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The Literary Tradition of Moses in Ireland
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Extract
The only instance in which the present-day Roman liturgy refers to Moses as a saint is the beginning of the entry for September 4th in the Martyrologium, which says: ‘In Monte Nebo terrae Moab sancti Moysis legislatoris et prophetae.’ This entry is found in Baronius' edition of 1586. In the annotated edition, Baronius commented on this entry: ‘Agunt de eodem hoc die non tantum Latini omnes, sed et Graeci in Menologio.’
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References
1 The first page of the article on Moses in AA.SS.Boll. (Sept. II, 6) has remained the only study on the history of the devotion to St. Moses. The necessity of a modern investigation of this subject will be realized at the reading of the paragraph on the ‘posthumous glory’ of the Saint in the article on Moses by Thomas à Kempis Reilly O.P. in Catholic Encyclopedia, 597. Moses is omitted in the study, otherwise most valuable, on the history of the devotion to Old Testament saints in Eberhard Nestle's Marginalien und Materialien (Tübingen 1893). II, 60f. See also Glower, S., “Scriptural Figures in the Liturgy,’ in Clergy Review 24 (1946) 617.Google Scholar
Leclercq's article in Dict. d'Archéol. Chrét. et de Liturg. 11, 1648–89, is entirely iconographical; of the various subjects treated in ancient Christian art, the following are of special interest to the present study: no. 5, Passage through the Red Sea; no. 11, Moses on Mt. Sinai. For the medieval iconography of OT saints, see Künstle, Karl, Ikonographie der christlichen Kunst (Freiburg 1928) 265–320, especially the representations of Moses in the London Alcuin Bible and in the Bible of Charles the Bald (ibid. 228f.). I shall not concern myself in this article with addenda from Irish art, a subject the difficulties of which may be realized at considering what is supposed to be representations of Moses on the Cross of Castledermot (Eric. Sexton, H., Irish Figural Sculpture [1946] 50) or on the Cross of Connor (Royal Soc. Antiqu. Irel. 32 [1902] 245).Google Scholar
2 See also the Brussels Martyrology quoted by de Sollier in his edition of Usuard, , AA.SS.Boll. June VI (1715), 2nd ed. (1886) 461f. Google Scholar
3 For the tradition of word ‘legislatoris’ see below.Google Scholar
4 Loc. cit. = PL 124, 435.Google Scholar
5 Quentin, Henri, Les martyrologes historiques (Paris 1908) 349, 439 and 587.Google Scholar
6 PL 114, 1032. Moses's name is accordingly not found in the martyrology of Rabanus (PL 110, 1166) nor in the Willibrord calendar ( Kenney, J., The Sources for the Early History of Ireland [N.Y. 1929] 479; bibliographical references given by Kenney will not be repeated).Google Scholar
7 Martyrologium Hieronymianum , ed. Quentin, , comment. Delehaye, , AA.SS.Boll. Nov. II, 2 (1931) 41f. Google Scholar
8 Bradshaw Society (henceforth abbreviated BS) vol. 47; page number in calendar and martyrologies will not be given, unless the reference is not found under its date.Google Scholar
9 BS 58, 8 and 135; Nestle, , op. cit. 62. MS R(awlinson)1, the best copy of Félire Oengusso (early 15th century) has for January 19th a note stating that ‘Marius et Martha Rome cum duobus filiis Audifax et Ambacuc marterio coronati sunt, ut Grigorius in Romano Marterilogio sapit’ (BS 29, 48).Google Scholar
10 That the Old English Martyrology (EETS, 1900) has an entry for Habakkuk on January 20th, as the Index p. 242 says, seems to be an error; no OT saint is referred to in that work.Google Scholar
11 Les martyrologes 587 note 4; 323: from Bede's Chronicle. Due to his erroneous ideas on the relationship between Florus and Ado, de Sollier assumed again that this addition was made by the latter.Google Scholar
12 BS 32, 15.Google Scholar
