sion, were observed, with fasting up to the ninth hour, and their observation was perpetuated in the Anglo-Saxon Church by the 16th canon of the Council of Clovesho (A.D. 747), which expressly refers to their observation not as a custom derived from Rome, but as a traditional custom of the country: 'Sexto decimo condixerunt capitulo: Ut Laetaniae, id est rogationes, a clero omnique populo his diebus cum magna reverentia agantur, id est, die septimo kalendarum Maiarum, juxta ritum Romanae Ecclesiae, quae et Letania major apud eam vocatur. Et item quoque, secundum morem priorum nostrorum, tres dies ante Ascensionem Domini in caelos cum jejunio usque ad horam nonam et Missarum celebratione venerantur,' &c.

The wording of this canon is noteworthy. The observance of the Rogation Days was a Gallican custom, unknown at that date in the Roman Church, into which it was first introduced by Leo III (795-816); and their recognition in the British Church, and their perpetuation from that source in the Anglo-Saxon Church, if we may see an allusion to that Church in the words priores nostri,' is a link in the proof of the early connection between the British and Gallican Churches.

The connection of a special fast with the Celtic rite of the consecration of churches has been already pointed out2.

§ 35. CONFESSION.-There is plentiful evidence of the practice of confession in the Celtic Church, but there is no trace of its connection with or of its use as a preparation for the celebration or reception of the Eucharist. Gildas uses the general expressions 'poenitentiae medicamen' and 'ut peccata sua delerentur humilitate confessionis 3. The ordinary Irish title for a confessor was " anmcara' or 'soul's friend,' and every person seems to have attached some priest to himself in that capacity.

H. and S. iii. 368.

2 p. 75.

Epist., H. and S. i. 78, 80.

L 2

St. Donnan of Eig requested St. Columba to act as his anmcara. "This Donnan went to Columcille to make him his soul's friend; upon which Columcille said to him, “I shall not be soul's friend to a company of red martyrdom; for thou shalt come to red martyrdom, and thy people with thee." And it was so fulfilled'.' St. Columba is said to have been 'anmcara' to Aidan King of Dalriada A.D. 5742.

Adamnan acted as anıncara to Finnsnechta, who became monarch of Ireland A.D. 6753. Minute regulations about confession are laid down in the Irish Rule of the Culdees (pp. 88-90). In some of the later entries in the Annals of Ulster the office of chief confessor is named1. There are various regulations on the subject of penance and confession in the Welsh laws of Howel 5. In the Black Book of Caermarthen an irreligious Welshman is taunted with the question, 'What gavest thou of thy wealth before private confession "?'

Three points are worthy of note with regard to the practice of confession in the Celtic Church.

(a) It was public rather than private.

We read how a certain Irishman (de Scotia), named Feachnaus, touched with remorse for some crime committed by him, came to Iona, and falling at St. Columba's feet, lamenting bitterly, 'confessed his sins before all that were there present.' Whereupon St. Columba, weeping together with him, absolved him in these words: Rise up, my son, and be comforted; thy sins which thou hast committed are forgiven, because, as it is written, a contrite and a humble heart God doth not despise".'

Fólire of Oengus, p. 86. line 3; also p. cxxix and passim.

p. lxxvi.

MS. H. 2. 16. Trin. Coll., Dublin, p. 858, quoted in Reeves' Adamnan, MS. quoted in Reeves' Adamnan, p. xliii. As in the case of Oengus O'Donnellan, primh anmcara, wrongly transIated by O'Conor 'primus anachoreta' of the Columban monks; anno MOIX. H. and S. i. pp. 211–283. • V. 21. Feachnaus, cum fletu et lamento, anto podes ejus [sc. Columbae] ingenicu lans flexis gonibus amarissimo ingomult, et coram omnibus qui ibidem inerant

On another occasion, when St. Columba was visiting the little monastery of Trevet, co. Meath, a priest who had been chosen by the brethren to celebrate the Eucharist on account of his supposed superior sanctity, was consciencestricken by some words uttered by St. Columba, and 'was compelled to confess his sin in the presence of them all'.'

An old Irish canon speaks of confession of sins in the presence of priest and people".

(6) It was optional rather than compulsory.

In early Irish law there is frequent mention of the anmcara, and of confession to him being profitable (not necessary), and of his power to impose penances, such as a pilgrimage after a murder 3.

The direction on the subject in the Penitential of Cuminius ran in these words: Confessio autem Deo soli ut agatur, si necesse est, licebit.' It was perhaps owing to its optional character that the practice of confession seems to have dropped into disuse in the later Irish Church. Alcuin writing to certain brethren in Ireland (eighth century) urged the practice of confession very strongly on men and women, secular and religious, young and old. In another letter he complained

peccantias confitetur suas. Sanctus tum, cum eo pariter illacrymatus, ad eum ait, Surge fili, et consolare; dimnissa sunt tua quae comunisisti peccamina; quia sicut scriptum est, Cor contritum et humiliatum Deus non spernit.' Adamnan Vit. S. Col. i. 30.

1. 'Presbyter ille "de quo haec dicebantur verba coram omnibus peccantiam compulsus est suam confiteri." Ib. i. 40.

c. 4.

Post confessionem peccatorum coram sacerdote et plebe.' Sin. Hibern. ii. • Senchus Mor, iii. 39, 73.

