DURROW
214
DURROW
tically that of the North of England (corresponding in
all its main points to that of York), with a few local
modifications such as one would expect to find in a
great and flourishing monastic church. The treatise
begins with a description of the famous nine altars
(ed. Surtees Soc, p. 7) and of the choir and high altar.
The Blessed Sacrament was reserved in a silver pelican
hung over the High Altar. It should be noted that a
pelican in her piety was assumed as his arms by
Richard Fox (Bishop of Durham, 1494-1.502) and was
constantly introducetl into monuments built by him
(so at Winchester and at Corpus Christi College, Ox-
ford). The great paschal candlestick was a conspicu-
ous and splentlid feature of Easter ritual at Durham;
it and the rite of the paschal candle are described in
chapter iv (ed.cit.,p. 10). The Office for Pahn Sunday
doesnotdifferfromthat of Sarum and the other English
uses (ed. cit., p. 179). On Maundy Thursday there
was a procession with St. Cuthbert's relics. A special
feature of the Good Friday service was the crucifix
taken by two monks from inside a statue of Our Lady,
for the Creeping to the Cross. On the same day the
Blessed Sacrament was enclosed in a great statue of
Christ on a side altar and candles were burned before
it till Easter Day. The Holy Saturday service in tlie
Durham Missal is given on pp. lSo-187 of the Surtees
Society edition. The monks sang the "Miserere"
while they went in procession to the new fire. When
the paschal candle is lit they sing a hymn, "Inventor
rutili ", with a verse that is repeated each time. There
are only five Prophecies, and then follow the litanies.
When "Omnes Sancti" is sung those who are to serve
the Mass go out. The word Accendite is said and the
candles are lighted. It is repeated three times; at
the third repetition the bishop comes out to begin the
Mass. All the bells (signa) are rung at the Kyrie
eleison, the Gloria, and the Alleluia. Between three
and four o'clock in the morning of Easter Day the
Blessed Sacrament was brought in procession to the
high altar, while they sang an antiphon, "Christus
resurgens ex mortiiis, iam non moritur", etc. An-
other statue of Christ Risen remained on the high
altar during Easter week. On Ascension Day, Whit-
Sunday, and Trinity Sunday processions went round
the church, on Corpus Christi round the palace green,
and on St. Mark's Day to Bow Church in the city (chs.
Iv, hi). The rogation-days (three cross-daies) also had
their processions. In all these the relics of St. Bede
were carried and the monks appeared in splendid
copes. The prior, especially, wore a cope of cloth of
gold so heavy that he could only stand in it when it
was supported bj- "his gentlemen" (ed. cit., p. 85).
The prior had the right of wearing a mitre since Prior
Berrington of Walworth (ch. Ivi, ed. cit., p. 107).
Throughout the year the chapter Mass was sung at nine o'clock, Vespers at three p. m. On Thursdays, except in Advent, Septuagesinia, and Lent, the Office of St. Cuthbert was sung in choir (ed. cit., p. 191). On Fridays there was a "Jesus-Mass" (a votive mass of the Holy Name), and the "Jesus- Antiphon" was sung after Complin (ed. cit., p. 220). This was also the custom at York, Lincoln, Lichfield, and Salisbury. On St. Cuthbert's Day (20 March) there was, natur- ally, a great feast and his relics were exposed. Chap- ter x (ed. cit., p. IG) describes the great book contain- ing names of benefactors (Liber Vitte) that was kept on the high altar, chapter xxi the forms for giving sanctuary to accused persons. They had to use the knocker, still shown to visitors, and, when they were received, to wear a black gown with a yellow cross "of St. Cuthbert" on the left shoulder (ed. cit., p. 41). No woman was allowed to approach the saint's tomb beyond a line of blue marble traced on the floor. To explain this, chapter xviii tells a legend about a king's daughter who falsely accused him and was eventually swallowed up by the earth. In the "Gahlee" was a chapel of Our Lady for women (ch. xxii, ed. cit., p.
42). When a monk died his body was carried to St.
