[404] The name of this place, whether in the form Ebmoria (Lib. Arm.) or in the variant form Euboria (for the variants see Bury, “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 185) is unknown. The context shows that it lay between Auxerre and the north coast of Gaul. Ebroica = Evreux would be my guess. (It probably became the seat of a bishop before the end of the fifth century, but probably not long before. Cp. Duchesne, Fastes ép. ii. 226).

[405] On the evidence for this date see note 15 in my “Sources of Early Patrician Documents” (E.H.R., July 1904), where I refer to the discussion of Dr. W. Levison in his monograph cited above, Appendix A, i. 7.

[406] Nennius Vindicatus, p. 123, note. Later compilers divided Amatho rege. In Irish conditions a rex episcopus would not sound so strange as in Gaul, though I do not know of an instance before Cormac of Cashel at the beginning of the tenth century. In Tripartite Life (p. 34) we get a further step in the evolution; the bishop appears as Amatho rí Románach (King of the Romans); and the final stage is reached when Patrick is ordained coram Teodosio imperatore.

[407] I pointed out this inference in “Sources of Early Patrician Documents” (cit. sup.).

[408] Ann. Ult. s.a. 439. For the separate coming of Iserninus see account in Lib. Arm. f. 18 rᵒ a (342, Rolls ed.). It is there indeed supposed that they started at the same time from Gaul, but were severed by storms, and so arrived separately in Ireland. The motive for this tale is evidently the genuine record that they did not come together.

[409] There are three cases (Zimmer, ib. 24-26):

1. Long ō instead of long ā: e.g. trindōit (= trinitatem); altōir (= altāre); caindlōir (candelarius); notlaic (nātalicia); popa (papa). If the Latin forms had come directly to Ireland, the ā would have been preserved; ō for ā is characteristically British.

2. c for p: casc (pascha); crubthir (presbyter). Words of this kind must have been “interpreted to the Irish by British mouths,” for if they had been borrowed from Latin, p would have been preserved. The motive for the change of British p to c in the loan-words was the observed fact that in native words Gaelic c corresponded to British p (representing the velar q). The treatment of Patrick’s name is a significant instance. From its British form we get in Irish Coithrige, from its Latin form Patraicc. Caille, a veil (caillech, a nun), is supposed to be another case (= pallium). Mr. Nicholson suggests that it is Celtic, = capillia (Keltic Researches, p. 104).

3. sr for fr, sl for fl: e.g. slechtan (flectionem), srogell (flagellum). In case of a direct borrowing, sr, sl would have been kept; but coming through British they were treated on the analogy of Irish sruth = Br. frut.

[410] Tracia being an error for Frācia.

[411] The prose list in the Book of Ballymote describes both Duachs as Tenga Uma (and as slain by Muirchertach), but in the case of the first Duach Galach is written above.

[412] Dai Galach is mentioned as Brian’s youngest son, and destined to reign in Connaught, in the text printed, with translation, by Dr. W. Stokes, from the Yellow Book of Lecan (col. 898), concerning the sons of Eochaid Muigmedoin, in Rev. Celt. xxiv. (1903), p. 182.

[413] The notice is discussed by Todd, St. Patrick, pp. 469-70, but he does not attempt any explanation of probatus est, and by omitting the first part of the notice altogether he shows that he did not apprehend the significant association of the probatio with Leo.

[414] Nostra provincia is ecclesiastical Ireland, or north Ireland—not a particular district or kingdom.

[415] The Vit. Trip. (Part 3, p. 238) places the visit to Rome after the foundation of Armagh. This order seems to be simply an inference from the fact that the relics which Patrick got at Rome were brought to Armagh.

[416] The references are to Gundlach’s ed., Epp. Mer. et Kar. Aeui, vol. i.

[417] Mr. Warren rightly rejects the pregnant meaning found in this passage by Döllinger (Liturgy and Ritual, p. 39).

[418] difficiles is in three MSS., including the Coloniensis (eighth century): it is clearly wanted, and (if there was not some stronger and fuller phrase in the original canon) it has a very pregnant meaning.

[419] I believe that the silence of Cummian in his letter to Segéne (Migne, P.L. 87, 970) has been urged as an objection to the authenticity of the canon. But the argument from silence in such a case as this has no cogency. It is quite possible that he was not aware of the canon.

[420] See B. Krusch, Der 84jährige Ostercyclus und seine Quellen, 1880.

[421] Columbanus, Epp. ed. Gundlach, Ep. 4, p. 162.

[422] Ib. Ep. 1 (to Gregory I.), p. 157; Catal. Sanct. Hib., unum Pascha, quarta decima luna post aequinoctium vernale (H. and S., Councils, ii. 292, 293).

[423] Dr. MacCarthy’s explanation (Introd. to Annals of Ulster, iv. p. lxxix) of an entry in the Chronicle of Marius Aventicensis (ad ann. A.D. 560), as implying a survival of the old 84 cycle in Gaul, does not seem tenable (see A. Anscombe, Z. f. Celtische Philologie, iv. p. 333).

[424] I have omitted all reference to the abstruse technique of the computations, and the question as to the difference between the two cycles of 84 (differing in the number of the saltus), for which see MacCarthy, op. cit. pp. lxv. sqq.; Krusch, op. cit.

