Stokes & Strachan (eds.), Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus II (1903) — the allegorical commentary on the Mass from the Stowe Missal, rendered into modern British English.

f. 64b1. ¹ The Altar is the figure of the persecution which is inflicted. The Chalice is the figure of the Church, which has been set and founded upon the persecution and martyrdom of the prophets and of others.

² Water, first, into the chalice — and this is chanted thereat: Peto te, Pater; deprecor te, Fili; obsecro te, Spiritus Sancte (“I beseech You, Father; I pray You, Son; I implore You, Holy Spirit”) — that is, the figure of the people that has been poured into the Church.

³ The Host, then, upon the altar — that is, the turtle-dove. This is chanted thereat: Jesus Christus, Alpha et Omega, hoc est principium et finis (“Jesus Christ, Alpha and Omega, that is, the beginning and the end”) — a figure of Christ’s Body, which was set in the linen sheet of Mary’s womb.

⁴ Wine, then, upon water into the chalice — that is, Christ’s Godhead upon His Manhood and upon the people at the time of begetting. This is chanted thereat: Remittit Pater, indulget Filius, miseretur Spiritus Sanctus (“the Father remits, the Son pardons, the Holy Spirit has mercy”).

⁵ What is chanted of the Mass thereafter — both introit and prayers and addition, as far as the Lesson of the Apostles (the Epistle) and the Gradual — that is a figure of the law of Nature, wherein Christ has been renewed through all His members and deeds. The Epistle, however, and the Gradual, and from this to the uncovering of the chalice, is a commemoration of the law of the Letter, wherein Christ was figured — only that what was figured therein was not yet known.

⁶ The uncovering, as far as half, of the Host and of the Chalice — and what is chanted thereat, both Gospel and Alleluia as far as the oblata — is a commemoration of the law of the Prophets, wherein Christ was manifestly foretold, save that He was not seen until He was born.

⁷ The elevation of the Chalice after the full uncovering thereof, quando canitur oblata (“when the oblation is sung”), is a commemoration of Christ’s birth and of His glory through signs and miracles.

⁸ When it is sung: Accepit Jesus panem (“Jesus took bread”), the priest bows himself down thrice to repent of his sins. He offers it to God and chants the psalm Miserere mei, Deus (“Have mercy on me, O God”), and the people kneel; and here no voice comes, lest it disturb the priest — for this is its due: that his mind separate not from God while he chants this lesson. Hence its name is periculosa oratio — the “dangerous prayer”.

⁹ The three steps which the ordained man steps backwards and which he again steps forward — this is the triad in which everyone sins, namely in word, in thought, in deed; and this is the triad by which he is renewed again and by which he is moved towards Christ’s Body.

¹⁰ The examination wherewith the priest examines the Chalice and the Host, and the effort which he essays to break it — that is a figure of the insults, of the buffets, and of the seizure of Christ.

¹¹ The Host on the paten is Christ’s Flesh on the tree of the Cross.

¹² The fraction on the paten is the breaking of Christ’s Body with nails upon the Cross.

¹³ The meeting wherewith the two halves meet after the fraction is a figure of the wholeness of Christ’s Body after His resurrection.

¹⁴ The submersion wherewith the two halves are submerged in the chalice is a figure of the submersion of Christ’s Body in His Blood after His wounding on the Cross.

¹⁵ The particle that is cut off from the bottom of the half which is on the priest’s left hand is the figure of the wounding with the lance in the armpit of the right side; for westwards was Christ’s face on the Cross — contra civitatem, towards the city — and eastwards was Longinus’s face; what was the left to him was the right to Christ.

