^H.VYK— Latin Writings of St. Patrick, 211 



These may be given in their order. 



Conf, § 18. repuli sugere mammas eormn (reppuli sugire B). Denis 



conj. dehui surgere in nauem eorum. 

 Conf. § 20. nihil memhrorum meorum 'praeualui {deest B). Denis 



(from Vita iv.) omnium memhrorum meorum uires ahstidit. 

 Conf. § 46. intelUgi. Denis conj. iter illud. 

 Conf. § 49. 7iominihus. Denis conj. in omnibus ; so E4. 

 Conf. § 53. iudicahant. Denis conj. indigehant. 

 Ep. § 16. Denis notes that he omits : Nonneunum Beum hahetis ? 

 Quod dereliquistis unusquisque proximum suum ? B has guid for quod. 



On the other hand, in Conf. § 11, having left out the obscure words 

 ratum et fortissimum, he merely notes, " Si haec dispunctio non sufficit 

 sanando huic loco, necesse est aliquid excidisse," without the least 

 hint as to the nature of the omitted words. 



But this does not carry us very far. The quotations found in the 

 Lives are not much more extensive than those in TJssher; and it might 

 fairly be assumed that the rest of the text was a faithful transcript of 

 the MS. Denis certainly professed to mark his own interpolations by 

 printing them within square brackets. The first of these occurs in the 

 creed, § 4, after inuisihilia [qui Pilium sibi consubstantialem genuit] 

 with the added note, " Haec aut similia ueiba in ms. Atrebatensi 

 desiderari contextus indicat, ad cuius exigentiam in sequentibus 

 nonnulla supplebimus [ ] includenda." There are besides in the 

 Confessio 25 such insertions, mostly of only one word, 3 are of two 

 words, and 1 of three words. In the Epistola there are 19 interpola- 

 tions thus acknowledged, 2 of them being of two words. 



Unfortunately our confidence in the editorial trustworthiness of 

 Denis is considerably shaken by a comparison of the photograph of 

 the extant folios of B with the printed text. I have classified the 

 deviations of Denis from his ms. under the heads of insertions, 

 omissions, transpositions, and alterations. I have not reckoned the 

 emendations for which he was indebted to Ussher and to Colgan's 

 Lives, nor those of which he informs the reader ; and I find 

 altogether at least 23 insertions of single words and 1 insertion of two 

 words ; 24 omissions of single words, 4 omissions of two words, 2 

 omissions of clauses; 15 transpositions, one of them being of t^vo 

 clauses; and finally no less than 117 material alterations, 9 of them 

 affecting more than one word. It is not to be supposed that if the 

 whole MS. were extant we should find a greater degree of fidelity 

 exhibited in Denis's treatment of the two lost folios. 



