The unity of the Catholic Church is an axiom with Columbanus, and there is not the smallest reason to doubt that this idea was inculcated in Ireland. _Unius enim sumus corporis commembra, sive Galli sive Britanni sive Iberi sive quaeque gentes_ (164). It is not without significance that in the story of the baptism of the daughters of King Loigaire, preserved by Tírechán, one of the five rudiments of Christianity in which the converts are required to express their belief is the _unitas aecclessiae_ (316₂, Rolls ed.). The point is that its own solidarity with the rest of Christendom, and consequent respect for the Bishop of Rome as the head of Christendom, were axioms of theory, however little they were acted on in the sixth century, in the Irish Church. And such must have been the teaching of Patrick himself. Patrick, spiritually reared in the Gallic Church, must (without direct testimony to the contrary) be presumed to have shared in the attitude of Gallic churchmen to the Roman see. It was not, indeed, the attitude of unquestioning obedience and submission of later ages. What it was has been fully explained in chap. iii. _ad fin._ and in chap. viii. § 4. Reference must be made to another passage in Columbanus, which might be thought to prove something more (_Ep._ 5, p. 171). Nos enim sanctorum Petri et Pauli et omnium discipulorum divinum canonem spiritu sancto scribentium discipuli sumus, toti Iberi, ultimi habitatores mundi, nihil extra evangelicam et apostolicam doctrinam recipientes: nullus hereticus, nullus iudaeus, nullus scismaticus fuit; sed fides catholica, _sicut a vobis primum_, sanctorum videlicet apostolorum successoribus, _tradita est_, inconcussa tenetur. In this assertion of the orthodoxy of Ireland, the words which I have italicised might be taken to imply that Ireland received the Catholic faith directly from the Popes. This would be a misinterpretation. The words can only refer generally to the transmission and maintenance of orthodox doctrine at Rome.[417] * * * * * The text of the canon of appeal (Hibernensis, 20, 5, b) is as follows:— Si quae difficiles[418] questiones in hac insula oriantur, ad sedem apostolicam referantur. It is referred to in the _Liber Angueli_ (356₁₁), where the claim of Armagh to decide a _causa ualde difficilis_ is laid down; but if Armagh does not succeed in settling the question, then _ad sedem apostolicam decreuimus esse mittendam_ [sc. _causam_]. It is further stated: hii sunt qui de hoc decreuerunt id est Auxilius Patricius Secundinus Benignus. If these names are selected from the signatories of a synod at which the canon was passed, the presence of Secundinus, who died 447-8 (see App. B, note p. 292), shows that the synod must have been held before that year. Benignus would have been still a presbyter.[419] 17. _Patrick’s Paschal Table_