342 



fully at the same year, while the Annals of Multifernam refer the 

 phoenomenon to A. D. 1067.* 



Of learned men, mention has been made of Celsus " bom in Ire- 

 land and schooled in the University of Oxford,"-!* as also of Malachy, 

 Gillebert, and the several annalists. To those -we shall only add the 

 name of Marianus Scotus, an historian of the first rank, born in 1028, 

 of whom Trithemius says '* Marianus * * « » natione Sco if i/s, 

 vir in divinis scripturis eruditus et secularium literarum non ignarus, 

 historiographus et computista insignis."."!; His chronicle is a universal 

 history, " mira subtilitate ostendens errorem chronographorum,"§ for 

 which Harpsfeld says, the English nation are more especially indebted 

 on account of the diligence, care, and fidelity, with which their actions 

 are recorded.il " There is a still more irresistible argument for the 

 value of this work, from the stress that was laid upon it by Edward 

 the First, as an authority to support his claim to the sovereignty of 

 Scotland, for Marianus is oftener appealed to than William of Malmes- 

 bury, Roger Hoveden, Henry of Huntingdon, Ralph De Diceto, &c. 

 put together. And when Henry the Fourth renewed the claims of 

 Edward, he appears to have rested the proof of his right upon the 

 testimony of this writer, whom he alleged to be a Caledonian Scot, 

 which the Scotch commissioners as firmly denied, by asserting that 

 he was an Irish Scot. The circumstances of this dispute are pre- 

 served by Primate Usher."** 



* O'Conor, Rer. Hib. Script, vol. ii. p. 306. f Stanihurst, p. 39. 



X De Script. Eccl. See more particulariy, as to Marianus, Cambrensis Evers. p. 164. 

 § Sigebert, Hist. Eccl. 



II " Quorum res gestas summa diligentia et cura magnaque fide et sinceritate a Beds ad 

 sua usque tempora accurate descripserit." — Saec. 11. c. 26. 

 •* See Campbell's Strictures, p. 207. 



