It is usually thought that during the seventh century, a formal split in the Irish Church had resulted in the creation of two rival factions: a “Roman party” of reform-minded ecclesiastics, and an “Irish party” intent instead on maintaining current practices. A partial record of their decades-long schism has been thought to be preserved in the Irish canonical compilation, the Collectio canonum Hibernensis, which attributes a substantial number of canons either to “Roman synods” or to “Irish synods,” and we have understood this to reflect a period in which the two groups had sought to advance their cause by holding separate synods from which their opponents were excluded. The foundations for this interpretation of the “Roman” and “Irish” canons of the Hibernensis were laid more than a century ago, but more recent scholarship provides reasons for rethinking the hypothesis. The article focuses especially on one of the texts which the compilers of the Hibernensis understood to be the work of the “Romans” — a short text which has come to be known as the “Second Synod of St. Patrick” — and argues that certain details within the text suggest an association with documents produced on the Continent, in the network of monasteries founded by the Irish peregrinus Columbanus. I suggest a new context for the creation of the “Second Synod of St. Patrick,” and argue that this in turn offers a new way of thinking about the meaning of the “Roman synods” and “Irish synods” attested in the Hibernensis.

The Cambrai Homily (Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 679 [s. viii2] ff. 37rb–38rb) is a short prose homily found between two chapters of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis; as the Homily is incomplete, it has been suggested that it was copied from a stray leaf inserted into the exemplar of the Collectio. The Homily itself is estimated to date to the seventh or first half of the eighth century. More salient for the purpose of this anthology, however, is the fact that the Homily code-switches between Latin and Old Irish. Some claim that this text provides us with the earliest record of continuous Irish prose; as such it has long been an important source for early Irish linguistics, as well as evidence for sermons in the seventh-century Irish Church. Nevertheless, the aspects of code-switching between Old Irish and Latin in the Cambrai Homily remain underexplored. This article provides an assessment of existing perspectives on the relationship between Latin and Old Irish in this homily, and offers a fresh interpretation of the code-switching that takes place.

North American journal of Celtic studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (May 2019) Copyright © 2019 by The Ohio State University REVIEW ESSAY PATRICK WADDEN Donnchadh Ó Corráin. 2017. Clavis litterarum Hibernensium. Medieval Irish books and texts (c. 400—c. 1600). ISBN 978–2–54857–9. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers. clxiv + 1932 pages. €875. In compiling Clavis litterarum Hibernensium (henceforth CLH), Donnchadh Ó Corráin sought to provide an overview of the literary output of Irish authors and scribes at home and abroad during the medieval period so that its extent and quality might be assessed (vii).1 His estimation that this undertaking was ‘difficult’ hardly does justice the vast ambition of the project (vii). Even a brief perusal of this work demonstrates the quantity and quality of the medieval Irish literary achievement in both Latin and the vernacular and across a variety of genres. That he has largely achieved his goal is testament to the breadth and depth of Ó Corráin’s knowledge, built over the course of a career spanning nearly half a century. The result of his labor of love is a landmark accomplishment that speaks in important ways about the current status of the discipline and will be valued by future generations of students and scholars alike. The three hefty volumes in which it has been published have something for everybody, including critics. After a preface whose brevity masks its substance, and a lengthy bibliography, the catalogue lists more than 1365 individual items divided into 32 sections, usually according to genre, but occasionally according to the author or location with which they are associated. Other groupings are a little less obvious or more specific, one such being Section 9 ‘Irish scholars and Greek in the West’. These sections are listed in roughly chronological—though of necessity overlapping and imprecise—order, beginning with the earliest surviving examples of Irish literacy in the form of epigraphy and progressing 1. Roman numerals refer to page numbers in the preface. Arabic numerals in bold font refer to items listed in CLH. Arabic numerals in plain font refer to page numbers. Patrick Wadden [patrickwadden@​ bac​ .edu] is Associate Professor of History at Belmont Abbey College, North Carolina. His interests focus on the political and cultural links that existed between the different part of the Gaelic world and on the place of the Gaels in the broader Insular and European worlds of the Middle Ages. 86 North American journal of Celtic Studies through a catalogue of medieval texts and manuscripts dating from the fifth to the sixteenth century. The majority of the individual items listed are texts. Most entries include an incipit, an overview of the manuscript tradition, a list of editions and facsimiles, and a bibliography of pertinent secondary literature arranged chronologically. Other items given their own entries include inscriptions and manuscripts, whose entries differ somewhat in content. Those on manuscripts include convenient lists of contents for cross-reference, for example (816–822). Additionally, there are general bibliographies for certain specific topics, including ‘Irish biblical commentaries’ (102), ‘Irish apocrypha and eschatologica’ (184), ‘Luxeuil, Bobbio and Columbanus’ (338), ‘Collectio canonum Hibernensis’ (615) and ‘Medieval vernacular narrative prose’ (1511). Some items are introduced with brief, though often very valuable, notes. It is a pity that these are somewhat sporadic and do not accompany every item. According to the preface, the rationale for this is that some works ‘especially in Old and Middle Irish, . . . may be less familiar to readers’ (xvii). That, of course, depends on the reader. While it is true that every text listed in Section 27 ‘Medieval vernacular narrative prose’, has its own note (955–1127), and one goal of the work is clearly to make this material more accessible to the non-specialist, a more even dispersal of these notes would have been of great benefit, as would some more consistency in the notes’ contents. For while some of those on vernacular narratives date the texts, others do not. One might question certain decisions regarding categorizations and organization. It is a little peculiar, for example, that Lebor Bretnach (1251), the Middle Irish translation of Historia Brittonum, appears in Section 28 ‘Historicist and historical vernacular texts. Verse, prose and prosimetrum’, while the roughly contemporary translation...

