corroborate propositum amore solitudinis et novitatum profanarum' fuga, cum eo imbuti esse debeatis spiritu qui a mundi spiritu quam longissime absit. Quo in genere non ignoratis, horum paesertim temporum homines, in quibus tantum potest immoderatus sui suarumque rerum amor, cum paene exuerint caritatem nullamque patiantur disciplinam, tum intemperanter licenterque, abiecta rerum aeternarum cogitatione, se in medias saeculi voluptates deliciasque coniicere. Sit quidem, ut miserrimos mundi asseclas modice vestrum tangat moveatque exemplum; in comperto tamen est, posse vos, et assidue orando et vitam degendo, ut facitis, paupertatis paenitentiaeque studiosissimam, eorum emendationi et saluti prodesse quam plurimum. Istas igitur virtutes, quae vos validissimos apud Deum deprecatores efficiant, in domibus vestris, dilecte fili, enervari et languere ne sinas. Quodsi temporum con, diciones suaserunt, ut de pristino exterioris disciplinae rigore aliquantulum, Apostolica Sede probante, remitteretis, at paenitentiae spiritum, qui vobis est gloriae ac praesidio, servatote integrum, ne ab instituto ipsorum vestro gradatim, cum magno Ordinis populique christiani detrimento, degeneretis. Habes, dilecte fili, quae placuit ad te scribere, cum coenobiis et virorum et alumnarum communicanda; ea quidem ut, pro optatis Nostris, usui Ordini vestro sint, caelestium donorum auspicem paternaeque benevolentiae Nostrae testem, tibi, dilecte fili, et sodalibus, quibus praees, universis apostolicam benedictionem peramanter in Domino impertimus.

Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, die xxvIII mensis maii anno MDCCCCXXIII, Pontificatus Nostri secundo.

PIUS PP. XI.

LETTER OF THE HOLY FATHER TO THE MOST REV. THOMAS ESSER, O.P., ON HIS FIFTIETH YEAR IN THE PRIESTHOOD

(May 27, 1923)
EPISTOLAE

AD R. P. D. THOMAM ESSER, O. P., EPISCOPUM TIT. SINIDENSEM: QUINQUAGESIMO EXEUNTE ANNO SACERDOTII EIUS

Venerabilis frater, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem.-Quinquagesimo propediem exeunte anno postquam sacerdotio in archiepiscopali Seminario Coloniensi initiatus es, Nobis praecipue dignus videris, quem, hoc occasione, publico benevolentiae Nostrae testimonio augeamus. Haec enim faustitas, quae solet cuicumque contigerit haud mediocrem afferre laetitiam, vix attinet dicere quantum tibi allatura sit gaudii, cui liceat in tam diuturnum sacerdotalis vitae curriculum, conscientia officii sancte actuoseque expleti, fidenter respicere. Nam sacerdos novensilis in ea incidisti tempora, quibus catholica Ecclesia acerrime apud Germanos divexari coepta est; cumque parocho cuidam adiutor datus esses, omne genus molestias atque insectationes et carcerem haud semel passus, tandem

vi e paroecia es deturbatus. Iter mox Almae huius Urbis ingresso, illud tibi curae fuit, ut, dum sacrovacabas ministerio, altiora studia repeteres atque iterando perficeres: quod videtur auspicato contigisse, ut deinde, quam tibi comparasses multiplicium disciplinarum cognitionem ac scientiam, eam, et editis in vulgus scriptis et instituendo docendoque, utilissime cum studiosis communicares. Postquam enim, duodetriginta annos natus, in Ordinem Praedicatorum cooptatus es, primum in ipso, ubi degebas, coenobio, deinde in Hollandia apud tuos, denique in maximo Hiberniae ecclesiastico conlegio et in catholica studiorum Universitate Friburgensi sacras erudite disciplinas tradidisti, usque dum, huc accitus, gravibus in Romana Curia perfungi coepisti muneribus. Ceterum, quanti te fecerint operamque tuam decessores Nostri, si alia non suppeterent argumenta, vel ipsa comprobaret episcopalis dignitas ad quam sexto ante anno evectus es. Septimo igitur proximi mensis die, sodalibus amicisque stipatus, ad altare accedas laeto et quidem grato in Deum animo, qui tibi benignissime dederit, ut tam plenos bonorum operum quinquaginta hos annos traduceres. Nos autem tibi, ut faustum gratulamur eventum, ita etiam cupimus, ut bene valeas diuque pergas et consilio et sacri exercitatione muneris Urbano populo prodesse. Caelestium interea gratiarum auspicem et paternae caritatis Nostrae testem, tibi, venerabilis frater, apostolicam benedictionem peramanter impertimus. Datum Romae apud Sanctum Petrum, die xxvII mensis maii, anno MDCCCCXXIII, Pontificatus Nostri secundo.

