is not concern'd For I have already let the Reader know what is written of and has been deliver'd all along and what is believed at present among the Roman Catholick Irish of that religious Relique the Staff of Jesus What remains either of Reflection or Addition are these few Notes that follow I have indeed forgot to give them in their due place according to the order of pages observ'd hitherto in this Section But that will not hinder the understanding them where they are given here 66. The first is a◠very material Animadversion upon my 146 page Where because following the authority of D. Geoffrey Keting I suppos'd and accordingly told of an Interregnum in Ireland that by reason of the over-ruling power of the Danes and their great Commander Turgesius had succeeded immediately upon the drowning of the Monarch Niall Caille I must here let the Reader know that Gratianus Lucius page 297 and 298. brings several arguments to evince not only That there had never been any Interregnum at all of the Irish Monarchy at any time during either of the two Danish Wars nor consequently Turgesius the Dane had ever succeeded not even by usurpation any of the Irish Monarchs but that Keting was led into Errour in this particular by Gerald of Wales Among which arguments are these two 1. That Sir James Ware in his Catalogue of the Kings of Ireland lately publish'd makes no mention at all of Turgesius 2. That the Annals of Ireland place both the end of Niall Caille's Reign and the beginning of Maolseachluinn I. in the year of our Lord 844. But as to the Interregnum neither of these arguments nor any other which I have yet seen evince more than that the Interregnum was very short and concluded with one year 67. The second Note must refer to p. 222 c. where the Subject treated is the true Christian religious great Vertues indeed of as many Irish Monarchs or Kings of all Ireland as I have remembred there but the addition to them here is only of two more viz. Ainmirus the son of Sedna and Donnaldus the son of Aidus For so they are call'd in Latin by Gratianus Lucius though in Irish their names and surnames are Ainmhire mhac Seadhna who was the XI and Domhnall mhac Aodh Slaine who was the Xviii Christian King of all Ireland The former com to the Sovereignty in the year of Christ 563. but parted from it and his life too by a horrible murther committed on him in the fourth year of his Reign was so Christianly zealous for the purity of Religion Rites Discipline Church that he could not abide the least blemish spot or wrinkle in any of them In so much that in the Irish Histories it is specially recorded of him to his great honour how when he had observ'd some things amiss in the Rituals i. e. some Errours crept in or some deviation from the Rules prescrib'd them though but so lately before by their great Apostle St. Patrick and when about the same time he had heard by fame of the excellent knowledg integrity sanctity wisdom of Gildas in Great Brittain he sent his own Letters to invite him to Ireland towards the reforming there whatever had been so amiss But why Gratianus Lucius here gives the surname of Badonicus to Gildas for he calls him Gildas Badonicus I confess I do not know nor can conjecture unless perhaps that Northern Mountainous Countrey in Yorkshire now call'd Blackemere in English but formerly in Latine Mons Badonicus has been the native Countrey of this ancient Father This I know that in Bibliotheca Patrum he is surnamed Sapiens or Gildas the Wise And moreover that Polydore Virgil l. 3. Hist Angl. writes how Gildas himself has told us his little Book de excidio Brittannico that himself was born that very year wherein the Britons had obtain'd against the Saxons the famous Victory at Mons Badonicus which was the forty fourth year after the first landing of Hengistus and Horsus being the year of Christ 492. Unto which if we joyn what the same Polydore had said before l. 1. Hist Angl. of Gildas viz. That he flourish'd about the year of Christ 580. we may conclude that certainly the time set down in the Irish Books for his going to Ireland as invited thither by the foresaid Monarch Ainmhire mhac Sedhna agrees full well with this time and age of Gildas then The later of these two Monarchs namely Domhnal son to Aodh Slaine who not only came with pure hands without blood to the Crown but after fourteen year's glorious Reign first and then eighteen months sickness parted with Crown and life together peaceably on his Bed which was in that Nation a very singular blessing of God This Domhnal I say besides his other great Vertues is most deservedly celebrated for a very great Exemplar of Christian humility and contempt of himself He had through human frailty committed some fault which though I do not find express'd or specified what it was I find notwithstanding the rarest instance of Repentance submission and humiliation of a King in him that could be to procure the forgiveness of it from his own Subject tho a holy man of that Nation call'd St. Fechinus For after earnest humble entreaties to this man of God for pardon when he had found him backward still and hard to relent he prostrated himself on the ground at his feet and suffered him to tread on his bare neck 67. My next additional Note although of another Subject tends nevertheless very much to the magnifying of the Ancient Irish as to that natural heroick Vertue which next to the favour of Heaven preserv'd them for so many Ages a Free Nation Martial courage and Valour I mean And therefore this Addition must relate to those pages where from 25 to 40. I treated before of the Danish Wars in Ireland However it is such an addition to the brave performances of the Irish in those Wars that I know not whether
