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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 September 2008
Cambridge, St John's College 42 (B. 20) is a Latin manuscript, dated as twelfth century and tentatively placed at Worcester. It contains 136 folios, closely written in double columns of forty-five lines each, in which a range of abbreviations has been used. By these means a quantity of material has been presented, including two collections of homilies/sermons, a calendar, extracts from the works of named authors and miscellaneous smaller items. The most notable of the sermons for Anglo-Saxonists is a new text of Archbishop Wulfstan's Latin composition, De Anticristo, but it keeps company with other anonymous sermons, some of which are variant texts of sermons copied or composed in English manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon historical period. The manuscript needs a closer study than those done by M.R. James, who catalogued the anonymous items without identification, or by H. Schenkl, whose catalogue is incomplete although it includes some identifications. Identification of the anonymous items, with notice of parallel texts in other manuscripts where possible, helps to confirm the date of the manuscript, suggests that its place of origin was Worcester, and allows speculation on the canon of Wulfstan's Latin writing.
1 James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1913), pp. 57–64.Google Scholar
2 Bethurum, D., The Homilies of Wulfstan (Oxford, 1957), pp. 113–15 (no. la).Google Scholar
3 James, , A Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 57–64.Google Scholar
4 Schenkl, H., Bibliotheca patrum Latinorum Britannica, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1891–1901) II. 2 (Fortsetzung, 1898), pp. 49–51.Google Scholar
5 James, , A Descriptive Catalogue, pp. 58–9.Google Scholar
6 Handbook of British Chronology, ed. Fryde, E. B., Greenway, D. E., Porter, S. and Roy, I., 3rd ed. (London, 1986), p. 224.Google Scholar
7 ibid. p. 223.
8 James, , A Descriptive Catalogue, p. 64Google Scholar, noting the later addition of the name; Handbook, ed. Fryde, et al. , p. 224Google Scholar, noting Wulfstan's dates.
9 James, , A Descriptive Catalogue, p. 64.Google Scholar
10 Barré, H., Les homéliaires carolingiens de l'école d'Auxerre; Studi e Testi 225 (Vatican City, 1962), 17–25Google Scholar, discusses and catalogues the collection.
11 James, M.R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Pembroke College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1905), pp. 25–9Google Scholar; On the Abbey of S. Edmund at Bury, trans, of the Cambridge Ant. Soc. 33 (1895), no. 168.
12 Cross, J.E., Cambridge, Pembroke College MS. 25: a Carolingian Sermonary used by Anglo-Saxon Preachers, King's College, London, Medieval Studies 1 (London, 1987).Google Scholar
13 A sermon on All Saints now published 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
14 See Cross, , Cambridge, Pembroke College 25, p. 50Google Scholar, for the comparison with St John's 42.
15 Canterbury Cathedral, Add. 127/12, fragment (s. xiin); London, British Library, Royal 5. E. XIX (Salisbury, probably 1089–1125), 21r-36v (twelve sermons from a full collection); Lincoln, Cathedral Chapter Library, 199 (C. 3.3) (s. xiimed), 213r–345r; Oxford, Balliol College 240 (s. xiv), 56r–136r.
16 The sermonary was used for eight Old English vernacular sermons; see Cross, , Cambridge, Pembroke College 25, pp. 91–3.Google Scholar
17 Since it was used for four items in the so-named Vercelli Codex (Vercelli, Biblioteca Capitolare, CXVII), dated s. x2 by Ker, N. R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), p. 460 (no. 394).Google Scholar
18 PL 171, 390–4.
19 Bonnes, J.-P., ‘Un des plus grands prédicateurs du XIIe siécle: Geoffrey du Loroux dit Babion’, RB 56 (1945–1946), 174–215.Google Scholar
20 Abbreviations used in the catalogue below are as follows: Bonnes: as quoted above, n. 19 Caesarius: Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis Sermones, ed. Morin, G., 2 vols., CCSL 103–4 (Turnhout, 1953)Google Scholar, cited by sermon number, volume and page Sauer: Sauer, H., ‘Zur Uberlieferung und Anlage von Erzbischof Wulfstans “Hand-buch”’, DAEM 36 (1980), 341–84Google Scholar. Manuscripts Barlow 37: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow 37, fols. 1–47 (?Worcester, s. xii/xiii), now most fully analysed by Sauer Châlons 31 (33): Châlons-sur-Marne, Bibliothèque Municipale, 31 (33) (Saint-Pierre-aux-Monts, s. xi2), partially analysed by Philippart, G., ‘Manuscrits hagiographiques de Châlons-sur-Marne’, AB 89 (1971), 71–3Google Scholar Copenhagen 1595: Copenhagen, Royal Library, Gamle Konglige Samlungen 1595 (Worcester, s. xiin), described by Jørgensen, E., Catalogus Codicum Latinorum Medii Aevi Bibliothecae Regiae Hafniensis (Copenhagen, 1926), pp. 43–6Google Scholar. The date and place of origin is deduced from Ker, N.R., ‘The Handwriting of Archbishop Wulfstan’, England before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Clemoes, P. and Hughes, K. (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 315–31, at 319–21Google Scholar Vespasian D. ii: London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. ii, inadequately described in Planta, J., Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Cottonian Library deposited in the British Museum (London, 1802)Google Scholar; dated by Bethurum, Wulfstan, p. 7, as s. xi/xii, but redated by Michelle Brown of the British Library, in written communication, as s. xii2/4
