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parce die. Mugint fecit hunc çmnum hi futírna. Causa .1. Finnen maige bile exit do poglaim co Mugint, & Rióc, & Talmach 1 ceteri alii secum. Drust rex bretan tunc, & habuit filiam .1. Drusticc nomen eius, & dedit eam legendo co Mugint, & amauit illa Rióc, & dixit Finniano, Tribuam tibi omnes libros quos habet Mugint scribendum, si Rióc dedisses mihi in matrimonium. Et misit Finnen Talmach ad se illa nocte in formam Rióc, & cognouit eam, & inde conceptus ac natus est lonán treote. Sed Drusticc estimauit quod Rióc eam cognouit, & dixit quod Rióc pater esset filii. Sed falsum est, quia Rióc uirgo fuit. Iratus est Mugint tunc, & misit quendam puerum in templum, & dixit ei si quis prius in hac nocte ueniat ad te in templum percute eum secure. Ideo dixit quia prius Finnianus pergebat ad templum. Sed tamen illa nocte, Domino instigante, ipse Mugint prius ecclesie peruenit, & percussit eum puer, profeta dicente, Conuertítur dolor eius, & in uerticem ipsius iniquitas eius descendet. Et tunc dixit Mugint, Parce, quia putauit inimicos populum populari. Uel comad aire do gnet in immunsa ar na tarta a chin for in popul. Uel Ambrosius fecit dia mbai i ngalur. Uel Dauid fecit, ut alii dicunt, sed non uerum, aċt is huad tucad Dic angelo tuo percutienti, usque populo tuo.

ARCE DOMINе parce populo tuo quem redemisti 1 christe sanguine tuo et non in eternum irasceris Nobis.

Deprecamur te Domine in omni misericordia tua 2

ut auferatur furor tuus et ira tua a ciuitate

ista et de domu sancta tua. quoniam peccauimus pec- 3

2. Deprecamur.-This word begins a page in the MS., on the upper margin of which is a note, of which only a few words are now legible. Like many of the notes written on the upper margins in this MS., it appears to have had no connexion with the text. It is not worth while, therefore, to collect the scattered fragments of

it that are still visible, which are of no value. In civitate ista.-The mention of a civitas here and in v. 5 seems to imply that this Prayer or Psalm was written to deprecate the wrath of the Almighty from some town or city: and probably on the occasion of a plague, as may be inferred from ver. 10.

cauimus tibi domine et tu iratus es Nobis et NON est qui 4 effugiat manum tuam. Sed supplicemus ut ueniat super NOS misericordia tua domine qui IN NINuen pepercisti inuocantes Dominum. Exclamemus ut respicias populum tuum CONCULcatum et dolentem et protegas templum sanctum tuum ne ab impiis contaminetur et miserearis nimis afflicte ciuitati Exclamamus omnes ad dominum dicenTES.

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eccauimus tibi domine peccauimus patientiam habe in nobis et erue Nos a malis que quotidie crescunt super 8 NOS. Dimitte domine peccato populi tui secundum multitudinem misericordie tue.

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ropitius fuisti patribus nostris propitius esto nOBIS et implebitur gloria tua in uniuersa tua. Recordare domine dic angelo tuo percutienti populum tuum sufficit. Contene manum tuam et cesset interfectio que grassatur in populo ut non perdas omnem animam uiuentem.

Exurge domine adiuua nos et redime nos propter n. t.

Parce domine peccantibus ignosce penitentibus miserere nobis te rogantibus saluator omnium xpe respice in nos ihū & mirepepe. Amen.

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3. Qui effugiat.-Conf. Tobit, xiii. 2. 4. In Ninuen.-On this word there are two notes in the margins of the MS.; that on the right-hand margin is as follows:".i. Ninue civitas magna fuit iteneris [sic] trium dierum, que egit penitentiam in predicatione Jonae profetæ, et sic liberata est." The note on the left-hand margin is this:"Ninuen pulcra interpretatur.. dum significat. Alii ex nomine Nini Beli filii. i. inum urbem condidirunt [sic]

magnam, quam ebrei Ninuen appellant." -Conf. Jona, iii. 3.

9. In universa tua.-We ought evidently to read "in universa terra."

10. Dic angelo.-2 Reg. xxiv. 16, 21.

11. Propter n. t.-That is, "propter nomen tuum." The short prayer that follows is in a different character. Peccantibus, penitentibus, rogantibus, are evidently intended to rhyme.

