CHAPTER X.

LEARNING AND LANGUAGE.

[Sidenote: Character of the Irish Monastic Church for learning.]

One of the most striking features of the organisation of the early Monastic Church in Ireland and Scotland was its provision for the cultivation of learning and for the training of its members in sacred and profane literature; so that it soon acquired a high reputation for the cultivation of letters, and drew to it students from all quarters, as the best school for the prosecution of all, and especially theological, studies. The fathers and founders of this Monastic Church had, as we have seen, been themselves taught, some in the monastic school of Candida Casa, where they were trained in the rules and institutions of monastic life and in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures,[786] and others in the monasteries in Wales, presided over by David, Gildas and Cadoc, wise and learned men, where they were instructed in learning and religion, and studied with assiduity.[787] The school of Clonard, founded by Finnian, who had himself been trained in the Welsh monasteries, soon equalled them in reputation, and from it issued those fathers of the Monastic Church termed the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. We are told in the life of one of them, Ciaran of Saighir, that he with other saints of Ireland went to Finnian of Clonard, renowned for his wisdom, and in his holy school used to read in the divine Scriptures, and that he lived both to learn and to hear the holy Scriptures.[788]

[Sidenote: Resorted to by foreign students.]

The Monastic Church of Ireland soon became so celebrated as a school of learning that students flocked to it from all quarters; and in the seventh and eighth centuries, when intercourse between it and the continental churches was renewed, it certainly occupied in this respect the first position among them. Bede tells us that, when the great pestilence devastated Ireland in the year 664, ‘many of the nobility and of the middle ranks of the Anglic nation were there at that time, who, in the days of the bishops Finan and Colman, forsaking their native island, had retired thither, for the sake either of divine studies or of a more continent life; and some of them presently devoted themselves faithfully to a monastic life, others chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about from one master’s cell to another. The Scots most willingly received them all, and took care to supply them gratuitously with daily food, as also to furnish them with books to read and their teaching, without making any charge;’[789] and of Aldfrid, son of King Osuiu, who succeeded his brother Ecgfrid, when he was slain by the Picts in 685, as king of Northumbria, Bede says that ‘he was a man most learned in Scripture,’ ‘that he at that time lived in exile in the islands of the Scots for the sake of studying letters,’ and that, previous to his accession to the throne, ‘he had for a considerable time gone into voluntary exile in the regions of the Scots, for the sake of acquiring learning, through the love of wisdom.’[790] We hear, too, in the Life of Senan, of ‘fifty Roman monks who came to Ireland for the purpose of leading a life of stricter discipline, or improving themselves in the study of the Scriptures then much cultivated in Ireland, and became pupils of those holy fathers who were most distinguished for sanctity of life and the perfection of monastic discipline.’[791]

[Sidenote: Iona as a school of learning.]

The Monastic Church, founded by Columba in Iona, was not behind its mother church of Ireland in this respect; and we are told by his biographer, Adamnan, that Columba ‘never could spend even one hour without study, or prayer, or writing, or some other holy occupation.’ He tells us, also, of a book of hymns for the office of every day in the week, which had been written by Columba, and of his transcribing the Psalter. We read also of a prefect ‘learning wisdom with them.’[792] Columba, too, appears to have cultivated his own language and not to have despised his native literature; for, according to a quatrain quoted in the old Irish life,

Thrice fifty noble lays the Apostle made, Whose miracles are more numerous than grass: Some in Latin, which were beguiling; Some in Gaelic, fair the tale.

And we learn, from the anonymous Life of Cuthbert, that when King Aldfrid of Northumbria had, before his accession to the throne, resorted to the islands of the Scots for study, one of these islands was that of Iona.[793]

[Sidenote: Literature of the Monastic Church.]

The remains of the literature of this period of the Monastic Church which have come down to us bear ample testimony to the intellectual development which characterised it. Of these perhaps the most complete are the works of Columbanus. Besides his monastic rule, we possess six of his letters connected with important questions regarding ecclesiastical matters, seventeen instructions or sermons addressed to his monks, and one or two poetical pieces. They are all written in Latin, and show a mastery of that language as it was then used by ecclesiastical writers, a thorough acquaintance with the holy Scriptures, with the spirit and language of which they are indeed saturated, and a perfect knowledge of the contemporary history and literature of the church. He places the holy Scriptures as the highest standard of authority in all matters of Christian faith. As we have seen, he gives as the character of his church that ‘it received nothing beyond the teaching of the Evangelists and Apostles;’ and the same spirit is manifested in one of his instructions, when he says, ‘Excepting those statements which either the Law or the Prophets or the Gospels or the Apostles have made to us, solemn silence ought to be observed, as far as other authorities are concerned, with respect to the Trinity. For it is God’s testimony alone that is to be credited concerning God, that is, concerning himself.’[794] Cummian’s letter regarding the Easter festival, also written in Latin, shows a perfect mastery of his subject, and may compare with any ecclesiastic document of the time. Then we have the Latin lives of Columba by two of the abbots of Iona; and, besides Adamnan’s Life, we also possess his tract on the Holy Places, works which give proof of his classical attainments as well as his acquaintance with ecclesiastical writings.

[Sidenote: The _Scribhnidh_, or scribes in the monasteries.]

The seventh century, which had seen the church distracted by the Easter controversy, the withdrawal of the Columban monks from Northumbria, and the conformity of the church of the northern Scots of Ireland to Rome, likewise witnessed some other changes in its intellectual life. One was the appearance, in the end of this century, of a functionary in the monasteries, termed in Irish _Scribhnidh_, or _Scribhneoir_, and in Latin ‘Scriba,’ a learned man among the monks, who was selected for the purpose not only of transcribing and preserving the ancient records of the monastery, but likewise of exercising the functions of teacher and public lecturer.[795] One of the earliest monuments of their industry is the MS. termed the Book of Armagh. It was compiled by Ferdomnach, ‘a sage and choice _Scribhnidh_ of the church of Armagh,’ at the instance of Torbach, abbot of Armagh, who had himself been a scribe and lector of the church; and, as he was only one year in the abbacy, and died in the year 808, this fixes the date of the compilation of the book at the year 807.[796]

[Sidenote: The Book of Armagh.]

The contents of this MS. will show somewhat of the literature of the church at the time. The volume commences with certain memoirs of St. Patrick, which are the oldest we now possess, and they are followed by the Confession of St. Patrick, an undoubtedly genuine work. After this comes St. Jerome’s Preface to the New Testament; and then the Gospels in their usual order. In the enumeration of the apostles in the Gospel of St. Matthew, the name of Judas has opposite to it, on the margin, the Irish word _trogaun_ or wretch, and at the end of the Gospel is the following prayer of the writer, in Latin:—‘O God, whose mercy is unbounded, and whose holiness passeth speech, with humble voice have I boldness to implore that, like as Thou didst call Matthew to be a chosen Apostle, from being a receiver of customs; so, of Thy compassion, Thou wilt vouchsafe to direct my steps during this life into the perfect way; and place me in the angelic choir of the heavenly Jerusalem, that, on the everlasting throne of endless joy, I may be deemed worthy to join with the harmonious praises of archangels in ascribing honour to Thee; through Thy only-begotten Son, who liveth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, throughout all ages. Amen.’ After the Gospels follow St. Paul’s Epistles, to which are prefixed prefaces chiefly taken from the works of Pelagius. Between the Epistle to the Colossians and the First Epistle to Timothy is inserted the spurious Epistle to the Laodiceans, which is found in a great variety of Latin MSS. of the New Testament; and in the First Epistle of St. John the passage concerning the witnesses (v. 7) is omitted, as it also is in the oldest copy of the Vulgate. The Epistles are followed by the Apocalypse, after which comes the Acts of the Apostles, an order peculiar to this MS.; and the Book of Armagh closes with the Life of St. Martin of Tours, written by Sulpicius Severus, and with a short litany, or intercession, on behalf of the writer.[797] This MS., compiled at Armagh in 807, probably contained the only memoirs of its patron saint which were then known to exist.

[Sidenote: Hagiology of the Irish Church.]

The oldest lives of the Irish saints belong to the seventh century, and the rise of the hagiology of the Irish Church corresponds with that of the Easter controversy and with the conformity of the church to that of Rome. It was followed in the next century by the enshrining of the relics of the saints most venerated. Prior to the conformity of part of the Monastic Church to Rome in that century, we do not find much appearance of the memory of the early fathers of the church having been preserved in written memoirs. The early Monastic Church, as we have seen, either knew or said little about St. Patrick as the great apostle of Ireland; and Cummian, who first mentions him in this century, belonged to the Roman party, and does so in connection with the Easter controversy. The oldest memoir of St. Patrick in the Book of Armagh consists of what are called Annotations by Tirechan, a bishop, who calls himself pupil of Bishop Ultan, son of Conchubar, that is, of the bishop of Ardbraccan, whose death is recorded in 657.[798] The second is a life of which part only of the first book is preserved; but the second book appears to be entire, and the headings of the chapters of the whole of the first book are fortunately given, which affords us some indication of the contents of the missing leaves. It bears to be written by Muirchu Macumactheni, at the dictation of Aedh, bishop of Sleibhte; and the names of both appear among the subscribers to the Synod of Tara in 697, while the death of the former is recorded in 699.[799] Muirchu, however, prefaces his memoir by the following statement, addressed to Bishop Aedh:—‘Forasmuch as many, my lord Aedus, have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration, namely this, according to what their fathers and they who from the beginning were ministers of the Word have delivered unto them; but by reason of the very great difficulty of the narrative, and the diverse opinions and numerous doubts of very many persons, have never arrived at any one certain track of history; therefore (if I be not mistaken, according to this proverb of our countrymen, Like boys brought down into the amphitheatre), I have brought down the boyish rowboat of my poor capacity into this dangerous and deep ocean of sacred narrative, with wildly-swelling mounds of billows, lying in unknown seas between most dangerous whirlpools—an ocean never attempted or occupied by any barks, save only that of my father Cogitosus. But, lest I should seem to make a small matter great, with little skill, from uncertain authors, with frail memory, with obliterated meaning and barbarous language, but with a most pious intention, obeying the command of thy belovedness and sanctity and authority, I will now attempt, out of many acts of Saint Patrick, to explain them, gathered here and there with difficulty.’[800] Now both Ultan of Ardbraccan and Aedh of Sleibhte belonged to that part of the Church of Ireland which had conformed to Rome; and this party seems to have fallen back upon the traditions of the earlier church, which had preceded the Monastic Church, and to have revived the veneration of its great founder St. Patrick. The oldest lives of St. Bridget, the other great saint of this earlier church, belong also to the same period, and are attributed, one to Bishop Ultan, and another to Cogitosus the father of Muirchu.[801] The oldest memoir of Columba is that by Cummene, who was abbot of Iona from 657 to 669, and it too was, as we have seen, called forth by the Easter controversy, but was written to maintain the authority of Columba, as the father of the Columban Church against that of Rome, and to claim for him a high position by the sanctity of his character and the possession of miraculous power and spiritual gifts. Adamnan too, who writes the second life, was the first abbot of Iona who gave his adhesion to the Roman party; and it seems to have been called forth by his connection with the Northumbrian Church. These early lives gave rise to a great hagiologic literature, consisting of the lives of all the leading saints and founders of churches, in which every effort was made to magnify their power and sanctity by a record of so-called miracles and prophecies. It is to this literature that we are obliged in a great measure to resort for the early history of the Celtic Church; but, for historic purposes these lives must be used with great discrimination. There is nothing more difficult than to extract historical evidence from documents which confessedly contained a mixture of the historical and the fabulous; but the fiction, in the form in which it appears, pre-supposes a stem of truth upon which it has become encrusted; and it is only by a critical use of authorities of this kind that we can hope to disentangle the historical core from the fabulous addition.

[Sidenote: Analysis of the Lives of St. Patrick.]

The Lives of St. Patrick afford a good illustration of this. There is a continuous series of them from the seventh century to the twelfth. Space will, of course, not admit of anything like a complete analysis of them, but a comparison of the lives, in the order in which they appear to have been compiled, will show the growth of the legendary and fabulous additions to the real facts of his life, and the process by which it passed, from the few leading features of it which can be extracted from his own authentic writings, to the extraordinary mixture of fact, legend and fable which now makes up the popular conception of his life. The oldest memoirs of St. Patrick are the Annotations of Bishop Tirechan, ‘written from the mouth or book of Ultan the bishop, whose pupil and disciple he was.’ He tells us that he ‘found four names given to Patricius in the book of Ultan: Magonus, which is “clarus;” Succetus, which is Patricius; and Cothirthiac, because he served four houses of “magi,” and one of them, whose name was Miliuc, bought him, and he served him seven years.’ That he was taken captive in his seventeenth year, and obtained his liberty in his twenty-second year, which corresponds with his own statement in his Confession; but Tirechan adds ‘that in seven other years he walked and sailed over the waves, and over country parts, and through valleys and over mountains, through Gaul and all Italy, and the islands which are in the Terrene sea, as he says in the commemoration of his labours.’ There is no foundation, however, for this in his Confession, except his sixty days’ wanderings through the desert before he reached the house of his parents. Tirechan then adds, ‘He was in one of these islands, which is called Aralanensis, for thirty years, as was testified by Bishop Ultan.’ He then gives us the following chronological data:—‘All things which happened you will find clearly written in his history, and these latest wonders were fulfilled and brought to a close in the second year of the reign of Loigaire mac Neill. From the passion of Christ to the death of Patricius are four hundred and thirty-six years. Loigaire reigned two or five years after the death of Patricius. The whole period of Loigaire’s reign was thirty-three years, as we think.’ Now we may assume as a fixed point the death of Loigaire in the year 463.[802] His reign, therefore, commenced in 430. His second year brings us to 432 for the termination of St. Patrick’s wanderings in foreign countries; and his death, if it occurred five years before that of Loigaire, would fall in the year 458, or, if two years only, in 461; but the Irish Annals agree in placing under the year 458 the death of _Sen Patraic_,[803] or old Patrick, which identifies him with the Patricius of Tirechan’s Annotations. It is unnecessary for our purpose to advert to Tirechan’s account of his proceedings in Ireland; but he adds at the end some further data. He says ‘the age of Patricius, as it was delivered to us, may be thus stated:—In his seventh year he was baptized. In the tenth year (after) he was taken captive. Four years he served. Thirty years he studied. Seventy-two years he taught. His whole age was one hundred and twenty. In four points he resembled Moses: _1st_, He heard an angel from a bush of fire. _2d_, He fasted forty days and forty nights. _3d_, He accomplished one hundred and twenty years in this present life. _4th_, Where his bones are no one knows. In the XIII year of Theodosius the emperor Patricius the bishop was sent by Bishop Celestine, Pope of Rome, for the instruction of the Irish, which Celestine was the forty-second bishop of the apostolical see of the city of Rome after Peter. Palladius the bishop was the first sent, who is otherwise called Patricius, and suffered martyrdom among the Scots, as the ancient saints relate. Then the second Patricius was sent by an angel of God, named Victor, and by Pope Celestine, by whose means all Ireland believed, and who baptized almost all the inhabitants.’ Now here Tirechan betrays at once the party in the church to which he and Ultan belonged, by asserting that St. Patrick, as well as Palladius, had been sent by Pope Celestine; and he gives us the important fact that Palladius was also known to the Irish by the name of Patricius. If St. Patrick had taught for seventy-two years, and died in 458, it is plain that his mission to the Irish must have long preceded that of Palladius; but at the same time, as Palladius is termed by a contemporary writer the first bishop sent to the Scots, St. Patrick could not have been consecrated a bishop till after him. He himself tells us that he was forty-five when he was consecrated a bishop; and, if this took place in the year 432, it would place his birth in the year 387; and, if he died in 458, the period of seventy-two years would thus represent his entire life. Tirechan has thus, by interpolating his thirty years’ study in Gaul, and by taking seventy years as representing his teaching in Ireland, lengthened out his life to one hundred and twenty-three years, and thus obtained his parallelism with Moses in this respect. If Palladius and Patricius were known to the Irish by the same name, it is hardly possible that, when the traditions regarding them were first collected and formed into a regular biography in the seventh century, they should not have been confounded together. The mission from Pope Celestine and the thirty years’ study in Gaul and Italy are entirely inconsistent with St. Patrick’s account of himself, and no doubt truly belong to the acts of Palladius.

The next life is that by Muirchu. The first membrane of the Book of Armagh, containing the commencement of the life, is unfortunately wanting; but the preface and the headings of the chapters have been preserved in a different part of the MS. The preface has already been given, and the headings of the missing chapters are these:—

‘Concerning the birth of St. Patrick and his first captivity.

Concerning his journeys and sea voyage to the Gentiles, and his sufferings among the nations ignorant of God.

Concerning his second captivity, which he suffered for sixty days from hostile men.

Concerning his reception by his parents when they recognised him.

Concerning his age when going to visit the apostolic see where he wished to learn wisdom.

Concerning his discovery of holy men in Gaul, and that therefore he went no farther.’

The fragment of the first book commences with his journey to the apostolic see at Rome, and mentions that Germanus ‘sent an elder with him, that is Segitius, that he might have a companion and witness, because he was not as yet ordained by the holy lord Germanus to the pontifical degree.’ It then mentions the mission of Palladius, and that ‘his disciples Augustinus and Benedictus and the rest, returning, related in Ebmoria the circumstance of his death.’ Patrick then proceeds no farther, but goes to a certain man, an illustrious bishop Amathorex,[804] living in a neighbouring place, and receives from him the episcopal degree, after which he returns to Britain. This statement, taken in connection with the heading of the chapter, implies that St. Patrick, though he intended to go to Rome, went no farther than the town of Ebmoria, which must have been in Gaul, and near it was consecrated bishop by Amathorex. St. Patrick is in this life also brought into contact with Germanus; but the connection with Rome is less directly stated than in the previous life. The chronological summary at the end of the life is as follows:—‘Patrick was baptized in his sixth year, taken captive in his twentieth, served in slavery twelve years, studied forty years, taught sixty-one. His entire age was one hundred and eleven years.’ These dates, however, when added together, make up a period of one hundred and thirty-three years, and the process by which his life is thus lengthened is apparent enough. His captivity is placed in his twentieth in place of his sixteenth year. The period of his slavery is doubled. The period of his study with Germanus is increased from thirty to forty years, and his mission reduced from seventy-two to sixty-one years. But, if this latter period is deducted, his life prior to his mission is here made to have been seventy-two years. In the life itself, however, St. Patrick is said to have died ‘on the sixteenth day of the Kalends of April, having attained the age of one hundred and twenty years, as is celebrated every year over the whole of Ireland, and kept sacred;’ and in the last paragraph it is more correctly stated ‘that he was taken captive in the thirteenth year of his age, and was in bondage six years.’ If these two numbers are substituted for the twentieth year and the twelve years of the summary, the entire years of his life will be reduced from one hundred and thirty-three to one hundred and twenty. This life also distinctly states that St. Patrick was buried at Dunlethglaisse, or Down, while Tirechan as distinctly states that ‘where his bones are no one knows.’ The tradition, therefore, which places his relics at Down must have arisen after the time when Tirechan wrote. In some additions to Tirechan’s Annotations, which appear to have been made about the time when the rest was written, another tradition is given. It is there said that ‘Columbcille, instigated by the Holy Spirit, pointed out the sepulchre of Patrick where he lies, that is to say, at _Sabul Patricii_,’ or ‘Saul Patrick, in the nearest church next the sea, where the relics or bones of Columcille were brought from Britain, and where the relics of all the saints of Ireland will be brought in the day of judgment.’[805] The Annals of Ulster contain the following curious entry under the year 552:—‘I have found what follows in the Book of Cuanach,’ a chronicle the date of which is unknown, but which cannot be much earlier than the eighth or ninth century. ‘The reliques of St. Patrick were deposited in a shrine, sixty years after his death, by Columcille. Three precious swearing reliques were found in his tomb, viz., the _Coach_, or cup, the Gospel of the Angel, and the Bell of the Testament. The angel thus showed to Columcille how to divide these reliques, viz., the _Coach_ to Down, the Bell to Armagh, and the Gospel to Columcille himself; and it is called the Gospel of the Angel because Columcille received it at the angel’s hands.’ The church of Saul is on the sea-shore in the immediate neighbourhood of Down; but that either Saul or Down could have been marked out as the place where St. Patrick’s bones were enshrined prior to the eighth century is quite inconsistent with the distinct statement, by his first biographer, that no one in his day knew where they were. As we have seen, Cellach, abbot of Iona, appears to have taken the relics of Columba to Ireland on the slaughter of the community by the Danes in 806; and, as the Book of Armagh was transcribed in 807, and the name of Cellach appears on the margin of one of the leaves, it is probable that this tradition owes its origin to him.[806]

About the same period when the Book of Armagh was transcribed, or not long after, was written the short Life of St. Patrick, by Marcus the Anchorite, annexed to Nennius’ History of the Britons. Marcus is said by Heric, in his Life of St. Germanus, to have been a Briton by birth, but educated in Ireland, where he was for a long time a bishop, and to have at length settled in France, where he died;[807] and his notices of St. Patrick show that he was acquainted with the lives in the Book of Armagh. He states, correctly enough, that Patrick had been captive in Ireland seven years; but, when he says that ‘when he had attained the age of seventeen he returned from his captivity,’ he confuses his age when he was taken captive with that of his liberation. He says that ‘by the divine impulse he was afterwards instructed in sacred literature, and went to Rome, and remained there a long time studying the sacred mysteries of God’—here agreeing with Tirechan in bringing him to Rome; but he adopts the statement of Muirchu in regard to the mission of Palladius, substituting the land of the Picts for that of the Britons as the place of his death.[808] He also follows Muirchu in Patrick’s being sent by Germanus with Segerus to the bishop Amatheus, by whom he is consecrated bishop; but he follows Tirechan in his statement that in four particulars he resembled Moses, that he lived one hundred and twenty years, and that no one knew where his sepulchre was, adding that ‘he was buried in secret no one knowing.’[809] He concludes his life by saying that ‘he was sixteen years in captivity,’ here confusing the duration of his captivity, with his age when made captive, that ‘in his twenty-fifth year he was consecrated bishop by King Matheus,’ and that he was eighty-five years ‘apostle of the Irish,’ which would give him a life of one hundred and ten years only; but in another passage in Nennius four hundred and five years are said to have elapsed from the birth of Christ to the arrival of Patrick among the Scots, and sixty years from his death to that of St. Bridget. As the latter event, moreover, is said to have taken place four years after the birth of Columba, which gives us a fixed date of 521, this would place the death of Patrick in 465, and his birth, if he was taken captive in 405, in 389, dates which very nearly correspond with those of Tirechan, and of the older Patrick termed _Sen Patraic_.

The next biography of the saint introduces some new features into the legend. It is the hymn in praise of St. Patrick, attributed to St. Fiacc of Sleibhte, who is said to have been ordained by him. So early a date, however, cannot be assigned to the poem, and it belongs in reality to the ninth century.[810] This poem has formed the nucleus around which a number of floating legends, whether founded on genuine tradition or the fruit of supposititious narrative, have clustered in the shape of a commentary or scholiasm, which is, of course, of even later date;[811] and the two together have given an entirely different aspect to the legendary life of the apostle of Ireland. The so-called Fiacc commences his hymn by giving a new name to the place of St. Patrick’s birth. He tells us that

Patraicc was born in Nemthur, and it is this that has been declared in tales;[812]

And the scholiast adds, ‘That is a city which is in North Britain—viz., Ailcluaide,’—the ancient name of Dumbarton. This accords so far with what we gather from his own Confession, that he was a native of the Roman province in Britain; and we find the same place obviously referred to in an old poem preserved in the Black Book of Caermarthen under the name of _Nevtur_.[813]

The hymn then proceeds:—

A child of sixteen years when he was brought under tears. Succat his name it was said; who was his father is to be known: Son of Calpurn, son of Potitus, grandson of deacon Odisse. He was six years in slavery....

This corresponds with his own statement in his Confession; but here the scholiast adds other names to his family, and for the first time connects them with Armorica in Gaul. His statement is as follows:—‘This was the cause of the servitude of Patrick; his father was Calpuirnn; Conches, daughter of Ochmuis, was his mother and of his five sisters, namely, Lupait and Tigris and Liamain and Darerca, and the name of the fifth was Cinnenum. His brother was Sannan. They all went from the Britons of Alcluaid, across the Iccian sea southwards, on a journey to the Britons who are in the sea of Icht, namely, the Britons of Letha, because they had brethren there at that time. Now, the mother of these children, namely, Conches, was of the Franks, and she was sister to Martin. At that time came seven sons of Sectmaide, king of Britain, in ships from the Britons; and they made great plunder on the Britons, viz., the Britons of Armuric Letha, where Patrick with his family was, and they wounded Calpuirnn there, and carried off Patrick and Lupait with them to Ireland. And they sold Lupait in Conaille Muirthemne, and Patrick in the north of Dal-araidhe.’[814] Here Patrick is brought from Alcluaid, the place of his birth, to Armorica, in order to be carried off from thence by Britons and not by Scots; and Armorica is thus thrust somewhat violently into his own narrative, where he distinctly implies that he was made captive in the place of his birth.

