Page clvi. line 30-Bruide mac Derili.-Called Bruide mac Derili ri Cruithen tuaithe. He died in 706, in the eleventh year of his reign. The introduction of his name into the Acts is suspicious, unless we suppose him to have attended at this synod as Aidan, son of Gabhran, did at Drumceatt. Line 38-Law.-See Chronicon Hyense (Appendix III.), An. 727 and An. 929.

Line 42-Canons.-These canons do not seem to have any connexion with the Cain Adhamhnain. Martene printed the Canones Adamnani, with other Irish Canons, from a MS. of the Bigot Library at Rotterdam, which formerly belonged to the Monastery of Fescamp, in Normandy (Thes. Nov. Anecd. tom. iv. col. 18, Lut. Par. 1717). They exist also in the Cotton Ms. of Canons (fol. 155 b), but with considerable variations, under the title Incipiunt Canones Adomnani. Besides these, there is in Martene a detached canon, under the title Item Adompnanus (Ib. col. 11). It is of the same purport as the others, namely, unclean food, and it exists in the Cotton Ms., but without Adamnan's name (Otho E. xiii. fol. 126 b).

Page clvii. line 17-Vision.-The Fis Adhamhnain is preserved in the Leabhar Breac, fol. 127 a. It consists of two parts, the Vision and the Application.

Page clviii. line 37-Boyne.-The Irish Life of Adamnan represents the saint as "fasting against Irgalach," immersed in the river Boinn, and overcoming him by deceit. This system of fasting against an obnoxious individual was a favourite mode with the Irish ecclesiastics of bringing down visitations on their enemies. The Brehon Laws contain directions on the course which is to be pursued in such a case. Irgalach resisted the influence of St. Adamnan's fasting by doing the same himself, until Adamnan, by inducing one of his people to personate him, put Irgalach off his guard, and thus got the mastery of him. The story is curious, not only as illustrative of this extraordinary system of fasting, but as indicating the low tone of moral feeling in the writer, who represents the saint as saying, "It is better that one of his people should tell a falsehood for him than that he should tell it himself."

Line 37-Poem.-Printed in Petrie's Tara, p. 122. It contains the lines, of which the following is a translation :

"The synod of Patrick was held in the great Rath;

The synod of Brendan, and of Ruadban;

The synod of Adamnan, afterwards,
In cursing of Irgalach."

Page clxi. line 24-Questions.-The Breviary of Aberdeen relates that a child was found, who "ante Dei virum ductus multa ei probleumata præ. posuit. Tunc sanctus facto signaculo crucis inimicum effugavit, qui in specie infantis beatum virum temptare voluit."-Lect. iii. (Propr. SS., Part Estiv. fol. 114 bb.) The Irish Life states that "the demon came in human form to converse with Adamnan, for the men of Munster compelled him by force to come to Adamnan. And he came with many hard questions. One of the questions was, Was it in shape or without shape that the Devil worshipped, and was it through knowledge or in ignorance that the Devil worshipped? They also relate how the Devil was brought to Hy in the shape of a corpse, to be buried, and how it rose up and spoke, putting, as the Life says, many wonderful questions to the congregation, all of which Adamnan resolved.

Page clxviii. line 24-St. Arnold's Seat.-In the parish of Kinneff, in Kincardineshire, there was formerly a ruin called St. Arnty's Kill, which in the

Macfarlane MSS. is mentioned as St. Arnold's Cell. Can this be a perversion of Adamnan ?

Page clxviii. line 42—Senchani.—The chapel is now locally called Kilmashenaghan (Orig. Par. ii. p. 9), that is, Cill-mo-Seanchain. Father Mac Cana adds: "In illa insula fuit repertum brachium Sancti Ultani, quod thecæ argentea inclusum, ante hoc bellum religiose servabatur a viro generoso ex inclyta Mac Donellorum familia." Could this be the reliquary now commonly called St. Patrick's Arm? Nothing is known of its history, and as to the saint's name, it has probably originated in a vulgar guess. See Ulster Journ. of Archæol., vol. ii. p. 207.

Page clxx. line 6-Ireland. Thus the name is pronounced Aunan at Skreen in Sligo, where we have Tobar Awnan and Drehid-aunan. Eunan is the Raphoe pronunciation. Onan, in the county of Londonderry, in the parish of Errigal, where we have St. Onan's Rock, and in the spoken language through all that district of Glenuller. In West Meath, also, we find Syonan, which is formed from Suidhe Adhamhnain, sessio Adamnani. See Reeves's Colton, p. 81.