ADDITIONAL NOTES.

THE

NOTE A.

The Scholiast's Preface.

HE following is a translation of the Preface, which, as usual, is a mixture of Latin and Irish; the former language in this instance predominating. It will be seen that this mixture of languages extends to proper names; the Celtic form Finnen, and the Latinized Finnianus, being used indifferently.

PARCE DOMINE. Mugint made this Hymn in Futerna. The cause was this:-Finnen of Magh Bile went to Mugint for instruction, and Rioc and Talmach, and several others with him. Drust was King of Britain then, and had a daughter, viz. Drustice was her name, and he gave her to Mugint to be taught to read; and she fell in love with Rioc, and she said to Finnian, I will give thee all the books which Mugint has, that thou mayest transcribe them, if thou wilt give me Rioc in marriage. And Finnen sent Talmach to her that night in the form of Rioc, and he knew her, and from thence was conceived and born Lonan of Treoit. But Drusticc supposed that Rioc had known her, and she said that Rioc was the father of her son. But this was false, because Rioc was a virgin. Then Mugint was wroth, and sent a certain youth into the Temple, and said to him, Whosoever comes first unto thee this night into the Temple, smite him with an axe. He said this because Finnian was in the habit of going first to the Temple: but notwithstanding, on that night, by the providence of the Lord, Mugint himself went first to the church, and the youth smote him, as the Prophet says: "For his travail shall come [upon his own head], and his wickedness shall fall on his own pate."-[Ps. vii. 17.] And then Mugint said Parce, because he thought that the enemies would spoil the people. Or, this was the cause why this Hymn was made, that the sin thereof might not be visited upon the people.

Or, Ambrose composed it when he was in sickness.

Or, David composed it, as others say, but this is not true, although it is from him are taken [the words], Dic angelo tuo percutienti, as far as populo tuo.

NOTE B.

Of the Historical Personages mentioned in the Scholiast's Preface.

THE story of Mugint and his repentance, as told in the Scholiast's Preface, notwithstanding the singular circumstances which it details, is confirmed by Irish history

and in its main facts is consistent with the chronology of the parties concerned, as well as with other authentic traditions. The discreditable conduct which it attributes to individuals of high reputation is, perhaps, to be regarded as an argument in favour of its substantial truth; and the age of the MS. in which it occurs proves it to have been derived from records or traditions of great antiquity, and not very far removed from the time in which the transactions in question must have taken place. We shall proceed to examine in detail the history of the personages who figure in the story, with a view to determine its probability or authenticity, and to fix as far as possible its chronology.

I. St. Finnen, or Finnian, of Maghbile.

The story opens by the statement that St. Finnen, or Finnian, of Maghbile, now Movilla, in the parish of Newtown-ards, diocese of Down, was a student under one Mugint, at a place called Futerna; and that this Mugint, provoked by the circumstances detailed in the narrative, laid a snare for St. Finnian's life, which ended in his receiving himself the wound which was designed for Finnian.

This story is told in both the lives of St. Finnian, under the continental name of Fridianus, or Frigidianus (which have been published by Colgan, at the 18th of March"), without any essential difference, except that they omit the adventure of Drustic, as well as all mention of Rioc and Talmach; and they attribute the enmity of Mugint against St. Finnian to jealousy, arising from the lectures or sermons of St. Finnian having been more popular, and better attended than his own.

These Lives, which were both compiled on the Continent, take for granted that Frigidianus, Bishop of Lucca, in Italy, and Finnian of Maghbile, in Ireland, were one and the same person. Whether this be so or not is a question with which we are not now concerned. The Irish traditions respecting St. Finnian may have been interwoven into the life of a different person; but it may not be the less certain that the traditions so employed are authentic and ancient. In the present case there cannot be a doubt that the story of Mugint told by these Lives is derived from the same source as that recorded by the Scholiast of the Book of Hymns.

The narratives of the two continental Lives are so nearly identical, that it will suffice to quote the former of them, which tells the tale in these words:

Igitur dum B. Fridianus contemplationi, orationi, et elemosinarum largitioni pie intenderet, doctrina quoque non minima claruit. Unde factum est quod Magister suus, Mugentius nomine, qui in civitate,

• Movilla.-See Reeves' Eccl. Antiq. of Down and Connor, p. 151.

et sq.

