CHAP. IV.

Of the worship of God, the public form of Liturgy, the sacrifice and sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

TOUCHING the worship of God, Sedulius delivereth this general rule that "to adore any other beside the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is the crime of impiety;" and that "all that the soul oweth unto God, if it bestow it upon any beside God, it committeth adultery." More particularly, in the matter of images, he reproveth the wise men of the heathen for thinking, that they had found out a way, "how the invisible God might be worshipped by a visible image;" with whom also accordeth Claudius: that "Godd is to be known neither in metal nor in stone;" and for oaths, there is a canon ascribed to St. Patrick, wherein it is determined, that "no creature is to be sworn by but only the Creator." As for the form of the liturgy or public service of God, which the same St. Patrick brought into this country, it is said that he received it from Germanus and Lupus; and that it originally descended from St. Mark the evangelist; for so have I seen it set down

a Adorare alium præter Patrem et Filium, et Spiritum Sanctum, impietatis crimen est. Sedul. in Rom. cap. 1.

b Totum quod debet Deo anima, si alicui præter Deum reddiderit, mochatur. Id. in Rom. cap. 2.

e Recedentes a lumine veritatis sapientes; quasi qui invenissent, quo modo invisibilis Deus per simulacrum visibile coleretur. Id. in Rom. cap. 1.

d Deus non in manufactis habitat, nec in metallo aut saxo cognoscitur. Claud. lib. 2. in Matt.

e Non adjurandam esse creaturam aliam, nisi Creatorem. Synod. Patricii. can. 23. MS.

in an ancient fragment, written well nigh nine hundred years since, remaining now in the library of Sir Robert Cotton, my worthy friend, who can never sufficiently be commended for his extraordinary care in preserving all rare monuments of this kind. Yea St. Hierome's authority is there vouched for proof hereof: "Beatus Hieronymus adfirmat, quod ipsum cursum, qui dicitur præsente tempore Scotorum, beatus Marcus decantavit;" which being not now to be found in any of St. Hierome's works, the truth thereof I leave unto the credit of the reporter.

But whatsoever liturgy was used here at first, this is sure, that in the succeeding ages no one general form of divine service was retained, but diverse rites and manners of celebrations were observed in diverse parts of this kingdom, until the Roman use was brought in at last by Gillebertus, and Malachias, and Christianus, who were the pope's legates here about five hundred years ago. This Gillebertus, an old acquaintance of Anselm' archbishop of Canterbury, in the prologue of his book De usu ecclesiastico, directed to the whole clergy of Ireland, writeth in this manner: "At the request, yea, and at the command of many of you, dearly beloved, I endeavoured to set down in writing the canonical custom in saying of hours, and performing the office of the whole ecclesiastical order, not presumptuously, but in desire to serve your most godly command: to the end that those diverse and schismatical orders, wherewith in a manner all Ireland is deluded, may give place to one Catholic and Roman office. For what may be said to be more indecent

f Anselm. lib. 3. epist. 143.

8 Episcopis presbyteris totius Hiberniæ, infimus præsulum Gillebertus Lunicensis in Christo salutem. Rogatu, nec non et præcepto multorum ex vobis, Charissimi, canonicalem consuetudinem in dicendis horis, et peragendo totius ecclesiastici ordinis officio, scribere conatus sum; non præsumptivo, sed vestræ cupiens piissi mæ servire jussioni: ut diversi et schismatici illi ordines, quibus Hibernia pene tota delusa est, uni Catholico et Romano cedant officio. Quid enim magis indecens aut schismaticum dici poterit; quam doctissimum unius ordinis in alterius Ecclesia idiotam et laicum fieri? &c. Prolog. Gille sive Gilleberti Lunicensis episc. De usu ecclesiastic. MS. in Colleg. S. Benedict. et publica academiæ Cantabrigiensis bibliotheca,

or schismatical, than that the most learned in one order, should be made as a private and layman in another man's church?"

These beginnings were presently seconded by Malachias; in whose life, written by Bernard, we read as followeth: "The apostolical constitutions, and the decrees of the holy fathers, but especially the customs of the holy Church of Rome, did he establish in all churches. And hence it is, that at this day the canonical hours are chanted and sung therein, according to the manner of the whole earth: whereas before that, this was not done, no not in the city itself, (the poor city of Armagh he meaneth). But Malachias had learned song in his youth, and shortly after caused singing to be used in his own monastery, when as yet, as well in the city as in the whole bishoprick, they either knew not, or would not sing." Lastly, the work was brought to perfection when Christianus bishop of Lismore, as legate to the pope, was president in the council of Cashel; wherein a special order was taken for "the right singing of the ecclesiastical office," and a general act established, that "all divine offices of holy Church should from thenceforth be handled in all parts of Ireland, according as the Church of England did observe them." The statutes of which council were confirmed' by the regal authority of king Henry the second, by whose mandate the bishops that met there

