himself, who, at an advanced age, was commanded by an angel to undertake the journey for that express purpose; and who, on his return, deposited them (inter quæ erant reliquiæ Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et Stephani Protomartyris, et aliorum plurimorum martyrum), at Armagh, and constituted that church the Metropolitan See of Ireland. This is Jocelin's account. The Tripartite Life adds, that Patrick, during his absence, constituted St. Sechnall Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland in his stead. The ancient scholiast on St. Fiech's Hymn states that St. Patrick came to Ireland in the first year of Pope Sixtus, the successor of Celestinus, and that Sixtus gave him some of the relics of Peter and Paul, with many books," Sixtus vero ei [Celestino] successit, in cujus primo anno Patricius venit ad Hiberniam; et ipse perhumaniter tractavit Patricium, et dedit ipsi partem reliquiarum Petri et Pauli, et libros multos." -Colgan. p. 5. It would seem, therefore, that St. Patrick, according to these testimonies, brought to Ireland two different sets of relics, first those given to him by Pope Sixtus on his coming to Ireland, and secondly', those which he obtained pio furto, on his visit to Rome at a later period of his life. แut The Tripartite Life tells us further, that, even in the lifetime of St. Patrick, the relics of Armagh, from the negligence or fault of their guardians, were lost, in suo sacrario quæsitæ et undique conquisite nusquam potuerint reperiri," and that St. Patrick, knowing that they had been miraculously conveyed away by angels to their original depository at Rome, sent messengers to the Sovereign Pontiff to ask for their restoration. It is not said, however, that St. Sechnall was sent on this mission; the relics were sent back with an injunction to keep a stricter watch over them; and we are told that this was the origin of the custom of exhibiting them annually, on certain great festivals, to the people. But of this custom the author of the Preface takes no notice, although he tells us expressly that the relics brought from Rome by St. Sechnall were preserved at Armagh in his own time. In the Gloss of the Felire or Martyrology of Aengus the Culdee, in the Leubhar d By St. Patrick himself.-Jocel. c. 166 (Colgan, p. 101). Vit. Trip., part. 3, c. 81 (Colgan, p. 164). The Third Life makes also the same statement (c. 84, Colgan, p. 28)-"Post hæc prospero itinere perrexit Patricius Romam; et attulit inde reliquias Petri et Pauli Apostolorum, et Stephani Protomartyris; et quod his majus est, attulit linteamen, super quod fuit sanguis Jesu Christi Domini nostri." e In his stead.-This is the reason why in the ancient lists of the Archbishops of Armagh (see Colgan, p. 292) we find the name of St. Secundinus as St. Patrick's immediate successor, although the testimony of all the authorities makes Secundinus to have died before St. Patrick. Secondly.-The Tripartite Life tells us that these second relics were in number 365. "Nec solum pretiosa, sed et numerosa erant hæc spolia; continebant enim variorum sanctorum trecentas sexaginta quinque reliquias diversas; inter quas principem locum obtinebat linteamen sacratissimo D. N. Jesu Christi sanguine cruentatum, et pars capillorum Virginis Matris." [Of these, however, the author of our Preface makes no mention.] "Inter eas etiam erant sanctorum Petri et Pauli Apostolorum," &c.-Vit. Trip. iii. c. 82. Were lost.-See Vit. Tripart. iii. c. 78. Breac, the commemoration of the relics preserved at the monastery of Tamhlacht, or Tallaght, near Dublin, is thus recorded on the 1st of October: Feil noempelci uasal The festival of the noble holy relics [or saint-relics] [Is celebrated] in the beginning of October. Upon which the interlineary Gloss notes,-.1. caissi Muire oige & na nasptol & na nuile martir & noem Epinn arcena po tinolta hi Tamlachtu isin se sın—i. e. "The relics of Mary the Virgin, and of the Apostles, and of all the Martyrs and Saints of Erin likewise, were collected in Tamhlacht at that time," viz. on the 1st of October. And a note on the lower margin, in a mixture of Latin and Irish, adds: "Adventus reliquiarum Jesu Christi et Mariæ Virginis, et prophetarum et apostolorum [Petri] et Poil [Pauli]; co folt Muire & na nuile nog & martir & na noem arcena. Ocus in tan do rochtatar taisi Petair & Poil co folt Muire & na martart moire fil ac roim la Sechnall co hardmachai. No ir and sein so forbanad relic Moelpuain hi Tamhlachtai. No din is do muintip Thamlachta tuchtha na taisi & is accu attat, ut dicunt alii. Atberat araile is an Ard Macha ttat istæ reliquiæ 1 scrın Petair & Poil, ocus ise Sechnall tuc eat anall ad Hiberniam et in hoc die venerunt." "The