Notes on the Study of the Bible among our Forefathers. 89 gelium aut Apostoli loquuntur, grande debet esse ab aliis de Trinitate silentium . . . Ceeterum disputatio, seu ingenium huma- num, aut aliqua superba sapientia quae vel mundi in ratione fallitur, de Deo magistra esse non potest, sed sacrilega et impia in Deum praesumenda est":" Instructio n. in Max. Biblioth. Pa- trum (Lugdun. 1677), xn. 10. A kindred feeling manifests itself in the following passage, which may also serve as an example of his large and generous views. He is addressing certain Gallic bishops on the Paschal controversy : " Absit ut ego contra vos contendam congrediendum, ut gaudeant inimici nostri de nostra contentione, Judaei scilicet aut haeretici sive pagani gentiles. Absit sane, absit: alioquin aliter [Pinter] nos potest convenire, ut aut unusquisque in quo vocatus est, in eo permaneat apud Domi- num, si utraque bona est traditio : aut cum pace et humilitate sine ulla contentione libri legantur utrique ; et quce plus Veteri et Novo Testamento concordant, sine ullius invidia serventur:" Epist. ii. Ibid. p. 26. (Cf. his forcible letter to pope Gregory the Great: Ibid. pp. 31 sqq.). From these and other writings we infer that Columbanus was superior to the great majority of Irish scholars in the freshness of his thoughts, the vigour of his language, and the aptness of his references * to Holy Scripture. He had also mastered the chief works of Latin theologians: and at least one passage seems to indicate that he was not en- tirely unacquainted with Greek and Hebrew. He affirms that " Columba" corresponds to irepioTepa and also to H3V (= Iona) : but as this conceit is elsewhere mentioned (e. g. in the Preface to Adamnan's Life of Columba), we are scarcely justified in laying stress on the above conclusion. Columbanus was succeeded on the continent by other kin- dred spirits, for example, by St Gall and Feargal or Virgilius, bishop of Salzburg. It is worthy of remark that some at least of these itinerant Irishmen (" Scoti sancti peregrini" they are called) were constantly betraying modes of thought much freer than we trace among the " Roman" missionaries ; and that one of them in particular named Clement was severely taxed by Boniface (Ep. lvii. ed. Giles) for propagating grievous errors, " contra catholicam ecclesiam." " Ipse etiam" it is added " con- tra fidem sanctorum patrum contendit, dicens, quod Christus,
- His quotations vary somewhat from the ordinary Latin versions ; but not so
much as those of Erigena, which are indeed remarkable for their independence.
