Irish Druids and Old Irish Religions

44 Irish D^^inds.
in 1522, English law existed in only four of the Irish
couni •unties
;
and Brehons and Ollamhs (teachers) were
known to the end of the seventeeth century. The founding
of the book of Brehon Law is thus explained :—" And
when the men of Erin heard—all the power of Patrick
since his arrival in Erin— they bowed themselves down in
obedience to the will of God and Patrick. It was then
that all the professors of the sciences (Druids) in Erin
were assembled, and each of them exhibited his art before
Patrick, in the presence of every chief in Erin.—What did
not clash with the Word of God in the written law, and in
the New Testament, and with the consciences of the
believers, was confirmed in the laws of the Brehons by
Patrick, and by the ecclesiastics and the chieftains of
Erin."
ISLE OF MAN DRUIDISM.
The Isle of Man lies just between Ireland and Wales.
Let us examine what can be shown about these matters
therein.
Boetius, translated by Alfred the Great, had a particularly
doubtful story to tell ; too similar, alas 1 to the
narratives of early Christian writers. " Cratilinth, the
Scottish King, A.U. 27;," said he, " was very earnest in
the
overthrow of Druidism in the Isle of lAIon and elsewhere
;
and upon the occasion of Dioclesian's persecution, when
many Christians fled to him for refuge, he gave them the
Isle of Mon for their residence." He relates that lAIannanan
Beg *' was the establisher and cultivator of religion
after the manner of the Egyptians.— He caused gteat
stones to be placed in the form of a circle."
Train, in his History of Man, refers to Mannanan Beg,
Mac-y-Leirr, of the first century, having kept the Island