Page:The Journal of Classical and Sacred Philology, Volume 1, 1854.djvu/97

Notes on the Study of the Bible among our Forefathers. 87 sias Christi fecisse profectus." Earlier still (circ. a.d. 690) the abbot Aldhelm, while deploring that in Britain neither Greek nor lioman scholars could be found, " qui ccelestis tetrica enodantes bibliothecae [i.e. of the Bible] problemata sciolis reserare se sciscitantibus valeant," speaks of the literary eminence of Ireland, "quo catervatim istinc lectores classibus advecti confluunt" (in Ussher's Vet. Epist. Hibern. Ep. xm. : Works, iv. 451, ed. Elring- ton). And Beda (Hist. Eccl. hi. 27) writing of the same period gives these interesting particulars: "Erant ibidem eo tempore multi nobilium simul et mediocrium de gente Anglorum, qui tempore Finani et Colmani episcoporum, relicta insula patria, vel Divinw lectionis vel continentioris vitas gratia illo secesserant. Et quidam quidem mox se monasticae conversationi fideliter mancipaverunt, alii magis circumeundo per cellas magistrorum lectioni operam dare gaudebant : quos omnes Scotti [i. e. the Irish] libentissime suscipientes victum eis quotidianum sine pretio, libros quoque ad legendum, et magisterium gratuitum praebere curabant."* Happily we are not left to guess the names of individual scholars, nor the kind of literature in which they were absorbed. The mission of Columba to the Northern Picts occurred in 565. Of his untiring zeal and evangelic spirit several monuments are still existing, and no feature in his character is more strongly marked than his devotion to the study of the Bible. Beda, who himself was trained among the Roman (as distinguished from the Irish) party, mentions this as one of many excellencies in the abbots of Iona: "Tantum ea quae in propheticis, evangelieis et apostolicis Uteris discere poterant pietatis et castitatis opera dili- genter observantes" (Hist. Eccl in. 4). The last earthly task of St Columba was to copy out the Psalter ; for on reaching the verse " Inquirentes autem Deum non minuentur omni bono" he paused, and left the rest to be transcribed by his favourite pupil, Baithen (see the Tertia Vita S. Columbce, written soon after his death, in Colgan's Trias, n. 329). Some Irish antiquaries hold that portions of this copy of the Psalter are still extant in the famous relique called the " Caah," containing a Latin MS. that has come down for ages in the O'Donell family (Betham, Part i. pp. 119, sq.). The version it presents is that of the Vulgate, as corrected by St Jerome. Other members of the Irish mission, such as Aidan and