EARLY CELTIC CHURCHES OF BRITAKV AND IRELAND. 205 



"Draw near and take the body of the Lord," has found its way 

 into Hi/inns Ancient and Modern. Thus to-day we sing an 

 ancient Irish hymn used in the Irish monasteries and ascribed 

 by tradition to the age of St. Patrick. 



The second is the famous Murntorian Frnfjment (so called 

 because it was discovered by Muratori and published by him in 

 1740), known among Biblical scholars as containing the earliest 

 existing list of the canonical books of the Xew Testament as 

 they were recognised in the second century. The MS. is in 

 Latin and of the eighth century, but it is believed to be a 

 translation of a Greek original dating from a.d. 170-180. It 

 omits the Epistle to the Hebrews, and mentions the Apocalypse 

 of St. Peter, which points to an Eastern origin.* 



Let us sum up. Tliere existed in the sixth and seventli 

 centuries in these islands a widely-extended and homogeneous 

 Church in close inter-communion as to organisation and origin. 

 It was of native growth and formed along native lines, adopting 

 into church matters the system of the secular tribal organisation. 

 A certain freedom as to ritual and monastic rule existed in the 

 different communities, which, to a limited extent, followed the 

 special idiosyncrasies of the individual founder ; but both at 

 home and abroad the litual and liturgies of the Irish monas- 

 teries were of the same general stamp as those of Gaul and 

 Spain, vrith which countries Britain and Ireland were thrown 

 into closer connection on the irruption of the Goths of the north 

 into Italy and Gaul in the fifth century and the break-up of the 

 Poman Empire. In doctrine, Ireland, of which portion of the 

 Church alone we have sufficient ecclesiastical memorials to form 

 an opinion on the subject, seems to have followed the general 

 Western trend of doctrinal development. AVhen Augustine 

 came to England in the year 597, the very year in which St. 

 Columba died, he could discern no other difference in doctrine 

 between himself and the Celtic bishops save some unexplained 

 irregularities in the administration of baptism ; yet he neither 

 recognises the bishops of the Celtic Church nor will they hold 

 communion with him. The Poman system, which was but 

 slowly received by the Anglo-Saxons, was resisted for nearly 

 a hundred and fifty years (as Bede calculates) by the 

 independent Celtic Church. Slowly, and after fierce struggles, 

 the weaker party gave way before the stronger, backed by the 

 authority of Pome, and the Celtic Church adopted those changes 



* See Gwatkin, Selections from Earhj Christian Wnfem and Dei^ 

 MuratoHsche fragment^ pub), by Deighton, Bell and Co. 



