Page:Writings of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.djvu/19

Rh considerable force and beauty, written at a time when Paganism was almost supreme in Ireland. The author shared in the general belief of the day that even heathen sorcerers had mysterious powers by which they could work harm to their opponents. The expressions used in the Hymn correspond with the circumstances under which Patrick set out on his missionary visit to Tara to confront in its own stronghold the idolatry which was then rampant in the land. The very expression 'Creator of doom' in reference to God which occurs twice in the Hymn is evidence in favour of its Patrician authorship. For, according to the Tripartite Life, which embodies some fragments of antiquity, 'my God's doom,'