Page clxxxii. line 13-Herer-Gaedil.—Chron. Mann., 1102. The name is a form of Airer-Gaeidhil, now Argyle. Airer signifies "district; " thus, in the An. Ult. 865, we find airer in Fochla, "fines Septentrionis ;" and at 912, airiur Saxan, "fines Saxonum." 'Arregathel dicitur quasi Margo Scottorum seu Hibernensium."-De Situ Albaniæ. In 1251 we find the name in the same extended form of Erregeithal.—Orig. Par. ii. pp. 91, 109.

Line 35-Capital.-On the capital of the s.E. column, under the tower, near the angle of the south transept and choir of the cathedral in Hy, are the remains of the inscription, DONALDVS OBROLCHAN FECIT HOC OPVS, in Lombardic letters. It was perfect, July 29, 1844, when the writer's accomplished friend, J. Huband Smith, visited the island, from whom an accurate copy has been obtained. And Mr. Graham, in 1850, says: "Two years ago the inscription was quite perfect, but since that time the corner of the capital has been knocked off, and some of the letters obliterated" (Iona, p. 23). The writer examined it in 1853, and found only DONALDVSO ECIT HOC OPVS. The inscription runs along the face of two sides of the principal abacus, so that the fracture of an angle removes the middle part of the legend. As the column is clustered, there is an appendage to the abacus, on the face of which the two last words are continued at a right angle. This is the most ornamented with grotesque reliefs of any in the building. Those figured in Graham's Iona, plates xli. 2, xlii. 1, belong to it. It has, besides, a monstrous animal with two bodies meeting in one head, a pair of griffins with entwined tails, a group of strange animals, also with tails entwined, and at the junction, a grotesque head. Could these designs, so characteristic of the Irish school, be the HOC OPVS of Obrolchan?

Page clxxxiii. line 22-Cro Hy.-The meaning of Cro is uncertain. There was a Cro-Ciarain, and a Cro-Coemghin in Glendalough (F. Mast. 1163), in which compounds the word is interpreted house.

Line 24-Assembled.—The original gives a military air to the procedure: Slogadh dona cleircib Erenn, "A hosting by the clergy of Erin."

Line 27-O'Ferghail.-Or O'Firghil, now O'Freel. The family were herenachs of St. Columb's church of Kilmacrenan. See their descent in the Genealogical Table annexed to the Introduction, and the observations at p. lv. The winding up of the Irish history of Hy is very remarkable: Columba founded the primitive abbey, Donnall O'Brolchan, an Irishman, designs its stately successor; Columba was the first abbot; Awley O'Freel, lineally descended from Eoghan, the saint's only brother, was the last.

NOTES ON LIFE OF ST. COLUMBA.

PREFACES.

SECOND PREFACE-Iona.-The word ' occurs in the Old Testament, not only as a proper name, but as a common noun, signifying "a dove." Columbanus, in the superscription of his epistle to Pope Boniface IV., styles himself "rara avis Palumbus," and, as he proceeds, observes: "Sed talia suadenti, utpote torpenti actu, ac dicenti potius quam facienti mihi, Jona Hebraice, Peristeræ Græce, Columbæ Latine, potius tantum vestræ idiomate linguæ nancto, licet prisco nitar Hebræo nomine, cujus et pene subivi naufragium.” -Fleming, Collectan. p. 144 a.

Peristera.-The word is written with long vowels ПIHPICTHPA in the Reichenau and St. Gall MSS. Thus in the Book of Armagh, we find Hgo, HCTOTE, BHATVC, HPAT. In Canisius' Ms. the writer, mistaking the Greek capitals, gives the word NHIIIOTHTA, in which, as an inflexion of vηióτηs, he may have supposed some propriety of sentiment. Pinkerton, who supplies the deficiency at the beginning of his exemplar, the Cod. Brit., from the meagre text of Canisius, instead of the fuller copy employed by Colgan and the Bollandists, gives the word in its corrupt form, and observes in the note: "Quod NHIIOTHTA hic vult non video."—P. 54.