Murch.-Colgan. Acta Sanctorum, pp. 633,

quæ dicitur Candida, liberales disciplinas eum docuerat, (ubi etiam dicitur Episcopali officio vir sanctus functus fuisse), excandens iracundia, cum duobus discipulis suis qui secum remanserant (nam plures ad B. Fridianum audiendum convenerant) machinatus est, ut ipsum nocturno silentio dolo perimeret: et quod palam in sancto viro et Regis filiod facerc non poterat, occulte impleret. Pravitatis ergo consilio firmatus, cum securibus ad ostium Ecclesiæ discipuli Mugentii accedunt, diligenter custodientes, ut virum sanctum ante omnes ad matutinas surgentem in atrio ecclesiæ occiderent, et occulte sepelirent, ne tantum nefas ad cujusquam notitiam perveniret. Sed Angelus Domini, qui ipsum ex divino mandato ecclesiæ suæ servare volebat, ei unum de calceamentis abstulit, quod dum circumquaque B. Fridianus aberrando quæreret, Mugentius ad ostium pervenit ecclesiæ, ubi ab insidiatoribus B. Fridiani leva dextraque percussus interiit. Tandem ut prudens recognoscens reatum suum, continuo exclamavit: Parce Domine, parce populo tuo, et ne des hæreditatem tuam in opprobrium. Parce bone Fridiane, parce, laqueum paravi, et incidi in eum. Tali ergo confessionis compendio in spe salutis Mugentius vitam finivit.

S. autem Fridianus, quasi alter David, dolens de morte inimici sui, dimissâ gentee et patriâ suâ, abiit in Hiberniam, et in loco qui vocatur Macbili', habitum religionis sumpsit, et ut sequentia luce clarius demonstrant, bonis operibus adimplevit."

The date of St. Finnian is usually ascertained from the mention of him in the Lives of St. Columbkille, where we read that the dispute between them about a book which St. Columbkille had borrowed from St. Finnian, and copied without the owner's

с

Episcopali officio.-This is improbable, and inconsistent with the story as told by the Scholiast in the Book of Hymns, according to which Finnian was with Mugint, as a young man, for his education, and not as a rival teacher, much less a bishop, at that time.

d Regis filio.-St. Finnian is said to have been the son of a king of Ulster, whom some continental authors call Ultach, mistaking the adjective, which signifies of Ulster, for a proper name.-Colgan. App. ad Vit. S. Fridiani, c. v. (p. 649). His genealogy is thus given by Aengus the Culdee, in his Genealogies of the Saints, preserved in the Book of Leacan: "Finnbarr of Maghbile" [for so he is often called, see Colgan, ib. cap. 1] "was son of Cairpre, son of Ailill, son of Trichim, son of Fiech, son of Findchadh" [or Imchad, as Colgan has it], "son of Bresall, son of Sirchad, son of Fiathach Finn" [King of Ireland] "a quo Dal Fiathach." In his book De Matribus Sanctorum, the same author tells us that St. Finnian's mother was named Lasair, which serves to identify him with the St. Finan, or Winnin, whose life is given by Capgrave, in the Legenda Angliæ (see also Britannia Sancta) at 10th September (which is also the day at which St. Finnian of Maghbile is commemorated in

the Martyrology of Donegal). Capgrave's St. Winnin is said to have been Irish, and of noble birth, his father's name being Carpreus, and his mother's Lassara.

e Dimissa gente.-This clause seems inconsistent with the words abiit in Hiberniam which follow, since it is expressly stated that Hibernia was his native country. Colgan (p. 637, n. 6) proposes to read per Hiberniam, meaning that he left his family and country, viz. Ulster, and went through Ireland to Maghbile. But as Mugint's school was certainly not in Ireland, a more probable emendation would be "dimissâ gente et patriâ illá, abiit in Hiberniam,” which would give a good sense. Besides, it seems to have escaped Colgan's recollection that Movilla was in Ulster: and that if Ulster be what is meant by his country, Finnian did not quit his country when he settled at Movilla.

Macbili.—Meaning Maghbile, now Movilla.

g Habitum religionis.-The second Life published by Colgan from a MS. in the Chartreuse of Cologne, reads here, "habitum religionis Canonicorum regularium D. Augustini sumpsit."-See Colgan. Append. c. 4, p. 646.

h St. Columkille.-See Colgan. App. ad Vit. S. Frigidiani, c. 3. Acta SS. p. 643 sq.

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