The Vision of Adamnan

 1. Noble and wonderful is the Lord of the Elements, and great andmarvellous are His might and His power. For He calleth to Himself inHeaven the charitable and merciful, the meek and considerate; but Heconsigns and casts down to Hell the impious and unprofitable host of thechildren of the curse. For upon the blessed He bestows the hiddentreasures and the manifold wages of Heaven, while He inflicts adiversity of torments, in many kinds, upon the sons of death.2. Now there are multitudes of the saints and righteous ones of theLord of Creation, and of the apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ, untowhom have been revealed the secrets and the mysteries of the HeavenlyKingdom, and the golden wages of the righteous; likewise the diverspains of Hell, with them that are set in the midst thereof. For unto theApostle Peter was shown the four-cornered vessel, let down fromHeaven,[1] with four cords to it, and they with sound as sweet as anymusic. Also, the Apostle Paul was caught up to Heaven,[2] and heard theineffable words of the angels, and the speech of them that dwell inHeaven. Moreover, on the day of Mary’s death, all the apostles werebrought to look upon the pains and miserable punishments of theunblest; for the Lord commanded the angels of the West[3] to open up theearth before the face of the apostles, that they might see and considerHell with all its torments, even as Himself had told them, long timebefore His Passion.3. Finally, to Adamnán ua Thinne, the High Scholar of the WesternWorld, were revealed the things which are here recorded; for his souldeparted from out his body on the feast of John Baptist, and wasconveyed to the celestial realm, where the heavenly angels are, and toHell, with its rabble rout. For no sooner had the soul issued from out thebody, than there appeared to it the angel that had been its guardianwhile in the flesh, and bore it away with him to view, firstly, theKingdom of Heaven.4. Now the first land to which they come is the Land of Saints. Abright land of fair weather is that country. In it are diverse andwondrous companies, clad in cassocks of white linen, with hoods ofradiant white upon their heads. The saints of the Eastern world form acompany apart in the East of the Land of Saints; the saints of the Westernworld are to the West of the same land; the saints of the Northern worldand of the South, in their great concourse, are to the South and North.For every one that is in the Land of Saints may freely listen to the music,and may contemplate the vault,[4] wherein are the nine classes of Heaven,after their rank and order.5. For one spell, then, the saints keep singing marvellous music inpraise of God; for another, they are listening to the music of the heavenlyhost; for the saints have no other need than to listen to the music thatthey hear, and to contemplate the radiance that they see, and to satethemselves with the fragrance that there is in that land. The wonderfulLord is face to face with them, in the Southeast,[5] and a crystal veilbetween; to the South is a golden portico, and through it they discern theform and adumbration of the people of Heaven. No veil, however, norcloud is between the Host of Heaven and the Host of the Saints, butthose are ever manifest and present unto these, in a place that is overagainst them. A circle of fire surrounds this place, yet do they all pass inand out, and it does scathe to none.6. Now, the Twelve Apostles and Mary the pure Virgin form a bandapart, about the mighty Lord. Next to the Apostles are the Patriarchs andProphets, and the disciples of Jesus. On the other side are holy Virgins, atMary’s right hand, and with no great space between. Babes andstriplings are about them on every side, and the bird-choirs of theheavenly folk, making their minstrelsy. And amid these companies,bands of angels, guardians of the souls, do perpetual suit and service inthe Royal presence. No man is there in this present life who may describethose assemblies, or who may tell of the very manner of them. And thebands and companies which are in the land of saints abide continually ineven such great glory as aforesaid, until the great Parliament[6] of Doom,when the righteous judge, on the Day of Judgment, shall dispose them intheir stations and abiding places, where they shall contemplate God’scountenance, with no veil nor shadow between, through ageseverlasting.7. But great and vast as are the splendour and the radiance in theLand of Saints, even as hath been said, more vast, a thousand times, thesplendour which is in the region of the Heavenly Host, about the Lord’sown throne. This throne is fashioned like unto a canopied chair,[7] andbeneath it are four columns of precious stone. Though one should haveno minstrelsy at all, save the harmonious music of those four columns,yet would he have his fill of melody and delight. Three stately birds areperched upon that chair, in front of the King, their minds intent upon theCreator throughout all ages, for that is their vocation. They celebrate theeight [canonical] hours, praising and adoring the Lord, and theArchangels accompany them. For the birds and the