Of all the lives of S. Patrick this is the worst, though it has been published oftener than the others. "So wretched a composition is scarcely worth attending to," says Dr. Lanigan. Another authority is Jocelin of Furness, who flourished about 1185, and compiled S. Patrick's life at the request of Thomas, archbishop of Armagh, Malachias (another Irish prelate) and John de Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster. It is of little historical value compared with the earlier and more authentic sources of information, which it not unfrequently contradicts on the authority of some idle legend.] The precise time at which Christianity was originally introduced into Ireland cannot be ascertained. Nor is it to be wondered at, that, while the first establishment of Christian Churches in Britain, Gaul, and Spain, is enveloped in obscurity, a similar difficulty should meet those seeking the origin of the Irish Church. Palladius, according to Prosper, was the first bishop sent from Rome to Ireland. He was a deacon of the Roman Church, who had already distinguished himself by his exertions in delivering Britain from the Pelagian heresy. From this and other circumstances, it seems probable that he was a native of that country. He was consecrated bishop and sent into Ireland, accompanied by some missionaries, four of whom, Sylvester, Solonius, Augustine, and Benedict, are mentioned by name in some of the lives of S. Patrick. It seems that his arrival was early in the year 431. The most authentic accounts of his mission agree in stating that, besides having baptized some persons, he erected three churches; and the news of his success, perhaps magnified in its transit, excited such a confident assurance in Rome of his complete conquest of the island to the Cross, that Prosper did not hesitate to say that, through the exertion of pope Celestine, Ireland was become a Christian country. This book "Against Cassian," was written not long after the mission of Palladius, and before he had heard of the reverses which that pioneer of the Gospel had met with. The success Palladius had met with alarmed the heathen, and he was denounced to the king of that part of Ireland in which he then was, as a dangerous person, and he was ordered to quit the country. He sailed from Ireland towards the latter end of the same year, 431, in which he had landed, and arriving in Britain, died, not long after, as is commonly reported, at Fordun, in the district of Mearns, in Scotland. The great work of the general conversion of the people of Ireland was reserved for the ministry of S. Patrick, according to the Irish adage that, "Not to Palladius, but to Patrick, did God grant the conversion of Ireland."