not, however, Bannaventa now known as Daventry in Northamptonshire,
seeing that 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