A Life of St. Patrick, published in the Basel edition of Bede’s works 1563, and reprinted by Colgan as the _Vita Quinta_, has for author a certain Probus, who compiled the work at the request of a certain Paulinus (_Ecce habes, frater Pauline, a me humili Probo_, etc. ii. 41). Of Probus we know nothing otherwise. Colgan (p. 219) conjectures that he is to be identified with Cœnachair of Slane, whose death by the Northmen is noticed in the _Annals_ of the Four Masters, _sub a._ 948. Paulinus, he suggests (p. 64), may be the Mael Póil who is described in the same chronicle as bishop, anchorite, scribe, and abbot of Indedhnen (near Slane), _sub a._ 920, where his obit is noticed. If these conjectures were right the date of the Life would be prior to 920. But the conjectures have no basis, the identification of Probus resting merely on the possibility that this name might have been chosen as a Latin equivalent of Cœnachair. There is internal evidence that the author was Irish (see Colgan’s note, p. 61), but the only indication of date is the prophecy that Patrick should baptize _Scotiam atque Britaniam, Angliam et Normanniam caeterasque gentes insulanorum_ (i. 10). Colgan supposes that Gallic Normandy is meant, and if so the Life could hardly be much earlier than the middle of the tenth century. Probus made use of Muirchu’s Life, but reconstructed certain parts of it, introducing matter from other sources. Thus he adopts the two captivities in Ireland from Muirchu, but while he identifies the first with the captivity of the _Confession_, he connects Miliucc with the second. His story of the second captivity is that Patrick’s parents and family were in Armorica when it was devastated by the sons of Rethmitus (read _Sethmiti_) king of Britain. Patrick, his brother Ructi, and a sister were carried captive to Ireland, where Patrick served Miliucc. [Ructi was married by another chief to his sister. This incident is obviously the same as Miliucc’s attempt to marry Patrick to his sister, as recounted in the W document (V₂ and V₄); so it may be inferred that Ructi is an error for Sucti, and that Sucat-Patrick has been split by Probus or his source into two brothers.] But Miliucc’s abode is placed near Mount Egli (instead of Mount Miss). On escaping Patrick is taken to Gaul by a man who sells him there into slavery,[327] but at “Trajectus” he is redeemed by Christians. The story of the fictitious second captivity is thus composed of (1) matter derived from the true story of the first captivity, as told in Muirchu and the _Confession_; (2) the Armoric legend; (3) the story of the marriage of the brother and sister; and (4) the escape to _Gaul_, with the mention of two towns: _Venit cum Gallis ad Brotgalum, inde Trajectum_. Brotgalum, Colgan suggests, is meant to represent _Burdigalam_, Bordeaux (cp. Appendix C, 6).