Archiepiscopum." "Epistola Zachariae Papae ad Bonifacium Scottum Archiepiscopum Moguntinum data nonas Januarias," &c. Again: "Alia epistola Zachariae Papae ad Bonifacium Scottum Archiepiscopum Moguntinum."

(e) When recording the destruction of the monasteries of St. Gall and Fulda, in the Hungarian incursions, he links these great monasteries together as founded by Irish saints: A.D. 1037. Monasteria sanctorum Scottorum, Sancti Galli et sancti Bonifacii, igne consumuntur."

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It will be said, perhaps, that Marianus was prejudiced in this case, and that he allowed love of country to give a bias to those entries in his chronicle which refer to St. Boniface. However, you will search in vain for any trace of such bias or prejudice throughout the work of Marianus. He was indeed thoroughly acquainted with the ecclesiastical history of his country, and refers with pardonable pride to Ireland's saints and her fame for sanctity. Thus, at A.D. 521, recording the death of St. Bridget, he takes care to call her an Irish virgin: "Sancta Brigita Scotta virgo in Hibernia obiit." In the heads of chapters of Book the Third (No. 63), he refers to St. Columbanus : Sanctus pater Columbanus ex nostra sanctissima insula Hibernia, quae insula sanctorum nominatur, cum sancto Gallo et aliis probatis discipulis in Burgundiam venit." And here I may remark that Waitz, in the printed text, adopts the reading insula Scotorum, but in the MS, the latter word has the double contraction usual with Celtic scribes when writing Sanctorum, so that there can be no doubt as to the true reading insula Sanctorum. Again, at A.D. 674, we have: "Hibernia, insula Sanctorum, sanctis mirabilibus perplurimis sublimiter plena habetur," where Waitz gives the accurate reading of the text. So, too, at A.D. 687, Marianus commemorates St. Kilian as an Irish saint: "Sanctus Kilianus Scottus, de Hibernia insula natus, Wirziburgensis Episcopus clarus habetur."

But if Marianus is thus attentive to give Ireland her due meed of praise, he is not less particular in removing all doubt as to England's claim to her illustrious saints. Thus, at A.D. 372: "Sanctus Patricius nascitur in Britania insula ex patre nomine Calpuirn." A.D. 431: "Sanctus Patricius, genere Brittus, a Sancto Celestino Papa consecratur." A.D. 694: "Sergius Papa ordinavit venerabilem virum Vilbrordum, cognomine Clementem, Fresonum genti Episcopum, de Britania natum, genere Anglicum." Again: "Ecberctus vir sanctus, de gente Anglorum, et sacerdos monachica vita et peregrinus exornans, plurimas Scotticae gentis provincias ad canonicam paschalis temporis observantiam, a qua diutius aberraverant, pia praedicatione convertit anno ab Incarnatione Domini juxta Dionysium 716." These entries suffice to prove that Marianus did not allow himself to be influenced by mere national bias in assigning to their respective nations the great saints whom he commemorates. On the contrary, his accuracy and

impartiality, as shown in the above entries, are a sure guarantee that he did not allow himself to be influenced by national prejudice when dealing with St. Boniface.

But Dr. Healy remarks that the repeated use of "Bonifacius Scottus" is rather a proof "that the point was questioned at the time." It is to be presumed, indeed, that the point was questioned. It is probable that many of the Franks and Saxons supposed St. Boniface to be an Englishman, because he had come to them from England, precisely as they supposed St. Willibrord to be an Irishman, because it was from Ireland he had set out on his missionary enterprise. In proof of this latter assertion, I may refer to the following entry in the ancient catalogue of the Abbots of Epternach, the monastery in which St. Willibrord's relics are preserved: "Sanctus Willibrordus Ibernus, anno Domini 658 natus, venit ex Hibernia trajectum anno 690." (Published by Brusch, "De Monast. Eptern.") So, also, Molanus, in his Martyrology, in accordance with the German tradition, calls St. Willibrord an Irishman," Willibrordus Hibernus." As Marianus wished to correct this latter error by attesting that Willibrord was "de Brittania natus, genere Anglicus," so he set at rest the former mistake by recording that Boniface was "de Hibernia," "patre atque etiam matre Scottus."

