[26] As this was probably the first poem in Latin ever composed in Ireland, it deserves some consideration. It is a sort of trochaic tetrameter catalectic, of the very rudest type. The _ictus_, or stress of the voice, which is supposed to fall on the first syllable of the first, third, fifth, and seventh feet, seldom corresponds with the accent. The elision of "m" before a vowel is disregarded, no quantities are observed, and the solitary rule of prosody kept is that the second syllable of the seventh foot is always short, with the exception of one word, _indutus_, which the poet probably pronounced as _indŭtus_. The third verse runs thus, with an evident effort at vowel rhyme ("Liber Hymnorum," vol. i. p. 11). "Beati Christi custodit mandata in omnibus Cujus opera refulgent clara inter homines." Muratori printed this hymn, from the so-called Antiphonary of Bangor, a MS. of the eight century preserved in the Ambrosian Library. The rude metre is that employed by Hilary in his hymn beginning-- "Ymnum dicat turba fratrum, ymnum cantus personet," which, as Stokes points out, is the same as that of the Roman soldiers, preserved in Suetonius, "Cæsar Gallias subégit, Nicomedes Cæsarem." The internal evidence of the antiquity of this hymn is "strong," says Stokes, "first, the use of the present tense in describing the saint's actions; secondly, the absence of all reference to the miracles with which the Tripartite and other lives are crowded; and, thirdly, the absence of all allusion to the Roman mission on which many later writers from Tirechan downwards insist with much persistency." We may then, I think, receive this hymn as authentic. [27] "Maximus namque in regno cælorum vocabitur, Qui quod verbis docet sacris factis adimplet bonis; Bono procedit exemplo formamque fidelium Mundoque in corde habet ad Deum fiduciam." [28] In the "Martyrology of Tallaght" this curious name is written Mac hui Machteni, _i.e._, the son of the grandson of Machtenus, or Muirchu, _i.e._, Murrough, descendant of Machtenus, and the Leabhar Breac has this note at the name of Muirchu: "_civitas ejus in uib Foelan, i.e., mac hui Mathcene_," thereby giving us to understand that he was a native of what is the present county of Waterford. Maccumachteni is not a surname, for these were not introduced into Ireland for three centuries later. [29] "Omnia quæ scripsi a principio libri hujus scitis quia in vestris regionibus gesta sunt, nizi de eis pauca inveni in utilitatem laboris mei a senioribus multis, ac ab illo Ultano episcopo Conchubernensi qui nutrivit me, retulit sermo!" [30] "Multos jam conatos esse ordinare narrationem istam secundum quod patres eorum et qui ministri ab initio fuerunt sermonis tradiderunt illis; sed propter difficillimum narrationis opus diversasque opiniones et plurimorum plurimas suspiciones nunquam ad unum certumque historiae tramitem pervenisse."