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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 February 2009
Any modern study of St Patrick must recognise the essential truth in Binchy's observation that while ‘ we certainly know a great deal about St Patrick the man and the servant of God… of the life and labours of Patrick, apart from a few data furnished almost by accident in the Confessio and Epistola, we know virtually nothing’.1 It might, however, be more positively phrased to the effect that while we do not know many facts about Patrick's life, we know a great deal about how he saw his life.
I am indebted to Nicholas Brooks, Angus Buchanan, Peter Harper, Chris Wickham and Frances Young for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. They are not responsible for any errors of fact or interpretation that remain.
1 Binchy, D. A., ‘Patrick and his biographers: ancient and modern’, Studio Hibemica 2 (1962), 7–123, at p. 39.Google Scholar
2 Confession et Lettre à Coroticus, ed. and trans, into French by Hanson, R. P. C., Paris 1978; The Works of St Patrick, trans.Google ScholarBieler, L. (Ancient Christian Writers 17), Westminster, MD 1953.Google Scholar
3 Charles, Thomas believes Patrick may have based his Confessio on an earlier set of replies to specific charges levelled against him by opponents within the British Church: Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500, London 1981, 331–40.Google Scholar
4 Thompson, E. A., ‘Christianity and the northern barbarians’, in Momigliano, A. (ed.), The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, Oxford 1963, 5 6–78.Google Scholar
5 ‘Deum enim uerum ignorabam et Hibernione in captiuitate adductus sum cum tot milia hominum secundum merita nostra, quia a Deo recessimus et praecepta eius non custodiuimus et sacerdotibus nostris non oboedientes fuimus, qui nostram salutem admonebant.’
6 ‘et Deum uiuum non credebam, neque ex infantia mea, sed in morte et in incredulitate mansi donee castigatus sum et in ueritate humiliatus sum a fame et nuditate, et cotidie.’
7 Confessio I.
8 Thomas, , Christianity in Roman Britain, 311–14.Google Scholar
9 Epistola 10.
10 The following outline of the role and position of the curialis is based on Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602, 3 vols, Oxford 1964, ii. 724–57;Google Scholaridem, ‘The cities of the Roman Empire’, in Brunt, P. A. (ed.), The Roman Economy, Oxford 1974, 1–34;Google ScholarGarnsey, P., ‘Aspects of the decline of the urban aristocracy in the empire’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 2 I, Berlin–New York 1974, 229–52;Google ScholarWacher, J., The Towns of Roman Britain, London 1975, 44f.Google Scholar
11 Although as Frere points out this is not absolutely certain: Frere, S., Britannia, 3, London–New York 1987, 249.Google Scholar
12 Goffart, W., Caput and Colonate: towards a history of late Roman taxation, Toronto–Buffalo 1974, 28.Google Scholar
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14 Ibid 738f; MacMullen, R., Corruption and the Decline of Rome, New Haven 1988, 46f., 164.Google Scholar
15 Lane Fox, R., Pagans and Christians, Harmondsworth 1986, 52, 76–9;Google ScholarMacMullen, R., Paganism in the Roman Empire, New Haven 1981, 43, 106.Google Scholar It is also touched on by Brown, P., The Making of Late Antiquity, Harvard–London 1978, 27–53.Google Scholar
16 Wordman, A., Religion and Statecraft among the Romans, London 1982, 153–5,173, suggests that the establishment of the Christian religion actually offered more opportunities for men of rank to gain religious offices.Google Scholar
17 Hanson, R. P. C., The Life and Writings of the Historical Saint Patrick, New York 1983, 22f., argues that the fact that Patrick's family are flouting the law means that Patrick's birth can be dated to c. 390, a period when imperial authority had waned although Brita1in was still within the empire. Against this the frequency of the legislation prohibiting clerical curiales through the fourth century demonstrates that the law was being broken even in areas less remote than Britain many decades earlier.Google Scholar
18 Although the cult of the unconquered sun was a great imperial favourite from 274, it is misleading to speak of state religion in a Christian sense; there was simply a flexible set of state observances and rituals. For an account of the relationship between ritual and belief in paganism see Lane, Fox, Paganism and Christianity.Google Scholar
19 Bieler, L., ‘The problem of “Silua Focluti”’, Irish Historical Studies 3 (1942), 351–64, identifies the area of Patrick's captivity as Foghill, Co. Mayo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20 Confessio 18.
