202 Proceedings of the Royal Irish A cademi). 



whose name cannot now be ascertained. The author had been exhorted to 

 compile the work by his father Eusebius " while the latter still lived/' and 

 by a number of " Christian " bishops and priests, and compelled to do so Toy 

 order of his mastei-, whose name is not given. Advice or material for 

 the work had been apparently furnished by two other ecclesiastics, Bathanus 

 and Manchianus, possibly to be identified with Baetan Mac-Ui-Cormaic, 

 abbot of Clonniacnoise, who died in 664, and Mauchene of Mondrehid, who 

 died in 652. 



Barely sixty years after its compilation ihe"De Mirabilibus" had already 

 come to be regarded in Ireland as a genuine production of the great 

 St. Augustine. This was apparently due to the insertion, either inadvertently 

 or deliberately, of a dedicatory heading in which the African doctor is 

 clearly designated as the author. 



III.— The Biblical Citation.?. 



The study of the biblical citations presents certain difficulties owing to 

 the want of a critical t<^\t of the " De Mirabilibus." The following remarks 

 are therefore put forth with all due reserve- : — 



Scriptural events are usually related by the author in his own words, but 

 in some fifty-one passages he is apparently citing textually. Of thege 

 twenty-nine come from the Old Testament and twenty-two from the New. 

 Of tlie twenty-nine fruni tlie O.T. fifteen agree witii the Vulgate and 

 fourteen do not: and of those from llie N.T. nine are Vulgate and thirteen 



' Prologue, Ed c«l. 2149 : " Bcntissimi, dum adhiic viveret, jiatrJK niei Eiieebii," etc. 

 Renres (Joe. cH. mtpra, p. 515) interpreted this to mean his spiritual father. It may be 

 well to mention hero the extraordinary vicwB put forward on the subject of the " De 

 Mirabilibus" by Bruno Krusch ("Ncues Arcliiv der Gesellschaft fur iiltere deutsche 

 Geschichtakunde," ix, 1884, pp. 158-159): " Ansser Cnmniianus hat auch der irenfe'nd- 

 li'-he Verfaiser der 'Mirnbilia' ron deui gallischen Paschale Gebrauch geuiacht." 

 Further : " Im lotzten .lahrc dca 11 Cyclus, bemerkl der Verfasser der Mirabilia, starb 

 der iriMht Mnnirh/Jer, d. i. ktiu andertr nli liitcho/ Aednn con Uuly Island, der in der 

 That, wie wir sahen, G51 das Zeitliche segiiete." Also : " Der 12 Cyclus begaiin C52, und 

 im dritten .lahre desselbcn. also 654 i»t die Berechnung gcchriebeu, nfftnlmr im lieichi 

 Ojiriiu, wo damal.s schon durch Pilger, welche Gallien und Italien durchstreift hatteu, 

 der romische und frankische ' Computus [uischae ' sehr verbreitct waren." Comment i» 

 needless. 



'See also an excellent nolo by Haddan (ap. Haddan and Stubbs, "Councils and 

 Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland,'' i, 18C0, 'pp.170 if/., 

 especially pp. 180-187). 



