at this period to which F belongs, that is, whose first of January fell on Tuesday. Thus, as far as Adamnan's statements go, the inference is very explicit, and we are freed from the uncertainty which Ussher expresses: "Cum media nocte Romani civiles suos dies et incipere soleant et terminare: num nox illa media, qua Columbam decessisse diximus, diem Junii nonum vel inchoaverit vel finierit, quæstionis quid habet." With regard to Adamnan's language, there cannot be any uncertainty; for he represents the Saint as saying, while it was yet Saturday, "hac sequenti media venerabili Dominica nocte patrum gradiar viam," and states of the penultimate service which he attended, "Sanctus ad vespertinalem Dominicæ noctis missam ingreditur ecclesiam." Adamnan reckons his day from sunset to sunset, and thus we find him, on more than one occasion, employing a vvxonμepov, and making the night of a festival precede the day. See ii. 46, iii. 12, 13, 24. With this date agree the biographer's chronological notes, who states that St. Columba passed over to Britain in the second year after the battle of Culdreibhne, that is, in 563, being then 42 years old, and that he died, having completed 34 years in his pilgrimage, thus giving 597 for his obit, and 76 years for his age. So also Bede, who places his removal to Scotland at 565, the length of his pilgrimage 32 years, and his death, when he was about 77 years of age. But against this evidence may be alleged the authority of Tighernach, who records Quies Coluimcille in nocte Dominica Pentecostes v. Id. Junii, anno peregrinacionis sue xxxv. etatis vero lxxvii. With this statement, that he died on Wednesday, agree the ancient Irish Life, cited in the note on B. III. c. 24, and the Naemhsenchas, which, under the Saint's name, has Tri cengcaidhis Colamcilli: a gen, a bathis, a bas, " Three Pentecosts [quinquagesimas] of Colam-cille: his birth, his baptism, and his death." Now, in 597, Whitsunday fell on the 2d of June, but in 596 on the 10th. If, therefore, the Whitsun element enter into the calculation, the year of the death must be assigned to 596, and Adamnan's mode of computation be inverted; for, in this case, the midnight between Saturday and Sunday must be attracted to the former in order to fit the obit into the 9th, while, at the same time, an opposite process must be adopted in order to identify the occurrence with the ensuing Pentecost. This date, which seems to follow from Tighernach, is adopted by Hermannus Contractus, who places St. Columba's death at 596. But it is opposed to Tighernach's own calculation, who assigns the Saint's birth to 520, and allows him an age of 77 years. Dr. Lanigan accounts for this discrepancy by supposing that "Tighernach was, probably, prepossessed with the idea that 596 was the real year of his death, as he might have found it marked in some elder annals, which, however, considering their mode of computation, was, in fact, the same as 597. Then, finding that Pentecost fell in 596 about the 9th of June, he supposed it to be the Sunday in which Columba died." Or, it may be urged that, as Columba's removal to Britain is said by some to have been at Whitsuntide, Prima nox ejus in Albain in Pentecosten, an even period was assigned to the term of his pilgrimage, the chronicler being desirous to square the matter, by placing the obit at the same festival. It is further to be observed that, supposing Whitsunday to have been on the 2d, which it most probably was, the Saint's decease was inside the week, and was thus within the octave of Whitsuntide; for the festival of Trinity Sunday was not yet instituted, and Easter and Pentecost were the two great ecclesiastical seasons of the year. Dr. Lanigan very justly observes, that "Adamnan, who mentions more than once this obituary Sunday, never calls it Pentecost, which, had it been so, he would assuredly have noticed as a very remarkable circumstance, combining the Saint's removal to heaven with the celebration of that great festivity." With respect to the notation of Tighernach at this year, it must be confessed that it contradicts the entry. For it is K. iiii., that is, that the first of January fell on Wednesday, which makes E the Dominical letter, and thus refers the occurrences under that signature to 598, two years later than is deducible from the entries. We might suppose .iiii. by a very common mistake put for .uii., which would mend the matter a little, and the antecedent signatures might be treated in the same manner; but then the .ii. which would become .u. would have .iiii. as its antecedent, whereas a .i. is found in situ. The Annals of Ulster record the occurrence thus, Quies Coluim cille v. Id. Jun. anno etatis sue lxxvi. But their signature is vii., which gives B as the Sunday-letter, and indicates 595, the very year in their margin, for where they say 594, they mean 595. Now it is evident that their record of the event has been advisedly framed; and, therefore, it is hard to conceive on what principle they could refer the event to so early a year. In it, Easter fell on the 3d of April, and Whitsunday on the 22d of May, and the 9th of June was Thursday. The choice, then, lies between 596 and 597. To the former Colgan and Dr. O'Conor incline; to the latter the graver judgments of Ussher, O'Flaherty, and Lanigan; but the question