[403] See Bury, “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 205.
[404] The name of this place, whether in the form Ebmoria (Lib. Arm.) or in the variant form Euboria (for the variants see Bury, “Tradition of Muirchu’s Text,” p. 185) is unknown. The context shows that it lay between Auxerre and the north coast of Gaul. Ebroica = Evreux would be my guess. (It probably became the seat of a bishop before the end of the fifth century, but probably not long before. Cp. Duchesne, Fastes ép. ii. 226).
[405] On the evidence for this date see note 15 in my “Sources of Early Patrician Documents” (E.H.R., July 1904), where I refer to the discussion of Dr. W. Levison in his monograph cited above, [Appendix A, i. 7].
[406] Nennius Vindicatus, p. 123, note. Later compilers divided Amatho rege. In Irish conditions a rex episcopus would not sound so strange as in Gaul, though I do not know of an instance before Cormac of Cashel at the beginning of the tenth century. In Tripartite Life (p. 34) we get a further step in the evolution; the bishop appears as Amatho rí Románach (King of the Romans); and the final stage is reached when Patrick is ordained coram Teodosio imperatore.
[407] I pointed out this inference in “Sources of Early Patrician Documents” (cit. sup.).
[408] Ann. Ult. s.a. 439. For the separate coming of Iserninus see account in Lib. Arm. f. 18 rᵒ a (342, Rolls ed.). It is there indeed supposed that they started at the same time from Gaul, but were severed by storms, and so arrived separately in Ireland. The motive for this tale is evidently the genuine record that they did not come together.
[409] There are three cases (Zimmer, ib. 24-26):
1. Long ō instead of long ā: e.g. trindōit (= trinitatem); altōir (= altāre); caindlōir (candelarius); notlaic (nātalicia); popa (papa). If the Latin forms had come directly to Ireland, the ā would have been preserved; ō for ā is characteristically British.
2. c for p: casc (pascha); crubthir (presbyter). Words of this kind must have been “interpreted to the Irish by British mouths,” for if they had been borrowed from Latin, p would have been preserved. The motive for the change of British p to c in the loan-words was the observed fact that in native words Gaelic c corresponded to British p (representing the velar q). The treatment of Patrick’s name is a significant instance. From its British form we get in Irish Coithrige, from its Latin form Patraicc. Caille, a veil (caillech, a nun), is supposed to be another case (= pallium). Mr. Nicholson suggests that it is Celtic, = capillia (Keltic Researches, p. 104).
3. sr for fr, sl for fl: e.g. slechtan (flectionem), srogell (flagellum). In case of a direct borrowing, sr, sl would have been kept; but coming through British they were treated on the analogy of Irish sruth = Br. frut.