Andrew's chapel, two monks watched before it all the
time; after the dirge and tlie requiem Mass it was
buried in the sanctuary garth with a chalice of wax
laid on the breast (ch. xxiii). Priors were buried in the
abbey church (xxv) and bishops in the sanctuary
(xxvii). (See Durh.\.m, Diocese of.)
The Anglo-Saxon liituate ecclesice Dunelmensis is published (from the MS. at Durham) by the Surtees Society (vol. X. IStO), and was re-edited by Sweet in his OlJcsl Etuiliah Trits (18S5). The Ancient Monuments, Rites and Customs of the Monastical Church of Durham before the Suppression exists in a MS. of 1620 in the Cosin library at Durham (MSS., B, II. 11) and in a MS. of 1656 belonging to Sir John Lawson, Bart., of Brough Hall, Catterick (Fol., pp. 1-93). From these two texts the edition of the Surtees Society has been printed (vol.CVII, Riles of Durham, 1903). Other editions are: one curtailed and modernized by Davies (London, printed for W. Hensman in 1672); Hunter, Durham Cathedral as it was before the dissolu- tion of the monasteries (Durham, by J. Ross for Mrs. Waghom, 1733; reprinted, Durham. 1733): andS.^N'DERSox, The Antiquities of the Abbey or Cathedral Church of Durham (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1767). The Durham Obituary KM (c. 1468) was edited by R.UNE for the Surtees Society (vol. XXXI, 1856) and the Liber Vila Eccicsia; Dunelmensis, from a ninth-centurj' MS., by Stevenson for the same society (vol. XIII. 1841). The Sur- tees Society Catalogue (pp. 3S. li5) gives a Durham Carwn Mis- s(r, bound up with a psalter, hymnary, and journal, of 1391 and 1416. Part of the Missal of the fourteenth century in the British Museum (Hari. 52S9) is printed in vol. CVII of the Sur- tees Society (pp. 172-191). Occasional references to the Dur- ham Rite will be found in Rock, Church of our Fathers, ed. H.iRT AXD Frere (4 vols.. Loudon, 1904), and in Wordsworth AXD Littledale, The Old Service-boohs of the English Church (London, 1904).
Adrla^n Fortescue.
Durrow (Irish Dairmagh, Plain of the Oaks), School of, is delightfully situated in the King's Coimty, a few miles from the town of Tullamore. St. Columba, who loved to build in close proximity to oak-groves, because of their natural beauty, as well as perhaps to divest them of their Druidic associations, found here, as in Derrj', a site just after his heart. It was freely given to him by Aedh, son of Brendan, lord of the soU, in 55.3, and the saint lost no time in found- ing his monastery, which, with more or less constant personal supervision, he ruled till 563. When, in that year, either as a matter of penance, or as .\damnan says, "of choice for Christ's sake", he became an exile in the wilds of Scotland, he appointed a most estim- able monk, Cormac Ua Liathain, to take his place. But owing to the jealousies that existed between the northern and the southern tribes, especi;illy on the borderland, Cormac foimd it impossible to retain the office of prior, and so he fled from the monaster}-, lea\ang in charge a first cousin of Columba, Laisren by name, who, acceptable to both sides, governed the institution with conspicuous success. Durrow. dur- ingColumba's life and for centuries after his death, was a famous school, at one time being esteemed second to none in the countrj-. The Venerable Bede styles it Monasterium nohile in Iliberniii. and, at a later period, Armagh and itself were called the "Universities of the West". It will be ever noted for the useful and ad- mirable practice of copying manuscripts, especially of the Sacred Scriptures, which had become quite a fine art amongst the masters and disciples there. Co- lumba himself, who was an expert scribe, is generally credited with having written with his own hand the incomparable copy of the Four Gospels now known as the "Book of Durrow". It is a piece of the most exquisite workmanship, charming the mind as well as the eye with its intricate and highly ornamental de- tails. An entrj' on the back of one of the folios of this remarkable book, which is now to be seen in Trinity College, Dublin, prays for a "remembrance of the scribe, Columba, who wTote this evangel in the space of twelve days".
Columba dearly loved Durrow. It held a place in his affections next to his own Derry, and while in lona he manifested the tenderest interest in everj'thing that concerned its welfare. Wien he was urging Cormac L^a Liathain to return to the monastery there.
