account he has collected of its recent history is full of interest, and
for the most part, I have no doubt correct. His speculations respecting
its antiquity I cannot give my adhesion to, not feeling a doubt myself
on the subject. When I have time to investigate it more fully, I am
satisfied that this box, like the others, of which accounts have
already been published, will be found mentioned in the Irish Annals. The
inscriptions, however, fully identify the MS. and the box, and show that
antiquaries, from the execution of the workmanship and figures on these
interesting reliques, often underrate their antiquity--a fault which the
world are little inclined to give them credit for, and which they fall
into from an anxiety to err on what they consider the side which
is least likely to produce the smile of contempt or the sneer of
incredulity, forgetting that it is the sole business of an antiquarian
and historian to speak the truth, disregarding even contempt for so
doing.
“I had been somewhat lengthy in my description of the Dona, and from
habit, entered into a minute account of all its parts, quite forgetting
that you, perhaps, do not possess an appetite for antiquarian detail,
and therefore might be better pleased to have a general outline than
such a recital. I therefore proceed to give it as briefly as possible,
not, however, omitting any material points.
“The Irish word Domnach, which is pronounced Dona, means the Lord's day,
or the first day in the week, sanctified or consecrated to the service
of the Lord. It is also in that sense used for a house, church, or
chapel. Donayhmore means the great church or chapel dedicated to God.
This box, being holy, as containing the Gospels, and having the crucifix
thereon, was dedicated or consecrated to the service of God. Like the
Caah, the Meeshach, and Dhimma's box, it is of brass, covered with
plates of silver, and resembles the two former in having a box of yew
inside, which was the original case of the MS. and became venerated so
much, on that account, as to be deemed worthy of being inclosed with
it in the shrine made by permission of John O'Carberry, Abbot of
Clonmacnois, in the 14th century.
“The top of the Dona is divided by a cross, on the lower arm of which is
a figure of the Savior; over his head is a shield, divided _per pale_,
between two crystal settings; on the dexter is a hand holding a scourge
or whip of three thongs, and on a chief a ring; on the sinister, on
a chief the same charge and three crucifixion nails. In the first
compartment, or quarter of the cross, are representations of St.
Columbkill, St. Bridget, and St. Patrick. In the second, a bishop
pierced with two arrows, and two figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. In
the third, the Archangel Michael treading on the dragon, and the Virgin
Mary and the infant Jesus. In the fourth, St. Tigemach handing to his
successor, St. Sinellus, the Dona; and a female figure, perhaps Mary
Magdalen.
“The front of the Dona is ornamented with three crystal settings,
surmounted by grotesque figures of animals. Between these are four
horsemen with swords drawn, in full speed.
“The right hand end has a figure of St. Tigemach, and St. John the
Baptist. The left hand end a figure of St. Catherine with her wheel.
“The Dona is nine inches and a half long, seven wide, and not quite four
thick.
“So far I have been enabled to describe the Dona from the evidently
accurate and well executed drawings you were so good as to present to
me. Why the description is less particular than it should have been, I
shall take another opportunity of explaining to you.
“There are three inscriptions on the Dona: one on a scroll from the hand
of the figure of the Baptist, of ECCE AGNUS DEI. The two others are on
plates of silver, but their exact position on the box is not marked
in the drawing, but may be guessed by certain places which the plates
exactly fit. “The first is--
“JOHANNES: OBARRDAN: FABRICAVIT.
“The second--
“JOHS: OKARBRI: COMORBANVS: S. TIGNACH: PMISIT.”
“'_John O'Barrdan made this box by the permission of John O'Carbry,
successor of St. Tigermach_.'
“St. Tierny, or St. Tigernach was third Bishop of Clogher, having
succeeded St. Maccartin in the year 506. In the list of bishops, St.
Patrick is reckoned the first, and founder of the see. Tigernach died
the 4th of April, 548.
“John O'Carbry was abbott of Clones, or Clounish, in the County of
Monoghan, and as such was _comorb_, or _corb_*--i. e., successor--of
Tigernach, who was founder of the abbey and removed the episcopal seat
from Clogher to Clounish. Many of the abbots Were also bishops of the
see. He died in 1353. How long he was abbot does not appear; but the age
of the outside covering of the Dona is fixed to the 14th century.
