33 



Letter of Father Stephen Whyte, S.J., to Father John Colgan, O.S.F. ; 

 Duhlin, ^Ist January, 1640; new style. Copied from the originalin 

 the Irish Franciscan Convent of S. Isidore, Rome, October, 1853 ; hy 

 Charles, Count MacDonnell, K. S.J.J 



"1 found the original of the following letter on a mouldering and 

 nearly decayed half- sheet of paper, in the Archive Chamber of the Irish 

 I'ranciscan Convent of St. Isidore, in Rome. It appears to me to be a 

 document of much interest in many respects; and not least for the ac- 

 count that it gives of the literary labours of its writer, of whom Ussher 

 speaks as a man of exquisite learning in the antiquities of his own and 

 other countries. It is eminently worthj^ of being saved from oblivion ; 

 and I venture to offer it for the printed Proceedings of the Academy, as 

 the safest and speediest means of securing it from the fate that menaces 

 the perishing original." 



^a.H. S. 



^'Eeverende in Christo Pater Johannes Colgane, 

 Pax Christi. 



" Ternas ad me datas accepi, ac tardius quam optassem. Quarum 

 primas anni 1638, 4 Octob. primum, post longas moras et latibula, vidi 

 anno sequente, Augusto mense exeunte. Secundas, anni 1639, 4 Sep- 

 temb. aperui post, sub finem E'ovemb. Tertias, 9 Octob. datas legi 2 

 Becemb. Vides, mi E,. Pater, necessitatis fuisse, non voluntatis mege 

 vel rusticitatis, quod non citius responderim ad tuas tot, sane mihi gra- 

 tissimas, quod a gratissimo, et universsp. Genti nostrse ; cui gratulor earn 

 nunc obtigisse fselicitatem, ut Te tantis a Deo dotibus instructo, invenerit 

 in paucis, glorise suae publicum Procuratorem diligentissimum, Promo- 

 torem aptissimum, Preconem peritissimum. Macte animo, et fseliciter 

 coeptis insiste constanter, et perge alacriter : nam tui magni laboris 

 (quern Patrise dulcis amor levabit multum) manet merces magna nimis 

 I)eus, C8stera adjicientur Tibi, memoria Tui in benedictione seternitura 

 apud bonos omnes Gentis nostras, quamdiu cum Posteris superstes Ipsa. 

 Atque utinam corpore mihi tecum esse present! liceret, qui sum animo, 

 ut communicatis consiliis et humeris majorem Dei in primis gloriam, 

 deinde carissim^ nobis Ibernisa, Scotise majoris, issto indefessoque labors 

 promoveremus uterque. Interim dum non datur ut ambo simul simus, 

 ambo locis disjunctis laboremus ut valemus, et in scopum ^Tobilem ilium 

 collimemus. Quod ego equidem quantacumque laborem hlc inopia (qua3 

 nostratium est sacrarum Antiquitatum magna est suppellectiiis librariae, 

 meliorisque notse) non desino setate gravis, pro viribus, tametsi non tarn 

 pro meo veto laborare. 



Certe, mihi semper cum die ad banc usque ab annis retro fere 29, 

 creverat amor, ardentiorque conatus pro loci, temporis, negociorum op- 

 portunitate, ex atris antiquitatum aliquot, dispersisque per terras antris 

 postliminio in solem educere Gesta Dei per Ilernos, Scotos veteres, Iler- 



E. I. A. PEOC. VOL. VIII. F 