coming of the relics of Jesus Christ, and of Mary the Virgin, and of the Prophets, and the Apostles Peter and Paul, with the hair of Mary, and [the relics] of all the virgins, and martyrs, and saints together. And it was then the relics of Peter and Paul, with the hair of Mary, and of the great martyrs, that were at Rome, were brought by Sechnall to Ard Machai. Or it was then that the relics of Moelruain were celebrated at Tamhlacht. Or it was to the family [i. e. the monks] of Tamhlacht the relics were given, and it is there they are, as others say. Others say that it is at Ard Macha these relics are, in the shrine of Peter and Paul, and it was Sechnall that brought them together into Ireland, and on this day they arrived,” i. e. on the 1st of October. The Felire of Aengus was composed in the eighth century, and the gloss and scholia, in the copy of it preserved in the Leabhar Breac, were added at different times, between that period and the fourteenth century, which is the date of the MS. The tradition of the relics having been brought to Armagh by St. Sechnall seems to have been the only one known to the scholiast on the Felire; and we must, therefore, conclude that the Lives of St. Patrick (which attribute the importation of the relics to St. Patrick himself) have been since his time interpolated. In the Antiphonary of Armagh preserved in the Library of Trinity College, a manuscript of the fifteenth century, there is an office for the commemoration of the relics; but it contains no allusion to St. Sechnall, or anything throwing light on this subject. It does not even state what the relics were. On the whole, then, it appears, that, assuming the testimony of all these authorities. to be true, we have-1. The relics brought to Armagh by St. Patrick at his first coming, according to the testimony of the scholiast on St. Fiech's Hymn. 2. Those brought by St. Patrick, after his visit to Rome, at an advanced period of his life, as recorded by Jocelin and the Tripartite. 3. Those brought by St., Sechnall, as stated by the Preface to the Hymn Audite omnes, in the Leabhar Breac, and by the Scholiast to the Felire of Aengus. It it remarkable, however, that the authorities which mention the relics brought to Ireland by St. Patrick say nothing of the mission of St. Sechnall, whilst the authors who speak of the relics brought by St. Sechnall do not appear to be aware of those previously deposited at Armagh by St. Patrick. Is this a proof that the Tripartite Life, which is the oldest authority for this last importation of relics, has been interpolated in the copy which Colgan has translated? The Irish Tripartite Life in the British Museum (of which a beautiful copy by Mr. Curry is in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy) has no mention of the relics. NOTE E. Of the Metre of the Hymn. It must be obvious to every classical scholar that the metre of this Hymn, if metre it can be called, where no quantities are observed, is founded upon the Trochaic tetrameter catalectic. The number of syllables in each verse is the same as in that metre, and the ictus, which does not, however, always coincide with the accent, is also the same,-falling upon the first syllables of the first, third, fifth, and seventh feet. The catalectic syllable also is to be found in every line; and it is remarkable that the second syllable of the seventh foot is always short. This is the only instance in which prosody is regularly observed; and there is no example in the Hymn of the violation of this rule, except in line 66, where we have indutus pronounced indutus, perhaps by a mistake as to the prosody of the word by the author. The elision of vowels, or of syllables ending in m, before a vowel, is entirely disregarded,-of this we have instances in almost every line Aúdilte om nés amantes || Déum, | sancta | mérita Víri | in Christó be❘ati || Pátri¦cî e¦píscŏ|pi. In the words Patricii, in line 2, and Navigii, line 19, we must either read, Patricî, Navigi, or else Patric-ji, Navig-ji, so as to make three syllables. Cujus appears to have been made a trisyllable in some places by the author, as verse 36, Cuius multiplicantur || ut man|na in manibus; but the transcribers not being accustomed to this, and supposing the line to want a syllable, have inserted que or in, as in verses 7, 11, 12, 31, 32; nevertheless, cuius is a dissyllable in verses 6, 74, 78, where there is no reason to suspect any corrupt transcription. In line 54 I have no doubt the original reading was— Cuncta ad cuius mensuram æstimat quisquilla, and that the reading quæ cuncta arose from mistaking mensuram in a contracted form for mensam. If this be so, cuius was here also a dissyllable. In verse 