CHAPTER V.

PATRONS AND PILGRIMAGES.

THE first Christian Missionaries and the Founders of the Primitive Churches selected almost invariably the sites which had been resorted to from time immemorial for worship, festivals, and traffic-the central point, generally an elevated spot, being occupied by the mysterious stone cross standing on a pedestal. It was usually from ten to twenty feet high, and covered with elaborately carved figures of men, quadrupeds, serpents, trees, &c. On the same spot, or very near, rose, far above all, the majestic and still more mysterious Round Tower, popularly believed to have been erected in a night by supernatural beings, but when or for what purpose no historian could tell with certainty, although the Bards pretended to do so in their fabulous legends. The Towers and Crosses, and certain great aged trees, were regarded with such veneration, such superstitious awe, that it was only in some rare instances, antiquarians tell us, the people ventured upon the removal of any of the old monuments, not even of a small pillar stone. Their Christian teachers contented themselves with carving upon such stones the sacred names or symbols of Christianity, where they had not been preoccupied by the symbols of Idolatry. Even then in some cases the idols obtained the names of saints. The festivals of the heathen were converted into Christian solemnities and holy days. The Beltane and the Samhuin still survive in our May Day and Hallow Eve, while the bonfires of St. John's Eve represent the great national festival in honour of Baal, the god of fire, symbolised by the Sun. 'Nothing is clearer,' says Dr. O'Donovan, the learned translator of the Four Masters,' than that Patrick engrafted Christianity 01. the Pagan superstitions with so much skill that he won the people over to the Christian religion before they understood the

exact difference between the two systems of belief; and much of this half Pagan, half Christian religion may be found not only in the Irish stories of the middle ages, but in the superstitions of the peasantry to the present day.'

St. Patrick is said to have met three stone pillars, on which he engraved the words Jesus, Sotor, Salvator. His followers virtually adopted the worship of the heathen in order to win over the population, hoping, no doubt, that they would be able by degrees to instruct their converts in the principles of Christianity. An illustration of what generally occurred is given by M. Dabuenot in his history of The Destruction of Paganism' in the West. M. Dabuenot was a learned Roman Catholic, whose work obtained the sanction of the Institute of France. He states that after the Council of Ephesus the churches of the East and West offered to the adoration of the faithful the VIRGIN MARY. They had received this new worship with an enthusiasm sometimes too great, since for many Christians this worship became the whole of Christianity. The heathen did not endeavour to defend their altars against the worship of the Mother of God. They opened to Mary the temples which they had kept shut against JESUS CHRIST, and confessed themselves conquered. It is true they often mixed with the adoration of Mary those heathen ideas, those vain practices, those ridiculous superstitions, from which they seemed unable to separate themselves. The Church, however, was delighted to see them enter into her bosom, because she knew well that it would be easy for her with the help of time to purify from its alloy her worship, whose essence was purity itself. Among a multitude of proofs I choose only one to show with what facility the worship of Mary swept before it the remains of heathenism which still covered Europe. Notwithstanding the preaching of St. Hilarian, Sicily had remained faithful to the old worship (heathenism). After the Council of Ephesus (that which offered the Virgin Mary to the adoration of the faithful) we see its eight finest pagan temples become in a very short space of time churches under the invocation of the Virgin.''

Such events account for the fact, of which indeed thousands of proofs present themselves in the history of Europe, that not 1 Vol. ii. p. 271, quoted by Mr. Keane.

only the buildings and localities connected with the worship, but the customs and traditions of heathenism, passed over to Christian uses. Heathen feasts became saints' days; the names of heathen gods were ascribed to Christian Mythical Saints; and the localities venerated on account of their heathen associations became the favourite sites of Christian churches and monasteries. We have seen that Pope Gregory the Great sanctioned bloody sacrifices, and Theodoret recommended that to win the Gentiles they should present to them the saints and martyrs in lieu of their demi-gods. Other prudential considerations contributed materially to this change. The sites of heathen temples were centres of authority and influence, as well as places of general resort, where the people assembled, not only for worship and religious festivals, national games and sports, but also where they came for the transaction of business or barter in the great open space or 'Green' around the lofty stone Cross, with its symbolic circle representing the Sun, and its sculptured figures of the ox, the serpent, the fish, and other objects of worship, which made the gods, as it were, the witnesses of their bargains.