13 One of these MSS goes back to the early 15th century, the other is in the hand of Michael O'Clery (BS 62, 30 note 19 and xiii f.). ‘Abacuc’ appears as leader of the lesser prophets in the litany suggested to St. Maignenn of Kilmainham by St. Maelruain of Tallaght (O'Grady, . Sylva Gaedelica [1892] I, 41; a reference to ‘Ambacuc’, a contemporary of St. Kieran of Clonmacnoise, ibid. 416 and II, 453).Google Scholar
14 Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, ed. Plummer, (1910, henceforth abbreviated VSH) I, 84, 145 and II, 67. (Bethada Naem nErenn, the Irish lives of Irish Saints, ed. Plummer, [1922] will be abbreviated BNE).Google Scholar
15 VSH I, 227; II, 122 (addition in Rawlinson MS) and 143 (in analogy to the spelling adopted in the Roman liturgy for the son of Marius?).Google Scholar
16 Par. lv; Colgan, , Trias Thaumaturga (Louvain 1643) 77.Google Scholar
17 BS 9, 16.Google Scholar
18 In Beda, but not in Wandelbert (PL 121).Google Scholar
19 See below note 50.Google Scholar
20 Quentin, , op. cit. 438 says that the name of Gideon was entered before that of Josua, see below.Google Scholar
21 See below p. 242f. — In a note on the entry in Tall., Best-Lowlor said: ‘Iesu naue and Gideon appear in a gloss on Oengus’ (BS 68, 68 and 164). However, in its marginal note to Oe. for September 1, MS F merely says: ‘7 ihs. mac aue nó Iesu mac Nuin’ The crossing of the Jordan under Josuah's leadership is almost as frequently referred to as the passage through the Red Sea, e.g. Vita Sti. Carthagi, VSH I, 197 (not in the Irish version) and in the two instances quoted below notes 99 and 100.Google Scholar
22 Martyr. Hieron., ed. cit. 359 has only the Crucifixion and Conception of Christ and the Passion of St. James. I have dealt with this entry in a special article in Irish Eccle. Record (1948) 332–46. See also de Sollier, , op cit. 157.Google Scholar
23 BS 47, 11.Google Scholar
24 BS 29, 275. See below, note 76.Google Scholar
25 Oengus' litany (see below) speaks, in literal analogy to the prayer Libera, Domine, of the Commendatio animae of Isaac's rescue ‘de lámaib a thar’: ‘de manu patris sui Abrahae.’ Google Scholar
26 BS 10, 19. Warren suggests ‘Lazarus.’ Google Scholar
27 See below, p. 255.Google Scholar
28 In the verse following upon that relating to Moses, the litany of Oengus refers — again in analogy to the prayer Libera, Domine — to the rescue of the ‘maccu de camino ignis’ (BS 29, 286).Google Scholar
29 See below p. 239f. and 245f.Google Scholar
30 With regard to what I shall have to say (p. 251f.) on the significance of references to OT saints in Irish-Continental literature, I mention that the miraculous birth of St. Cadroe (AA.SS.Boll. March I, 474) is compared with Samuel's birth from Anna.Google Scholar
31 PL 131, 1147.Google Scholar
32 See the articles in Catholic Encycl. on Ado, Florus and Wandelbert, and Quentin, , Les martyrologes 415f. Google Scholar
33 Quoted AA.SS.Boll. Sept. II, 6 and June VI, 461. See note 35.Google Scholar
34 I assume Irish influence even in the description given by Wandelbert of Eliseus, Abdias and David as ‘vates’ (PL 121, 610). The Vulgate never uses this word. Its direct equivalent is Irish ‘faith’ (‘prophet’). The exact meaning of the Irish words for the choirs of saints should be studied (see Kenney, , op. cit. [n.6] 2) The fact that Ireland was the first Western country to develop a vernacular ecclesiastical terminology is still far from being sufficiently appreciated. The word ‘vates’ occurs also in the hymns for the Office of All Saints.Google Scholar
35 See below p. 253.Google Scholar
36 See below p. 250f. and note 50. As in the tradition of the Blessed Virgin, in that of St. Moses the association with bodily relics was excluded (similarly with regard to Enoch and Elias).Google Scholar
37 BS 13, 78; Kenney, , op. cit. no. 91, i.Google Scholar
38 Biographical Dictionary of the Saints (St. Louis 1924). See below note 57.Google Scholar
39 Quentin-Delehaye 176, and BS 68, 145; for the following: 135.Google Scholar
40 Colgan, , Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae (Louvain 1645) 396.Google Scholar