We are then introduced to Germanus, and told of Patrick that

He went across all Alps—great God! it was a marvel of a journey, Until he stayed with German in the south, in the south part of Latium. In the isles of the Tyrrhene Sea he remained; therein he meditated; He read canon with German; it is this that writings declare.[815]

Here the scholiast introduces the mission of Palladius and the consecration of Patrick by Amathorex the bishop, whom he identifies with Amator, bishop of Auxerre, who was the predecessor of Germanus, and died A.D. 418. He also makes Patrick accompany Germanus to Great Britain in 429, leaving little doubt that the whole connection of Patrick with Germanus has been transferred to him from the acts of Palladius. The author of the hymn gives sixty years as the period during which Patrick preached to the Irish.[816] He mentions Armagh as the seat of his primacy, and Dun Lethglasse, or Down, as a great church, and implies that he died there; but the scholiast indicates _Sabhall Patraic_, or Saul, as the place of his death. In the concluding lines of the hymn we find the strange statement—

When Patrick departed, he visited the other Patrick: It is together they ascended to Jesus, Mary’s Son.

And the comment of the scholiast is equally remarkable. He says that the other Patrick was _Sen Patrick_. ‘It is what Patrick, the son of Calpuirnn, promised to _Sen Patrick_, that together they would go to heaven. And it is related that Patrick was from the xiii. (xvi.) of the kalends of April to the ninth of the kalends of September upon the field, and angels around him, praying to _Sen Patrick_.’[817] We are here introduced to two Patricks, and a second Patrick has been created, to whom the acts of the historic Patrick, so far as they have as yet been compiled, have been transferred, while the latter retires into the background under the designation of _Sen Patrick_, or old Patrick. Their original identity, however, is obscurely hinted at in the hymn, when they are made to ascend to heaven together. The two Patricks likewise appear in the ninth century in the Felire of Angus the Culdee; and here the second Patrick comes forward, under the 17th of March, as the great apostle of Ireland, and the older Patrick retires to the 24th of August, when he is designated the tutor of the former. The stanzas which commemorate them may be thus rendered. On the 17th of March we have

The blaze of a splendid sun, The apostle of stainless Erinn, Patrick with his countless thousands; May he shelter our wretchedness.[818]

On the 24th of August we have

The blaze of the people of Srenat Is the tale which is heard. Old Patrick, head of battle, Mild tutor of our patron.[819]

The chronology of the second Patrick was formed by adding the sixty years, during which, according to the hymn attributed to Fiacc of Sleibhte, he preached to the Irish, to the year 432, when, according to Tirechan, his mission commenced, which gives 492 as the termination of his work. His death would thus fall on 17th March 493, and it is so placed in an old quatrain quoted by Tighernac—

From the birth of Christ, a true reckoning, Four hundred and fair ninety, Three years add to these, Till the death of Patrick, chief Apostle.[820]

The second Patrick thus created, with a life which lasted one hundred and twenty years and terminated in 493, is now regarded as the Apostle of Ireland, and to him are appropriated the leading features of his career, while the Patrick of the older lives retains nothing but his designation of _Sen Patrick_. How much, however, the separate existence of this older Patrick embarrassed the martyrologists, we see from the glosses upon the Felire of Angus the Culdee, which are comparatively of much later date, and now first connect him with Glastonbury. The gloss on the word _Srenat_ is ‘that is, in _Gloinestir_ of the Gael in Saxan, that is, in Britannia.’[821] The gloss on the last line is ‘Tutor of Patraic of Macha;’[822] and on the margin of the MS. is written the following note:—‘That is, old Patrick of Ros-dela in Magh Locha; but it is more true that he is in Glastonbury of the Gael, in the south of England, for the Scots were dwelling there on a pilgrimage. But his reliques are in Ulster. _Sen Patraic_ in Armagh.’[823]

Besides the metrical life attributed to Fiacc of Sleibhte, Colgan has collected and printed six prose lives, seven in all. Four of the prose lives—the second, third, fourth and seventh—are anonymous, the fifth life bears to be by a certain Probus, and the sixth by Jocelyn of Furness, whose date is known. It is the latest of the six, and must have been written about the year 1185. These lives fall naturally into two groups.[824] The first, consisting of Colgan’s second and fourth lives, must have been written after the Book of Armagh and the metrical life attributed to Fiacc, but before the compilation of the glosses added to the latter. They give Nemthor as the place of Patrick’s birth, and place it in the plain of Taburna, thus identifying it with the Bannaven Taberniæ of his Confession. They make him to be carried into captivity from thence by an Irish fleet; but they introduce a number of incidents, connected with his childhood, which bear the usual miraculous character. They know nothing of the story told by the scholiast in Fiacc’s hymn, of the transference of the family from Alclyde to Armorica; but the fourth life opens with the strange statement that some thought St. Patrick was sprung from the Jews; that, when they were dispersed after the fall of Jerusalem, a part of them took refuge in Armorica among the Britons, and from thence his parents migrated to the regions of Strathclyde; but this statement is peculiar to this life. Both of these lives make Patrick thirty years old when he went to Germanus, with whom he studied thirty years, and state that he preached to the Irish for sixty years, thus adopting the chronology of the second Patrick.

The second group consists of the life by Probus, Colgan’s third life, the Tripartite life, and that by Jocelyn. These were all compiled later than the tenth century, and that by Probus appears to be the oldest. He was acquainted with the Book of Armagh, part of the lives contained in which are inserted verbatim; but he was also acquainted with the glosses to the hymn of Fiacc, for he inserts the story of the migration of Patrick’s family to Amorica. He places his birth in the Roman province (_in Britanniis_), in the village of Bannauc of the Taburnian region, which region he considers to be also the Nentrian province, where giants are said to have formerly inhabited. But the main addition to the incidents of Patrick’s life, which characterises this group, is his connection with St. Martin of Tours. The scholiast on the hymn attributed to Fiacc had already made his mother Conches St. Martin’s sister, and St. Patrick is now made to reside for four years with him at Tours, where he was instructed in the rules of monastic life, and received the tonsure; but, as St. Martin died in 397, the date is too early for St. Patrick. On the other hand, it is probably true of St. Ninian, who is also said to have been a nephew of St. Martin and associated with him, and with the dates of whose life it is more consistent. Probus, however, seems to have preserved one incident which is true of the historic Patrick, when he states that, after he was ordained priest by a bishop, whom he calls St. Senior, he preached to the Irish before the mission of Palladius, and before his own consecration as a bishop. This short analysis of the lives of St. Patrick will be sufficient to show how the real events in the life of the historic Patrick, so far as they can be ascertained, were gradually overlaid by spurious additions, till at length the legendary life of a spurious Patrick, as we now have it, was developed out of it.

[Sidenote: Lives of St.Bridget.]

Besides the great legendary apostle of the Irish, the virgin St. Bridget seems also to occupy a prominent place in Irish hagiology. That she was a historic character, belonging to the earliest period of the Irish Church, there seems little reason to doubt, and it is exceedingly probable that St. Patrick himself in his Confession alludes to her when he says, ‘There was one blessed Scotic maiden, very fair, of noble birth and of adult age, whom I baptized; and after a few days she came to me, because, as she declared, she had received a response from a messenger of God desiring her to become a virgin of Christ and to draw near to God. Thanks be to God, on the sixth day from that, she with praiseworthy eagerness seized on that state of life which all the virgins of God likewise now adopt;’ but her life too was now overlaid with spurious tales and fabulous incidents, till it assumed an aspect far removed from its probable reality. Space will not permit us to analyse these lives, or to enter further into the history of the origin and development of the great hagiologic literature of Ireland; suffice it to mention that the two oldest lives of Bridget are attributed to Bishop Ultan, under whose auspices Tirechan compiled his Annotations, and to Cogitosus, who can now be identified with the father of Muirchu, who wrote the second life in the Book of Armagh.

[Sidenote: Hagiology of the Scottish Church.]

Besides the Lives of St. Columba by Cummene and Adamnan in the seventh century, the oldest lives in the Scotch hagiology of which we can fix the dates, are the Life of St. Ninian by Aelred, who died in the year 1166, the Life of St. Kentigern, of which a fragment only remains, which was written during the episcopate of Herbert, who was bishop from 1147 to 1164, and that by Jocelyn of Furness, written at the request of his namesake, who was bishop of Glasgow from 1174 to 1199. These lives therefore belong to the twelfth century, when the manipulation of the old chronicles of Scotland had already commenced, which laid the foundation of that fictitious scheme of history, both civil and ecclesiastic, which was reduced to a system by John of Fordun; and to some extent they bear the marks of that influence. The Life of Servanus, however, which has been preserved in the Marsh MSS. in Dublin, belongs probably to a somewhat earlier period. With the exception of these lives, we are dependent almost entirely upon the lections in the ‘Propria Sanctorum’ of the Aberdeen Breviary, and on the works of Dempster and Camerarius, for notices of the Scottish saints; but the former were compiled after Fordun’s great work, and are tainted by the false chronology of his Chronicle; and the two latter works, after the publication of Hector Boece’s work, and are under the influence of the fictitious history elaborated by him. The dates attached to the saints in the Scotch Calendar are in the main fictitious, and cannot be depended on.

[Sidenote: Bearing of the Church on the education of the people. The _Ferleiginn_, or lector.]

Such is a short view of the hagiologic literature of Ireland and Scotland, which forms so remarkable a feature in the literature of the church. Its bearing upon the education of the people presents an equally important feature. In the later part of the eighth and in the ninth centuries we find a new functionary appearing in the monasteries, and gradually superseding the _Scribhnigh_, or scribe. This was the _Ferleiginn_, lector or man of learning, whose functions were more closely connected with education. He appears first in Clonmacnois; and we find in 794 the death of ‘Colgu Ua Duineachda _Ferleiginn_ of Cluainmicnois, he who composed the _Scuaip-Chrabhaidh_,’ recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters. There is no doubt that he is the ‘Colcu lector in Scotia,’ to whom Alcuin wrote an epistle.[825] It appears from his life that he was ‘supreme moderator and prælector of the school of Clonmacnois, and that he arrived at such eminence in learning and sanctity that he was called chief scribe and master of the Scots of Ireland.’[826] In the following century the _Ferleiginn_ appears also at Armagh, and we are told that in the year 876 Maelrobha, son of Cuimmhach, abbot of Armagh, was taken prisoner by the Galls of Loch-Cuan, as was also the _Ferleiginn_, Mochta.[827] During the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries these lectors, or _Ferleiginn_, are repeatedly mentioned in the Irish Annals in connection with the various monasteries in Ireland.[828] They also appear in the Columban monasteries both of Ireland and of Scotland. In 992 we find the death of ‘Dunchadh ua h-Uchtain, _Ferleighinn of Cenannus_,’ or Kells, recorded; and in 1034 ‘Macnia ua h-Uchtain, _Ferleighinn_ of Kells, is drowned coming from Alban with the bed of Columcill and three of Patrick’s relics, and thirty persons along with him.’[829] In Scotland he appears in the early part of the reign of David I., in connection with the Columban monastery of _Turbruad_, or Turriff, founded by Comgan, where ‘Domangart, _Ferleginn Turbruad_, or of Turriff, witnesses a charter by Gartnait, Mormaer of Buchan, and Eta his wife, to the church of Deer;’[830] and we find him at Iona in 1164, when the _Ferleighinn Dubside_ appears among the prominent functionaries of the monastery.[831] In the following century the name of _Ferleiginn_ is still preserved in connection with the church of St. Andrews and its schools. Between the years 1211 and 1216, a controversy which arose between the prior of St. Andrews and his convent, on the one part, and the master of the schools and the poor scholars of the city of St. Andrews, on the other, in regard to certain lands and dues which the latter claimed, was amicably settled ‘with the assent and goodwill of Master Laurence, who was both archdeacon and Ferleyn of the said city;’ and the prior and canons became bound ‘to pay to the foresaid Laurence the _Ferleighinn_ (_Ferlano_) and his successors, at the house of the _Ferleighinn_ (_in domo Ferlani_) of the said city, for the use of the poor scholars,’ certain dues from these lands. ‘Thus was agreement made between the parties, and by authority confirmed, so that neither archdeacon nor Ferleighinn (Ferlanus), nor master of the schools, nor poor scholars, shall hereafter move controversy against the same.’[832]

[Sidenote: The Scolocs.]

These scholars seem to have been the lowest order of the ecclesiastical community, and to have been clerics who were undergoing a course of training and instruction to fit them for performing the service of the church. Their Pictish name was _Scolofthes_, as we learn from Reginald of Durham, who mentions the clerics of the church (of Kirkcudbright), the _Scolofthes_ as they are called in the Pictish speech, and gives ‘Scholasticus, a scholar,’ as its Latin equivalent. We find them under the name of _Scolocs_ in three of the churches belonging to St. Andrews. In the church of Ellon, which was of old the capital of the earldom of Buchan, they appear in 1265 as holding certain lands under the bishop of St. Andrews; and in 1387 the church lands of Ellon are called the Scolog lands, and were hereditary in the families of the Scologs who possessed them. An inquest regarding these lands, held in that year, bears that from one quarter or fourth part of these lands ‘there are to be found for the parish church of Ellon four clerks with copes and surplices, able to read and sing sufficiently;’ another quarter or fourth part ‘is bound to find a house for the scholars;’ a third ‘is bound to find twice in every year twenty-four wax candles for the ‘park’ or ‘perk,’ that is, the bracket or corbel before the high altar; and the fourth quarter is bound to find a smithy. These lands are indiscriminately called the ‘Scolog lands’ and the ‘Scholar lands,’ and are described as ‘lying in the schoolry (_Scolaria_) of Ellon.’ The Scolocs are also found in the church lands of Arbuthnot in the Mearns, which they likewise held of the see of St. Andrews. Here, in an inquest regarding the lands of the Kirkton of Arbuthnot, held in the year 1206, we find the ecclesiastical territory held by certain tenants called parsons, who had subtenants under them, having houses of their own and cattle which they pastured on the common; and the tenants of these lands are termed by several of the witnesses Scolocs, and are also termed the bishop’s men. These Scolocs were finally ejected altogether from the land which they appear to have tilled. They also appear at the neighbouring church of Fetteresso, likewise belonging to the bishop of St. Andrews.[833] The name of Scoloc is also found in connection with one of the Columban monasteries in Ireland; for in one of the charters preserved in the Book of Kells, which must have been granted between the years 1128 and 1138, we find that among the functionaries of the monastery, after the Coärb of Columcille, or the abbot, the _Sacart_ or priest, the _Ferleiginn_ or lecturer, the _Aircennech_ or Erenagh of the house of guests, and the _Fosaircennech_ or vice-Erenach, appears the _Toisech na Scoloc_, or Chief of the Scologs, Aengus O’Gamhna.[834]

[Sidenote: Influence of the Church on literature and language.]

Whether there existed in Ireland a pagan literature, in the proper sense of the term, prior to the introduction of Christianity, and whether the art of writing was known in any shape to its pagan population, is a very difficult question, and one into which it is not necessary for our purpose to enter. [Sidenote: Art of writing introduced.]But whether there existed among them an ante-Christian civilisation of any kind or not, there can be no doubt that the early Celtic Church, such as we have found it to be, must have been a powerful agent in civilising the people, and not less in fixing a standard of language; and the earliest lives of St. Patrick certainly attribute to him the introduction of the written alphabet. Thus Tirechan, having mentioned that Patrick had consecrated three hundred and fifty bishops in Ireland, adds: ‘Of presbyters we cannot count the number, because he used to baptize men daily, and to read letters and _abgetoriæ_, or alphabets, with them; and of some he made bishops and presbyters, because they had received baptism in mature age.’[835] Of the two alphabets known to have existed among the Irish, the one now called the Irish alphabet, and supposed to be peculiar to the Irish language, is, as Dr. Todd well remarks, nothing more than the Roman alphabet, which was used over all Europe in the fifth and some following centuries. The other, called the Ogham, which is mainly confined to inscriptions upon stone monuments, though it occasionally appears in MSS.,[836] is of the same character as the Scandinavian Runes, and has now also been clearly shown to have a post-Christian origin.[837]

[Sidenote: Spoken dialects of Irish.]

Before letters were introduced, however, there could have been no fixed standard of language. Each _Tuath_, or tribe, had probably its own variety of the common speech; but these all, no doubt, belonged to that branch of the Celtic language called Gaelic. There would thus be as many varieties of the spoken Gaelic as there were independent tribes.[838] The tendency of language at this stage is to go through a process of corruption and decay. It is then easily modified by surrounding circumstances and affected by external influences, which an oral literature, consisting of the songs and legends of a rude people, is powerless to control. This tendency would be arrested only when a written and cultivated language was formed under the influence of the Christian Church, and a common standard of the language, in its most perfect shapes and preserving its older forms, was established, which was spoken and written by the cultivated class of the community, and to a knowledge of which a portion of the people were raised by education. Under its influence the numerous varieties of the spoken language became more assimilated, until at length we find that in the main there remain only four forms of the vernacular Irish, which were peculiar to the four great provinces of Munster, Ulster, Leinster, and Connaught, into which the country was divided. There was also an old division of Ireland by a line drawn across the island from Dublin to Galway into two parts, termed respectively _Leth Cuinn_ and _Leth Mogha_. This division was known to Bede, who distinguished between the northern provinces of the Scots and the nations of the Scots dwelling in the northern districts of Ireland.[839] The northern half contained the provinces of Connaught and Ulster and the old province of Meath, which is now included in Leinster, and the seaboard of which formed the plain of Bregia, or Magh Bregh, mentioned more than once by Adamnan.[840] The southern half consisted of the old provinces of Leinster and Munster; and the difference in the spoken language between the northern and southern Irish was somewhat more marked.

[Sidenote: Peculiarities of Irish dialects.]

The peculiarities in the spoken Gaelic of the four provinces are thus expressed in the following sayings current in most parts of Ireland:—

The Munster man has the accent without the propriety.

The Ulster man has the propriety without the accent.

The Leinster man has neither the propriety nor the accent.

The Connaught man has both the accent and the propriety.[841]

The difference in these four dialects is mainly in words, pronunciation, and idiom; but the grand difference between the vernacular Irish of the northern and that of the southern part of Ireland consists in the position of the accent, in the vowel sounds, and in the form of the verb. In the north the primary accent is on the root of the word, or the first syllable, and the secondary accent on the termination; but in the south the primary accent is on the termination, and the secondary accent on the root, if short.[842] The vowel sounds vary very much, their most perfect pronunciation being in Connaught. In the verb, the analytic form—or that in which the verb has a common form for all the persons, and these are expressed by separate pronouns, while the auxiliary verb is more employed—is used in the spoken language of the north, and principally in Ulster. The synthetic or inflected form, which is the more ancient, is generally used in the south of Ireland; and in this respect it approaches more closely the forms of the written or cultivated language, and shows a less degree of corruption than the vernacular of the north.

[Sidenote: Written Irish.]

In the written Irish, the more ancient verbal forms have been preserved in their entirety, and there is a complete system of inflections, with a very copious vocabulary, of which several glossaries have been preserved. The most ancient is that attributed to Cormac mac Cuilennan, king and bishop of Cashel, who was killed in the year 903; and the greater part of it undoubtedly belongs to that period.[843] There has also been preserved an ancient Grammar termed _Uraicecht na m-Eiges_, or Precepts of the Poets, which is certainly not much later in date;[844] but Zeuss’ great work, the _Grammatica Celtica_, exhibits the grammar of this written language in its most complete shape, as he has constructed it from materials furnished by MSS. of the eighth and ninth centuries.

[Sidenote: Scotch Gaelic.]

Such being, in the main, the position of the Gaelic language in Ireland and the relation between the written and cultivated language and the spoken dialects, we find that Scotland presents to us, in connection with the distribution of her languages, somewhat peculiar phenomena, which are more difficult of solution. If a line is drawn from a point on the eastern bank of Loch Lomond, somewhat south of Ben Lomond, following in the main the line of the Grampians, and crossing the Forth at Aberfoil, the Teith at Callander, the Almond at Crieff, the Tay at Dunkeld, the Ericht at Blairgowrie, and proceeding through the hills of Brae Angus till it reaches the great range of the Mounth, then crossing the Dee at Ballater, the Spey at lower Craigellachie, till it reaches the Moray Firth at Nairn—this forms what was called the Highland Line, and separated the Celtic from the Teutonic-speaking people. Within this line, with the exception of the county of Caithness which belongs to the Teutonic division, the Gaelic language forms the vernacular of the inhabitants, and beyond it prevails the broad Scotch. The one is as much a dialect of Irish, and is substantially the same language, as the other is of the Anglic or Anglo-Saxon. There are small and unimportant provincial varieties observed in both; yet each forms essentially one dialect; and Scotch Gaelic must be viewed as simply a provincial variety of the spoken Gaelic, of the same class as the provincial varieties of the vernacular Gaelic in Ireland. It exhibits some differences which are peculiar to itself. In other points it corresponds with one or other of the Irish dialects. The primary accent in Scotch Gaelic is invariably on the first syllable of the word, and the analytic form of the verb, with the use of the auxiliary verb, is preferred to the synthetic. In these respects it corresponds with the spoken language of the north of Ireland, and its vowel sounds approach most nearly to those of the Connaught dialect. Scotch Gaelic is, in fact, so far, more closely allied to the northern Irish than the latter is to the spoken language of the south; but there are other peculiarities of Scotch Gaelic which seem due to influence from another quarter. It forms the genitive plural of some nouns by adding the syllable _an_, in which it resembles Welsh forms. It does not use that phonetic change of the initial consonant, termed by Irish grammarians ‘eclipsis.’ It drops the final vowel in some substantives, and the future tense of its verb resembles the present tense of the Irish verb, while for the present it uses the auxiliary with the present participle. These peculiarities Scotch Gaelic shares with Manx, or the Gaelic of the Isle of Man; and it indicates that this vernacular form of Gaelic had been arrested at a somewhat later stage in its process of disintegration than the northern dialects of Irish.

[Sidenote: Origin of the Scotch Gaelic.]

The whole of the mountain region of Scotland with its islands within the Highland line, with the exception of Caithness, thus possessing a dialect of spoken Gaelic which must be ranked with the vernacular dialects of Ireland, the natural inference is that it must at all times have been peopled by a homogeneous race. But when we inquire into the elements which enter into its early population, we find that, prior to the ninth century, it consisted, in name at least, of two different races. In that part of Argyllshire which formed the kingdom of Dalriada, with the islands south of the promontory of Ardnamurchan, were the Scots, who unquestionably immigrated from Ireland in the beginning of the sixth century; while the whole of the rest of this region, with the islands north of Ardnamurchan, was peopled by the Pictish tribes. If these two races were not homogeneous, the question arises, How did this Gaelic dialect spread over the whole of it? To this question Irish writers usually return a very short and ready answer. They tell us that the Irish colony of Scots spread gradually over the western districts; that in the ninth century they subjugated the Picts; that the Pictish population was superseded by the Scottish; and that the language spoken by the Highlanders was invariably termed by them Erse or Irish. This solution will not, however, stand the test of investigation. The former part of the statement, when compared with the ascertained facts regarding the relative position of the two races, requires an assent to a philological proposition which is almost impossible; and the latter assertion is not true. It is obvious from the statements of both Adamnan and Bede that, as late as the eighth century, the Scots of Dalriada were still confined within those mountain barriers which separated them from the great Pictish race; and, however we may view the revolution which took place in their relative position, it is obvious that the spoken dialect which prevailed over the rest of the Highlands prior to the ninth century, whatever it was, could not have been derived from the Scots of Dalriada. But is it credible that a language spoken in such a mountainous and inaccessible region as the northern and eastern Highlands, with the islands north of Ardnamurchan, could have so entirely disappeared as to leave not a trace even in its topography? Though we do not possess written evidence of the early speech of this part of the country, we have a record in the names of its great natural features—its mountains, its lochs, and its great rivers; and all experience tells us that, though the population of a country may change, these generally remain unaffected by it, and retain the stamp of its earliest race, by whom these names were imposed. We find that the names of farms and homesteads, houses and villages, may change and bear the impress of each succeeding population; but those of the grand and unchangeable features of a country bearing the physical aspect of Scotland remain unchanged, and these names, throughout the whole of the districts peopled by the northern Picts, are unmistakably Gaelic. There may enter into these names some vocables which are not intelligible in the modern vernacular Gaelic; but it must be recollected that the names were imposed at a much earlier stage of the language, and we usually find that they are obsolete words of the same language, and are preserved in the old glossaries.[845]

But, further, the phenomena exhibited in these districts of Scotland, in the relation of the early races which peopled it to the language which we find at a later period pervading the whole range of country, are not very dissimilar from those which appear to have existed at a much earlier period in the north of Ireland. There we find the tradition that the Pictish race once extended over the whole of the north of Ireland; and the remembrance of the Pictish kingdom of Ulster, with its capital of _Emhan Macha_, or Emania, is preserved almost to historic times. The remains of this Pictish race still existed, within the historic period, in the smaller kingdom of _Dalnaraidhe_, or Dalaradia, and in the plain of Bregia in Meath; and their close connection with the Picts of Scotland was not dissevered till the middle of the sixth century. Here, too, we have an extended Pictish race, over which however the race of the Scots were more rapidly, and at a much earlier period, superinduced, and the same phenomena of the spoken language of the whole country forming one dialect of that branch of Celtic termed Gaelic, while there is no trace of any other language having prevailed. We may therefore infer that the language spoken by the Pictish race which peopled the Highlands and Islands likewise belonged to the Gaelic branch of the Celtic, and that, like the Irish, before a cultivated standard of language was formed by the introduction of letters, it was characterised by local varieties of speech, and that there were as many dialects, in the most limited sense of the term, as there were districts and tribes. We do not find, however, that St. Columba, when he commenced his mission among the Picts, had any difficulty in conversing freely with them, or preaching the Word intelligibly to them. There are only two instances mentioned by Adamnan where he had to call in the aid of an interpreter, and in both cases it was resorted to in preaching the Word of Life, and not in conversing. These are the cases of the old chief of the Geona cohort, who came by sea to the north end of Skye, and of a peasant in the province of the Picts;[846] but we are not told to what part of the country these men belonged, and the dialect of one part may have been more removed from the Irish form of it than that of another.