The same direction appears in the Anglo-Saxon Penitential of Theodore (668-690): 'Confessio autem Deo soli agatur licebit si necesse est. Et hoc necessarium in quibusdam codicibus non est;' cap. xii. sect. 7. The meaning of these directions doponds upon the interpretation which is placed upon the conditional clause. Is the necessity alluded to 'objective' as maintained by Roman writers, such as would be caused by a stroke of paralysis, or by the impossibility of access to a priest? or is it 'subjective,' of the existence of which each person is judge according to his own spiritual needs? Lingard, A. S. Church, i. 304.

Alcuini Epist. ccxxv, ad fratres qui in Hibernia insula per diversa loos Deo doservire videntur.

that it is reported that none of the laity are willing to make their confession to the priests, whom we believe together with the holy Apostles to have received the power of binding and loosing from God in Christ','

St. Bernard asserted that the custom of going to confession had died out in Ireland in the twelfth century, and that its restoration was one among the reforms of St. Malachi 2.

(c) It was not the custom to pronounce absolution until after the penance assigned had been fulfilled.

An early Irish canon assigned a year of penitence as the punishment for certain crimes. When the year was accomplished the penitent might come with witnesses and receive absolution from the priest. Bede records how an Irish youth named Adamnanus made confession to a priest, and on hearing the penance imposed complained of it, not on account of its severity, but because he wished more quickly to receive absolution. The penance had been imposed for an indefinite time, and absolution was deferred until the priest should see him again. No second interview ever took place, in consequence of the sudden death of the priest in his native country (Ireland), whither a sudden emergency had caused him to return, and Adamnanus continued to comply with the conditions of the penance for the rest of his natural life1.

This regulation, although it led to a practical inconvenience in the case of Adamnanus, is more in accordance with the discipline of the primitive Church than the modern

Dicitur voro nominom ex la'cis suam velle confessionem snoerdotibus dare, quos a Deo Christo cum sanotis Apostolis ligandi solvondique potostatom Accopio crodimus.' Epist. oxli. ad fratros in provincia Scotorum [al. Gothorum].

Usun saluberrimum confessionis, sacramentum confirmationis, contractum conjugiorum (quae omnia aut ignorabant aut negligebant) Malachias de novo instituit. S. Bernard in Vita Malachiae, cap. iii. ad finem; see also cap. viii. § 17.

Christianus qui occiderit, aut fornicationem fecerit, aut more gentilium ad aruspicem juraverit, per singula cremina annum poenitentiae agat; impleto cum testibus veniat anno poenitentiae, et postea resolvetur a sacerdote.' Sinodus Patricii, Auxilii, Isernini, cap. xiv.

This story is told at some length in Bede, H. E. iv. 25.

practice of making the absolution precede the performance of

the penance1.

The following portion of an Irish Penitential survives among the MSS. at St. Gall2 :—

'Capitula quaedam ad emendationem vitae.

INCIPIT ORDO AD POENITENTIAM DANDAM.

Credis in Patrem et Filium et Spiritum Sanctum ? R. Credo.

Credis quod istae tres personae, quo modo diximus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus, tres sunt, et unus Deus est? R. Credo.

Credis quod in ista ipsa carne in qua nunc es habes resurgere in die iudicii et recipere siue [bonum] siue malum quod egisti? [R. Credo.]

Uis dimittere illis quicunque in te peccauerint, Domino dicente, Si non remiseritis hominibus peccata eis, nec Pater uester coelestis dimittet uobis peccata uestra ?

(R. Dimitto.) Et require diligenter si sit incestuosus3; si non uult ipsa

1 Bingham, Antiq. book xix. c. 2. For the present Roman rule and practice, Bee Schouppe, F. X., Elementa Theol. Dog. vol. ii. tract xiv. c. ii.

2 F. F. iii. 15.

3 The presence of this question as a typical question to be put to an Irish penitent corroborates the dark picture drawn by St. Bernard of the morals of the Irish; p. 150. n. 2. Statements about the prevalence of incest in Ireland in the eleventh century are also made by Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, in lottors addrossed to Gothrie King of Dublin (Ep. xxvi; Usher's Works, iv. 490), to Tordolvacus King of Ireland (Ep. xxvii ; ib. 493); by Anselin, in letters to Murlardaohus King of Ireland (Ep. xxxv; ib. p. 521 : Ep. xxxvi ; ib. p. 523); by Giraldus Cambrensis, writing A.D. 1185; Topograph. Hibern, distinct, fii, cap. 19. The first canon of the Synod of Cashel, A.D, 1173, is directed against the samo irregularity (Munsi, Concil. vol. xxli, p. 134). But the early Irish eccleníastical law of marringo was strict; Canones S. Patricii, ii Synod. xxv-xxvlil. Compare the decision of Columba in a matrimonial dispute in the fuland of Rechrea, off the coast of Antrim; Adamnan, Vit. S. Col. ii. 41. It is also noteworthy that the same question is directed to be put to the penitent in a tenthcentury German Office published by Gerbert (vol. ii. p. 25, ex Cod. MS. Bibl. Caes. Vindob. Theol. No. 685), and in an almost identical French Ordo Peni. tentiae printed in Martene, de Antiq. Eccl. Rit. lib. i. cap. vi. art. vii, ordo vi, ex MS. Gellonensi, saec. ix aut x, in diocesi Lodevensi. Possibly therefore the question was a necessity of the times rather than indicative of any special