41 The verse for March 1st is also quoted in the preface to Oe. in MS L(auds) 610 as a specimen of the metre of this work: ‘Moysi, Dabíd’ (the spelling usually given to the prophet).Google Scholar
42 For the significance of the addition of parentage to foreign saints see below p. 252. De Sollier, , loc. cit. quotes a Hagenau Martyrology: ‘Moysi prophetae, qui fuit filius Amra et Yocabeth.’ I have never encountered the name of Moses' mother in the Irish references to him.Google Scholar
43 BS 9, 4.Google Scholar
44 The Martirologe in Englysshe (1526), BS 3, 138 and 154. I hope to deal elsewhere with this most curious record of late medieval devotion to OT saints.Google Scholar
45 “A feast of All the Saints of Europe,’ Speculum 21 (1946) 50ff. and ‘The Meaning of All Saints,’ Mediaeval Studies 10 (1949) 147-161.Google Scholar
46 BS 10, 88.Google Scholar
47 BS 29, 284ff. Google Scholar
48 The litany of St. Amand ( Delisle, , “Mémoire sur d'anciens sacramentaires,’ Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscriptions [1891] 362) added the name of Samson to the Stowe diptychs.Google Scholar
49 BS 29, 286 note 8.Google Scholar
50 For the connection between the Epilogue of Oe. and the Commendatio animae see Gougaud, in Ephemerid. Liturg. 49 (1935) 3ff. and my article on ‘Abel's place in the Liturgy,’ Theological Studies 7 (1946) 126-30 and 140f. For the tradition of this association compare:Google Scholar
Libera, Domine Oe. St. Brendan's Life Google Scholar
Libera, Domine, BNE I, 73 VSH I, 123 Google Scholar
animam servi tui Domine, libera nos 7c. i. A ticcerna, sáer do mhuinter Google Scholar
sicut liberasti David de manu. Goliae amail sóersai David de gail claidib Góli amhail do sáerais Dauid o lamhaibh Golías sicut liberasti David de manu Golie gigantis Google Scholar
Danielem de lacu leonum Daniél assin chuithi leoman Ionás de brú céti magni Ionas a broind a mhíl móir (follows the story of the monster's emitting a fiery ball from its gullet). Daniel de faucibus leonum in lacu Jonam prophetam de ventre ceti magni cum esset ibi tribus diebus et totidem noctibus.Google Scholar
51 Kenney, , op. cit. no. 582; BS 13, 26.Google Scholar
52 To most of these names etymologies are added : ‘Moisi aquaticus interpretatur qui de Nilo flumine sumptus est.’ Another note adds: ‘.i. populus Israel’ (see BS 19, 14).Google Scholar
53 Compare ‘Moysi mac Amra as he went tre muire Ruaidh’ in the Irish Life of St. Brendan (BNE I, 81 = VSH I, 140).Google Scholar
54 See above note 42.Google Scholar
55 Below, pp. 246 and 252.Google Scholar
56 See my articles cited above, note 45.Google Scholar
57 Only the Bollandists' article on Aaron (July I, 7-11), to this day the best study on Western devotion to OT saints in general, has visualized these distinctions. Séjourné in his article “Culte des Saints,’ DThC 14 (1939) 872ff. suggests that this was more or less the historical order of the development of the cult of saints. — How far the cult of OT saints has fallen into oblivion even in Ireland may be seen from the first English translation of the Roman Martyrology published in Ireland (Dublin 1846) : in the Index, OT saints are listed without the word ‘Saint,’ Aaron e.g. as ‘high priest,’ David as ‘prophet.’ Moses is the only saint in the whole work to be described as ‘Holy’ rather than ‘Saint’ Google Scholar
58 In the Roman Ritual and Pontifical there are numerous prayers starting with the words ‘Deus, qui Moysi’ These indicative references are foreshadowed by the prayers included in the lives of Irish saints (see e.g. below, note 99). The Bobbio Missal has a preface ‘de Abraha’; ‘V.D. qui Abrahae famolo tuo unicum filium in sacrificium tibi victimam esse voluisti’ (BS 58, 149), and the Life of St. Flannan contains a similar prayer ‘Deus qui beato Patriarchae Abrahae’ with a reference to the ‘immolatio Isaac’ (Anal. Bolland. 46 [1928] 138).Google Scholar
59 Kenney n. 555, BS 32, pp. xxxiv and xxvi.Google Scholar