21 The sermon listed Cross, , Cambridge, Pembroke College 25, pp. 41–2 (no. 89).Google Scholar
22 Ptd PL 147, 221–4 and 171, 792–6.
23 PL 39, 2303–6.
24 Assmann, B., Angelsächsische Homilien und Heiligenleben, Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 3 (Kassel, 1889; repr. Darmstadt, 1964), 144–50Google Scholar. The source was noted by Jost, K., ‘Einige Wulfstantexte und ihre Quellen’, Anglia 56 (1932), 307–12.Google Scholar
25 (i) 74va 3–17, phrases from Caesarius, , Sermo xxxi2 (ed. Morin, II, 135)Google Scholar, cf. Sermo lxvi ad fratres in eremo (PL 40, 1352) and De rectitudine catholicae conversationis (PL 40, 1183). Caesarius considers the topos ‘Look at the tomb’; on this topos in Old English, see Cross, J. E., ‘The Dry Bones Speak – a Theme in some Old English Homilies’, JEGP 56 (1957), 434–9Google Scholar.
(ii) 74va 27 – 74vb 24 phrases from Caesarius, , Sermo clviii. 3–6 (ed. Morin, II, 646–8)Google Scholar, as noted for me by Abbé Raymond Étaix.
(iii) 74vb 24–36 statements from pseudo-Augustine, Sermo ccliv. 2–3 (PL 39, 2215–16), as in Alcuin, De virtutibus et vitiis liber cc. xii (De confessione) and xiii (De penitentia) (PL 101, 622). Alcuin probably abstracted from the sermon; on this see Wallach, L., ‘Alcuin on Virtues and Vices’, Harvard Theol. Rev. 48 (1955), 175–95, at 183–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
26 Some sources are: (i) 76ra 37–40, ultimately from Isidore, Synonyma II.91 (PL 83, 865), but adapted. (ii) 76rb ‘Augustinus ait: nec superbia… sine superbia’, a phrase from Julianus Pomerius, De vita contemplativa III.4 (PL 59, 479), as noted for me by Abbé Raymond Étaix.
27 PL 163, 759–63.
28 PL 163, 767–70, omitting words of address.
29 Published by Foreville, R. and Leclercq, J., ‘Un débat sur le sacerdoce des moines au XIIe siècle’, Studia Anselmiana 41 (1957), 8–118Google Scholar, at 52–3, omitting words of address.
30 On Seneca (cited in nos. 13 and 14), see Olsen, B. Munk, ‘Les classiques latins dans les florilèges médiévaux antérieurs au XIIIe siècle’, Revue d'histoire des textes 10 (1980), 115–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar, at 140, who identifies five (out of six) of the quotations named as Seneca, as from Publilius Syrus, Sentential.
31 Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, ed. Fehr, B., Bibliothek der angelsächsischen Prosa 9 (Hamburg, 1914; rev. ed. Darmstadt, 1966), 240–1.Google Scholar
32 A Wulfstan Manuscript, EEMF 17 (Copenhagen, 1971).Google Scholar
33 PL 39, 2266–8.
34 Bethurum, , Wulfstan, pp. 113–15.Google Scholar
35 On this manuscript, see Antolín, G., Catálogo de los Códices Latinos de la Real Biblioteca del Escorial IV (Madrid, 1916), 106Google Scholar. Antolín does not place the manuscript but it contains some originally English material, notably a translatio of Thomas Becket (fol. 306) and a homily and prayers for the saint. I have not seen this manuscript.
