408 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



APPENDIX III. 



The Tract "De Causa Psregkinationis S. Columbae." 



The Bodleiau MS., Eawlinson, B. 485, and its daughter MS.,Eawlmson, B. 505, 

 contain, amongst other Lives of Irish Saints, one which is only a slightly 

 divergent recension of the " Vita Secunda " of St. Columba printed by Colgan 

 ("Trias Tliaumaturga," p. o25ff.) from the Codex Salmanticensis (de Smedt 

 and de Backer, col. 845). In this recension the latter part of § 18 (" verum 

 quia," &c.), together with § 19, is transferred to the middle of § 39 (after 

 " resurrectionem cnm glorie claritate "). For §§ 20-39 the text is complete, 

 the long gap between §§ 20, 21 in the Code.^ Salmanticensis, due to 

 the loss of a leaf of the MS., being filled. Moreover, in the position 

 occupied in the Codex Salmanticensis by the displaced portion, it has an 

 interesting passage, which is probably not an original part of the Life. Its 

 purpose is to explain the cause of St. Columba's departure from Ireland. The 

 earlier portion of the passage was printed by Ussher in his " Antiquities," 

 chap. 17 (Works, vi, 466ff.), having been communicated to him by Stephen 

 White. Eeeves, for reasons which he does not state, believed that it was 

 composed by that scholar (Adamnan, pp. ix, 196). That is, of course, 

 impossible ; and there seems to be no improbability in the supposition that 

 White copied it from one of the Eawlinson MSS. There was a copy of the 

 passage in the Codex Salmanticensis, not, apparently, as part of the Life of 

 St. Columba, but as a separate article. Of this, owing to the loss of a leaf, 

 only the latter part now remains (col. 221 ff.). Its first few lines are 

 identical with the conclusion of the Ussher fragment. The text here printed 

 is taken from Eawlinson, B. 485 (R^), a few corrections being made from 

 Ussher (U) and Cod. Sal. (S). Contractions have been expanded, and 

 capitals and punctuation marks have been used in accordance with modern 

 convention. The variants are recorded in the foot-notes. Since Mr. Charles 

 Plummer has shown that EawHnson, B. 505 (E') was copied from E' (ZCP, 

 V. 429; Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, vol. i, p. xvii, f.), I have not thought 

 it necessary to collate its text. For convenience I have divided the passage 

 into sections. 