60 See above, note 57 To the examples given by the Bollandists, I may add that in the Merovingian calendar from Reichenau, published by Delisle, , op. cit. 313 (compare ibid. 356, the calendars of St. Vaast and Corbie), Aaron is mentioned, although his feast was certainly not celebrated; incidentally, this calendar also contains references to St. Brigid and St. Patrick. In Ireland, the Drummond calendar (Kenney no. 566) occupies a similar position between calendars in the strict sense of the word and martyrologies or ‘félire’ (a word not to be rendered by ‘festologies’!). It contains all the OT saints common to the later Usuardian tradition, including the ‘Martyrology’ of Christ Church Dublin (ed. Crosthwaite, John C., Dublin 1844). Beleth's Rationale unambiguously stated that the Machabees were the only OT saints whose feast was celebrated universally (PL 202 146); in fact, he says (ibid. 134) : ‘Animadverte ergo quod festa sanctorum Veteris Testamenti ut Abraham, Isai, Iacobi, Davidis, Danielis et aliorum in Graecia et Venetiae [since the 11th century] coluntur, habentque isthic suas ecclesias.’ Google Scholar
61 Warren, , The Liturgy and Ritual of the Celtic Church (Oxford 1881), a work which more than any other was instrumental in establishing the misconception of a ‘Celtic’ Church, of which Bishop disposed in his note to the Book of Cerne (below, note 68).Google Scholar
62 Above, note 48.Google Scholar
63 Batiffol, P, History of the Roman Breviary (1912) 85.Google Scholar
64 See my article on St. Abel, above, note 50.Google Scholar
65 BS 13, 134; Kenney no. 101.Google Scholar
66 BS 68, 110.Google Scholar
67 BS 62, 30ff. Google Scholar
68 This list and the distinction between and is derived from the Antiochian liturgy (Apostol. Const. VIII; Brightman, F. W., Liturgies Western and Eastern [1896] I, 17f.). Compare the beginning of the list of OT saints in the Stowe ‘diptychs.’ The Oratio Sti. Gregorii (PL 101, 590) invokes Abel, Seth, Henoch, Noah, Melchisedech, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Job, Moses, Josuah (‘quem elegit Deus post Moysen’). The Book of Cerne (ed. A. Kuypers [1902] 103), in its version of this prayer (see below p. 246) places Abel after Isaac and omits Seth, Melchisedech, Joseph, Job, and Josuah (see also note 81). Compare also the Turin gloss (Stokes, , Thesaurus Palaeo-Hibernicus [1901] I, xxii and 493) to Mk.14: ‘Et educunt ilium ut crucifigerent eum’: ‘Hic educitur Abel adest Isaac et Abracham adest Joseph hic adest Moyses cum virga et serpente suspenso in ligno’ (Irish gloss: ‘i.e. that brazen serpent which the Children of Israel upraised in deserto’) ‘Eleseus Jonas in ventrem caeti triduo missus.’ Google Scholar
69 Book of Cerne 80ff. Google Scholar
70 Henoch, Elias, the patriarchs (Leabar Brecc adds: ‘septem’) and the prophets. see above, note 46.Google Scholar
71 85.
72 91. ‘In meritis prophetarum’ omitted in the parallel version in Roy. 2.A.XX (ibid. 211; see below).Google Scholar
73 Ibid. 106.Google Scholar
74 Ibid. 118.Google Scholar
75 Ibid. 114.Google Scholar
76 Ibid. 224. The Epilogue to Oe. (BS 29, 274f.) gives the following summary of the saints commemorated in the body of the work: Archangels, the nine choirs of angels, ‘drong rerach (the troop of ancestors) im Nóe,’ ‘drong faithe im Easaiae’, ‘uasalathraig la hAbraham’, apostles and martyrs.Google Scholar
77 BS 62, 78ff.; Kenney no. 548: 10th century.Google Scholar
78 BS 62, 2ff. Google Scholar
79 Wandelbert described Abraham as ‘exemplum fidei’ (Oct. 9) and Job as ‘patiendi exemplum’ (May 10). Similarly, in the comparison between Irish and foreign saints (Kenney no. 277), several saints, instead of being assigned to their respective choir, are described by their most outstanding quality: ‘Job patientiae, Jeremias sapiens’ etc. (see below, note 90). The Bobbio Missal (BS 58, 150) has a litany stating that Christ was prefigured by ‘noe, abraham fidelissimus patriarcha, issac gloriosissima hostia patris, Joseph ***, moyses laudabilis dux (for ‘dux’ see below, p. 257f.), david patriarcha, salome fons sapientiae, isaias,’ leader of all the prophets; and John the Baptist, Stephen, Peter and Paul. Google Scholar
