Mass rock

rdf:langString Mass rock

rdf:langString A Mass rock (Irish: Carraig an Aifrinn) was a rock used as an altar in mid-17th century Ireland as a location for Catholic Mass. Isolated locations were sought to hold religious ceremonies, as observing the Catholic Mass was a matter of difficulty and danger at the time as a result of both Cromwell's campaign against the Irish, and the Penal Law of 1695. Bishops were banished and priests had to register to preach under the 1704 Registration Act. Priest hunters were employed to arrest unregistered priests and Presbyterian preachers under an Act of 1709. Similar stones, known as Mass stones, are found in Scotland. While working in the 1880s as a hired farmhand for Robert Menzies of , near Aberfeldy, Perthshire, South Uist seanchaidh Angus MacLellan learned that a Mass stone had stood in the middle of Mr. Menzies's farmfield since the days when Roman Catholic priests were outlawed in Scotland. A nearby high cross, Menzies added, marked the site of an important college of learning from the days of the Celtic Church. Mr. Menzies explained that, even though the local population had long since switched to Presbyterianism, former Catholic religious sites were still locally viewed with superstitious awe and were never tampered with. Menzies explained that the term for Mass stones, in the Perthshire dialect of the Scottish Gaelic language, was Clachan Ìobairt, meaning "Offering Stones." Presbyterians held similar Conventicles and these were also outlawed, even though they were not religious ceremonies. For Lutherans during the Counter-Reformation in Austria, a similar stone in Paternion was dubbed the hundskirche.