The Rev. J. 11. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 



27 



The Bomo MS. 

 "xxviil. Si quis clericus postquam se Deo 

 Toverit, iterum ad seculuni reversus fuerit, vel 

 uxorem duxerit duodecim annos posniteat, sex 

 in pane et aqua, et numquam in conjugio co- 

 puletur. Quod si noluerint, sancta sedes apos- 

 tolica separavit cos a communione sanctorum. 

 Similiter et mulier postquam se Deo vovit, et 

 tale scelus admiserit, similiter facial."* 



S. Cdmmian. 

 " Si clericus aut nionachus postquam se Deo 

 TOverit, ad sajcularera habitum iterum rever- 

 sus fuerit, aut uxorem duxerit, decem annis 

 poeniteat, tribus ex his in pane et aqua, et 

 nunquam postea in conjugio copuletur: quod 

 sinoluerit, sancta synodus, vel sedes apostolica 

 separavit eos a communione et convocationibus 

 Catholicorum. Similiter et mulier, postquam 

 secundo voverit, si tale scelus admiserit, pari 

 sententia; subjacebit."f 



On the strength of this coincidence Dr. O'Conor builds the following ar- 

 gument for the Irish origin of the Missal of Bobio: — 



" Denique, Missale hoc Portatile S. Columbani Discipulis deberi, patet ex 

 Poenitentiale Hibernico ad ejus calcem apposito, in quo ipsa verba Poenitentia- 

 liuin Cumeani et Columbani occurrunt, ut Mabillonius ipse fatetur."J 



Nothing can be more unfair than this statement. Assuming this Missal to 

 have been portatile (which does not appear), that fact is nothing to the pur- 

 pose. For although Dr. O'Conor shows, what is well known, that the Irish 

 ecclesiastics, after the Danish invasions in the ninth century, were driven to 

 take refuge on the Continent of Europe,§ and carried with them portable Missals, 

 it does not follow that every portable Missal must be Irish, or everj' Irish 

 Missal portable. 



Again, he calls the Pcsnitentiale, at the end of the Bobio MS., " Posniten- 

 tiale Hiberuicum," which is an argument in a circle, as there is no reason to 

 suppose it Irish except the passage which he quotes to prove it so. 



He tells us also that the very words ipsa verba, not of Curamian only, but 

 of Columbanus also, are adopted in the Bobio MS. : — "Ipsa verba Poeniten- 

 tialium Cumiani et Columbani ;" giving his readers to understand that there 

 were two Peuitentials, — one of Cummian and one of Columbanus, — and that 

 both were quoted, even to their ipsa verba, in the Penitential of the Bobio 

 MS. But although it was certainly very important to Dr. O'Conor's conclu- 



* Museum Ital. ut stipra, p. 393. Muratori, Liturg. Rom. Vet., torn. ii. p. &64. 



t Fleming, Collect. Sacr., p. 200. 



J Rer. Hib. Scriptt., torn. i. Epist. Nunc, p. cxxxviii. § Loc. cit., p. cxxxi 



d2 



