of Maghbile that Columba "learned the wisdom of the Holy Scriptures."[1] It was fitting that from the same master he should seek further knowledge in the same region of study. Once again we have a coincidence which not only enhances the credit of O'Donnell's story, but confirms our conclusion as to the identity of Finnian of Dromin. The argument seems to me all the stronger in view of the reasons given by writers of the greatest authority who have held an opinion different from that to which I have given expression. Reeves declares that the passage of Adamnan "renders the legend of the quarrel between St. Finnian and St. Columba, both as to cause and fact, extremely improbable";[2] and we have seen that Skene, relying on another chapter of Adamnan's Life, held a similar view. Both writers meant, it would seem, that such esteem as the two saints entertained for each other would have made the quarrel impossible, or that their mutual affection would never have revived once it had taken place. That I cannot believe. But whatever truth there is in the contention would surely have been as evident to a composer of ecclesiastical fiction as to a modern scholar, and it would easily have been avoided by choosing some other leader in the Church as the adversary of Columba.
But let us attack our problem from a different side. Readers of O'Donnell's Life naturally ask the questions: Why was St. Columba so anxious to study the book which he borrowed from St. Finnian? Why was he at pains to transcribe it? And, on the other hand, why was St. Finnian so desirous, when the copy was made, to retain it in his own hands, and to prevent its circulation? At least one writer on St. Finnian of Maghbile speaks of "the beauty of his sacred books."[3] Apparently, therefore, he would have answered our questions by a reference to the illuminations or some similar features of the borrowed volume. But the aesthetic charm of a book cannot be transferred to a copy made in haste. This answer, therefore, will not serve. The copy would preserve the text, and nothing else. St. Columba might have wished to possess the text of a book to which he had no ready means of access — a treatise, let us say, of some ecclesiastical writer, or a service-book of a type with which he was unfamiliar. But O'Donnell implies that Finnian's book was some part of the Biblical Canon. If so, his eagerness must have been excited by the fact
- ↑ Adamnan, ii. 1, where Reeves identifies "Findbarrus episcopus" with Finnian of Maghbile. But he is less dogmatic in his notes on iii. 4, where the same person appears as "episcopus Finnio." The decisive argument is that the incident of the latter chapter immediately preceded the settlement of Columba at Iona in 563, while Finnian of Clonard died in 549.
- ↑ Adanman, p. 103.
- ↑ J. Gammack in the Dict, of Christian Biography, ii. 519.