[Sidenote: A written language introduced by Scottish monks.]

A very powerful agency, however, was soon brought to bear upon the language of that part of the country, that, namely, of the Christian Church. Whatever may have been the case in Ireland, it is unquestionably to the Columban Church issuing from Ireland that the northern Picts owed the introduction of letters and of a written language. For centuries her clergy were entirely Scottish, and the instruction of the people and the education of the young was in the hands of the Scottish monks of the Columban Church. By them the standard of the written Irish was introduced. It became the language of the church, the monastery and the school. There was, probably for generations, not a Pictish child, who secured any education at all, who had not learned his alphabet and been taught to read by a Scottish monk. And with the spread of knowledge and of cultivation there must have arisen a coalescing of the numerous varieties of the vernacular into one spoken dialect, and the assimilation of the whole to the cultivated language of Ireland. Towards the close of the period during which this Celtic Church was predominant, and just before its extinction, we have a specimen of the written language of the Columban Church in the Book of Deer. It is a MS. which belonged to the church of Deer, one of the few Columban monasteries in the Pictish territory which retained its clerical character throughout. It contains the Gospel of St. John, portions of the other three Gospels, the fragment of an office for the visitation of the sick, and the Apostles’ Creed, all in Latin, and is written in a character which may be ascribed to the ninth century. A few of the rubrics in the office for the visitation of the sick are, however, in Irish, and, as was usual in such monasteries, there are written on the blank pages notices in Gaelic, written in the Irish character, giving the legend of the foundation of the church, and memoranda of the different grants of lands and privileges made to it. These are all in the same handwriting, and appear to have been written in the early part of the reign of David I. They thus furnish us with a specimen of the written language of the period, and, though it possesses some unimportant peculiarities, it is unquestionably identic with the written Irish of the period.[847] Not long after, we find the vernacular Gaelic appearing under the name of the Albanic, or language of Alban, and exhibiting some of the peculiarities of the Scotch Gaelic. Jocelyn of Furness, who wrote in the twelfth century, gives us in his Life of Kentigern two etymologies of the saint’s name. One is unquestionably from Cymric, or the Welsh language; but in the other the interpretation is derived from the Gaelic. He says that ‘not in vain, but of set purpose, had he been called Kentigern by Servanus, because by the will of the Lord he sought to become the head lord of all, for _Ken_ is “caput” in Latin, and the Albanic _Tyern_ is interpreted “dominus.” in Latin.’[848] _Cen_, now _Ceann_, however, is ‘the head’ both in Irish and Scotch Gaelic, and _Tyern_ is the phonetic spelling of _Tighearn_, Lord, in Scotch Gaelic, the Irish form of which is _Tighearna_, thus showing the elision of the final vowel peculiar to Scotch Gaelic. The written language, however, he appears to term Scotic, when he says that he had ‘found a little volume, written in the Scotic dialect, filled from end to end with solecisms, but containing at greater length the life and acts of the holy bishop.’[849]

[Sidenote: Gaelic termed Scottish, and Lowland Scotch, English.]

During the last two and a half centuries of this period the intercourse between the north and west of Scotland and Ireland had, to a great extent, been interrupted by the Norwegian conquest of the Western Isles, and the formation of the Norwegian kingdom of the Isles; but the rise of the Celtic chief Somerled, and the foundation of the dynasty of Gaelic Lords of the Isles in his descendants, renewed the intercourse with Ireland; and we find that, during the three centuries in which these powerful Celtic kinglets ruled over the western Highlands and Islands, there was not only a close political connection with Ireland, but the literary influence was equally close and strong, and Ireland was resorted to for instruction in the literature and written language of the country. It was at the commencement of this period, that the name of Scotia became finally and absolutely transferred from Ireland to Scotland, and superseded the older name of Alban, or Albania; and, during the whole of this period, the name applied to the Gaelic language of Scotland was that of Scotic, or Scotch. We find abundant evidence of this during the earlier portion of this period, when the term ‘Scotice’ is invariably applied to the Gaelic forms of the names of places. Thus, in the ‘Descriptio Albaniæ,’ in the twelfth century, the river Forth is said to be called ‘Scottice Froch, Brittanice Werid, Romane vero Scottewattre,’ the term Roman being here curiously enough applied to the Anglic. A charter by William the Lion mentions that spring near Karel ‘quæ Scotice _Tobari_ nuncupatur;’ and the same designation for the Gaelic language of Scotland appears frequently in the Chartularies, while the term Anglic is used for the Teutonic. Thus, in a perambulation of the lands of Kingoldrum in Forfarshire, in 1256, we have ‘_Hachethunethouer_ quod Anglice dicitur Midefeld,‘ and ‘Marresiam quamdam quæ Scotice dicitur _Moynebuche_.’[850] And in the fourteenth century Fordun gives us a very distinct account of the distribution of the vernacular dialect in his day. He says, ‘The manners and customs of the Scots vary with the diversity of their speech. For two languages are spoken amongst them, the Scottish (_Scotica_) and the Teutonic (_Theutonica_); the latter of which is the language of those who occupy the seaboard and plains, while the race of Scottish speech (_Scoticæ linguæ_) inhabits the Highlands and outlying districts.’[851]

[Sidenote: Α.D. 1478-1560. Period of neglected education and no learning.]

The dynasty of the Celtic kings of the Isles came to an end in 1478, when the last Lord of the Isles was forfeited; and there followed upon their fall a period of great confusion in the Highlands, when the clans which had been united under their sway were thrown loose, and struggled for the possession of their lands. During this period of darkness education was neglected, and all knowledge of the cultivated or written Irish seems to have perished out of the land. It is during this period that a solitary exception, Dean Macgregor of Lismore, endeavoured to rescue from oblivion the oral literature of the Highlands by transcribing, in 1512, such poems as he could collect; but he was fain to write them down in a phonetic spelling, which has rendered his collection valuable, as indicating the pronunciation of the language at the time, and the degree of divergence between the spoken dialects and the standard Irish.[852] His collection, however, contains also several poems by Irish bards, and among others some of a religious cast by Teague og O’Huggin, whose death is recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1448 as ‘chief preceptor of the poets of Erin and Alban;’ and the same annals record in 1554 the death of Teague O’Coffey, ‘chief teacher of poetry in Erin and Alban.’ A contract of fosterage, by Sir Roderick Macleod, in 1614, in Gaelic, has been preserved, which is written in the Irish character; but it is evident that he had to resort to Ireland for his scribe, as the writer of it is obviously an Irishman, and he alone subscribes as a witness in the Irish written language, the three other witnesses all bearing Gaelic names, and two of them, respectively ministers of Duirinish and Bracadale, in Skye, being unable to do so.[853]

[Sidenote: After 1520 Scotch Gaelic called Irish, and the name Scotch passes over to Lowland Scotch.]

The spoken language of the Highlands now begins to be called Irish in place of Scotch. John Major, who wrote in 1520, not long after the Dean of Lismore had made his collection, thus describes the languages in his day: ‘In the island of Britain there are three different languages, as we know, which are mutually unintelligible. The first towards the south is the Welsh (_Vallica_), which the Britonised Britons use. The second, more extended than the first, the wild Scots and Islanders use, and this is Irish, though somewhat broken (_Hibernica licet quodammodo fracta_). The third language, the principal one in the island, is the English (_Anglicana_), which the English and the civilised Scots have.’[854] Thus, what Fordun called _Scotica_ in the fourteenth century, John Major calls _Hibernica_ in the sixteenth; and what Fordun termed _Teutonica_, Major calls _Anglicana_. The expression used by John Major, with regard to the Gaelic spoken in the Highlands and Islands, shows that the differences between it and the written language of Ireland were then quite apparent. While, however, all learning had perished out of the Gaelic-speaking part of the country, there had arisen a literature in the language of the lowlands. Barbour, who was archdeacon of Aberdeen, leads the way not long after Fordun’s time; but he terms the language in which he wrote ‘Inglis,’ or English.[855] He was followed in the next century by Wyntoun, prior of Lochleven, in his Metrical Chronicle. But Gawin Douglas, who wrote in the same Lowland dialect in 1516, terms the language in which he wrote ‘Scottés,’ or Scotch. We thus find in the beginning of the sixteenth century the term Scotic, or Scotch, passing from the written Gaelic to the Anglican dialect of the Lowlands, and the spoken Gaelic of the Highlands coming to be denominated Irish.

[Sidenote: After Reformation Scotch Gaelic becomes a written language.]

The Reformation, however, soon after gave rise to a religious literature, which was printed for the use of the Gaelic-speaking people; but here too it became necessary to resort to Ireland for the written language. Bishop Carsewell printed, in 1567, a translation of John Knox’s liturgy, with a prefatory epistle, in which he says that ‘we, the Gael of Alban and Erin, have laboured under the want that our dialects of the Gaelic have never been printed;’ and the language he uses is unquestionably the written Irish of the time. In the following century translations of the metrical version of the Psalms, of Calvin’s Cathechism, and of the Bible, were printed in Gaelic by the Synod of Argyll and by the Rev. R. Kirke of Balquhidder. These were thoroughly Irish in form, and the latter was simply taken from the Irish version of the Bible. Various editions of the Bible were issued in the succeeding century by the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland; but, from the divergence which now existed between the spoken language of the people and the written language of Ireland, it was found that these translations were not readily understood, and in each succeeding edition they were brought nearer to the spoken idiom, till, for the cultivated Irish, which formed their written dialect in common with Ireland, there was now substituted a written Scotch Gaelic, in all respects assimilated to the spoken language. There can be little doubt that the spoken or vernacular language remained throughout pretty much the same, exhibiting in a greater or less degree those features which distinguished it from the spoken dialects of Ireland; and to this language the Highlanders themselves have never given any other name than the simple designation of Gaelic. It possessed, too, an oral literature in the popular poetry and prose tales of the Highlanders, handed down by recitation; and in 1741 a vocabulary of this Scottish Gaelic was first printed by Alexander Macdonald, schoolmaster of Ardnamurchan, a scholar and a good Gaelic poet. Ten years later he printed a collection of his own poems, written in the vernacular dialect of the Highlands. To this work he gave the title of ‘Resurrection of the Ancient Language of Alban,’[856] and in the preface announced that it was only the prelude to a greater collection of poetry ‘from those of the earliest composition to modern times; their antiquity either proved by historical accounts, or ascertained by the best traditions; with a translation into English verse, and critical observations on the nature of such writings, to render the work useful to those that do not understand the Gaelic language.’[857] It is to be regretted that he never carried this intention into effect. In 1764 the poems of Duncan Ban Macintyre, also composed in the vernacular, were printed, and these collections were followed by numerous others, till this oral literature of the Scottish Gaelic, too, assumed a written form.

And thus, at length, has been created a standard of written Scotch Gaelic, which has stereotyped the language spoken by the Highlanders in its native form and idiom.

-----

Footnote 786:

S. Monenni disciplinis et monitis in Rosnatensi Monasterio, quod alio nomine Alba vocatur, diligenter instructus in virum perfectum scientia et moribus est provectus.—_Vit. S. Tigernaci._

In monasterio præfato sub discipulatu illius permansit, et postquam vita atque doctrina ibi sufficientur floruit.—_Vit. S. Endæ._

In ejus sede quæ magnum vocatur Monasterium regulas et institutiones monasticæ vitæ aliquot annis probus monachus didicit atque in sanctarum Scripturarum paginis non parum proficiens.—_Vit. S. Finniani_, Colgan, _A.SS._, p. 438.

Footnote 787:

Cum S. Kannechus crevisset et perfectus esset sensibus voluit sapientiam legere et religionem discere. Perrexit trans mare in Britanniam ad virum sapientem ac religiosissimum Docum legitque apud illum sedule et mores bonos didiscit.—_Vit. S. Kannechi_, c. 4.

Footnote 788:

Iste S. Kieranus valde erat humilis in omnibus, qui multum diligebat divinam Scripturam audire et discere. Ipse cum ceteris Sanctis Hiberniæ illius temporis ad virum sanctum Finnianum Abbatem sapientissimum monasterii Cluain Eraird exivit et in divinis Scripturis in sancta schola ejus legebat.—Colgan, _A.SS._, p. 463.

Footnote 789:

Bede, _Hist. Ecc._, B. iii. c. 27.

Footnote 790:

Bede, _Hist. Ecc._, B. iv. c. 27; _Vit. S. Cud._, c. 24.

Footnote 791:

In ea namque navi diferebantur 50 monachi patria Romani quos vel arctioris vitæ vel Scripturarum peritiæ, tunc in ea multum florentis, desiderium in Hiberniam traxerat, ut ibi vivant sub magisterio quorundam sanctorum patrum, quos vitæ sanctitatæ et monasticæ disciplinæ rigore intellexerant esse conspicuos.—Colgan, _A.SS._, p. 533.

Footnote 792:

Adamnan, _Vit. S. Col._, Præf., B. ii. c. 8; B. iii. c. 22.

Footnote 793:

Illa jam cito rememoravit de Alfrido, qui nunc regnat pacifice, fuisse dictum, qui tunc erat in insula quam Hy nominant.—_Vit. S. Cuth. auct. anon._; Bede, _Opera minora_, p. 274.

Footnote 794:

Et exceptis his, quæ aut Lex, aut Prophetæ, aut Evangelium, aut Apostoli loquuntur, grande debet esse ab aliis de Trinitate silentium. Dei enim tantum de Deo, hoc est, de seipso credendum est testimonium.—Migne, _Patrologia_, vol. xxxvii. col. 233. When Columbanus goes on to say, ‘Cæterum disputatio, seu ingenium humanum, aut aliqua superba sapientia, quæ vel mundi in ratione fallitur, de Deo magistra esse non potest, sed sacrilega et impia in Deum præsumenda est,’ it is hardly possible to avoid the suspicion that it was intended as a protest against the Athanasian Creed and its metaphysical definitions, which probably made its appearance about this time in the Church.

Footnote 795:

See for an account of these scribes Colgan, _Tr. Th._, p. 631, where a list of them during the eighth and ninth centuries is given. The first mention of them is in 697, when the death of ‘_Caisan_ Scriba _Luscan_’ is recorded in the Ulster Annals.

Footnote 796:

A.D. 807 (808) Torbach mac Gormain _Scribhnidh Leghthoir agus Abb_ Ardamacha _esidhe_ decc.

844 (845) _Feardomhnach eagnaidh agus Scribhnidh toghaidhe_ Ardamacha decc.—_A. F. M._ See _Proc. R. I. A._, vol. iii. p. 316, 356, for papers by Rev. Charles Graves, now bishop of Limerick, on the date of the Book of Armagh.

Footnote 797:

The Book of Armagh by Dr. Reeves; first published in the _Swords Parish Magazine_, 1861.

Footnote 798:

657 Obitus _Ultain ic U Concubair_.—_An. Ult._

Footnote 799:

699 Quies _Aedo_ anachorite _o Sleibhtiu_.—_Ib._

Footnote 800:

Dr. Todd’s translation of this preface has been adopted.—_Life of St. Patrick_, p. 402.

Footnote 801:

See Colgan’s _Tr. Th._, pp. 518, 527, and the Bishop of Limerick’s paper in _Proc. R. I. A._, vol. viii. p. 269.

Footnote 802:

462 (463) Mors Laegaire fili Niell.—_An. Ult._

Footnote 803:

457 (458) Quies senis Patricii, ut alii libri dicunt.

Footnote 804:

That this is the true reading of his name Dr. Todd has shown, though the scribes have made it ‘Amatho rex,’ and in the ablative ‘Amatho rege.’

Footnote 805:

Colombcille Spiritu Sancto instigante ostendit sepulturam Patricii, ubi est confirmat, id est, in Sabul Patricii, id est, in ecclesia juxta mare pro undecima (proxima), ubi est conductio martirum, id est ossuum Coluimbcillae de Britannia, et conductio omnium Sanctorum Hiberniæ in die judicii.—Reeves’s _Adamnan_, ed. 1874, p. lxxx.

Footnote 806:

This suggestion is made by Dr. Graves in his account of the Book of Armagh.—_Proc. R. I. A._, vol. iii. p. 356.

Footnote 807:

See Introduction to the Irish version of Nennius, pp. 12 and 14.

Footnote 808:

Compare the following passage:—

Certe enim erit quod Palladius archidiaconus Papæ Celestini urbis Romæ episcopi, qui tunc tenebat sedem apostolicam quadragensimus quintus a Sancto Petro apostolo, Missus est Palladius episcopus ille Palladius ordinatus et missus primitus a Celestino episcopo et fuerat ad hanc insolam sub brumali Papa Romæ ad Scottos in Christum rigore positam convertendam; sed convertendos; sed prohibuit illum prohibuit illum [Deus] quia nemo Deus per quasdam tempestates, quia potest accipere quicquam de terra nemo potest accipere quicquam de nisi datum ei fuerit de cœlo. Nam terra, nisi de cœlo datum fuerit neque hii feri et inmites homines illi desuper. Et profectus est ille facile reciperunt doctrinam ejus, Palladius de Hibernia, et pervenit neque et ipse voluit transegere ad Britanniam, et ibi defunctus est tempus in terra non sua, sed in terra Pictorum. —Nennius, _Hist. reversus ad eum qui misit illum. Brit._ Revertente vero eo hinc et in primo mari transito cœptoque terrarum itinere Britonum finibus vita factus. —Muirchu, _Book of Armagh_.

Footnote 809:

Compare the following:—

In IIII rebus similis fuit Quatuor modis æquantur Moyses Moisi Patricius. et Patricius, id est,

I. Primo angelum de rubo Angelo colloquente in rubo audivit igneo.

II. xl diebus et xl noctibus Secundo modo, in monte jejunavit. quadraginta diebus et quadraginta noctibus jejunavit.

III. Quia annos cxx peregit in Tertio modo, similes fuerunt præsenti. ætate, centum viginti annis.

IV. Ubi sunt ossa ejus nemo Quarto modo, sepulchrum novit. illius nemo scit, sed in Tirechan, _Book of occulto humatus est, nemine Armagh_. sciente. —Nennius, _Hist. Brit._

Footnote 810:

See Dr. Todd’s unfinished preface to the poem in the _Liber Hymnorum_, part ii. p. 287, where its true character is very clearly established.

Footnote 811:

The poem with a Latin translation and the glosses at length, is printed by Colgan in his _Trias Thaumaturga_, p. i. Mr. Whitley Stokes has also printed the poem, with an English translation, in his _Gædelica_, p. 126.

Footnote 812:

The word here is _Scelaib_, from _Scel_, a relation, a tale or story.

Footnote 813:

Dr. Samuel Ferguson, in the notes to his poem of Congal, p. 196, has suggested an ingenious theory with regard to this name of _Nemthur_, and Mr. Gilbert, in his introduction to the _National MSS. of Ireland_, appears to adopt it. He refers to the name of _Neutur_ or _Nevtur_ appearing in the old Welsh poem, which, however, he reads _Nentur_, and adds, ‘The N in both belongs to the article, as in _N’ewry_; so that the choice lies between _Emtur_ and _Entur_; but _Entur_ is a good Celtic local name (“unica turris”), just as _Endrum_ (“unica collis”) was the old name of Mahee island, and _Entreb_ (“unica domus”) was the old name of Antrim, whereas _Emtur_ is an “irreconcilable.” The probability, therefore, is that “_Emtur_,” which, in the Tripartite Life, is always spoken of a place close to, or forming part of, Dumbarton, is simply _Entur_ disguised by the accidental use of M instead of N.’

There appear to the author to be serious objections to this theory. First, it requires us to suppose that _Nemthur_ has been written by mistake for _Nenthur_ in the hymn of Fiacc and in all the lives which contain the word, and equally it requires us to suppose that _Neutur_ has been written in place of _Nentur_ in the Book of Caermarthen (_The Four Ancient Books of Wales_, vol. ii. p. 3). Secondly, it is true that in Irish names of places N before a vowel sometimes represents the article; but is this true also of Welsh names? The author is unaware of any parallel instance, and does not see how _Entur_ in Welsh could become _Nentur_. Thirdly, if this be so, then the Welsh must have adopted the Irish form of the name; but the inhabitants of the district in which Alcluaid was situated were a Welsh-speaking people, and the name is more likely to have passed from them into Irish. Lastly, _Nem_ in old Irish, and _Nev_, or as it would now be written _Nef_, in Welsh, are exact equivalents. Thus in Cormac’s _Glossary_, edited by Mr. Whitley Stokes (p. 126), we have _Nem_ (heaven), and the editor adds, ‘W. and Corn. _Nef_, Br. _env_. The old Welsh form occurs in _uuc nem, is nem_ (above heaven, below heaven). Juvencus, p. 1, line 9.’

Footnote 814:

Dr. Todd’s _St. Patrick_, p. 360. The Irish historians who have investigated the history of St. Patrick, have viewed the introduction of Armorica into the legend with much favour, and have been inclined to transfer St. Patrick entirely to Gaul as the place of his birth as well as where he was taken captive. The most elaborate attempt to do this has been made by Lanigan in his _Ecclesiastical History of Ireland_; but he is obliged to remove him from Armorica to the sea-coast north of the Seine. It is sufficient to say that his theory requires us to suppose Bannavem written by mistake for Bononia, Tabernia for Tarabanna, that Nemthur means Neustria, and that the term Britanniæ, or the Britains, applies to that part of Gaul. The author has always considered it conclusive against any theory that it requires conjectural emendations of the text to support it.

Footnote 815:

The word here is _Lini_, which implies a written record. The statement seems taken from the former narratives of Tirechan and Muirchu in the Book of Armagh.

Footnote 816:

‘He preached for threescore years the cross of Christ to the tribes of Feni.’

Footnote 817:

_Is sed ro gell Patraic mac Calpuirn do Sen Phatraic commad immaille ro regtais do chum nime, ocus ised inniset corobai Patraic ota. xiii. (xvi.) kt Aprail co. ix. kt Septembris ar immaig ocus aingil imme oc irnaigte Sen Patraic._

Footnote 818:

_Lassar greni aine, Aspal Erenn oige, Patraic, co met mile, Rob ditiu diar troige._ O’Curry, _MS. Materials_, p. 611.

Footnote 819:

_Lasreith sloig srenatii Ata sceoil ro clotha, Sen Patraic cing catha Coem aite ar srotha._ Petrie, _Ant. of Tara_, p. 95.

Footnote 820:

_O genair Criost, airem ait, C.C.C.C. for caem nochait, Teora bliadhna fair iarsein Co bas Padraic prim Abstail._ _Tigh. ad an._ 490.

Footnote 821:

.i. _i n-Gloinestir na n-Gaedel i Saxsanaib_ .i. in Britannia.—Petrie, _Ant. of Tara_, p. 95.

Footnote 822:

_Aite Patraic Macha_, Sancti Patricii Episcopi doctor.—Petrie, p. 96.

