306 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



It is not necessary for our purpose to discuss the question whether this 

 semi-political scheme for Chi'istianizing the Picts was already conceived when 

 Columba first determined to leave Ireland, or was a later development. But 

 it is worthy of remark that both Adamnau (if I understand him aright) and 

 O'Dounell leave the question open. For the former the enterprise is merely 

 a ''pilgrimage," for the latter a departure into exile, which is a somewhat 

 different expression of the same idea. On the other hand, both the Life of 

 >St. Molaise of Damh luis and " De Causa Peregrinationis"' represent it as 

 having had from its very inception a missionary character. This seems to 

 indicate that O'Donuell follows a tradition earlier than that of either of the 

 foui'teenth-century authorities. 



But another objection to O'Donnell's story of Cul Dremlme must be 

 briefly noticed. AYhy, it is asked, if the incidents which he describes really 

 happened, are they passed over in silence by Adamnan, and even by the 

 less trustworthy author of tlie Old Irish Life ? The reason is to be found in 

 the aim of these two writers and the method of their work. We may confine 

 ourselves to Adamnan ; for wliat has to be said of him may be applied with 

 very slight alteration to the later writer. jSTow Adamnan, valuable as 

 his account of St. Columba is, can scarcely be called a biographer in the 

 modern sense. His Vita Saucti Columbae is not a regular narrative, it is a 

 collection of anecdotes. He recounts prophecies, miracles, and angelic visions ; 

 and sometimes these things are more or less loosely connected with historical 

 incidents of a more ordinary kind. But historical facts have for him, as for 

 other hagiographers, a merely secondary importance. " To relate an ecclesi- 

 astical occurrence for its own sake was foreign to the scope of his work";' 

 and so the synod, which has been already referred to, and St. Columba's 

 excommunication thereat, are alluded to only by way of introduction to a 

 more edifying tale. " Had there been no vision to relate, no fact would have 

 been recorded.' Bearing this characteristic of his work in mind, we shall not 

 be surprised to find few references in Adamnan 's pages to the events recorded 

 by O'Donnell. He might have mentioned the copying of St. Finnian's book 

 for the sake of the light that streamed from Columba's fingers, or the 

 incident of the pet crane ; or he might have included among his anecdotes 

 the vision of the Archangel at Cul Dremhne, if any of these supernatural 

 events had come to his ears. But to tell the story as a whole was exactly 

 the thing that he would not do. Indeed, there are not many of Adamnan's 

 anecdotes whose scene is laid in Ireland, probably because he knew much less 

 about the saint's earlier life than of the incidents which were preser\'ed in the 

 traditions of lona. 



> § 6 ; not so § 11. 2 Reeves, p. 193. 



