Note N76 — St. PETER (continued 10)

Prosper writes, that he was sent ad Scotos; whence the Scotch Writers conclude him to have been sent into Scotland, and the Scots have long looked upon him as the Apostle of their Nation. But that he was sent into Ireland, and not into Scotland, is manifest from Prosper’s own Words. For speaking of Celestine, by whom Palladius was sent into Britain to make head against the Pelagians; while he endeavoured, says he, to maintain the Roman Island Catholic, he made a barbarous Island Christian[1]. The Island therefore, which he made Christian, was a different Island from that of Britain; and consequently could not be Scotland. The Inhabitants of Ireland began, as early as the Fourth Century, to be known by the Name of Scoti or Scots; so that Scoti and Hiberni were but different Names of one and the same People. It is true, that St. Patric, in such of his Writings, as have been judged by the Critics the most authentic, seems to distinguish the Scoti from the Hiberni: but that Distinction is only with respect to Merit and Rank; for he speaks constantly of the former as Men of a superior Rank to the latter. And indeed the Name Hibernus, tho’ more antient by many Ages than that of Scotus, appears to have been in great Contempt among the neighbouring Nations in St. Patric’s Time[2]. The Hiberni were perhaps the Mechanics, and the Scoti the Gentry, or Men who followed more noble Professions. By the latter was afterwards founded the Kingdom of Scotland. Bollandus is of Opinion, that the Hiberni came originally from Britain, and were the first Inhabitants of Ireland; and that the Scoti, a more warlike Race, come from some other Country, subdued the Hiberni, as the Saxons did the Britons[3].