PIUS PP. XI.

REVIEWS AND NOTES

SILVA FOCLUTI. Paper by Eoin Mac Neill. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. XXXVI. pp. 249-255, Section C.

READERS of St. Patrick's Confession will remember that, in speaking of the dream he had of the voice of certain Irish people calling upon him to walk amongst them, he states that the invitation came from 'those who were beside the Wood of Foclut-iuxta Siluam Focluti.' For very many generations this Silua Focluti has been identified with a particular region in the west of Ireland frequently mentioned in ancient documents, and still, it is said, represented in these days by the townland-name of Foghill, near Killala. On the other hand, all tradition, from Muirchu and Tirechan downwards, that is from about the middle of the seventh century, has connected St. Patrick's detention in slavery with Sliabh Mis, or Slemish, in Co. Antrim, in the north-east corner of Ireland. There at once arises a difficulty, because the narrative seems to imply that the Saint was at a previous time present among the people whose voices he fancied he heard in the dream, whereas the passage in the Confession relating to the captivity implies that he was subject to the same master since his arrival in Ireland. The problem is to explain how Patrick recognized the accent of the natives of the Wood of Fochlut in Co. Mayo, or even knew the name of the place, if he had never been there.' In other words, how are we to account for Patrick's reference to the west of Ireland, when the natural inference would be that the place of captivity, which was in a quite different region, would be the more prominent in the experience which decided the future of our Apostle.

Various solutions of the difficulty have been advocated from time to time. Lanigan put forward the suggestion that Patrick might have visited the West in the company of his master' to buy or sell pigs, just as people in our own time go from all parts of Ireland to the fairs of Ballinasloe.' It is, of course, not impossible that some such visit may have taken place, but it is hardly likely; and the illustration from modern habits is not at all a happy one. Subsequent writers generally reject the theory.

Dr. Healy, in his Life and Writings of St. Patrick, proposed another solution of the problem. He argued that the way of escape from the captivity was by the western coast of Ireland, and that Patrick found the ship which carried him away near the Wood of Foclut, about 200 miles from Slemish. This view is deduced from a passage in the Confession, which mentions this distance. It is open to the objection that the Killala district is not the only seaside place about 200 miles distant

from Slemish. Further, Patrick's vision, which led to his escape, told him he would soon go towards his own country, Britain, and one would not expect to find the fugitive setting forth on his journey in the opposite direction, that is, towards the west. Besides, there is no evidence at all that there were ports of embarkation or commerce between Ireland and Britain, on the western coast, at the epoch in question.

Dr. Newport White gives expression to a different theory in a little edition of Muirchu's Life of St. Patrick, which he published a few years ago. It is best stated in his own sentences: 'How,' he asks, are we to account for Patrick's own words, "I heard the voice of them who lived beside the Wood of Foclut"? I believe that his mission work in Connaught, which was extensive and prolonged, affected his interpretation in old age of the dream he had seen as a young man. It is no derogation from Patrick's greatness as a man of God to say that he had a confused and inaccurate way of thinking. When such a man, after forty years, recalls a dream, the interpretation thereof is likely to be affected by the actual fulfilment of it. Now the call of the West came to Patrick's ears with a summons as compelling as the call of the East has been to later missionaries. Twice he emphasizes the fact that he had preached to the limit beyond which no man dwells. Tirechan records that Patrick crossed the Shannon three times, and spent seven years on the western shore. When these facts are taken into consideration, it will not be thought unreasonable to suppose that what had been when first heard a call from Ireland generally, came to be thought of, quite naturally, as a call from the people dwelling under the great Cruachan Aigli, the sight of which has always impressed the imagination.'

