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that town would be too far "from the Western sea," but
another Bannaventa somewhere on the sea coast, and "perhaps in the
region of the Severn" (chap, ii., p. 17, and Appendix, 323).

The whole of Professor Bury's new theory rests on a very faint
similarity between Bonaven or Bannaven--the name which the Saint
gives to the town of his birth--and Bannaventa; and on an entirely
gratuitous assumption that there must have been a town named
Bannaventa "in the regions of the lower Severn."
Professor Bury is recognised as a very able historian by the literary
world; his Appendix alone to the "Life of St. Patrick" affords ample
proof of his learning and genius. Nevertheless, he occasionally
indulges in some obiter dicta without historical proof, and at times lays
himself open to the charge of want of historical accuracy. For instance,
he ascribes the origin of the Papal power to a decree of the Emperor
Valintinian III., issued in A.D. 445 at the instance of Pope Leo, which
is supposed to have conferred "on the Bishop of Rome sovran authority
in the Western provinces which were under the imperial sway." Before
that period, he tells us, "the Roman See was recognised by imperial
decrees of Valintinian I. and Gratian as a Court to which the clergy
might appeal from the decisions of Provincial Councils in any part of
the Western portion of the Empire"; that "the answers to such were
called Decretals"; that there were no Decretals before those of
Damasus (366, 384); "that those who consulted the Roman Pontiff were
not bound in any way to accept his ruling"; and that when Pope
Zosimus endeavoured to enforce his Decretals "he was smitten on one
cheek by the Synods of Africa; he was smitten on the other by the Gallic
Bishops at the Council of Turin." "By tact and adroitness," Pope Leo
induced the Emperor Valintinian III. to issue an edict which
established the Papal power over the Western provinces of the Roman
Empire. The Professor explains how Ireland, on account of its
geographical position, was drawn into the Roman Confederation; and
it is on that account that he admits the genuineness of the decree of a
Synod held by St. Patrick, to the effect that in cases of ecclesiastical
difficulties, which the Irish Bishops could not solve themselves, the
Sovereign Pontiff should be asked to give a decision ("Life of St.
Patrick," pp. 59--66).
The Professor's perversion of ecclesiastical history is a blot on his
otherwise excellent "Life of St. Patrick." How can he reconcile these

statements with St. Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, which
Eusebius admits to be genuine, or with Pope Stephen's exercise of
pontifical authority in the case of St. Cyprian and the question of
validity of baptism conferred by heretics; or with the celebrated
declaration of St. Irenaeus on the authority of the Church of Rome,
which is as follows: "It is a matter of necessity that every Church
should agree with this Church on account of its pre-eminent authority,
that is, the faithful of all nations"? ("Irenseus contra Hereses," vol. L,
lib. iii., cap. iii., sect. 2, translated by Rev. A. Roberts, Edinburgh,
1868). Now St. Clement lived in Apostolic times, St. Cyprian from 200
to 258, and St. Irenaeus flourished between A.D. 150 to 202, while the
Roman Emperors were persecuting the Church. Leaving the
well-defined path of history, the Professor indulges in speculations
which will seem to most people to be without warrant.
St. Patrick's home, he tells us, was in "a village named Bannaventa, but
we cannot with any certainty identify its locality. The only Bannaventa
that we know lays near Daventry; but this position does not agree with
an ancient indication that the village of Calphurnius was close to the
Western sea. As the two elements of the name Bannaventa were
probably not uncommon in British geographical nomenclature, it is not
rash to suppose that there were other small places so called besides the
only Bannaventa that happens to appear in Roman geographical
sources, and we may be inclined to look for the Bannaventa of
Calphurnius in South-Western Britain, perhaps in the regions of the
lower Severn. The village must have been in the neighbourhood of a
town in possession of a municipal council of decurions" (chap, ii., pp.
16, 17).
The Professor quietly assumes without proof that Bonaven and
Bannaventa are one and the same; that "vicus" is used in its secondary
meaning of "a village," and not in its primary signification, "a district
or quarter of a town," in the "Confession"; and while admitting that
there was no other town in Britain named Bannaventa except
Bannaventa in Northampton, as far as can be gathered from "Roman
sources of information," and passing over the fact that Camden's
"Britannia," which gives the