ing  of  Tillemont.  Mem.  Eccl.  S.  Pa-  >    Toung  man.    *  Vos     sdds    rt

trice,  note,  iii.  p.  783.  Deus  qualiter  apud  tos  convenatus

*  Birth  J  i.e.  assuming  440  to  460,  sum  a  juventute  mca.'  Wmrt^.  it.
as  the  extremes  within  which  we  must  *  Probus.  Lib.  i.  c.  19.  fr.  W.
place  the  date  of  his  consecration,  as  p.  51.     Sec  above»  p.  316.
man  Mis-


CHAP.  II.]        Patricks  arrival  in  Ireland.  393

was  whilst  he  was  still  only  a  priest,  and  conse-
quently before  he  was  forty-five  years  old.
The   Irish   annals,   with    singular   unanimity.  The  dates

•         J  r   1  •  •  1    8>vcn  in  the

give  A.D.  432  as  the  date  or  his  consecration  and  inshAnnais
arrival  as  a  bishop  in  Ireland.  But  this  date  is  ""onxhtKL
in  fact  the  story  of  his  being  commissioned  by
Pope  Celestine,  and  with  that  story  must  fall  to
the  ground.  The  year  432  is  the  year  of  the  death
of  Pope  Celestine  ;  the  latest  year  in  which  a  com-
mission from  Celestine  could  have  been  received
by  St.  Patrick.  He  was  then,  we  are  told,  sixty
years  of  age  ;  he  laboured  in  Ireland  sixty  years
more,  and  died,  *  after  the  similitude  of  Moses,*
at  the  age  of  120.  He  was  therefore  born  a.d.
372  and  died  a.d.  492,  or  493.  These  are  the
dates  adopted  by  Archbishop  Ussher.  But  the
very  mention  of  the  similitude  to  Moses ^,  and
the  division  of  Patrick's  life  into  four  equal
periods  of  thirty^  years,  are  enough  to  render  these
dates  very  suspicious.
The  annals,  whose  authority  was  paramount
with  Ussher,  all  take  for  granted  the  Roman  mis-
sion of  St.  Patrick,  and  are  therefore  compelled
to  make  a.d.  432  the  date  of  his  consecration.