21 Ibid 17.
22 Ibid. 18–19.
23 ‘ Eadem uero nocte eram dormiens, et fortiter temptavit me Satanas, quod memorero quamdiu fuero in hoc corpore; et cecidit super me ueluti saxum ingens et nihil membrorum meorum praevalui. Sed unde mihi venit ignarum in spiritem ut Heliam vocarem Et inter haec uidi in caelum solem oriri et dum clamarem “Helia, Helia” uiribus meis, ecce splendor solis illius decidit super me et statim discussit a me omnem grauitudinem; et credo quod a Christo Domino meo subventus sum et Spiritus eius iamtune clamabat prome, et spero quod sic erit in die pressurae meae, sicut in evangelio inquit: in ilia die, Dominus testatur, non uos estis qui loquimini, sed Spiritus Patris uestri qui loquitur in uobis': Ibid 20.
24 Bury, J. B., The Life of Saint Patrick and His Place in History, London 1905, 33.Google Scholar
25 Macalister, R. A. S., Ancient Ireland, London 1935, 170.Google Scholar
26 Thompson, E.A., Who was Saint Patrick?, Woodbridge 1985, 170. See also n. 29 below.Google Scholar
27 Even in later life Patrick remained a man of one book – the Bible; we cannot be sure that he was familiar with any others: Hanson, ,Saint Patrick, 44.Google Scholar
28 Thus Bieler, L., St Patrick and the Coming of Christianity, Dublin 1967, 56, interprets Patrick's cry as an appeal to Christ (Sol Salutis) whom Patrick had confused with the pagan Sol Invictus. This explanation, though certainly somewhere near the mark, assumes an unlikely degree of religious sophistication on Patrick's part.Google ScholarHanson, , Saint Patrick, 91, suggests that Patrick had confused Elijah with Helios, but this is subject to the same criticism that I have levelled at the explanations above, that Patrick was not sufficiently knowledgeable of Christianity to be confused by such details.Google Scholar
29 Liebeschuetz, J.H.W.G., Continuity and Change in Roman Religion, Oxford 1979, 283f.Google Scholar
30 Ibid 243. Lane, Fox expresses certain reservations: Pagans and Christians, 575.Google Scholar
31 This is explored by Liebeschuetz, , Continuity and Change.Google Scholar
32 See Vogt, J., ‘Pagans and Christians in the family of Constantine the Great’, in Momigliano, The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity, 38–55;Google ScholarDrake, H. A., In Praise of Constantine: a historical study and new translation of Eusebius' tricennial orations, Berkeley 1976;Google ScholarKee, A., Constantine versus Christ, London 1982;Google ScholarSordi, M. (trans. Bedini, A.), The Christians and the Roman Empire, London 1983, 133–44.Google Scholar Those championing the ‘orthodoxy’ of Constantine's Christianity have problems dealing with the considerable evidence which points the other way. Thus Barnes, T. D., Constantine and Eusebius, Harvard 1981, rather unconvincingly hints at political cunning by Constantine to appease pagans.Google Scholar
33 Hanson, R. P. C., ‘The Christian attitude to pagan religions up to the time of Constantine the Great’, Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt 23 2, Berlin-New York 1980, 910–73, at p. 965.Google Scholar
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35 In Praise of Constantine, 73. Hanson, ‘ The Christian attitude to pagan religions’, 959, suggests that solar monotheism was the most powerful force for syncretism in the Empire.
36 Confessio 59–.
37 Saint Patrick, 123.
38 That is, Patrick, is here using the idea of Christ as Sol Salutis, which he contrasts with the pagan Sol Invictus. See above, n. 29.Google Scholar
39 Wardman, , Religion and Statecraft, 169–70;Google ScholarVogt, , ‘Pagans and Christians’, 38–40;Google ScholarLane, Fox, Pagans and Christians, 672f.Google Scholar
40 On Synesius of Cyrene see Marrou, H. I., ‘Synesius of Cyrene and Alexandrian Neoplatonism’, in Momigliano, The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity, 126–50;Google ScholarYoung, F., From Nicaea to Chakedon, London 1983, 172–6.Google Scholar
41 Eusebius, , for example, denounced ‘ the unspeakable hypocrisy of those adopting the facade, the deceitful name of “Christian”’: Vita Constantinii 4.54.2Google Scholar, cited by MacMullen, R., Christianising the Roman Empire AD 100–400, New Haven 1984, 56.Google Scholar
42 Thus Peter, Brown in his study of the beliefs of the pagan aristocracy of Rome argues that the blurring of distinctions between paganism and Christianity allowed the pagans to drift into a ‘respectable’ form of Christianity: ‘Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman aristocracy’, Journal of Roman Studies 51 (1961), 1–1Google Scholar