[Footnote 72: Such cells or oratories, as relics of the holy men who had been their founders, were always regarded by the Irish, like every other kind of relics, as their bells, croziers, books, etc. etc., with the deepest sentiments of veneration, and their injury or violation--"dishonouring," as the annalists often term it--was regarded as a sacrilege of the most revolting and sinful character. And to this pious feeling we may ascribe the singular preservation to our own times of so many of such buildings--though, indeed, in many instances, they may only retain the general form, or a portion of the walls, of the original structure--owing to the injuries inflicted by time, or, as more frequently, by foreign violence. Thus, in the great Aran of the _Tiglach Enda_, or "House of Enda," a portion only--the east end--is of the Saint's time, the rest is some centuries later; and of St. Ciarn's oratory at Clonmacnoise--called in the _Irish Annals_ "Temple Ciaron," or "Eaglais-beag," and, sometimes, "_Temple-beg_," or "The Little Church," though the original form was carefully preserved, there was, when I first examined it, more than forty years ago, apparently no portion of its masonry that was not obviously of much later times--in parts even as late as the seventeenth century. Our annalists record the names of Airchinneachs of this oratory from 893 to 1097.--P.] [Footnote 73: In reference to this observation, it is scarcely necessary to refer to the teachings in Scotland of St. Kentigern of Strathclyde in the first half of the sixth century, of St. Serf of Culross in the latter, and of St. Palladius and St. Ninian in the earlier parts of the fifth century, with the more immediate converts and followers of these ancient missionaries. In his _Demonstratio quod Christus sit Deus contra Judaeos atque Gentiles_, written about the year 387, St. Chrysostom avers that "the British Islands ([Greek: Bretanikai nesoi]), situated beyond the Mediterranean Sea, and in the very ocean itself, had felt the power of the Divine Word, churches having been found there, and altars erected." (_Opera omnia_, vol. i. p. 575, Paris edition of Montfaucon, 1718.) Perhaps St. Chrysostom founded his statement upon a notice in reference to the alleged extension of Christianity to the northern parts of Britain, given a hundred and fifty years previously by Tertullian, when discussing a similar argument. In his dissertation _Adversus Judaeos_, supposed to be written about 210, Tertullian, when treating of the propagation of Christianity, states (chap. vii.), that at that time already places among the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, were yet subject to Christ--"Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo vero subdita." (Oehler's edition of _Tertullian_, vol. iii. p. 713.) Among the numerous inscriptions and sculptures left here by the Romans while they held this country during the first four centuries of the Christian