At a time when we are asked to investigate the origins of the diaconate, this paper argues that it is no easy task to recover its history nor relate that history to later questions on the nature of ordination. However, early canonical sources do throw important light on that history, and the case examined here is that of the Collectio canonum hibernensis and texts related to it. This later seventh- and early eighth-century material shows that while the diaconate was recognized as one of the sacred orders, it was, in effect, seen primarily as a function within the liturgy.

This volume results from a joint symposium held by the British Academy and the Royal Irish Academy in 2005. It comprises eighteen papers which explore early medieval British-Irish relations from a range of different disciplinary perspectives. Broadly speaking, the first seven papers deal with texts; the next ten are concerned with objects; and the ‘addendum’ provides a later medieval perspective on pre-Viking-Age links between England and Ireland. The range of authors is very impressive, including both seasoned experts and young stars of early Insular studies. This makes the volume essential reading for anyone working in this field. The book begins with Patrick O’Neill’s keynote lecture on the origins of the Old English alphabet. A persuasive case is made that it was developed in the seventh century by English scholars trained in Ireland. This constitutes an impressive start to the volume. The contact between Irish and English ecclesiastics continues as a major theme. Fiona Edmonds sets out the practicalities involved in communication between Northumbrian and Irish churches. This includes a perceptive discussion of route-ways, ports and guesthouses. Paul Russell explores Gaelic names in the Durham Liber Vitae, and how these may be identified and dated. Roy Flechner’s paper analyses scholarly links in the mutual development of English and Irish canon law. He highlights the sophistication of Insular collections in their recognition of diversity. The Canons of Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, and the great Collectio Canonum Hibernensis are shown to acknowledge differences (between Graeci and Romani or Hibernenses and Romani) in a manner which sought to reconcile conflict.

A consideration, in its manuscript and canonistic contexts—including its relationships with the Collectio canonum hibernensis, the Collection in five books, and the Collection in nine books—of the provenance and contents of the canon-law florilegium, in Montecassino, Archivo della Badia, codex 372, s. xi, together with a first edition of the florilegium.

