Britanniæ in the plural not appropriated to Great Britain
It has been often urged, without any solid reason, that the plural Britanniæ used for Britain in the “Confession” can only refer to Great Britain, because that country was sub-divided by the Romans into five distinct provinces.
The reason given cannot be convincing, because Catullus, who died in the year 54, used the plural for Britain before the Roman sub-divisions were made, when he wrote, “Nunc timent Galliæ, timent Britanniae”—Caesar, “the Gauls and the Britons fear.”
The plural was used by St. Patrick when writing the “Confession” nearly one hundred years after the Romans with their divisions had left the country.
It was used by Probus, who undoubtedly referred to Armoric Britain when writing about St. Patrick’s native country, for he tells us in the plural that the Saint was born in Britain (natus in Britanniis).
The plural was, therefore, used both for Britain in Gaul and for the Island of Britain.
The word Britannia occurs three times in the “Confession.”
In the “Book of Armagh” the name appears always in the plural, whilst in the Bollandist’s copy of the “Confession” the name is printed once in the singular and twice in the plural.
St. Jerome uses the singular always when referring to Britannia; and St. Bede, in his “History,” uses the plural and singular indiscriminately.
Whenever Britannia is mentioned, the context alone can guide us in distinguishing which Britain is meant. (“Ireland and St. Patrick,” by the Rev. Bullen Morris, pp. 24, 25).
St. Patrick also mentions Gaul in the plural (“Gallias”), for although the whole country was subdivided into three separate nationalities—the Gauls, the Aquitanians, and the Britons—as Sulpicius Severus had already mentioned, the three provinces were called Galliae, or the Gauls, by the Romans.
Galliae in the plural, therefore, either meant the whole country or any one of its sub-divisions, and the context alone could determine which province was meant.
Having these facts in mind, it is easy to interpret the words of St. Patrick:
“Though I should have wished to leave them, and had been ready and very desirous of going to Britain [Britanniis], as if to my own country and parents; and not that alone, but to go even to Gaul (Gallias) to visit my brethren, and to see the face of the Lord’s Saints, and God knows how ardently I wished it but I was bound in the Spirit, and He Who witnesseth will account me guilty if I do so—and I fear to lose the results of the labour which I have begun. And not I, but the Lord Jesus Christ, Who commanded me to come and remain with them for the rest of my life—if the Lord so will it, and keeps me from every evil way, that I should not sin before Him” (“Confession”).
St. Patrick’s relatives resided in the Gaulish province of Britain, and the disciples of St. Martin—“the Lord’s Saints”—lived at Marmoutier in the province of Gaul.
St. Patrick’s natural desire was first to visit his relatives in Armorican Britain, and next to renew his friendship with the followers of St. Martin at Marmoutier, but God had decreed that he should spend all the rest of his days in the land of his adoption.
Gaul was not only the name of the whole country, which embraced three provinces—Gallia, Aquitania, and Britannia—it was also the name of one of the provinces.
As Gaul in its widest sense was a different country from the Island of Britain, so the province of Gaul was quite distinct from the province of Armoric Britain.
The Gauls, Aquitanians, and Britons, all possessing, as Cæsar testifies, separate governments and different nationalities, regarded one another as distinct races.
Thus Sulpicius Severus represents a Gaul as addressing some Aquitanians as follows:
“When I think of myself as a Gaul about to address Aquitanians, I fear lest my uncultured speech should offend your too refined ears”—“Sed dum cogito me hominem Galium inter Aquitanos verba facturum, vereor ne offendat nimium urbanas aures sermo rusticior” (Dialogue 20).
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