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ADDITIONAL NOTES.

NOTE A.

The historical Preface to the Hymn.

HE copy of this Hymn, with which the Liber Hymnorum begins, has no historical

Tintropy of this lygum, erit, such as we find prefixed to the great majority of the

other Hymns in that MS. The initial letter is most elaborately ornamented, and occupies the whole of the left-hand margin of the page; there is also the rubrical title (of which there is no other example in the book)-"Incipit Ymnus Sci Patricii episcopi Scotorum." It is probable, however, that the MS. may have lost a leaf at the beginning in which the Preface was contained.

Colgan's copy had a Preface, which he has published in a Latin translation, under the title of "Præfatio veteris anonimi."-Trias. Thaumat., p. 211. It has been thought desirable to insert this preface here, as Colgan's work is now extremely scarce and costly.

66 PRÆFATIO VETERIS ANONIMI.

AUDITE OMNES, &c. Secundinus filius Restituti, de Longobardis Italiæ, et Darerca sororis S. Patricii, composuit hunc Hymnum. Secundinus Romanum nomen ejus fuit: sed illud Hiberni verterunt in Sechnald. Locus in quo erat compositus, est Ecclesia Domnach-Sechnaild. i. Basilica Secundini, appellata. Tempore Loegarii filii Neill, Hiberniæ regis, fuit compositus. Vel in S. Patricii encomium, vel causa pacis inter ipsum et S. Secundinum reconciliandæ, fertur compositus. Cum enim quadam vice quidam alii viri Sancti, quorum ipse interfuit familiari colloquio, S. Patricium magnis encomiis extollerent, S. Secundinus dixisse fertur:-Ita Patricius esset optimus, nisi charitatem parum pradicaret; per hoc solum intendens, si S. Patricius piam liberalitatem, seu bonorum temporalium in pios usus elargitionem prædicasset, multo plures possessiones et prædia in usus et dotationem ecclesiarum prona populi devotione fore conferenda. Sed verbum illud ut prolatum est, delatum ad ejus aures, displicuit Patricio veræ charitatis typo, et eximio cultori; qui et respondit :-Propter charitatem, parcius charitatem prædico; nam post me multi viri eximiis meritis et sanctitate illustres in hac insula florebunt, qui populi piis elargitionibus et obsequiis indigebunt, quibus et ea ego relinquo. Tunc agnitâ culpâ, et petitâ veniâ, Patri, vero charitatis speculo, reconciliatus filius, composuit hunc Hymnum, qui primus in Hibernia et secundum ordinem Alphabeticum factus est. Viginti tribus capitulis seu rhythmis constat; et rhythmus quisque quatuor lineis: linea vero

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quindecim syllabis. Hymno iam composito S. Secundinus, volens illum S. Patricio ostendere, ait: Hymnum composui, in laudem cujusdam viri sancti, adhuc in carne degentis, quem quæso dignetur Vestra Paternitas audire. S. Patricius respondit se quidem libenter audire Dominum laudari in operibus servorum suorum, seu quæ ipse ob merita servorum operatur. S. vero Secundinus, silentio præteriens primum istius Hymni versiculum, in quo nomen S. Patricii continetur (ne forte Magistri, laudes humanas exosi, indignationem incurreret), a secundo incepit, cujus initium est, Beata Christi custodit mandata in omnibus. Et sic in recitatione hymni progreditur, usque ad alium versum, qui incipit Maximus in regno cœlorum. S. vero Patricius, hoc audiens, ait; Quomodo de homine dici potest quod sit Maximus in regno cœlorum? S. Secundinus respondit, Pro positivo hic ponitur superlativus. Postea Hymno usque ad finem recitato, insinuavit illum in laudem ipsius viri Dei fuisse a se compositum, devotamque se expectare mercedem. Verus popularis auræ spretor, licet factum displicuerit, nolens tamen pii discipuli devotum reprobare studium, respondit se ex clementia Salvatoris expectare eam mercedem, ut quicunque mane et vesperi illum Hymnum devote recitârit, fœlicem exitum et præmium gloriæ accepturus sit. Hanc, inquit Secundinus, mercedem accepto: sed quia Hymnus longus est, nec facile quisque potest totum memoria commendare, optarem eandem gratiam concedendam, eius partem recitanti. Consequetur etiam, inquit Patricius, recitans tres posteriores ejus versus &c."