Dr. Bury devotes a few pages of his Life of St. Patrick to this puzzling question. He puts aside the unanimous voice of all antiquity, and says : 'the simplest solution seems to be a frank rejection of the story which connected his captivity with Sliabh Mis in the land of the Picts.'

We now come to a new interpretation of the passage in the Confession which has caused all this diversity of opinion. It is embodied in Dr. Eoin Mac Neill's paper mentioned at the head of this note. The manuscript authorities for the passage number seven, but each of them gives a different reading of the crucial word or words which follow siluam. The oldest, the Book of Armagh, has focluti; a second has uirgulti; a third has uirgulti uolutique; a fourth has the same with deletion of the second word; a fifth has uirgultique; a sixth has uirgulti uelutique ; and the last uirgulti ueluti. It is apparent from such confusion of readings that the restoration of the correct one is a matter of great difficulty. MacNeill rejects the Book of Armagh vocable, the commonly accepted focluti, on the ground that in Irish words initial ƒ did not appear until about the year 600, and consequently this word should commence with a v or u, if it were really written by St. Patrick. It is unnecessary to follow the analysis of the different variants offered by the manuscripts. With some ingenuity Mac Neill comes to the conclusion that the original word was Uluti which would correspond with the later Irish word Ulaid, and signify Ulidians.' Evidence is adduced to show that St. Patrick

might have improperly used the nominative plural where we should expect the genitive and Silua Uluti would represent an Irish place-name meaning the Wood of the Ulidians.' Such a name we actually have in the modern Killultagh, a well-known district east of Lough Neagh and embracing large tracts in the counties of Down and Antrim. This identification would get rid of the difficulty pointed out in the first paragraph, and when St. Patrick speaks of the territory as lying near the western sea he speaks vividly of the vision and of the sea which lay west of the country where the vision took place, that is Britain.

To my mind, the most forceful objection to this restoration is that it would involve a similar tampering with the parallel passages, not only in Muirchu's text, but also in that of Tirechan. Mac Neill has seen this, for he has a few remarks about substitution of a certain reading in the former of these. (As regards Muirchu his remarks are beside the point: he does not cite him correctly at all.) Chapter 6 of the Life has in uissione uocant te filii et filiae siluae foclitae (Armagh 3A) with the variant foclade in the Brussels manuscript. The same incident is referred to in a lengthy episode described in Tirechan's Memoir (Armagh 20A-21A). The placename occurs no less than four times, as follows: silua fochloth, nomen siluae fochlothi, silua fochlithi (bis). Mac Neill inclines to the view that a redactor made certain changes in the Confession and in Muirchu. In the light of Tirechan's text we should have to assume that a similar redaction was carried out on it. It appears to me unreasonable to have to postulate deliberate alteration in as many as six occurrences of the name under discussion.

We may then, I think, retain focluti in the Confession text, or if we prefer it, uocluti, because of course one is the later form of the other, and any scribe was capable of making the change before or at the time when the Book of Armagh was written. What may the word mean at all, or how is it compounded? Very many people who have discussed its formation suppose it contains the root caill, a wood,' on the assumption that caill has as genitive cailleth or cailled in very early Irish. From the evidence before me, this does not appear to be the case. Take the Old Irish Song of Summer,' printed by Kuno Meyer. One line of it reads :'Seinnid crot caille ceol.'

6

The harp of the forest sounds music.'

Or Marbhan's words in King and Hermit :

'Ata uarboith dam hi coild.'

'I have a shieling in the wood.'

Or Liadain's stanza :

'Ceol caille

Fomchanad la Cuirithir La fogur fairce flainne.' 'The music of the forest

Would sing to me when with Cuirithir

Together with the voice of the purple sea.'