314 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



of Maghbile that Columba " learned the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures."^ It 

 was fitting that from the same master he should seek further knowledge in 

 the same region of study. Once again we have a coincidence which not only 

 enhances the credit of O'Donnell's story, but confirms our conclusion as to the 

 identity of Finnian of Dromin. The argument seems to me all the stronger 

 in view of the reasons given by writers of the greatest authority who have 

 held an opinion different from that to which I have given expression. Eeeves 

 declares that the passage of Adamnan " renders the legend of the qiiarrel 

 between St. Fiunian and St. Columba, both as to cause and fact, extremely 

 improbable " ;' and we have seen that Skene, relying on another chapter of 

 Adamnan's Life, held a similar view. Both writers meant, it would seem, that 

 such esteem as the two saints entertained for each other would have made the 

 quarrel impossible, or that their mutual affection would never have revived 

 once it had taken place. That I cannot believe. But whatever truth 

 there is tu the contention would surely have been as evident to a composer 

 of ecclesiastical fiction as to a modern scholar, and it would easily ha^•e been 

 avoided by choosing some other leader in the Church as the adversary of 

 Columba. 



But let U5 attack our problem from a different side. Eeaders of O'Donnell's 

 Life naturally ask the questions : Why was St. Columba so anxious to study 

 the book which he borrowed from St. Finnian ? Why was he at pains to 

 transcribe it ? And, on the other hand, why was St. Finuian so desirous, when 

 the copy was made, to retain it in his own hands, and to prevent its circulation ? 

 At least one writer on St. Finnian of Maghbile speaks of " the beauty of his 

 sacred books."' Apparently, therefore, he would have answered our questions 

 bv a reference to the illuminations or some similar features of the borrowed 

 volume. But the aesthetic charm of a book cannot be irausferred to a copy 

 made in haste. This answer, therefore, will not serve. The copy would preserve 

 the text, and nothing else. St. Columba might have wished to possess the 

 text of a book to which he had no ready means of access — a treatise, let us 

 say, of some ecclesiastical writer, or a service-book of a type with which he 

 was unfamiliar. But O'Donnell implies that Ftnnian's book was some part of 

 the Biblical Canon. If so, his eagerness must have been excited by the fact 



'Adamnan, ii. 1, where Reeves identifies "Fijidbarrus episcopus " with Finnian of 

 Maghbile. But he is less dogmatic in his notes on iii. 4, where the same person appears 

 as " episcopus Finnio." The decisive argument is that the incident of the latter chapter 

 immediately preceded the settlement of Columba at lona in 563, while Finnian of Clonard 

 died in 549. 



- Adanman, p. 103. 



^ J. Gammack in the Diet, of Christian BioKraphy, ii. 519. 



