Att text: While later manuscripts explicitly attribute the text to Saint Patrick (Sowerby, 2023), earlier recensions do not, and the compilers of the Hibernensis likewise do not treat it as his work. Moreover, Sowerby argues that the text shows connections with Columbanian networks and may originate in 7^th century Gaul, further undermining any claim to Patrician authorship.

Sowerby, R. (2023) ‘The “Second Synod of St. Patrick” and the “Romans” of the Early Irish Church’, Traditio, 78, pp. 47–78.

1. Concerning dwelling with sinful brethren #

¹ Concerning that which you have commanded about dwelling with sinful brethren, hear the Apostle saying, “With such a one not even to take food” [1 Corinthians 5:11]. Do not take his food with him. Otherwise, if you are an ox and thresh, that is, if you are a teacher and you teach, “your mouth is not muzzled” [1 Corinthians 9:9], and “you are worthy of your reward” [Luke 10:7]; but “let not the oil of the sinner anoint your head” [Psalm 141:5], but still rebuke and reprove.

2. Concerning their observances #

¹ Be content with your covering and your food; reject the other gifts of the wicked, because a lamp does not take except that by which it is fed.

3. Concerning penance after falls #

¹ It is established that the abbot should see to whom the power of binding and loosing is to be entrusted; but pardon is more fitting, according to the examples of Scripture. But if with weeping and lamentation and in mournful clothing under custody, let the penance be short rather than long, and tempered with moderation.

4. Concerning repelling the excommunicated #

¹ Hear the Lord saying, “If he will not hear you, let him be to you as a heathen and a publican” [Matthew 18:17]. You shall not curse, but you shall repel the excommunicated from communion, and from the table, and from the mass, and from peace; and if he is a heretic, avoid him after one correction [Titus 3:10].

5. Concerning doubtful cases #

¹ Hear the Lord saying, “Let both grow until the harvest” [Matthew 13:30]; that is, until He comes “who will reveal the counsels of the hearts” [1 Corinthians 4:5]; lest you make judgment before the day of judgment. See Judas at the table of the Lord, and the thief in paradise.

6. Concerning the punishments of the Church #

¹ Hear also the Lord saying, “He who has shed innocent blood, his blood shall be shed” [Genesis 9:6]; but by him who bears the sword [Romans 13:4]; but vengeance by a ruler is held innocent. But concerning other things, by the law of the Gospel, from that place where it says, “And from him who takes away something from you, do not demand it back” [Luke 6:30]; but willingly, if he himself returns anything, receive it humbly.

7. Concerning uncertain baptisms #

¹ They decree that those are not to be rebaptized who have received the tradition of the creed from anyone, because the iniquity of the sower does not defile the seed. But if not, it is not to rebaptize, but to baptize. But we believe that those fallen from the faith are not to be washed again, but are to be received through the laying on of hands.

8. Concerning persons dragged away from the Church #

¹ The Church has not been established for the defense of the guilty; but judges are to be persuaded that they should put to death by a spiritual death those who flee to the bosom of mother Church.

9. Concerning those fallen after rank #

¹ Hear the canonical decrees. He who has fallen with rank, let him rise without rank. Being content with the name only, let him lose his ministry; except him who, sinning only before the sight of the Lord, has not withdrawn.

10. [Text lost] #

11. Concerning separation of the sexes after a fall #

¹ Let each consider in his own conscience whether the love and desire of sin has ceased, because a dead body does not infect another dead body; but if not, let them be separated.

12. Concerning the offering for the dead #

¹ Hear the Apostle saying, “There is a sin unto death; I do not say that anyone should pray for it” [1 John 5:16]. And the Lord, “Do not give what is holy to dogs” [Matthew 7:6]. For he who in his lifetime did not merit to receive the sacrifice, how shall it be able to help him after death?

13. Concerning the sacrifice #

¹ On the night of Easter, if it is permitted to carry it outside, it is not carried outside, but let it be brought to the faithful. What else does it signify that the lamb is eaten in one house, except that under one summit of faith Christ is believed and shared?

14. Concerning abstinence by vow or by law from foods #

¹ It is established that after the coming of Christ the bridegroom no fixed laws of fasting are found. But what difference is there between a Novatian and a Christian, except that the Novatian abstains continually, but the Christian only for a time; so that place, and time, and person may be observed in all things.

15. Concerning leaving or teaching one’s homeland #

¹ One’s homeland is first to be taught, according to the example of the Lord; and afterward to be left if it does not profit, according to the example of the Apostle. But he who is able to do so, though he may be in danger, let him teach everywhere and make himself known; but he who is not able, let him be silent and hide himself. For one is sent by Jesus into his own house, another is commanded to follow.

16. Concerning false bishops #

¹ He who has not been chosen according to the Apostle by another bishop is to be condemned; then he is to be rejected by the rest of the people and degraded.