Archangels lead themusic, and then the Heavenly Host, with the Saints and Virgins, makeresponse.8. Over the head of the Glorious One that sitteth upon the royalthrone is a great arch, like unto a wrought helmet, or a regal diadem: [8]and the eye which should behold it would forthwith melt away. Threecircles are round about it, separating it from the host, and by noexplanation may the nature of them be known. Six thousand thousands,in guise of horses and of birds, surround the fiery chair, which still burnson, without end or term.9. Now to describe the mighty Lord that is upon that throne is not forany, unless Himself should do so, or should so direct the heavenlydignitaries. For none could tell of his vehemence and might, His glow[9]and splendour, His brightness and loveliness, His liberality andsteadfastness, nor of the multitude of His Angels and Archangels, whichchant their songs to Him. His messengers keep going to and from Him,ever and anon, with brief messages to each assemblage, telling to the onehost of His mildness and mercy, and to the other of His sternness andharshness.10. Whoso should stand facing about him, East and West, South andNorth, would behold on each side of him a majestic countenance, seventimes as radiant as the sun. No human form thereto, with head or foot,may be discerned, but a fiery mass, burning on for ever, while one andall are filled with awe and trembling before Him. Heaven and earth arefilled full with the light of Him, and a radiance as of a royal star encirclesHim.[10] Three thousand different songs are chanted by each several choirabout Him, and sweeter than all the varied music of the world is eachindividual song of them.11. Furthermore, in this wise is the fashion of that city, wherein thatthrone is set. Seven crystal walls of various hue surround it, each wallhigher than the wall that is before it.[11] The floor, moreover, and thelowest base of that city, is of fair crystal, with the sun’s countenanceupon it(?), shot with blue, and purple, and green, and every hue beside.12. A gentle folk, most mild, most kindly, lacking in no goodlyquality, are they that dwell within that city; for none come there, andnone abide there ever, save holy youths, and pilgrims zealous for God.But as for their array and ordinance, hard is it to understand how it iscontrived, for none turns back nor side to other, but the unspeakablepower of God has set, and keeps, them face to face, in ranks and loftycoronels, all round the throne, circling it in brightness and bliss, theirfaces all towards God.13. There is a chancel rail[12] of silver between each two choirs,cunningly wrought upon with red gold and silver, and choice rows ofprecious stones, variegated with diverse gems, and against that latticeare seats and canopies[13] of carbuncle. Between every two chiefcompanies are three precious stones, softly vocal with sweet melody, andthe upper halves of them are lighted lamps. Seven thousand angels, as itwere great candles, shine and illumine that city round about; seventhousand others in the midst thereof are aflame for ever, throughout theroyal city. The men of all the world, if gathered into one place, many asthey are, would derive sustenance enough from the sweet savour of anyone of those candles.14. Now, such of the world’s inhabitants as attain not to that cityafter their life is spent, and to whom a dwelling-place therein is allottedafter the Words of Doom shall have been spoken, find a restless andunstable habitation, until the coming of Judgment, on heights andhilltops, and in marshy places. Even so fare those hordes and companies,with the guardian angel of every soul in their midst, serving and tendingthem. In the main doorway of the city they are confronted by a veil offire and a veil of ice, smiting perpetually one against the other. The noiseand din of these veils, as they clash together, are heard throughout theworld, and the seed of Adam, should they hear that din, would beseized thereat with trembling and intolerable dismay. Faint and dazedare the wicked at that din; howbeit, on the side of the Heavenly Host,nought is heard of that rude discord, save a very little only, and thatsweeter than any music.15. Awful is that city, and wonderful to describe; for a little out ofmuch is that which we have told concerning its various orders, and thewonders of it. Seldom indeed may a spirit, after its converse andco-habitation with the body, in slumber and repose, in freedom andluxury, win its way to the throne of the Creator, unguided of the angels;for hard of essay are the seven Heavens, nor is any one of them easierthan the rest. Six guarded doors confront all those of mortal race whoreach the Kingdom. There sits a porter and warder of the HeavenlyHost, keeping guard over each door. At the door of that Heaven whichis nearest on the hither side sits the Archangel Michael, and with himtwo youths,[14] with iron rods in their laps to scourge and smite thesinners as they pass through this the first grief and torment of the paththey have to tread.16. At the door of the next Heaven, the Archangel Ariel is warder,and with him two youths,[15] with fiery scourges in their