EsposiTO — On the Earliest Latin Life of St. Brigid of Kildare. 323 



Gorman,' and also in the Martyrology of Tallagh,- but whether he has any 

 connexion with our author it is impossible to say. 



"We may then regard it as demonstrated that our Cogitosus was the father 

 of Muirchu Maccu Machtlieni. Now the latter is known to have written 

 his biography of St. Patrick in or about the year 699.^ Furthermore, 

 Muirchu's son, Colman, Abbot of Moville, died, according to the Annals of 

 Ulster,* in 736. We may therefore place Muirchu's "floruit" about 650-710, 

 and that of his father will approximate to 620-680. 



From external evidence, then, we are justified in assigning Cogitosus to 

 the period 620 to 680, and there is no internal evidence in the Vita itself to 

 contradict this view. The Latinity and style are exactly what we might 

 expect from an Irish writer of the seventh century.* It has been argued that 

 Cogitosus must have lived between the years 800 and 833 or 836. In sections 

 37, 38, and 39 of the Vita he speaks in glowing terms of St. Brigid's 

 church at Kildare, and of the splendour of its decoration. The town he 

 describes as " cinitas refugii tutissima." Manifestly this could not have been 

 written after the plundering of Kildare in 833 and 836. On the other hand, 

 the opening phrases of section 37 are taken to refer to the ceremony mentioned 

 in the Annals of Ulster at the year 800, of the placing of the relics of 

 St. Conlaedh, Bishop of Kildare, in a shrine of gold and silver. But anyone 

 who reads over attentively the passages in Cogitosus will realize that the 

 translation of the relics of St. Conlaedh in 800 was an occurrence different 

 from his burial under a monument described in the Vita S. Brigidae.' 



The use of the word nepos in the closing phrase of the Vita (section 40), 

 " Orate pro me Cogitoso nepote culpabili,"' has sometimes been taken 

 as evidence of relationship between Cogitosus and St. Brigid, but oiepos 

 is clearly to be taken in the sense of " prodigal," " spendthrift," in which 



1 Ed. Whitley Stokes [Henry Biadshaw Society], 1895, p. 78. 



2 Calendar of Irish Saints, edited by M. Kelly, 12mo, Dublin [1857], p. xxi. This very poor 

 -edition was made from the Brussels 5is. No. 5100-04. The account of Cogitosus given by the 

 BoUandists (Acta Sanctorum, Febr. t. i, pp. 101-102) is now, of course, quite out of date. 



3 Cf. Bury, Life of St. Patrict, 1905, p. 256. 



* Cf . vol. iv, 1901, Index, edited by Mac Carthy, who has revised the chronology of the preceding 

 volumes. 



'As already remarked, the style shows much resemblance to that of Muirchu. Victor Toumeur 

 (Bibliotheque de la Faeulte de Philosophic et des Lettres de I'Universite de Liege, Fasc. 15, 1905, 

 p. 51) speaks of Cogitosus' Latinity as remarkable for this period. I should prefer to reserve judg- 

 ment until the publication of a critical edition. The text presented by the London and Oxford jiss. 

 -collated by me is far more corrupt and inaccurate than the version given by the BoUandists. 



« Cf . Annals of Ulster at the corrected dates 800, 833, 836. St. Conlaedh, first bishop of Kildare, 

 died in 520. The date of St. Brigid's death is variously estimated as 524, 526, or 528. Petrie 

 (Round Towers of Ireland, Dublin, 1845, p. 200) held that Cogitosus wrote between 799 (800) and 

 831 (833). 



' The Mss. show considerable variations in tliis passage. 



R.I. A. PEOC VOL. XXX., SECT. C. [44] 