Columba.—The Irish call him Colum, adding, as a distinction, cille, “of the churches," and this title was becoming general about the year 700, for Ven. Bede observes: "Qui videlicet Columba nunc a nonnullis composito a Cella et Columba nomine Columcelli vocatur."-H. E. v. 9. So it was understood in Germany also: "Cognomento apud suos Columkille, eo quod multarum cellarum, id est monasteriorum vel ecclesiarum institutor, fundator, et rector extitit."-Notker Balb. (Martyrol. 9 Jun.) The name Columba was a common one in his day, and there are twenty saints in the Irish calendar so called. It is observable that in continental hagiology Columba is a female appellation; whereas, among the Irish, with one or two trifling exceptions, it belongs to the opposite sex. We have in Adamnan various Latin forms of the name, as Columba, Columbanus, Columbus, and Columb.

Maucteus.-St. Mochta of Lughmagh, or Louth, is commemorated in the Calendars at Aug. 19. In his life he is described as "ortus ex Britannia,” and as landing at Omeath, in the county of Louth, with twelve followers. Hence his title "proselytus," Gr. πрoσýλντos, advena, peregrinus, qui aliunde venit. Tighernach and the Annals of Ulster record his death at 534: "Dormitatio Moctai discipuli Patricii, xvi. Kal. Sept. Sic ipse scripsit in epistola sua Mocteus peccator prespiter, Sancti Patricii discipulus, in Domino salutem." St. Columba.-A member of the reigning family in Ireland, and closely allied to that of Dalriada in Scotland, he was eligible to the sovereignty of his own country. His half-uncle Muircertach was on the throne when he was born, and he lived during the successive reigns of his cousins Domhnall and Fergus, and Eochaidh; of his first cousins Ainmire and Baedan; and of Aedh, son of Ainmire. To this circumstance, as much as to his piety or abilities, was owing the immense influence which he possessed, and the consequent celebrity of his conventual establishments: in fact, he enjoyed a kind of spiritual monarchy collaterally with the secular dominion of his relatives, being sufficiently distant in Iona to avoid collision, yet near enough to exer

cise an authority made up of the patriarchal and monastic. lineage stands thus :

His immediate

ECHIN,

7th in descent from Cathaeir Mor, King of Ireland, A.D. 120.

NAVE, or
NOE.

CHAPTER I.-Alta proceritas.-Though the "nota major imago" was of old an acknowledged property of the shades (Virgil, Æn. ii. 773; Ovid, Fast. ii. 503; Juvenal, xiii. 221; Tacitus, Ann. xi. 21; Hist. i. 86), it might be that Oswald, fresh from Scotland, and probably from Iona, was impressed by the description he had heard of S. Columba's personal appearance, which, being matter of only thirty-six years' tradition, was likely to be fresh and true. He had heard that the saint had mingled a good deal in military matters before his departure from Ireland, and that he had the credit of more than once turning the scale of victory by his prayers. The tradition of S. Columba's great stature may subsequently have given a character to the vision which Alexander II. saw in the island of Kerara, when on his way against Haco, in 1263: "King Alexander, then lying in Kiararey Sound, dreamed a dream, and thought three men came to him. He thought one of them was in royal robes, but very stern, ruddy in countenance, something thick, and of middling size. Another seemed of a slender make, but active, and of all men the most engaging, and majestic. The third again, was of very great stature, but his features were distorted, and of all the rest he was the most unsightly. The Hebridians say that the men whom the King saw in his sleep were St. Olave King of Norway, St. Magnus Earl of Orkney, and St. Columba."—Norw. Account of Haco's Expedition, by Johnstone, pp. 10-13.

Fintenus. St. Fintan, more commonly known by the name Munna, is commemorated in the Irish calendar at Oct. 21. He is noticed in the calendar prefixed to the Breviary of Aberdeen, at the same day, under the name Mundus abbas. Sir Harris Nicholas places him as "Fintan or Munnu" at Oct. 21, and as “Munde, abbot in Argyle," following Camerarius and Keith, at April 15. Chronol. of Hist. pp. 149, 164. His Life relates that when a boy, S. Columba blessed him, and said, "Vocaberis inter majores sanctos Hibernia."-Cap. 2 (Cod. Marsh. fol. 127 a b; Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 460 b.) At the synod of Campus Albus, where he upheld the old Irish observance of Easter, S. Laisre of Leighlin, his opponent, declared to him, "Non ibimus ad judicium tuum, quum scimus

