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⁷ A sermon of Abraham of Ephesus was most probably preached on this date between 530 and 550 (see Jugie, M., ‘Homélies mariales byzantines I’, Patrologia Orientalis 16 (1922), 425–589, at 434–9Google Scholar); and Romanus (fl. c. 540) wrote a hymn for the same feast (see Fletcher, R. A., ‘Three Early Byzantine Hymns and their Place in the Liturgy of the Church at Constantinople’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 51 (1958), 53–65)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁰ Vailhé, ‘La Fête de la présentation de Marie au temple’, Échos d' Orient 5 (1901–2), 221–4; see also Kishpaugh, M. J., The Feast of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary in the Temple (Washington, DC, 1941), p. 36.Google Scholar

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¹³ Jugie, ‘La Première Fête’, pp. 144–6.

¹⁴ Les Ordines romani du haut may en âge, ed. Andrieu, M., 5 vols. (Louvain, 1931–1961) 111, 95 and 175Google Scholar; see also Billet, B., ‘Culte et dévotion à la Vierge dans l'ordre monastiquc aux viii ix siècles’, De Cultu Mariano Saeculis vi–xi: Acta Congressus mariologici–mariani internationalis in Croatia anno 1971 celebrati (Rome, 1972), pp. 203–16.Google Scholar

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¹⁷ Chavasse, A., Le Sacramentaire gélasien (Vaticanus Reginensis 316), Bibliothèque de théologie 4.1 (Tournai, 1958), 381–2 and 651–6.Google Scholar

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²³ See above, p. 213.

²⁴ Sermo CCLXXXVII: In Natali S.Joannis Baptistae (ed. Patrologia Latina 38, cols. 1301–2, at 1301).

²⁵ Aldhelmi Opera, p. 17, note to line 60: ‘Videmus igitur de festi die Aldhelmi temporibus nondum constitisse in ecclesia.’

²⁶ The manuscript is described by Lowe, E. A., Codices Latini Antiquiores, 12 vols. (Oxford, 1934–1972) vGoogle Scholar, no. 605; the martyrology is edited in Martyrologium Hieronymianum, ed. Rossi, G. B. and Duchesne, L., Acta Sanctorum, Nov. 11.i (Brussels, 1894)Google Scholar. See also Delehaye, H., Commentarius Perpetuus in Martyrologium Hieronymianum, Acta Sanctorum, Nov. 11.ii (Brussels, 1931).Google Scholar

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²⁸ The manuscript is described Lowe, Codices Latini Antiquiores v, no. 606a, and Gamber, K., Codices Liturgici Latini Antiquiores, 2nd ed. (Freiburg, 1968)Google Scholar, no. 414. The calendar is ed. Wilson, H. A., The Calendar of Willibrord, Henry Bradshaw Soc. 55 (London, 1918).Google Scholar

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³¹ Ibid. p. 219.

³² The Martyrology of Tallaght, ed. Best, R. I. and Lawlor, H. J., Henry Bradshaw Soc. 68 (London, 1931)Google Scholar, and Félire Oengusso Celt Dé: the Martyrology of Oengus the Culdee, ed. Stokes, W., Henry Bradshaw Soc. 29 (London, 1905).Google Scholar

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³⁵ Wilson, , Calendar of Willibrord, p. 37.Google Scholar

³⁶ See above, p. 212.

³⁷ Commentarius Perpetutts in Martyrologium Hieronymianum, p. 445.

³⁸ Aldhelmi Opera, p. 16, lines 38–43: ‘During his [i.e. Ine's] reign Bugga, a humble servant of Christ, built (this) new church with its lofty structure, in which holy altars gleam in twelve-fold dedication; moreover, she dedicates the apse to the Virgin. Therefore let us all rejoicing celebrate this present day and let us chant hymns in turn to Christ the Lord!’ (transl. Lapidge and Rosier, Aldhelm: the Poetic Works).

