[263] In the Irish Rule attributed to Columcille we find:—“Three labours in the day, i.e., prayers, work, and reading,” prescribed for all. But Adamnan’s statement is even more authoritative and explicit:—
“Nullum etiam unius horae intervallum transire poterat (Columba), quo non aut orationi, aut lectioni, vel scriptioni, vel etiam alicui operationi incumberat.”—Adamnan’s Praefatio II.
[264] In the Life in the Book of Lismore it is said that “Columba had thrice fifty monks for contemplation, and sixty for the active life”—that is in their turn.
[265] See Haddan and Stubbs, Vol. II., part I., page 120.
[266] See the Irish Life in the Book of Lismore, which enumerates several of these churches.
[267] The first part of this Vita Secunda is not the work of Cuimine the Fair.
[268] Matt. x., 8.
[269] “Scitote quod nullus citra Alpes compar illi in cognitione divinarum scripturarum et in magnitudine scientae reperitur.”—Salamanca MS.
[270] See School of Clonfert.
[271] For instance, the details of the martyrdom of St. Blaithmac of Iona by the Danes in A.D. 824, which he describes in Latin verse, and may have learned from a fugitive who was, perhaps, the bearer of this very MS.