would not have arisen if Tighernach had not mentioned Pentecost; and it has been shown that, even on his high authority, the introduction of this element into the calculation is irreconcilable with the explicit statements of both himself and Adamnan. VI. COLUMBA. It appears that during a century, at least, after the death of THE RELICS St. Columba, his remains were permitted to lie undisturbed in OF SAINT the earth.1 Ven. Bede extends the period a little, and speaks of the monastery of Hy "in quo ipse requiescit corpore" (iii. 4). But ere Notker Balbulus, in the tenth century, borrowed the expression ubi requiescit, a change had taken place in the condition of the Saint's remains. In the course of the eighth century it is probable that his bones were disinterred, and deposited in a shrine or shrines. And once enshrined, they 1 Locum in quo sancta pausant ossa (111. 24, p. 217). were not likely to be restored to the earth, because every passing year would increase the veneration which led to the first exposure. Yet we find medieval tradition confidently setting forth Downpatrick as his resting-place, while an original record of very early date claims for the neighbouring church of Saul the honour of his interment. We might easily reconcile these two accounts by supposing a translation from Saul, as soon as it became a subordinate church, on the erection of Downpatrick into a bishop's see. The fragmentary memoirs of St. Patrick contained in the Book of Armagh were put on record in the eighth century, and the manuscript itself was written about the year 807, by a scribe whose death took place in 846. Speaking of the burial of St. Patrick, they add, "Colomb cille Spiritu Sancto instigante ostendit sepulturam Patricii ubi est confirmat id est in Sabul Patricii id est in aeclesia juxta mare pro undecima ubi est conductio martirum id est ossuum Columbcille de Britannia et conductio omnium Sanctorum Hiberniæ in die judicii." This enigmatical passage seems to owe its involved construction to the circumstance of its having been copied from an earlier authority, in which a portion of the matter consisted of detached explanations, in the form of interlinear glosses, which the copyist, on account of the peculiar nature of his page, or for some other reason, incorporated with the text. The following conjectural restoration is proposed, as exhibiting the passage in a more intelligible, and possibly more genuine form: .i. ossuum Colombcille Spiritu Sancto instigante ostendit sepulturam Patricii .i. in Sabul Patricii .i. in aeclesia juxta mare ubi est confirmat pro undecima ubi est conductio martirum Columbcillae de Brittannia et conductio omnium Sanctorum Hiberniae in die judicii. The words pro undecima are difficult of explanation, but they were so at the time the manuscript was written, for the scribe has placed in the margin opposite pro the mark of obscurity. But whatever ambiguity may attend some words, it is plain that conductio is employed to denote "bringing together," or "transfer;" as elsewhere, in the same manuscript, "meeting," "interview;" and that the passage expresses the belief as existing, at the close of the eighth century, that the bones of Columkille had, before that period, been brought to Ireland from Britain, and deposited in Saul. The same impression is conveyed in another but more legendary record, and seemingly of a later date, which also supposes St. Columba's remains to have been conveyed into the innermost part of Strangford Lough, in the county of Down, and merely differs in making Downpatrick the destination instead of the neighbouring church of Saul. O'Donnell's account of the matter is thus translated by Colgan: "Pro operis hujus coronide (quod minime debuit silentio pertransiri) hic subjicio quomodo corpus hujus S. Patriarchæ in Monasterio Hiensi prius sepultum, fuerit in Hiberniam postea translatum, et in eodem sepulchro cum sacris exuviis Sanctorum Patricii et Brigidæ reconditum. . . . Sufficiat memorare modum et occasionem factæ Translationis, quam hoc modo S. Berchanus contigisse refert. Manderus filius Regis Daniæ, et Nortmannorum pyraticæ classis Dux, ferro et flamma septemtrionales Britanniæ partes devastans, venit ad Ionam insulam, ubi sacra prophanis Sathanæ Satellites miscentes: direptis omnibus, quæ occurrerant, terram hinc inde fodiunt, latentes, ut putabant, thesauros inquirentes ; ac inter alia effodiunt Sarcophagum seu arcam, in quâ verus erat, licet non cui illi inhiabant, thesaurus, nempe S. Columbæ corpus. Arcam ad navem portant, quam postea versus Hiberniam tendentes aperiunt : et tum nihil inclusum, præter hominis ossa, ac cineres, reperiunt, clausam in mare projiciunt; quæ Dei nutu, Oceani fluctibus agitata, et per undas injecta, reperitur in sinu maris Dunensi urbi vicino, undis supernatans. Quam sic repertam, et divina revelatione agnitam, aperiens Abbas Monasterii Dunensis, sanctum thesaurum arca extractum, in eisdem lipsanis cum Divorum Patricii, et Columbæ [recte Brigida] sacris exuviis recondidit."-(Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 446 a.) The earliest recorded descent of the Northmen on Hy is 802, which is only five years anterior to the writing of the Book of Armagh. Notwithstanding this reputed interment, whether in Saul or Down, we find that on the occasion of St. Blaithmac's martyr |