CELTIC
496
CELTIC
tation of this phrase, some holding, with Pope
Benedict XIV, that it refers to the use of many
collects before the Epistle, instead of the one collect
of the then Roman Missal, others that it implies a
multiplicity of variables in the whole Mass, analogous
to that existing in the Hispano-Gallican Rite. The
Columbanian monasteries gradually drifted into the
Benedictine Order.
The ultimate origin of the various prayers, etc., found in the fragments of the Celtic Rite and in the books of private devotion, such as the Book of Cerne, Harl. MS. 7653, and MS. Reg. 2. A. xx, which are either Irish or have been composed under Irish influence, is still under discussion. The Turin Fragment and the Bangor Antiphoner (see Bangor, Antiphonary of) contain for the most part pieces that are either not found elsewhere or are only found in other Irish books. The Book of Cerne is very eclectic, and pieces therein can also be traced to Gelasian, Gregorian, Gallican, and Spanish origins, and the Stowe Missal has pieces which are found not only in the Bobbio Missal, but also in the Gelasian, Gregorian, Gallican, Spanish, and even Ambrosian books. The general conclusion seems to be that, while the Irish were not above borrowing from other Western nations, they originated a good deal them- selves, much of which eventually passed into that composite rite which is now known as Roman. This seems to be a rough statement of the opinion of Mr. Edmund Bishop, who is the soundest English author- ity on the subject, which involves the much larger question of the origin and development of all the Western rites.
II. MS. Sources. — The following MSS. contain fragments of the Celtic Rite: —
i. — British, i. e. Welsh, Cornish, or Breton: None. There is a Mass in Bodl. MS. 572 (at Oxford), in honour of St. Germanus, which appears to be Cornish and relates to "Ecclesia Lanaledensis", which has been considered to be the monastery of St. Germans, in Cornwall, a few miles on the western side of the Tamar. There is no other evidence of the name, which was also the Breton name of Aleth, now part of Saint-Malo. The MS., which contains also certain glosses, possibly Cornish or Breton — it would be impossible to distinguish between them at that date — but held by Professor Loth to be Welsh, is probably of the ninth century, and the Mass is quite Roman in type, being probably written after that part of Cornwall had come under Saxon influence. There is a very- interesting Proper Preface.
ii. — Irish, whether insular or continental: (1) The Turin Fragment. — A MS. of the seventh century in the Turin Library. It was published by W. Meyer, with a dissertation comparing it with the Bangor Antiphoner, in the Gottingen " Nachriehten " of 1903. Mayer considers the fragment to have been written at Bobbio. It consists of six leaves and eon- tains the canticles, "Cantemus Domino", " Benedi- cite", and "Te Deum", with collects to follow those and the Laudate psalms (cxlviii-cl) and the"Bene- dictus", the text of which is not given, two hymns with collects to follow them, and two other prayers. There is a facsimile of one page and a description in "Collezione paleografica Bobbiese", Vol. I.
(2) The Bangor Antiphoner. A MS. from the monastery of Bangor, in Down, written or copied from a MS. written during the time of Abbot Cronan (680 91). It is now in tlie Ambrosian Library at Milan. It has been edited, in facsimile, for the Henry Bradsliaw Society ( IS! I", (Mi), by I-'. K. Warren, having been already printed in Muratori's " Anecdota Bibl. Ambros.", IV, pp. 121 59, in Migne's "Patrologia Lat.", LXXII, 579, and in the "Lister Journal of Archaeology", 1853. It contains a large collection of canticles, hymns, collects, and antiphons, all. with very few exceptions, relating to the Divine Office.
All but two of the twenty-one pieces in the Turin
fragment are found in this MS. also. (See Bangor,
Antiphonary of.)
(3) The Bobbio Missal. — A MS. of the seventh cen- tury found by Mabillon at Bobbio in North Italy, now in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris (Lat. 13,246). Published by Mabillon (Lit. Rom. Vet., II) and by Neale and Forbes (Ancient Liturgies of the Gallican Church). There is an analysis of it by Dom Cagin in " Paleographie musicale", V. By Neale and Forbes it is entitled "Missale Vesontio- nense seu Sacramentarium Gallicanum", its attri- bution to Besancon being due to the presence of a Mass in honour of St. Sigismund. Monseigneur Duchesne appears to consider it to be more or less Ambrosian, but Mr. Edmund Bishop (liturgical note to Kuypers' "Book of Cerne") considers it to be "an example of the kind of book in vogue in the second age of the Irish Saints", and connects it with the undoubtedly Irish Stowe Missal. It contains a "Missa Romensis cottidiana" and Masses for various days and intentions, with the Order of Baptism and the "Benedictio Cerei".
(4) The Stowe Missal.— A MS. of the late eighth or early ninth century, with alterations in later hands, most of them written by one Moelcaich, who signs his name at the end of the Canon, and whom Dr. MacCarthy identifies, not very convinc- ingly, with Moelcaich MacFlann, c. 750. It was discovered abroad, in the eighteenth century, by John Grace of Nenagh, from whom it passed to the Duke of Buckingham's library at Stowe. It was bought by the late Earl of Ashburnham in 1849, and from his collection it went to the Royal Irish Academy. It contains part of the Gospel of St. John, probably quite unconnected with what follows, bound up with the Ordinary and Canon of the Mass, three Masses, the Order of Baptism and of the Visitation, Unction, and Communion of the Sick, and a treatise in Irish on the Mass, of which a variant is found in the " Leabhar Breac". The liturgical parts are in Warren's "Celtic Church". It was edited for the Royal Irish Academy in 1885 by Dr. B. MacCarthy, and is now being re-edited (a facsimile having been already issued) for the Henry Bradsliaw Society, by Mr. G. F. Warner, to whose work the present writer is indebted for much help. A translation, by J. Charleson, of the Ordinary and Canon of the Mass appeared in thi "Transactions" of the Glasgow Eeclesiological Society, in 1S98.
(5) The Carlsruhe Fragment: A. — Four pages in an Irish hand of the late eighth or early ninth century in the Library of Carlsruhe. It contains parts of three Masses, one of which is "pro captivis". The arrangement resembles that of the Bobbio Missal, in that the Epistles and Gospels seem to have preceded the other variables under the title of "lectiones ad misam".
(6) The Carlsruhe Fragment: B. — Four pages in an Irish hand probably of the ninth century. It contains fragments of Masses, and includes a variant of the intercessions inserted in the Intercession for the Living in the Stowe Missal and in Witzel's extracts from the Fulda MS. There are also some fragments of Irish in it.
(7) The Piarenza Fragment. — Four pages (of which the two outer are illegible") in an Irish hand. possibly of the tenth century. The two inner pages contain parts of three Masses, one of which is headed "ordo missa' Sanctis maris". In the others arc contained the Prefaces of two of the Sunday Masses in the Bobbin Missal, one of which is used on the eighth Sunday after the Epiphany in the Mozaranic.
[The text of these three fragments ("> 7\ with a dissertation on them by the Rev, II. M. Bannister, is given in the "Journal of Theological Studies", October, 1903.]
