Regarding the age of our "Life" it is difficult with the data at hand to say anything very definite. While dogmatism however is dangerous indefiniteness is unsatisfying. True, we cannot trace the genealogy of the present version beyond middle of the sixteenth century, but its references to ancient monuments existing at date of its compilation show it to be many centuries older. Its language proves little or nothing, for, being a popular work, it would be modernised to date by each successive scribe. Colgan was of opinion it was a composition of the eighth century. Ussher and Ware, who had the Life in very ancient codices, also thought it of great antiquity. Papebrach, the Bollandist, on the other hand, considered the Life could not be older than the twelfth century, but this opinion of his seems to have been based on a misapprehension. In the absence of all diocesan colour or allusion one feels constrained to assign the production to some period previous to Rathbreasail. We should not perhaps be far wrong in assigning the first collection of materials to somewhere in the eighth century or in the century succeeding. The very vigorous ecclesiastical revival of the eleventh century, at conclusion of the Danish wars, must have led to some revision of the country's religious literature. The introduction, a century and-a-half later, of the great religious orders most probably led to translation of the Life into Latin and its casting into shape for reading in refectory or choir.
Only three surviving copies of the Irish Life are known to the writer: one in the Royal Library at Brussels, the second in the Royal Irish Academy Collection (M. 23, 50, pp. 109-120), and the third in possession of Professor Hyde. As the second and third enumerated are copies of one imperfect exemplar it has not been thought necessary to collate both with the Brussels MS. which has furnished the text here printed. M. 23, 50 (R.I.A.) has however been so collated and the marginal references initialled B are to that imperfect copy. The latter, by the way, is in the handwriting of John Murphy "na Raheenach," and is dated 1740. It has not been thought necessary to give more than the important variants.
The present text is a reproduction of the Brussels MS. plus lengthening of contractions. As regards lengthening in question it is to be noted that the well known contraction for ea or e has been uniformly transliterated e. Otherwise orthography of the MS. has been scrupulously followed—even where inconsistent or incorrect. For the division into paragraphs the editor is not responsible; he has merely followed the division originated, or adopted, by the scribe. The Life herewith presented was copied in 1629 by Brother Michael O'Clery of the Four Masters' staff from an older MS. of Eochy O'Heffernan's dated 1582. The MS. of O'Heffernan is referred to by our scribe as seinleabar, but his reference is rather to the contents than to the copy. Apparently O'Clery did more than transcribe; he re-edited, as was his wont, into the literary Irish of his day. A page of the Brussels MS., reproduced in facsimile as a frontispiece to the present volume, will give the student a good idea of O'Clery's script and style.
Occasional notes on Declan in the martyrologies and elsewhere give some further information about our saint. Unfortunately however the alleged facts are not always capable of reconciliation with statements of our "Life," and again the existence of a second, otherwise unknown, Declan is suggested. The introduction of rye is attributed to him in the Calendar of Oengus, as introduction of wheat is credited to St. Finan Camm, and introduction of bees to St. Modomnoc,—"It was the full of his shoe that Declan brought, the full of his shoe likewise Finan, but the full of his bell Modomnoc" (Cal. Oeng., April 7th). More puzzling is the note in the same Calendar which makes Declan a foster son of Mogue of Ferns! This entry illustrates the way in which errors originate. A former scribe inadvertently copied in, after Declan's name, portion of the entry immediately following which relates to Colman Hua Liathain. Successive scribes re-copied the error without discovering it and so it became stereotyped.
III.—ST. MOCHUDA.
"It was he (Mochuda) that had the famous congregation consisting of seven hundred and ten persons; an angel used to address every third man of them. (Martyrology of Donegal).
In some respects the Life of Mochuda here presented is in sharp contrast to the corresponding Life of Declan. The former document is in all essentials a very sober historical narrative—accurate wherever we can test it, credible and harmonious on the whole. Philologically, to be sure, it is of little value,—certainly a much less valuable Life than Declan's; historically, however (and question of the pre-Patrician mission apart) it is immensely the more important document. On one point do we feel inclined to quarrel with its author, scil.: that he has not given us more specifically the motives underlying Mochuda's expulsion from Rahen—one of the three worst counsels ever given in Erin. Reading between his lines we spell, jealousy—invidia religiosorum. Another jealousy too is suggested—the mutual distrust of north and south which has been the canker-worm of Irish political life for fifteen hundred years, making intelligible if not justifying the indignation of a certain distinguished Irishman who wanted to know the man's name, in order to curse its owner, who first divided Ireland into two provinces.
Three different Lives of Mochuda are known to the present writer. Two of them are contained in a MS. at Brussels (C/r. Bindon, p. 8, 13) and of one of these there is a copy in a MS. of Dineen's in the Royal Irish Academy (Stowe Collection, A. IV, I.) Dineen appears to have been a Cork or Kerry man and to have worked under the patronage of the rather noted Franciscan Father Francis Matthew (O'Mahony), who was put to death at Cork by Inchiquin in 1644. The bald text of Dineen's "Life" was published a few years since, without translation, in the Irish Rosary. The corresponding Brussels copy is in Michael O'Clery's familiar hand. In it occurs the strange pagan-flavoured story of the British Monk Constantine. O'Clery's copy was made in January, 1627, at the Friary of Drouish from the Book of Tadhg O'Ceanan and it is immediately followed by a tract entitled—"Do Macaib Ua Suanac." The bell of Mochuda, by the way, which the saint rang against Blathmac, was called the glassan of Hui Suanaig in later times.