Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/104

Rh  Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum seu Vitæ et Acta Sanctorum Hiberniæ &c., Parisiis, 1624. A translation of this work into English, rather free in many places, but sufficiently close to give a good idea of the original, appeared in 1809—namely, The Life and Acts of St. Patrick, the Archbishop, Primate, and Apostle of Ireland, now first translated from the original Latin of Jocelin, the Cistercian Monk of Furnes, who flourished in the early part of the twelfth century; with the elucidations of David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory. By, Esq. Dublin: Printed for the Hibernian Press Company by James Blyth, 1809. Our translation is taken from the original. Much interesting matter is contained in Messingham's Florilegium, but the account of this vision in Jocelin's Life appears to us one of the few grains of wheat in a bushel of rubbish. Jocelin had, however, access to works now lost, and hence there may be something genuine in this vision. It is at any rate interesting. King gives in his History an attempt at a Protestant interpretation of this prophecy. It is certainly susceptible of being explained of the light of the Reformation; and was most suitably applied to the light diffused throughout Ireland by means of Trinity College, Dublin, in the congratulatory address presented to that university on its tercentenary in 1892 by the Prorector and Senatus of the University of Heidelberg.