Footnote 823:

_Sen Patraic o Rus dela aMuig locha_, sed verius est _Comad i nGlastingiberra na nGaedel i n-desciurt Saxan ata_; Scoti enim prius in peregrinatione ibi abitabant. _Acht a tati a thaisi i n-Ulad. Sen Patraic i n-Ardmacha._—_Ib._

Footnote 824:

Colgan has unquestionably assigned too early a date to these lives, and the process by which he has done so is not very critical. He conjecturally connects the anonymous lives with the names of those who are said to have written biographies of the saint, and then takes the date of the death of the supposed author as indicating the period when the life must have been compiled. If the life contains expressions indicating a later date he supposes interpolations. There is, however, a very simple test by which these lives fall into the two groups above referred to, and that is by their use of the term Scotia, which was transferred from Ireland to Scotland in the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century. In Colgan’s second and fourth lives Scotia is applied to Ireland, which places them before that period. The fifth life bears in itself to be written by Probus, and his expression ‘Scotiam atque Britanniam, Angliam et Normanniam ceteraque gratis insulanorum baptizabis,’ indicates a later date, while his only name for Ireland is Hibernia. He dedicates his life to a certain Paulinus, whom he addresses with much veneration; but this name is the Latin form of the Irish _Maelpoil_, and the Irish Annals record in the tenth century the deaths of four ecclesiastics of this name. These are, in 901 Maelpoil, abbot of Sruthair-Guaire; in 920 Maelpoil mac Aillela, bishop, anchorite and scribe, of Leath-Chuinn, an abbot of Indedhnen; in 992 Maelpoil, bishop of Mughain; and in 1000 Maelpoil, bishop of Cluain-mic-nois, and Coärb of Feichin.—_An. F. M._ The last is probably the Paulinus meant. Of Colgan’s third life the first eleven chapters do not properly belong to it, but are part of his second life, and the life really commences with chapter twelve. It was certainly compiled after the life by Probus, from which much of it appears to have been taken. The life termed by Colgan the Tripartite has been given by him in a Latin translation only; but the original Irish text was discovered by the late Professor O’Curry in the British Museum, and another and somewhat older version in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. It likewise belongs to this group, and a translation of the Irish text by Mr W. M. Hennessy has been annexed to Miss Cusack’s _Life of St. Patrick_. The latest life of all is that by Jocelyn of Furness, which must have been compiled about the year 1185.

Footnote 825:

Printed by Usher in his _Sylloge_, No. xviii.

Footnote 826:

_Annals of the Four Masters_, vol. i. p. 396, note _e_.

Footnote 827:

_Ib._, p. 523.

Footnote 828:

See Colgan, _Tr. Th._, p. 632, for a list of some of them. See also Dr. Reeves’s _Ant. of Down and Connor_, p. 145, note.

Footnote 829:

_An. F. M._, pp. 729, 829. Dr. Reeves has shown that what the annals here call the bed was the _Culebadh_, or hood, of St. Columba.—_Vit. Adamnan_, p. lxxxviii.

Footnote 830:

_Book of Deer_ (Spalding Club), p. 93.

Footnote 831:

See _antea_, p. 414.

Footnote 832:

_Reg. Priorat. St. And._, pp. 317, 318. See also Dr. Joseph Robertson’s valuable paper on the scholastic offices in the Scottish Church, pp. 26, 27. With regard to the functions of archdeacon and lecturer being discharged by the same person, Dr. Robertson remarks: ‘We can trace a connection between the offices elsewhere.’ Thus Ducange quotes a charter of the year 1213, in which Hugo, archdeacon of Auxerre, narrates that to his office of archdeacon it belongs to provide a lecturer for the church of Auxerre, who shall order the whole course of reading.

Footnote 833:

For these notices of the Scolocs see Dr. Joseph Robertson in the _Scholastic Offices_, p. 18.

Footnote 834:

Irish Charters in the Book of Kells; _Irish Arch. Misc._, vol. i. p. 141. Dr. J. Stuart, in a note to his valuable preface to the _Book of Deer_, p. cxxxix., says—‘It may be doubted whether sufficient evidence has been adduced for holding that all the persons called Scolocs or Scologs in our early records were of the same character, or were in all cases, as has been assumed, scholastics, or the lowest members of the clerical order; but, on the contrary, were in some cases simply the husbandmen or tenants of the land.’ The author concurs in this opinion. The word _Scoloc_ or _Scolog_ unquestionably comes from _Scol_ or _Sgol_, a school; but the word _Sgolog_ has come to signify in Irish simply a husbandman or farmer, and appears at one time to have been given to a class of cottars in the northern isles. Buchanan, in his _Travels in the Western Hebrides from 1782 to 1790_, p. 6, says that there is ‘an unfortunate and numerous class of men known under the name of Scallags. The Scallag, whether male or female, is a poor being, who, for mere subsistence, becomes a feudal slave to another, whether a sub-tenant, a tacksman, or a laird. The Scallag builds his own hut with sods and boughs of trees. Five days in the week he works for his master; the sixth is allowed to himself for the cultivation of some scrap of land on the edge of some moss or moor, on which he raises a little kail or colworts, barley and potatoes.’

Footnote 835:

See Dr. Todd’s _St. Patrick_, p. 507, for a discussion of this question. It certainly appears to the author that the plain inference from the passages there quoted is that letters and the art of writing were introduced by St. Patrick.

Footnote 836:

See the account by Dr. Graves, now bishop of Limerick, of the marginal glosses in the Ogham character on the St. Gall MS. of Priscian.—_Proc. R. I. A._, vol. vi. p. 209.

Footnote 837:

Mr. Burton, in his characteristic manner, rejects the Ogham character as unreal and the mere creation of fanciful antiquaries. He says, in his chapter on the sculptured stones (vol. i. p. 148)—‘It would be deemed by some unpardonable not to note that some scratchings on these stones have been set down as inscriptions in the Ogham or Ogam character. This professes to be a method of secret writing, being, indeed, no other than that in which the Druids concealed their mysteries. Its avowed qualities are simplicity and flexibility. These qualities are vouched for us on the faith of experiments made chiefly in Ireland, and especially of one in which two antiquaries had read an inscription to pretty nearly the same result, and afterwards found, on comparison of notes, that the one had read from left to right and the other from right to left. This phenomenon seems not to have created much surprise among the learned body who received the reports of the decipherers. That the inscription could be read either way was only a testimony to the power and simplicity of the Ogham character, which has also the faculty that, by shifting the places of the letters or cyphers, a long story may be made out of a few straight lines.’ And Mr. Burton’s sole reference is to a paper in the _Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy_ (i. 3), read in the year 1785.

It would have been unfair to Mr. Burton not to give his reasons for rejecting the Ogham as spurious, as the author cannot refrain from saying that it appears almost incredible to him that any one professing to have made himself acquainted with the literature of the subject could give so uncandid an account of it. The Book of Ballimote, a MS. compiled in the year 1383, contains an account of the Ogham manner of writing, with several alphabets, one of which corresponds with the inscriptions found in numerous stone monuments in Ireland and in Wales, several of those in the latter country being biliteral, and having a corresponding inscription in debased Roman characters. That it was a secret mode of writing known to the Druids is the opinion of only a small section among antiquaries, and is not generally received. Its true character was very clearly brought out by Dr. Graves, now bishop of Limerick, in two papers read in 1848 and 1849 to the same body as that referred to by Mr. Burton (see _Proc. R. I. A._, vol. iv. pp. 174, 356); and the investigations of Dr. Graves and Dr. Samuel Ferguson in Ireland, and Professor Westwood in Wales, all of which Mr. Burton simply ignores, have placed the genuineness of the Ogham inscriptions beyond the reach of challenge.

Footnote 838:

‘Not only the several provinces of Ireland,’ says Donlevy, ‘have a different way of pronouncing, but also the very counties, and even baronies in one and the same county, differ in the pronunciation. Nay, some cantons pronounce so oddly that the natural sound of both vowels and consonants, whereof (even according to themselves) the words consist, is utterly lost in their mouths.’—Quoted in _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin_, p. 13. Donlevy published an Irish-English Catechism in 1742.

Footnote 839:

Bede, _Hist. Ec._, B. iii. c. 3.

Footnote 840:

Adamnan, B. i. c. 30; B. ii. c. 41.

Footnote 841:

O’Donovan’s _Grammar of the Irish Language_, p. lxxiii.

Footnote 842:

O’Donovan’s _Grammar of the Irish Language_, p. 404.

Footnote 843:

Printed by Mr. Whitley Stokes in his _Irish Glossaries_, who has also edited a translation for the Irish Archæological Society.

Footnote 844:

Copies are contained in the Books of Ballimote and Lecan.

Footnote 845:

Adamnan gives us two instances of this. He says (B. i. c. 27) that the inhabitants of Skye ‘call to this day’ the river in which the Pictish chief Artbranan was baptized _Dobur_ Artbranan, and in Cormac’s _Glossary_ (Ir. Ar. Soc., 1868, p. 53) we find ‘_Dobur_ is water, unde dicitur Dobarchu, _i.e._ water-dog, _i.e._ an otter;’ again, in another glossary (_Gaelic Soc. Tr._, Dublin, p. 12), we have ‘_Dobhar_, a river.’ Adamnan also tells us (B. ii. c. 38) of a peasant ‘who lived in the district which borders the shores of the Stagnum Aporicum,’ or Aporic lake, by which he means Lochaber, and placed a stake blessed by St. Columba under the water, near the beach of the river, ‘qui Latine dici potest Nigra Dea,’ and caught a salmon of extraordinary size. The river Lochy, which flows from Loch Lochy, and pours its waters into the Linnhe Loch, near Fort-William, answers best to the description of this salmon river in Lochaber. The word Lochy, however, has no connection with the term _loch_, translated by Adamnan ‘stagnum,’ for the vowel _o_ in the former is long, and in the latter short; but Cormac and O’Clery’s _Glossaries_ (Ir. Ar. Soc., 1868, p. 100) have _loch_ with the _o_ long, meaning _dubh_, or black. _Dea_ is here not the Latin word signifying goddess, but an Irish river-name. Thus, in the Book of Armagh, St. Patrick lands at the _Ostium Deæ_, by which the river Vartry, in Wicklow, is meant; and the same place is termed in other lives, and also in the Annals of the Four Masters (_ad an._ 801), _Inbher Dea_. The name therefore, the first syllable of which Adamnan translates Nigra, was ‘Lochdea’; and in the title to B. i. c. 28, Adamnan has the same name in his Stagnum ‘Lochdiæ,’ which he places in the Pictish province. It is now corrupted into Lochy, in which the obsolete word _Loch_, black, is preserved.

Footnote 846:

Adamnan, B. i. c. 27; B. ii. c. 33.

Footnote 847:

The Book of Deer has been ably edited for the Spalding Club, with a valuable preface, by Dr. John Stuart, where an elaborate account of its contents will be found. The Gaelic entries have also been printed by Mr. Whitley Stokes in his _Goedelica_, and an account of the peculiarities of the language will be found at p. 111.

Footnote 848:

Nam Ken, caput Latine; tyern Albanice, dominus Latine, interpretatur.—Jocelyn, _Vit. S. Kentigerni_, cap. 33.

Footnote 849:

Codiculum autem alium stilo Scottico dictatum reperi, per totum solæcismis scattentem.—_Pref._

Footnote 850:

_Chron. Picts and Scots_, p. 136; Chalmers, _Caled._, 480; _Regist. Aberbroth._, p. 228.

Footnote 851:

Fordun, _Chron._, B. ii. c. 9.

Footnote 852:

This subject is more fully discussed in the introduction to the Dean of Lismore’s book, published in 1862.

Footnote 853:

_National MSS. of Scotland_, Part iii. No. 84.

Footnote 854:

J. Major, _Historia Majoris Britanniæ_, B. i. c. 4.

Footnote 855:

See Barbour’s _Bruce_, edited for the Spalding Club, Preface, p. xviii.

Footnote 856:

_Ais-eiridh na Sean Chanoin Albanaich: no an nuadh oranaiche Gaidhealach._

Footnote 857:

Quoted in the dissertation prefixed to the poems of Ossian, by the Rev. Archibald Clerk, vol. i. p. 3.

APPENDIX.

I.

THE OLD IRISH LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA,

BEING

A DISCOURSE ON HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER DELIVERED TO THE BRETHREN ON HIS FESTIVAL.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL IRISH TEXT BY

W. MAUNSELL HENNESSEY, ESQ., M.R.I.A.

-------

_The following is a literal translation of the Irish Life of St. Colum Cille, as contained in the_ Leabar Breac _(Royal Irish Acad. Library, indicated by the letters L. B. in the foot-notes), collated with another copy preserved in the_ Book of Lismore _in the same library (distinguished in the notes by the letter L.), and with the text of a Gaelic MS. in the Advocates’ Library, Edinburgh (indicated in the notes by the letters A. L.)_.

_Of these texts, that of the_ Leabar Breac _(L. B.), transcribed about the year 1397, is certainly the oldest, not only as regards the date of transcription, but also as regards the language, which is remarkably pure, and may be considered as fairly representing a text composed some three centuries before._

_The second in point of age is the text of the_ Book of Lismore _(L.), which was copied about the year 1460. The narrative agrees pretty closely with the account of St. Colum Cille’s Life in the_ Leabar Breac; _but the language in L. is much more modern than that of the latter MS., and seems to have been reduced by the transcriber of L. to the standard of the time in which he wrote_.

_The date of the_ Advocates’ Library MS. _(A. L.) is apparently a little more recent than that of the_ Book of Lismore _(L.), with the text of which, however, A. L. agrees, as far as the contents of both MSS. correspond_.

_The_ Leabar Breac _account may be regarded as the original from which the narrative in the_ Book of Lismore _has been taken, notwithstanding that the curious specimens of Latinity with which the_ Leabar Breac _text is interlarded are wanting from the latter, as they are also wanting from the MS. A. L. But the copy in the_ Advocates’ Library _MS. must have been taken from some independent authority, as it contains several paragraphs not found in the_ Leabar Breac _or_ Book of Lismore. _This additional matter has been included in the following translation, enclosed within brackets, as at pp. 482, 488, 504, 505-507._

_The insertion beginning with the bracket on p. 494, and ending with the bracket on p. 502, has been translated from the copy of the_ Amra _(or Eulogy) of St. Colum Cille, composed by Dallan Forgall, contained in A. L., compared with copies of the same curious tract in the_ Leabar Breac _and in the_ Yellow Book of Lecan _(Trin. Coll., Dublin)_.

_The following account of St. Colum Cille is rather a sermon than a ‘Life,’ as the author here and there speaks as if addressing a congregation on the occasion of commemorating the Saint’s festival. (See pp. 473-507.)_

_Such as it is, however, the reader may regard it as a very literal translation from the original._

--------------

EXI DE TERRA TUA, ET DE COGNATIONE TUA, ET DE DOMO PATRIS TUI, ET VADE IN TERRAM QUAM TIBI MONSTRAVERO. ‘Leave thy country and thy land, thy kindred and natural inheritance,[858] for my sake, and go into the land which I shall show unto thee.’

The Lord Himself it was that gave this friendly counsel to the head of the perfect faith and perfect religion—viz., to Abraham, son of Thare—that he should leave his own country and land, _i.e._ the land of the Chaldees, and go in pilgrimage into the country which God had shown to him, viz., the Land of Promise.

Moses, also, the son of Amram, the leader of God’s people, the man who was filled with the grace and abundance of the Holy Spirit—’twas he that wrote this holy narrative[859] beyond in the genesis of the law, in order that the friendly counsel which the Lord Himself gave to Abraham in imposing[860] pilgrimage upon him might abide always with the church, when He said, EXI DE TERRA, ‘Leave thy country and thy land for my sake.’

HAEC QUIDEM HISTORIA[861] NOTA EST, ABRAHAM A DOMINO PRECEPTUM FUISSE UT TERRAM CALDEORUM DESERERET ET TERRAM REPROMISSIONIS[862] ADIRET. ‘It is a famous story in the Scriptures, the Lord Himself imposing it on Abraham to leave the land of the Chaldees, which was his rightful patrimony, and go in pilgrimage to the Land of Promise, because of the benefits that would arise therefrom to himself, and to his children, and to their race after them.’

ISTE AUTEM ABRAHAM CAPUT FIDEI EST, ET PATER OMNIUM FIDELIUM, SICUT DICIT APOSTOLUS. ‘The man, moreover, to whom God gave this counsel, viz., Abraham, he it is that is reckoned in the Scriptures as father of all the faithful, as the Apostle certifies when he says OMNES QUI SUNT EX FIDE, HII SUNT FILII ABRAHÆ: “they are truly the sons of Abraham,” says the Apostle, “all those who imitate the perfect faith.”’

QUOD AUTEM PATRI FIDELIUM PRECIPITUR,[863] HOC OMNIBUS FILIIS EJUS IMPLENDUM RELINQUITUR, UT TERRAM SUAM DESERANT ET CARNALEM PATRIAM DERELINQUANT. ‘The good [counsel],[864] then, that God enjoined here on the father of the faithful, viz., on Abraham, is also required to be observed by his sons after him, viz., by all the faithful, to wit, that they should abandon their country and land, their wealth and worldly delight, for the Lord of the elements, and go in perfect pilgrimage after his example.’

TRES AUTEM SUNT MODI VOCATIONUM. ‘In three ways, moreover, the people[865] are called to the knowledge and friendship of the Lord.’

PRIMUS EX DEO. ‘The first way is, firstly, the inciting[866] and inflaming of the people by the divine grace, that they may come to serve the Lord, after the example of Paul and the monk Anthony, and of the other faithful monks who served God yonder in Egypt.’

SECUNDUS PER HOMINEM. ‘The people are called, then, in the second way through man, viz. through the holy preceptors who preach in the divine Scriptures to the people, after the example of the Apostle Paul, who preached to Gentiles, until he brought them by the net of the Gospel to the harbour of life.’

TERTIUS EX NECESSITATE. ‘The people are called, then, in the third way, through necessity, viz., when they are forced to serve God through tribulations and perils of death, or through parting with their temporal goods,[867] according to the example of the people of Israel, who frequently turned to the Lord from the worship of idols and images when forced to do so by the troubles and hardships they suffered[868] from the stranger tribes, as is related in the Holy Scriptures.’ HINC DAVID DICIT. ‘And it is to illustrate this the prophet David says, “CLAMAVERUNT AD DOMINUM CUM TRIBULAR[U]NTUR, ET DE NECESSITATIBUS EORUM LIBERAVIT EOS.”’ ‘When the people of Israel would experience[869] great tribulations and hardships, they used to implore and beseech the Lord until He used to free them from those hardships.’

ABRAHAM IGITUR DIVINA GRATIA INSTINCTUS MANDATUM QUOD FUERAT EI IMPERATUM A DOMINO IMPLEVIT,[870] ET EXIIT[871] IN HARAN,[872] IN QUA MORTUUS EST PATER EJUS, ET INDE TRANSMIGRAVIT IN TERRAM REPROMISSIONIS.[873] ‘Abraham, then, the head of perfect devotion, and of the perfect faith, when prompted by the divine grace, fulfilled the commandment imposed on him by the Lord—viz., he went into the land of the Chaldees [to Haran,[874] where his father died; and went from thence] to the Land of Promise.’

TRIBUS AUTEM MODIS PATRIA DESERITUR, UNO INUTILI ET DUOBUS UTILIBUS. ‘There are also three modes by which one leaves his patrimony when he goes as a pilgrim; and there is one of them for which no reward is obtained from God, and [there are] two for which it is obtained.’

ALIQUANDO ENIM PATRIA CORPORE TAMEN RELINQUITUR, NEC MENS A CARNALIBUS STUDIIS ALIENATUR, NEC BONA OPERA APPETUNTUR. ‘That is because[875] sometimes one leaves his patrimony in the body only, and his mind abstains[876] not from sins and vices, and he yearns not to do acts of virtue or good works.’

IN TALI IGITUR PEREGRINATIONE NIL NISI AFFLICTIO CORPORIS SIT, NULLUS VERO ANIME PROFECTUS. ‘From the pilgrimage that is performed so, moreover, neither fruit nor profit[877] arises to the soul, but vain labour and motion of body; for it is little profit to one to abandon his fatherland, unless he does good away from it.’[878]

NAM ET POSTQUAM ABRAHAM CORPORE PATRIA EXIVIT,[879] TUNC EI[880] DOMINUS DIXIT. ‘For even Abraham himself, it was after he had left his own country, and after separating from it according to the body, that the Lord gave him this counsel, when He said, “EXI DE TERRA TUA,” “Withdraw thy mind henceforth from thy country and from thy land, and let not thy intention be towards returning to it again.”’

AC SI APERTE DICERET, CARNALIA VITIA PATRIÆ IN QUA FUERAS CORPORE, MENTE SIMUL ET CORPORE DEVITA. ‘As if it was what God Himself would openly say to Abraham, “Avoid in body and mind from henceforth, in thy pilgrimage, the sins and vices of the country in which thou didst formerly abide according to the body;” for it is the same to one as if he would abide[881] in his fatherland, if he followed the customs of his fatherland in his pilgrimage.’

NON ENIM IN VIA PEDUM SED IN VIA MORUM PROXIMATUR AD DOMINUM. ‘For it is not by way of foot, nor by motion of body, that one draws nigh unto God, but through the exercise[882] of good customs and virtues.’

ALIQUANDO MENTE TAMEN PATRIA RELINQUITUR ET NON CORPORE SICUT SUNT QUIDAM QUI QUAMVIS IN PATRIA PERAGUNT VITAM REGIONE, PATRIAM TAMEN VIVENDO CARNALITER NON NORUNT, SED JUSTIS CAUSIS QUIBUSDAM COGENTIBUS IN SUIS LOCIS MANENT HABITANTES QUASI NON HABITANTES. ‘Another time, however, one leaves his fatherland from zeal of heart and mind, although he leaves it not in body, as happens to the dignitaries who spend their lives in their own countries until death, because laics and clerics[883] detain them in the lands in which they may be, on account of the extent of their usefulness to all; and because that it is not through[884] carnality they remain in their fatherland, their good-will[885] comprehends pilgrimage for them with the Lord.’

ALIQUANDO MENTE ET CORPORE, UT SUNT HII QUIBUS DICITUR. ‘Sometimes, moreover, one leaves his country altogether in body and mind, as the Apostles and the people of the perfect pilgrimage left it, to whom the Lord promised great benefits in the Gospel, when He said, “VOS QUI DERELIQUISTIS OMNIA PROPTER ME, PATREM ET MATREM, UXOREM FILIOS ET FILIAS, AGRUM ET OMNIA QUAE HABERE POTUISTIS, CENTUPLUM ACCIPIETIS IN HOC SAECULO, ET VITAM ETERNAM IN FUTURO.” “Make sure of this,” said Jesus, “little or much[886] as you have abandoned for my sake your country and kindred, your possessions and worldly pleasures, that you shall receive a hundred times the equivalent of good from me here in this world, and in the perpetual life beyond after the judgment of doom.”’

HII SUNT VERI PEREGRINI[887] QUI CUM PSALMISTA POSSUNT DICERE. ‘These are truly the people of the perfect pilgrimage in whose persons the prophet said, in proclaiming and giving thanks to God, “ADVENA SUM APUD TE, DOMINE, ET PEREGRINUS SICUT OMNES PATRES MEI,” “I give thee thanks for it, O God,” says the prophet, “that I am in pilgrimage and exile in the world, after the example of the seniors[888] who have gone before.”’

Multitudes of the faithful servants of the Lord, moreover, both of the Old and New Testament, have perfectly observed this profitable counsel, viz., left their country and land, their patrimony and kindred, for the sake of the Lord of the elements, and went in voluntary pilgrimage to far distant countries, in the same way as he observed it, and abandoned his natural inheritance for the love and fear of the Lord—the eminent saint and eminent sage, and the elect son of God, for whom there is a festival and commemoration at the occurrence[889] of this season and time, _i.e._ SANCTUS PRESBYTER[890] Columba, viz., the illustrious priest of Inis-Gaidel,[891] the battle-brand who was endowed with the talents and various gifts of the Holy Ghost, to wit, the person[892] Saint Colum Cille, son of Fedlimidh [son[893] of Fergus Cennfoda, son of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Naoighiallach].

When the Christians, moreover, celebrate the festival and solemnity of Colum Cille’s obit, is on the fifth of the ides of June, as regards the day of the solar month[894] every year, in this day to-day, etc. The learned of the Gaidel likewise relate, at that time every year, a few particulars[895] in illustration of the good family and nobility of Saint Colum Cille, and also of the innumerable prodigies and miracles the Lord wrought for him in the world here, and of the distinguished end and termination He ultimately granted to his victorious career, viz., his reaching to his own true patrimony and true inheritance, _i.e._ to the possession of Paradise in the presence of God for ever.[896]

Noble, then, was the family of Colum Cille in respect of the world, viz., of the race of Conall son of Niall was he.[897] He was eligible to the kingship of Eriu according to family,[898] and it was offered[899] to him, if he himself had not abandoned it for God.