The copy of this Hymn, preserved in the Leabhar breac, is also preceded by a similar Preface or Introduction in the Irish language, which has never hitherto been published. It is essentially the same as that translated by Colgan, but it contains also some matter, which was either not to be found in Colgan's copy, or which he may have deemed it expedient to omit. It is, therefore, here given in the original, together with an English translation, without any mutilation; and some notes are added, to render it more intelligible to the reader.

Audite omncs. Locus huius imni .1. Domnach Sechnaillire in Sechnall sin do rigne hunc imnum do Patraic.

Patraic umorro, do bretnaib h-ercluade a bunadas. Calpurnd ainm a athar. Fotaid ainm a senathar, deochain atcomnaic side. Conchess, umorro, a matair. Lupait & Tigris, a di siair.

batar din, .111. nomina for Patraic .1. Succat a ainm ic a thustigib. Cothrige

a To omit.-Colgan's version of the Preface ends with "&c.," which seems to imply some omissions.

b Domnach Sechnaill.—That is, "The place where this Hymn was composed was Domhnach Sechnaill," the Dominica, or Church of St. Seachnall, now Dunshaughlin, in the county of Meath.

e Ercluaide.-Or Alcluait, the Rock of Clyde. See Colgan, Tr. Thaum., p. 170, col. 2, n. 2.

Audite omnes. Locus hujus Hymni, .i. Domhnach Sechnaill. And it was that same Seachnall that composed this Hymn in honour of Patrick. Now Patrick, in his origin, was of the Britons of Ercluaides. Calpurn was the name of his father; Fotaidd the name of his grandfather, who was a deacon. Conchesse was his mother, Lupait and Tigris his two sisters.

Patrick had four names; viz. Succat was his name with his parents. Cothrighef was his name when

d Fotaid.-Or Potitius.

• Conchess.-Probably Concessa.

' Cothrighe.-The author of the very ancient Life of St. Patrick, which Colgan has placed second (and which he attributes to a junior Patrick, a disciple of the great St. Patrick), writes this name Quadriga. He says, c. 12, "Illic [sc. in regione Dalaradia] Quadriga nomen accepit, quia equorum quatuor domibus serviebat. Et erat quadrinomius:

a ainm dia m-bui oc fognam do dethrur. Magonius a ainm o German. Patricius a ainm a Papa Celestino.

Fochund, umorro, tuideċta Patraic in eininn. Ir amlaid so forcoemnacair .1. Seacht mec Seċtmaide rig bretan batar for longas, co rus ortutar Airmoricc Letha. Do ecomnacair dremm do bretnaib h-Excluade doib in tan sin i n-Airmoirc Letha. Orta h-isuidiu Calpurn mac Fotaid athair Patraic, & no gabad iaram Patraic & a di siair andsin. Dollotar iaram mec Sectmaide for muir documm n-Erenn. Renair iaram [Lupait] indsin .1. h-1 Conallıb Murtemni, & rentar Patraic fria Míliuc mac ui buain i n-Dál araide & fria a thriur m-brathar, & ro rensat a di síair i Conallib Murrtemnib, & ni ma fitir doib.

. Cethrar, umorro, ros cennaig-sim Pátraic, & den díbside Miliuc. conid as sin po étsam in n-ainm is Cothrige. Iarsin ní ro fognad-sum do chethartreib. Ot connairc, umorro, Míliuc cor ba mog iresach h-e, nos cendaig ón tríur aile, corus fógnað dó a oenur co cend .uíí. m-bliadan, fo bes na n-ebraide, & ró ċes mor n-imnid h-i n-díthruib slébi Mis i n-Dal araide, oc ingaire mucc Miliuc.

Tecmaic tra co n-acca Míliuc fis n-áid

he was serving four [masters]. Magoniuss was his name given by St. German. Patricius was his name given by Pope Celestine.

The cause of Patrick's coming to Erinn. This is the way it happened; viz. the seven sons of Sechtmaidhe, king of Britain, that were in banishment, ravaged Armoric-Leatha. They happened to come upon a party of the Britons of Ercluaide on that occasion in Armoric-Leatha. Calpurn, son of Fothaid, Patrick's father, was killed there, and Patrick and his two sisters were taken captive there. The sons of Sechtmaidhe went afterwards over the sea to Erinn; and Lupait was sold there in Conaille Muirtheimhne; and Patrick was sold to Miliuc, son of Ua Buain, in Dal-Araidhe, and to his three brothers; and they sold his two sisters in Conaille Muirtheimhne, but they did not know it.i

Four persons purchased Patrick, and Miliuc was one of them; and from this he had the name of Cothrighe. Afterwards he did not serve four houses; but when Miliuc saw that he was a faithful servant, he purchased him from the other three, so that he served him alone to the end of seven years, according to the custom of the Hebrews; and be suffered much hardship in the wilderness of Sliabh Mis in Dal Araidhe, tending the swine of Miliuc.