quod per magnitudinem laboris tui et sanctitatis, si diceres ut Mons Marge [Slievemargy] commutaretur in locum Campi Albi, et Campus Albus in locum Montis Mairge, hoc propter te Deus statim faceret."-Chap. 25 (Cod. Marsh. fol. 129 a b); Ussher, Brit. Ec. Ant. cap. 17 (Works, vi. p. 505); Religion of Anc. Irish, chap. 9 (Works, iv. pp. 342-344). The story is told as follows in the Life of S. Fintan : "Post bæc S. Munna perrexit ad insulam Hy, ut ibi apud S. Columbam monachus fieret. Sed S. Columba ante adventum ejus migravit ad cœlum ; et ante obitum suum prophetavit de S. Munna, talia verba dicens ad beatum Baitheneum : Post obitum meum veniet ad vos de Hibernia quidam juvenis, moribus sanctus, ingenio clarus, corpore quidem capite crispus, et genis rubicundus, cujus nomen est Munna, quem sæpe in terra vidi, sed sæpius spiritualiter in cœlo inter angelos Dei. Ad hoc autem ipsi huc veniet, ut hic monachus fiat; sed ne recipiatis eum, quamvis multum sibi displiceat. Et tu dices illi: Revertere fili ad Hiberniam, quia caput magni populi ibi eris. Et ipse vadat ad australem plagam Laginensium, quæ dicitur Cennselach; quia ibi erit honor ipsius, et resurrectio. Et quamvis mea parrochia major est in terra quam sua, tamen, meus amor, et mea potestas, apud Deum non est major quam ipsius. Et ita omnia illa contigerunt."-Chap. 7 (Cod. Marsh. fol. 127 bb; Colgan, Tr. Th.'p. 461 a). The third lesson of the Office of S. Mundus, in the Breviary of Aberdeen, contradicts the earlier authorities by stating that "ad yonam insulam in scocia pervenit in qua a beato columba habitum suscepit religionis."-Propr. SS. Part. Est. f. 131 bb (Reprint 1852). The monastery he constructed was Teach Munnu, or "House of Munnu," in the Ceinnselach, now Taghmon, about seven miles west of Wexford. The parish of Taghmon in West Meath likewise derives its name from him. His principal church in Scotland was Kilmond, now Kilmun in Cowall, to which the Breviary of Aberdeen assigns his burial; where local tradition even marks the supposed place of his sepulture by the name of Sith-Mun, and where a half-mark land was held in virtue of the custody of his crosier (Orig. Par. vol. ii. part ii. p. 72). The old parish of Elanmunde, on the confines of Argyll and Inverness, derived its name from an island in Loch Leven, on which there was a church called after S. Munde (ib. p. 170). He died in 635, at which year Tighernach records the Quies Fintain .i. Mundu filii Tulchain in xii. kal. Nov.

CHAPTER III.-Dairmag, written in Irish records Dar magh, or Dear magh. Adamnan employs the Latin equivalent Roboreti Campus and Roboris Campus. The modern name is Durrow. See Orig. Ed. p. 23.

Clon.-Clonmacnoise was founded in 548 by Ciaran mac an t-saoir "filius artificis." He died on 5th Sept. 549 in the thirty-fourth year of his age. Alither, fourth abbot, died in 599. See Orig. Ed. p. 24.

Ernene. His day in the Irish calendar is Aug. 18: Ernin .i. Mernócc ó Raith Naoi in Uibh Garrchon .i. i Fothartaibh Laighen: ocus o Chill draighnech in Uibh drona, "Ernin, i.e. Mernocc, of Rath-Naoi in Ui Garrchon, i.e. in the Fotharta of Leinster: and of Cill-draighnech in Ui Drona.'-Marian. Gorm.; Cal. Dungall. His parentage is given in the Calendars of Cashel and Tamlacht at the same day, as cited by Colgan: "Erneneus, id est Mernocus filius Gresseni, de Raith-naoi in Hi-Garchon in Lagenia, et de Kill-Droigneach, in Hi-Dronâ."-Trias Th. p. 373 b. Thus also in the Feilire of Angus, Mac Cresine Mernocc, affording a fresh authority for the identification of the individual in question. His obit, which is unaccountably omitted by the Four Masters, is given by Tighernach, at the year 635: "Quies Ernaine mic Cresene." So Annal. Ult. 634. His churches which are mentioned in the calendars are Rathnaoi, now called Rathnew, the parochial name of Wicklow; and Kill-droighneach, now Kildreenagh, a townland in