316 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 



plene siisceperat, quibus niminim Deus tantam uirtutem concessit, quod 

 si quis per ea iurauerit morte uel amentia in eodem anno diuina ultioue 

 mnlctetur."! Since it is incredible that in St. Finnian's day the Irish had not 

 " fully received " the Gospels, this statement requires some explanation. 

 But, however glossed, it witnesses to the importation by Finnian from Eome 

 of a manuscript of the Scriptures ; and we may be confident that a Roman 

 biblical manuscript of that date would be a copy of St. Jerome's version. 

 Again, in the Martyrology of Oengus, under 10 September, we read :' " A 

 kingpost of red gold with purity, over the swelling (?) sea (he came) with law, 

 a sage for whom Ireland is sad, Findbarr of Mag Bill," which seems to refer 

 to the same event. The glossator remarks ■? " What this verse says is that it 

 was Finden of Mag Bile first brought the Law of Moses into Ireland. Or it 

 is to the Gospel that the name of ' law ' was given hie, for it is Findia that 

 first brought the whole Gospel to Ireland. For it is Finnian of Mag Bile 

 that brought Colmdn's Gospel* to Ireland." In like manner the Martyrology 

 of Cashel :° " Ipse est qui primo legem Moysaicam et totum euangelium in 

 Hiberniam portauit." 



We have here, then, a simple and perfectly natural incident, beyond the 

 power, I venture to think, of such purveyors of the marvellous as were the 

 Irish hagiographers to invent. Finnian has lately returned from Eome, 

 bringing with hira, among other treasures, a copy of St. Jerome's translation 

 of the Bible, or a part of it. His most distinguished pupil, whom years before 

 he had instructed in the wisdom of the Scriptures, pays him a visit. He 

 begs to be allowed to read one of the precious volumes. The boon is granted 

 to him, which might have been denied to others, less favoured because less 

 loved. Columba, the student and scribe,^ is fascinated by the new version. 

 He surreptitiously makes a copy of the manuscript, that he may peruse it at 

 his leisure. After a time, Finnian, anxious, perhaps, for the safety of his 

 book,' sends a messenger to fetch it. St. Columba is found, putting the 



' It should be observed that a similar story is told of St. Lasrein or Molaise of 

 Leighlin in Acta S. Lasriani de Lethglini, 7 f. (Cod. Sal., col. 794). Lasrein went 

 to Rome, "ubi . . . honorifice a sancto Gregorio papa est susceptus, et ab eo utriusque 

 testaraenti uolumina ac ecclesiastica instituta didicit . . . Beatiis quoqiie Gregoiiiis, [quil 

 ipsum ordinauit, textu eiiangeliorum dotatum ad Christum predicaiidiini in Hiberniam 

 destinauit." 



2 Ed. W. Stokes, 1905, p. 193. 



= Ibid., p. 205. 



* On this word, according to Todd ("St. Patrick," p. 104), in the Brussels copy there 

 is a late gloss, " correctum la Cirine," "corrected by St. Jerome." 



" Colgan, i. 643, quoted by Todd, ihid. 



6 See Adamnan, ii. 8, 9, 29, 44 ; iii. 23 ; Stokes, p. 176. 



" "Diuturniorem concessi libri retentionem aduertens," as Colgan has it, i. 644. 