80 Above, note 68, see also my article on Abel (above, note 50), and the article by Séjourné (above, note 57).Google Scholar
81 So the Book of Cerne version of the Oratio Gregorii. The version ascribed to Alcuin however (above, note 68) has:Google Scholar
‘sanctus Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noe, / Melchisedech rex, / fidelis Abraham, / justus Isaach, Jacob, Joseph, Job, / beatus Moyses.’ For similar lists see the Office, second Nocturn of November 7th and third Nocturn of December 12th.Google Scholar
82 BS 13, 82.Google Scholar
83 Ed. Stokes, W (1887) 62, 257, 482.Google Scholar
84 Thaumaturgus, Gregorius, lectio iv of his Office says, was compared, according to St. Basil, with Moses, the Prophets and the Apostles.Google Scholar
85 I leave it to Celtists to study the variety of obscure expressions used in this instance; in Oengus' entry for July 1, Aaron is called ‘sab sruithe’, ‘mighty in wisdom’ Google Scholar
86 BNE I, 20 and VSH I, 74. On all these lives of Irish saints see Kenney, , op. cit. Google Scholar
87 BNE I, 42: ‘Maoisi’, and VSH I, 86.Google Scholar
88 AA.SS. Boll. Aug. VI, 604f. Google Scholar
89 BNE I, 291, and VSH I, 171.Google Scholar
90 A comparison with ‘supplantans vicia ut Jacobus’ in the Vita Sti. Barri (VSH I, 74) shows that these parallelisms are not too specific. See above, notes 79 and 81.Google Scholar
91 See below p. 254f.; Stokes, W., Thesaurus I, 417. A late influence of this passage may be traced in the description of Christ in the 17th-century Irish version of the (late 13th-century) Epistola Lentuli (ed. Flower, R. in Essays and Studies for Eoin McNeill [Dublin 1940] 26): ‘gentle, affable, winsome, mild, ceannsa coinnircit’ (the Latin simply says: ‘blandus et amabilis’).Google Scholar
92 VSH I, 17.Google Scholar
93 Kenney no. 135, V4: 8th or 9th century. Hermathena no. 50 (1937) 141f.; handwriting of the 12th century. In my investigations on the parallelism with Moses in the early Patrician tradition, I was assisted by my friend Dr. Ludwig Bieler. — The introduction to the Vita IV Sti. Patricii seems to have been known to William Tyraeus, an Irish priest, who in 1617 published at Douai his Panegyricus Sti. Patricii, the most extensive exposition ever given of the parallelism between Moses and St. Patrick (pp. 69ff. and 90-130). Tyraeus traces similar parallels with other OT saints (see below, p. 251).Google Scholar
94 In this respect, the Life of St. Carthage (BNE I, 291f.) rather likens St. Patrick to David, in allusion to I Reg. 16:11.Google Scholar
95 Anal. Boll. 1 (1882) 550 and Stokes, , Vita Tripartita I, 23 and II, 435. The Brussels MS of Murchu says that St. Patrick celebrated the first Easter ‘in nostra Aegiptia huius insolae velut quondam Gesseon celebratum est’ (ibid. 277) = Probus cap. xxxi (Colgan, , Trias 49). See below, note 109.Google Scholar
96 BS 58, 51; see also note 58 above.Google Scholar
97 VSH II, 81; Kenney no. 224 — Lectio iv of the Office for the feast of St. Columbanus in the Proprium Hiberniae (first published in 1765), till 1916 expressly described as taken from the Benedictine Breviary, contains the words : ‘Fontis quem e petra velut alter Moyses eduxerat, unda recreatus.’ This is one of the few passages not found in the present-day Office for St. Columbanus' feast in the diocese of Chur in Switzerland, which otherwise agrees with that prescribed for Ireland (see my article, “Columbanus in the Liturgy,’ Irish Eccles. Record, V, 62 [1943] 309).Google Scholar
98 See notes 53 above and 111 below.Google Scholar
99 AA.SS. Boll. Febr. I, 159.Google Scholar
100 Messingham, , Florilegium (1624) 213. See above, note 21.Google Scholar
101 VSH I, 91.Google Scholar
102 VSH II, 109, 112.Google Scholar
103 Colgan, , Acta 280. See below p. 18, my note on the Milan gloss to Ps. 148.Google Scholar
104 BNE I, 214.Google Scholar