It is manifest, moreover, that he was an elect son of God, because the patron saints[900] of Ireland were foretelling him before his birth. In the first place, the senior of the priests of Ireland, viz., Old Mochta of Lugbad,[901] foretold the person Colum Cille, one hundred years before his birth; for on one occasion Mochta’s cook, MacRith his name, went with a cup of nuts in his hand for him, whereupon Mochta said to him, ‘Not mine,’ said he, ‘is the land from which those nuts were brought; preserve them until the person comes whose land it is.’ ‘When will that time come?’ asked the cook. ‘At the end[902] of a hundred years,’ said Mochta.

Mochta was wont, then, to turn his face towards the north when praying. His people used to ask him why he did so; ut dixit[903] to them:—

A youth shall be born out of the north, With[904] the rising of the nations;[905] Ireland shall be made fruitful by the great flame, And Alba, friendly to him.

The father of baptism and doctrine of the Gaidel, viz., [Saint][906] Patrick, foretold him, when he was blessing Conall in Sith-Aedha, the time he placed his two hands on Conall and his son, Fergus son of Conall, to wit, his right hand on the head of Fergus, and his left hand on the head[907] of Conall. Conall wondered at that, and asked him why he had placed his hands so, when Patrick uttered this _rann_:[908]

A youth shall be born of his tribe, Who’ll be a sage, a prophet, a poet, etc. Beloved[909] the bright, clear luminary, That will not utter falsehood.

He’ll be a sage, and will be devout, Will be an abbot with[910] the king of royal graces; He’ll be lasting, and be ever good; The eternal kingdom be mine, by his protection.

Brigid[911] also foretold him when she said:—

The son of Eithne long-side, Good is he and flourishing; Mild Colum Cille without stain; ’Twere not too much to observe[912] him.

Bishop Eoghan of Ard-Stratha[913] likewise foretold him, when he said:—

The son that shall be born to Fedlimidh Will be eminent above all clerics— Fedlimidh, son of Fergus, Son of Conall, son of Niall.

Buite[914] son of Bronach also, at the hour of his death, foretold the person Colum Cille, on which occasion he said to his people,

‘A child illustrious before God and men will be born on this night to-night, and he shall come here before thirty years from this night. Twelve men, moreover, will be his company; and he it is that will discover my grave, and measure[915] my cemetery; and our union shall be in heaven and in earth.’

As the birth of Colum Cille was thus predicted by the patron saints of Eriu, so was it manifested[916] in visions and dreams, as it was manifested[916] in the vision that appeared to his mother, viz., it seemed to her that a large garment was given to her which reached from Innsi-mod[917] to Caer-nam-brocc,[918] and there was not of the colours [of the world[919]] a colour that was not in it. She saw a young man in splendid raiment, who bore the garment away from her into the air. And Eithne was grieved at this. And she thought that the same young man came towards her again, and said to her, ‘My good woman,’ said the young man, ‘thou shouldst not exhibit grief, but joy and gladness[920] were fitter for thee; for what this garment signifies is, that thou wilt bear a son, and Eriu and Alba will be full of his teaching.’

The attendant woman[921] also saw a vision, viz., that the fowls of the air, and of the earth, as she thought, carried the bowels of Eithne throughout the regions of Eriu and Alba. [Eithne[922] herself, however, gave the interpretation of that vision; and what she then said is, ‘I shall bear a son,’ said she, ‘and his teaching shall extend throughout the regions of Eriu and Alba.’]

As it was[923] predicted by the patron saints[924] of Eriu, moreover, and as it was[923] seen in visions, so was Colum Cille born.

Gortan,[925] then, is the name of the place in which he was born. On the seventh of the ides of December, moreover, as regards the day of the solar month, he was born; on Thursday, as regards the day of the week.

Illustrious, indeed, was the boy born there—the son of the King of heaven and earth, viz., Colum Cille, son of Fedlimidh, son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban, son of Niall Naoighiallach. His mother, then, was of the _Corprige_[926] of Leinster, viz., Eithne ‘the noble,’[927] daughter of Dima son of Noe.

Immediately after his birth, moreover, he was taken in order that the illustrious priest Cruithnechan, son of Cellachan, should baptize him. And he (Cruithnechan) subsequently fostered[928] him, after the angel of God had told him to do so.

When the time, then, arrived to him that he should learn,[929] the cleric[930] went to a certain prophet who was in the country to ask him when it would be right for the boy to begin. As soon as the prophet observed the heavens,[931] what he said was,[932] ‘Write now for him his alphabet.’ It was then written in a cake; and how Colum Cille ate the cake was thus, viz.—the half of it at the east side of water,[933] and the other half at the west side of water. [The prophet[934] said, through the gift of prophecy, ‘Thus shall this boy’s land be, viz., the half of it to the east of the sea (_i.e._ in Alba), and the other half of it to the west of the sea, to wit, in Eriu.’]

It was not long after that until he and his guardian went to Brugach son of Dega, the bishop, to the Raths of Magh-enaig[935] in Tir-Enna. It was commanded to his guardian, the cleric,[936] to perform the office of priest in that place on the festival. But great shame seized him, so that he was unable to recite the psalm that fell[937] to him. That psalm, then, is ‘Misericordias.’[938] But the son of grace, Colum Cille, recited the psalm in the place[939] of his guardian, although he had not read but his alphabet before that; so that the names[940] of God and Colum Cille were magnified through that great miracle.

Another time he and his guardian[941] went to attend a sick man. As they were going through a wood, the cleric’s (Cruithnechan’s) foot slipped on the path,[942] so that he fell, and died[943] suddenly. He (Colum Cille) placed his cloak under the cleric’s head, thinking[944] that he was asleep, and began rehearsing[945] his lessons, so that some nuns heard his loud reading as far as their church. What the learned relate is that there was a mile and a half between them, and the sound of his voice used to be often heard that distance, ut dixit:—

The sound[946] of Colum Cille’s voice— Great its sweetness above all clerics— To the end of fifteen hundred paces, Though vast the distance, so far ’twas clear.

The nuns came afterwards, and found the cleric dead before them;[947] and they told him (Colum Cille) to resuscitate[948] the cleric for them. He went[949] forthwith to resuscitate[948] the cleric; and the cleric arose from death, at the word of Colum Cille, as if he had been asleep.

Colum Cille made an offering, after that, to the Lord of the elements, and solicited three requests from Him, viz., chastity, and wisdom, and pilgrimage. The three were fully given unto him.

He subsequently bade farewell to his guardian; and the guardian earnestly gave him permission[950] and a benison. Afterwards, he went to the illustrious bishop, viz., to Finden of Maghbile,[951] to learn knowledge. One time there Finden said that wine[952] was wanting from the offering. Colum Cille blessed the water, so that it was turned into wine, and put into the mass chalice. The name of God and Colum Cille was magnified by that miracle.

He afterwards bade fate well to Finden, and went to Master Gemman.[953] One time as he was learning[954] his lessons with Gemman, they saw a girl coming towards them, escaping before a certain murderer, until she fell in their presence, and the ruffian[955] killed her. Colum Cille laid[956] a word of malediction upon him, so that he died immediately.

He (Colum Cille) afterwards took leave of Gemman, and went to Finden of Cluain-Eraird.[957] He asked of Finden in what place he would make his bothy. Finden told him to make it at[958] the door of the church. He then made his bothy, and it was not at[958] the door of the church at that time. He said, moreover, that it would be the door of the city afterwards; and this thing was even fulfilled.

At supper-time[959] each man in turn of the apostles[960] used to grind his quern. An angel of the God of heaven, however, that used to grind in place of Colum Cille. That was the honour the Lord used to give to him, because of his nobility above all.

A vision appeared another time to Finden, viz., two moons ascended from Cluain-Eraird, to wit, a golden moon, and another, a silvery moon. [The golden moon went to the north of the island,[961] so that Eriu and Alba were illumined by it.] The silvery moon went and rested over[962] the Shannon, so that Eriu in the centre was illumined by it. Colum[963] Cille, moreover, with his grace, and with his good actions, and with the gold of his nobility and wisdom, was the golden moon. Ciaran, son of the carpenter,[964] with the splendour of his virtues and good actions, was the silver moon.

Colum Cille afterwards bade farewell to Finden, and went to Glaisnoiden,[965] for there were fifty persons learning in that place with Mobii, including Cainnech, and Comgall, and Ciaran. Their bothies, moreover, were at the west side of the water.[966]

One night there and the bell was struck for matins. Colum Cille went to the church. There was a great flood that night in the river. Colum Cille, nevertheless, went through it with his clothes on. ‘Bravely dost thou come there to-night, descendant of Niall,’ said Ciaran[967] and said Mobii. ‘God is able,’ said Colum Cille, ‘to ward off the labour from us.’ As they were coming out of the church, they saw the bothies at the east side of the water, in the vicinity of the church.

One time there a large church was built by Mobii, and the clerics were considering what each of them would like to have the church full of.[968] ‘I should like,’ said Ciaran, ‘its full of “sons of the church,” who frequent the canonical hours.’[969] ‘I should like,’ said Cainnech, ‘its full of books, to be used by “sons of life.”’ ‘I should like,’ said Comgall, ‘its full of sickness and diseases to be in my own body, to my subjugation and chastisement.’

Colum Cille, however, chose[970] its full of gold and silver, to make reliquaries and monasteries therewith. Mobii said that it should not be so; but that Colum Cille’s community would be richer than every community, both in[971] Eriu and Alba.

Mobii told his _protégés_ to leave the place in which they were, for that an unknown[972] plague would come there, viz., the _Buid Chonaill_;[973] and he further said to Colum Cille that he should not receive land until permitted by him (Mobii).

Each of them went his way afterwards.

Colum Cille proceeded to Cenel-Conaill. The way he went was across the river, the name of which is Biur.[974] There he said, ‘_Bir_ against _fochainne_,’[975] and the plague did not therefore reach beyond that. And this is still a lasting miracle, for every plague that is carried over it does not go beyond that, according to the ‘word’ of Colum Cille.

Colum Cille went afterwards to Daire,[976] viz., the royal _dun_ of Aedh, son of Ainmire. He was king of Eriu at that time.

The king offered that _dun_ to Colum Cille; and he refused it, because of Mobii’s command. As he was coming out of the _dun_, however, he met with two of Mobii’s people; and they had Mobii’s girdle for him, and permission for him to possess land, after the death of Mobii; ut dixit Colum Cille:—

Mobii’s girdle[977] Was not as rushes round hair;[978] It was not opened before satiety, Nor closed about a lie.

Colum Cille settled[979] after that in the fort of Aedh, and founded a church there, besides working many miracles in it.

[Colum[980] Cille burned the place, after receiving it from the king, with everything that was in it. ‘That is foolish,’ said the king, ‘for if you had not burned it, there would be no want of drink or food in it.’ ‘No one shall be a night fasting there against his will,’ said Colum Cille. But the fire spread to the extent that it was like to burn the whole wood,[981] until Colum Cille uttered[982] the _rann_, to protect the wood,[981] viz.—

_Dant[983] in duile geir._

And this is sung against every fire, and against every thunder, from that time to this. And if any one recites it at lying down and at getting up, it will protect him from lightning, and it will protect the nine he wishes _simul_.]

One time he sent his monks into the wood, to cut wattles,[984] to make a church for himself in Derry. Where the wattles were cut was in the land of a certain young man who lived contiguous to the _recles_.[985] It was annoying to him that the timber should be cut in his land without his own permission.

When Colum Cille, therefore, heard this thing, he said to his people: ‘Take him,’ said he, ‘the value of his timber of barley grain, and let him put it in the ground.’[986] It had then passed beyond the middle of summer. The grain was subsequently taken to the young man, and he put it in the ground; and it grew so that it was ripe about Lammas afterwards.

One time as he was in Derry a little child was brought to him to be baptized. There was no water then near him. But he made the sign of the cross over the rock that was before him, so that a fountain of water burst out of it, and the child was baptized from it afterwards.

Another time, also, he was in Derry, and he meditated going to Rome and to Jerusalem. He went another time from Derry to Tor-inis[987] of Martin, and brought away the gospel that had been on Martin’s bosom 100 years in the earth; and he left it in Derry.

Great were the prodigies and miracles, truly, God wrought for[988] Colum Cille in Derry. He (Colum Cille) loved that city very much, moreover; as he said,

The reason why I love Derry is, For its quietness, for its purity; For ’tis full of angels white, From one end to the other.

Colum Cille afterwards founded Rath-Both.[989] There he resuscitated the carpenter from death, after he had been drowned in the mill pool. In Rath-Both, also, a ploughshare was wanting to his people; but he blessed the hands of the little boy who was in his company, whose name was Fergna, so that he made the ploughshare; and he was skilful in smith-craft from that time forth, through his (Colum Cille’s) blessing.

He went afterwards on a visit of instruction[990] to the king of Tethba,[991] whose name was Aedh, son of Brenand, who gave him the place in which Dermach[992] is to-day, so that a _recles_ was built by him there.

In Dermach,[992] moreover, sour apples were given to him; but he blessed them, so that they were sweet. And it was from Dermach that a sword that had been blessed was sent by him to Colman Mòr,[993] son of Diarmait. The virtue[994] that attached to the sword was, that no one could die in its presence.

A certain man who was in sickness, therefore, requested it, and the sword was given to him, so that he had it. A year, moreover, the sword was in his possession, and he was neither dead nor alive during that time; but when the sword was afterwards taken away from him, he died immediately.

After that, therefore, he blessed Dermach, and left a custodian of his people there, viz., Cormac Ua Liathain.[995]

He went subsequently to Aedh Slane,[996] son of Diarmait. He arrived at the place in which to-day is Cenandas,[997] viz., it was the _dun_ of the king of Eriu then, the _dun_ of Diarmait mac Cerbaill. When Colum Cille tarried[998] at the door of the _dun_, he began predicting what would be the fate of the place[999] afterwards; and he said to Becc mac Dead,[1000] _i.e._ the royal prophet of Diarmait mac Cerbaill:—

Tell me, O Becc— Broad, bright-grassed Cenandas— What clerics shall possess it, What young men[1001] shall abandon it?

Ut dixit Becc:—

The clerics who are on its floor Sing the praises of a king’s son; Its young men[1001] depart from its threshold; A time shall be when ’twill be sure.[1002]

He afterwards marked out that city in the form in which it is, and blessed it all; and said that it should be the highest[1003] establishment[1004] he would have in the lands, although it was not in it his resurrection would be. And as he was uttering[1005] this prophecy he turned his face to the south-west, and laughed very much. Boithin asked him the cause of the joy. ‘A son[1006] of life,’ said Colum Cille, ‘that shall be born in one night[1006] to the Lord, in this solitude[1007] to the west;’ to wit, Grafann[1008] of Cill-Scire he predicted then, as it was fulfilled afterwards.

A great oak, moreover, under which Colum Cille was whilst he was in that place—that oak lived for long ages, until it was thrown down by a great storm of wind; when a certain man took some of its bark to tan his shoes. As soon, however, as he put on his shoes after tanning them, leprosy seized[1009] him from the sole of his foot to the top of his head.

Colum Cille went afterwards to Aedh Slane; and he uttered[1010] a prophecy unto him, and said to him that he would be long-lived if he were not fratricidal. If he committed fratricide, however, there would not be but four years of his age.[1011]

He (Colum Cille) then blessed a cloak[1012] for him (Aedh Slane), and said that he could not be wounded while that cloak would be about him. Aedh Slane, however, committed fratricide, against Colum Cille’s injunction, on Suibhne,[1013] son of Colman. At the end of four years afterwards he went on an expedition. He forgot his cloak. He was slain on that day.

Colum Cille founded many churches after that in Brega.[1014] He also left many patrons[1015] and reliquaries in them. He left Ossine, son of Cellach, in Cluain-mor of Fir-arda.[1016]

He went after that to Manister.[1017] It was there his crozier[1018] struck against the glass ladder by which Buite ascended to heaven, so that its sound was heard throughout the whole church; and he discovered the grave of Buite, and measured his church,[1019] as Buite himself predicted on the day of his death. For great was the number of churches he marked out, and of books he wrote, as the poet said:—

Three hundred he measured, without fault,[1020] Of churches fair,’tis true; And three hundred splendid,[1021] lasting books, Noble-bright he wrote.

Whatever book, moreover, his hand would write, how long soever it would be under water, not even one letter in it would be obliterated.[1022]

He founded a church in Rechra[1023] of the east of Brega, and left Deacon Colman in it.

One time they were in that church, viz., Colum Cille, and Comgall, and Cainnech. Comgall said that Colum Cille should make the offering of the body and blood of Christ in their presence. Colum Cille obeyed them[1024] regarding that. And it was then that Cainnech saw a fiery column over Colum Cille’s head, while he was engaged in the offering. Cainnech told this to Comgall, and both of them afterwards saw the column.

He founded a church in the place where Sord[1025] is to-day: and left an eminent man of his people there, to wit, Finan Lobur. And he left there the Gospel his own hand had written. He also marked out a well there, the name of which is _Sord_,[1026] _i.e._ pure, and blessed a cross; for it was a custom of his to make crosses and _polaires_,[1027] and book-satchels, and ecclesiastical implements, as the poet said[1028]:—

He blessed three hundred excellent[1029] crosses, Three hundred wells that abundant were; A hundred fine artistic _polaires_;[1027] With a hundred croziers, with a hundred satchels.

One day Colum Cille and Cainnech were on the sea-shore. There was a great storm on the sea. Cainnech said, ‘What sings the wave?’[1030] ‘Thy people,’ said Colum Cille, ‘that were in danger a while ago, on the sea, so that one of them died; and the Lord will bring him to us in the morning[1031] to-morrow, to this shore on which we are.’

[Colum[1032] Cille left a cleric of his people in Derry, to wit, Dacuilen, in his comarbship;[1033] viz., a cleric of his (Colum Cille’s) own tribe was he. And he left to the Cenel-Conaill[1034] the vice-abbotship of the same place, and the headship of its divines.

He[1035] went afterwards to Drumcliff,[1036] and blessed that place, and left a man of his people there, viz., Mothairen[1037] of Drumcliff; and he left the headship, and the patronage, and the comarbship, of that place with the Cenel-Conaill[1034] for ever.]

One time Brigid was going over the Curragh of the Liffey.[1038] And when the virgin saw the beautiful shamrock-flowery[1039] plain before her, what she said in her mind was, that if she had the ownership[1040] of the plain, she would present it to the Lord of the elements.

This thing, moreover, was manifested to Colum Cille, and he in his _recles_[1041] in Sord;[1042] and he said, with a loud voice, ‘What has occurred to the virgin saint is strange; for it is the same to her if the land she offered to Him belonged to the Lord,[1043] as if it rightfully belonged to herself.’

He went afterwards to the Leinstermen, with whom he left numerous churches which he had founded, including Druimmonach[1044] and Moen,[1045] and several other churches.

Colum Cille proceeded afterwards to Clonmacnois, with the hymn which he had composed for Ciaran; because he composed many eulogies of God’s people, as the poet said[1046]:—

Thrice fifty noble lays the apostle made, Whose miracles are more numerous than grass; Some in Latin, which were beguiling;[1047] Some in Gaelic, fair the tale.

It was in Cluain,[1048] also, the little boy went to him, and pulled a small hair[1049] out of his garment without being observed by him. God manifested this thing to him, however; and he predicted for the boy, that he would be a sage, and would be devout. He is Ernan[1050] of Cluain-Deochra[1051] to-day.

Colum Cille went after that into the territories of Connacht, on his visit of instruction, when he founded many churches and establishments in that province, including Es-mic-Eirc[1052] and Druim-cliabh.[1053] He left Mothoria[1054] in Druim-cliabh,[1053] and left with him a _bachall_[1055] which he himself had made.

Colum Cille went after that across Es-Ruaidh,[1056] and founded many churches amongst Conall[1057] and Eoghan.[1058]

He founded Torach,[1059] and left an eminent man of his people in it, to wit, Ernaine.

When Colum Cille, however, had made the circuit of all Eriu; and when he had sown faith and religion; when numerous multitudes had been baptized by him; when he had founded churches and establishments, and had left in them seniors,[1060] and reliquaries, and relics of martyrs, the determination that he had determined from the beginning of his life came into[1061] his mind—viz., to go in pilgrimage. He then meditated going,[1062] across the sea, to preach the word of God to the men of Alba, and to the Britons, and to the Saxons. He went, therefore, on a voyage.

His age was 42 when he went. He was 34 [years] in Alba. His entire age was 77. And the number that went with him,[1063] moreover, was 20 bishops, 40 priests, 30 deacons, and 50 students, ut dixit:—

His company was forty priests, Twenty bishops of noble worth; For the psalm-singing, without dispute, Thirty deacons, fifty youths.[1064]

He went afterwards, in good spirits,[1065] until he reached the place the name of which to-day is Hii-Coluim-Cille. On Quinguagesima night, moreover, he arrived.

Two bishops that were in the place[1066] came to receive his submission[1067] from him. But God manifested to Colum Cille that they were not in truth bishops; wherefore it was that they left the island to him,[1068] when he exposed[1069] their real history and career.

Colum Cille then said to his people, ‘It is good for us that our roots should go under the ground here.’ And he said to them, ‘It is permitted to you, that some one of you may go under the clay of this island, to consecrate it.’

Odran rose up obediently,[1070] and what he said was, ‘If you would accept me,’ said he, ‘I am ready for that.’

‘O Odran,’ said Colum Cille, ‘thou shalt have the reward therefore, viz., his prayer shall not be granted to any one at my grave,[1071] unless it is from thee[1072] he asks it first.’ Odran went then to heaven.

He (Colum Cille) afterward founded the church of Hii. He had thrice fifty persons in it[1073] for meditation,[1074] under monastic rule,[1075] and sixty for manual labour, as the poet said[1076]:—

Illustrious the soldiery[1077] that was in Hii, Thrice fifty in monastic rule; With their _Curachs_, along the sea, For rowing were threescore men.

When Colum Cille founded Hii, he went on his circuit of instruction among the men of Alba, and the Britons and Saxons, until he brought them to faith and religion, after he had wrought many miracles, and had awakened the dead from death.

There was a certain man in the country, moreover, to whom Colum Cille preached until he believed, with all his people, in the Lord. This thing filled the demon with envy;[1078] and he afflicted[1079] the son of that man with a heavy illness, so that he died thereof. The Gentiles were afterwards reproving Christ and Colum Cille, until he (C. C.) made earnest prayer to God, and awakened the dead boy from death.

As Colum Cille was on a certain day preaching to the multitudes, a certain man went from them across the river that was near them, in order that he might not be listening to the Word of God. The serpent seized him in the water, and killed him immediately. His body was brought into the presence of Colum Cille, who made a cross with his _bachall_ over his (the dead man’s) breast; and he arose forthwith.

A severe illness attacked[1080] his attendant, whose name was Diarmait, so that he died; but he (C. C.) prayed for him,[1081] and he was awakened from death. And not only this, but he (C. C.) entreated for him (Diarmait) an existence of seven years after himself.

One time when Cainnech came away from him, from Hii, he forgot his _bachall_ in the east.[1082] When he arrived hither,[1083] he found his _bachall_ before him here, and Colum Cille’s shirt along with it, viz., this was Cainnech’s share of his (C. C.’s) _rechull_;[1084] and the reason why he (C. C.) did this was because he knew that he was nigh unto his death.

A great blushing affected him[1085] one time in Hii. The cause of the blushing was demanded of him. ‘God’s fire from heaven,’ said he, ‘that has now come upon three cities in Italy, and has killed three thousand men, besides women, and boys, and girls.’

Another time he heard a shout in the port[1086] of Hii, whereupon he said:—

A rustic[1087] is in the port, With his _bachall_ in his hand, Who’ll visit my hornlet, And spill my ink.

He will then bend down,[1088] To visit my pax, And he’ll touch my hornlet, And will leave it empty.

Another time Baithin left Colum Cille cooking a beef for the labourers. There was an ex-warrior[1089] of the men of Eriu with them, viz., Maeluma, son of Baetan. Colum Cille asked him what was the extent of his appetite[1090] when he was a young warrior. Maeluma said, ‘I would consume a fat beef for my fill[1091] when I was a young warrior.’ Colum Cille commanded him that he should eat his fill. Maeluma did so for him, and ate the whole beef. Baithin came afterwards and asked if the food was ready. Colum Cille commanded Maeluma to collect all the bones of the beef in one place, and it was done so. Colum Cille then blessed the bones; and their own flesh was round them after that, and was taken to the workmen.

