tions laid down in the Penitential of Cuminius is one that 'women shall receive the Holy Communion under a dark veil;' and St. Basil is referred to as an authority for this undoubtedly Eastern custom1. There was a similar order for women to approach the altar with their heads veiled in the Apostolic Constitutions, in a passage relied upon by Bunsen as a proof of their Eastern origin: Καὶ γυναῖκες κατακελυμμέναι τὴν κεφαλὴν, ὡς ἁρμόζει, γυναικῶν τάξει προσερχέσθωσαν.

This was also a custom of the early Gallican Church, where a head-covering (dominicale) was ordered to be worn by women at the time of communion, by the 42nd canon of the Council of Auxerre1.

In later times we hear of a church in North Munster into which no woman, or any animal of the feminine gender, ever entered but it immediately died. There was another church where Irish women were prohibited from going near the altar, or taking the chalice in their hands: Nulla femina ad altare Domini accedat, nec calicem Domini tanget.' The latter part of this direction proves it to be of considerable antiquity. It occurs in a 'Sermo sinodalis parrotianis prespeteris,' but must surely apply only to some particular monastic altars. Yet injunctions of a similar character were not confined to Ireland. The Gallican Constitutions of Theodulf Bishop of Orleans (A.D. 802-11) ordered 'ut feminae ad altare non

''Mulieres possunt sub nigro velamine accipere sacrificium; Basilius hoc judicavit.' Cuminii de Mensura Poenitentiarum, cap. xiv. The same direction occurs in the Penitential of Theodore, vii. 3.

1 Reliquiae Liturgicae, iii. 248.

Book ii. ch. 57.

'Ut unaquaeque mulier quando communicat dominicale suum habeat, quod si qua non habuerit, usque ad alium diem Dominicum non communicet.' Conc. Autissiodor. can. 42. There was formerly some uncertainty about the interpretation of the word 'dominicale;' Gavant, Thes. Rit. i. 269; Scudamore, W. E., Notit. Euchar. edit. 1876, p. 723. n. 5. Women are represented as veiled in early and mediaeval Italian sacred art; J. H. Parker's Photographs, Nos. 479, 1710.

* Giraldus Cambrensis, Top. Hib. ii. c. 4. A.D. 1185; Master of the Rolls' Ser. vol. v. p. 80. No woman might enter the church or mill of St. Fechin at Fore; ib. ii. 52. p. 134. • Leabhar Breac, f. 248. col. 1.

accedant1.' Women were not allowed to enter the chancel of Durham Cathedral within a line of blue marble which ran across the nave. In a collection of tenth-century AngloSaxon laws the Gallican rule of Theodulf was incorporated and expanded thus: Eac we beodað þæt pæm tidum þe mæsse-preost mæssan singe pæt nan wif ne zenealace pam weofode, ac standen on hyra stedum, and þe mæsse preost þær æt hiom onfó þære ofrunge pe hi3 Gode ofrian wyllath3.'

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§26. RESERVATION.-The consecrated elements were reserved for the use of the sick or absent, to whom they were afterwards conveyed. A person going to procure Communion for the sick was exempt from liability to arrest and from the law of distress. Special warnings were directed against the loss of the reserved Sacrament from a boat or a bridge or while on horseback. It was carried in a vessel called a' chrismal,' or in a satchel suspended from the neck; and various penalties were assigned by St. Columbanus for dropping it accidentally, or for leaving it behind through negligence. It is not always clear whether these directions contemplate the Eucharist being conveyed to the sick, or worn as an amulet about the person, but in the absence of proof of the existence of the latter custom we may conclude that they are connected with administration to the sick. The reserved Eu

1 Pertz, Leges, i. 107, 171.

Irish Life of St Cuthbert, Surtees Soc. Biog. Misc. pp. 63-87.

Anglice, We also command that when the priest sings mass, no women draw near the altar, but stand in their places, and let the mass priest there receive from them the offerings which they are ready to make to God.' A great deal of information as to the mediaeval custom on this head is collected by Canon Simmons (Lay Folks' Mass Book, pp. 233-236), from which it appears that such injunctions had reference generally to the approach to the altar for offering alms (or for vesting the altar, B. Thorpe, Ancient Laws, folio edit. 1840, pp. 303, 375), not for the purpose of communicating.

• Senchus Mor, i. 267.

• Cuminii de Mensura Poenitentiarum, cap. xiii.

• Perula, quam, more patriae, presbyter itinerans sub indumento a collo suspensa deferebat.' Girald. Cambrens. Top. Hib. dist. ii. c. 19.

Regula Coon. xv. For the number of blows inflicted on these occasions, soo Migno, Pat. Lat. Curs. lxxx. 218.

Both customs existed in Anglo-Saxon days. Rock, D., Church of our Fathers, i. 134.

charist was at a very early date placed on a person's breast when he was buried, as in the case of St. Cuthbert, whose body was found oblatis super sanctum corpus positis1.' May we infer from the use of the plural number here that the reservation took place in both kinds, just as Dr. Rock infers from the employment of the singular number in another case that in Anglo-Saxon days the reservation was of one kind only 2? The decolorisation of the reserved Sacrament alluded to as a test of its corruption in the Regula St. Columbani, cap. xv, possibly points to the twofold but conjoint reservation of both elements3. The Eastern custom of simultaneous administration of both reserved elements is implied in the cases of sick or death-bed Communion previously referred to, and in the Celtic remains of services for the Communion of the Sick in the Books of Deer, Dimma, Mulling, and Stowe.

§ 27. EULOGIAE. It was a primitive Eastern custom to bless a loaf of bread at the conclusion of the Liturgy, which was then cut up into small pieces with a knife specially consecrated for that purpose, and distributed to the congregation, who came forward and received it at the priest's hands; there is ample evidence for the existence of such a custom universally prevailing in the primitive and mediaeval Church, where it was variously known by the names of Eulogiae, Panis Benedictus, and Pain Béni".