* All the successors of the founder saints were called
by the Irish _comorbs_ or _corbs_. The reader Will perceive
that O'Carbry was a distant but not we immediate successor
of St. Tigernach.
“Since the foregoing was written I have seen the Dona, which was
exhibited at the last meeting of the Royal Irish Academy. it has been
put together at a guess, but different from the drawing. There is inside
O'Barrdan's case another of silver plates some centuries older, and
inside that the yew box, which originally contained the manuscripts, now
so united by damp as to be apparently inseparable, and nearly illegible;
for they have lost the color of vellum, and are quite black, and very
much decayed. The old Irish version of the New Testament is well worthy
of being edited; it is, I conceive, the oldest Latin version extant, and
varies much from the Vulgate or Jerome's.
“The MS. inclosed in the yew box appears from the two membranes handed
me by your friend Mr. ------, to be a copy of the Gospels--at least
those membranes were part of the two first membranes of the Gospel of
St. Matthew, and, I would say, written in the 5th or 6th century; were,
probably, the property of St. Tigernach himself, and passed most likely
to the abbots of Clounish, his successors, as an heirloom, until it fell
into the hands of the Maguires, the most powerful of the princes of the
country now comprising the diocese of Clogher. Dr. O'Beirne's letter I
trust you will publish. I feel much indebted to the gentleman for his
courteous expressions towards me, and shall be most happy to have the
pleasure of being personally known to him.
“You must make allowance for the hasty sketch which is here given.
The advanced state of your printing would not allow me time for a more
elaborate investigation.
“Believe me, my dear sir,
“Very sincerely yours,
“W. BETHAM.”
We cannot close the illustrations of this ancient and venerable relic
without adding an extract from a most interesting and authentic history
of it contributed by our great Irish antiquarian, George Petrie, Esq.,
R.H.A., M.R.I.A, to the 18th vol. of the Transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy, together with an engraving of it taken from a drawing made by
the same accomplished artist.
“I shall endeavor to arrange these evidences in consecutive order.
“It is of importance to prove that this _cumdach_, or reliquary, has
been from time immemorial popularly known by the name of _Domnach_, or,
as it is pronounced, Donagh, a word derived from the Latin _Dominicus_.
This fact is proved by a recent popular tale of very great power, by Mr.
Carleton, called the 'Donagh,' in which the superstitious uses to which
this reliquary has been long applied, are ably exhibited, and made
subservient to the interests of the story. It is also particularly
described under this name by the Rev. John Groyes in his account of the
parish of Errigal-Keeroch in the third volume of Shaw Mason's Parochial
Survey, page 163, though, as the writer states, it was not actually
preserved in that parish.
“2. The inscriptions on the external case leave no doubt that the
Domnach belonged to the monastery of Clones, or see of Clogher. The John
O'Karbri, the _Comharb_, or successor of St. Tighernach, recorded,
in one of those inscriptions as the person at whose cost, or by whose
permission, the outer ornamental case was made, was, according to the
Annals of the Pour Masters, Abbot of Clones, and died in the year 1353.
He is properly called in that inscription _Comorbanus_, or successor of
Tighernach, who was the first Abbot and Bishop of the Church of Clones,
to which place, after the death of St. Mac-Carthen, in the year 506,
he removed the see of Clogher, having erected a new church, which he
dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. St. Tighernach, according to
all our ancient authorities, died in the year 548.
“3. It appears from a fragment of an ancient life of St. Mac-Carthen,
preserved by Colgan, that a remarkable reliquary was given by St Patrick
to that saint when he placed him over the see of Clogher.
“'Et addidit, [Patricius] Accipo, inquit, baculum itineris mei, quo
ego membra mea sustento et scrinium in quo de sanctorum Apostolorum
reliquiis, et de sanctae Mariae capillis, et sancta Grace Domini, et
sepulchro ejus, et aliis reliquiis sanctis continentur. Quibus dictis
dimisit cum osculo pacis paterna fultum benedictione.'--_Colgan, Vit. S.
Macaerthenni_ (24 Mart.) Acta SS. p. 738.