[When[1092] Colum Cille had been thirty years in Alba, great anxiety seized the men of Eriu to see him, and speak with him, before he died;[1093] and messengers went[1094] from them to meet him, that he might come to speak with them to the great convention of Druim-Ceta, that he might bless them in that place, men, boys, women, and that he might heal their diseases and pestilences. Or it is for three reasons Colum Cille came from the east[1095]—viz., to retain the poets in Eriu (for their exactions were great, to wit, thirty was the full company with an _ollamh_,[1096] and fifteen with an _anradh_[1097]); and to make peace between the men of Eriu and the men of Alba regarding the Dal-Riada (for there was[1098] a battle-meeting between the men of Eriu and Alba concerning them,[1099] if Colum Cille had not come from the east to pacify them[1100]); and to release Scannlan, son of Cennfaeladh[1101]—the son of the king of Ossory—whose father, moreover, had given him in hostageship into the hands of Aedh,[1102] son of Ainmire. And Colum Cille was surety to him that he would be released at the end of a year; and he was not released, and no hostage was accepted in his stead. And a wicker building[1103] was constructed round him, without any passage out of it save a way through which a modicum of salt food, and a small allowance[1104] of ale, used to be given to him. And fifty warriors were wont to be around the building[1103] outside, guarding him. And there were nine chains upon him in the building.[1103] And when he would see any one going past what he would say is, ‘A drink,’ says he.

And this thing was reported to Colum Cille, to Hii, and he wept greatly at what he had heard; and this it was that brought him quickly from the east.

It is how Colum Cille, moreover, came from the east, and a blackened cloth over his eyes, and his collar[1105] down over that, and the hood[1106] of the cape down over that again, in order that he might not see the men of Eriu, nor its women; because he prophesied it before, when he went to Alba at first, and he uttered the _rann_—

There is a grey eye That views Eriu backwards. It will not see henceforth[1107] The men of Eriu, or its women.

And it was to certify this the poet[1108] said—

Though mild Colum did come From the east in a boat,[1109] across the sea, He saw naught in noble Eriu, After coming into the great convention.

It was reported to Aedh, son of Ainmire, moreover, that Colum Cille had come to the convention, and he was greatly vexed at what he heard, and he said that whoever he might be from whom he (C. C.) would obtain respect in the assembly, it would be avenged[1110] on him.

They afterwards saw Colum Cille going towards the convention; and the assembly[1111] that was nearest to him was the assembly[1111] of Conall, son of Aedh, son of Ainmire; and he was a worthy son of Aedh.

As Conall saw them,[1112] therefore, he incited the rabble of the assembly[1111] against them, so that three score men[1113] of them were captured and wounded.[1114] Colum Cille inquired, ‘Who is he by whom this band has been launched at us?’ And it was told to him that it was by Conall. And Colum Cille cursed Conall, until thrice nine bells[1115] were rung against him,[1116] when some man said, ‘Conall gets bells (_cloga_),’ and it is from this that he is called ‘Conall Clogach.’[1117] And the cleric deprived him of king-ship,[1118] and of his reason and intellect in the space of time that he would be prostrating his body.

Colum Cille went afterwards to the assembly[1111] of Domhnall, son of Aedh, son of Ainmire. And Domhnall immediately rose up before him, and bade him welcome,[1119] and kissed his cheek, and put him in his own place. And the cleric left him many blessings,[1120] viz., that he should be fifty[1121] years in the sovereignty of Eria, and be battle-victorious during that time; and that every word he would say would be fulfilled by him; that he would be one year and a half in the illness of which he would die, and would receive the body of Christ every Sunday during that time.

It was told to the queen[1122] that her son[1123] was cursed, and the kingship [promised] to Domhnall. The queen said to her handmaid, ‘Go to Aedh, and say to him that if that crane-cleric[1124] finds respect with him, I shall not be peaceable towards him.’

This thing was reported to Colum Cille, and he granted[1125] to the queen and to her handmaid that they should be two cranes[1126] in Druim-Ceta,[1127] from that day to the day of judgment, ut poeta dixit:—

The queen’s anger grew therefrom— From Domhnall being in the kingship— The promise of kingship given to Domhnall, And her own son without land.

‘What crane-work[1128] is that thou dost?’ Said the queen, most wickedly. ‘I’ll not be in peace with Aedh, plainly, For showing thee respect, O Cleric.’

‘Thou hast leave to be a crane,’ Said the cleric furiously; ‘As just punishment to thy handmaid, She’ll be a crane along with thee.’

Aedh’s wife and her waiting-maid, Were turned into herons.[1129] They live still,[1130] and make complaint, The two old herons of Druim-Ceta.

And Colum Cille then said to Domhnall that they should both go to converse with Aedh, son of Ainmire. And Domhnall was much afraid to converse with the king. But Colum Cille said, ‘Be not much afraid, for the Holy Spirit shall be protecting thee against him.’ They went together to speak to the king.

Grievous fear seized the king afterwards [on seeing the cleric[1131]], because of the great miracle he had previously wrought.

The clerics came subsequently into the assembly. The king rose and bade them welcome.

‘Our demand must be granted,’ [said Colum Cille[1132]].

‘You shall get it truly,’ said the king.

‘The poets must be retained,’ said Colum Cille.

‘It shall not be done,’ said the king, ‘for their evils against us are great.’

‘Say not so,’ observed the cleric, ‘for the praises they will sing[1133] for thee shall be enduring, as the praises the poets sung for him are enduring for Cormac,[1134] grandson of Conn. And the treasures that were given for them were transitory, while the praises live after them.’

And the cleric composed this little ‘rhetoric,’[1135] viz.—

‘Cormac well broke battles,’ etc.

‘It is not I who will expel them,’ said Aedh. The poets were retained through this.

‘Release Scannlan,’[1136] said Colum Cille.

‘I shall not do so,’ answered the king, ‘until he dies in the hut in which he is.’

‘We will not pursue the subject further,’ said Colum Cille; ‘but if it be pleasing to God, may it be he that shall take off my shoes[1137] to-night, at matins, in whatsoever place I may be.’

Colum Cille went afterwards from the assembly, until he came to the Dubh-regles[1138] at Derry. It was not long after Colum Cille’s departure until a thunderbolt came into the convention, and they all turned their faces to the ground. Afterwards there came a bright cloud to Scannlan, to the place in which he was, and a voice in the cloud said to him, ‘Rise, O Scannlan, and leave thy chains and thy prison, and come forth, and put thy hand in mine.’

Scannlan came out, and the angel in front of him. The guards heard the noise of something passing by them; and what the guards said was, ‘Who is this going past us?’ ‘Scannlan,’ said the angel. ‘If it was he, you would not say so,’ answered they. They (Scannlan and his deliverer) went[1139] afterwards to Derry.

The time the Cleric (C. C.) about matins, was going westwards[1140] through the chancel-screen, it was Scannlan that assisted to take off his shoes. And what Colum Cille said is, ‘Who is this?’

‘Scannlan,’ answered he.

‘Hast any news?’ asked Colum Cille.

‘A drink,’ said Scannlan.

‘Hast brought us a blessing?’ asked Colum Cille.

‘A drink,’ said Scannlan.

‘Say how camest thou?’ said Colum Cille.

‘A drink,’ said Scannlan.

‘Delay in answering attend thy successors.’[1141] said Colum Cille.

‘Speak not so,’ said Scannlan. ‘Thou shalt always have their rents, and their tributes and customs.’

‘May bishops and kings be of thy race for ever,’ said Colum Cille. ‘Here is one drink for thee,’ said he, ‘to wit, a vessel of ale, containing enough for three.’[1142]

Scannlan then lifted the vessel between his two hands, and drank the contents in one drink. And he afterwards ate his meal, to wit, seven joints of old bacon, and ten wheaten cakes; after which he lay down, and was three days and three nights in one sleep. He then arose, and was conducted to Ossory, and the great _bachall_[1143] was sent with him. The day he arrived was the day his father, the king of Ossory, died[1144] through grief for him. And he subsequently assumed the kingship of Ossory, and granted a tribute from the Ossorians, every seventh year from that day, to Colum Cille.

And it is in this wise Scannlan was released.

The third cause[1145] was regarding the Dalriada. Colman, son of Comgellan, it was that delivered the decision, in place of[1146] Colum Cille, as Colum Cille himself prophesied when he came to the house of Comgellan, and found within only two young boys[1147] who were on the border of the fireplace. And the second boy looked over Colum Cille’s right shoulder; and it appeared to Colum Cille that the grace of the Holy Spirit was upon him. And Colum Cille afterwards called him, and took him in his arms,[1148] and composed a _rann_ for him:—

O honesty of the hound! O pure soul! Here’s a kiss for thee; deal thou a kiss to me.

Colum Cille blessed him after that, and left him the gift of wisdom, and told him that it was he who would give judgment between the men of Eriu and the men of Alba concerning the Dalriada. And this was verified. The judgment, moreover, is this, viz., their expedition, and their hosting, with the men of Eriu (for it is ‘hosting with territories’ always), and their rent[1149] and their tribute with the men of Alba.

Dallan afterwards came to converse with Colum Cille, when it was that he recited the preface.[1150] And Colum Cille said that he (Dallan) should not make it[1151] but at the time of his (Colum Cille’s) death; and that it was for one dead it was fitting. Colum Cille promised to Dallan the richness and products of the earth for this eulogy; and Dallan would not accept them, but Heaven for himself and for every one who would recite it, and would understand it between sense and sound.

‘How shall thy death be known, and thou in pilgrimage, and I in Eriu?’ asked Dallan. Colum Cille therefore gave him three signs as to the time he should make the eulogy. The first sign was, that it was the rider of a speckled steed who would announce the death of Colum Cille; and that the first word he would utter should be the beginning of the eulogy. And it was verified in ripe time, and was the wonderment of the island.[1152]]

One day in the month of May Colum Cille went to inquire after the ploughmen in the north of the island. He was consoling[1153] them and instructing them.

‘Good, then,’ said he; ‘about the Easter that went past in the month of April—it was then I should have liked to go to Heaven; but I would not wish grief or sadness to you after your labour; and therefore it is that I remained with you, protecting you, from Easter to Whitsuntide.’

When the monks heard these words they were very sad.

He turned his face westwards after that, and blessed the island, with its inhabitants, and he banished toads[1154] and snakes out of it.

When he had blessed the island, then he came subsequently to his _recles_; and it was not long after that until the end of the Sabbath and the beginning of Sunday arrived. And when he then raised up his eyes, a great blushing came upon his countenance and face; and those brethren[1155] saw indeed the angel of God, who remained over his head there.

He went afterwards to bless the _Sabhall_,[1156] and said to its attendant,[1157] viz., Diarmait, that he would go to Heaven on Sunday night.

The venerable senior, viz., Colum Cille, sat down afterwards on the margin of the road, for fatigue came upon him, though his journey was short. (His age at that time was 77 years.) Then came to him the _garran_[1158] that was wont to be with the monks in the island, and wept in the cleric’s bosom until he wet his clothes. The attendant,[1157] _i.e._ Diarmait, essayed to drive the garran away from him. ‘Let him alone, O’Diarmait,’ said Colum Cille, ‘until he has done enough of tears and sadness lamenting me.’

[Colum[1159] Cille, moreover, used to go to Heaven every Thursday whilst he was alive, when he wished.]

But it is excessive to reckon and relate the number of prodigies and miracles which God wrought in the lands for Colum Cille; because there is no one that could reckon them entirely unless his own angel, or the angel of Heaven’s God, should come to relate them. So that it is sufficient for us to give this much of them, by way of example.

[A certain[1160] bad, furious man wounded a monk of Colum Cille’s people; but he only cut the monk’s girdle, although the spear was sharp. Colum Cille cursed the Saxon, and he died immediately. Bishop [Aedan?] and Colman of Inish-bofinne[1161] were they whom Colum Cille left with the Saxons, preaching the word of God to them.

Colum Cille went afterwards upon a time to the king of the Picts, to Brudi, son of Maelchu, and the door of the fort was closed against him. But the iron locks of the place opened instantly through the prayers of Colum Cille. The son of the king, to wit, Maelchu, and his druid came after that, to contend with Colum Cille through paganism;[1162] and the king’s son and the druid along with him died forthwith through Colum Cille’s word. The names[1163] of God and Colum Cille were magnified thereby.]

There was not born of the Gaidhel, however, a being more illustrious, or more wise, or of better family, than Colum Cille. There came not of them any person who was more modest, more humble, or more lowly.

Great indeed was the humility of Colum Cille, for it was he himself that used to take their shoes off his monks, and that used to wash their feet for them. ’Tis he that used often to take his share of corn on his back to the mill, and that used to grind it and bring it home with him. ’Tis he that would not have[1164] linen or wool to his skin, that would not sleep until his side came in contact with the bare earth. Under his head there used not to be but a pillar-stone for a pillow, and he would even sleep only whilst his _protégé_[1165] Diarmait would be reciting three chapters of the ‘Beati.’ He would get up [immediately[1166]] after that, and would utter[1167] cries and lamentations, like unto a fond mother lamenting her only son. He would afterwards recite the ‘three fifties,’[1168] until morning, in the sand of the sea-shore, ut dixit:—

The three fifties, great the vigil; In the night great was the pain; In the sea,[1169] by the side of Alba, Before the sun would arise.

[When[1170] he would lie in the sand, moreover, and his garments round him, the impression of his ribs through them was plain, ut poeta dixit]:—

’Tis plain he’d lie down, greatest of sufferings, In the sand; the distress was great. The impression of his ribs, through his clothing, Was plain ’till the wind would blow it away.[1171]

This was his night-work. In the day following, however, he would frequent the canonical hours, and would offer the Body of Christ and His Blood; would preach the Gospel; would baptize, bless, and anoint; would cure lepers, and the blind and lame, and people suffering from every disease. He used to resuscitate the dead.

[And[1172] he used not drink ale, and used not eat meat, and used not eat savoury things,[1173] as Dallan Forguill said in the _Amra_:—

He drank not ale; he loved not satiety; He avoided flesh.

And he used to make two hundred genuflexions every day, ut Dallan dixit:—

He (kept) vigil[1174] whilst he was (in life).

And he had not a love of riches, as Dallan said:—

His sufficiency was little.

For _saith_ (sufficiency) is the name for _innmus_ (riches), ut poeta dixit:—

On Wednesday he went off, against orders, In the track of the fierce-avenging demon; On Wednesday greed for _sufficiency_ seized him,[1175] The Wednesday noble Christ was betrayed.

The three places, moreover, in which is the full habitation of Colum Cille are Hi, and Down, and Derry, ut Berchan dixit:—

His grace in Hii, without stain, And his soul in Derry; And his body under the flag-stone, Under which are Brigid and Patrick.

And it was to illustrate this the poet said:—

Hii, with the multitude of its relics, Of which Colum was a fair disciple.[1176] He went away from it at last, So that Down is his blessed church.[1177]

A hundred churches, ‘which the wave frequents,’[1178] is the number of churches he has on the margin of the sea. Or, perhaps, ‘one hundred churches, with the fulness[1179] of a wave.’ There was a mass chalice in every church, as the poet explains[1180]:—

The chess-board of Crimthann Nia-nair— A little boy could take it[1181] in his hand; The half of its party[1182] was of yellow gold, And its other half of findruine.[1183] One man alone of its party[1182] Would purchase six _cumhals_.[1184]]

When it came then to the last hours for Colum Cille, and when the bell was rung for matins on the night of Whitsunday, he went before the others to the church, and made genuflexions and earnest prayers at the altar. At that time an angelic brightness filled the church about him on every side, and the venerable patron then resigned his spirit to heaven, to the joy and gladness of the people of heaven in general. His body, moreover, is in the earth here, with honour and veneration from God and men, attended with virtues and miracles every day of them.[1185] And though great his honour hitherto, it will be greater in the assembly of judgment, when he will shine like the sun, through the incorruptibility of his body and soul. ’Tis then, moreover, this great glory and respect shall be given to him, in the union of the nine orders of heaven which cannot be surpassed; in the union of the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ; in the union of the divinity and humanity of the Son of God; in the union that is higher than every union; in the union of the noble, illustrious, holy, almighty Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

I implore the mercy of Almighty God, through the intercession of St. Colum Cille. May we all reach that union. May we deserve it. May we possess it in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

-----

Footnote 858:

Inheritance. _Athardu_; lit. ‘patrimony;’ from _athair_, ‘father.’

Footnote 859:

Narrative. _Coibige_ (here translated ‘narrative’) seems = _coimfige_, ‘weaving together,’ from _figim_, ‘I weave.’

Footnote 860:

In imposing. The MSS. have _do erail_, ‘to persuade.’

Footnote 861:

HISTORIA. Istoria, A. L. and L. B.

Footnote 862:

REPROMISSIONIS. Repromisionis, A. L. and L. B.

Footnote 863:

PRECIPITUR. Precipitum, L. B.; preceptum, A. L.

Footnote 864:

Counsel. _Comairle_, omitted from MSS., but the context seems to require it, and it has therefore been supplied in brackets.

Footnote 865:

The people. _Na dóine._ Om. A. L.

Footnote 866:

The inciting and inflaming. _Gresacht ⁊ adannad_, B. Lismore. A. L. and L. B. have _angresacht ⁊ anadannad nandoine_ (which literally means ‘their inciting and inflaming of the people’), an idiom of frequent occurrence in old Irish.

Footnote 867:

Their temporal goods. The Irish text is _fris na maithib aimserda imbit_; lit. ‘from the temporal goods in which they are wont to be.’

Footnote 868:

Suffered. The original is _fuaratar_, ‘received.’

Footnote 869:

Would experience. _Fogebed_; lit. ‘would receive.’

Footnote 870:

IMPLEVIT. Impleverit, L. B.

Footnote 871:

EXIIT. Exit, L. B.

Footnote 872:

Haran. Carran, L. B.

Footnote 873:

REPROMISSIONIS. Repromisionis, L. B.

Footnote 874:

Haran. Carran, L. B. The orig. of the clause within brackets is not in A. L. For _co Carran_ (to Haran), L. has _co rainic_, ‘until he reached.’

Footnote 875:

Because. _Uair_, A. L. Not in B. L. or L.

Footnote 876:

Abstains. _Etirscarann_, lit. ‘separates.’

Footnote 877:

Nor profit. _No tarbai._ Omitted in A. L.

Footnote 878:

Away from it. _Na h-ecmais_; lit. ‘in its absence.’

Footnote 879:

EXIVIT. Exisit, L. B.

Footnote 880:

EI. Ex, L. B.

Footnote 881:

As if he would abide. The orig. ⁊ _no aithebad_ means literally ‘_and that_ he would abide.’

Footnote 882:

Exercise. The orig. is _denam_, ‘doing.’

Footnote 883:

Laics and clerics. _Tuatha ⁊ eclaisi_; lit. ‘territories and churches;’ but in a secondary sense ‘church and state,’ or ‘laics and clerics.’

Footnote 884:

Through. _Ar_; lit. ‘for.’

Footnote 885:

Good-will. _Cainduthracht_; ‘bona voluntas.’ Compare _ar cainduthracht_ (gl. propter bonam voluntatem).—Zeuss’ _Gram. Celt._ 578.

Footnote 886:

Little or much. _Uathad sochaide._ These words also signify ‘few [or many];’ but it would seem from the context that they were intended to refer to the worldly substance abandoned, and are therefore translated in that sense.

Footnote 887:

PEREGRINI. Perigrini, L. B.

Footnote 888:

Seniors. _Na sruthi._ Comp. _inna sruthe_ (‘veterum’).—Goidilica, 1st ed. 25; _sruith athair_ (gl. patronus).—Nigra, _Reliq. Celt._, 33.

Footnote 889:

At the occurrence. _In ecmoing_, lit. ‘in the occurrence.’ Comp. _ecmaing_, ‘it chanced.’—_Leb na hUidre_, 98 b.; _ind aecmaingthech_ (gl. fortuitu).—Zeuss, ed. Ebel, 608.

Footnote 890:

PRESBYTER. Prespiter, L. B.

Footnote 891:

Inis-Gaidel. The Island of the Gaidel; by which the writer evidently meant Ireland.

Footnote 892:

The person. _In tii_; an emphatic form, very usual in Irish.

Footnote 893:

Son. The original of the clause within brackets is not in L. B. or B. Lismore.

Footnote 894:

Of the solar month. _Mis greine_; lit. ‘month of the sun.’

Footnote 895:

A few particulars. _Becan cumair_; lit. ‘a brief little.’

Footnote 896:

For ever. _Co sir_, L. B. _Tre biuthu sir_, ‘through life everlasting,’ A. L. and L.

Footnote 897:

Was he. The orig. is _atacomnaic_, which is explained by _comainm_, ‘appellation,’ in old Irish glossaries, and used in this sense in the Book of Leinster, fol. 200, a 1.

Footnote 898:

Family. The orig. of this clause is not in A. L.

Footnote 899:

Was offered. _Tarcus._ The text should probably be _taircfid_, ‘would be offered.’

Footnote 900:

Patron saints. _Sruthi._ See p. 473, note 888.

Footnote 901:

Lugbad. Louth, Co. Louth.

Footnote 902:

At the end. _I cind_; lit. ‘at the head,’ or immediately before.

Footnote 903:

Ut dixit. A. L. has _conad annsin do raid Mochta_, ‘when it was that Mochta said.’

Footnote 904:

With. _La_ (apud), A. L. and L. B.; _ic._ ‘at,’ _Lismore_.

Footnote 905:

Of the nations. _Nambitho_, A. L., L. B.; _nambidho_, _Lismore_.

Footnote 906:

Saint. _Naem._ Omitted in L. B. and L.

Footnote 907:

The head. _Cenn._ Omitted in A. L. and L. B.

Footnote 908:

_Rann._ _Rann_ properly means a stanza. The text should be _na ranna sa_ (these verses).

Footnote 909:

Beloved. The orig. of this line and the next are not in L. B.

Footnote 910:

With. _La_; lit. ‘apud,’ but in a secondary sense, ‘in the sight of.’

Footnote 911:

Brigid. The first letter of the name only is given in A. L. and L. B. The _Book of Lismore_ text has ‘Bec mac De;’ but according to the Irish Annals generally, Bec mac De did not ‘begin to prophesy’ before A.D. 545, more than 20 years after Colum Cille’s birth.

Footnote 912:

To observe him. _Rathugad._ In other words, to perceive his coming.

Footnote 913:

Ard-Sratha. Ardstraw, Co. Tyrone; anciently an episcopal see.

Footnote 914:

Buite. Founder of Monasterboice; who died on the night of Colum Cille’s birth.

Footnote 915:

Measure. _Tórindfess_; _i.e._ ‘that shall mark the limits of.’

Footnote 916:

Manifested. _Ro fiugrad_; lit. ‘was figured.’

Footnote 917:

Innsi-mod. The group of islands in Clew Bay, on the west coast of Mayo.

Footnote 918:

Caer-nam-brocc. Supposed to be Burghead, on the north-east coast of Scotland. _Adamnan_, 191, note e.

Footnote 919:

Of the world. _An domain._ Not in L. B. or _Lismore_.

Footnote 920:

Gladness. _⁊ forbailti_, for _⁊ forfailti_. Omitted in A. L.

Footnote 921:

Attendant woman, _ben imtha_. In the account of this vision in the Mart. Donegal, at June 9, the expression is _ben formaid ⁊ iom thnuith_, ‘a woman of jealousy and envy.’

Footnote 922:

Eithne. The original of this sentence is not in A. L.

Footnote 923:

It was. The original would also bear to be translated ‘he was.’

Footnote 924:

Patron Saints. _Sruthi._ See p. 473, note 888.

Footnote 925:

Gortan. This name signifies ‘a little field.’ It is now written ‘Gartan,’ and is the name of a townland and parish in the barony of Kilmacrenan, Co. Donegal.

Footnote 926:

_Corprige._ In Aengus’s Tract on the Mothers of Irish Saints, Eithne is said to have been of the _Corpraide_ of _Fanad_ (Co. Donegal). See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 164, note.

Footnote 927:

Noble. _Olmar_; lit. ‘very great.’

Footnote 928:

Fostered. _Rosail_; lit. ‘nursed him.’

Footnote 929:

Should learn. The literal translation of the Irish is, ‘when the time of learning came to him’ (Colum Cille).

Footnote 930:

Cleric. Cruithnechan.

Footnote 931:

Observed the heavens. _Ro fég nem_; lit. ‘looked (at) heaven.’

Footnote 932:

What he said was. _Ised atbert._ Not in A. L.

Footnote 933:

Water. The words _fri usci anair_, literally translated, would be ‘against (the) water, from the east;’ water being put for ‘river.’

Footnote 934:

The original of this sentence is not in A. L.

Footnote 935:

Raths of Magh-enaig. Now Raymoghy, barony of Raphoe, Co. Donegal.

Footnote 936:

Cleric. Cruithnechan.

Footnote 937:

Fell. _Tanic_; lit. ‘came.’

Footnote 938:

‘Misericordias.’ The 100th Psalm.

Footnote 939:

In the place. _Do raith_; lit. ‘for the good,’ but idiomatically signifying ‘in place of,’ or ‘for the sake of.’

