THE LIFE OF ST. PATRICK
THE LIFE OF
ST. PATRICK
AND
HIS PLACE IN HISTORY
BY
J. B. BURY, M.A.
HON. D.LITT., OXON.; HON. LITT.D., DURHAM; HON. LL.D., EDIN., GLASGOW, AND ABERDEEN;
CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE IMPERIAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG;
FORMERLY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN; REGIUS PROFESSOR
OF MODERN HISTORY, AND FELLOW OF KING’S COLLEGE,
IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1905
All rights reserved
Perhaps the scope of this book will be bestunderstood if I explain that the subject attractedmy attention, not as an important crisis in thehistory of Ireland, but, in the first place, as anappendix to the history of the Roman Empire,illustrating the emanations of its influence beyondits own frontiers; and, in the second place, as anotable episode in the series of conversions whichspread over northern Europe the religion whichprevails to-day. Studying the work of theSlavonic apostles, Cyril and Methodius, I was ledto compare them with other European missionaries,Wulfilas, for instance, and Augustine, Boniface,and Otto of Bamberg. When I came to Patrick,I found it impossible to gain any clear conceptionof the man and his work. The subject was wraptin obscurity, and this obscurity was encircled byan atmosphere of controversy and conjecture.Doubts of the very existence of St. Patrick had[vi]been entertained, and other views almost amountedto the thesis that if he did exist, he was not himself,but a namesake. It was at once evident thatthe material had never been critically sifted, andthat it would be necessary to begin at the beginning,almost as if nothing had been done, in a fieldwhere much had been written.
This may seem unfair to the work of Todd,which in learning and critical acumen stands outpre-eminent from the mass of historical literaturewhich has gathered round St. Patrick. And Ishould like unreservedly to acknowledge that Ifound it an excellent introduction to the subject.But it left me doubtful about every fact connectedwith Patrick’s life. The radical vice of the bookis that the indispensable substructure is lacking.The preliminary task of criticising the sourcesmethodically had never been performed. Toddshowed his scholarship and historical insight indealing with this particular passage or that particularstatement, but such sporadic criticism wasno substitute for methodical Quellenkritik. Hencehis results might be right or wrong, but they couldnot be convincing.
It is a minor defect in Todd’s St. Patrick thathe is not impartial. By this I mean that he wrotewith an unmistakable ecclesiastical bias. It is not[vii]...