“From this passage we learn one great-cause of the sanctity in which
this reliquary was held, and of the uses of the several recesses for
reliques which it presents. It also explains the historical _rilievo_
on the top--the figure of St. Patrick presenting the Domnach to St.
Mac-Carthen.
“4. In Jocelyn's Life of St. Patrick (cap. 143) we have also a notice to
the same effect, but in which the Domnach is called a _Chrismatorium_,
and the relics are not specified--in all probability because they were
not then appended to it.
“In these authorities there is evidently much appearance of the Monkish
frauds of the middle ages; but still they are evidences of the tradition
of the country that such a gift had been made by Patrick to Mac-Carthen.
And as we advance higher in chronological authorities, we find the
notice of this gift stripped of much of its acquired garb of fiction,
and related with more of the simplicity of truth.
“5. In the life of St. Patrick called the Tripartite, usually ascribed
to St. Evin, an author of the seventh century, and which, even in its
present interpolated state, is confessedly prior to the tenth, there
is the following remarkable passage (as translated by Colgan from the
original Irish) relative to the gift of the Domnach from the Apostle of
Ireland to St. Mac-Carthen, in which it is expressly described under the
very same appellation which it still bears.
“' Aliquantis ergo evolutis diebus _Mac-Caertennum_, sive _Caerthennum_
Episcopuin prsefecit sedi Episcopali Clocherensi, ab Ardmacha regni
Metropoli haud multum distanti: et apud eum reliquit argenteum quoddam
reliquiarium _Domnach-airgidh_ vulgo nuncupatum; quod viro Dei, in
Hiberniam venienti, ccelitus missum erat.'--_VII. Vita S. Patricii_,
Lib. in. cap. 3, _Tr. Th._ p. 149.
“This passage is elsewhere given by Colgan, with a slight change of
words in the translation.
“In this version, which is unquestionably prior to all the others,
we find the Domnach distinguished by the appellation of _Airgid_--an
addition which was applicable only to its more ancient or silver plated
case, and which could not with propriety be applied to its more recent
covering, which in its original state had the appearance of being of
gold.
“On these evidences--and more might probably be procured if time had
allowed--we may, I think, with tolerable certainty, rest the following
conclusions:
“1. That the Domnach is the identical reliquary given by St. Patrick to
St. Mac-Carthen.
“2. As the form of the cumdach indicates that it was intended to receive
a book, and as the relics are all attached to the outer and the least
ancient cover, it is manifest that the use of the box as a reliquary was
not its original intention. The natural inference therefore is, that
it contained a manuscript which had belonged to St. Patrick; and us a
manuscript copy of the Gospels, apparently of that early age, is found
within it, there is every reason to believe it to be that identical
one for which the box was originally made, and which the Irish apostle
probably brought with him on his mission into this country. It is
indeed, not merely possible, but even probable, that the existence of
this manuscript was unknown to the Monkish biographers of St. Patrick
and St. Mac-Carthen, who speak of the box as a scrinium or reliquary
only. The outer cover was evidently not made to open; and some, at
least, of the relics attached to it were not introduced into Ireland
before the twelfth century. It will be remembered also that no
superstition was and is more common in connection with the ancient
cumdachs than the dread of their being opened.
“These conclusions will, I think, be strengthened considerably by the
facts, that the word _Domnach_, as applied either to a church, as usual,
or to a reliquary, as in this instance, is only to be found in our
histories in connection with St. Patrick's time; and, that in the latter
sense--its application to a reliquary--it only once occurs in all our
ancient authorities, namely, in the single reference to the gift to
St. Mac-Carthen; no other reliquary in Ireland, as far as can be
ascertained, having ever been known by that appellation. And it should
also be observed, that all the ancient reliques preserved in Ireland,
whether bells, books, croziers, or other remains, have invariably and
without any single exception, been preserved and venerated only as
appertaining to the original founders of the churches to which they
belonged.”
There is very little to be added, except that the Donagh was purchased
for a few pounds from the old woman who owned it, by Mr. George Smith,
of the house of Hodges and Smith, of College Green, Dublin, who very
soon sold it for a large sum to the Honorable Mr. Westenra, in whose
possession I presume it now is.