1891-92]. COLUM CILLE, 135 
detected, and when an appeal was made to the monarch of Erinn-Diar- 
maid MacFerghusa Gerrbheoil, he gave the remarkable judgment 
which to this day remains a proverb in Ireland, when he said Le gach 
Soin a bointn, i.e. to every cow belongeth her little cow or calf, and in the 
same way to every book belongeth its copy ; and accordingly, said the 
king, the book that you wrote, O Colum Cille! belongs by right to 
Finnen. That is an unjust decision, O Diarmaid! said Colum Cille, 
and I will avenge it on you. Complications afterwards came in 
connection with the rude conduct of Diarmaid, who seized a son of the 
King of Connacht, and put him to death for a certain offence, and in 
violation of the immunity which the young prince might claim, foras- 
much as he was in the arms of St. Colum Cille. Colum Cille with his 
great influence had much to do in inciting and in raising an army to 
oppose Diarmaid King of Ireland. The result of the conflict was that 
a battle was fought in which the royal army was routed with a great 
loss, and the monarch returned discomfited to Tara. Diarmaid soon 
after made his peace with St. Colum Cille, and his friends. The Saint 
to relieve his conscience went to confession to St. Molaise of Dambh- 
inis. St. Molaise then passed upon him the penitential sentence to 
leave Erinn forthwith, and never again to see its land. This penance 
St. Colum soon performed by sailing to the coast of Scotland with a 
large company of ecclesiastical students end others. They landed on 
the island of I or Hy. Eugene O’Curry tells us that in O’Donnell’s 
life of St. Colum Cille regarding the Cathach “the Cathach indeed is 
the name of the book on account of which the battle was fought, and 
it is it, that is, Colum Cille’s high relic in Tir Conaill: and it is orna- 
mented with silver, and it is not lawful to open it; and if it is carried 
three times to the right around the army of the Cenel Conaill when going 
to battle, it is certain that they would come out of it with victory: 
and it is on the breast of a Comharba, or a priest without mortal sin 
upon him (as well as he can), it is proper for the Cathach to be at 
going round that army.” We are informed by Bede that “in the year of 
our Lord 565, when Justin the younger, the successor of Justinian had 
the government of the Roman Empire, there came into Britain a 
famous priest, and abbot, a monk by habit and life, whose name was 
Columba, to preach the word of God to the provinces of the Northern 
Picts. Columba came into Britain in the ninth year of the reign of 
Bridius who was the son of Meilechon and the powerful king of the 
Pictish Nation, and he converted that nation to Christ by his preaching 
and example whereupon he also received from them the aforesaid 
Island, i.e. I, fora Monastery.” In the Anglo-saxon Chronicle, it is stated 
that in 565 “Columba a mass priest came to the Picts, and converted 
