Lawi.ou — The Ancient List of the Coarhs of Patrick. 335 



diate successor of Aiuelian.* After the ecclesiastics mention is made of 

 Childebert I, King of Uie Franks, and his queen, under whom the Monastery 

 of tlie Apostles was founded. Thus we have in this list ol patres atqiu insti- 

 tutm-es the founder, eight ecclesiastics, some, but not all, of whom were abbots 

 of the monastery, and two lay benefactors. 



If the diptychs of the church of Armagh followed some such Gallican 

 model as this, we might expect that the names of the dead in them would fall 

 under the same three categories : the founder, St. Patrick ; abbots and some 

 other worthies of the local church ; lay patrons. That is apparently what we 

 do find in 0, as has already been pointed out. 



Now if the diptychs of the dead at Armagli was originally a catalogue of 

 patres atqtte institutores, we can readily understand how in later ages it came 

 to be regarded as a list of the successors of St. Patrick. At first it would 

 have included the names of a few worthies who did not hold the office of 

 abbot. But abbots would always have a first claim to a place in it. As in 

 the course of centuries the list grew longer, no others would be admitted. 

 Ultimately it would become the habit to add to it each abbot immediately 

 after his death, and so its original purpose would be forgotten. It would then 

 be looked on as an authentic catalogue of the coarbs. 



Confirmation of this suggestion may be found in a well-known hymn 

 in the Antiphonary of Bangor, which has the litle In mcmoriam Abhatum 

 Nostrorum. It commemorates the first fifteen "abbots" of that monastery, 

 and was written between 6S0 and 691, while the last of the fifteen was still 

 in office.^ In spite of that fact, its first stanza runs — 



Sancta sanctorum opera 

 Patrum, fratres, foxtissima, 

 Beuchoreusi in optima 

 Fundatorum ecclesia, 

 Abbatum eminentia, 

 Numerum, tempora,"nomina. 

 Sine fine fulgentia 

 Audite magna merita, 



Quos conuocauit Dominus 



Caelorum regni sedibus. 



The last two lines reappear at the end of each of the following stanzas except 

 the last. The first stanza reminds us suggestively of the beginning {patrum 

 atque instUutoi-itm) and end of the passage quoted above from tlie diptychs of 



' Gallia Christiana, i (1716), 600. 



'^ See F. E. Warren's Antiphonary of Bangor, vol. i, p. ix f. ; vol- ii, p. '63. 



