than in the first.” The truth is that there is no evidence what the Roman divine service was, in its details, in the fifth century; and therefore it is possible to hold that the _dictum_ of Patrick may be genuine, and a testimony that the _Kyrie_ was used at Rome in the first half of that century. But while we admit this possibility, we can hardly build upon it. It must be acknowledged that the expression _aeclessia Scotorum immo Romanorum_ suggests seventh or eighth century. If it is Patrician, _Romanorum_ ought to mean the Church of the Roman Empire. For it is very difficult to conceive Patrick associating the Irish Church with Rome as opposed to Gaul and the rest of western Christendom. But in this context _Romanorum_ (and _Romani_) supplies the ground for using the _Kyrie_, and would therefore logically stand in contradistinction to Gaul and other parts of the Empire where the _Kyrie_ was not in use. Again, the tenor of this _dictum_ is in marked contrast to the other two. It is not an emotional expression of Patrick’s experience, but an ecclesiastical injunction. The _Deo gratias_ at the end is out of place. On the whole I am strongly disposed to think that the third _dictum_ is spurious and was added, perhaps, after A.D. 700, to the two genuine _dicta_. I may refer in this connexion to the important discussion of the Stowe Missal by Dr. B. MacCarthy in the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_, 1886, vol. xxvii. 135 _sqq._, a paper which seems to have entirely escaped the notice of M. Duchesne. His general conclusion is that the mass, which is the oldest part of the MS.—and which he separates as B_ₐ_—is as old as the first half of the fifth century (pp. 164-5), and he considers it to be the mass introduced by Patrick. He dates the transcription to the seventh century (after A.D. 628). 4. _Ecclesiastical Canons of St. Patrick_ It would be strange if the organisers of the Church in Ireland in the fifth century had not held synods, or some substitute for synods, and committed their resolutions to writing;[251] and if so, there would be every probability that the _Acta_ or canons would have been extant in the eighth century, and would have been perfectly well known to the bishops and clergy who sat in the synods of the seventh and eighth centuries; for it was not till the ninth century that the destruction of books began through the devastations of the Northmen. It was clearly one of Patrick’s duties to take measures to establish and secure harmony and unity of ecclesiastical administration between the north of Ireland, the special field of his own activity, and the south, which lay outside his immediate sphere of operations. As a matter of fact, we possess evidence which, if it is genuine, records a “synod” or meeting in which Patrick was concerned; but it has been called in question, and is generally rejected. Nevertheless the last word has not been said. The evidence is twofold.