105 BNE I, 4 and VSH I, 10. Also in the Milan glosses ( Stokes, , Thesaurus I, 277, 316, 327f., 424 and 444).Google Scholar
106 McNeill, Eoin, Celtic Ireland (1920) 28.Google Scholar
107 O'Grady, , Catalogue of Irish Mss in the British Museum I, 56.Google Scholar
108 McKenna, L.S.J., Dán Dé (1930) 31, 98.Google Scholar
109 ‘Imitatus est jejunio mystico Moysen adhuc naturale lege constructum vel Eliam prophetam sub lege constitutum sed potissimum Jesum Christum’ (Jocelin par. clxxi, Colgan, , Trias 102). It will be remembered that in the Irish Litany of Jesus (above, p. 244) Moses appeared as the leader of those who had intelligence of the written law, and Elias of those who understood the prophetic law. — Jocelin has further parallels between Moses and Patrick. ‘Induratum est cor regis Leogarii sicut quondam Pharaonis cor Moysi’ (par. xxxix, Colgan, , Trias 75). See below, note 156.Google Scholar
110 BNE I, 187, 222, 224.Google Scholar
111 Stokes, , op. cit. 475.Google Scholar
112 Ibid. 446.Google Scholar
113 Par. xxvi; Colgan, , Trias 70.Google Scholar
114 BNE I, 104 and II, 100 and 338.Google Scholar
115 In Oengus' entry for November 13th (‘Ré notlaicc aird aurgaiss dogné init corgaise’: ‘Before high Christmas thou shouldst make great prayer at the beginning of fasting’). Stokes inserted in his translation the word ‘(Moses’)’ before the last word (where he actually has ‘lent’) : BS 29, 234. A note in the Rawlinson MSS to the reference made on January 7th to ‘corgais Issu’ says that this ‘Lent of Jesus’ was in springtime, whereas ‘corgus Moysi’ was in summer (see Plummer's note, VHS I, cxx).Google Scholar
116 xv. Compare St. Bernard's Sermo 2 in St. Malachiam (PL 183, 489).Google Scholar
117 Stokes, , Vita Tripartita 331.Google Scholar
118 Ibid. 500; see also my reference to the relic of Moses in Christ Church Dublin, below, note 139.Google Scholar
119 Stokes, , op. cit. 295.Google Scholar
120 Par. xxxiii; Colgan, , Trias 66.Google Scholar
121 VSH II, 262.Google Scholar
122 Kenney no. 134.Google Scholar
123 Colgan, , op cit. 23. Compare also Kenney, , op. cit. p. 333 note 137, and see the references made in Oe. MS F and the Drummond Kalendar to the presence of Moses at the Transfiguration.Google Scholar
124 See my paper, “The Literary Tradition of Irish Saints in the Order of Canons Regular of the Lateran,’ Comparative Literature Studies 17/18 (1945) 20ff. and 19 (1946) 17ff. Peter Reade S.J., in the dedication of his Commentaria in Libris Machabaeorum (Lugdun. 1651) par. 17 (see my paper, ‘The Machabees and the Irish,’ Irish Monthly (1947) 1ff.) also referred to the parallelism with St. Patrick.Google Scholar
125 See notes 97 and 88. Outstanding for their richness in references to Moses and other OT parallels are the Vitae Sti. Wilfridii (MGH SS rer. Mer. 6, 194: ‘sicut Moyses in rubo’; 207: 'Pharao, Moyses, Hur, Aaron, Jesu Naue, David, Goliad,; 221, 226: ‘Moyses et Aaron’), Sti. Remigii (ibid. 3, 269f., 280, 282, 296: ‘Moyses legis lator’; 316 and especially 327f : comparison with saints of the OT and NT in which Moses appears three times) and Sti. Amandi (ibid. 5, 463: ‘Moysaica lex’; 465: ‘Moyses legis lator’, and especially 468: the apotheosis of the saint with the angels, the Blessed Virgin, Abraham and the patriarchs and apostles, Abel and all the martyrs, ‘Moyses et Aaron cum sacerdotibus,’ Samuel and David with the prophets and singers).Google Scholar
126 PL 131, 1021.Google Scholar
126a MGH SS ver Mer. 4, 123.Google Scholar
126b Ibid. 137 and 270: ‘Continentia Noe, fides Abrahae cum exemplo patriarcharum necnon et Mosaicis signis recitabantur’; 303: among the chief subjects of the saint's preaching was: ‘Egressio filiorum Israhel de Aegypto et transitus per Mare Rubrum legisque latio per Moysen’ (in both instances follow references to the kings and prophets).Google Scholar
126c Ibid. 5, 601 and Kenney no. 319.Google Scholar
127 AA.SS.Boll. March I, 476.Google Scholar
128 AA.SS.Boll. Oct XIV, 392; 386: a particularly long exposition of ‘Exi de terra tua’ and other parallels to Abraham.Google Scholar
