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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
Some doubt has always been felt regarding the textual purity of the printed sermons of Bishop Hugh Latimer. The recent discovery of two hitherto unnoticed mid-sixteenth century manuscripts, each of a famous sermon, provides the first opportunity to test the printed versions. One of these, MS. Corpus Christi College Cambridge 104, fols. 339-360, is a Latin translation of the first sermon preached by Latimer before Edward VI in 1549; the other, MS. Sloane 1460, is an English version of the last sermon (two parts), preached by Latimer before Edward VI in 1550.
1 “Coram Rege Edwardo / Homelia quaedam Hugonis Latymeri, / in qua qualis rex esse deb- / eat, ostenditur. Deut- / reonomii. capite.” Referred to subsequently as MS. CCCC 104. In the transcription of the English and Latin texts, except for title pages, abbreviations, long “s,” and the sixteenth century discriminations between the use of “u” and “v,” and “i” and “j” have not been retained.
2 The first of a series of seven sermons preached by Latimer before Edward VI at the palace. All seven sermons were published during 1549 by John Daye under the title: The fyrste / Sermon of May- / ster Hughe Latimer whi- / che he preached before / the Kynges Maiest. / wythin his gra- / ces palayce at Westmyn- / ster M. / D.XLIX. the viii. / of Marche./ Several editions of these sermons appeared during the year. See my study in progress. The English text used in this article and transcribed at the end in full is from that catalogued in the British Museum as G. 11844.
3 “A Notable Sermon made / before the kinges Magestye, / the Seccond Saunday in Le- / nte beinge the second daye of / Marche, By the Reverend / Father Maistre Hughe La- / tymer professoure of Divinite. Gathered & finished the 12 / of Aprill, and Dedicatid / uto the most Christen / Prynce Edward the Sy- / xte by the Grace / of God kinge / of England, Fraunce and Ire- / land, Defendoure of the fayth, / And on earth the Supreme / Head next & Immediatlye / undre God / By your graces daylie oratoure / John Dowglas. / 1550./” To be treated in another article.
4 Published the same year by John Daye under the title: A Moste / faithfull Sermō preached be- / fore the Kynges most excellēte / Maiestye, and hys most hono- / rable Council, in his Court / at Westminster, by the reverende Father Ma- / ster. / Hughe La- / tymer. / Anno. Domi. M.D.L./ At least two editions appeared that year: one—BM. 4452.a5., Bodl. I. g. 123, and BM. 4452.a.23 (defective); the second—BM. C.51.aa.14, BM. 4474.a.28, and Bodl. Tanner 832.
5 Of the forty-five sermons extant, thirty-one were published for the first time after Latimer's death. Of the thirty-one, two (The Sermons on the Card) were published in fragmentary form in the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe in 1563; one (The Sermon on the Rebellion in the North) first appeared in the 1575 collected edition of Frutefull Sermons, published by John Daye; the rest appeared for the first time in the first quarto collected edition under the title 27 / Sermons …, in 1562.
6 This is particularly true of the sermons preached before Edward VI, in which Latimer treated directly: (1) the duties of the king, (2) the corruptions and intrigues of the court, (3) the danger of the Catholic succession to the throne, and (4) the economic hardships of the poor brought about by enclosures. At least once during this time Latimer was accused of sedition by his enemies; see Latimer's reference to this in his third sermon before Edward, in The Sermons of Hugh Latimer, Sometime Bishop of Worcester, Martyr, 1555, edited for the Parker Society by the Reverend G. E. Corrie (Cambridge: University Press, 1844), p. 134; see also, ibid., pp. 131, 136, 154. It is clear that explosive material like this is more subject in publication to editorial tampering than less controversial matter would be. See Latimer's later self-defence for these sermons, ibid., pp. 160, 161-165, 171, 181-184, 243.
7 In the preface to the 1549 edition of the seven sermons preached before Edward, Some states first: “Wherefore, intending to do good unto all men, namely such as err and be ignorant, I have gathered, writ, and brought to light, the famous Friday Sermons of Master Hughe Latimer.” Corrie, op. cit., pp. 81-82. He continues: “And let no man be grieved though it be not so exactly done as he did speak it; for in very deed I am not able so to do, to write word for word as he did speak: that passeth my capacity, though I had twenty men's wits, and no fewer hands to write withal.” Ibid., p. 82.
8 “Not so perfectly as they were uttered,” in the title page to Part ii of the 27 Sermons, 1562. No further explanation is given.