60, if we retain the reading "tradidit," suam must be read as a monosyllable, like swam; but tradit is probably the true reading, for the reason stated in the note on that line. So in verse 68, we must either read spiritali, or pronounce "spirituali" as if written spirit-wali; for as the rhythm is to be measured by syllables, and not by feet, where no prosody is observed, we cannot solve such difficulties by the license allowed in regular metre of substituting equivalent feet for each other, as anapæsts for spondees, tribrachs for trochees, &c. Dr. Zeuss, in his late learned work Grammatica Celtica (Lipsia, 1853), has some valuable remarks on the metre of hymns of this kind, and notices the existence of irregular assonances, examples of which are to be found in the hymns of St. Ambrose (who is said to have been the first to introduce hymns of this kind into the Church Service), and of St. Augustine. He calls attention especially to the alphabetical hymn written against the Donatists, by St. Augustine, which is in the popular syllabic rhythm, without metre, and of which every line ends in e. Abundantia peccatorum solet fratres conturbare; Propter hoc Dominus noster voluit nos præmonere; Congreganti multos pisces, omne genus hic et inde. Etc. Each letter of the alphabet contains twelve lines, and each line divides itself into two members, consisting of eight syllables each. Zeuss, having used the old edition of the works of St. Augustine, did not notice a distich, published in the Benedictine edition (August. Opp., tom. xi. p. 1), which is to be repeated in reciting the hymn before each stanza of twelve lines; its lines also end in e, but with a second assonance in the penultimate syllable. Omnes qui gaudetis de pace Modo verum judicate. The alphabet extends only from A to V; but at the end are 30 verses, containing an address from the Church, of which St. Augustine says in his Retractations, "Tres vero ultimas [literas] omisi, sed pro eis novissimum quasi epilogum adjunxi, tanquam eos mater alloqueretur ecclesia." This Epilogue begins Audite fratres quod dico, et mihi irasci nolite, and exhibits the same peculiarity of every line ending in e. In this Hymn or Psalm, as it is called, the m is sometimes elided before vowels, although not always, and i before vowels (as Zeuss has remarked) is pronounced j, so as to make one syllable in such words as abundant-ja, evangel-jum, eccles-jam, djabolo, tradit-jone, al-jos, &c. We have seen that a similar pronunciation is occasionally adopted in the Hymn of St. Sechnall. Zeuss has taken notice of the frequent occurrence of assonances in this latter Hymn, which he cites from the reprint of it in Gallandus (Bibl. Patr. x. 183). He instances in the first two stanzas Audite | omnes amantes || Deum, sancta merita | Cujus opera refulgent | | clara inter | homines | Sanctumque cujus | sequuntur | exemplum | mirificum Unde et in coelis patrem || magnificant dominum. It may be doubted, however, how far these jingles should be regarded as any part of the rule of this species of poetry; for they occur without any regular law, and in some stanzas are entirely wanting (e. g. Stroph. C, D.). The fact is, that they were not avoided as in the classical Latin poetry, but were rather regarded as a beauty, and their recurrence at irregular intervals was therefore allowable, and perhaps sought for, although not necessary. In the verses which occur at the end of the Hymn the gradual improvement of the assonances is observable,—for one copy, probably the more ancient one, reads— Patricii laudes semper dicamus Ut nos cum illo defendat Deus, where the poet was content with an assonance in the single syllable us. But another MS. has the improved rhyme on two syllables Patricii laudes semper dicamus Ut nos cum illo semper vivamus. In this distich it is evident that Patricii must be read Patricî, or Patric-ji. In another of these "epilogues" the assonance in every line is in the syllable us : Patricius episcopus Oret pro nobis omnibus, Ut deleantur protinus Peccata quæ commisimus. The reader will find a valuable dissertation on the ancient Rhythmical Latin Hymns in Muratori's Antiquitt. Ital. Med. Ævi., Dissert. xl. NOTE F. Of the Notice of the Hymn in the Book of Armagh. The fourfold honour of St. Patrick. In addition to what has been said in the ancient Preface (see p. 33) on the subject of the privilege or indulgence granted by St. Patrick to those who recite this Hymn, or the last three verses of it, it seems desirable to preserve here the curious notice of the Hymn found in the MS. called the Canoin Phadruic (Canon of Patrick), or Book of Armagh; the word Canon being doubtless used to signify a collection of sacred books. H |