If

It is more difficult to find any traces of St. Romulus. He is styled Rumilus in the extract already given from the "Book of Armagh." In the "Tripartite Life" he is called Romailus. Ferrarius, in his "Catalogus Sanctorum," marks his feast on the 18th of November, under the name of "Romulus, alias Romanus," and Marianus O'Gorman (ap. Colgan) makes mention of a St. Romanus on the same day, probably the same as the Romulus of whom we are now speaking. No other notice of such a saint is to be found in the early Irish or British records. The words of Ferrarius, who styles him Romulus, alias Romanus (loc. cit.), would seem, indeed, to justify the suspicion that this was not his original name, but only a surname or distinctive epithet that was subsequently given to him. this be admitted it would not be too hazardous, perhaps, to conjecture that the saint thus designated was no other than the St. Germanus, or Caeman, of whom we have already spoken. We have seen that St. Caeman, in the calendars already cited, is called the Pilgrim, and that, according to the continental traditions, he was reckoned among the clergy of Rome before he accompanied St. Patrick on his mission to our shores. This would surely be a sufficient ground for giving to him the epithet of the Roman, and should this conjecture prove true we would find under the Latinized names of Conindrius and Romulus the holy brothers SS. Canoc and Caeman, and the words of Probus would at once be justified, that "they were the first" chosen by St. Patrick to lay the foundations of the faith in the Isle of Man.

As regards the relations of Ireland with the Isle of Man in later times but little remains to be said. Usher tells of a British bishop named Patricianus who seems to have had connection with our apostle, and who, after leading a holy life in the Isle of Man, happily ended his days there during the Episcopate of St. Machaldus (oper. vol. VI., "Index Chron.," p. 581). The "British Martyrology," on the 3rd July, commemorates as follows all the early bishops of the Isle of Man :-" St. Germanus, disciple of St. Patrick, and first bishop of the Isle of Man; SS. Romulus and Conindrius, also disciples of St. Patrick, and consecrated by him. These two holy prelates had for their successor in the Isle of Man St. Machaldus, a bishop eminent for sanctity and miracles, who was honoured with many churches after his death. These four saints were the fathers and founders of the church of Man. In the same island SS. Conan, Contentus, Bladus, and Malchus, who were all

1A St. Maol, or Maolan, mentioned in the "Irish Martyrologies," is supposed by. some to be the same as the Latin Romulus. This conjecture, however, has little to commend it.

successively bishops of Man and the islands, and were all found worthy to be ranked after their death among the saints." Among the additional bishops whose names are here presented to us, there is only one about whom any particulars have come down to us. St. Conan was of a princely Scotic family, and he had for his disciple the great St. Fiacre, who in the seventh century laboured with such fruit in the missions of France. He was remarkable for the austerity of his life and for his devotion to the Holy Mother of God: "Præcipue erga sanctissiman Dei matrem inflammato ferebatur studio." His death is placed by the Scotch historian, Camerarius, in the year 648.

The seventeen parishes into which the Isle of Man was originally divided, and the sites of the religious houses with which it was formerly enriched, have preserved the names of some few other Irish saints whose memory was cherished by the early Manx faithful. Thus the old church of Kirk-Bride and the nunnery attached to it were called after their patroness, our own great St. Brigid.2

St. Loman, nephew of St. Patrick, gave his name to Kirkelewnam, now Kirklonan. Whilst at either side the island is guarded by St. Michael, the centre has “St. Trinion's Church,” which modern writers refer to the Blessed Trinity, but which more probably was founded by the Irish saint, St. Trian. St. Patrick has still two Churches which bear his name, whilst another to the north-east recalls the memory of St. Maughold. Kirkesaynton, also called Santon, was dedicated to St. Sanctain.3 The patrons of Kirk-Marown and Kirk-Jarnam have not been fully identified; they were probably SS. Moronog and Jarnog of our Irish calendars; Kirk-Onchan, also called Kirk-Conchan,4 gives us the name of St. Concha, or Conchessa, the holy mother of St. Patrick. The "British Martyrology" has, on the 20th of October:-"SS. Bradan and Orora honoured in churches, which still bear their names, in the Isle of Man." One of these churches was the modern Kirk-Brodon, in the neighbourhood of Douglas; the other, dedicated to St. Orora, is supposed by the Bollandists to be now forgotten;5 it was known, however, in the sixteenth century; for in the

