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]