³⁹ Wilson, , Calendar of Willibrord, p. 19.Google Scholar

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⁴² Bedae Venerabilis Opera Homiletica, ed. Hurst, D., Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (hereafter CCSL) 122 (Turnhout, 1955), 128–33.Google Scholar

⁴³ Bedae Venerabilis Opera Rhythmica, ed. Hurst, D., CCSL 122 (Turnhout, 1955), 433–4.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ See Quentin, H., Les Martyrologes historiques du moyen âge (Paris, 1908), pp. 49–50.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Bedae Venerabilis Opera Didascalica: De Temporum Ratione Liber, ed. Jones, C. W., CCSL 123B (Turnhout, 1977), 323Google Scholar: ‘But the Christian religion rightly changed this practice of expiating when in the same month on the feast day of St Mary all the people together with their priests and ministers with devout hymns went in procession through the churches and suitable places in the city, and all carried in their hands burning wax candles given by the pope. With the growth of that good custom, he instructed that they do it also on the other feasts of the same Blessed Mother and Perpetual Virgin, not by any means for the five-yearly expiation of the earthly empire, but in perennial memory of the heavenly kingdom.’

⁴⁶ Lowe, , Codices Latini Antiquiores ixGoogle Scholar, no. 1417; Gamber, Codices Liturgici, nos. 1001 and 1101.

⁴⁷ See Morin, G., ‘Le Plus Ancien Comes ou lectionnaire de l'église romaine’, RB 27 (1910), 41–74Google Scholar, and ‘Liturgie et basiliques de Rome au milieu du vii^c siécle d'après les Listes d'Evangiles de Würzburg’, RB 28 (1911), 296–330.Google Scholar

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⁴⁹ Ibid. p. 35.

⁵⁰ The text, entitled De Laude Dei in manuscripts, has not been printed, but is discussed by Constantinescu, R., ‘Alcuin et les “libelli precum” de l'époque carolingienne’, Revue d'histoire de la spiritualité 50 (1974), 17–56Google Scholar. Constantinescu knew of only one manuscript of this collection (Bamberg, Stadtbibliothek, Misc. Patr. 17 (B. 2. 10), fols. 133–62), but another, Escorial B. 4. 17, has since been found. Donald Bullough is now preparing a full edition of this important florilegium.

⁵¹ Ibid. p. 55.

⁵² Ibid. p. 42.

⁵³ See above, p. 212.

⁵⁴ Ed. Wilmart, A., ‘Un Témoin anglo-saxon du Calendrier Métrique d'York’, RB 46 (1934), 41–69Google Scholar. The lines quoted are 9, 17, 47–8 and 51–2 of Wilmart's edition. See also Quentin, , Les Martyrologes historiques, pp. 120–30.Google Scholar

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⁵⁶ Ibid. p. 39, lines 468–9.

⁵⁷ Ibid. p. 37, lines 460–4.

⁵⁸ Ibid. p. 36, n. 5.

⁵⁹ Mayr-Harting, , Coming of Christianity, p. 308Google Scholar, n. 70.

⁶⁰ Das altenglische Martyrologium, ed. Kotzor, G., 2 vols., Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse n.s. 88 (Munich, 1981)Google Scholar. For the date, see the discussion by Cross, J. E., ‘Legimus in Ecclesiasticis Historiis: a Sermon for All Saints and its Use in Old English Prose’, Traditio 33 (1977), 101–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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⁶² Medii Ævi Kalendarium, ed. Hampson, R. T., 2 vols. (London, 1841) 1, 397–420Google Scholar: see also Hennig, J., ‘A Critical Study of Hampson's Edition of the Metrical Calendar in Galba A. xviii and Parallels’, Scriptorium 8 (1954), 61–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and McGurk, P., ‘The Metrical Calendar’, An Eleventh-Century Anglo-Saxon Illustrated Miscellany, ed. McGurk, P. et al. , EEMF 20 (Copenhagen, 1983), 44–50.Google Scholar

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⁶⁵ Grosjean, P., ‘Notes d'hagiographie celtique, I: La prétendue fête de la conception de la Sainte Vierge dans les églises celtiques’, AB 61 (1943), 91–5.Google Scholar

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⁶⁸ On these feasts, see Gasquet, F. A. and Bishop, E., The Bosworth Psalter (London, 1908), pp. 43–53Google Scholar; Bishop, E., ‘On the Origins of the Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary’, Liturgica Historica (Oxford, 1918), pp. 238–59Google Scholar; Mildner, F. M., ‘The Immaculate Conception in England up to the Time of John Duns Scotus’, Marianum 1 (1939), 86–99Google Scholar; Davis, H. F., ‘The Origins of Devotion to Our Lady's Immaculate Conception’, Dublin Rev. 228 (1954). 375–92Google Scholar; and S. J. D. Van Dijk, ‘The Origin of the Latin Feast of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary’, Ibid. pp. 251–67 and 428–42.

