to have been discovered by the great monastic patron of Ireland, and his ritual transferred from Tours to Derry. And in later times the holy wells of Derry, called Tobar Martain, Tobar Adhamhnain, and Tobar Coluim, preserved the local association of his name with those of the fathers of the Columbian order. Another account of the origin of this ancient manuscript (for that such a book, whether Martin's or Patrick's, was preserved in the diocese of Derry, is unquestionable) is, that it had belonged to St. Patrick, who, as the Tripartite Life says, when "morti vicinus, librum Evangeliorum, quo ipse dum viveret, utebatur, illi velut Euangelii observantissimo cultori, testamento legaverit, ex suo etiam in Ardmachia successori mandaverit certam quotannis pensionem pro eodem seponere. Præfatus vero Euangeliorum codex ad Columbæ manus devenit, sive illi fuerat per S. Brigidam Virginem, penes quam depositus scribitur, consignatus; sive, quod aliqua habent exemplaria, Angelico illi ministerio allatus ex D. Patricii tumulo, in quo jubente Patricio, ne in aliquas iniquas manus incideret, conditus existimatur."1 To the discovery of the manuscript in St. Patrick's grave, the following entry in the Annals of Ulster, copied from a chronicle called the Book of Cuana, refers: "The relics of Patrick were enshrined sixty years after his death by Columcille. Three precious reliquaries were found in the tomb, sc. the Cup, the Angel's Gospel, and the Bell of the Will. The angel directed Columcille to divide the three reliquaries thus: the Cup to Down, the Bell of the Will to Armagh, the Gospel of the Angel to Columcille himself. And it is called the Gospel of the Angel, because Columcille received it at the Angel's hand." O'Donnell has transferred this anecdote into his narrative, which Colgan has imperfectly translated. That the Gospel of St. Martin and the Gospel of the Angel were supposed to be identical, appears from a poem in the Laud Ms. (p. 81) beginning Taiscfidter mo shoiscela, "My gospel shall be preserved,” in which St. Patrick is represented as describing the future greatness and holiness of St. Columba; where the gloss remarks that the Gospel of St. Martin is alluded to. 1 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 390 b. 9. BOOK OF DURROW.-Thus noticed by Archbishop Ussher: "In Regio comitatu ea est, Durrogh vulgo appellata: quæ monasterium habuit S. Columbæ nomine insigne; inter cujus Keμnλa evangeliorum codex vetustissimus asservabatur, quem ipsius Columbæ fuisse monachi dictitabant: ex quo, et non minoris antiquitatis altero, eidem Columbæ assignato, quem in urbe Kelles sive Kenlis dicta Midenses sacrum habent, diligenti cum editione vulgata Latina collatione facta, in nostros usus variantium lectionum binos libellos concinnavimus."1 Henry Jones, Bishop of Meath, subsequently became possessed of it, and presented it to Trinity College, Dublin, of which institution he was Vice-Chancellor. The silver-mounted case in which this book was preserved has been lost; but its absence is the less to be deplored, as a record of the inscription which it bore is entered, in the handwriting of the famous Roderic O'Flaherty, on the fly-leaf of the manuscript: "Inscriptio Hibernicis literis incisa cruci argenteæ in operimento hujus Libri in transversa crucis parte, nomen artificis indicat; et in longitudine tribus lineis a sinistra et totidem dextra, ut sequitur : OROIT ACUS BENDACHT CHOLUIMB CHILLE DO FHLAND MACC MAILSECHNAILL DO RIGH ERENN LAS A NDERNAD A CUMDACH SO. "Hoc est Latine : ORATIO ET BENEDICTIO S. COLUMBÆ CILLE SIT FLANNIO FILIO MALACHIÆ REGI HIBERNIÆ QUI HANC (OPERIMENTI) STRUC TURAM FIERI FECIT. "Flannius hic Rex Hiberniæ decessit 8 Kal. Maii et die Sabbati ut in Ms. Cod. Hib. quod Chronicon Scotorum dicitur anno æræ Christianæ vulgaris 916. Hanc inscriptionem interpretatus est Ro. Flaherty 19 Jun. 1677." Thus it appears that the book was venerable in age, and a reliquary in 916. The remarkable colophon, which is cited at p. 242 (Orig. Ed.), appears on the last page of the capitula of St. John's Gospel, which originally closed the volume, but which has improperly been made the twelfth folio by the hands of a 1 Brit. Ec. Ant., c. 15. modern binder. Dr. Charles O'Conor has given an excellent facsimile of a page of this remarkable manuscript: but he has fallen into the strange error of confounding the Book of Kells with it, and of mixing up Lhuyd's notices of the two.1 10. BOOK OF KELLS.