The Treatise on the Mass in the Stowe Missal (Stokes and Strachan translation from the Old Irish)
The Treatise on the Mass in the Stowe Missal (Stokes and Strachan translation from the Old Irish)
Stowe Missal (Irish Mass-book)
c. AD 800
An Old Irish treatise, written into the Stowe Missal, that explains each action of the Mass as a figure of the life, death and resurrection of Christ and of the ages of the world. It is one of the earliest explanations of the Mass in any language of the West.
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 on the persecution and martyrdom of the prophets et aliorum. 2. Water, first, in calicem, and this is chanted thereat: Peto te, Pater, deprecor te, Fili, obsecro te, Spiritus Sancte, to wit, the figure of the people that has been poured in Ecclesia. 3. The Host, then, super altare, i.e. the turtle-dove. This is chanted thereat, to wit, Iesus Christus, Alpha et Omega, hoc est principium et finis. A figure of Christ's Body which has been set in the linen sheet of Mary's womb. 4. Wine then on water into the chalice, to wit, Christ's God-head on His Manhood and on the people at the time of begetting. This is chanted thereat: Remittit Pater, indulgent Filius, miseretur Spiritus Sanctus. 5. What is chanted of the Mass thereafter, both introit and prayers and addition, as far as the Lesson of 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), it is a commemoration of the law of the Letter wherein Christ has been figured, only that what has been figured therein was not yet known.
6. The uncovering, so far as half, of the Host and of the Chalice, and what is chanted thereat, both Gospel and Alleluia as far as oblata, it is a commemoration of the law of the Prophets, wherein Christ was manifestly foretold, save that it was not seen until He was born. 7. The elevation of the Chalice, after the full uncovering thereof, quando canitur oblata, that is a commemoration of Christ's birth and of His glory through signs and miracles. 8. Quando canitur: Accepit Iesus panem, the priest bows himself down thrice to repent of his sins. He offers it (the Chalice) to God [and chants Miserere mei Deus], and the people kneel, and here no voice cometh lest it disturb the priest, for this is the right of it, that his mind separate not from God while he chants this lesson. Hence its nomen is periculosa oratio. 9. The three steps which the ordained man steppeth backwards and which he again steps forward, this is the triad in which everyone sins, to wit, in word, in thought, in deed; and this is the triad of things by which he is renovated iterum and by which he is moved to 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 and 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 on 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 with which 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, to wit, contra ciuitatem, and eastwards was the face of Longinus; what to him was the left to Christ was the right.
16. The confraction is of seven kinds, to wit, five particles of the common Host as a figure of the five senses of the soul: seven of the Host of saints and virgins save the chief ones, as a figure of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost: eight (particles) of the martyrs' Host as a figure of the octonary New Testament: nine of the Host of Sunday as a figure of the nine households of heaven 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 the Festival of the Ascension formerly, although later something less is distributed at the communion as a figure of Christ with His twelve Apostles.
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, that is, 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 on the paten, and the upper part is inclined on the left hand as was said: Inclinato capite tradidit spiritum. 18. The arrangement of the confraction at Easter and Christmas: thirteen particles in the stem of the crosses, nine in its cross-piece, twenty particles in its circle-wheel, five particles in each angle, sixteen both in the circle and in the body of the crosses, that is, four for every part. The middle particle is that to which the mass priest goes, i.e. 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 sub-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 go not before to communion.
19. This is what God deems worthy, the mind to be in the symbols of the Mass, and that this be thy mind: the portion of the Host which thou receivest (to be) as it were a member of Christ from His Cross, and that there may be a cross of labour on each (in) his own course, because it unites to the crucified Body. It is not meet to swallow the particle without tasting it, as it is improper not to seek to bring savours into God's mysteries. It is not proper for it to go under the back teeth, (this) symbolizing that it is improper to dispute over much on God's mysteries, lest heresy should be increased thereby. Finit. Amen. Deo gratias.
Spells.
For a . . . . eye. I honour bishop Ibar who heals . . . May the blessing of God and of Christ's . . . . . heal thine eye . . . . . whole of thine eye. For a thorn. A splendid salve which binds a thorn: let it not be spot nor blemish, let it not be swelling nor illness, nor clotted gore, nor lamentable hole, nor enchantment. The sun's brightness heals the swelling, it smites the disease. For disease of the urine. . . . . . put thy urine in . . . thy . . . and thy health. May a cure of health heal thee!