It is obvious that to prove anything it must be shown conclusively that the event was referred to in the original _Tripartite_, and is that same event which is recorded in our Annals in the ninth or tenth century. Yet it is exceedingly difficult to prove this essential point. Take, for instance, one of the clearest cases mentioned by Stokes, this death of Connacan, grandson of Niall Frossach. Whoever examines this passage, which is at page 174 (not 173) will notice that it is just such a statement as might be added or interpolated by a copyist. The original writer quotes a prophecy of St. Patrick that "the land of thy place (_i.e._, of Conaed) shall not be reddened." The copyist then adds--apparently as of himself--"Quod probavimus, when Connacan, son of Colman, son of Niall Frossach (the Showery) came into the land with an army." Is this statement that of the copyist or of the original writer? Until it is clearly shown that it is a sentence written by the original author, no argument as to the age of the _Tripartite_ can be based on it, or on similar passages. This _Tripartite_ Life is on the whole the most valuable document concerning St. Patrick that has come down to our times. It was written chiefly in Gaedhlic of the purest type of the language, interspersed here and there with passages in Latin. And it was because Jocelin has said that St. Evin wrote a work of this kind,[107] partly in Irish and partly in Latin, that Colgan not unnaturally infers that the _Tripartite_ must be the work to which Jocelin refers. We certainly know of no other work of a similar character to which Jocelin's observation can apply, and if there were any other similar work we certainly should have heard of it either as a lost or an extant work. Hence, although, _ratione formæ_, Colgan's logic may be weak, _ratione materiae_, it is unimpeachable, no matter what Dr. Stokes may say to the contrary.[108] CHAPTER V. IRISH MONASTIC SCHOOLS IN GENERAL. "Fenced early in this cloistral round Of reverie, of shade, of prayer, How can we grow in other ground? How can we flower in foreign air?" I.--GENERAL VIEW OF AN IRISH MONASTERY. Before we can understand the nature of a monastic school, it is necessary to get a clear idea of the general character of our Irish monasteries, such as they were before the advent of the Danish hordes to this country. This is all the more necessary, because a Celtic monastery of the olden time was a very different thing from those great mediæval establishments, whose ruins are still to be seen both in England and Ireland.