1

Camerarius, ad diem 26th Jan.: Hector Boethius, "Hist. Scot.," lib. 9, p. 179. Rev. Mr. Cumming writes:-" The name Mailbrigid is evidently of Celtic origin, and a name not unfrequent in the annals of these countries. One of the churches in the Isle of Man is dedicated in honour of St. Bridget, as well as the nunnery near Douglas."-(" Antiquitates Manniæ," vol. i. p. 25.)

See Ir. Ec. Record, vol. IV. p. 317.

4

Carlyle, "Topogr. Dict. of Scotland," ad voc. Oncan.

5 Vol. VIII., for October, p. 890.

VOL. V.

17

chartolary of Thomas Stanley, Lord of the islands, we find expressly mentioned “Ecclesia S. Crore,” which was manifestly a corruption of the more ancient name Orora. A "Description of the Isle of Man," written in 1744, makes mention of KirkCarbra churchyard; this was probably nothing more than a further corruption of the same name, and leads us to the still existing Kirk-Kerbrey, also called Kirk-Arbory, mentioned by Carlyle, and marked in the maps of Gough and Blean. The Bull of Eugene the Third, confirming the grant of Rushin to the Abbot of Furniss, makes mention of the "Monastery of St. Leoc. . . . . the town of St. Melius (villam S. Melü), and the district of St. Corebrie." Corebrie is probably not different from St. Orora's Church already mentioned; St. Malius is the Latinized form of a name still retained in Kirk-Malew, and this, perhaps, is derived from St. Machaldus or Machutus, one of the first bishops of the see. It is thus that the town Maclovius, now Malo, in the north of France, received its name from another great British saint, Machutus, who was the apostle of that district.

As regards the monastery of St. Leoc, it is conjectured that its patron-saint was St. Lupus, who accompanied St. German of Auxerre in his mission into Britain. The Abbey of Rushin seems at a later period to have occupied the site of the more ancient monastery. This abbey was enriched, indeed, with many lands by Olave, in the year 1134, but it was founded at an earlier date; for Sacheverall informs us that, "One MacMarus, a person of great prudence, moderation, and justice, in the year 1098, laid its first foundations in the town of Ballasalley."-("Short Survey," &c., p. 34.) We may add that this Celtic name, Ballasalley, seems to preserve the memory of the last-mentioned saint, for when analyzed it simply means "the town of St. Leoc.”3 The connection of the name Leoc with St. Lupus is confirmed by a letter of Pope Urban the Fifth in 1367, which mentions St. Lupus as patron of a parochial church in Man.-(Theiner's "Monumenta Hib. et Scot. Ec. illustr. ex. vatt. codicibus," p. 332). Another.letter of the same Pontiff preserves the name of St. Columkille, as patron of one of the Manx parishes, "in parrochia sancti Columbæ in Insula Manniæ."-(Ibid. p. 331.)

66

In "Monastic. Angl." tom. v. p. 253, seqq.

266

Topogr. Dict. of Scotland," ad voc. Man.

Among the silver plate of the Abbey, sold to the Earl of Derby by the Crown, on the dissolution of the Monasteries in Henry the Eighth's reign, are mentioned, Four chalices, one crouche, i.e., a pastoral staff, one censer, one cross, two little headless crosses, one navicula, i.e., incense-holder, one hand, and one bishop's head, &c." The two last items refer to silver reliquaries, which probably encased the relics of some early bishop of the see.

The few traces that still remain of the ancient churches of the Isle of Man present a striking similarity with the early churches of this country. One, and indeed I might almost say the only, fragment of its old ecclesiastical plate, is a paten found at Kirk-Malew, the very ancient inscription on which preserves the invocation of the patron saint, "S. Maloua, ora pro nobis."