CLONMACNOISE is the most famous of the places distinguished by their mystic groups of Seven Churches.' With its Round Towers, its Sculptured Crosses, and ruined shrines, it is at present to the antiquary and the historian one of the most interesting places in Ireland. These magnificent ruins, standing in lonely grandeur on the banks of the Shannon, which winds its oozy way through flat, marshy ground, strike the mind with awe as they appear in the distance. The feeling of wonder and admiration is not diminished when we approach the sacred ground and examine the monuments that have stood for so many centuries in a region so desolate. Yet the aspect is not now quite of the kind that might be anticipated from reading the picturesque sketches of Cæsar Otway, who wrote: If ever there was a picture of grim and hideous repose, it is the flow of the Shannon from Athlone to Clonmacnoise. From this hill of Bentullagh, on which we now stood, the numerous churches, the two Round Towers, the curiously overhanging bastions of O'Melloghlin's Castle, all before us to the south, and rising, in relief, from the dreary sameness of the surrounding red bogs, presented

such a picture of tottering ruins and encompassing desolation as I am sure few places in Europe could parallel.' I was, however, agreeably disappointed when I visited the place a few years ago. The land about seems to have been drained and improved since the above was written. Precautions have been taken to arrest the progress of decay and destruction in the buildings which are so full of historic interest, and to protect them from wilful dilapidation. Here is the largest enclosure of tombs and churches anywhere seen in Ireland. 'What a mixture of old and new graves! Modern inscriptions recording the death and virtues of the sons of little men, rude forefathers of the surrounding hamlets; ancient inscriptions in the oldest forms of Irish letters, recording the deeds and hopes of kings, bishops and abbots, buried a thousand years ago, lying about broken, neglected and dishonoured.' The sculptured cross which stands near the door of McDermott's church is, if not equal to that of Monasteraboise, only second to it in Ireland. Harris thus alludes to the place and its monuments:- Before the west and north doors of McDermott's church stood a large old-fashioned cross or monument, much injured by time, on which was an inscription in antique letters which nobody, that I could hear of, could read. The west and north doors of this church, although but mean and low, are guarded about with fine wrought small marble pillars, curiously hewn. Another of the churches hath an arch of greenish marble, flat wrought, and neatly hewn and polished; and the joints so close and even set, that the whole arch seems but one entire stone, as smooth as either glass or crystal. The memory of St. KIERAN is yet fresh and precious in the minds of the neighbouring inhabitants, inasmuch as they make no scruple in joining his name with God's, both in blessing and cursing. "God and St. Kieran after you!" is a common imprecation when they think themselves injured. In the great church was heretofore preserved a piece of St. Kieran's hand, as a sacred relic. The 9th of September is annually observed as the Patron day of this saint, and great numbers from all parts flock to Clonmacnoise in devotion and pilgrimage.'

Chief amongst the monuments are two Round Towers, and the existence of two on the same spot seems to clash with the

Christian theory concerning those buildings, defended by Dr. Petrie; for if the larger one was designed for a belfry, there could have been no use for the smaller one beside it. The larger, called O'Rourke's Tower, stands at the west side of the churchyard, rising grandly over the Shannon. It commanded the ancient causeway that was laid down across the great bog on the Connaught side, looking up and down the river over all its sweeping reaches, as it unfolded itself like a vast serpent along the surrounding bogs and marshes.' At whatever time this Tower was built, Dr. Petrie admits that it was repaired at a period long subsequent, the upper portion being of a coarse pointed masonry of limestone, while the greater part of it below is of close pointed ashlar sandstone. Besides, it is quite obvious that the Tower, when such a restoration was made, was reduced considerably in its original height in proportion to its circumference.

What then becomes of Dr. Petrie's theory that the Round Towers belonged to the Norman style' of architecture? The restoration in question, of which there is no record, being beyond the reach of even monkish history, could not have taken place later than the time when that style flourished, if ever it flourished, in Ireland. But the original building, the unrepaired portion, instead of being of coarse pointed masonry of limestone, consisted of close pointed ashlar sandstone, showing traces of incomparably better workmanship. Who then were the original workmen ? and who were the rulers that employed them? They must have existed many centuries before the Tower was dilapidated. McCarthy's Tower, attached to the church, retains its original proportions, being 55 feet in height and 7 in diameter, and it is peculiar in having the door level with the ground instead of being ten or twelve feet from the foundation. ship of this Tower is exquisitely beautiful, so closely jointed as to appear but one mass of marble! In front of the church, called Teampul McDermott, is a magnificent stone cross, fifteen feet high, and elaborately sculptured. There is another smaller cross similarly ornamented, which leans so much off the perpendicular that its remaining in its position seems to the peasantry a standing miracle. A few perches from the principal ruins, situated on

The workman