-This wonderful manuscript was preserved at Kells, in the county of Meath, at the time that Archbishop Ussher wrote his Antiquities of the British Churches, as appears from his words cited in the preceding article. It had existed there for many centuries, and was traditionally called the Book of Columcille. The costly shrine with which it was enclosed nearly proved its destruction in the beginning of the eleventh century, as we learn from the Annals of Ulster, as also the Four Masters at 1006, where it is related that "the Great Gospel of Columcille was stolen at night from the western sacristy of the great church of Cenannus. This was the principal relic of the western world, on account of its remarkable And it was found after two months and twenty days, its gold having been stolen off, and a sod over it." Fortunately the manuscript itself sustained little injury (it received more from the plough of a modern bookbinder), and in the course of the following century its blank pages were considered a fit depository for copies of certain charters of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, connected with the endowments of Kells. Archbishop Ussher became possessed of this manuscript, and after his death it was in great danger of being lost but it escaped, and on the Restoration it came, with what remained of the Archbishop's library, "ex dono Caroli II." into the custody of Trinity College, Dublin, where it remains, the admiration and astonishment of every one who examines it. cover. 11. THE MISACH.-A manuscript, but of what is unknown; for, conversely to the fate of the Books of Kells and Durrow, the case remains, but its contents are gone. The custody of this reliquary was hereditary in the family of O'Morison, who 1 Rer. Hib. SS., vol. i., Ep. N. p. 180, and Prol. p. 185. were the herenachs of Clonmany, a parish in Inishowen, and it continued in their possession till the abolition of the old church tenures reduced them to a state of penury, and they were induced to part with it. The case is of wood, overlaid with wrought silver, and is ornamented with ecclesiastical figures resembling those on the case of the Cathach, as may be seen in the published drawing.1 An inscription in two lines appears side in these words: on the upper Brian mac Briain i Muirgiussa d o cumdaig me A. Do. M°CCCCCXXXIIII. Brian, son of Brian O'Muirguissan, covered me, The keeper of the reliquary in 1609 was Donogh O'Morison, who was a juror at an inquisition sped that year at Lifford, where it was found that a quarter named Donally was "free to Donnogh O'Morreesen, the abbots' corbe and the busshop Derrie's herenagh of those three quarters: that the other three quarters of the said six quarters church land were given by the O Dogherties and O Donnells to Collumkill, as a dedication towards his vestiments when he went to warre, which said three quarters, beinge free, were given to the auncestors of the said Donogh O'Morreeson, whoe in those daies were servaunts to Collumkills: and in the said parishe are sixe gortes of glebe, whereof three gortes belonge to the viccar, and thother fower gortes to the keeper of the missagh or ornaments left by Columkill." By this it appears that the word misach, being interpreted "ornaments," was supposed to be the plural of maise, "an ornament," and not derived, as the form of the word would indicate, from mis, "a month." This interesting reliquary having often changed hands, and having been carried away to England, finally became the property of the present Earl of Dunraven, who generously presented it to the College of St. Columba near Dublin, where it is now preserved. The following extract from an ancient tale, called The Death of 1 Betham, Ant. Res., i. 213. Muircertach mac Erca, contains the earliest allusion to this reliquary: "Cairnech blessed them, and left them gifts, i.e. to the Clanns Conaill and Eoghain. That when they should not be chiefs, or kings of Erin, their influence should extend over every province around them; and that the coarbship of Ailech, and Tara, and Ulster, should be with them; and that they should not accept hire from any one, because the sovereignty of Erin was their own inherent right; and that their hostages should not be locked up, and that decay should come upon the hostages who should abscond ; and that they should have victory in battle, if fought in a just cause, and that they should have three standards, viz., the Cathach, and the Bell of Patrick, i.e. the Bell of the testament, and Cairnech's Miosach; and that the virtue of all these should be on any one reliquary of them in time of battle, as Cairnech bequeathed them; ut dixit," etc. 12. DUBH DUAIBSEACH.-A bell, which St. Columba is fabled to have employed in his conflict with the demons of Sengleann.1 It was probably preserved in the parish of Glencolumkille, in Donegal. 13. GLASSAN.-A bell, which formerly belonged to Drumcolumbkille in Sligo, and was reputed to have been given by the Saint to his disciple Finbarr, the first minister of that church.2 14. DUBH DIGLACH.-A bell of St. Columba's, mentioned in an old poem of the Laud manuscript (p. 28). 15. CLOCH RUADH.-The "Red Stone," about which O'Donnell records the strange legend: "Simul etiam cum partu enixa est mater [Columbæ] quasi lapillum quendam rubrum, vulgo Cloch Ruadh dictum, teretemque mali aurei magnitudine, qui in eodem prædio religiose asservatur."3 The Donegal Inquisition of 1609 finds that two gorts in Gartan were held by "O'Nahan, who carrieth Collumkillie's read stoane." In the Laud Ms. (p. 95) there is a poem ascribed to St. Columba on the virtues of the Red Stone, wherewith he banished the demons from Sengleann. O'Donnell calls the latter a blue stone, and speaks of it as preserved in Glencolumkille.* 16. MOELBLATHA.-The legend in the Preface to the hymn + Ib. p. 403 b. 1 Colgan, Tr. Th., p. 403 b. 2 Ib. p. 406 b. 3 Ib. p. 393 a. 4 |