36 PL 76, 1199–201.
37 PL 39,1897–9.
38 PL 94, 504–5.
39 PL 39, 2210.
40 On other Latin manuscripts containing the text, see Cross, J. E., ‘Towards the Identification of Old English Literary Ideas: Old Workings and New Seams’, Sources of Anglo-Saxon Culture, ed. Szarmach, P. E. (Kalamazoo, MI, 1986), p. 84Google Scholar; on its use in Old English, see Cross, J. E., ‘A Doomsday Passage in an Old English Sermon for Lent’, Anglia 100 (1982), 103–8.Google Scholar
41 Ptd PL 171, 828–33, as Hildebert, Sermo cvi.
42 Ptd PL 171, 733–6, as Hildebert, Sermo lxxxiii.
43 This section is ptd PL 171, 731–2.
44 This section is ptd PL 171, 732–3.
45 Items 31–4 are unpublished.
46 Bonnes (p. 203, n. 16) comments that item 29, printed in PL 171, is frequently followed by a section headed: De tenacitate, and then other sections entitled: De rapina, De sacrilegis, De ultione rapinae, De ultione male tractantium uasa domini, as in two of the manuscripts considered by him. Note that the benediction is entered only after item 34.
47 Ptd PL 147, 224–6 (‘Incerti auctoris sermones sex ad populum’, Sermo ii).
48 Two sermons by Babion have the same incipit, nos. 46 and 54. No. 54 has been printed in PL 171, 926–9 and is presented in St John's 42, 114r–115v, as our item 47 below. This sermon, item 36 (Bonnes, no. 46), is the other sermon with the same incipit, but is unpublished. See, on the two sermons, Hauréau, B., Notices et extraits de quelques manuscrits latins de la Bibliothèque Nationale 1 (Paris, 1890), 247Google Scholar, commenting on Paris, BN, lat. 3833, a manuscript containing Babion's sermons.
49 Ptd PL 171, 915–18, as Hildebert, Sermo cxxviii.
50 PL 171, 751–8.
51 Ptd PL 171, 779–83, as Hildebert, Sermo xcv.
52 PL 39, 2287–8.
53 Ptd PL 147, 226–9 (‘Incerti auctoris sermones sex ad populum’, Sermo iii).
54 MGH, Epist. I, ed. Ewald, P. and Hartmann, L.M. (Berlin, 1891), 340, line 12 to the end.Google Scholar
55 Ed. Bonnes, pp. 205–9.
56 Ptd PL 147, 229–31 (‘Incerti auctoris sermones sex ad populum’, Sermo iv).
57 An address ptd PL 115, 675–84, as Homilia, attributed to Leo papa, but now ed. from many manuscripts by Amiet, R., ‘Une “Admonitio synodalis” de l'époque carolingienne’, MS 26 (1964), 12–82Google Scholar. The text in St John's 42 is as Amiet, text H, which is nearest to the archetype. Our text has none of the later insertions, and differs from H only in benediction (apart from scribal errors and translocation of some phrases). On the popularity of the address, see Amos, T. L., ‘The Origin and Nature of the Carolingian Sermon’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Michigan State Univ., 1983), p. 218.Google Scholar
58 Ptd PL 171, 926–9, as Hildebert, Sermo cxxxii. See above, n. 48.
59 PL 40, 1169–74.
60 It is not, however, the shortened form of Caesarius, Sermo xxxiii, ptd PL 67, 1078–9 as pseudo-Caesarius, Homilia xvi.
61 PL 39, 2209–10.
62 The sermon has echoes of Gregory, Homilia .xl. in Evangelia, no. xvi, PL 76, 1134–8, and pseudo-Caesarius, Sermo xvii, PL 67, 1079–80, with other material.
63 Ptd PL 171, 880–3, as Hildebert Sermo xcviii, with an addition at the end.
64 Bonnes, p. 198.
65 New Catholic Encyclopedia VI (Washington, 1967), 1116.Google Scholar
66 Foreville and Leclercq, ‘Un débat’, p. 14.
67 Handbook of British Chronology, ed. Fryde, et al. , p. 295.Google Scholar
68 Foreville and Leclerq, ‘Un débat’, p. 14.
69 Bethurum, , Wulfstan, pp. 113–15.Google Scholar
70 Ker, , Catalogue, p. 399.Google Scholar
71 Bethurum, , Wulfstan, p. 2.Google Scholar
72 Ker, , ‘Handwriting’, pp. 319–21Google Scholar. Hohler, C.E. rejects Ker's identification in ‘Some Service-books of the later Saxon Church’, Tenth-Century Studies, ed. Parsons, D. (London and Chichester, 1975), pp. 60–83 and 217–27, at 225, n. 59Google Scholar. Wormald, P., ‘Æthelred the Lawmaker’, in Ethelred the Unready: Papers from the Millenary Conference, ed. Hill, D. (Oxford, 1978), pp. 47–80Google Scholar, at 52, also offers a caveat. But the rejection and caveat are based on debatable evidence. See Cross, J.E. and Brown, A., ‘Wulfstan and Abbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés’, forthcoming in Medievalia, and the introduction to the facsimile edition of Copenhagen 1595 by Cross, J.E. and Morrish, J., EEMF, forthcoming.Google Scholar
73 Bethurum, D., ‘Archbishop Wulfstan's Commonplace Book’, PLMA 57 (1942), 916–29Google Scholar. For a close analysis of Barlow 37, see now Sauer, ‘Wulfstans “Handbuch”’.
