[217] The old lists of the Armagh succession agree in assigning to Benignus ten years as bishop, so that, as Benignus died in 467 (_Ann. Ult., sub anno_), he would have succeeded in 457. [218] March 17. [219] Oirthir, not to be confounded with the kingdom of Oriel (Oirgéill), of which it formed the eastern portion. [220] Inundations are a recurring motive in the legends of the Island-plain. See the salt-marsh stories, above, p. 91. [221] This second incident can be shown to be a subsequent invention. See Appendix C, 19. [222] This story is also told by Muirchu, but not in immediate connexion with the story of the waggon and oxen seized by the men of Orior. It seems probable that the latter was suggested by the former. We meet the duplicate waggon and oxen in the Life of St. Abban (Colgan, _Acta Sanctorum_, i. March 16, cc. 41 _sqq._), where the account of that saint’s death and burial and the struggle between the north and the south Leinster men is obviously borrowed from the stories about St. Patrick. Another story of wild bulls drawing a saint’s body to its tomb will be found in the Life of St. Melorus of Cornwall, _Acta Sanctorum_ (Boll.), Jan. 1, vol. i. p. 136. [223] It is to be seen in the National Museum at Dublin. For the evidence as to the bell and the staff, see notes, Appendix B. For the copy of the gospels, which used falsely to be supposed to be his, see note, Appendix B, on chap. viii. p. 162. [224] This theory of Professor Zimmer is examined at length in Appendix C, 21. [225] Except in regard to Britain, and the British Church was similarly isolated. [226] _De Cons. Stil. Lib._ iii. l. 151. [227] Zimmer put forward the theory that the original _Confession_ contained more biographical details than our texts (_Celtic Church_, p. 50). See my criticism showing that his argument has no basis (_Eng. Hist. Review_, xviii., July 1903, pp. 544-6). [228] _St. Patrick_, p. 347. [229] _Councils_, ii. p. 296, note _a._ [230] _Celtic Church_, _ib._ [231] Bury, _ib._ [232] Huc usque uolumen quod Patricius manu conscripsit sua: septima decima Martii die translatus est Patricius ad caelos. [233] Sixth century or not much later, because the writings of Muirchu and Tírechán attest its existence in the second half of the seventh century. [234] The attempt of Pflugk-Harttung (_Die Schriften S. Patricks_, in _Neue Heidelberger Jahrbücher_, p. 71 _sqq._, 1893) to prove the _Confession_ and _Letter_ spurious is a piece of extraordinarily bad criticism. He designates the _Liber Armachanus_ as “Irlands pseudoisidorische Fälschung.” [235] Now fully admitted by Zimmer, who formerly doubted it. [236] iteneris A. [237] terreno A. [238] requissistis A (with sign of query, Z, in margin). [239] paradissum A. [240] aeclessia A. [241] Curie A. [242] = ἐλέησον.