The Collectio Canonum Hibernensis is an eighth-century Hiberno-Latin compilation of patristic florilegia that was brought to England by Breton ecclesiastics and employed by Anglo-Saxon reformers as a canonical resource. This article addresses the Hibernensis as an Irish product that was subsumed into the corpus of continental regulatory materials which then circulated throughout the Anglo-Saxon centers and assisted in the articulation of the ideological framework for the English Benedictine Reform in the tenth and eleventh centuries. This discussion delineates the ways in which the Hibernensis was transmitted throughout the English centers, in company with Anglo-Saxon and continental regulatory materials alike (including the Amalarian liber officialis, the Regularis Concordia and Wulfstan’s Canon Law Collection), and shows that the Hiberno-Latin text was employed in the regulatory scholarship of Oda of Canterbury (the Constitutiones), Ælfric of Eynsham (the Letter to Brother Edward), and Wulfstan of York (the Institutes of Polity).

An edition, translation, and analysis of the Prologue to the Collectio canonum hibernensis, compiled by Ruben of Dairinis and Cú Chuimne of Iona. Publication by Cú Chuimne in 735–36 is suggested.

The modern view of marriage in early Ireland has been drastically changed by recent work, but much remains to be done in this field. From an examination of books 45 and 46 of the Collectio canonum hibernensis, for example, we can deduce what were the policies and attitudes on the part of the church which must have influenced native Irish laws. The provisions concerned basically conform to the continental norm in moral matters, but as regards the legal dimension, especially where property is involved, they tend to adopt the provisions of native laws. Traces of Roman law, which Ó Corráin proposed to see in Cáin lánamna, are not obvious. Moreover, though the Hibernensis and Cáin lánamna do not differ in every respect, their dissimilar natures cannot be overlooked. In conclusion, it will be argued that the success of the church was not so total by the early eighth century as Ó Corráin maintained.

This article examines two small collections of canonistical material in Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, ms Ny. Kgl. S. 58 8° containing material which has close parallels with the Collectio canonum hibernensis. It discusses the relationship between these collections and the Hibernensis. The fact that one Copenhagen collection contains a much longer extract from the letter to bishop Massona, allegedy written by Isidore of Seville, than the one found in the Hibernensis, suggests that we have here with one of the forerunners of the Hibernensis. On palaeographical grounds, the Copenhagen manuscript has been assigned to the first half of the eighth century. It is, therefore, older than the oldest mss of the Hibernensis. Lowe has implausibly ascribed it to southern France. Though a northern Italian origin cannot be ruled out, its penitential and canonistic texts strongly suggest the recently converted regions of northern Gaul as the place of compilation and use.

Contrary to the opinion of the late Maurice Sheehy and other specialists in early medieval canon law, this article demonstrates that the Collectio canonum hibernensis, despite its ‘Irishness’ or ‘Celticity’, had a substantial influence on canon law collections down to the time of Gratian, especially in central and southern Italy. Manuscripts from these regions—both excerpta and the entire Hibernensis—are examined first, and then twenty independent collections borrowing heavily or in part from the Hibernensis are studies.

The compilation of recension A of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis has been associated with Cú Chuimne of Iona and Ruben of Dairinis. Ruben may have been son of Broccán son of Connad of Tech Taille, who can be identified as a scholar mentioned in Commentarius in epistolas Catholicas and as Braccán of the Cíarraige in the genealogies. He belonged to the community of Munnu which maintained close bonds with that of Columba. Dairinis played a formative role in the development of the Céli dé. Cú Chuimne and Ruben cannot simply be regarded as Romani, and CCH is not simply a Romani text. Its form suggests that CCH was a practical guide for superiors in dealing with those under their authority, in spiritual and worldly matters. CCH complements native Irish law, with which it has close affinities but its direct influence on native Irish law still remains difficult to establish, and in any case this may not reflect the intentions of its compilers.

Early conciliar decrees were read in Ireland and in Irish centres on the Continent. The compilers of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis (or Hibernensis) had access to both the Gallic and Spanish traditions of the Statuta ecclesiae antiqua (a small book of ordination rites and clerical discipline). The B recension of the Hibernensis is less accurate in quoting the Statuta text than is the A recension. A distinct Breton family of Hibernensis manuscripts emerges again from details of the Statuta quotations. The quotations are important evidence for ordination rites in the early Irish church. The Cologne manuscript of the Hibernensis uses far more Gallic canons than do the other manuscripts of the Hibernensis.

This study uses a single main tool, comparison of the collection of ‘contrary cases’ at the end of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis (book 67 in the A recension) with corresponding material in books 21–29. It has two main purposes, to reveal something of the way in which the compilers worked and to help towards resolving the issue of which recension was the earlier.

