s a number of
different metres are employed, both in the Irish and in the Latin
extracts, there must have been at least as many independent
compositions drawn upon by the compilers of the prose Lives: and it is
noteworthy that there are occasionally discrepancies in detail between
the verse fragments and their present prose setting. Most probably the
prose Lives were based directly on the hymns; one preacher would use
one hymn as his chief authority, another would use another, and
thus the petty differences between them would become fixed, perhaps
exaggerated as the prose writer filled in details for which the
exigencies of verse allowed no scope. It is probably impossible to
carry the history of the tradition further.

In order to facilitate comparison between the four documents, I have
divided them into _incidents_, and have provided titles to each. These
titles are so chosen that they may be used for every presentation of
the incident, however the details may vary. The titles are numbered
with _Roman_ numerals, whilst the successive incidents within each
of the Lives are numbered consecutively with _Arabic_ numerals. The
_Harmony of the Four Lives_, which follows this Introduction, will
make cross-reference easy.

No modern biography, no edition of the ancient homiletic Lives, of
Ciaran could be considered complete without a history of Clonmacnois,
through which being dead he yet spake to his countrymen for a thousand
years. It was the editor's intention to include such a history in the
present volume; and this part of the projected work was drafted. But
as it progressed, and as the indispensable material increased in bulk,
it became evident that it would be impossible to do justice to the
subject within the narrow limits of a volume of the present series. A
slight or superficial history of Clonmacnois would be worse than none,
as it would block the way for the fuller treatment which the subject
well deserves. The materials collected for this part of the work
have therefore been reserved for the present: it is hoped that their
publication will not be long delayed.

[Footnote 1: The name is pronounced as a dissyllable, something like
_Kyee-raun_, with a stress on the second syllable.]

[Footnote 2: The Bollandists long ago remarked as the special
characteristics of Irish Saints' Lives, their doubtful historicity,
their late date, and their continual repetition of stock incidents.
(_At priusquam id agam, lectore