Apostolicas sanctiones ac decreta sanctorum patrum, præcipueque consuetudines sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ in cunctis ecclesiis statuebat. Hinc est quod hodieque in illis ad horas canonicas cantatur et psallitur juxta morem universæ terræ: nam minime id ante fiebat, ne in civitate quidem. Ipse vero in adoles⚫ centia cantum didicerat, et in suo cœnobio mox cantari fecit; cum necdum in civitate seu in episcopatu universo cantare scirent, vel vellent. Bernard. in vita Malachiæ.

i Officium etiam ecclesiasticum rite modulandum statuerunt. Joh. Brampton, in Joralanensi historia. MS.

k Omnia divina ad instar sacrosanctæ Ecclesiæ, juxta quod Anglicana observat Ecclesia, in omnibus partibus Hiberniæ amodo tractentur. Girald. Cambr. Hibern. expugnat. lib. 1. cap. 34.

Concilii statuta subscripta sunt, et regiæ sublimitatis authoritate firmata. Id. ibid.

m Ex ipsius triumphatoris mandato, in civitate Cassiliensi convenerunt. Id. ibid.

in were assembled, in the year of our Lord MCLXXI. as Giraldus Cambrensis witnesseth, in his history of the conquest of Ireland. And thus late was it before the Roman use was fully settled in this kingdom.

That the Britons used another manner in the administration of the sacrament of baptism than the Romans did, appeareth by the proposition made unto them by Austin the monk, "that" they should perform the ministry of baptism, according to the custom of the Church of Rome." That their form of liturgy was the same with that which was received by their neighbours the Gauls, is intimated by the author of that ancient fragment before alleged: who also addeth, that the "Gallican order was received in the Church throughout the whole world." Yet elsewhere do I meet with a sentence alleged out of Gildas, that the "Britons were contrary to the whole world, and enemies to the Roman customs, as well in their mass, as in their tonsure."

Where to let pass what I have collected touching the difference of these tonsures, as a matter of very small moment either way, and to speak somewhat of the mass, for which so great a do is now-a-days made by our Romanists, we may observe in the first place, that the public liturgy or service of the Church was of old named the mass; even then also, when prayers only were said, without the celebration of the holy communion. So the last mass that St. Colme was ever present at, is noted by Adamnanus to have been Vespertinalis Dominicæ noctis missa. He died the midnight following, whence the Lord's day took his beginning (nono viz. Junii, anno Domini DXCVII.) according

n Ut ministerium baptizandi, quo Deo renascimur, juxta morem sanctæ Romanæ et Apostolicæ Ecclesiæ compleatis. Bed. lib. 2. Histor. cap. 2.

• Per universum orbem terrarum, in Ecclesia ordo cursus Gallorum diffusus est. Fragment. de ecclesiasticorum officiorum origine. MS. bibliotheca Cottoniana.

P Gildas ait. Britones toti mundo contrarii, moribus Romanis inimici non solum in missa, sed etiam in tonsura. Cod. canonum. titulorum 66. MS. in eadem bibliotheca.

9 Adamnan. Vit. Columb. lib. 3. cap. 31.

to the account of the Romans, which the Scotish and Irish seem to have begun from the evening going before ; and then was that evening mass said, which in all likelihood, differed not from those owɛpivaì μíoɑi mentioned by Leo the emperor in his tacticks, that is to say, from that which we call even-song, or evening prayer. But the name of the mass was in those days more specially applied to the administration of the Lord's Supper; and therefore in the same Adamnanus we see that Sacra eucharistiæ ministeria and Missarum solemnia, the sacred ministry of the eucharist and the solemnities of the mass, are taken for the same thing. So likewise in the relation of the passages that concern the obsequies of Columbanus, performed by Gallus and Magnoaldus, we find that Missam celebrare, and Missas agere, is made to be the same with Divina celebrare mysteria and Salutis hostiam (or salutare sacrificium) immolare: the saying of mass, the same with the celebration of the divine mysteries and the oblation of the healthful sacrifice, for by that term was the administration of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper at that time usually designed.

For as in our beneficence", and communicating unto the necessities of the poor, which are sacrifices wherewith God is well pleased, we are taught to give both ourselves and our alms, first unto the Lord, and after unto our brethren by the will of God: so is it in this ministry of the blessed sacrament; the service is first presented unto God, (from which, as from a most principal part of the duty, the sacrament itself is called the eucharist, because therein we offer a special sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving always unto God) and then communicated unto the use of God's people; in the performance of which part of the service, both the minister was said to

Leon. tactic. cap. 11. sect. 18.

s Adamnan. vit. Columb. lib. 3. cap. 15.

Walafrid. Strab. vit. Gall. lib. 1. cap. 26. Theodor. Campidonens. vel quicunque author fuit vit. Magni, lib. 1. cap. 9. edit. Goldast. cap. 12. Canisii.

u Heb. cap. 13. ver. 16.

Heb. cap. 13. ver. 15.

w 2 Cor. cap. 3. ver. 5.