[968] Apparently the returned brothers mentioned below.

[969] Cp. the passage quoted p. 170.

[970] 1 Thess. iv. 1.

[971] Josh. x. 6.

[972] The monks of Clairvaux seem to have been reluctant to undertake work elsewhere, when St. Bernard desired them to do so (V.P. vii. 52 f.); and we have one instance of an abbot of a daughter house—Humbert of Igny—who resigned his office and returned to Clairvaux against St. Bernard's will (Ep. 141).

[973] Printed text, fratrum. Read fratres.

[974] Evidently Christian did not prove a satisfactory abbot. This may in part account for the return of the monks who went with him to Ireland.

[975] Of this Robert, apparently the architect of Mellifont, we know nothing; for suggestions that he should be identified with one or other of the monks of Clairvaux who bore the same name are mere guesses.

[976] 1 Pet. i. 14 (vg., inexact quotation).

[977] Clearly this letter must have been penned a few days after Malachy's death.