The old inscribed crosses are, however, the most remarkable monuments that have come down to us from the Celto-Scandinavian period of the Manx Church. Worsaae and some other writers have regarded these crosses as of pure Scandinavian origin. Mr. Windele, however, has clearly proved that though they are the work of Scandinavian artists, yet they are "derivatives from the crosses of Ireland." These crosses were, for the most part, erected in the churchyards of the island. "In every churchyard," says the writer of an old "Description of Man," in 1774, "there is a cross around which the people go three times (at funerals), before they enter the church." Thirty-eight of these crosses, either entire or mutilated, at present remain; they are generally of elegant form, and consist of shafts supporting circles and transverse arms, which are elaborately sculptured, and covered with interlaced knot and scroll work. Their dates range between the fifth and twelfth centuries. Whilst thirteen of these crosses have Runic inscriptions, only one preserves the figure of our Saviour crucified,3 and only one other gives, in semi-Roman characters, as deciphered by Dr. Wilson, the name JHESUS.

The figures of dragons and serpents are relied upon as indicative of genuine Norwegian workmanship. To this we may reply, in the words of Mr. Windele, that "Serpents and interlacings form as much the staple of Irish and Scotch ornamentation as they did in Scandinavia, and therefore, as a test of origin, their presence is quite inconclusive. It requires no very acute powers of discrimination to arrive at the very obvious fact that the recently converted and naturalized Norsemen in Man imitated a class of monuments which they found already in existence in the island. They varied some of the ornamental details in accordance with their own national tastes, adding or substituting devices and figures, familiar in their own sculptures for those which they found prevalent in those now imitated. We accordingly find the outline form of the Irish

"On the Runic Crosses of the Isle of Man," by John Windele, in transactions of Kilkenny Arch. Soc. for 1854, p. 151.

Cumming, "The Ornamentation, &c." p. I.

On this and some other crosses of the Isle of Man an interesting note will be found in "Proceedings of R.I.A.," May 8th, 1854.

circle cross universally adopted. The Irish ornamentation, its triquetra, interlacings, and imagery were in the main copied; but added to these were northern beasts and birds of prey, snakes and hybrid animals, Runic knots and inscriptions interspersed, derived from the myths of the sagas, and still wellremembered Pagan imaginings."

The inscriptions are for the most part a mere record of the names of the persons for whom and by whom they were erected. Some of these names are of a manifest Celtic origin. Thus, one cross is erected by Thorlaf Neach "for Fiac his son, and for the son of his brother Jabri." Another inscription preserves the name of Maelbrigid, i.e., “the servant of St. Brigid ;" it is the most important of all the Manx inscriptions, and has formed the theme of much discussion. It is thus translated by Professor Munch:-"Maelbrigid, the son of Ethcan, erected this cross for his sinful soul. It was Gaut that made it, and all the crosses in Man."3

If so many crosses of Man have been preserved to our own times we are not indebted for this boon to the Manxmen of some centuries ago. The great majority of them were pulled down and then used as building material for the later churches; and Mr. Cumming assures us that the greater number of the Manx crosses that now remain "have been discovered within the last fifty years in pulling down the old churches in the north of the island and erecting new ones."4

During the period subsequent to the Danish invasions the ecclesiastical organization of the Isle of Man seems to have been subject to many abnormal changes. Nevertheless, its connection with Ireland was not wholly interrupted. In 1217, Nicholas, Bishop of Man and the isles, chose the monastery of Bangor, in Ireland, as his place of interment.5 Two years later we have a letter from Pope Honorius the Third, in which he laments the opposition which the King of Man had offered to the newly-elected bishop of that island. "The religious of the monastery of Furniss (he says), to whom the election of the bishop canonically belongs, being assembled together, and having invoked the grace of the Holy Ghost, chose him unanimously,

3 Ibid. XXII. Mr. Cummings, in his paper on "The Ornamentation of the Runic Monuments in the Isle of Man" (“Antiquitates Manniæ," vol. I, 1868, p. 1), gives the following as his own latest interpretation of this inscription :"Mailbrigid, son of Athaken, as a work of art, erected this cross for his soul. His betrothed caused Gaut to chisel it in Man."

"Antiq. Manniæ," vol. I, p. 4.

* Munch, "Chronic. Manniæ," p. 26: "Sepultus est in Ultonia in domo de Bennchor."