[425] For dating, see MacCarthy, op. cit. cxl. cxli.

[426] Migne, Patrol. 87, 969.

[427] Krusch, 302 sqq. For dating, see MacCarthy, op. cit. cxvii., where the proof of fabrication will be found.

[428] So MacCarthy, cxxxvii., note 2.

[429] Dr. MacCarthy shows that Cummian was uncritical (cxl.), but I cannot go quite so far as he. He accepts, as genuine tradition, the statement that Patrick brought a cycle with him (rightly observing that the addition of et fecit cannot be pressed), but holds that it was identical with the Celtic cycle of later times. It is with much diffidence that I venture to differ from him on this point; but I owe it to his investigations that I have been able to reach a definite conclusion.

[430] The learned Appendix A, pp. 123 sqq., in Reeves, Eccl. Ant., is valuable still.

[431] Ed. Gundlach, M.G.H., Epp. Mer. et Kar. Aeui, i. p. 163. See Jerome, Ep. 58 (Migne, 22, 583).

[432] 450 in Tírechán and one MS. of Catal. Sanctorum; 350 in other MSS. of Cat. Sanct.

[433] It is not, of course, certain that Bishop Muirethachus qui fuit super flumen Bratho, for whom Patrick and Bronus wrote an alphabet, is identical with the epscop Muiredaig, “an aged man of Patrick’s household,” who is said in Vit. Trip., p. 134, to have been left by Patrick in Cell Alaid. The foundation of Cell Alaid is not mentioned by Tírechán.

[434] The text of Tírechán leaves it doubtful whether the foundation of Cellola Tog was laid under Patrick’s auspices, and whether Patrick ordained Cainnech bishop. He is not included in the author’s catalogue of bishops ordained by Patrick (p. 304).

[435] For the monachi of Assicus, see 313₃₃ and 328₃₀.

[436] Cainnech was a monachus Patricii, 324₁₃. Another mon. P. is mentioned 329₉. The deacon Coimanus of Ardd Licce seems to have been another, 317₂₆. Gengen and Sannuch are described as mon. P. 305₁₇; and for the foreigners Conleng and Ercleng, see 313₁₂.

[437] Thus Slébte, the seat of Bishop Fíacc, would have been a civitas. It is called Slebtiensis civitas by Muirchu (271₁₉). See also Lib. Angeli, 355, omnis aeclessia libera et civitas <quae> ab episcopali gradu uidetur esse fundata. Cp. an Irish canon, ascribed to Patrick, in the Hibernensis, 29, c. 7 (p. 101 ed. Wasserschl.), aut a sancta ecclesia aut in civitate intus.

[438] 326₂₁, quia deus dixit illi ut legem relinquerent [?—et, as Stokes suggests] et episcopos ordinaret ibi, et prespiteros et diaconos in illa regione. This suggests, though it does not necessitate, the inference in the text.

[439] Senchus Mór, i. 40. See also the following passages: i. 54 (a false-judging king and a stumbling bishop are placed on a level); i. 78, the king’s testimony is valid against all except the man of learning, the bishop, and the pilgrim.

[440] In his treatment of the Muirchu narrative Todd does not go below the surface, but he recognises that the first part embodies a concession on the part of Armagh. The question is discussed in Reeves, Eccl. Antiquities, 223 sq.

[441] The simplest case is when an incident is reduplicated, as in the Cyclops story in the Odyssey (Book 9), where the second stone-casting of the Cyclops at the escaping ship is a later addition by an expander who sought to outdo the original incident but failed in his effect.

[442] I may note here that the river Cabcenne, where the Orior men discovered the deception, has not been identified, but ought naturally to be sought near their destination, Armagh. So Todd, p. 195.

[443] In his article “Keltische Kirche” in the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie u. Kirche, 1901; translated by Miss Meyer (The Celtic Church in Britain and Ireland), 1902.

[444] In Bede’s Martyrology, under March 17, we find in Scotia S. Patricii Confessionis. Zimmer (p. 10) accepts this, without question, as Bedan. I should like to know how far we can distinguish in this document what is Bede’s from later additions.

[445] There is, however, another consideration which may be taken into account by those who wonder at the absence of any reference to Patrick in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History. The Latin literature concerning St. Patrick only began to appear in Bede’s time. Tírechán’s Memoir cannot have been written long before his birth; and he was nearly thirty years old when Muirchu’s Life was composed. The older Patrician literature, as we have seen reason to believe, was in Irish, and inaccessible to Bede. The Columban church in north Britain was not concerned to propagate the fame of Patrick. There was rivalry between the Columban and Patrician communities in Ireland (cp. Tírechán, 314₈).

[446] As I observed above (p. 262) if Muirchu’s work were anonymous and nothing were said of Aed, we should never suspect that the author belonged to the south of Ireland; we should certainly connect him with north Ireland.

[447] The particular passage on which Zimmer relies—the only positive evidence—is in the “Additions” to Tírechán in the Liber Armachanus (p. 332, Rolls ed.), where Palladius is said to have been called Patricius alio nomine, but is distinguished from the second Patrick. But this can be otherwise explained. The double date of Patrick’s death (see Appendix C, 7) led to a duplication—a first and a second Patrick, and one attempt to fix the personality of the earlier Patrick was to identify him with Palladius.