496 



Vol. XXII., containing Nos. 7672, 7673, and 7674, is 

 perhaps one of the most valuable Irish MSS. in existence, be- 

 ing the second volume of a collection of lives of Irish saints, 

 in the Latin language, and written in the fifteenth century. 

 It consists of 177 large folios of parchment; the first is num- 



tions towards illustrating the Biography of the Scotch, English, and Irish 

 Members of the Society of Jesus." Quoting from page 269, of this very in- 

 teresting work, I find a confirmation of the opinions upon the merits of this 

 MS. which I have just ventured to express. 



" Stephen White. This Irish Father deserves a fuller eulogium than I 

 am able to supply. He was the author of some historical pieces relating to 

 Ireland, in confutation of the assertions of Giraldus Ca&brensis. The Rev. 

 John Lynch, who had the custody of this valuable MS., mentions it in chapters 

 i. and xiv. of his Camhrensis Eversus, printed in 1662, and expresses his deep 

 regret that a considerable part of it was lost during the civil wars. Arch- 

 bishop Ussher, an excellent judge of these matters, in page 400 of his Pri- 

 mordia, gives F. White the character of being ' a man of exquisite knowledge 

 in the antiquities, not only of Ireland, but also of other nations.' In a letter 

 of Robert Nugent, superior of his brethren in Ireland, and addressed from 

 Kilkenny, January 10, 1646, to F. Charles Sangri, I read what follows : 



" ' I have given the commission to four of our fathers diligently to exa- 

 mine the works of F. Stephen White, and to forward their judgment to your 

 paternity, conformably to the directions you have recently sent us. His 

 works are various, and as our fathers live in places very distant from each 

 other ; and notwithstanding the most Reverend Bishops (who are ready to 

 defray the expenses of the printing), as also the supreme council, very ear- 

 nestly insist, that a certain work of his " De Sanctis et Antiquitate Ibernise," 

 be instantly sent to the press, I find it difficult, and next to impossible, to 

 resist their reasonable demand, since the MS. itself has been perused by seve- 

 ral amongst them, and has been pronounced not only worthy of being printed, 

 but highly necessary for the credit and advantage of this kingdom. There- 

 fore, I have written again to the examiners, that each would privately report 

 their opinions on this work as soon as possible to your paternity ; though all 

 in their letters to me greatly extol it, and declare it most worthy to issue 

 from the press. But I am unwilling to allow any work to be printed that 

 can give just cause of off'ence to any person : and yet here is less cause of 

 apprehension in this case, as this book merely treats on the Saints and An- 

 tiquity of the Kingdom of Ireland.' " 



Dr. Nicholson, in his Irish Historical Library, p. 90, calls Stephen White 

 the friend of Archbishop Ussher ; and the passage referred to in Cambrensis 



