The Kev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 19 



The Office of the Mass, in this MS., begins with the Litanies, which are 

 preceded by the antiphon Peccavimus; over this Maolcaich has inserted the 

 rubric — 



" Letania apostolorum ac martinim sanctorum virorutn et virginum incipit. 

 Deus in adjutorium nostrum intende." 



I have not retained here the contractions of the original, which may be 

 seen in Dr. O'CoNoii's fac-simile plate of the page in which this rubric occurs. 



Dr. O'Conor's account of the order of the prayers in this Missal is, on the 

 whole, very correct, and I shall, therefore, briefly repeat what he has said, 

 adding only such observations as my examination of the MS. has suggested. 



After the Litanies, which, for the reason already given, I could not tran- 

 scribe, we have in this Missal (I quote Dr. O'Conoe's words*) "the hymn 

 Gloi'ia, without any allusion to the Conjiteor^ the commencement of the Roman 

 Mass ever since the ninth century ; neither does the Pax vobis., or the Dominus 

 vobiscum, which are fi'equently repeated in the Roman, occur anywhere in the 

 Irish, although in the Roman they are certainly as old as the tenth century. 

 In the Roman the Collect follows the Gloria, and consisted always of one 

 prayer," [?] " as at present. In the Irish it consists of several prayers for the 

 priests, the people, the Universal Church, the peace and prosperity of princes 

 and kingdoms, for the distributor" [givers] " of alms, &;c."f 



This last circumstance is interesting ; for Dr. O'Conor has shown that at 

 a Synod held at Matiscon, A. D. 623 [not 620, as he has it], to consider certain 

 objections brought by one Agrestius against the rule of St. Columbanus, this 

 peculiarity of the Irish Missal is noticed. It appears that the monks who fol- 

 lowed the rule of St. Columbanus at that time on the continent of Europe 

 observed in every respect the rites and customs of the Irish Church, and even 

 the tonsure from ear to ear, which was peculiar to Ireland and Scotland. 



Mabillon, in his " Annals of the Benedictine Order" (vol. i., p. 320), gives a 

 oill account of this controversy, and mentions, amongst other objections urged 

 jy Agrestius, the following: — "In summa quod a cseterorum ritu ac norma 

 lesciscerent, et sacra missarum solenmia orationum et collectarum midtiplici 

 varietate celebrarent." The answer of Eustasius, who appears to have been 



* Stowe Catal., Append. No. I., p. 43. 



t See the Office for Easter Eve in the Bobio Missal {Museum Ital., torn i. part ii. p. 320). 



c2 



