Uses of the Round Towers of Ireland, fyc. 385 



inter vos stabat, jussi, ut alicui ex Fratribus de summo culmine magnse domus lapso tarn cito sub- 

 veniret, quse his in diebus Roboreti Campo fabricatur.' Hocque sanctus consequenter intulit famen, 

 inquiens. ' Valde admirabilis et pene indicibilis est angelici volatus pernicitas, fulgureae, ut sestimo, 

 celeritati parilis. Nam ille coelicola, qui hinc a nobis mine illo viro labi incipiente avolavit, quasi in 

 ictu oculi priusquam terram tangeret subveniens, eum sublevavit; nee ullam fracturam, aut 

 Isesuram ille qui cecidit sentire potuit. Quam stupenda hsec inquam velocissima et opportuna sub- 



ventio, queedicto citius tantis maris et terrse interjacentibus spatiis tarn celerrime effici potuit!"' 



Vitce Antiques Sanctorum, &c., p. 169- 



I should state, that the important heading prefixed to this chapter is not 

 found in some of the editions of the work previously published, as in the first, 

 published by Canisius in 1604, from a vellum manuscript preserved in the 

 monastery of Windberg ; nor in that of Messingham, in 1624, which is but a 

 reprint of the former ; nor in that of the Bollandists ; but it is found in the 

 better edition of Colgan, which is taken from an ancient vellum manuscript, 

 preserved at Augia (Aux), in Germany, and which agrees with the manu- 

 script in the British Museum, except that the phrase " de monasterii culmine 

 rotundi," is printed "de monasterii culmine rotunda." This difference is, how- 

 ever, of little importance, as the real question is, what the author could have 

 meant by either " monasterii culmine rotundo," or monasterii culmine rotundi. Not, 

 certainly, that the monastery itself had a rotund roof, because we know that 

 the monasteries of those days were a collection of small and detached cells, 

 each devoted to a single monk ; and certainly not that the church had one, as it 

 appears from the notice in the text of the chapter that the cidmen was that of 

 the magna domus ; and besides, from the quadrangular forms of all the Irish 

 churches of this period, they could not have admitted of a dome roof. But 

 more than all, supposing it were from the roof of the church that the monk 

 was falling, or from any other building, such as we know to have existed 

 in connexion with the monasteries of this period, the Tower excepted, where 

 would have been the danger, to escape which, the miraculous interposition of 

 an angel would have become necessary ? Surely not to prevent him from a 

 fall of twelve feet or so, which is the usual height of the side walls of the 

 abbey-churches of this period ; nor from the roofs of either the abbot's house or 

 monks' cells, which, though usually round, were seldom, if ever, of a greater 

 height than twelve feet, and from which, having rarely upright walls, there could 

 have been no serious danger in falling. In short the miracle, to be a miracle 



VOL. xx. 3 D 