hands,wherewith they scourge the wicked across the face and eyes. A river offire, its surface an ever-burning flame, lies before that door. Abersetus isthe angel’s name who keeps watch over that river, and purges the soulsof the righteous, and washes them in the stream, according to theamount of guilt that cleaves to them, until they become pure and shiningas is the radiance of the stars. Hard by is a pleasant spring, flowery andfragrant, to cleanse and solace the souls of the righteous, though itannoys and scalds the souls of the guilty, and does away nought fromthem, but it is increase of pain and torment that comes upon them there.Sinners arise from out of it in grief and immeasurable sadness, but therighteous proceed with joy and great delight to the door of the thirdHeaven.17. Above this, a fiery furnace keeps ever burning, its flames reachinga height of twelve thousand cubits; through it the righteous pass in thetwinkling of an eye, but the souls of sinners are baked and scorchedtherein for twelve years, and then their guardian angel conveys them tothe fourth door. About the entrance door of the fourth Heaven is a fierystream, like the foregoing. It is surrounded by a wall of fire, in breadthtwelve thousand measured cubits, through which the souls of therighteous pass as though it were not there, while the souls of the sinfultarry therein, amid pain and tribulation, for another twelve years, untiltheir guardian angel bears them to the door of the fifth Heaven.18. In that place is a fiery river, which is unlike all other rivers, for inthe midst of it, is a strange kind of whirlpool, wherein the souls of thewicked keep turning round and round, and there they abide for thespace of sixteen years; the righteous, however, win through itstraightway, without any hindrance. So soon as the due time cometh forthe sinners to be released thereout, the angel strikes the water with arod, hard as though it were of stone, and uplifts the spirits with the endof that rod. Then Michael bears them up to the door of the sixth Heaven.but no pain nor torment is meted out to the spirits at that door, but therethey are illumined with the lustre and the brilliancy of precious stones.Then Michael cometh to the Angel of the Trinity, and one on either sidethey usher the soul into the presence of God.19. Infinite and beyond all telling is the welcome wherewith the Lordand the Heavenly Host then receive the soul, if he, be a pure andrighteous soul; if, however, he be an unrighteous and unprofitable soul,harsh and ungentle is the reception of him by the Mighty Lord. For Hesaith to the Heavenly Angels, ‘Take, O Heavenly Angels, thisunprofitable soul, and deliver him into the hand of Lucifer, that he mayplunge him and utterly extinguish him in Hell’s profound, through ageseverlasting.’20. Thereupon that wretched soul is parted, fearfully, sternly,awfully, from sight of the Heavenly Kingdom, and of God’s countenance.Then utters he a groan, heavier than any groan, as he comes into theDevil’s presence, after beholding the bliss of the Kingdom of Heaven. Heis then deprived of the guidance of the Archangels, in whose company hehad come unto Heaven. Twelve fiery dragons swallow up every spirit,one after the other, until the lowest dragon lands him in the Devil’smaw. There doth he experience the consummation of all evil, in theDevil’s own presence, throughout all ages.21. After that his guardian angel had revealed to Adamnán’s spiritthese visions of the Heavenly Kingdom, and of the first progress ofevery soul after parting from its body, he brought him to visit thenethermost Hell, with all its pains, and its crosses, and its torments.Now, the first region whereunto he came was a land burnt black, wasteand scorched, but with no punishment at all therein. A glen, filled withfire, was on the further side of it; huge the flame of it, extending beyondthe margin on either hand. Black its base, red the middle, and the upperpart thereof. Eight serpents were in it, with eyes like coals of fire.22. An enormous bridge spans the glen, reaching from one bank tothe other; high the middle of it, but lower its two extremities. Threecompanies seek to pass over it, but not all succeed. One company find thebridge to be of ample width, from beginning to end, until they winacross the fiery glen, safe and sound, fearless and undismayed. Thesecond company, when entering upon it, find it narrow at first, butbroad afterwards, until they, in like manner, fare across that same glen,after great peril. But for the last company the bridge is broad at first, butstrait and narrow thereafter, until they fall from the midst of it into thatsame perilous glen, into the throats of those eight red-hot serpents, thathave their dwelling-place in the glen.23. Now the folk to whom that path was easy were the chaste, thepenitent, the diligent, they who had zealously borne a bloody testimonyto God. The band who found the path narrow at first, but afterwardsbroad, were they who had hardly been constrained to do God’s will, buthad afterwards converted their constraint into the willing service ofGod. They, however, to whom this way was broad at first, but straitthereafter, were