The life of St. Patrick and his place in historyBury, J. B. (John Bagnell)
History
The life of St. Patrick and his place in history
Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell)
Christian saints -- Ireland -- Biography; Ireland -- Church history -- To 1172; Patrick, Saint, 373?-463?
The scribe’s explanation as to the language of his material is worthy
of attention. It is clear that he had Irish material before him. Part
of this material he translated into Latin, including the foundation of
Trim, and the following notices up to 338₅; but at this point, coming to
a passage in which there were so many irreducible Irish words that there
seemed little use in translating the few that could be translated, he
simply transcribed his original. And he continued to do this to the end,
although the same consideration does not apply to all the remaining text,
with the exception of one or two passages which he turned into Latin
(340₂₋₁₀, 342₁₋₁₁).
The importance of this lies in the fact that it reflects light on
Tírechán. The similarity in character between these notices and those
which Tírechán has wrought into his _Itinerary_ is unmistakable, and
points to the conclusion that he made use of Irish material, resembling
in form and style that which the Armagh scribe partly translated
and partly transcribed. The scribe, in fact, performed, though more
slavishly, a task similar to that of Tírechán.
The scribe’s own description of his additional material as _serotinis
temporibus inuenta_, “discovered in late times,” naturally suggests a
doubt whether these notices were not _inuenta_ in a more pregnant sense
than he intended to convey. We cannot control their antiquity, but their
character is quite consistent with the supposition that they had escaped
Tírechán when he was collecting local material, and had more recently
been brought to the knowledge of Armagh, or collected by the care of
the abbots. One passage (337₂₂) shows Armagh editing, and the whole
collection is, like Tírechán’s Memoir, in the interest of the Paruchia
Patricii. But it is wholly different in character from the Armagh (eighth
century) fiction, the _Liber Angueli_, and we can hardly be mistaken in
supposing that genuine local records are here transcribed or translated.
(1) The Trim narrative is evidently translated from an Irish document.
It contains a list of the lay succession at Trim from Fergus, grandson
of Loigaire, and the last name is Sechnassach, tenth in succession from
Loigaire. This, Dr. Gwynn observes, points to the later part of the
eighth century as the date of Sechnassach, so that “this record was
written at (or up to) a date which was almost recent when Ferdomnach used
it.” Probably the date of Sechnassach represents the time at which the
record was obtained from Trim by an abbot of Armagh.
(2) The series of Connaught records and copies of grants begins a
new leaf in the MS., and are evidently copied from a distinct batch
of documents. An analysis of them will be found in Dr. Gwynn’s
_Introduction_, chap. vi.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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