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Gregorian, nor probably in any other form. Bede asserts that the Roman style of singing was first introduced into England generally by Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, A.D. 678, and into the monasteries founded by Scottish missionaries in the North of England by St. Wilfrid, who died C. A.D. 7091.

Dr. O'Conor discusses the question with much ingenuity and research in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores2.' He endorses to a certain extent the conclusion of Mabillon, that the choral service of the British Church which was not 'juxta morem Romanum' was therefore 'juxta morem Orientalem.' The Eastern course having been introduced into the monasteries of Lerins and Marseilles (as described by Cassian), and having been learned there or elsewhere in Gaul by Germanus and Lupus (and Patrick), was by them introduced into Great Britain and Ireland in the fifth century, and was transferred thence to Scotland by Irish missionaries in the sixth century. The subject is hardly sufficiently relevant to the Liturgy to be discussed here at further length.

§ 18. INCENSE. We have been unable to discover any passage referring to the use of incense in the Celtic Church 5. Thuribles or incense-cups have often been found in British burial-places, as at Lancaster Moor, at Brixworth', &c. The perforation of these cups near the upper rim implies that they were to be swung, and the occurrence of ornamentation on the under surface, which is not found in cinerary and other urns,

1 Hist. Eccl. iv. 18.

3 Lib. ii. Instit. an. 420.

2 Vol. iv. pp. 153–160.

The words of Mabillon are: 'Alterum (ecclesiasticum cursum) voco Alexandrinum auctore Marco Evangelista, qui cursus in monasteriis Lerinensi et Massiliensi Cassiani receptus sit; atque inde per sanctos Germanum Autisiodorensem et Lupum Tricassinum antistites in Scotiam, et per Caesarium in Arelatensem ecclesiam inductus; quem demum Columbanus in Luxovium admiserit.' De Cursu Gallicano, p. 381.

* A single allusion to it in Aileran's Interpretat. Moralis (Migne, Bibl. Pat. Lat. lxxx. 338) is plainly metaphorical.

• Brit. Archaeol. Journal, xxi. 161.

7

? Ib. xix. 21.

proves that they were intended to be suspended above the level of the eye. The symbol of the cross has been found on some of these cups, as on those discovered at Bryn Sciont, Carnarvonshire, and at other places'. The date of such relics is undetermined. The mark of the cross used generally to be referred to as an evidence of their connection with Christianity, and was often relied upon by antiquarians as a proof of a post-Christian date, as in the case of bronze spoons found at Llanfair in Wales, and of inscribed stones, &c. elsewhere2. But it has been found as an emblem on vases, ornaments and relics, both in the British islands and in continental pilewrought villages, and lacustrine dwellings and cemeteries, many centuries anterior to the Christian era3; and the most recent and experienced archaeologists are decided in their view that these incense urns have no connection with Christianity. The psalm 'Dirigatur,' &c. which accompanies the act of censing in the modern Roman Missal is indicated for use in the Stowe Missal, but there are no rubrical directions there for the use of incense". It may be added that no trace exists of the use of incense in the early Gallican Church. It is not mentioned in any rubric of the surviving Missals, nor is there any allusion to it in the somewhat full Expositio Missae' of Germanus Parisiensis (sixth century.)

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§ 19. JOINT CONSECRATION.-A very singular custom existed at Iona of two or more priests being ordinarily united in the Eucharistic prayer and act of consecration; to consecrate singly being the prerogative of bishops, or of individual priests specially selected and empowered to consecrate on account of their sanctity or eminence.

Adamnan records how 'on one occasion a stranger from the

'Archaeol, Cambrensis, Third Series, vol. xiv. p. 25, figs. 18, 19; p. 260, figs. 23, 24.

Ib. Third Series, vol. viii. p. 219; vol. for 1856, p. 49.

Gabriel de Montillet, La signe de la Croix avant le Christianisme, Paris, 1866.

• Greenwell and Rolleston, British Barrows, p. 76, &c. Ch. iii. § 14. Fol. 18 a in the later handwriting.

province of Munster, who concealed through humility the fact that he was a bishop, was invited, on the next Sunday, by Columba to join with him in consecrating the body of Christ, that as two priests they might break the bread of the Lord together. Columba, on Columba, on going to the altar, discovered his rank, and addressed him thus: "Christ bless thee, brother; consecrate alone as a bishop; now we know that thou art of episcopal rank. Why hast thou endeavoured to disguise thyself so long, and to prevent our giving thee the honour due to thee1?""

On another occasion four illustrious visitors from Ireland paid a special mark of respect to St. Columba by requesting him to offer the Eucharist in their presence2.

This custom of joint celebrants in the case of priests, and of a single celebrant in the case of a bishop, is peculiar to the Celtic rite, no similar practice existing in any other country or at any other time. There was something exactly opposed to it in the once general but now nearly obsolete rule of the Western Church, that when a bishop celebrated the priests present should unite with him in the words and acts of consecration3. This direction still survives in the Roman service for the 'Ordering of Presbyters,' when the newly-ordained priests join with the bishop in repeating the words of the Canon1. The same custom

''Alio in tempore, quidam de Muminensium provincia proselytus ad sanctum venit, qui se, in quantum potuit, occultabat humiliter ut nullus sciret quod esset episcopus; sed tamen Sanctum hoc non potuit latere. Nam alia die Dominica a Sancto jussus Christi corpus ex more conficere, Sanctum advocat, ut simul quasi duo presbyteri Dominicum panem frangerent. Sanctus proinde ad altarium accedens, repente intuitus faciem ejus, sic eum compellat, Benedicat te Christus, frater, hunc solus, episcopali ritu, frange panem; nunc scimus quod sis episcopus. Quare hucusque te occultare conatus es, ut tibi a nobis debita non redderetur veneratio?' Adamnan, Vita S. Columbae, i. 44.

