Book 2 — CHAPTER X. LEARNING AND LANGUAGE.

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 420in 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]

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 421of 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]

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 422to the throne, resorted to the islands of the Scots for study, one of these islands was that of Iona.^[793]

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 423document 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.

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]

The Book of Armagh.

The contents of this MS. will show somewhat of the literature 424of 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 425contained the only memoirs of its patron saint which were then known to exist.

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 426delivered 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 427the 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.

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 428Ultan: 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 429our 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 430his 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 431might 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, 432as 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 433to 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 434of 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, 435with 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]

436And 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....

437This 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.

438We 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 439introduced 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—

440From 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 441been 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 442introduce 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 443of 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.

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.

Hagiology of the Scottish Church.

444Besides 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.

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 445was 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, 446to the church of Deer;’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]

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), 447the 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 448in 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]

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. |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 449mentioned 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]

Spoken dialects of Irish.

450Before 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 451the 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.

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 452the 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.

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.

Scotch Gaelic.

453Such 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 454closely 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.

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 455Pictish 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 456not 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 457smaller 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.

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 458Church 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 459identic 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]

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 460Gaelic 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 461language of those who occupy the seaboard and plains, while the race of Scottish speech (Scoticæ linguæ) inhabits the Highlands and outlying districts.’^[851]

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 462ministers of Duirinish and Bracadale, in Skye, being unable to do so.^[853]

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, 463and the spoken Gaelic of the Highlands coming to be denominated Irish.

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 464vocabulary 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.

465

APPENDIX.

467

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 468which 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 469the 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.’example.’

Tres autem sunt modi vocationum. ‘In three ways, moreover, the people^[865] are called to the knowledge and friendship of the Lord.’

470Primus 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 471Haran,^[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 472his 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 473in 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 474prodigies 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.

475The 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,

476‘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.

477Gortan,^[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.