thought it of great antiquity. Papebrach, the Bollandist,
on the other hand, considered the Life could not be older than the
twelfth century, but this opinion of his seems to have been based on a
misapprehension. In the absence of all diocesan colour or allusion one
feels constrained to assign the production to some period previous to
Rathbreasail. We should not perhaps be far wrong in assigning the first
collection of materials to somewhere in the eighth century or in the
century succeeding. The very vigorous ecclesiastical revival of the
eleventh century, at conclusion of the Danish wars, must have led to some
revision of the country's religious literature. The introduction, a
century and-a-half later, of the great religious orders most probably led
to translation of the Life into Latin and its casting into shape for
reading in refectory or choir.

Only three surviving copies of the Irish Life are known to the writer:
one in the Royal Library at Brussels, the second in the Royal Irish
Academy Collection (M. 23, 50, pp. 109-120), and the third in possession
of Professor Hyde. As the second and third enumerated are copies of one
imperfect exemplar it has not been thought necessary to collate both with
the Brussels MS. which has furnished the text here printed. M. 23, 50
(R.I.A.) has however been so collated and the marginal references
initialled B are to that imperfect copy. The latter, by the way, is in
the handwriting of John Murphy "na Raheenach," and is dated 1740. It has
not been thought necessary to give more than the important variants.

The present text is a reproduction of the Brussels MS. plus lengthening
of contractions. As regards lengthening in question it is to be noted
that the well known contraction for "ea" or "e" has been uniformly
transliterated "e." Otherwise orthography of the MS. has been
scrupulously followed--even where inconsistent or incorrect. For the
division into paragraphs the editor is not responsible; he has merely
followed the division originated, or adopted, by the scribe. The Life
herewith presented was copied in 1629 by Brother Michael O'Clery of the
Four Masters' staff from an older MS. of Eochy O'Heffernan's dated 1582.
The MS. of O'Heffernan is referred to by our scribe as "seinleabar," but
his reference is rather to the contents than to the copy. Apparently
O'Clery did more than transcribe; he re-edited, as was his wont, into the
literary Irish of his day. A page o