There are proofs of its use in the Celtic Church. Adamnan states that at St. Kenneth's monastery at Aghaboe in Ireland there was a table in the refectory on which the Eulogiae were cut up for distribution. The passage is curious, as showing that in Ireland in the sixth century it was customary to partake of the Eulogiae, not in connexion with the Eucharist in

1 Raine, J., St. Cuthbert, p. 34; Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Church, ii. p. 44. edit. 1858.

Oblationis particula,' Bede, H. E. iv. 14; Rock, Church of our Fathers,
• Fleming, Collectanea Sacra, 24.
• Chap. iii. §§ 5, 6, 7, 14.

1. 133.

p. 135.

• For authorities, see Rock, Church of our Fathers, i. 133.

the oratory, but at the afternoon meal in the refectory1. The same practice existed at Iona in Scotland, and, as has been inferred from a passage in the old hymn attributed to St. Columba, under the same conditions of time and place as at Aghaboe3. At Lindisfarne, in St. Cuthbert's time, it was distributed at the third hour, after Mass*.

In the continental monasteries of St. Columbanus it was distributed on Sundays and holy days after Mass. It is recorded of the saintly and humble Ermenfried, who presided over the Columban monastery of Cusance (625-670), that he always kissed the hands of the poorest persons before distribution. Its unworthy reception was forbidden by special enactment".

§ 28. FREQUENCY OF CELEBRATION.-There does not appear to have been a daily Eucharist in the Celtic Church, but only on Sundays, saints' days, and days specially appointed by the head of the monastery.

By the old law of distress in Ireland a stay of two days was granted in the case of church furniture, and the requisites of the Mass, though it be not celebrated every day".

On Sundays. When four distinguished Irish saints visited St. Columba at Iona and requested that he would celebrate

Et cum forte post nonain coopisset horam in refectorio eulogiam frangere, ocius deserit mensulam,' &c. Vit. S. Columbae, ii. 12.

Dio crastinn, his quao necessaria sunt citius praeparatis, Siluanus accopto de manu Sancti pane benedicto, in paco onagavit.' Ib. ii. 4.

• Skeno, Coltie Scotland, ii. 99 ; Libor Hymnorum, port il. 230.

Facto jam signo diel horno tertiae et oratione consummata monsam statim apposuit, quia onim panis casu aliquo non erat in diversorio, tantum micas pro benedicto pano congregatas super monsam constituit.' S. Cuthberti Vita Anon., quoted by Rock, Church of our Fathers, i. 138. Repente unus eorum intulit, quia secum haberet panem quem sibi nuper vir Domini Cuthbertus benedictionis gratin dedisset.' Bode, Vit. 8. Cuthberti, o. ix.

Dicebant etiam do bento viro, quod, humilitatis onusa, cum Dominicis vel festivis sanctorum diebus post expletionem Missarum, ut mos est ecclesiastious eulogias populis daret, si vidisset aliquem operatorem aut pauperrimum crepatis manibus, non ante eulogias dabat quam benignissimus Pater conversa vice manus ipsas oscularetur; et tunc deinum eulogias dabat.' Egilbertus, Vita S. Ermenfredi, ap. Bolland. t. vii. Sept. p. 120.

• Eulogias immundus accipiens xii. percussionibus.' Reg. Columb. c. iv. Senchus Mor, vol. i. p. 126.

in their presence he complied with their request, as usual on Sunday1. The same saint is described as celebrating on the last Sunday (June 2, 597) before his death, which took place on the Saturday following 2. Cuminius in his Penitential defends and explains these Sunday celebrations by a reference to the custom of the Greeks3. In the eighth century in Ireland there was a seven years' probation for admission into the society of the Culdees. In the first year the novice was not allowed to communicate at all, only to be present at the sacrifice. In the second year his communions began, and gradually increased in number, till they mounted to communion every Sunday in the seventh year.

5

On Saints' Days.-We read of St. Columba at Iona giving special orders for the celebration of the Eucharist in commemoration of St. Brendan and of Columbanus, and it is noted that the latter order was carried out in detail, as if it had been a regular and recognised holy-day. Passengers on their way to Iona pray that they may reach the island in time to celebrate the Eucharist on the day dedicated to St. Columba and St. Baithene, on whose joint festival (June 9) the wished-for Eucharist is offered. In Ireland, in the sixth century, we read of celebration on a holy-day in the church of St. Finnian at Movilla, county Down. In St. Bridget's

''Die dominica ex more.' Adainnan, Vit. S. Columbae, iii, 17; Cuminius, Vitn, &o. cap. 12.

Adamnan, Vit. 8. Col. ill. a3. On this occasion his face was illumined with a glow of light which he described as onused by his vision of an angel who had boon sont to demand a deposit dear to God,' and whose appearance was vouch safod to Columba 'dum missarum sollemnia, ex more, Dominica celebrarentur die.'

Graeci omni Dominica communicant, clerici et laici; et qui in tr.bus Dominicis non communicaverint, excommunicentur sicut canones habent,' Cuninius, Do Mensura Poenitentiarum, cap. xiv.

Rule of the Culdocs, p. 87.

Vir venerandus mane primo suum advocat saepe memoratum ministra torem Diorinitium nomine, eique praecipit, inquiens, Sacra celeriter Eucharistiae ministeria praeparentur. Hodie enim natalis beati Brendani dies' (= dies obitus). Adannan, Vit. S. Col. iii. 11.

Quasi die solenni.' Ib. iii. 12. See the whole chapter.

7. Ut in tua celebremus ecclesia tui natalis missarum sollemnia.' Ib. ii. 45.