520 
a long period been referred to another author, though still included 
among the great Father’s works. Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, and Ba- 
ronius, have successively pointed out its inferiority; and the Louvain 
editors, followed by the Benedictines, have removed all possibility of 
misconception in the matter. Among Irish writers—Henry Fizsimon,* 
Ussher, Ware,{ and Lanigan,§ lay claim to the essay as the work of an 
Irishman, but fail in ascertaining the writer’s name, having either em- 
ployed an early edition of St. Augustine’s works, in which the prologue 
containing the writer’s name is wanting,|| or else, having conceived that 
Augustine was a very unlikely name to be borne by an Irishman... It 
is, no doubt, of rare occurrence in the catalogue of Irish names, for the 
natives were very sparing in their use of foreign appellations. There 
are, however, a few instances of the adoption of Scripture names, as 
Abel,** Daniel,}* Joseph, {? Philip,§* Thomas, ||* and of ecclesiastical, as 
Clemens,*” and Helair or Hilary.}? Even of the name in question we 
have afew examples. Augustin, abbot of Bangor, who is commemo- 
rated in the calendars of Tallaght, and Marian Gorman,{? died, according 
to the Annals of Ulster,in 779. Augustin was abbot of Hy in 1164,§° and 
another of the same name, of Lisgoole, in 1829. The name may have 
been introduced at the Christianization of the country, for one of Palla- 
dius’ companions was Augustinus ;||” and St. Patrick had subsequently a 
disciple called Augustin, whose church was on Inisbeg.** The name, 
therefore, presents no difficulty to the supposition that the Augustin who 
wrote the treatise De WMirabihbus Sacree Scripture was an Irishman. 
The Benedictine editors in their Admonitio prefixed to the tract con- 
fess that the writer ‘‘ videtur se gente Anglum sive Hibernum indicare ;’’ 
but they cannot conceive how such could be connected with the church 
of Carthage, and therefore in a marginal reading they propose to read 
Cantuariensium,}* instead of Carthaginensium in the text, and in their 
* Catalogus Precipuorum Sanctorum Hiberniz (Antwerp, 1621). 
+ Works, vol. vi., p. 542. 
{ Irish Writers, Works, vol. ii., p. 35. = 
3 Eccles. Hist. of Ireland, vol. iii., pp. 54, 56. 
|| The Prologue is wanting in the Paris edition, 1531; Basil. 1569; Venet. 1570. 
{| Dr. Lanigan conjectures that it is an error for Aengussius or Eugenius. Eccles. 
Hist., vol. iii., p. 58. 
*a Four Masters, A. D. 742, 749, 807, 920, 1159. 
t? Ibid, 659, 731, 768, 777, &e. 
t* Ibid, 780, 789, 811, &e. 
§: Irish Calendars, Mar. 4; Colgan, Acta SS. p. 457 6. 
||* Four Masters, A. D. 789, 803 ; Irish Calend. 4 Dee. 
*b Ibid, An. 824, 826. 
t> Ibid, An. 802; Irish Calendars, Sept. 7. 
{> At the 27th of October. He is omitted in the Calendar of Donegal. 
§> Annals of Ulster. 
|| Book of Armagh, fol. 2a; Colgan, Trias Thaum., pp. 13 J, 183, 48 D. 
*¢ Vit. Trip. iii. 22, 25 (Trias Thaum., p. 155 a). 
+e Dr. Lanigan regards this as a manifest erratum; and probably a mistake for CZu- 
anensium or Corcagiensium (Eccl. Hist. iii, p. 57). His conjecture, however, is utterly un- 
