160 Proceedings oj the Royal Irish Academy. 



But something more may be said. Leaving out of consideration Canto CLX, 

 the writer of S distributes his signs over nine days, and so makes some 

 of these appear after the Eesurreetion, whereas one would naturally expect 

 that they would occur earlier as precursors of that event. Why does he 

 adopt this curious order ? I would venture to put forward the following 

 suggestion as an attempt to solve this problem. The writer of S had before 

 him a version of the Apocalypse in which occurred the long interpolated 

 passage dealing with the coming of Christ, the fire of Paradise, and the robes 

 of light ; but this stood, not after the events of the sixth day, but at the very 

 end of the document, after the events of the eighth day, as is actually the case 

 in one of the manuscripts which Bihlmeyer uses. This interpolation contains 

 items which might be classed as " signs," two of which the writer of S uses 

 in his seventh day, and another perhaps in his third day. So the existence 

 of such a long passage in such a position in his original may have suggested 

 to the mind of the writer of S the idea of lengthening out his signs over two 

 extra days. If tliis be correct, it may be said that not only did the writer of 

 S know at first hand the Apocalypse of Thomas, but that he made use of a 

 version of it in which the long interpolated passage stood at the end of the 

 eighth day. And this conclusion, I believe, adds a further item to our know- 

 ledge of the extraneous literature read in the schools of Ireland nearly a 

 millennium ago. 



But this does not conclude our examination of the subject. There is 

 matter in S which is not to be found either in A or in B. Such is : — The 

 roaring of the beasts and monsters (S 2} : the uprising of the sea, leaving its 

 inhabitants high and dry till its return ; the bird-liocks assailing the food ; 

 the winds uprooting the woods (S 4) ; and perliaps the breaking of the 

 stones (S 3). But it is remarkable that, with the exception of the action of 

 the bird-flocks, which resembles a passage in Aquinas, all these find more or 

 less close parallels in the Old French group of fifteen signs, which is said to 

 go back to a twelfth- century French poem, and of which the Cursor Mujidi 

 affords an example. Indeed, the latter group contains signs which occur in 

 our seven-sign group (viz., A, B, and S), but not in anj' of the other fifteen- 

 sign groups. Such are : — The bloody rain, the detailed destruction of the 

 stars, the extinction of both the sun and moon, the opening of Heaven, and 

 the escape of the devils from Hell. 1 am not competent to deal with so vast 

 a question as the relationship between the seven-sign and the fifteen-sign 

 groups. But this much at least may be said. The Old French {Cursor 

 Mundi) group of fifteen signs is closely connected with our seven-sign group, 

 not merely in subject, but in the arrangement of the signs, i.e., it has, as a 

 rule, several events occurring on each day, while Bede, Coniestor, and Aquinas 



