[312] Muratori adds, that in one of the MSS. are inscribed these words:—
“Sancte Columba tibi Scotto tuus incola Dungal
Tradidit hunc librum, quo fratrum corda beentur.
Qui leges ergo Deus pretium sit muneris, oro.”
[313] Some critics have doubted if Dungal, the recluse of St. Denys, who wrote the letter on the double eclipse of the sun, were the same as Dungal of Pavia. But there is not a shadow of proof offered in support of their theory; hence, to refute it is to fight with a shadow. The unusual name, the similarity of style, the testimony of the learned, the phrase ex quo (tempore) in hanc terram (Italiam) advenerim, all point to the identity of Dungal in Paris and in Italy.
“Te precor Omnipotens quadrati conditor orbis,
Dungalus ut vigeat miles ubique tuus,
Sidereum ut valeat rite comprendere Olympum
Sum sanctis vitamque participare queat.”
[315] St. Bernard says it was “nobilior inter caeteras regni illius.”
[316] See St. Bernard’s graphic account.
[317] See Vita Malachiae, c. 10.
[318] “Notandum quod haec ecclesia, sicut et aliae per Hiberniam et Walliam plures, abbatem laicum habet.” Itin. Cambriae, L. II., C. 4. A similar practice existed at the same time in the Celtic Church of Scotland.
[319] At a place now called Churchfield, where a disused churchyard is supposed to mark the site of a church built there in his honour.