Past scholars have taught us much about the date, form and authorship of the Collectio canonum hibernensis (CCH), but little about the compilers’ use of their sources. They used at least six Isidorian texts. Various manuscript traditions of Isidore’s writings were drawn on in Ireland and at Insular centres on the Continent. Use of Isidorian texts is more evident in manuscripts of the B recension than of the A recension of the CCH. The more accurate quotation of Isidorian texts in Breton manuscripts shows that there existed a distinct Breton textual tradition among the CCH manuscripts.

The Collectio canonum hibernensis, as a systematic collection of law, brought with it a development in the Latin understanding of the theology of marriage. By taking certain patristic positions and codifying them it produced a particular understanding of marriage as a state secondary to virginity. This can be seen as a point of transition between the diverse patristic positions and the relatively unified theology of marriage that emerges in classical canon law in the twelfth century.

Statements in Latin concerning such topics as wisdom, truth, and virtue, attributed to the Proverbia Grecorum (less often the Parabolae Gregorum), are found in a number of early medieval manuscripts. They are of interest because of their stated connection with the Greeks, which pertains to the knowledge of Greek and Greek learning in the early medieval West, and because of the obscure vocabulary many of the proverbs contain, which relates to the study of the latinity of early medieval, especially insular, scholars. New findings concerning the origin and transmission of these statements have increased their importance because they have revealed connections between them and other important early medieval Latin texts, notably the Collectio canonum Hibernensis and certain florilegia found in the miscellaneous Collectaneum of Sedulius Scottus. The Proverbia Grecorum have been edited and studied in detail only once, by Sigmund Hellmann, in 1906. Since then new statements attributed to the Proverbia Grecorum have been found, and the characterization of early medieval Latin culture has been significantly revised. Hellmann's text, furthermore, has been found to be faulty in a number of places. Therefore, there is a need for a full re-edition and study of this proverb collection. This has been undertaken in the present work. Following this essay, which defines the current state of knowledge of the Proverbia Grecorum, there is a critical edition of all statements identified as Proverbia Grecorum. This is followed by a commentary in which parallel texts are cited, and points of linguistic interest are noted.

This paper deals with the relationships between the legal traditions of Ireland and Wales in the middle ages and identifies two groups of borrowings from the early eighth-century Collectio canonum Hibernensis in the lawbooks of medieval Wales. The borrowings all come from Books xxx and xxxiv (in Wasserschleben’s edition) and deal with deposits and sureties; however, the compilers of the Welsh lawbooks, whose earliest extant redactions date from the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, were plainly ignorant of the relevant passages’ ultimate Irish source. After close textual analysis of the passages in medieval Welsh law derived from the Hibernensis, the paper discusses how the Irish canons may have become known in Wales, and how they could have been transmitted into the surviving texts of Welsh law. Attention is drawn to the importance of the borrowings as a unique witness to the presence of the Hibernensis in medieval Wales, as well as to their significance for an understanding of the sources, ecclesiastical connections, and Irish affinities of medieval Welsh law.

The Preface to the Penitential of Gildas has hitherto been found in only one MS., preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris ( = Lat. 3182). This MS. is a large parchment codex of the tenth—eleventh centuries, containing a collection of canons, decretals, penitential fragments, etc. taken from many sources, e.g. the Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, the Lex Salica, etc. After an extract on pp. 279–80 headed ‘Item synodus sapientia sic de decimis disputant’, the Gildasian preface follows on p. 280 with ‘Incipit prefacio Gildae de poenitentia’, concluding on p. 281 with ‘hue usque Gildas incipitnunc sinodus aquilonalis Britanniae’. Most editions of this penitential are reprints of F. Wasserschleben's text. Based on a collation by Dr. Knust, it is defective from the standpoint of readings and palaeographical information. The following collation has utilised, apparently for the first time, a newly-discovered MS. of the penitential, now in the Bibliothèque Municipale at Cambrai ( = No. 625, ff. 52–53). If the catalogue date, viz. saec. ix, is correct, then this MS. is earlier than Paris Lat. 3182.