One does not think of Saint Patrick as an author, but as the Apostle to Ireland who drove the snakes out. The writings of St. Patrick himself must naturally be made the basis of any reliable history of the Saint. There is no doubt that the Confession and the Epistle to Coroticus were, as the Book of Armagh says of the former, originally written by his own hand. Every statement, therefore, in any Life of St. Patrick, ancient or modern, clearly inconsistent with the tenor of these documents must be rejected without hesitation.