¹⁶ The confraction is of seven kinds: five particles of the common Host, as a figure of the five senses of the soul; seven of the Host of the saints and virgins — save the chief ones — as a figure of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; eight of the martyrs’ Host, as a figure of the octonary New Testament (the four Gospels, fifth the Acts, sixth the Catholic Epistles, seventh the Pauline Epistles, eighth the Apocalypse); nine of the Sunday Host, as a figure of the nine households of heaven — Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim — and the nine grades of the Church; eleven of the Host of the Apostles, as a figure of the incomplete number of the Apostles after the sin of Judas; twelve of the Host of the Kalends (the Circumcision) and of Maundy Thursday, in commemoration of the complete number of the Apostles; thirteen of the Host of Low Sunday and formerly of the Feast of the Ascension — although later something less is distributed at the communion — as a figure of Christ with His twelve apostles.

f. 65b. ¹⁷ The five and the seven and the eight and the nine and the eleven and the twelve and the thirteen — they are sixty-five thus; and that is the number of the particles in the Host of Easter and Christmas and Whitsunday: for in Christ is all that comprised, and in the form of a cross is all set upon the paten, and the upper part is inclined on the left hand — as was said: Inclinato capite tradidit spiritum (“having bowed His head, He gave up His spirit”).

¹⁸ The arrangement of the confraction at Easter and Christmas: thirteen particles in the stem of the cross; nine in its cross-piece; twenty particles in its circlet; five particles in each angle; sixteen both in the circle and in the body of the cross — that is, four for every part. The middle particle is that to which the mass-priest goes — the figure of the breast with the secrets. What is from that upwards of the shaft, to bishops; the cross-piece on the left hand, to priests; that on the right hand, to all the subordinate grades; that from the cross-piece down, to anchorites and penitents; that which is in the left upper angle, to true young clerics; the right upper, to innocent children; the left lower, to folk of repentance; the right lower, to folk lawfully married and to those that come not forward to communion.

f. 66a. ¹⁹ This is what God deems worthy: that the mind should be in the symbols of the Mass — and that this be your mind: the portion of the Host which you receive is as it were a member of Christ from His Cross, and let there be a cross of labour on each in his own course, because it unites to the crucified Body. It is not fitting to swallow the particle without tasting it, as it is improper not to seek to bring savour into God’s mysteries. It is not proper for it to go under the back teeth — symbolising that it is improper to dispute overmuch on God’s mysteries, lest heresy should be increased thereby.

Finit. Amen. Deo gratias.

Notes on the Cover of the Reichenau Bede (appended) #

At top of page: “…of the Holy Trinity and of St Crónán son of Lugáed” (this Crónán was also called Mo-Chua of Cluain Dolcáin, now Clondalkin near Dublin; see the Martyrologies of Óengus and Donegal at 6 August).

Fragments of twenty-nine lines (some letters lost at the beginning of every line through the cutting of the margin):

(Col. 1 — fragmentary words): …portion… to offer… …in the north… …of God… gold… frost… of the sea… for them… above… and loss… priest… and in… again… good… upon us… from each… of the elements… tower… …beautiful… to God…

(Col. 2 — the prayer): “(Save us) from a flood of foreigners and foes and pagans and tribulations; from plagues of fire and famine and hunger and many various diseases.”

Compare the charm in the Book of Leinster: “…to protect me from demons, from evil men, from plunderers, from evil weather, from disease, from dangers, from cold and from hunger, from weakness, from cursing, from vengeance, from neglect, from disdain, from treachery, from error, from the pest of the swelling doom, from the evil of hell with its many beasts with the multitude of its pains.”

Notes in the Books of Dimma, Durrow, and Deir (appended) #

A. The Book of Dimma:
“A prayer for Dimma who wrote it, for God and a blessing.”

“A prayer for Dimma.”

“A prayer for Dian-chride for whom this book was written, and for Dimma the scribe. Amen.”

Finit. Amen. — Dimma mac Nathi.

B. The Book of Durrow:
Miserere, Domine … son of Neath…

“Give me in reward for my labour, O […] without neglect… and a habitation in heaven.”

C. The Colophon in the Book of Deir:
“Be it on the conscience of everyone with whom this booklet with its beauty shall be, that he bestow a blessing on the soul of the poor wretch who has copied it.”