It happened at that time that Miliuc saw a vi

nam primum Succet vocatus est: a serviendo vero quatuor domibus Quotirche vocabulum sumpsit, et eis quatuor divitibus cum omni cordis devotione servivit." See Colgan, Tr. Th. p. 17, note 15. See also the Tripartite Life, lib. i. c. 17 (ibid. p. 119). S. Fiech, in his Hymn on the Life of St. Patrick, gives the same interpretation of this name:

batar ile Cotraize

ceatar trebe dia fognad.

All were [called] Cothraighe Who served four families.

And see the scholiast's note on this passage, n. 6.

8 Magonius.-The scholiast on St. Fiech's hymn interprets this name, "magis agens quam cæteri monachi."-Colgan. ubi supra.

The cause.-This is apparently from the Tripartite Life, 1. i. c. 16; where, however, the King of Britain is called Fectmagius. The old scholiast on the hymn of St. Fiech (n. 5) also gives this King the equivalent name of Factmudius; but Sechtmuidhe, or Septimius, is probably the true name. The Irish F and are easily confounded. Probus (i. 12) calls him Rethmitus.

i They did not know it.-"Nec Patricius quidquam de sororum, nec illæ de fratris servitute sciverunt."-Vit. Trip., ubi supra.

cide .1. 1 darles co n-acca Cotrige do tidecht chuice is in tech irraba, & lassan teined was a ¿ind, & as a fronaib, & as a cluassaib, in darlais do so maith in lassar fair dia loscud, aćt ros indarb-sum uad, & ni ro ercoidizestar do h-í. A mac & a ingen, umorro, batar in oen lepaid friss ro loisc in tene iat, co n-derna luaith dib & co no esredestar in goeth in luaith sin fo eirinn.

Ro gairmed iaram Cothrige do Miliuc cor indis dó a fís & no uc Cotrige breith furri.i. In tene at ¿onnaircisiu indum-sa, ires na trinóti indsin bruthnaiges indumsa. & isi sin forċanub-sa duitsiu iartain & nf chretfer-tu. Do mac, umorro, ocus t-ingen cretfit side & nos loiscfe tene in ratha

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sioni; viz. he thought he saw Cothrighe come to him into the house where he was, and a flame of fire was issuing up from his head, and from his nostrils, and from his ears, and he [Miliuc] thought that the flame broke upon him to burn him, but he drove it from him, and it did not harm him. His son and his daughter, however, who were in the same bed with him, were burnt by that fire, and reduced to ashes, and the wind scattered those ashes all over Erinn.

Cothrighe was immediately called in by Miliuc, who told him his vision; and Cothrighe gave the interpretation of it as follows:-The fire which thou sawest on me is the Faith of the Trinity, which burns within me and it is this faith which I shall hereafter preach unto thee, but thou wilt not believe. Thy son, however, and thy daughter, they will believe, and the fire of grace shall consume them.

At the time when the same St. Patrick was born he was brought to the blind, flat-faced youth to be baptized. Gorianus was the name of the Priest; and he had no water wherewith to perform the baptism, so he brought both the infant's hands over the ground, and water came out of it, et lavavit

i Saw a vision.-The story of Miliuc's vision, as here given, is evidently from the second Life in Colgan's Collection, c. 15; see also Jocelin (Vit. 6ta), c. 14, and the Tripartite Life, lib. i. c. 20.

To be baptized. This curious story of St. Patrick's baptism is told in the second and third of the Lives in Colgan's Collection, nearly as above; and in both those Lives the blind, flat-faced man (tabulata facie, i. e. without nose) is expressly said to have been a priest. The fourth Life calls him " a certain saint, blind from his birth" (ad quemdam sanctum virum a nativitate cæcum), and tells the same story of the fountain, the baptism, and the restoration of the blind man's sight, and of his immediately acquiring a knowledge of letters, so as to read the baptismal office. Jocelin gives the miracle of the fountain, of the restoration of sight, and of the knowledge of letters immediately conferred upon the blind man; but he expressly states, that

the infant Patrick had been baptized before, and that the blind man was a layman,-"Sicut exteriori beneficio effectus fuerat videns de cæco, sic interiori gratia literatus de laico."-Jocel., c. 2 (ap. Colgan. p. 65). The Tripartite Life tells the story of the baptism as in the text, but calls the blind man merely quendam virum sanctum, and says nothing of the flat face, or of his being a priest. His name is variously written, Gormias, Gormas, Guornias.— See Colgan's note, Trias Th., p. 16, col. 2, n. 3. In the text he is called a youth; the word used is mac, which commonly signifies a son, but denotes also puer juvenis; and he is also here expressly said to have been a priest, and to have baptized St. Patrick. 1 The infant's hands.-"De manu infantis signum crucis in terra posuit."—Vit. 2da, c. 3. Cælestis gratiæ motus stimulo, apprehensa infantis manu, crucis signum bumo impressit."—Vit. Trip., 1. i. C. 4.