sinners who had listened to the precepts in God’s word,and after having heard, fulfilled them not.24. Furthermore, vast multitudes abide beyond, feeble and powerless,upon the shore of perpetual pain, in the land of utter darkness. Everyother hour the pain ebbs away from them, and the next hour it returnsupon them again. Now these are they in whom good and evil wereequally balanced, and on the Day of Doom, judgment shall be passedbetween them, and their good shall quench their evil on that day; andthen shall they be brought to the Haven of Life, in God’s own presence,through ages everlasting.25. Another great company is there, near to the last-named group,and monstrous their torment. And this is their plight: they are fettered tofiery columns, a sea of fire about them up to their chins, and about theirmiddle fiery chains, in the shape of vipers. Their faces are aflame withagony. They who are tormented thus are sinners, fratricides,[16] ravagersof God’s Church, and merciless Erenachs,[17] who, in presence of the relicsof the Saints, had been set over the Church’s tithes and oblations,[18] andhad alienated these riches to their private store, away from the Lord’sguests and needy ones.26. Great multitudes there are, standing in blackest mire up to theirgirdles. Short cowls of ice are on them. Without rest or intermission,through all time, their girdles are perpetually scorching them withalternate cold and heat. Demon hosts surround them, with fiery clubs[19]in their hands, striking them over the head, though they struggle againstthem continually. These wretches all have their foreheads to the North,and a rough, sharp wind blowing full upon their foreheads, in additionto every other woe. Red showers of fire are raining on them, every nightand every day, and they cannot ward them off, but must needs endurethem throughout all ages, wailing and making moan.27. Some of them have streams of fire in the hollows of their visages;some, fiery nails through their tongues ; others, through their heads,from side to side. They who are so punished are thieves and liars, andthey who have practised treachery, reviling robbery and rapine; judgesof false judgment and contentious persons ; women who have dealt inpoison and spells, reivers,[20] and learned men who have practised heresy.Another great throng is set upon islands, in the midst of the fiery sea.About them is a silver wall [built] of the raiment and the alms [whichthey had bestowed]. These are they who have practised mercy withoutzeal,[21] and have remained in loose living, and in the bonds of their sin,until the hour of their death; but their alms are a bulwark unto them,amid the fiery sea, until the Judgment, and after Judgment they shall bebrought into the Haven of Life.28. Another great multitude is there, clad in red and fiery mantlesdown to their middle.[22] Their trembling and their outcries makethemselves heard, even unto the firmament. An unspeakable throng ofdemons is throttling them, holding in leash the while raw-hided, stinkinghounds, which they incite to devour and consume them. Red glowingchains[23] are constantly ablaze about their necks. Every alternate hourthey are borne up to the firmament, and the next hour they are dasheddown into Hell’s profound. Now they that are punished in this wise arethe regulars who have transgressed their rule,[24] and become loathers ofpiety; also, impostors who have deceived and seduced the multitude,and have undertaken miracles and wonders which they are not able toperform. Moreover, the children that are tearing the men in orders, arethey who were committed to them for amendment, but they amendedthem not, neither reproved them for their sins.29. Thereafter, is another vast company; East and West they go,unresting, across the fiery flagstones, at war with demon hosts.Innumerable showers of red-hot arrows are rained upon them by thedemons. Running, they go on without stop or stay, making for a blacklake and a black river, that they may quench those arrows therein. Aweeping and wailing, truly miserable and piteous, do the sinners make inthose waters, for in them they only meet with augmentation of theirpain. Now they that are punished thus are cheating artificers, weavers,and merchants; judges that judged falsely, both Jews, and otherslikewise; impious kings, Erenachs of lewd and crooked ways, adulterouswomen, and the panders that destroyed them by their evil practices.Beyond the land of torment is a fiery wall; seven times more horribleand cruel is it than the land of pain itself. Howbeit, no soul dwellstherein till Judgment, but it is the province of the demons only, until theDay of Judgment.30. At that time, woe unto him that shall dwell amid those pains, incompany with the Devil’s own tribe! Woe unto him that is not ware ofthat tribe! Woe unto him over whom a vile and savage demon is set indominion! Woe unto him that shall be hearkening unto the spirits,making moan and complaining unto the Lord, for the speedy coming ofthe Day of judgment, that they may know whether they shall find anyremission of their doom; for they get no respite ever, save only for threehours on every Sunday. Woe unto