The hymn, in trochaic metre, is unrhymed, and does not exhibit the characteristics of later Latin hymns composed in Ireland. It takes no account of elision, or quantity, except in the penultimate syllable of the verse, which is always short.[272]
The best text will be found in Bernard and Atkinson, Liber Hymnorum, i. 3 sqq. On the metre see Atkinson, ib. xiii., xiv.
7. Life of Germanus, by Constantius
Constantius, who wrote the Life of Germanus of Auxerre, has a place in literary history, for Sidonius Apollinaris published his Letters at his suggestion and dedicated them to him. Constantius (for whose character see Sidonius, iii. 2) composed the Life at the wish of Patiens, Bishop of Lyons (who also appears in the correspondence of Sidonius), and one of the two letters which are prefixed to the Life is addressed to Patiens. The other is addressed to a Bishop Censurius (see Sidonius, vi. 10). The episcopate of Patiens gives the years 450 and c. 490 as the limits for the composition of the work, but the author implies in the first prefatory letter that some time had elapsed since the death of Germanus. W. Levison (Neues Archiv 29, pp. 97 sqq. 1903) suggests (p. 112) c. 480 or some years later as the probable date.
The editions of the Life in the collection of Surius (iv. 405 sqq., ed. 1573) and the Acta Sanctorum (July 7, p. 200 sqq.) do not represent the original work, but a text with extensive additions. The older text of Mombritius (Sanctuarium, i. 319 sqq. 1480) comes much nearer to the original (Levison, p. 101). The original work is preserved, without the later interpolations, in various MSS., and its extent was recently defined by the Bollandists, Bibl. hagiographica Latina, i. 515, n. 3453, cp. ii. 1354. A critical edition is promised in the last volume of the Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum (M.G.H.), but in the meantime Dr. Levison has given not only the results of his researches on the MSS., but also a study of the Life in the important monograph cited above. The compass of the original work, and the subsequent additions, are set out clearly in tabular form on [p. 113].
The motive of the Life—its main interest for its author—was to represent Germanus as a miracle-worker; he states as his object (in the letter to Patiens) profectui omnium mirabilium exempla largiri. The Life accordingly is full of miracles, and largely of typical miracles, some of which have a pronounced family likeness to some recorded in the Life of St. Martin by Sulpicius Severus (Levison, pp. 114 sqq.). Constantius forms no exception to the general rule that authors of hagiographies did not condescend to trouble themselves with chronology; there is not a single date in the book. But the main outline of the biography—though there may be inaccuracies in detail (cp. note, [p. 297])—seems to be trustworthy, and has sustained the detailed criticism to which it has been subjected by Levison.
II
1. Memoir of Patrick, by Tírechán
The earliest extant document that gives an account of St. Patrick’s life is a memoir written in the second half of the seventh century by Tírechán, a bishop, who had been the alumnus or disciple of Bishop Ultan of Ardbraccan in Meath. He speaks of Ultan as no longer living,[273] so that his work was compiled after A.D. 657, the year of Ultan’s death.[274] The mention of the recent plague (mortalitates novissimae) suggests that Tírechán was engaged on his memoir soon after the disastrous years A.D. 664-668.[275] The presumption is that it was compiled in the late sixties or the seventies; and as there is a presumption that Muirchu’s biography (see below) was composed in the eighties or nineties, there is a presumption that Tírechán’s work is earlier than Muirchu’s. At all events, we may take it as highly probable that it was not later.
Tírechán was attached to some community in north Connaught, probably in Tirawley.[276] His memoir, which is incomplete,[277] is divided into two books, of which the first (after a preliminary summary of Patrick’s early life) deals with the saint’s work in Meath, the second mainly with his work in Connaught.