The Rev. J. H. Todd on an Ancient Irish Missal. 29 



been given above in juxtaposition with the corresponding words of St. Cummian. 

 And this is the most cogent argument employed by Dr. O'CoNOR to prove the 

 Irish origin of the JBobio Missal ! 



But he has also another argument. He tells us that the Missal was written 

 at the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century,— the very time in 

 which Columbanus wrote his fourth Epistle to Boniface, and that there is a 

 passage in that Epistle agreeing verbally with one in the Missal, and alluding 

 to the wars that desolated Italy at the time. I give these passages in parallel 

 columns: — 



CoLUMBANnS. 



" Mundus jam declinat" [here a column and 

 a half of Fleming's page are omitted by Dr. 

 O'CoNOR without notice] "Dominus appropin- 

 quat, et prope jam in fine consistimus inter 

 tempora periculosa. Ecce conturbantur gen- 

 tes, inclinantur regna; ideo cito dabit vocem 

 suam Altissimus et movebitur terra."* 



The Bobio Missal. 

 "Oremus Dominum, dilectissimi nobis, quia 

 amara nobis adveniunt tempora, et periculosi 

 adproximant anni. Mutantur regna, vocantur 

 gentes : excidit caritas, exsurgit iniquitas : in- 

 crevit cupiditas : prsevaluit impietas."t 



These are passages which exhibit no verbal agreement; they may have been 

 written by two different authors living at the same period, with reference to the 

 same events ; but they do not prove that either author had seen the other ; and, 

 therefore, in fact, prove nothing to Dr. O'Conor's purpose. 



On the whole, I conclude that there is not the slightest reason to question 

 the decision of Mabillon, in which Muratori concurs: " Ordo miss® quern 

 subjicimus, haud dubie pertinet ad Liturgiam Gallicanam."J 



It has already been remarked that the Stowe Missal contains no selection 

 of Epistles and Gospels for the Sundays and festivals of the year. This is not 

 surprising, as it was a Missale portatik, or Sacramentarium ; and the festal or 

 Dominican Epistles and Gospels, if they then existed, may have been contained 

 in a different book. But Dr. O'Conor, in noting this fact, makes the follow- 

 ing remark: — 



" Neither does St. Colunibanus's Missal, which was discovered in the monas- 



• Fleming, Collect. Sacr., p. 140. f Mus. Ital., toe. cit., p. 371. 



I Mus. ItaL, loc. cit.. p. 273. Muhatori, Liturg. Vet. Kom., tom. ii. 