him unto whom that land shall be fora lasting inheritance, even for ever and ever! For this is the nature of it:Mountains, caverns, and thorny brakes; plains, bare and parched, withstagnant, serpent-haunted lochs. The soil is rough and sandy, veryrugged, icebound. Broad fiery flagstones bestrew the plain. Great seasare there, with horrible abysses, wherein is the Devil’s constanthabitation and abiding-place. Four mighty rivers cross the middle of it: ariver of fire, a river of snow, a river of poison, a river of black, murkywater. In these wallow eager hosts of demons, after making their holidayand their delight in tormenting the souls.31. What time the holy companies of the Heavenly Host are singingthe eight hours with harmonious melody, praising the Lord withcheerfulness and great gladness, then do the souls of the wicked utterpiteous and weary wailings, as they are buffeted unceasingly by thedemon hordes.Such then are the pains and torments which his guardian angelrevealed to the spirit of Adamnán, after his journey towards theHeavenly Kingdom. After which he was borne in the twinkling of an eyethrough the golden forecourt,[25] and through the crystal veil, to the Landof Saints, whereunto he had been brought at first, after his departurefrom the body. But when he bethought him to rest and tarry in that land,he heard, through the veil, the angel’s voice enjoining him to return againinto that body whence he had departed, and to rehearse in courts andassemblies, and in the great congregations of laymen and of clerics, therewards of Heaven and the pains of Hell, even as his guardian angel hadrevealed them unto him.32. This, then, was the doctrine that Adamnán continually taught tothe congregations, from that time forth, so long as he remained in life.This, too, is what he preached in the great assemblies of the men ofÉire,[26] wherein the Constitution of Adamnán was imposed upon theGaels, and the women were emancipated by Adamnán and by FinnachtaFledach,[27] King of Éire, and the princes of Éire, of one accord. Such, too,were the tidings which Patrick, son of Calpurnius, at the Gospel-dawn,was ever wont to proclaim -- to wit, the rewards of Heaven and thepains of Hell -- to all them that would believe in the Lord, through histeaching, and would accept his guidance of their souls.[28] That, too, is thedoctrine most constantly taught by Peter and Paul, and the [other]apostles likewise, to wit, the enumeration of the rewards and painswhich had been revealed to them in like manner. And so did Silvester,Abbot of Rome, teach Constantine, son of Helen, High King of theWorld, in the General Synod when he offered Rome to Paul and toPeter.[29] Even so did Fabian, successor to Peter, teach Philip, son ofGordian, the King of Rome, whereby he believed in the Lord, and manythousands beside believed in that hour.[30] For he was the first King ofRome that believed in the Saviour, Jesus Christ.33. And these are the tidings which Elias declares continually unto thesouls of the righteous, under the Tree of Life, which is in Paradise. Sosoon as Elias opens his book in order to instruct the spirits, the souls ofthe righteous, in form of bright white birds, repair to him from everyside. Then he tells them, first, of the wages of the righteous, the joys anddelights of the Heavenly Realm, and right glad thereat are all the throng.After that he tells them of the pains and torments of Hell, and the woesof Doomsday; and easy it is to mark the look of sorrow that is upon hisface, and upon the face of Enoch; and these are the two sorrows of theHeavenly Kingdom. Then Elias shuts his book, and thereupon the birdsmake exceeding great lamentation, straining their wings against theirbodies till streams of blood issue from them, in dismay of the woes ofHell and of the Day of Doom.34. Now, seeing that they who make this moan are the Saints towhom have been allotted everlasting mansions in the Heavenly Realm,how much more fitting were it for the men that are yet on earth toponder, even with tears of blood, upon the Judgment Day, and upon thepains of Hell. For at that time will the Lord render due recompense toevery one on earth; that is to say, rewards to the righteous, andpunishments to the guilty. And at that very time shall the guilty be set inthe abyss of everlasting pain, and the book of the Word of God shallthen be closed, under the curse of the Judge of Doom, for ever. But thesaints and the righteous, the charitable and the merciful, shall be borne tothe right hand of God, to a lasting habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven,there to abide without age or death, end or term, for ever and ever.35. This, then, is the manner of that City: A Kingdom without pride,or vanity, or falsehood, or outrage, or deceit, or pretence,[31] or blushing,or shame, or reproach, or insult, or envy, or arrogance, or pestilence, ordisease, or poverty, or nakedness, or death, or extinction, or hail, orsnow, or wind, or rain, or din, or thunder, or darkness, or cold—a noble,admirable, ethereal realm, endowed with the wisdom,[32] and radiance,and fragrance of a plenteous land, wherein is the enjoyment of everyexcellence.

