incesta dimittere, non potes ei dare poenitentiam; et si uult ipsa incesta dimittere, fac eum confiteri omnia peccata sua, et ad ultimum dicere,

Multa sunt peccata mea in factis, in uerbis, in cogitationibus.

Tunc da illi poenitentiam, et dic istas orationes super eum,

Oremus.

Preueniat hunc famulum tuum ill. Domine misericordia tua, et omnes iniquitates eius celeri indulgentia deleat. Per1.

Oremus.

Exaudi, Domine, preces nostras, et confitentium tibi parce peccatis, et quos conscientiae reatus accusat, indulgentia tuae pietatis absoluat2.

Et caeteras si tempus habueris sic in sacramentario continentur. Si tibi non uacat istae sufficiant.

Et si homo ingeniosus est, da ei consilium ut ueniat tempore statuto ad te aut ad alium sacerdotem in Coena Domini, et reconciliaretur sic in Sacramentario continetur. Quicquid manens in corpore consecutus non fuerit (hoc est reconciliatio) exutus carne consequi non poterit. Si uero minus intelligens fuerit, quod ipse non intelligit, in uno statu reconciliare potes eum, ita dicendo,

Oremus.

Presta, quesumus, Domine, dignum poenitentiae fructum huic famulo, ut Ecclesiae tuae sanctae, a cuius integritate deuiarat peccando, admissorum ueniam consequendo reddatur innocuus3.

Per.

Si infirmus est homo, statim reconciliare eum debes.

degradation in the morality of Ireland. It should also be remembered that marriages with persons occupying positions of spiritual affinity as well as with near kindred fell under the designation of incest. (Hook, W. F., Archbishops of Canterbury, i. 372. § 7.) The charge of 'incest' was frequently brought against the Anglo-Saxons in the ninth century. (Lingard, A. S. Church, ii. 220.) Sacr. Gelas. p. 504; Greg. p. 209; Sarum Missal, p. 132. . Ib.

> This collect occurs in the Ordo Excommunicandi, &c. in the Pontif. Rom.

CHAPTER III.

RELIQUIAE CELTICAE LITURGICAE:

Together with certain Missae and Collects, which, though not portions of the original Celtic Liturgy, were used in the later Celtic Church, or are associated with the names of Celtic Saints, or refer to incidents in their lives, or have relics of the ancient Liturgy interwoven in their structure or contents.

1. No traces of a vernacular Liturgy. § 2. Cornish Fragment. Missa S. Germani. § 3. Welsh Fragments. Missa de S. David. — § 4. Missa de S. Teilao. § 5. Scottish Fragment. Book of Deer. - § 6. Irish Fragments. Book of Dimma. -§ 7. Book of Mulling. — § 8. Book of Armagh.§ 9. St. Gall. MS. No. 1394. — § 10. St. Gall. MS. No. 1395. -§ 11. Basle MS. A. vii. 3.- § 12. Antiphonary of Bangor. — § 13. Book of Hymns. - § 14. Stowe Missal. — § 15. Drummond, Corpus, and Rosslyn Missals. - § 16. Paris MS. 2333 A. Colbert.-17. Missale Vesontionense.

Throughout the documents printed in this chapter the original orthography and accentuation have been retained. The punctuation has been modernised and capital letters have been introduced after full stops. Words or letters within square brackets [] are not in the MS. text. Those within round

brackets () have been added by a later hand. Rubrics have been printed in italics, Titles in small capitals. Contractions and abbreviations have been expanded.

§§ 2, 3, 4b, 5, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 16 have been printed from the original MSS; §§ 9, 10 from facsimiles of the original MSS.; §§ 4a, 11, 12 from collations with the original MSS., kindly supplied by P. B. Davies-Cooke, Esq., Dr. L. Sieber, and the Very Rev. W. Reeves, D.D.

CHAPTER III.

RELIQUIAE CELTICAE LITURGICAE.

1. No TRACES OF A VERNACULAR LITURGY.

THERE is no trace of a vernacular Liturgy having been in use in any portion of the Celtic Church; but in the absence of any liturgical remains of an earlier date than the seventh century, only negative evidence can be produced on this point. The undoubtedly Celtic liturgical fragments of a later date which have survived are in the Latin language, relieved by an occasional vernacular rubric, as in the case of the St. Gall MSS., the Stowe Missal, and the Books of Deer, Dimma, and Mulling1. But there is not only an absence of direct proof, but also of any indirect evidence which points to a vernacular Liturgy having once existed, if we except a possible interpretation of the 'ritus barbarus,' abolished in Scotland by Queen Margaret2.

As far as the earliest British Church is concerned many facts suggest a partially Latin origin. The most important British bishoprics belonged to the capitals of Roman provinces— York, London, and possibly Caerleon. The earliest Christian martyrs in Britain bore Roman, or at least not Celtic namesAlbanus, Julius, Aaron. The earliest antiquarian remains of British Christianity are connected with Roman stations, as at Canterbury, Dover, Lyminge, Richborough, &c. Ptolemy, writing in the earlier part of the second century (c. a.D. 120), enumerates under their Latin titles fifty-six cities then

1 §§ 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14.

'Theoderic. Vita S. Margaret. c. 8, quoted on p. 7. n. 5.

existing in Britain'; Marcianus in the third century reckons fifty-nine. Other names of towns have been collected from the pages of Asser, Nennius, Henry of Huntingdon, and the Saxon Chronicle3. The walls by which some of these places are still surrounded, the ruins of theatres, villas, baths, and other public and private buildings, the vases, coins, inscriptions discovered from time to time, prove that they once contained a flourishing Roman population. Possibly, therefore, the earliest Christian Church in these islands consisted of converts to Christianity among its Roman invaders and of such natives as were brought into immediate connection with them. Gradually, as the Roman power dwindled away, the Church spread over the population of these islands; but in quite early days Latin, and not any form of Gaelic, may have been, if not the vernacular language, at least a language understood by all the members of the Christian Church in Britain. Tacitus informs us that the Roman language was adopted by the leading inhabitants of Britain under the 'policy' of Agricola. Most of the writings of the British, Scottish, and Irish authors of the first six centuries, all the extant Psalters and Books of the Gospels, and the few liturgical fragments which have been preserved, are written in the Latin language by scribes who not only understood what they wrote, but were so far masters of the language in which they were writing as to have compiled a special British and Irish revision of the old Latin text of the Bible for use in their own Church'. The ecclesiastical use of the ancient

1 Geogr. lib. ii. cap. 2. 2 Heracleot. Пepínλovs, edit. M.DC. p. 92. 'Their Celtic names, and where possible the Roman equivalents, are given by Thomas Gale (Hist. Brit. Script. p. 135) and W. Gunn (Edit. of Nennius, p. 97).

The remains of Celtic churches, crosses, &c. in Cornwall are to be referred to this period. Tacitus, Vit. Agric. c. 21.

6 p. 36. Including the Domnach-Airgid MS., written in the fifth century and believed to have belonged to St. Patrick, now in the Royal Irish Academy at Dublin; an ancient version of the Gospels, fifth to seventh century, in Trinity College, Dublin; the Psalter styled Cathach, and the volume of the Gospels known as the Book of Durrow (Vulg.), both written by St. Columba in the sixth century.