⁶⁹ London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius E. xviii is described by N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), pp. 298–301; the calendar is printed by Wormald, English Kalendars, no. 12. BL Titus D. xxvii is described Ker, Catalogue, pp. 264–6 and its calendar is ptd Wormald, English Kalendars, no. 9. CCCC 391 is described Ker, Catalogue, pp. 113–15 and its calendar is ptd Wormald, English Kalendars, no. 17.

⁷⁰ Liturgica Historica, p. 239, n. 1.

⁷¹ For the similarity of hands, see Bishop, T. A. M., English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford, 1971), p. 23.Google Scholar

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⁷³ Ker, , Catalogue, p. 298.Google Scholar

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⁷⁵ Davis, ‘The Origins of Devotion’, pp. 377–8.

⁷⁶ Thurston, H., ‘The Irish Origins of Our Lady's Conception Feast’, The Month n.s. 89 (1904), 449–65Google Scholar; Mildner, ‘The Immaculate Conception’, p. 92; and Southern, R. W., St Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge, 1963), p. 293Google Scholar. Southern argued that ‘it seems quite possible that the original justification was simply the incongruity of giving John the Baptist, whose conception was widely celebrated in the Anglo-Saxon Church, a liturgical honour denied the Virgin’, but, while this may have been the reason for the introduction of the feast in the East, it is very unlikely to have been true of Anglo-Saxon England.

⁷⁷ Bishop, , Liturgica Historica, p. 258.Google Scholar

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⁸⁰ Harley 2892 is ed. Woolley, R. M., The Canterbury Benedictional, Henry Bradshaw Soc. 51 (London, 1917)Google Scholar, and contains benedictions for the feasts of the Presentation and the Conception of Mary (see pp. 116 and 118–19). Le Havre 330 is ed. Turner, D. H., The Missal of the New Minster, Winchester, Henry Bradshaw Soc. 93 (London, 1962)Google Scholar and contains a mass for the feast of the Conception of Mary (see p. 190). This manuscript has not hitherto been regarded as evidence for the introduction of the feast of the Conception, as it was dated by Delisle to 1120 and was, therefore, used as a witness to the re-introduction of the feast in twelfth-century England. Bodley 579 is ed Warren, F. E., The Leofric Missal (Oxford, 1883)Google Scholar and contains a mass for the feast of the Conception (see p. 268). BL Add. 28188 is dated Ker, , Catalogue, p. lviiGoogle Scholar, and Drage, E., ‘Bishop Leofric and the Exeter Cathedral Chapter (1050–1072): a Re-Assessment of the Manuscript Evidence’ (unpubl. D.Phil. dissertation, Oxford Univ., 1978), p. 81Google Scholar. It contains benedictions for the feast of the Conception of Mary, as quoted by Bishop, , Liturgica Historica, p. 240.Google Scholar

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⁸² Bishop, (Liturgica Historica, p. 239)Google Scholar argues that the Exeter benedictional follows pre-Conquest Winchester usage; see also Hohler, C., ‘Some Service-Books of the later Saxon Church’, Tenth-Century Studies, ed. Parsons, D. (London and Chichester, 1975), pp. 60–83, at 73, and 224Google Scholar, n. 56.

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⁸⁴ ‘The Origin of the Latin Feast of the Conception’, p. 259.

⁸⁵ Ibid. p. 254.

⁸⁶ Liturgica Historica, p. 239.

⁸⁷ Ibid. p. 240.

⁸⁸ Bishop, , The Bosworth Psalter, p. 64Google Scholar, n. 3.

⁸⁹ Freeman, E. A., The Norman Conquest, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1867–1879) iv749–52Google Scholar (Appendix P), and Southern, R. W., ‘The English Origins of the “Miracles of the Virgin”’, Med. and Renaissance Stud. 4 (1958), 176–216.Google Scholar

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⁹⁵ I should like to thank Dr Malcolm Godden, Mr Malcolm Parkes, Mr Terry Dolan and Dr Michael Lapidge for their help with this paper.