9 The statement, “This day two year I entreated of the gospel of this day at Stamford, and such matters as I had in hand, were gathered of a diligent person and put in print,” from the Second Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, 1552 (see Corrie, op. cit., p. 341), connotes either modesty or disparagement.
10 See above, n. 7. It is commonly agreed that shorthand methods in Shakespeare's day were cumbersome and did not produce accurate texts. They were even less satisfactory earlier in the sixteenth century, when the art of note-taking was in its infancy. See the discussion in E. K. Chambers: William Shakespeare. A Study of Facts and Problems (Oxford: at the Clarendon Press, 1930), i, 159 et seq.
11 The only edition of the collected sermons which departs from its predecessors in any extensive way is that of 1596. A collation of two sermons from that edition, The Sermon of the Plow, and The First Sermon before Edward, with all other printed texts from 1548 to 1635 indicates that changes in the 1596 text are not due to recourse to editions earlier than its immediate predecessor, that of 1584, and shows that its variants were not retained by the two later collected editions in 1607 and 1635. According to contemporary records, the 1596 edition was unauthorized. It was published by Valentine Sims, the first edition to appear after the death of John Daye, and it was recalled by the Stationers Company. The variants in the 1596 edition are not such as to indicate any greater accuracy in that version through recourse to an unknown manuscript. See my study in preparation.
12 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 360.
13 BMC., BM. 4404.e.
14 The manuscript was finished during the month following the delivery of the two 1550 sermons, according to the title page. See above, n. 3.
15 Some's preface calls them “the famous Friday Sermons”; see above, n. 7. The number of editions of the 1549 sermons exceeds that of any other sermons by Latimer published during his life-time, and appears to be greater than that of any other sermon in the first half of the sixteenth century. In the course of the sermons, Latimer admits his awareness that he is surrounded by men who would enjoy his downfall. And such statements as these: that all his life he had been “burdened with the word of sedition,” Corrie, op. cit., p. 135, or that he “looked every day to be called to” execution, ibid., p. 164, suggest that what Latimer had to say was vitally interesting to his contemporaries. See above, n. 6.
16 See above, n. 7.
17 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 339: “Cum veneris in terram, quam dominus deus tuus dat tibi, possederisqué earn, et in ea habitaveris, et dicturus es: constituam super me regem, quem ad modum omnes gentes, quae circum me sunt: omnino regem super te pones, quem elegerit dominus deus tuus. De medio fratrum tuorum constitues super te regem: Non autem potes præficere tibi hominem alienum, qui non est frater tuus. Modo ne sibi talis equos multos paret, nequé populum in Ægyptum reducat, ut equos multiplicet. Nám dominus dixit vobis. Ne ultra redeatis per viam istam. Deinde ne multas sibi mulieres paret, ne recedat cor eius, nequé multiplicet sibi multum auri, et argenti, et quae sequuntur.”
18 Ibid., “Quaecunqué scripta sunt, ad nostram doctrinam scripta sunt, ut parientia nos, et scripturarum consolatione sustentemus, et certam de promissis spem concipiamus.”
19 The fyrste Sermon, A5r.
20 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 342.
21 The fyrste Sermon, A5r.
22 Ibid., B1r.
23 Ibid., C2r.
24 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 347.
25 The fyrste Sermon, C2v.
26 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 348.
27 The fyrste Sermon, A7v.
28 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 341.
29 The fyrste Sermon, A8v.
30 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 342.
31 The fyrste Sermon, B2r-v.
32 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 342.
33 The fyrste Sermon, DSr-v. Compare MS. CCCC 104, fol. 356.
34 The fryste Sermon, C5v.
35 MS. CCCC 104, fols. 350-351. Latimer's reference to this “shilling” passage later, in the third sermon before Edward, indicates that the correct version was that of the English printed text. There he states that because of it he was accused of sedition: “Thus they burden me ever with sedition. So this gentleman cometh up now with sedition. And wot ye what? I chanced in my last sermon [sic] to speak a merry word of the new shilling, to refresh my auditory, how I was like to put away my new shilling for an old groat. I was herein noted to speak seditiously.” Corrie, op. cit., p. 136. This may explain its omission from the Latin.
