13th December^ igio. 



Sir John W. Byers, M.D., President, in the Chair. 



SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDIEVAL 

 CHRONICLES." 



By Professor Powicke. 



(Abtract). 



The Chairman said they were to have the pleasure of 

 listening to what he was sure would be a most instructive address 

 by his colleague, Mr. Powicke, the able professor of modern 

 history in their university, and the dean of the new Faculty of 

 Commerce. It was only natural that one engaged, like Mr- 

 Powicke, in the special study and in the teaching of history, should 

 draw their attention to the medieval chronicles, which were really 

 very important ancient annals of the various countries in which 

 they existed, and which, as such, furnished often the earliest 

 historical prose of any European vernacular. In Ireland they had 

 the famous "Annals of the Four Masters," but long previous to 

 these a very early and ancient volume of chronicles and other 

 records of the country was preserved in the old Abbey of Fathain 

 (Fahan), on the west coast of Innishowen, founded by St. Mura. 

 In this monastery there w^as also preserved a metrical account of 

 the acts of St. Columba. They had also the "Annals of 

 Clonmacnoise," reaching from the earliest periods down to 1408 ; 

 the Annals of Lough Ce," and others. 



Professor Powicke, in the course of his lecture, said the 

 characteristic of the Middle Ages was belief in law and the 

 universal, not so much as a result of science, but as a rule of life. 

 The modern social order went back to the Middle Ages, during 



