WniTK— Latin Writings of St. Patrick. 205 



the authority of the ms. itself and that of the ms. as edited by A. Denis. 

 Hence I have cited them respectively as B and Boll. 



(3). TheConfessio and Epistola are contained intact in the Cotton 

 MS. Nero, E.I. in the British Museum. The Confessio begins on fol. 

 169, verso. This ms. is assigned to the twelfth century, and is cited 

 as C. C was used by Ussher {Brit. Eccles, A?it.), and also by Ware 

 in the editio princeps. 



(4 and 5). Eell 3 and Pell 4, Bodleian Library, Oxford, also 

 contain the Confessio and Epistola in their entirety. 



These volumes of Acta Sanctorum were, with four others, borrowed 

 by Archbishop Ussher in September, 1640, from the Library of Salis- 

 bury Cathedral. Ware used them for his edition (bi7m Ecelesice 

 Sarishuriensis). After many vicissitudes four of the six volumes came 

 into the hands of Bishop Eell, and finally in 1686 passed with the rest 

 of his manuscripts into the Bodleian Library. (See H. J, Lawlor, llie 

 MSS. of Vita S. Columhani, Transactions R.I. A., vol. xxxiii. C, Part 

 i., p. 36). The two volumes with which we are here concerned were 

 formerly classed Eell 1 and Fell 3. The Confessio begins on fol. 7, 

 recto, of Eell 3, and on fol. 158, recto, of Eell 4. They are cited here 

 as F 3 and E4. Mr. E. W. B. Mcholson gave it to me as his opinion 

 that E 4 was written in the last quarter of the eleventh century, and 

 F 3 in the first quarter of the twelfth. 



(6). The last leaves (fol. 157, verso — 159) of a ms. in the Public 

 Library at Bouen, containing the first half of the Confessio. These 

 leaves are in a very damaged condition, and are not mentioned in 

 Omont's official catalogue of theBouen Library. 



For my knowledge of the existence of this ms. of the Confessio I 

 am indebted to the courtesy of the Bev. Hippolyte Delehaye, s.j., 

 Societe des BollandisLes, Brussels, one of whose colleagues discovered 

 it in 1903. I was furnished with excellent photographs of the five 

 pages by M. Henri Loriquet, Conservateur de la Bibliotheque Publique 

 de la Yille de liouen. The following extract from his correspondence 

 with me may be of interest : — " Le dernier feuillet porte une grande 

 dechirure qui entame la bordure de quelques lignes. ... Los 

 dimensions sont 308 sur 235 millimetres . . . Yotre ms. est decrit 

 tout au long avec ses nonibreuses vies des saints, dans le Catalogue 

 general des hihliotheques publique s de France, t. i., pp. 373-375. II y 

 figure sous le n" 1391. II s'appelait precedemment : ' U. 39 ' ; plus 

 anciennement : * U. 53,' et plus anciennement encore: 'Jumiegcs, 

 G. 9.' M. Omout, auteur de ce catalogue, a precisement oublie de 

 mentionner la ' Conf. Patr.' De plus, il indique le ms. comme etun 



