[414] _Nostra provincia_ is ecclesiastical Ireland, or north Ireland—not a particular district or kingdom. [415] The _Vit. Trip._ (Part 3, p. 238) places the visit to Rome _after_ the foundation of Armagh. This order seems to be simply an inference from the fact that the relics which Patrick got at Rome were brought to Armagh. [416] The references are to Gundlach’s ed., _Epp. Mer. et Kar. Aeui_, vol. i. [417] Mr. Warren rightly rejects the pregnant meaning found in this passage by Döllinger (_Liturgy and Ritual_, p. 39). [418] _difficiles_ is in three MSS., including the Coloniensis (eighth century): it is clearly wanted, and (if there was not some stronger and fuller phrase in the original canon) it has a very pregnant meaning. [419] I believe that the silence of Cummian in his letter to Segéne (Migne, _P.L._ 87, 970) has been urged as an objection to the authenticity of the canon. But the argument from silence in such a case as this has no cogency. It is quite possible that he was not aware of the canon. [420] See B. Krusch, _Der 84jährige Ostercyclus und seine Quellen_, 1880. [421] Columbanus, _Epp._ ed. Gundlach, Ep. 4, p. 162. [422] _Ib._ Ep. 1 (to Gregory I.), p. 157; _Catal. Sanct. Hib., unum Pascha, quarta decima luna post aequinoctium vernale_ (H. and S., _Councils_, ii. 292, 293). [423] Dr. MacCarthy’s explanation (Introd. to _Annals of Ulster_, iv. p. lxxix) of an entry in the Chronicle of Marius Aventicensis (ad ann. A.D. 560), as implying a survival of the old 84 cycle in Gaul, does not seem tenable (see A. Anscombe, _Z. f. Celtische Philologie_, iv. p. 333). [424] I have omitted all reference to the abstruse technique of the computations, and the question as to the difference between the two cycles of 84 (differing in the number of the _saltus_), for which see MacCarthy, _op. cit._ pp. lxv. _sqq._; Krusch, _op. cit._ [425] For dating, see MacCarthy, _op. cit._ cxl. cxli. [426] Migne, _Patrol._ 87, 969. [427] Krusch, 302 _sqq._ For dating, see MacCarthy, _op. cit._ cxvii., where the proof of fabrication will be found. [428] So MacCarthy, cxxxvii., note 2. [429] Dr. MacCarthy shows that Cummian was uncritical (cxl.), but I cannot go quite so far as he. He accepts, as genuine tradition, the statement that Patrick brought a cycle with him (rightly observing that the addition of _et fecit_ cannot be pressed), but holds that it was identical with the Celtic cycle of later times. It is with much diffidence that I venture to differ from him on this point; but I owe it to his investigations that I have been able to reach a definite conclusion. [430] The learned Appendix A, pp. 123 _sqq._, in Reeves, _Eccl. Ant._, is valuable still. [431] Ed. Gundlach, _M.G.H., Epp. Mer. et Kar. Aeui_, i. p. 163. See Jerome, _Ep._ 58 (Migne, 22, 583). [432] 450 in Tírechán and one MS. of _Catal. Sanctorum_; 350 in other MSS. of _Cat. Sanct._