It must be borne in mind, however, that Marianus does not always add as a mere matter of course the epithet Scottus to St. Boniface's name. On the contrary, having recorded the fact of his Irish nationality, he, in the direct entries regarding the saint, seldom makes use of that designation. Thus, we find at A.D. 743: "Sanctus Bonifatius Moguntinus Archiepiscopus clarus habetur;" At A.D. 750: "Pipinus decreto Zachariae a Bonifatio Moguntino Archiepiscopo unguitur (sic) in imperatorem, et deinde ob id post Papam secundus habetur episcopus Moguntinus;" and again, commemorating his martyrdom at A.D. 755: "Sanctus Bonifatius Archiepiscopus adnuntians verbum Dei in Fresia passus est cum aliis martyribus, nonas Iunii." Thus, it is not by a set phrase, or as a matter of hobby, that Marianus speaks of "Bonifacius Scottus ;" and if in the heading of some of the Pontifical Letters addressed to St. Boniface, we meet with the phrase "ad Bonifacium Scottum," it appears to me that in this case Marianus inserted those documents with their address and context precisely as he found them, as we know by many examples was the usage of the old Celtic annalists. It is to be borne in mind that although in the printed text nothing but the titles of these Pontifical Letters is given, the Letters themselves are inserted in Marianus's original manuscript.

Dr. Healy interprets the marginal entry, "Bonifatius de Hibernia," to mean that "Boniface was in Ireland before he came with Willibrord to Germany." I cannot accept this interpretation; for, in the first place, it is not consistent with historic truth, all

authorities being agreed that it was from the Anglo-Saxon schools St. Boniface proceeded on his mission to evangelize the Germans; and, secondly, because the phrase de Hibernia, like the similar phrase de Brittania, has a definite meaning in the pages of Marianus, and is used to indicate the nation to which the saint belonged.

I come now to Trithemius, who confirms the statement of Marianus, and attests that St. Boniface was "Scotus natu," that is an Irishman; but Dr. Healy writes that "the statement of an author who flourished at the end of the fifteenth century, is entitled to no special weight in fixing the birth-place of a man who flourished seven hundred years before his time." For my part, however, I assign considerable weight to the authority of Trithemius. He was abbot of the famous Benedictine Monastery of Spanheim, and was remarkable among his contemporaries for the accuracy of his historical knowledge. The treatise "De Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis," in which he assigns St. Boniface to Ireland, is still regarded as a classical work; and Gams, a learned German writer of the present day, does not hesitate to assert that Trithemius, in this treatise, "surpassed all his predecessors of the Middle Ages." One fact, moreover, should add weight to the authority of Trithemius in the matter of which we treat. He held in his hand the traditions of Mentz and Fuldathat is, of the See of St. Boniface, and of the great monastery which he founded. It appears to me that it would be alike strange to suppose that if St. Boniface were a Saxon, the traditions of Mentz and Fulda would assign him to Ireland, as that Luxeuil and Bobbio would conspire to assign to England their great patron and founder St. Columbanus. But, it is said, that Trithemius cites Marianus, and evidently consulted his chronicle. It is to be presumed, indeed, that it was so; but whilst Trithemius accepts as correct the statements of Marianus relating to St. Boniface, he becomes voucher to us that those statements are conformable to the traditions of the spiritual children of St. Boniface, which is the strongest confirmation that we could ask of Marianus's authority in this particular.

Of Claudius Clemens, about whom your correspondent proposed a second query, I have but little to add. His "Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew," is quite different in style from the published commentaries of Claudius of Turin. Three ancient MS. copies of it are extant, at Cambridge, at the Vatican, and in the Vallicellian Library, Rome. This last, which I repeatedly examined, appears to me to be the original MS. of Claudius. It is a MS. of the eighth century, and it is written on the finest parchment, and in as bold and distinctive Irish hand as the "Book of Hymns," or any of the other venerable MS. heirlooms that have come down to us from the early Irish church. The first folios are wanting, and the Vaticam MS. is also imperfect, but the Cambridge MS. has the title, "Claudii Scoti Presbyteri," in the

dedication of the commentary to the Abbot Justus, at whose request it was written, and this, of itself, if other proofs were wanting, should suffice to mark out the nationality of the writer. Dr. Lanigan, indeed, says, that "perhaps" this title may be an addition of a later age; but, with all respect for Dr. Lanigan, such a line of argument, resting on a mere conjecture regarding a MS., which he did not take the trouble to examine, cannot be allowed a place in serious criticism. So far as I have been able to discover, there is no trace in the "Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew," of any of those errors which St. Boniface imputes to Clement, "genere Scottus," and which, at his request, were condemned in the Synod of Bishops of the Frankish kingdom in the year 745.

