The Publications of the Surtees Society

grant of Lothian anticipated and helped to secure Kenneth's claim to the Scottish throne; but this is merely conjecture. In any case, all that can be said is that Ælfsige came into personal communication with Eadgar, probably in Wessex, between 970 and 975, and, if this was in 970, it may have been at Woodyates in August. But this does not prove the date or exclude the possibility that Aldred's note may refer to 981.

As for Aldred himself, we may reasonably assume that he was the acting head, under the bishop, of the community at Chester-le-Street. The title provost was appropriate to the head of an establishment which, so far as we know anything of its constitution, was at this date in the somewhat ambiguous condition, neither regular nor entirely secular, which prevailed in tenth-century minsters untouched by the reforming influence of Dunstan and Æthelwold. Aldred may have accompanied the bishop on his southern journey as chaplain and secretary. There are reasons against what otherwise might have been reasonably supposed, that, during that journey, the Collectar was acquired for the bishop. At any rate, compiled abroad, it contained no provision for the festivals of English saints; and, although the anniversary of St. Cuthbert (20 March) was as yet far off in August-the feast of his Translation (4 September) was not celebrated until a later period, and originated at Durham-Aldred probably wrote down the collects in order that the book might not be without commemoration of the saint to whose service he and his master, and the community to which they belonged, were in private duty bound.

The miscellaneous additions at the end of the volume were drawn from various sources, and were added as casual memoranda which have nothing to do with the rest of the book. Professor Lindelöf has called my attention to a parallel to the curious passage on p. 192, “De octo pondera (sic) de quibus factus est Adam," from J. M. Kemble's edition of The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus (Ælfric Soc., Nos. 8-13, 1845–7, pp. 180, 181). The English translation runs:

Tell me the substance of which Adam, the first man, was made ?
I tell thee, of eight pounds by weight.

Tell me, what are they called?

I tell thee, the first was a pound of earth, of which his flesh was made; the second was a pound of fire, hence his blood came red and hot; the third was a pound of wind, and thence his breathing was given him; the fourth was a pound of the welkin, thence was his unsteadiness of mood given him; the fifth was a pound of grace,

whence were given him his fat and growth; the sixth was a pound of blossoms, whence were given him the variety of his eyes; the seventh was a pound of dew, whence he got his sweat; the eighth was a pound of salt, and thence were his tears salt.

In his note on this passage Kemble deals with earlier speculations regarding this problem. The exact origin of the remaining passages is not so easy to determine. The second portion of the passage on p. 193, beginning Apud hebreos is partially taken from St. Jerome in Ezechielem, lib. III (xxiii, 22 sqq.).1 The section De gradibus æcclessiæ (p. 193) is founded upon some compilation or notes derived partly from Isidore De ecclesiasticis officiis, lib. II, from which a few definitions are borrowed literally.2 The definition of exorcista (p. 194) occurs in Rabanus Maurus De clericorum institutione, i, 108; and it is probable either that the writer made these notes from his own reading, or that he used a treatise founded, like those of Isidore and Rabanus, upon the works of the early Fathers. Similarly, the notes upon the burial-places of the apostles come from a source such as was employed by Freculf, bishop of Lisieux, a contemporary of Rabanus, in his Chronicon II, ii, 44; Freculf, however, was not the direct source in this case, as a comparison of the two passages clearly shows. I have been unable to find any parallel to the alphabetical passage on pages 196, 197, and am inclined to think that it is an original composition, of which the general theme is sin and redemption. The apparent age of Eve at her creation is that attributed to Adam in The Dialogue of Salomon and Saturnus. It might be possible to discover the ultimate origin of all these notes in widely-scattered passages; but it would be impossible to state with certainty whether they are the result of miscellaneous reading, or merely extracts from some encyclopaedic compilation which has now disappeared.

The index of liturgical forms which concludes this part of the introduction is divided into four sections, viz. (A) collects and benedictions; (B) short chapters and gospels; (C) antiphons, versicles, psalms, and other miscellaneous forms; (D) hymns. In each case the forms given are those of the text without emendation. In index (B) prefatory forms in common use, such as Fratres and Haec dicit Dominus, are omitted. 1 Opera, iv (Migne, P.L. xxv) 219.

2 See, e.g. Isidore. De eccl. off. II, vi (De chorepiscopis), x (De subdiaconis), ap. Migne, P.L. lxxxiii, 786, 790.

3 Migne, P.L. cvii, 304.

4 Migne, P.L. cvi, 1147–50.

The following abbreviations have been employed for the words with which collects most frequently open. Deus is represented by d.; Dominus and Domine by dns and dne; quaesumus by q., omnipotens by o., sempiterne by s., noster by n.