129 BNE I. 44 and 20, note. In the life of St. Sennan ( Stokes, , Lismore Lives 54) St. Patrick is called ‘primfaith innsi hEireann primapstal.’ Google Scholar
130 See my paper cited above, note 50.Google Scholar
131 See above p. 240f.Google Scholar
132 Compare Bede's Prologus David filii Jesse in the Milan glosses (Kenney no. 202), the genealogy of Melchisedech in the hymn Sen Dé, Oe. MS R1 for March 1st (above p. 238), notes 21, 53.Google Scholar
133 Kenney, p. 336.Google Scholar
134 Note 114.Google Scholar
135 O'Grady, , Catalogue 106.Google Scholar
136 Die irische Kanonensammlung (2nd ed. Leipzig 1885) xiv f.; Kenney no. 82.Google Scholar
137 Revue Celtique 30 (1909) 223; Kenney no. 83.Google Scholar
138 Colgan, , Acta 803f. Google Scholar
139 The Martyrology of Christ Church 3. See the note ‘Moisi in tabulas in xl diebus’ in Book of Armagh 170b (Stokes, , Thesaurus I, 496).Google Scholar
140 Above p. 237f. Google Scholar
141 Above note 76. A gloss in the Book of Armagh to Pelagius' exposition of Rom. says that Paul reached the faith ‘ante doctrinam Moysis Lex per Moysen data’ ( Stokes, , Thesaurus I, 495).Google Scholar
142 Par. viii, AA.SS.Boll. March II (2nd ed.) 551.Google Scholar
143 Colgan, , op. cit. 633f.Google Scholar
144 Kenny no. 568; BS 10, 1, 8, 29. I hope to treat elsewhere of Moses' place in the present-day Roman liturgy; this antiphon reminds of the antiphon ‘Pueri Hebreorum’ of Palm Sunday and of the second of the Improperia on Good Friday.Google Scholar
145 Op. cit. p. 102f. and Stokes, , Thesaurus I, xv.Google Scholar
146 Stokes, , Thesaurus 212.Google Scholar
147 Ibid. 278.Google Scholar
148 Ibid. 374.Google Scholar
149 Ibid. 417.Google Scholar
150 Ibid. 481.Google Scholar
151 Kenney no. 461.Google Scholar
152 Stokes, , Thesaurus 515.Google Scholar
153 Ibid. 567.Google Scholar
154 Colgan, , Acta 576.Google Scholar
155 Stokes, , Thesaurus 599. To the passage : ‘No one could look upon Barre's hand because of its radiance’ (BNE I, 19), Plummer noted: ‘The idea that Barre's hand after contact with Our Lord shone with intolerable radiance, is no doubt taken from the story of Moses’ (ibid. II, 325f.).Google Scholar
156 Stokes, , Thesaurus 615. Compare Jocelin's remark that King Laoghaire resisted Patrick as ‘Jannes et Mambres resisterunt Moysi’ (Par. lx; Colgan, , Trias 78), see above note 109.Google Scholar
157 Stokes, , Thesaurus 707.Google Scholar
158 Ibid. 8 and 54.Google Scholar
159 The Ancient Laws of Ireland I (Dublin 1865) 21ff. and d'Arbois de Jubainville, H., Introduction à l'Etude de la littérature celtique (Paris 1883) 291-5. Mac Firbisigh's treatise on ‘The seven orders of wisdom’ said that ‘the highest degree was that reached through knowledge of the decalogue which God gave da Maoisis’ (O'Curry, E., Lectures on the Mss Materials [1861] 495).Google Scholar
160 McNeill, J. in Proc. Roy. Irish Academy 28 (1910) 123ff. and O'Curry, . op. cit. 53ff. Google Scholar
161 Ed. Martin Freeman, A., Revue Celtique 41 (1924) 306. In the Irish version of Nennius (ed. Hamel, [Dublin 1932] 2) the chapter ‘De sex aetatibus’ (which refers to Moses) was omitted.Google Scholar
162 Macalister's edition III, 134f. and 195.Google Scholar
163 I.16f. (ed. Irish Text Society II, 16f. and Index sub ‘Maoise’). One of the most beautiful reflections of this whole tradition is the last verse of Mangan's poem Kathleen Ny-Houlahan (from the Irish of William Heffernan) which takes the form of an indirect invocation of Moses.Google Scholar
164 Plummer's edition of Historia Eccles. I, 403.Google Scholar
165 ‘Moyses mac Amra do thaisech tuathi Dé’ (Atkinson's edition, 265 and 72); also in the Irish life of St. Columba (Stokes, , Lismore Lives 20). See also Windisch's dictionary to Irische Texte. Moses is referred to as glantoisech in the 11th-cent. Saltair na Rann (Kenney no.609; Stokes' ed. 72f.); the whole chapter on the patriarchs (v.2306ff.) is of fundamental importance to the study of OT saints in Irish literature.Google Scholar
