Two authentic works have survived to the modern era, an Epistola ad milites Corotici, and a Confessio in which Patrick explains himself to those whom he had converted in Ireland. As Patrick contrasts the behaviour of Coroticus with that of Romano-Gaulish Christians dealing with pagan Franks, his mission probably preceded the conversion of the Franks, perhaps in 496. He composed in cursus rhythms which, like his biblical orthography, diction and syntax, are faultless. His prose, arranged per cola et commata, by clauses and phrases, exhibits varied forms of complex word play. The Synodus Episcoporum or First Synod of St Patrick, is extant in a single manuscript copied from an Insular exemplar and written at the end of the ninth century or the beginning of the tenth in a scriptorium under the influence of Tours. Patrick's works remain the oldest extant literary texts written by a native of these islands, in these islands, for inhabitants of these islands.