PATRICK F. MORAN, Bishop of Ossory.

ST. BONIFACE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

THE PRESBYTERY, ST. MARYCHURCH,

TORQUAY.

SIR,-Will you kindly allow a Devonshire Priest to make a few remarks upon your very clear statement of the grounds for regarding the Apostle of Germany as an Anglo-Saxon.

1. The correct interpretation of the "Adescancastre" of the life by Bishop Willibald is, "Near the Fort on the Exe," not the "Esk," the latter name belongs to two rivers in Scotland, and to one in Cumberland, as well as to a lake in Donegal, but is unknown in Devonshire.

2. Crediton, or Kirton, is said to be the native place of St. Boniface in the old Exeter Lectionary, revised by Bishop Grandisson, A.D. 1327. The first Lection of the second Nocturn begins: "Beatus Bonefacius in Westsaxonum Provincia Anglie apud Creditoniam, in Devonia, &c." There is still to be seen at Crediton, St. Wynfrith's Well;" and there seems much probability in the conjecture that Crediton was chosen to be the Episcopal See, 140 years before St. Edward the Confessor founded the Cathedral of Exeter, on account of its having given birth to St. Boniface.

3. I venture to call in question one of your grounds for judging St. Boniface to have been an Englishman. You say, "If he were an Irishman, he certainly treated his fellow-countrymen with a harshness quite as singular as the sympathy which, in that hypothesis, he shows for the Anglo-Saxons." Are you not implying that in the eighth century the same antipathy existed between the Irish and the English which now unhappily obtains? I can find no trace of such an antipathy in the writings of St. Aldhelm, or the Venerable Bede. The former describes how English scholars streamed over to the Irish centres of learning

like bees to a hive, and draws a pleasing picture of the kindly Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury, surrounded by youug Irish monks, whose eager powers of disputation so hotly pressed the good prelate as to make him appear like an old boar defending himself from a pack of hounds. We may judge of the warm sympathy that existed between the Anglo-Saxons and their Irish brethren at this period, by the indignant horror with which Venerable Bede narrates the atrocious outrage committed by Egfrid, King of the Northumbrians, who, in 684, "sent Beort, his general, with an army into Ireland, and miserably wasted that harmless nation, which had always been most friendly to the English: Gentem innoxiam et nationi Anglorum semper amicissimam."-(H. E. B. iv. c. 26). It is pleasant to look back at a period when this could be said, and I therefore trust you will pardon my protest against importing into that age of amicable rivalry our own more modern antipathies. Dr. Mervale, the Protestant Dean of Ely, in his presidential address last year before the "Devonshire Association," makes a point of Saint Boniface's supposed antagonism to "the Celtic or British forms of faith," I believe most unwarrantably; but he will claim you as an authority on his side.

I should like to say something about Clement and Adalbert, and also about the Virgilius, whom Pope Zachary says, "lied wickedly," and whom I cannot admit to have been St. Virgil, Bishop of Salzburg, but I have already made my letter too long. -I am, Sir, yours faithfully, W. R. CANON BROWNLOW.

We beg to thank our correspondent for giving us the correct name of the Devonshire river: the Latin name misled us. As to his second point, we have only to say that we stated our own conviction honestly, and that we arrived at it maturely, after a careful perusal of most of the letters of St. Boniface. He undoubtedly did show great sympathy for the Anglo-Saxons, and no sympathy for the Scoto-Celts; but we by no means accuse all his countrymen, either then or now, of antipathy for, or even a want of sympathy with, Irishmen. J. H.

A SUGGESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE IRISH ECCLESIASTICAL RECORD.

WITHAM, ESSEX.

SI,-In the part of your periodical devoted to correspondence, allow me, please, a small space in which to make a suggestion, which may, or may not, be worthy of notice. The suggestion is this-"Would it not be well if an Irish Catholic newspaper, of a somewhat higher class, and of a superior and more able character,