S. MODWF.N AND "THE DEVILL OF DRAKEI.OW^." 51 



truthful Warjeus. There is, he says, an autograph of the life 

 of S. Modwen in the Cotton Library, from whence I have my 

 apograph, but in the beginning in a more recent hand it is 

 falsely (?) ascribed to Geoffry, the monk of Burton who wrote 

 the argument to the same : for the antiquity of the characters 

 of the autograph prove the writer to have lived before the close 

 of the twelfth century."* Whether there is any discrepancy 

 between the characters of the prologue and the text of the 

 vita itself, I do not know, but if there had been, it would 

 probal)ly have been noticed by Mr. Jeaqes in his observations 

 on the MS. 



Among the subjects set forth by the Bollandist is one indicated 

 by the following heading : — 



" S. Modwen receives the virgin pall from S. Patrick." 

 This, however, can hardly have been the national saint of Ireland, 

 for he is said to have died as early as a.d. 493. 



There is another statement in the Reliquary which is not in 

 accordance with the more probable chronology. In the intro- 

 duction to the early printed fragments it is affirmed that 

 S. Modwen built a nunnery at Faugher in a.d. 638, i.e., 135 

 years after the death of S. Patrick. Alban Butler states that she 

 came into England during the reign of Ethelwulf about the year 

 840, and I am the more inclined to follow this chronology 

 because the same early record which states that she received 

 the pall from S. Patrick also avers that she was the medium 

 of the recovery of Alured (or Alfred), son of the king of 

 England, from his sickness, a circumstance which can only 

 have transpired at least 377 years after S. Patrick's death, 

 and I think this inconsistency may readily be accounted for 

 when we read that Geoffry sent into Ireland for his materials 

 for the compilation of his life of S. Modwen. He would naturally 

 accept without criticism any statement which would associate 

 his patroness with the great herald of Christianity in the western 

 isle, as tending to lend dignity to the mission and character of 



* Just when Geoffry did live. — Ed. 