74 Bethurum, , ‘Commonplace Book’, p. 928.Google Scholar
75 Ker, , ‘Handwriting’, pp. 321–4.Google Scholar
76 Fehr's edition has some inaccuracy.
77 The items are now ptd Aronstam, R. A., ‘The Latin Canonical Tradition in late Anglo-Saxon England’ (unpubl. PhD dissertation, Columbia Univ., 1974), no. 80 (p. 83)Google Scholar on the age for ordination of priests; no. iii (p. 119) on admittance of virgins and ordination of deacons; no. 82 (p. 84) on the time and place for ordination of bishops. Aronstam nos. 80 and 82 are ptd Thorpe, B., Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, 2 vols. (London, 1840)II, 111 (nos. 97 and 98).Google Scholar
78 Abbo's sermon is now ptd Önnerfors, U., Abbo von Saint-Germain des-Prés: 22 Predigten, Lateinische Sprache und Literatur des Mittelalters 16 (Frankfurt am Main, etc., 1985), Sermo xii, at p. 120Google Scholar for the passage, on the severity of breaking a day of fast in Lent, where Abbo cites ‘sancti canones’. Abbo's sermon is in Copenhagen 1595, 39r–40v and CCCC 190, p. 249.
79 See Wulfstan, ed. Napier, A. (Berlin, 1883), p. 174 for the story.Google Scholar
80 Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, ed. Whitelock, D., 3rd ed. (London, 1963), p. 21.Google Scholar
81 See above, n. 20.
82 PL 39, 2266–8.
83 See Willard, R., ‘The Blickling-Junius Tithing Homily and Caesarius of Arles’, Philologica:the Malone Anniversary Studies, ed. Kirby, T. A. and Woolf, H.B. (Baltimore, 1949), pp. 65–78.Google Scholar
84 See above, n. 20.
85 Detailed analysis will be presented in a forthcoming volume on Copenhagen 1595 (see above, n. 72).
86 Ker, , ‘Handwriting’, pp. 324–6.Google Scholar
87 ibid. pp. 326–7. Ker comments that the collection ‘was almost certainly made for Wulfstan’.
88 ibid. p. 320, noting the marginal insertion on 48r.
89 The material will be analysed in detail by J.E. Cross and J. Morrish (see above, n. 72).
90 See Clemoes, P., ‘Supplement to the Introduction’, Hirtenbriefe, ed. Fehr, p. cxxvii.Google Scholar
91 PL 89, 1037–80.
92 Ancient Laws, ed. Thorpe, II, 115 (no. 121)Google Scholar; Aronstam, , ‘The Latin Canonical Tradition’, pp. 93–4 (no. 105).Google Scholar
93 On Pirmin, see Jost, K., Wulfstanstudien, Swiss Stud, in English 23 (Bern, 1950), 45–62.Google Scholar
94 See above, n. 88.
95 Other short sermons of this kind in Copenhagen 1595 are De conuersione et penitentia et communione (54r–56r), De resurrectione mortuorum (56r–57r), De adiutorio Dei et libero arbitrio (59r–60v). The last of these was copied by the scribe who transcribed sections II and IV; the first two were copied by a scribe who was associated with him and whose hand is also found in Cotton Vespasian A. xiv.
96 Ker, , ‘Handwriting’, p. 320.Google Scholar
97 Clemoes, , ‘Supplement’, Hirtenbriefe, ed. Fehr, p.cxxxvii.Google Scholar
98 See Cross, J.E. and Brown, A., ‘Literary Impetus for Wulfstan's Sermo Lupi’, Leeds Stud, in English ns 20 (1989), 271–91Google Scholar. Other suggestions will be made in the volume on Copenhagen 1595 (see above, n. 72).
99 Châlons-sur-Marne 31 (33) may appear to be an oddity in this group, but since the scriptorium did not begin until the eleventh century, the dissemination could have been from Worcester to Châlons-sur-Marne.