17. Concerning the superior of monks #

¹ Monks are those who live solitary without earthly possessions under the authority of a bishop or abbot. But those are not monks, but rather skilled with the staff (that is, anxious despisers). Each one ought to be bound to the perfect life at a mature age (that is, from twenty years), not by compulsion but by fulfilling a vow; as it is said, “Let each do as he has purposed in his heart” [2 Corinthians 9:7], and, “That I may pay my vows in the sight of the Lord” [Psalm 116:14], and the rest. By this vow life is lived; the condition of places restrains, if excess in all things is avoided in life; because in cold and nakedness, in hunger and thirst, in vigils and fasts, they have been called.

18. Concerning the three seeds of the Gospels. #

¹ The hundredfold are bishops and teachers, who are all things to all; the sixtyfold are clerics and widows, who are continent; the thirtyfold are the laity, who are faithful, who perfectly believe the Trinity. Beyond these there is nothing in the harvest of the Lord. But we join monks and virgins with the hundredfold.

19. At what age they are to be baptized #

¹ On the eighth day they are catechumens; afterward they are baptized on the solemnities of the Lord, that is, Easter, and Pentecost, and Epiphany.

20. Concerning dioceses #

¹ With monks it is not to be spoken, whose evil is unheard of; but we have not unfittingly undertaken the unity of the people.

21. Concerning retaining or dismissing monks #

¹ Let each enjoy his own fruit in the Church in which he has been instructed; unless a cause of greater progress compels him, with the permission of his abbot, to pass to another. But if a more useful cause shall have arisen, let it be said with a blessing, “Behold the Lamb of God” [John 1:29]; not that each seeks his own things, but those of Jesus Christ [Philippians 2:21]: but they do not permit subjects to wander about under pretext of vocation.

22. Concerning receiving the Eucharist after a fall #

¹ After examination in confinement it is to be received; but especially on the night of Easter, on which he who does not communicate is not a faithful one. Therefore the periods among them are short and strict, lest the faithful soul perish for so long a time without the medicine; the Lord saying, “Unless you shall have eaten the flesh of the Son of Man, you shall not have life in you” [John 6:53].

23. Concerning an oath #

¹ “Do not swear at all” [Matthew 5:34]. From this the following course of the reading teaches that no other creature is to be sworn by except the Creator; as is the custom of the prophets,—“The Lord lives” [Jeremiah 4:2], and, “My soul lives” [1 Samuel 1:26], and, “The Lord lives, before whom I stand today” [1 Kings 17:1]. But the end of contradiction is only by the Lord. For whatever a man loves, by that also he swears.

24. Concerning the contention of two without witnesses #

¹ They decree that by the four holy Gospels, before he communicates, he testifies what is proved; and afterward the report is to be left under a judge.

25. Concerning the bed of a deceased brother #

¹ Hear the decrees of the synod,—“The surviving brother shall not ascend the bed of his deceased brother;”—the Lord saying, “They shall be two in one flesh” [Matthew 19:5]; therefore your brother’s wife is your sister.

26. Concerning a harlot wife #

¹ Hear the Lord saying,—“He who cleaves to a harlot becomes one body” [1 Corinthians 6:16]. Likewise,—“The adulteress shall be stoned” [John 8:5];—that is, let her die to this vice, so that she may cease to grow who does not cease to commit adultery. Likewise, if a woman shall have been defiled, shall she return to her former husband? Likewise, “It is not permitted for a man to put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication” [Matthew 5:32];—as if he says, for this cause; whence, if he takes another as after the death of the former, they do not forbid.

27. Concerning the will of the virgin or of the father in marriage #

¹ What the father wills, let the virgin do, because the man is the head of the woman [1 Corinthians 11:3]. But the will of the virgin is to be sought from the father, since “God left man in the hand of his own counsel” [Sirach 15:14].

28. Concerning first or second vows #

¹ By the same reasoning the first vows and the first marriages are to be observed, so that by second ones the first are not made void, unless they have been adulterated.

29. Concerning consanguinity in marriage #

¹ Understand what the Law speaks, neither less nor more; but what is observed among us, that four degrees are divided, they say they have neither seen nor read.

30. Concerning reclaiming accustomed things #

¹ It has never been forbidden; it is permitted. Yet the laws of the jubilee are to be observed, that is, fifty years [Leviticus 25:10], so that the reckoning of time may not be asserted uncertainly. And therefore every transaction is to be confirmed by the subscription of the Romans.

31. Concerning pagans who believe before baptism, what penance they should have. #

¹ Indeed all sins are remitted in baptism; but he who has lived as a temporary unbeliever with a believing conscience is to be judged as a sinful believer.

² The Synod of Patrick ends.