66 (GRATIANUS LUCIUS, AUTHOR OF CAMBRENSIS EVERSUS,') WITH NOTES, BY REV. C. P. MEEHAN. DUBLIN: JAMES DUFFY, 10, WELLINGTON-QUAY. M.DCCC.XLVIII. ΤΟ THE VERY REV. DEAN MEYLER, Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Dublin, P.P. of St. Andrew's, &c. &c. VERY REV. SIR-I dedicate to you the translation of a work which, for a long time, has been inaccessible to the generality of readers. I need not expend many words on the merits of the eminent author whose text is now republished after the lapse of more than a century and a half; nor is it necessary to call public attention to his interesting memoir. It is quite enough to state, that the pious Prelate, whose portrait has been painted by Archdeacon Lynch, lived at a period when the Catholics of this country made a gallant, though ineffectual struggle for nationality, and witnessed the horrors which Cromwell's unsparing sword inflicted on their altars, liberties, and homesteads. Nor is it required that I should enter into a narrative of Archdeacon Lynch's life. The Light of the West, the venerable Hardiman, to whom I am under lasting obligations, has set forth all that could be collected regarding Gratianus Lucius; while Mr. M'Ghee, in the "Gallery of Irish Writers," has given us such an interesting relation as renders further biographical notices unnecessary. In fact, it is gratifying to reflect that owing to the diffusion of our Irish literature, very few with any pretension to learning can be found ignorant of the life and works of such an eminent ornament to his religion and country as was the man who triumphantly confuted Sylvester Giraldus. |