Page:The most ancient lives of Saint Patrick - O'Leary.djvu/345

 exultation, giving thanks for all these things which had been shown unto him: and he understood in the greatness of this fiery ardor of the Christian faith the devotion and the zeal of religion, wherewith those islanders burned. By the fiery mountains he understood the men who would be holy in their miracles and their virtues, eminent in their preachings and their examples; by the lessening of the light, the decrease of holiness; by the darkness that covered the land, the infidelity which would prevail therein; by the intervals of delay, the distances of the succeeding times. But the people think the period of darkness was that in which Gurmundus and Turgesius, heathen princes of Norwegia, conquered and ruled in Hibernia; and in those days, the saints, like coals covered with ashes, lay hidden in caves and dens from the face of the wicked, who pursued them like sheep unto the slaughter. Whence it happened that differing rites and new sacraments, which were contrary to the ecclesiastical institutes, were introduced into the church by many prelates who were ignorant of the divine law. But the light first arising from the north, and after long conflict exterminating the darkness, those people assert to be Saint Malachy, who presided first in Dunum, afterward in Ardmachia, and reduced the island unto the Christian law. On the other hand, the people of Britain ascribe this light to their coming, for that then the church seemed under their rule to be advanced unto a better state; and that then religion seemed to be planted and propagated, and the sacraments of the church and the institutes of the Christian law to be observed with more regular observance. But I propose not the end of this contention, neither do I prevent it, thinking that the discussion and the decision thereof should be left unto the divine judgment.