The Rev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 23 



I know not what this "Oratio S. Gregorii" may be, unless it be the fol- 

 lowing, which occurs among the " Oratioues quotidiante" at the end of St. Gre- 

 gory's "Liber Sacramentorum :"* — 



" Qua3sumus omnipotens Deus, ne nos tua misericordia derelinquat, qu£e et 

 errores nostros semper amoveat, et noxia cuncta depellat. Per." 



Another remarkable fact noticed by Dr. O'Conor is this, that the Stowe 

 Missal omits the celebrated addition oi' Jilioqiie in the Creed. This is not a 

 proof of heterodoxy, but only of antiquity ; for that addition, as is well known, 

 did not become general in the West until after the time of Pope Leo IIL, — the 

 beginning of the ninth century. This is about the date of the later handwriting, in 

 which the additions and alterations inserted in this MS. have been made through- 

 out ; and accordingly we find that Jilioque has been interlined in the more recent 

 liand.- Dr. O'Conor, in his Plate, has given a fac-simile of this passage of the 

 Creed, by which it appears that the reading of the original MS. was as follows : — 



"Cujus regni non erit finis. Et in spiritum sanctum, dominum et vivifica- 

 torem, ex patre procedentem, cum patre et filio coadorandum, et conglorifi- 

 candum." 



And that the more recent hand had altered the clause following the word 

 vivijicatorem, thus: — 



" qui ex patre filioque procedit, qui cum patre et filio simul coadoratur, et 

 conglorificatur ;" 



— an altei'ation which brings it to the reading which has gradually gained ground 

 in the Western Church since the ninth century. 



It is satisfactory to find that the date which we must assign to the interli- 

 neations and alterations made in the original MS., judging merely by the cha- 

 racter of the handwriting, is so fully confirmed by independent historical facts. 



Here, however, it is necessary to make some remarks on the comparison 

 which Dr. O'Conor has suggested between the Stowe Missal and the Sacra- 

 mentary of Bobio, published by the learned Benedictines, Mabillon and Ger- 

 main, in their " Museum Italicum."f 



"It is very remarkable" (says Dr. O'Conor) "that neither in the Bobio 



• 0pp. (Ed. Bened.), torn. iii. part i. col. 197. But there are several other Collects in St. 

 Gregory's Sacramentary which begin with the words, — " Quccsumus omnipotens Deus" as the 

 Collect for Third Sunday in Lent; for Passion Sunday; and see also loc. cit., col. 193, 195. 



t Museum Italicum, torn. i. part ii. p. 273, secj. 