nus faciem suam, & so eroslaidte a roisc dó iarsin, & ro airleg in m-baithis, in tí naɲ fóglaimm littir riam.

Tempur hautem, .1. Loegaire mac Néill nig erenn. Causa, ar molad Patraic, ár asbert Sechnall fri Patraic, cuin do gén-sa molad duit. Asbert Patraic, ní h-ail dam-sa mo molad im bethaid. Dixit Sechnall. Non interrogaui utrum faciam, sed quando faciam. Dixit Patraic, si facias uenit tempus .i. ar ro fitir Patraic rob Focus aimmser a etsechta.

Sechnall .1. mac Restituti, ise do rigne hunc imnum do Patraic; ar dalta esseom do Patraic, & filius sororis Patraic h-e beos, & do Longbardaib Zetha do; ut dixit Eochaid ua Flannucan.

Sechnall mac uf baird in buada.
buaid fer m-betha.

do fil glan gairg gile datha
Longbaird Letha.

Longobardi dicti sunt eo quod habent longam barbam.

Secundinus secans dilicta aliorum uel secedens ipse a dilictis interpretatur.

In can tra bof Sechnall oc benam ind immuin-si, is and do sala oenach do denam h-i uarrad Sechnaill, co n-dechur o Sech

Gorianus faciem suam; and then his eyes were opened, and he read the baptismal office,—the man that had never learned a letter.

Tempus autemm; viz. when Loeghaire, son of Niall, was king of Erinn. Causa to praise Patrick. Sechnall said to Patrick, "When shall I make a hymn of praise for thee." Patrick said, "I desire not to be so praised during my life." Sechnall answered, "Non interrogavi utrum faciam, sed quando faciam." Patrick said, "Si facias venit tempus," i. e. because Patrick knew that the time of his [Sechnall's] death was at hand.

Sechnall, viz. the son of Restitutus, was he who made this Hymn in honour of Patrick; for he was a disciple of Patrick, and he was also the son of Patrick's sister; and he was of the Longobards of Letha, ut dixit Eochaidh O'Flannagan".

Sechnall, son of Ua Baird, the gifted,
The most gifted of living men,

Of the race of the pure, fierce, white-coloured
Longobards of Letha.

Longobardi dicti sunt eo quod habent longam barbams.

Secundinus, secans delicta aliorum, vel secedens a delictis, interpretatur.

Now, at the time when Sechnall was composing this hymn, it happened that a fair was about to be held at Sechnall's place, and Sechnall went to prohibit

m

Tempus. That is, the time when the hymn was composed.

n Causa.-That is, the cause or object of writing the hymn.

• At hand.-This answer of St. Patrick is thus given by Jocelin, c. 177:-"Si tamen id omnino cordi tuo infixum fuerit, quod facere disponis, fac citius, quia mors tibi adest in januis. Omnium enim episcoporum, qui sunt in Hibernia, de seculo primus migrabis."-Cf. Vit. Trip., Part iii. c. 89. (Colgan. p. 165).

P Eochaidh O'Flannagan.--This writer is quoted by the Four Masters at the year 987; and they record his death at A. D. 1003, where they call him

"Archinneach of Lis Aoidhedh [the fort of guests], of Armagh, and of Cluan Fiachna [now Clonfeacle], and historian of Ireland (saoi sendusa gaoidel)." a Longam barbam. This is the interpretation which Paulus Diaconus (De gestis Longobardorum, lib. i. c. 9), gives as certain. But others maintain that the name Longobard signifies, more probably, Long-spear, the word Barde being a spear or battle-axe in the Teutonic dialects. Vid. Not. ad Vit. S. Antonini Abb. Surrent. ex antiquis Lectionibus Eccl. Surrent. (Acta SS. Boland. 14 Feb.. p. 796, D.).

At Sechnall's place.—i. e. within the sacred precincts of Dunshaughlin.

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