276 Proceedings of ike Royal Irish Academy. 



is the true one becomes more than probable when we turn to a. It has only 

 eighteen leetionary notes ; and they are all cast in the third form, beginning 

 with legcnchis. Eleven of them agree verbatim with the corresponding notes of 

 B ; five are found in it with slight variation.^ In another, of which more will 

 be said immediately, the variations are greater, and include a change of form. 

 There is also one which has no parallel in the printed text of B.- But at that 

 place the text of B is certainly corrupt, omitting the whole of the liturgical 

 note of which the reference to the leetionary would have formed part.^ We 

 must therefore pass it by. Thus, setting it aside, all the a leetionary notes 

 are in B, and all but one* assume in B the same form as in a. On the other 

 hand, there is in B but one note of that type which does not appear in a f 

 and, with the exception just referred to, not a single note in B which takes 

 either of the other forms has a countei'part in a. We can scarcely escape the 

 conclusion that the notes beginning with the word hgendus were copied 

 by Bede from /3, and that tlie others were taken from a different source 

 or sources. 



But it may be asked, why in the exceptional case did he abandon his 

 primary authority ? Let us look at it. It is the rubric of Ps. ii. It runs 

 thus in our authorities : — 



B : chrishis dc imssione et potestate sua dicit lege ad lucam. 



S : uox christi dc 2Mssione ad lucam euangl'. 



a : legendtts ad euangelixmi hicae uox pafris et apostolormn et christi ad 

 cajmt scribcndv.iii increpatio potestatum. 



Bede, with good reason, regarded the heading of o (which we assume to 

 have been in /3 as well) as corrupt.^ He therefore turned to another manu- 

 script for the heading ; and he naturally took from it also the liturgical note, 

 though it differed from that of a only in form. 



It appears, then, tliat 17 leetionary notes in B came from a MS. nearly 

 related to a, while the remaining 13 or 14 were derived from other sources. 

 Thus our contention tliat Bede borrowed largely from an ancestor of A is 

 confirmed. 



We must now address ourselves to another question. Taking it as 



' In Pss. xxvi, xxvii, xl, 1, the word lectioiiem i.s omitted, and the following 

 becomes an accusative. In Ps. cvi we have lectionem numeri et iurlicum for iudicum et 

 nv/mei\ libros. 



- Ps. Ixxxiii. 



^ See above, p. 273. 



••Ps. ii. 



''P.s. xxviii. In o, Ps. 1 has a double note, only one member of which .appear.s in B 

 (see p. 272). But this does not affect the argument. See below, p. 279. 



"See above, p. 267. 



