290 
Rev. Dr. Rexves read a paper— 
ON MARIANUS SCOTUS, OF RATISBON. 
Ir is worthy of observation, that our native annals, which are so full and 
minute in recording the names of ecclesiastics who became distinguished 
at home, utterly ignore the existence of those who went abroad. The 
memory of St. Gall, St. Columbanus, and St. Cataldus are engraved on 
the map of Continental Europe ;* St. Fiacra is stereotyped in the lan- 
guage of France ;{ St. Fridolin is blazoned on the banners and arms of 
Glarus ;{ St. Coloman, an Irish monarch’s son, is patron saint of Lower 
Austria;§ Franconia glories in the Irish Kilian: yet not one of these 
worthies finds a place in the Annals of Tighernach, of Ulster, or the Four 
Masters. For this silence of the annalists there are two ways of account- 
ing. In the first place, the early tide of missionary emigration from 
Treland was entirely eastwards, and for centuries there was little or no 
reflux. The pilgrims found in central Europe abundant oceupation for 
the residue of their lives, and there established a home for themselves, 
either in the martyr’s grave or in the hearts of the people. In this 
manner, having abandoned their native country in early life, ere they 
had made a name, and all intercourse with it being at an end, they 
were soon forgotten. 
In the second place, the nature of our annals demanded such silence, 
and thus what at first might be judged a defect becomes an internal 
testimony of their truth. Zhey admitted nothing on hearsay. I do not, 
indeed, mean to assert that Tighernach, Cathal Maguire, or the O’Clerys 
were not copyists, or that they witnessed all which they record. But 
this I say, that each successive compiler transferred and embodied the 
matter of various collateral and well-authenticated originals, in which 
generations of scribes had in the great monasteries noted down, as in 
a day-book, particular events as they occurred ; which records were pre- 
served on the spot where they were written. We can easily draw the 
picture of an enterprising and diligent scribe, starting from his monas- 
tery with his leathern wallet on his back, to take a circuit of the kin- 
dred institutions of his province, in order to make an authentic com- 
pilation from original entries, for the benefit of his own institution, 
either with a view to increase its literary stores, or repair the damage 
done -by that minister of oblivion—fire. In such compilations the 
names or acts of those who had abandoned their country were not likely 
* The city and canton of S¢. Gall, in Switzerland; the town of Sax Columbano, near 
Pavia, in the district of Lodi; and the town of San Cataldo, in the south of Italy, near 
Otranto, are geographical monuments of the Irish. 
+ Fiacre, a ‘hackney coach.’ See Du Plessis, tom. i., p. 683, note 29; Menage, 
“Dict. Etymol.,” voc. Fiacre, tom. i., p. 589. 
+ An engraving of the canton seal, where he is represented in his pilgrim’s garb, may 
be seen in the Mittheilungen der antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich, vol. ix., part 1, 
tab. 12, No. 10. 
§ He was son of Maelsechlann Mor, sovereign of Ireland, 979 (Ulster Jour. Archzol., 
yol. vii, p. 297). 