166 Plummer, , op. cit. 390.Google Scholar
167 Ibid. 411.Google Scholar
168 See above p. 247ff.Google Scholar
169 Colgan, , Trias 28. ‘Inter saeculares (personas) in primis dux populi erat Moses’: Beleth (see above, note 60) PL 202, 26. ‘Hebraeorum dux’ is referred to in a fly-leaf in the Martyrology of Donegal (Todd's edition, p. xxxix).Google Scholar
170 Colgan, , op. cit. 78.Google Scholar
171 VSH II, 60f.; Kenney no. 164: late. In the Life of St. Kieran of Saighir, MS Egert. 112, the king of Ossory is referred to as ‘taoisech da mhuintir’ (‘leader of the people’), ‘ba he in taoisech’ (‘he was a leader’) (O'Grady, , Silva, I, 8). The hymn of St. Fechin says: ‘Fuit monachorum dux et pater trecentorum’ (Colgan, , Acta 132f.). ‘Taoiseach da mhuintir’ (with regard to Philip of Macedonia) in Keating's Three Shafts of Death (ed. Bergin, , Dublin 1931, lines 259 and 2807), a work also particularly rich in references to Moses (see index).Google Scholar
172 PL 159, 999.Google Scholar
173 See my paper, “Cataldus Rachau,’ Mediaeval Studies 8 (1946) 217ff. Google Scholar
174 Colgan, , Acta 467.Google Scholar
175 See note 172.Google Scholar
176 Atkinson's edition of the Book of Homilies , 159.Google Scholar
177 Ibid. 66. In the Life and Death of Hercules (Irish Text Society 38, Dublin 1939) Greek heroes are referred to as ardthaeisech. ‘Ulixes’ is described as toisech Gregach (38, 78): the words ‘taeisech do Ghregachaibh’ (116), however, are translated by ‘a Greek captain’; in verse 2308 we have ‘taeisech na lunga’ (‘of the ship’) and p. 72 ‘toisigh na cathdrach’ (‘of the city’).Google Scholar
178 Book of Homilies 124, 136, 147, 180, 346.Google Scholar
179 Ibid. 113.Google Scholar
180 Pending the publication of letter T of the Irish Dictionary of R. Ir. Acad. see Dinneen, .Google Scholar
181 Egerton MS 111 fol. 63 ( O'Grady, , Catalogue 383); the passage in question is 2nd column verso, 4th stanza, but I leave it to Celtists to study it in detail.Google Scholar
182 E.g. Venedy, J., Irland (Leipzig 1844) I, 104 (this —the first part of V.'s work —was not included in the Dublin translation) and de Feuillide, Capo, L'Irlande (Paris 1859) I, 32. In his funeral oration on O'Connell, Father Ventura said that ‘like Moses, O'Connell liberavit gentem suam a perditione.’ During the funeral service in Sta. Maria della Valle, inscriptions were displayed bearing the words of Ex. 3:9-11 and Jos. 1:16 ( McCabe, , The last days of O'Connell [Dublin 1847] 133f., 168 and 118f.). See my contribution, ‘Continental Opinion,’ in O'Connell (Dublin 1949). —In his article, ‘The Word Taoiseach’ (Irish Times, 24 March 1948, to my knowledge the only monograph on this word) M. J. Lennon tried to prove that this was the recognized title of the leader of a sept or fine (tuath, see note 165 above). From Ancient Laws of Ireland (V, 439 and glossary, 760), it is obvious that toisech was not a definite title in Ireland, and accordingly, this word does not occur in the various lists of the grades of the secular hierarchy, published by J. McNeill in Proc. Roy. Irish Acad. 36C (1923) 265ff. In Scotland, there is more evidence of a definite and official use of this word ( Cameron, John, Celtic Law [1937] 126, 169, 186). Robertson (Scotland and the Early Kings 1, 24, 237 and 240) felt that in Scotland the position of the toisech was similar to that of the majordomo (dux Francorum).Google Scholar
183 See my papers quoted above, note 45.Google Scholar
184 See above, p. 246.Google Scholar
185 See my paper quoted above, note 50.Google Scholar
186 I am fully aware of the fact that only by establishing the sources of this Irish tradition and by investigating its place within ecclesiastical literature between the eighth and the twelfth centuries, can the extent and significance of this tradition be fully appreciated. To do this, was outside the scope of this paper and beyond my research facilities.Google Scholar
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