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Hi uno eodemque consensu elegerunt ut sanctus Columba coram ipsis in ecclesia sacra Eucharistiae consecraret mysteria.' Ib. iii. 17.

3 'Ut in confectione immolationis Christi adsint presbyteri et simul cum pontifice verbis et manu conficiant.' Martene, de Antiq. Eccles. Rit. i. 3. 8; Conf. Amalarius, lib. i. cap. 12.

The rubric in the Pontifical (De Ordinatione Presbyteri) directs the celebrating bishop to speak 'aliquantulum alte, ita ut ordinati sacerdotes

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existed at Chartres, on Maundy Thursday, as late as the fifteenth century1.

$20. OBLATIONS AND OFFERTORY.-The oblations of bread and wine for the Eucharistic service, and offerings of money, ornaments or other precious gifts, were made, in accordance with the general custom of the Gallican and Mozarabic Liturgies, just before the recitation from the diptychs of the names of departed saints2. St. Augustine seems to have found this custom in existence in England, for one of his first questions to St. Gregory was as to the proportion in which such alms and offerings were to be distributed 3.

Early Irish canons, attributed to St. Patrick, lay down that the offerings of the wicked and the excommunicate are not to be accepted. St. Patrick mentions in his Confession how the devoted and warm-hearted Irish women among his disciples made offerings at his altar of ornaments and personal presents, and how he offended them by always returning them afterwards, lest the unbelieving should have appearance of ground for scandal against him. When St. Columba was making 'the offering of Christ's Body and Blood' in the presence of Comgall and Cainnech, at their special request, 'then it was

possint secum omnia dicere, et presertim verba consecrationis, quae dici debent eodem momento per ordinatos quo dicuntur per pontificem.'

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Le Joudi-saint six Archidiacres Prêtres celebrent la grand' Messe conjointement avec l'Eveque... l'Evoque est au milieu de l'Autel; il a trois Prôtres a sa droite, et trois a sa gauche, sur la meme ligne. Ils chantent tous sept unanimement, et pratiquent ensemble toutes les cérémonies de la Messe.' De Moleon, Voyages Liturgiques, p. 231.

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See p. 105. n. 6.

• Prima interrogatio beati Augustini episcopi Cantuariorum ecclesiae. De episcopis, qualiter cum suis clericis conversentur, vel de his quae fidelium oblationibus accedunt altaris; quantae debent fieri portiones, et qualiter episcopus agere in ecclesia debeat.' Bede, H. E. 1. 27, Interrogatio i.

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Contentus tegmento et alimento tuo cetera dona iniquorum reproba.' S. Patric. Synodus, c. 2. Quicunque Christianus excommunicatus fuerit, nec ejus eleemosyna recipiatur.' Synodus Episcoporum Patricii, &c. xii.

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The passage is corrupt, but the meaning is obvious. Nam etsi imperitus sum in omnibus, tamen conatus sum quispiam servare me etiani et fratribus Christianis, et virginibus Christi, et mulieribus religiosis, quae mihi ultrones munuscula donabant, et super altare reddebant, ex ornamentis suis, et iterum reddebam illis,' &c. Patricii Confessio, c. xxi.

that Cainnech beheld a pillar of fire over Colombcille's head while at the offertory1.

In the Mozarabic and Gallican Liturgies an anthem or hymn was sung during the offertory called 'Sacrificium' or 'Sonum.' Such may be this short anthem in the Antiphonary of Bangor, which resembles an offertory sentence of the Anglican Liturgy rather than the offertorium of the Roman Missal.

'Pro eleemosynariis.— Dispersit, dedit pauperibus, iustitia ejus manet in saeculum saeculi, cornu ejus exaltabitur in gloriâ. Eleemosynas facientibus in hoc mundo retribue, Domine, in regno tuo sancto.'

An account is preserved in the Leabhar Breac of the ritual accompanying the oblation of the elements which is probably a genuine survival of the ancient Celtic Liturgy. First three drops of water were placed in the chalice, the priest saying, 'Peto [or Quaeso] te, pater, deprecor te, filii, obsecro te, spiritus sancte;' then three drops of wine, with the accompanying formula, 'Mittet pater, indulgeat filius, misseretur spiritus sanctus3;' or, 'Remittet pater, indulget filius, misseretur spiritus sanctus1.'

§ 21. UNLEAVENED BREAD.-Dr. Döllinger enumerates the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist among the peculiarities of the British Church, and as one of the points on which it differed from the rest of Western Christendom: 'Dass der Gebrauch der Azyma eine Eigenthumlichkeit der Briten gewesen sey, schliesse ich aus einer Stelle der capitula selecta canonum Hibern bei D'Achery, Spicileg. i. 505: Gildas ait: Britones toto mundo contrarii, moribus Romanis inimici non solum in missa, sed etiam in tonsura cum Judaeis umbrae futurorum servientes. Gerade so drückt sich Nicetas contra

1 Leabhar Breac, p. 32 b. The word used here is idpairt, to which no technical meaning is affixed. The usual word for the Eucharistic offering itself was oiffrenn

=

'the mass.'

'Leslei, Praefatio in Liturg. Moz. sect. 76; Germani Paris. Expos. Brev. Ant. Lit. Gall., De Sono, * Stowe Mis, fol. 64 b.

• Fol. 251 a.

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