water to drink had all this rigour effectually put in execution against him and rejected even Columb-Cille's Petition for his release though come of purpose out of Scotland to obtain it And so I have done with my Instances nor have I more to say in reference to them Only that although I cannot tell what reasons either of these two Christian Monarchs had for such extream rigour towards Christian Princes of their own Nation though their Prisoners or at their mercy nor can tell as to particulars how considerably this cruel usage did add unto or inflame the former feuds Yet this much I can tell that neither of them had other than a violent death the former murder'd by Aodh Dubh mhac Suibhne the later kill'd in Battel by Brandubh King of Leinster as I have said before upon another occasion And so by consequence I have likewise done with all my special remarks on this large subject of the manifold bloody Feuds of that Nation both in the time of their Paganism and in that of their being under the Gospel of Christ for I intended no more such heer than I have given Which is the reason that now returning once more thither where I was before I conclude at last this long Section with one general remark on that People as they were under the Gospel in the more early Ages of it among them viz. That from the killing of their foresaid Christian Monarch Aodh mhac Ainmhiriogh the last we spake of here the Fate not only of the Milesians but other Gathelians whatsoever in Ireland and the Genius of their Kings Princes Nobles and other Martial men continuing for 300 years after him the very same it had been in the Age before him carried them on perpetually from time to time fighting and slaying and murthering one another at home until the four and twentieth of those Christian Monarchs of theirs who died violent deaths by the hands of their own Irish Subjects within the first 400 years of Christian Religion generally planted among 'em by name Aodh Ollann had been slaughter'd in the Battel of Seir by Domhnal mhac Murchadha that immediatly succeeded him Nay until that in this Domhnals Reign which continued 42 years and the Reign of his Successor Niall Frassach which lasted but four besides Colman the Bishop of Laosaine murdered by Vibh Tuirtre the Battel of Beallach Cro between Criomthan mhac Euno and Fionn mhac Airb the Battel of Beallach Gawran between Mac Conchearca King of Ossory and Dunghall King of Vibh Cionsallach kill d therein the Battel of Leagea betwixt Vibh Mbruine and Vibh Mainne the Battel of Corann betwixt Cinneal Gonnail and Cionneal Eoghuin and finally the killing of Combhasgach King of Ibh-Failghe by Maolduin mhac Aodha Beanainn King of Mounster whether in Battel or out of Battel I know not had fill'd up at last brim full the measure of their domestick unnatural slaughters happening within that term of time their first four Centuries of Christianity SECT IV. National sins Very slight causes of War Cormock Ulfada's beard Muireadhagh's Tiriogh's revenge and the three Colla's War on Ferghussa Fogha King of Eumhna Sundry warnings from God to the Irish Christians but not like the judgment at Magh-Sleachta or the other by Loch Earne on their Pagan Predecessors 1. The loss of all their Dominions abroad 2. Those two Epidemical Plagues at home called the Crom-Chonnioll and Buy-Chonnioll 3. Mortality of Kine and great Famil that follow'd 4. Those three or four Inroads made into their Country by the Saxons and Brittons 5. Prodigies with another extraordinary Famin. Notwithstanding all no amendment This instanc'd in the death of the Monarch's Loinnseach Conghall Cinn Fearrghall Foghartach and Kionaoth What of Flaithiortach The flood-gates of the North set open at last to pour Vengeance on this contumacious people Yet they amidst all continue their intestine feuds Witness the Monarchs Aodh Ordnigh Conchabhar mhac Donochadh and Niall Caille A sad Interregnum The particulars of their Bondage under Turgesius The glory of their Learning and Sanctity now gone for ever Scarce delivered from that Bondage when they relapsed again far more enormously than before This also instanc'd 1. In eight of those eleven Monarchs that Reign'd in the second Danish War 2. In the Reigns of those other six following that assumed the title of Monarchs though not allow'd for such by near at least one half of the Provinces Maolseachluinn the Second by his death put an end to the real Monarchy of Ireland among the Irish and Ruaruidh O Conchabhair saw in his own days not only the pretence or shadow of it gone but the very Being of this Nation any more a free People on Earth 24. SUch were the National provocations of Heaven peculiar to that People hitherto i. e. for two and twenty hundred years besides what we shall yet see did happen after above any other Nation of the whole Earth Immortal Feuds of death tyrannical oppressions of the Subject cruelty as well of justice as revenge Treason Conspiracies Rebellions Murders even of their Sovereigns effusion of human blood like water And this without pity without remorse without any cause sometimes but very slight and sometimes vain and ridiculous An arbitration between two religious Monks in a difference deciding against one of them must engage Families and Countrys in Arms to fight it out in Battel and cut one another in pieces A known Murtherer proscrib'd as unpardouable by their most sacred Laws and therefore justly put to death by the Monarch must nevertheless on pretence of his being seiz'd upon after he had been received into the protection of an Abbot be a just cause of rebelling and fighting that very Monarch and killing his whole Army to boot Nay one single Beast a Cow at most but very little worth taken away I know not how from the owner was the only cause of a great Battel fought between the same Monarch and the Provincial King of Connaught and a Battel wherein most of the Gentry of that Province and Mounster too were kill'd As if neither the Assailant nor Defendant tho Christian Kings both could find any other way to satisfie the poor Woman that was rob'd of that Cow or rather indeed as if they had sported so with the lives not only of their Subjects but of their Friends I say nothing of the Candle-snuff or of its firing the Monarch Cormack Vlfada's beard at an entertainment given him in Maig-Breag by Giolla King of Vlster who shuffing a Candle instead of throwing it aside threw it whether by chance or of purpose into Cormack's long beard which presently catch'd and burn'd up to his tresses Only I say That however this ridiculous matter happen'd or pass'd at that time it cost Vlster dear long after Cormack's death That Muireadhach Tiriogh the great Grand-child of this Cormack and sixth King of Ireland after him took it for a pretence to pour an Army of one and twenty thousand men under the command