36 The fryste Sermon, C2v. The measure of accuracy of one version over the other cannot be determined finally here, since both texts exhibit such defects, one omitting material which the other has; see the next paragraph with its parallel passages, and see the discussion of passages which seem more coherent, and probably more accurate, in the Latin than in the English (below, p. 998, and n. 48), which will balance these examples of inaccuracy in the Latin. Our concern here is in the multiplicity and variety of discrepancy between the two texts with its bearing on the question of independence. Another type of omission, common to both the Latin and the English but at different points in the texts, is of the Biblical quotations used by Latimer in the course of the sermon. Often the Latin leads up to the quotation, at times giving a few words of it followed by “et c.,” at times indicating “preces sequutur,” but failing to give the précis. See MS. CCCC 104, fols. 342, 344, and 347. Often the English abbreviates the Biblical quotation. See The fyrste Sermon, B2v, B3r. Since there are several plausible explanations for these variants, they have been omitted from the main argument.
37 Ibid., D5r-v.
38 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 356.
39 See A. D. Innes, England under the Tudors (New York: Putnam's, 1921), p. 28, etc.
40 A similar series of discrepancies, through apparent minor omissions, a different arrangement of materials, incoherence in the English, poorer sequence in the Latin, and only rough correspondence in meaning at some points will be found in Latimer's discussion of the king's militia, a part of which was referred to above, p. 5. See The fyrste Sermon, C1v-C3r, and MS. CCCC 104, fols. 347-349.
41 The fyrste Sermon, A7v-A8r.
42 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 341.
43 The fyrste Sermon, B2r.
44 MS. CCCC 104, vol. 342. Compare also, The fyrste Sermon, B3r: “As the text doeth ryse, I wyl touche and go a lyttle in every place …,” with MS. CCCC 104, fol. 342: “Ut textus, quem modó citavimus subministrat … .”
45 The fyrste Sermon, B4r-v.
46 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 343.
47 The fyrste Sermon, B7v-B8r.
48 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 346. A similar contrast is revealed between The fyrste Sermon, C2r: “what meaneth it, that god hath to do wyth the kynges stable? But only he would be mayster of hys horsses, the Scripture sayeth, In altis habitat. He dwelleth on hye, it foloweth. Humilia respicit. He loketh on lowe thynges,” and MS. CCCC 104, fol. 347: “Atqui illud nonnullis mirum videbitur ipsi deo equos regis curæ esse. Curæ quidem sunt: præfectus enim equorum est. Nam cum in altis eum habitare scriptura doceat, perspicuum est humilia ipsi curæ esse.” Here the English is not only loose but obscure; the Latin is not only firmly coherent, but contains a sentence which may well preserve Latimer's actual words, tersely epigrammatic: “They are indeed a concern of His: for He is Master of the Horse.” (See just below in the English text, “God is great grand mayster of the Kinges house,” The fryste Sermon, C2r.) This, like some other parallels cited, raises the question whether the Latin text can properly be used for emendation of the accepted English text. A reminder of the difficulties present in such an experiment is seen in this same passage, where we find, in contrast with the preceding example, an instance in which the English word choice has more of the vigor associated with Latimer's speech than has the Latin: “that god hath to do wyth the kynges stable?” has far more tang than the Latin “that the king's horses are God's concern.” See also the discussions of omissions from the Latin, p. 994 above, and p. 1000 below.
49 The fyrste Sermon, A8r.
50 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 341.
51 The fyrste Sermon, A8v.
52 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 341.
53 The fyrste Sermon, A6r. Compare the following with parallel passages in the English: MS. CCCC 104, fol. 340: “At veró qui minister est, is suo ipsius gladio …,” and ibid., “Doceat igitur minister, moneat, repræhendat etiam, si quid repræhendendum sit, corrigat, et homines in iusticia erudiat eo, qui sibi commissus est, gladio, …,” etc.
54 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 340.
55 The fyrste Sermon, B6r.
56 MS. CCCC 104, fol. 344.
57 The fyrste Sermon, A5r.
58 Ibid., B3v.
59 Ibid., B4v.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid., B6v.
62 Ibid., B7r.
63 Ibid., B8v.
64 Ibid., C7r.
65 Ibid., D7r.
66 Compare the following passages: ibid., A5v, begining: “But ye shall consyder, yt the forsayd words of Paul…;” ibid., C8r-v, beginning: “And therfore, let us not take biwalkes … ”; ibid., D2r, beginning: “Miror si aliquis rectorum potest… ”; or ibid., D5r, beginning: “I knowe wher is a great market Towne … ”; with the corresponding passages in MS. CCCC 104, fols. 339, 352, 354, and 356 respectively.