Footnote 940:

Names. _Ainm_, ‘name,’ in the original text.

Footnote 941:

And his guardian. _⁊ a aiti_; om. in L. B.

Footnote 942:

On the path. _Forsin conair._ L. reads _don carraic_, ‘from off the rock.’

Footnote 943:

Fell, and died. L. B. has merely _conepil de_, ‘died thereof.’

Footnote 944:

Thinking. _Andar leis_, ‘it seemed to him,’ L. B., A. L., and L. have _ar ni fhitir nach ina chotlud bói_; ‘for he knew not that he was not asleep.’

Footnote 945:

Rehearsing. _Mebrugud_; lit. ‘remembering.’

Footnote 946:

Sound. This stanza, apparently quoted from the _Amra Choluim Cille_, a very ancient composition, is not in L.

Footnote 947:

Before them. _Ar a cind_; lit. ‘on their head,’ or ‘ahead of them;’ _i.e._ when they arrived at the place.

Footnote 948:

Resuscitate. _Duscad_; lit. ‘to awaken.’

Footnote 949:

Went. The phraseology of this clause in A. L. and L. is (translated), ‘he went to the cleric, to resuscitate him.’

Footnote 950:

Permission. _Cet_, L. B. A. L. and L. have _deonughad_, which means the same thing.

Footnote 951:

Magh-bile. Movilla, in the Co. Down.

Footnote 952:

Wine. _Finbairgen_; lit. ‘wine-bread,’ A. L. and L. B. L. has _fin ⁊ bairgen_, ‘wine and bread,’ which seems more correct.

Footnote 953:

Master Gemman. Of this man little or nothing is known. The name is written ‘German’ in many places in the Book of Lismore. But see Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 274, Notes.

Footnote 954:

Learning. _Ic denam_; lit. ‘doing.’

Footnote 955:

Ruffian. _In duidli._ The word _duidli_ is not found in any Irish Dictionary or Glossary; and the meaning here assigned to it is only conjectural. It seems to be the word rendered by ‘persecutor,’ in Colgan’s Third Life of St. Colum Cille (_Tr. Thaum._, p. 333).

Footnote 956:

Laid. _Ro fuirim_; lit. placed; apparently related to Lat. formo, formare.

Footnote 957:

Cluain-Eraird. Clonard, Co. Meath.

Footnote 958:

At. In the orig. the word is _in_, which in form and meaning is the same as the Eng. prepos. ‘in.’ But the sense in which it is used above is correctly represented by ‘at.’

Footnote 959:

Supper-time. _Feis aidche_; lit. ‘night-feast.’

Footnote 960:

Apostles. Finden’s disciples are meant.

Footnote 961:

Island; _i.e._ Ireland. The orig. of this sentence is not in A. L.

Footnote 962:

Rested over. The orig. has _rogab imon Sinaind_, which would actually mean ‘took up about the Shannon.’

Footnote 963:

Colum. This sentence is fuller in A. L. than in L. and L. B., which have merely the clause, ‘with the gold of his nobility and wisdom.’

Footnote 964:

Son of the carpenter. _Mac in t-sair_; om. in A. L. and L. St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois, on the Shannon, is the person meant.

Footnote 965:

_Glaisnoiden._ Glasnevin, near Dublin.

Footnote 966:

Water. The river at Glasnevin. _Fri usci aniar_, translated above ‘at the west side of the water,’ literally means ‘towards the water from the west.’

Footnote 967:

Said Ciaran. _Ar Ciaran._ Not in L. B. or L.

Footnote 968:

Full of. The expression in the orig., literally translated, is ‘what full each of them would like to have in the church.’

Footnote 969:

Canonical hours. _Na trath._ _Trath_ properly signifies ‘time,’ or ‘season;’ but in ecclesiastical tracts it is used to express the canonical hours.

Footnote 970:

Chose. _Do rega._ The text in A. L. is _robad maith leam fain ar C. C._, ‘I should like myself,’ said C. C., etc.

Footnote 971:

Both in. _Etir_; lit. ‘between’ (= Lat. inter).

Footnote 972:

Unknown. _Anaichnid_; _i.e._ ‘unprecedented,’ in a secondary sense.

Footnote 973:

_Buidhe Chonaill._ See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 182, note a, for an account of this plague, which was also called _Crom Chonaill_. The first appearance of the plague occurred in a.d. 550, according to Tighernach’s Annals and the _Chronicon Scotorum_. Dr. Todd supposed that it was called _Buidhe Chonaill_, from some eminent person named Conall, who died of it, but of whose memory no other record now remains.—(_Obits and Martyrology of Christ Church_, pref. p. lxxv.) But the old form of the name being _Buidhe Chonnaill_, it is more likely that it was derived from _Connall_ (glossed ‘stipula’ in the MS. quoted in Nigra’s _Reliq. Celt._, p. 38); and that the plague was so called from the hue (_Buide Chonnaill_, ‘straw-yellow’) which its victims exhibited.

Footnote 974:

Biur. Dr. Reeves states (_Adamnan_, p. 52, note d) that is, the river in Tyrone, now called the Moyola, which flows into the N.-W. arm of Lough Neagh.

Footnote 975:

‘_Bir_ against _fochainne_.’ There is apparently a play on words here. _Fochainne_ is the Irish name of the river now called the Faughan, which rises somewhat to the N.-W. of the Moyola, and flows into Lough Foyle. The expression might also signify ‘_Bir_ against “diseases”’ (_fochainne_; lit. ‘_causes_’).

Footnote 976:

Daire. Derry. Anciently _Daire-Calgaig_, ‘Calgach’s oak-wood.’

Footnote 977:

Girdle. These words should be repeated, to complete the line.

Footnote 978:

Hair. _Loa._ The orig. is _niptar simne imm loa_; lit. ‘they were not rushes round hair;’ _i.e._ the girdle was not soft as rushes round Mobii’s hair cloak.

Footnote 979:

Settled. _Gais_, A. L. and L. B.; _gabais_, Lismore. _Gabais_ properly means took, received, occupied.

Footnote 980:

Colum. This paragraph is translated from A. L., the corresponding original being omitted in L. B. and L.

Footnote 981:

Wood. _Daire._ The orig. name of Derry (or Londonderry) was _daire Calgaig_, the ‘wood of Calgach,’ or the ‘oak-wood of Calgach.’ Adamnan Latinises _daire_ by ‘roboretum’ (Reeves’s ed., pp. 19, 160), and the contemporary glosses quoted by Zeuss (_Gram. Celt. 8_) gives it the same meaning; in later times the word was used to express any kind of wood. In the _Book of Fermoy_, for instance, we find _itir daire ocus maigi ocus atha ocus line_, ‘between _woods_ and plains, and fords and pools’ (fol. 24, a 1).

Footnote 982:

Uttered. _Conderna_, ‘until he made.’

Footnote 983:

_Dant._ This line is very obscure in A. L.; and the reading here is unreliable. A translation has not therefore been attempted.

Footnote 984:

Wattles. _Coelach._ Wattles, twigs, or osiers; from _coel_, ‘slender.’ This is curious, as showing the material used in building churches at the time.

Footnote 985:

_Recles._ Thus in L. B. But A. L. and L. read _eclais_, the church.

Footnote 986:

In the ground. _Isin talam_, L. B. A. L. has _isin inad ar boinged an fidh_, ‘in the place where the wood was cut.’

Footnote 987:

Tor-inis. Tours, in France. The form of the name in the text, Tor-inis, would in Irish signify ‘tower-island’ (from _tor_, a tower, and _inis_, an island); but this form is probably an attempt of the scribe or translator to represent Turonensis, the Latin for Tours.

Footnote 988:

For. The orig. has _for_ (‘upon’).

Footnote 989:

Rath-Both. Raphoe, Co. Donegal.

Footnote 990:

Visit of instruction. _Cuairt procepta_ (‘circuitus præcepti’). This corrupt Irish form of the Lat. præceptum (sometimes written _procecht_) is also used to express ‘preaching.’

Footnote 991:

Tethba. Teffia; the ancient name of a large territory, including part of the present counties of King’s, Westmeath, and Longford.

Footnote 992:

_Dermach._ Durrow, barony of Ballycowan, King’s County.

Footnote 993:

Colman Mòr. The death of this man is entered in the _Chron. Scotorum_ at A.D. 553.

Footnote 994:

Virtue. The literal translation of the orig. is ‘the luck that was on the sword.’

Footnote 995:

Cormac Ua Liathain. See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 166, note a.

Footnote 996:

Aedh Slane (pron. Slaw-ney). King of Ireland, 592-604.

Footnote 997:

Cenandas. Kells, Co. Meath. The oldest written form of the name is Cennannas (_Leb. na hUidhre_, 58^{_a_}). In the _Book of Leinster_ it is written _cenn-arus_, ‘head abode;’ from which the succeeding changes seem to have been to _cenn-lis_ (‘head fort’) and then to Ken-lis, and finally to Kells.

Footnote 998:

Tarried. _Ro fuirged._ This seems the 3 sg. pass. form of the verb _fuirech_, to delay (_cid arid fuirig_, gl. quid detineat, Zeuss,^2 458), and should therefore probably be translated ‘was delayed.’

Footnote 999:

The fate of the place. The orig. is _don baile_; lit. ‘to (or for) the place.’

Footnote 1000:

Becc mac Dead, A. L. and L. B. Properly Becc mac De, as in L.

Footnote 1001:

Young men. _Oicc_, pl. of _óc_, ‘young,’ is also used to express young warriors.

Footnote 1002:

Sure. _Inill_, gl. ‘fidus’(Cormac’s Glossary, Stokes’ ed., p. 77). The prophet meant that a time would come when the statements contained in the three first lines could be spoken in the present tense.

Footnote 1003:

Highest. _Ardi_, superl. of _ard_, ‘high;’ but in a secondary sense ‘important.’

Footnote 1004:

Establishment. _Congbail_, a residence or habitation, and figuratively a church or monastic establishment.

Footnote 1005:

Uttering. _Oc denam_; lit. ‘doing’ or ‘making.’

Footnote 1006:

A son ... in one night. The transcriber seems to have blundered here, for there would be no great wonder in a boy being born ‘in one night’ (_in oen oidche_). He was probably misled by the shape of the siglum for _id est_ (.1.) before the words _mac bethad_ (which looks, in the codices A. L. and L. B., very like the siglum for fifty [.l.]); and therefore, thinking that ‘fifty sons’ were meant, added _in oen oidche_, ‘in one night,’ to magnify the prodigy.

Footnote 1007:

Solitude. _Dimorach_, apparently for _diamarach_, or _diomarach_ (as it is sometimes written), a n. subst. derived from _diamair_, ‘secret,’ ‘lonely.’ The name is still preserved in the form ‘Diamor,’ the name of a place about ten miles to the west of Kells, and very near Kilskeery (Cill-Scire).—See Joyce’s _Irish Names of Places_, 2d series, p. 454.

Footnote 1008:

_Grafann._ There is no saint of this name in the Calendar. But the Four Masters, at A.D. 745, record the death of _Dubhdaleithe na graiffne_ (‘D. of the writing’) abbot of Cill-Scire (Kilskeery, Co. Meath), evidently the person referred to, as _na graifne_ is the gen. sing. of _grafann_, which means ‘writing’ (from _graib_, or _graif_ = graphium; Reeves’s _Adamnan_, 205, note a). And Dubhdaleithe might well have been called _Grafann_, as he is supposed to have been the author of a chronicle called the Book of Dubhdaleithe, quoted in the Annals of Ulster.

Footnote 1009:

Seized. _Ro len_; lit. ‘followed.’

Footnote 1010:

Uttered. _Conderna_; lit. ‘made.’

Footnote 1011:

Of his age. In other words, he would only live four years longer.

Footnote 1012:

Cloak. _Cochall_ = Lat. Cucullus. In ecclesiastical phraseology, a cowl; but in a general sense, a cloak, or outer garment.

Footnote 1013:

Suibhne. The son of Aedh Slane’s brother Colman Bec. The murder of a tribesman was regarded as fratricide under the old Irish legal system.

Footnote 1014:

Brega. The plain of East Meath.

Footnote 1015:

Patrons. _Suithi._ See p. 473, n. 888.

Footnote 1016:

Fir-arda. Now the barony of Ferard, Co. Louth, in which is the parish of Clonmore.

Footnote 1017:

Manister. ‘The Monastery;’ now Monasterboice, Co. Louth.

Footnote 1018:

Crozier. _Bachall_ = baculus.

Footnote 1019:

Church. _Cill_ = cella. In the orig. of the translation above given (p. 476) of St. Buite’s prophecy regarding Colum Cille, the corresponding word is _relicc_, there translated ‘cemetery.’ This clause is imperfectly given in A. L.

Footnote 1020:

Without fault. _Cen mannair._ ‘Without injury’ would probably be more correct. Compare _na mandair in lin_; ‘don’t injure the net,’ _Leb. na hUidre_, 26 b.

Footnote 1021:

Splendid. _Buadach_; lit. ‘victorious;’ an adj. from _buaid_, gl. Victoria.—Zeuss, 27.

Footnote 1022:

Obliterated. _Nis baithed_; lit. ‘it would not be drowned.’

Footnote 1023:

Rechra. Lambay Island. Traces of the ancient name _Rechra_ (gen. _Rechrainn_) are preserved in that of _Portrane_ (_Port-Rechrainn_) or the ‘landing place of Rechra,’ on the coast of Dublin, opposite Lambay.

Footnote 1024:

Obeyed them. _Doroine C. C. umaloit doib_; lit. ‘C. C. did humility to them.’

Footnote 1025:

Sord. Swords, Co. Dublin.

Footnote 1026:

Sord. Soid, L. B.

Footnote 1027:

_Polaires._ The actual signification of the Irish word _polaire_ is not quite clear. In some old Glossaries it is explained as a _tiag lebar_ (‘book-satchel;’ _tiag_ = _theca_). But in _Lebor na hUidre_ it seems used in a different sense, as in the sentence _sood a polaire ina etun isse comartha bias fair_; ‘the change of his _polaire_ in his forehead is the sign he (Antichrist) shall have’ (p. 18). Here the writer would seem to have in mind the _signa_ mentioned in Apocal. chap. vii. In O’Clery’s Glossary, moreover, it is explained as _comardha_, ‘a sign.’ The word _polaire_ is translated ‘cases’ in Reeves’s Adamnan, p. 115, note c. Colgan has rendered it in his edition of the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, under the form _pallaire_, by tabulæ: ‘tabulis in quibus scribere solebat, vulgo _pallaire_ appellatis.’—_Tr. Thaum._, pp. 123, 249. But the Irish _Tripartite_ has no mention of this. _Pollaire_ was apparently some kind of receptacle for books, perhaps a case for a copy of the Epistles of St. Paul, whose name is always written _Pol_ in Irish.

Footnote 1028:

Said. Ut dixit, L. B. and _Lismore_. Ut _dubairt an file_, A. L.

Footnote 1029:

Excellent. _Buadach_, an adj. derived from _buaid_, ‘victoria,’ ‘palma.’ (Cf. _ani atreba buaid_, gl. palmarium.—Zeuss, 262.)

Footnote 1030:

Wave. This would remind one of little Dombey’s inquiry of his sister, ‘What are the wild waves saying?’

Footnote 1031:

The morning. The orig. is _isin matainse_, ‘in this morning.’

Footnote 1032:

Colum. This parag. is only found in A. L.

Footnote 1033:

Comarbship. _Comarbus_, _i.e._ cohæreditas, succession. See Zeuss, 7, 8.

Footnote 1034:

Cenel-Conaill. The descendants of Conall Gulban (son of Nial Naoighiallach) from whom Colum Cille was descended in the third generation.

Footnote 1035:

He. This parag. is also found only in A. L.

Footnote 1036:

Drumcliff. In the barony of Carbury, Co. Sligo.

Footnote 1037:

Mothairen. This saint is mentioned in the Martyrologies of Tallaght and Donegal at the 9th of June; but in the notes to the Festology of Aengus he is identified with a St. Torannan, whose festival is entered under June 12th.

Footnote 1038:

Curragh of the Liffey. Now the Curragh of Kildare. It is worthy of note, that whilst the name of the plain (Lifè, or Magh-Lifè), of which the Curragh formed a part, has been lost as regards the plain, it should still be preserved in that of the river that flowed through it, the _abhain-Lifè_, or river of the Liffey.

Footnote 1039:

Shamrock-flowery. _Scoth-semrach._ _Scoth_ signifies a flower; and _semrach_ is an adj. derived from _semar_, trefoil. The word ‘shamrock’ seems a dimin. of _semar_ or _semmor_, as it is written in the _Book of Leinster_, 112 b. i. (old pagination).

Footnote 1040:

Ownership. _Comus_; lit. ‘power.’

Footnote 1041:

_Recles._ Put here for ‘church.’

Footnote 1042:

Sord. Swords, Co. Dublin.

Footnote 1043:

To the Lord. The construction of this clause in the orig. texts is rather rude; but it is better in _Lismore_ than in A. L. and L. B.

Footnote 1044:

Druim-monach. This church is not in the list of Columban foundations given in Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 276 sq.

Footnote 1045:

Moen. Now Moone, in the parish of the same name, Co. Kildare.

Footnote 1046:

As the poet said. _Amaildoraidh an fili_, A. L. and _Lismore_. L. B. has merely ‘ut dixit.’

Footnote 1047:

Beguiling. _Saebhail._ The word _saeb_, from which is derived _saebhail_, properly means ‘false;’ but the verb _saebaim_ is used to signify, ‘I coax, beguile, or seduce.’ See O’Donovan’s Supplement to O’Reilly, v. _saebhaim_. This quatrain is rudely written in the three texts.

Footnote 1048:

Cluain; _i.e._ Clonmacnois.

Footnote 1049:

Hair. _Brodirne._ It seems to be the word Latinised ‘fimbria’ by Adamnan (Reeves’s ed. p. 25). But it is certainly used in the sense of a ‘hair,’ or ‘thread,’ in the Irish Trip. Life of St. Patrick. _Fer cech broithirne fil fort chasail_, ‘a man for every hair that is in thy _casula_’ (p. 67, O’Curry’s copy, R. I. Acad.).

Footnote 1050:

Ernan. Otherwise called Moernoc, and Mernoc. See Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 25, note i.

Footnote 1051:

Cluain-Deochra. In O’Clery’s Irish Calendar, at 11th January, this place is stated to be in the Co. Longford.

Footnote 1052:

Es-mic-Eirc. The ‘cataract of Erc’s son.’ Afterwards called _Es-ui-Floinn_, and now written Assylin. It is situated on the river Boyle, near the town of Boyle, Co. Roscommon.

Footnote 1053:

Druim-cliabh. Drumcliff, Co. Sligo.

Footnote 1054:

Mothoria. This name is written Mothairen, _supra_, p. 489.

Footnote 1055:

_Bachall_ = Lat. baculus, a crozier or pastoral staff.

Footnote 1056:

Es-Ruaidh. Properly Es-Aedha-Ruaidh, or the ‘cataract of Aedh Ruadh’ (Aedus Rufus), a king of Ireland said to have been drowned therein, A.M. 4518. Now Assaroe, or the Salmon Leap, on the river Erne, at Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal.

Footnote 1057:

Conall. Put for Cinel-Conaill, or the descendants of Conall, who inhabited Tirconnell (or Donegal County, as it is now called).

Footnote 1058:

Eoghan. In this case also, the name of the ancestor is put for the tribe-name of his descendants, the Cinel-Eoghain, whose territory was subsequently called Tir-Eoghain (Tyrone).

Footnote 1059:

Torach. Tory (or Torry) Island, off the N. coast of Donegal.

Footnote 1060:

Seniors. _Sruthi._ See p. 473, note 888.

Footnote 1061:

Into. _For_; lit. ‘upon,’ MSS.

Footnote 1062:

He then meditated going. The orig. of this clause is not in A. L.

Footnote 1063:

That went with him. The orig. is _do cuaid_; lit. ‘he went.’

Footnote 1064:

Youths. _Macc_; lit. ‘sons.’ This quatrain is undoubtedly ancient, for it appears as a marginal note in the hand of the scribe of _Lebor na hUidre_ (copied circa 1104), in the top marg. of that MS., p. 5.

Footnote 1065:

In good spirits. _Fo somenmain_ (lit. ‘under good spirits’), A. L. and L. B. _Fo seol soinmech_, ‘under prosperous sail,’ _Lismore_.

Footnote 1066:

Place. _Tir_ = terra, MSS.

Footnote 1067:

Submission. _Do gabail aláma_; lit. ‘to take his hand.’

Footnote 1068:

To him. _Lais_; lit. ‘with him.’

Footnote 1069:

Exposed. _Roindis forru_; lit. ‘told on them.’

Footnote 1070:

Obediently. The texts have _erlattad_, which is a substantive, signifying obedience, or readiness to obey.

Footnote 1071:

Grave. _Lige_ (glossed ‘torus,’ Zeuss, 45); but frequently used in old Irish to signify ‘a grave,’ or ‘tomb;’. _i.e._ the last ‘bed’ (_lectus_) or resting-place.

Footnote 1072:

From thee. _Fortsa_; lit. ‘on thee.’

Footnote 1073:

In it. _Inti_, A. L. and L. B.; _in hi_ (in Hi), _Lismore_.

Footnote 1074:

For meditation. _Ri teoir._ The word _teoir_ is explained in an old MS. thus:—_ón ni is_ teorica vita .i. _beta theoir imcisnech_ .i. nech _is in eclais og urnaithi no a menma an Dia do grés_; ‘from the thing that is _theorica vita_, viz., a life of watchful contemplation; _i.e._ a person who is wont to be in a church praying, or his mind always intent on God.’ MS. Egerton, 88, Brit. Mus.

Footnote 1075:

Under monastic rule. _Im manchaine_; lit. ‘in monkship.’ _Manchaine_ (deriv. from _manach_ = monachus) also means the duties or services rendered by monks.

Footnote 1076:

As the poet said. _Amal adubairt in file_, _Lismore_. A. L. and L. B. have merely ut dixit.

Footnote 1077:

Soldiery. _Ocbad_, properly youths.

Footnote 1078:

Filled the Demon with envy. The orig., literally translated, would be ‘this thing was envy with the Demon.’ (_Ba format la demun inni sin._)

Footnote 1079:

Afflicted. _Cor ben_; lit. ‘and he struck.’

Footnote 1080:

Attacked. _Tanic da_; lit. ‘came to.’

Footnote 1081:

Prayed for him. _Condernasom ernaigti leis_; lit. ‘and he made prayers with him.’

Footnote 1082:

In the east. _Tair._ As this is the reading in A. L., it would seem that the narrative in that MS. was compiled in Ireland.

Footnote 1083:

Hither. _Ille_, L. B. and L. _Anair_, ‘from the east,’ A. L.

Footnote 1084:

_Rechull._ Thus in A. L. and L. B. _Lismore_ has _rachall_, which is explained ‘winding-sheet’ in O’Reilly’s _Irish Dictionary_. The word _rechull_ is of rare occurrence, and seems here used to express ‘bequest.’ In an old Irish Glossary compiled in the year 1653, the nom. form _recholl_ occurs, and is explained _dligeadh easbuic_, or ‘bishop’s dues.’

Footnote 1085:

Affected him. _Tanic dosum_; lit. ‘came (or happened) to him.’ ‘Miro superfusam rubore’ are Adamnan’s words. (Lib. i. cap. 28.)

Footnote 1086:

Port. The Irish word _port_ has many meanings. It signifies not only a port or harbour, but also a bank, shore, house, place of safety, or fortified place. The reason it has been translated ‘port’ above, is because of its occurrence in connection with the preposition _i_ (in).

Footnote 1087:

Rustic. The actual meaning of the word _bachlach_ is shown in a marg. entry in the _Book of Fenagh_ (ed. Kelly, Dublin, p. 102), where _meic na m-bachlach_ is translated ‘rusticorum proles.’

Footnote 1088:

Bend down. _Toirnfid_, first fut. sg. indic. of _toirned_, ‘to lower.’ Cf. _intan no toirned a laimh_, ‘when she would lower her hand,’ used in contrast to _in tan no tógbad a laimh_, ‘when she would raise her hand.’—_Bruidhen Da Choga_, MS. H. 3, 18, Trin. Coll. Dublin.

Footnote 1089:

Ex-warrior. _Athlaech_, or _athlaech_; _ath_ being here used as a particle to express privation, and _laech_ signifying warrior. In the word _athgabail_, ‘re-taking,’ _ath_ has a different sense.

Footnote 1090:

Of his appetite. _Loingthe_, gen. sg. of _longad_, ‘eating.’

Footnote 1091:

Fill. _Sáith_, lit. ‘satiety.’

