There is only one document to which the enemies of our holy faith can appeal as evidencing a disregard for the sacrament of penance in our early Church: it is a letter of Alcuin, addressed, in the text of Canisius, _dilectissimis viris fratribus et patribus __ in provincia Scotorum_, in which he mentions the rumour which had reached him, that the laity had refused “confessionem sacerdotibus dare”. Here (writes Dean Murray) is a clear rejection of Popery. However, antiquarians have long since decided that this text has no reference to sacramental confession (see Lanigan, iv. 67): and as the good Protestant dean had given his citation from Usher, he should have added that in Usher’s opinion the title of this letter of Alcuin was erroneous, and that it was addressed to some faithful quite distinct from our old Celtic forefathers. This opinion no longer admits of any doubt. Canisius himself remarked “that in the MS. from which he published this letter, it was addressed _de dilectissimis, etc. in provincia Gothorum_”, and he merely substituted the word _Scotorum_, as a conjecture, not knowing that there were any people in the days of Alcuin who still retained the name of _Gothic_. Later discoveries, however, have proved that the very province of Languedoc, in which territory Alcuin lived for a long time, was designated by this name. The learned Quercetanus discovered a letter of Alcuin himself (ep. 99), addressed to the faithful “_in diversis Gothiae partibus_”; and Baluzius, in his _Miscellanea_ (i. 377), published another letter of the same Alcuin, “_iis qui sunt in Gothiae partibus_”. The errors of Felix Urgellitanus, which are here referred to, fix more and more the district to which this letter was addressed; for whilst they had begun to creep in amongst the faithful of France, they were wholly unheard of in the Island of Saints. RICHARD FITZ-RALPH, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. “Many a mile have I gone, and many did I walk, But never saw a holier man than Richard of Dundalk”. _Old Couplet._(32) § I. Introduction.