FINIT-AMEN-FINIT.

Acts x. 11.

2 Cor. xii. 2–4. Cp. also Galat. i. 12, 16; Ephes. i. 3; and theApocryphal Acts of Paul,Ante-Nicene Library, vol. xvi.

With the ancient Irish, the abode of the departed was beyond theAtlantic, towards the setting sun; so, in the Hindu mythology, Yama,King of the Dead, crossed the stream towards the sunset, first showingthe way by which all men were to follow him. This natural idea has beenshared by many barbarous races.

Vault; inna luinge, genitive of long, = ship.Qy.here = ‘nave’?

South-east, possibly because that is the direction of Jerusalem, theHoly City.

The word used is mórdáil, the name of the Irish National Assembly,or States-General. Seeante,Sec. 2.

Or, ‘a chair highly wrought,’ inna chathair chumtachta.

The comparison of the arch above the head of the Heavenly King toa wrought helmet or a regal diadem, may have been suggested by thepicturesque and chivalrous custom of the Irish kings recorded in theancient Irish poem upon the Fair of Carman, whence it appears that theirhead-dress on ordinary state occasions was a wrought helmet, the royalcrown being reserved for the day of battle.

‘Glow,’ derge, lit. ‘redness,’ which, Mr. Whitley Stokes suggests,symbolises divine love, creative power, royalty.’ If so, cp. Dante’sdescription of a ‘goodly crimson’ as ‘questo nobilissimo colore.’ 

Or, qy. ‘comet’?

Compare the description of the seven walls of Ecbatana, of different hue, in Herodotus, Book i.

So Windisch trans. crand cairgil, =cancelli.

‘Seats,’ or qy. stalls; the author appears to have in mind the construction of a Christian church. Cp. note to ch. 31 post. ‘Canopies,’ lit. ‘crowns.’

Or ‘virgins,’ W. S

See last note.

Or ‘parricides,’ fingalach, which O’Donovan translates both as ‘afratricide, one who has killed a tribesman,’ and ‘parricidal’ (Supplementto O’Reilly’s Dictionary).

The Erenach, or aircindech, was the official guardian of Churchtemporalities.

Dánaib, which signifies ‘gifts,’ ‘arts,’ etc.

pluic, which W. S. trans. ‘maces,’ or ‘clubs.’

‘Reivers,’ aithdibergaig, which W. S. trans. ‘men who markthemselves to the Devil,’ but expresses doubt on the subject, and citesauthorities which seem to imply the sense of rapine or plunder.

Or ‘without remission, but they,’ etc.

Co lár, which W. S. trans. ‘down to the ground.’

Rotha, so Windisch from ruth; W. S. trans. ‘wheels’ from roth.

Or, ‘the ordained who have broken their vows.’

Erdam, which, Mr. Whitley Stokes says, was the name used by the Irish ecclesiastical writers as equivalent to the Greekpronaos or narthex. See notes i and 2 to Ch. 13, ante.

Cp. ante,Sec. 2.

The Mórdáil at which these laws were passed was apparently heldin the year 697, while Finnachta Fledach had been assassinated in 695.This anachronism affords yet further evidence of the comparatively latecomposition of our version of the Vision.

anmchairdine, ‘soul-friendship’; anmchara, ‘soul-friend,’ is the Irishname for a father-confessor.

Professor Bryce considers that the first extant mention of theDonation of Constantine is contained in the letter of Pope Hadrian I toCharlemagne, dated A. D. 777 (Holy Roman Empire, ch. vii. p. 112 note,4th ed.). If so, the allusion is couched in very general and obscure terms.Döllinger, who dates the letter in question 775, holds that it refers not to what is commonly understood by the Donation of Constantine, but togifts of land in various parts of Italy, afterwards seized by theLombards. The forgery of the Donation would appear to be later than750, but prior to 774, as it refers to the state of things existing before thefirst Frankish settlement in Italy, which took place in 774. In any case, itis later than the time of Adamnán.

Philip succeeded to Gordian iii. in 224, but was not his son, beingan Arab. He favoured the Christians, and corresponded with Origen,whence arose a report, countenanced by Eusebius, that he had embracedChristianity, but for this there is no authority.

Taithlech, so W. S.

Suthi. So Windisch, though W. S. trans. ‘fruitfulness (?).’