Footnote 1092:

When. The narrative from this down to the bracket on p. 502 is taken from the copy of the _Amra Choluim Chille_, or Elegy of Colum Cille, contained in the MS. so often quoted as A. L. in the notes to this translation. The text of this MS. is not as full as that of the preface to the copy of the _Amra_, in the _Leabar Breac_, or of that in the _Yellow Book of Lecan_, in both of which an account of the Convention of Druim-ceta is contained. But as far as it goes, A. L. agrees pretty closely with the other texts. The preface to the copy of the _Amra_, contained in _Lebor na hUidre_, the oldest text of the composition we possess, differs in arrangement from the three mentioned; but the facts related in it are substantially the same as those given in the others.

Footnote 1093:

Before he died. _Re n-dola ar cel_; lit. ‘before going to heaven.’

Footnote 1094:

Messengers went. The orig. is _do cuas_; lit. ‘there went.’

Footnote 1095:

From the east. See notes, p. 493, _supra_.

Footnote 1096:

_Ollamh_ (pron. _ollave_) was the title of a chief poet.

Footnote 1097:

_Anradh_, or _anrúth_, is explained in Cormac’s Glossary as ‘nomen secundi gradus poetarum.’

Footnote 1098:

There was. _Ro bai._ The translation is literal; but the real meaning is, ‘there would have been.’

Footnote 1099:

Them; _i.e._ the Dal-Riada of Scotland.

Footnote 1100:

To pacify them; _i.e._ to make peace between the men of Eriu and the men of Alba.

Footnote 1101:

Cennfaeladh. Adamnan calls the father ‘Colman’ (lib. i. cap. 11). But the Irish Annals, with which agree the Irish Pedigrees, say ‘Cennfaeladh.’ The death of a Scannlan Mór, son of Cennfaeladh, chief of Ossory, is recorded by the annalist Tighernach under A.D. 643. But the learned editor of _Adamnan_ thinks the interval between the Convention of Druim-ceta (_circa_ 580) and that date too long to harmonise with the statements regarding Scannlan, ‘son of Colman,’ in Adamnan’s account. (Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 39, note.) Scannlan was a young man, however, when detained in prison by King Aedh (580), and might have really lived down to 640.

Footnote 1102:

Aedh. This Aedh is stated to have reigned as monarch of Ireland from A.D. 568 to 594.

Footnote 1103:

Building. _Cro_; lit. a ‘sty,’ ‘pen,’ or ‘hut.’

Footnote 1104:

Small allowance. _Teirci_; lit. ‘scarcity.’

Footnote 1105:

Collar. _Culpait._ The etymology of this word is given in Cormac’s Glossary, as _cail-fuit_; _cail_, ‘a defence;’ and _fuit_, ‘cold.’ Duald mac Firbis explains it by _coiléir_, ‘collar.’ See Stokes’s _Cormac_, p. 33.

Footnote 1106:

Hood. _Att_; properly _at_, from Engl. ‘hat,’ as hood is from Anglo-Sax. _hod_, Germ. _hut_. Comp. _atcluig_ (glossed ‘galea’); lit. ‘skull-hat,’ or helmet, and _at anach_, (gl. ‘caputiatus’) Stokes’s _Irish Glosses_, p. 40.

Footnote 1107:

Henceforth. _Iarmotha_; lit. afterwards. In the preface to the _Amra_ in _Leabar Breac_ (p. 238 c), the corresponding expression is _re la_, ‘during its day.’

Footnote 1108:

The poet. Keating says that the poet was St. Molaisse, the person by whose award Colum Cille was sent into exile. _History of Ireland_; _reign of Domhnall, son of Aedh_.

Footnote 1109:

In a boat. _In ethar._ _In eirinn_, ‘to Eriu,’ _Leabar Breac_ and _Yellow Book of Lecan_.

Footnote 1110:

Avenged. _Gu n-aithfed fair_; lit. ‘that he would avenge it on him.’ In the _Leabar Breac_ and _Yellow Book of Lecan_, the corresponding expression is, _go mairfed é_, ‘that he (Aedh) would kill him.’

Footnote 1111:

Assembly. _Airecht._ The general meaning of the word _airecht_ (deriv. from _aire_, a ‘chief,’ or ‘leader’) is an assembly, or conference; but as used here, it might, perhaps, be more properly translated in the narrower sense of a ‘party.’

Footnote 1112:

Them; _i.e._ Colum Cille and his company. In the preface to the _Amra_ in _Leabar Breac_ and the _Yellow Book of Lecan_, the words used are _na clerig_, ‘the clerics.’

Footnote 1113:

Men. m̄ (for _mac_), lit. ‘sons,’ or ‘youths.’

Footnote 1114:

Wounded. _Briste_; lit. ‘broken.’

Footnote 1115:

Bells. _Ceolán._ _Ceolán_, the dim. of _ceol_, ‘music,’ is a very general name for a bell of any size, although glossographers usually describe it as ‘a small bell.’ But the word _ceolán_ is often met in connection with the adj. _bec_, ‘little,’ as _ceolán bec_, ‘a little bell.’—_Book of Lismore_, 117.

Footnote 1116:

Against him. _Fair_; lit. ‘upon him.’

Footnote 1117:

Conall Clogach. ‘Conall of the bells.’ In Irish history he is generally called the _righ-oinmhid_, or ‘royal simpleton.’

Footnote 1118:

Kingship. This means that Colum Cille declared him disqualified from succeeding to the kingship.

Footnote 1119:

Bade him welcome. _Do fer failti fris_; lit. ‘gave welcome to him.’

Footnote 1120:

Blessings. _Briathra_; lit. ‘words,’ or ‘promises.’

Footnote 1121:

Fifty. Domhnall only reigned from 628 to 642.

Footnote 1122:

The queen. A. L. has _do Aed_, ‘to Aedh’ (the king). But the copies of the preface to the _Amra_ in the _Leabar Breac_, and _Yellow Book of Lecan_, have _don rigain_, ‘to the queen.’

Footnote 1123:

Her son. Conall was the queen’s son, and Domhnall her step-son.

Footnote 1124:

Crane-cleric. _Corr-chlerech._ This contemptuous expression was probably used in allusion to St. Colum Cille’s tall stature, _alta proceritas_, as Oswald describes his shade (_Adamnan_, lib. i. cap. 1).

Footnote 1125:

Granted. _Do cedaig_; lit. ‘he allowed,’ ‘consented.’

Footnote 1126:

Cranes, or rather herons. _Cuirr_, pl. of _corr_, a heron.

Footnote 1127:

_Druim-ceta_ (pron. ‘Drum-Ketta’). Dr. Reeves identifies this place with the mound called the _Mullagh_ (lit. summit) in Roe Park, near Newtownlimavady, Co. Londonderry.

Footnote 1128:

Crane-work. _Corrsuidhe_, A. L. But the preface in _Lebor na hUidre_ has (better) _Corraigecht_. This word has two meanings. It means, firstly, the action of a crane (_corr_), and might be rendered ‘crane-ing,’ or screaming like a crane; and in the next place, it signifies incessant movement, from _corra_, to move. The author evidently intended to be facetious.

Footnote 1129:

Herons. _Cuirr-lena_; lit. ‘marsh-herons.’

Footnote 1130:

Live still. For many centuries after the date to which the convention of Druim-Ceta is referred, as tradition states, these two herons frequented the part of the river Roe, near the place supposed to be the site of Druim-ceta, or _Dorsum-cete_.

Footnote 1131:

On seeing the cleric. _Oc facsin in clerig_, L. B. Omitted in A. L.

Footnote 1132:

The corresponding Irish words are wanting in A. L.

Footnote 1133:

Will sing. _Do genat_; lit. ‘they will make.’

Footnote 1134:

Cormac. Cormac, son of Art, son of Conn, king of Ireland in the third century.

Footnote 1135:

Rhetoric. _Rithorig._ In the _Yellow Book of Lecan_, preface, the word is _rithlerg_, _i.e._ an extemporaneous rhapsody.

Footnote 1136:

Scannlan. See p. 495.

Footnote 1137:

Take off my shoes. _Frithailas m’assa_; lit. ‘will attend my shoes.’

Footnote 1138:

Dubh-regles. Black church, or Black abbey-church. See Colton’s _Visitation_ (ed. Reeves), pp. 20, 56.

Footnote 1139:

They ... went. _Do imigh siat_, A. L.; _ro imdigset_, L. B. The _Yellow Book of Lecan_ has _ro imthig_, ‘he went,’ which seems the more correct, as the subsequent part of the narrative makes no reference to the angel’s journey to Derry.

Footnote 1140:

Westwards. _Siar._ This is probably an error for _sair_, ‘eastwards,’ as the chancel was doubtless in the eastern part of the church.

Footnote 1141:

Successors. _Fer thinaid_; lit. ‘thy locum-tenens.’ The tradition of this imprecation is not yet extinct in Scannlan’s country of Ossory; and some Ossorians even go so far as to say that stuttering is a characteristic of Scannlan’s descendants.

Footnote 1142:

Enough for three. _Dabach trir_; lit. ‘a vat of three.’

Footnote 1143:

Great bachall. _Mor bachall._ This celebrated crozier, sent with Scannlan for his protection, is stated to have been subsequently preserved in the monastery of Durrow, in the King’s County. (Reeves’s _Adamnan_, p. 324.)

Footnote 1144:

Died. _Ba marb_; lit. ‘was dead.’

Footnote 1145:

Cause; _i.e._ of Colum Cille’s coming to Ireland.

Footnote 1146:

In place of. _Fri laim_; lit. ‘to the hand;’ but idiomatically signifying ‘instead of,’ or ‘with the approval of.’

Footnote 1147:

Two young boys. In the _Leabar Breac_ and other copies of the _Amra_ Preface the words are _teora mná ocus maccoem óc_; ‘three women and a young boy.’

Footnote 1148:

Arms. _Na uchd_; lit. ‘into his bosom.’

Footnote 1149:

Rent. _Cain._ This word anciently meant a penal tax, or fine. But in later times it was used in the sense of ‘tribute.’

Footnote 1150:

Preface. The Preface to the _Amra_ (or Eulogy) he had composed for Colum Cille.

Footnote 1151:

It; the _Amra_ itself.

Footnote 1152:

Island; _i.e._ Ireland. Here ends the quotation from A. L. which begins _supra_, p. 494.

Footnote 1153:

Consoling. _Ca comdidnd_; lit. ‘protecting’ or ‘sheltering.’

Footnote 1154:

Toads. _Loscaind._ This word is used to signify toads, frogs, and other such reptiles. In a tract on the History of the Children of Israel, in the _Leabar Breac_, the ‘ranæ’ of Exodus, cap. viii., is rendered by _loscind_, so that we should probably translate ‘frogs’ instead of ‘toads.’

Footnote 1155:

Those brethren; viz. the brethren who were beside Colum Cille in the _recles_, or church.

Footnote 1156:

_Sabhall._ The word _Sabhall_ is in Irish employed to denote a ‘barn.’ The church of Saul, in the Co. Down, Ireland, has taken its name from it.

Footnote 1157:

Attendant. _Foss_; which, though used here as a noun, is more usually employed as an adj., with the meaning ‘resident.’ See O’Donovan’s _Supplt. to O’Reilly’s Irish Dict._, v. _fos_.

Footnote 1158:

_Garran_, a work-horse or hack. The corresponding word used by Adamnan is ‘caballus,’ from which comes the mod. Irish _capall_. The old Irish for ‘garran’ is _gerrán_, which seems derived from _gerrad_, ‘to cut,’ the ‘garran’ being always a ‘cut’ horse.

Footnote 1159:

Colum. This statement, taken from A. L., is not in L. B. or L. It is found, however, in the _Book of Fenagh_. See Kelly’s edit. (Dublin, 1875), p. 209.

Footnote 1160:

Certain. The orig. of this paragraph and the following one occurs only in A. L.

Footnote 1161:

Inish-bo-finne: ‘the island of the white cow.’ Now Bophin Island, off the coast of Mayo. The _Annals of Ulster_ give Bishop Colman’s ‘pausat’ under A.D. 676.

Footnote 1162:

Paganism. _Geinntlighecht_; lit. ‘gentilism.’

Footnote 1163:

Names. _Ainm_; lit. ‘name.’

Footnote 1164:

Would not have. _Nis gebed_; lit. ‘would not take.’

Footnote 1165:

_Protégé._ The word _dalta_, ordinarily used to signify ‘foster-child,’ is also employed as a term of endearment. Adamnan calls Diarmait ‘minister’ and ‘ministrator.’

Footnote 1166:

[Immediately.] _Fo cedoir._ Om. in L. B. and L.

Footnote 1167:

Utter. _Do gnid_; lit. ‘would make.’

Footnote 1168:

‘Three fifties.’ The Psalms.

Footnote 1169:

In the sea. _Isin liur._ _Liur_ is the abl. of _ler_, ‘the sea.’ But we should probably understand ‘seashore.’

Footnote 1170:

When. The orig. of this sentence is only found in A. L.

Footnote 1171:

Blow it away. _Conidsetad gaeth_; _i.e._ the mark of his ribs was imprinted, through his clothing, in the sand, until defaced by the action of the wind blowing the loose sand over the mark. This stanza is somewhat different in the Preface to the _Amra_ in _Lebor na hUidre_.

Footnote 1172:

And. From this down to the bracket on p. 507 is translated from A. L., the corresponding Irish being omitted in L. B. and L.

Footnote 1173:

Savoury things. _Ionmar_; the Irish for ‘dripping,’ or ‘seasoning.’ Colgan translates it ‘obsonium’ (_Acta SS._, p. 734).

Footnote 1174:

Kept vigil. _Figlis_; a verb from _figil_, ‘vigil.’ It is the third sg. pres. indic., but is here used in the pret. sense.

Footnote 1175:

Him. The person here alluded to was probably Judas Iscariot.

Footnote 1176:

Disciple. _Dalta._ A foster-child. See note 1165, p. 505.

Footnote 1177:

Church. Neimedh = nemed (gl. Sacellum.—Zeuss, _Gram. Celt._ 11).

Footnote 1178:

Which the wave frequents. _Gus ataithig tonn_; ‘to which a wave frequents.’ The allusion in this expression is rather obscure.

Footnote 1179:

Fulness. _Comlantas_; lit. ‘completeness,’ from _comlan_, ‘complete,’ ‘perfect.’

Footnote 1180:

Explains. The explanation is not very explanatory, and seems to have no reference to Colum Cille, unless we may assume that it was intended to describe the chalices as made of the same materials as the party (foirend) of Crimthann’s chessmen.

Footnote 1181:

Could take it. _Nosberaidh_, A. L. The reading in the _Amra Lebor na hUidre_ is _nisbeir_, ‘carries it not.’

Footnote 1182:

Party. _Foirend_; lit. ‘a crew,’ or ‘company.’

Footnote 1183:

_Findruine._ A metal, the constituents of which are not well known. O’Clery describes it as _prás go n-air-gead buailte_, ‘brass, with silver hammered on it.’—_Mart. Donegal._ App. to Introduction, xli.

Footnote 1184:

_Cumhals._ A standard of value frequently mentioned in the Brehon Laws as worth three cows. Here ends the addition from A. L., which begins with the bracket, p. 505, _supra_.

Footnote 1185:

Of them; _i.e._ of the days that elapsed since St. Colum Cille’s death.

II.

THE RULE OF SAINT COLUMBA.

_This rule was first printed by Dr. Reeves from a MS. in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, with a translation by the late Professor O’Curry, in the Appendix to Primate Colton’s Visitation of Derry, printed for the Irish Archæological Society. It was again printed in Haddan and Stubbs’ Councils, vol. ii. p. 119. The translation alone is here given._

THE RULE OF COLUM CILLE BEGINNETH.

Be alone in a separate place near a chief city, if thy conscience is not prepared to be in common with the crowd.

Be always naked in imitation of Christ and the Evangelists.

Whatsoever little or much thou possessest of anything, whether clothing, or food, or drink, let it be at the command of the senior and at his disposal, for it is not befitting a religious to have any distinction of property with his own free brother.

Let a fast place, with one door, enclose thee.

A few religious men to converse with thee of God and His Testament; to visit thee on days of solemnity; to strengthen thee in the Testaments of God and the narratives of the Scriptures.

A person too who would talk with thee in idle words, or of the world; or who murmurs at what he cannot remedy or prevent, but who would distress thee more should he be a tattler between friends and foes, thou shalt not admit him to thee, but at once give him thy benediction should he deserve it.

Let thy servant be a discreet, religious, not tale-telling man, who is to attend continually on thee, with moderate labour of course, but always ready.

Yield submission to every rule that is of devotion.

A mind prepared for red martyrdom.

A mind fortified and steadfast for white martyrdom.

Forgiveness from the heart to every one.

Constant prayers for those who trouble thee.

Fervour in singing the office for the dead, as if every faithful dead was a particular friend of thine.

Hymns for souls _to be sung_ standing.

Let thy vigils be constant from eve to eve, under the direction of another person.

Three labours in the day, viz., prayer, work, and reading.

The work to be divided into three parts, viz., thine own work, and the work of thy place, as regards its real wants; secondly, thy share of the brethren’s _work_; lastly, to help the neighbours, viz., by instruction, or writing, or sewing garments, or whatever labour they may be in want of, ut Dominus ait, ‘Non apparebis ante me vacuus.’

Everything in its proper order; Nemo enim coronabitur nisi qui legitime certaverit.

Follow almsgiving before all things.

Take not of food till thou art hungry.

Sleep not till thou feelest desire.

Speak not except on business.

Every increase which comes to thee in lawful meals, or in wearing apparel, give it for pity to the brethren that want it, or to the poor in like manner.

The love of God with all thy heart and all thy strength.

The love of thy neighbour as thyself.

Abide in the Testaments of God throughout all times.

Thy measure of prayer shall be until thy tears come;

Or thy measure of work of labour till thy tears come;

Or thy measure of thy work of labour, or of thy genuflexions, until thy perspiration often comes, if thy tears are not free.

FINIT.

III.

CATALOGUE OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES, at the end of the Chronicle of HENRY OF SILGRAVE, _c._ A.D. 1272, so far as it relates to Scotland.

_This Catalogue was printed by Mr. J. Stevenson from Cott. MS. Cleopat. A. xii. fol. 56, in his notes to the Scalachronica, edited for the Bannatyne and Maitland Clubs, pp. 241, 242; and again in Haddan and Stubbs’ Councils, vol. ii. pp. 181, 182. The monasteries in ‘Laudian’ are omitted._

IN SCOTIA.

Episcopatus Sancti Andree { Canonici Nigri. { Keledei.

Abbatia Dunfermelin S. Trinitatis Monachi Nigri.

Abbatia Streuelin S * * * Canonici Nigri.

Prioratus de May; de Readinge Monachi Nigri.

Prioratus in Insula S. Columbe Canonici Nigri.

Abbatia de Lundres S * * * { Monachi Nigri de { Tyron.

Prioratus de Pert S * * * Moniales Nigræ.

Abbatia de Scone S * * * Canonici Nigri.

Prioratus de Nostinot S * * * Canonici Nigri.

Abbatia de Cupre Monachi Albi.

Abbatia Aberbrothoc Monachi de Tyron.

Episcopatus Dunkeldre S. Columkille { Canonici Nigri. { Keledei.

Episcopatus de Brechin Keledei.

Episcopatus de Aberde[n]

Episcopatus de Mureue Canonici Seculares.

Prioratus de Hurtard { Monachi Nigri de { Dunferml.

Abbatia de Kinlos Monachi Albi.

Episcopatus de Ros Keledei.

Episcopatus de Glascu Canonici Seculares.

Abbatia Sancti Kinewini Monachi de Tyron.

Episcopatus de Galeweye

Abbatia de Candida Casa Monachi Albi.

Abbatia M Monachi Nigri.

Episcopatus de Du[m]blin Keledei.

Episcopatus de Katenesio Keledei.

Episcopatus de Argiul Keledei.

Abbatia in Insula (Iona) Keledei.

END OF VOL. II.

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Transcriber’s Note

A nunber of footnotes are referred to in multiple places in the text using the same number. On p. 485, two phrases in a single note (now note 1006) were referred to by two separate references, and both are now given as 1006.

The ecclesiastical leader Conn na-mbocht (d. 1061) appears with and without hyphens, as Conn _na-bocht_ (p. 342) and Conn _nabocht_ (p. 252). Modern references refer to him as Conn-na-bocht, or Conn na mBocht. Both spellings are retained.

On p. 68, a quote from Rev. William Reeves was mispunctuated, and has been corrected. See the table below for details.

Names frequently appear with some variation of spelling, and given the fluidity of vowels in Gaelic, Anglic, and Latin, these have usually been retained. That said, the place-name ‘Lanfortin’ appears only once as ‘Lonfortin’ and while it seems to have been in use at the time, is assumed to be an error here.

The text mentions ‘Brude, son of _Dargart_’ repeatedly, save for three times on p. 259. The first has ‘Dergart’ in the author’s voice, ‘Dergard’ in a quoted passage, and ‘Dergert’ in a footnote on that page. The first has been corrected, but the quoted instances were left as printed.

Errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been corrected, and are noted here. The references in the table below are to the page and line in the original.

There are a number of instances of quotations being unclosed or otherwise mispunctuated. Closure is sometimes not obvious, and where possible the original sources were consulted. Skene often begins with quotation and continues in paraphrase without clearly marking such. Where it is not clear, these have been corrected and noted as ‘Probable.’

An extended quote from Bede’s Life of St. Cuthbert (pp. 216-27) mishandled embedded quotation marks, which have been corrected.

3.36 in north Hy-Faelan,[’] Added. 5.27 ad Catholicam fidem dirigit.[’] Added. 6.34 till the empire was broken up[,/.] Replaced. 20.26 gives of himself[ ]in these documents Inserted. 27.25 in the territory of the Britons.[’] Added. 29.6 not satisfied with[t / t]his Replaced. 30.26 [‘/“]What would be given Replaced. 31.1 faith in Ireland after Patrick.[”]’ Inserted. 33.30 extended their pos[s]essions Inserted. 37.24 and one at L[o/a]nfortin Replaced. 57.7 The prim[i]tive Irish monastery Restored. 61.36 procurante perducti sunt.[’] Added. 68.5 [‘]in whom the tenancy of the lands Added. 68.8 [‘]_Ecclesiastica progenies_,[’] Removed. 68.26 the abbacy taken (in their order).[’] Added. 70.24 Co[cn/nc]had went to Armagh Transposed. 80.20 which professes[s] to be a chronological Removed. digest 120.29 over his grave.[’] Added. 151.12 [‘/“]To our lords and most dear brethren Replaced. 151.29 we were eating.[”]’ Added. 145.4 clean linen cloths[’] Added. 149.20 [‘/“]As thy devout wish Replaced. 157.36 protestatus est.[’] Added. 165.28 nor question their sanctity.[’] Added. 167.29 _Inisboufinde_,[’] Added. 176.18 [‘]Naiton, king of the Picts Added. 181.18 ‘O utinam si sic esset,[’] Added. 181.26 being solemnly sung.[’] Removed. 184.3 [‘]next morning Kentigern Added. 188.22 [‘]some cleared and levelled Added. 194.28 is too graphic to be om[m]itted Omitted. 196.4 It[,] must, however, have reached Removed. 206.20 and became a solitary.[’] Added. 202.30 with the rest of the brethren;[’] Added. 213.9 from a college of monks.[’] Added. 216.14 the whole kingdom of the Picts.[’] Added. 216.25 [‘/“]Keep peace,[’/,” he said, [‘/“]one with Replaced. another, 216.34 conversation.[’/”] Replaced. 217.1 [‘/“]But with those that err Replaced. 217.4 have no communion.[’/”] Replaced. 237.1 from the world;[’] Added. 254.2 it is called [‘/“]insula viventium,[’/”] Replaced 254.3 the island of the living.[’] Added. 259.2 Brude, son of D[e/a]rgart Replaced. 261.12 of the twel[f]th century Inserted. 283.25 was this Cilline Droichteach;[’] Added. 283.33 princeps Ego, mortu[n/u]s est. Inverted. 291.36 the term ‘templum,[’] Added. 335.4 So that Dun is his blessed church.[’] Added. 379.27 Two part[ies] with rival abbots. Restored. 383.12 was held on the [the ]25th of September Removed. 398.34 Suppression of _Keled[e]i_ of Abernethy. Inserted. 409.8 we find [‘]in 1544 Archibald Campbell Probable. 446.1 to the church of Deer;[’] Added. 469.29 after his example.[’] Added. 472.36 ‘few [or many[]];’ Added. 474.30 ‘through life everlast[t]ing,’ Removed. 485.38 gl. ‘fidus[’] Added. 486.39 siglum for fifty [.l.][)]; Added. 501.7 Scann[al/lan] then lifted the vessel Replaced. 509.32 Mr. J. Stevenson from Co[ll/tt]. MS. Replaced.