Last updated 10th July 2024: Online ordering is currently unavailable due to technical issues. We apologise for any delays responding to customers while we resolve this. For further updates please visit our website https://www.cambridge.org/news-and-insights/technical-incident
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2017
Despite G. R. Owst's important studies, medieval English sermons have been examined only sporadically, and too often, as Siegfried Wenzel has noted, such investigations have treated sermons merely as structural analogues for the works of Chaucer and others. Fortunately, in recent years Wenzel himself and others have reaffirmed Owst's principal concept: sermons are mirrors reflecting the social and literary milieu of their time. This renewed interest in the sermon as historical document, however, may encounter a criticism made of Owst's own procedure, namely, a tendency to select items of significance from a wide range of material without adequate attention to the immediate context of each. The printing of a complete sermon, with its mixture of historical allusion, literary motif, and social commentary—a potpourri of the interesting, the dull, the unusual, and the commonplace—provides not only a necessary balance in method, but a better perspective of the sermon as a literary construction in its own right.
1 Owst, G. R., Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge 1926); Owst, G. R., Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Cambridge 1933).Google Scholar
2 Wenzel, Siegfried, ‘Chaucer and the Language of Contemporary Preaching,’ Studies in Philology 73 (1976) 138–41.Google Scholar
3 Besides the paper above, see Wenzel's, 'The Harley Lyrics and Contemporary Preaching—Some Reflections,' delivered at the MLA Convention of 1975 and to be published in The Harley Lyrics , ed. Robbins, Rossell Hope (forthcoming). See also the papers of Haines, Roy M.: “‘Wilde Wittes and Wilfulnes”: John Swetstock's Attack on Those “Poyswun-mongeres,” The Lollards,’ Studies in Church History 8 (1971) 143–53; ‘Church, Society and Politics in the Early Fifteenth Century as Viewed from an English Pulpit,’ Studies in Church History 12 (1975) 143–57; “‘Our Master Mariner, our Sovereign Lord”: A Contemporary Preacher's View of King Henry V,’ Mediaeval Studies 38 (1976) 85–96.Google Scholar
4 The front flyleaf has been identified as part of an account roll of properties belonging to the Abbey in the late fifteenth century (see Hunt's, R. W. The Laudian Catalogue Revised in the Bodleian Library, Oxford). The large majority of the sermons are written in Latin, but three are entirely in English. Several of the Latin sermons, including the Beauchamp sermon, have various amounts of English, and the text moves from one language to the other without any apparent disruption in syntax or meaning. This subject requires further study of other sermons in MS Laud misc. 706 and the sermons in MS Bod. 649, a related manuscript. Some possible explanations for macaronic sermons are offered by Erb, Peter C., ‘Vernacular Material for Preaching in MS Cambridge University Library Ii.III.8,’ Mediaeval Studies 33 (1971) 63–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5 Paunteley's possession indicated by a note on fol. 190v: ‘Hic est liber Iohannis Paunteley.’ For his ordination: Registrum Johannis Trefnant Episcopi, Herefordensis, ed. Capes, W. W (Canterbury and York Society 20; London 1916) 202–203. His presence in Oxford: Chancery Proceedings P. R. O. C 258/38 no. 30.Google Scholar
6 For other information on Paunteley, see my unpublished dissertation: ‘An Edition of Five Medieval Sermons from MS Laud misc. 706’ (State University of New York, Albany 1975).Google Scholar
7 The sermon refers only to the name Beauchamp explicitly, but other evidence about the manuscript — date, provenance, handwriting, and dialect — makes it clear that the subject is Thomas Beauchamp. See diss. 1–35.Google Scholar
8 The best account of the entire controversy is Goodman's, Anthony The Loyal Conspiracy (Coral Gables, Florida 1971).Google Scholar
9 Chronicon Adae de Usk, ed. Thompson, E. M. (London 1904) 161.Google Scholar
10 Rolls Series III 435–36.Google Scholar
11 On Warwick's philanthropy see: Rouse Roll, ed. Courthope, William (London 1845) no. 48; Chronicon Adae de Usk 226; Dugdale, William, The Antiquities of Warwickshire (London 1730) 399–401; Testamenta vetusta , ed. Nicolas, N. H. (London 1826) 153–55.Google Scholar
12 The best outline of the university sermon is Charland, Th.-M., Artes praedicandi: Contribution à l'histoire de la rhétorique au moyen-âge (Paris 1936). See also the works of Caplan, Harry, now collected in Of Eloquence (Ithaca 1970).Google Scholar
13 For the history of chantries in fourteenth-century England see: Wood-Legh, K. L., Church Life under Edward III (Cambridge 1934) chap. IV 89–126, and Perpetual Chantries in Britain (Cambridge 1965), especially chap. VIII 182–211. As examples of satiric comment see: The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman Together with Richard the Redeles , ed. Skeat, W. W. (Oxford 1886; rpt. with bibliography 1968) Text C 1.81–84; The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer , ed. Robinson, F. N. (2nd ed.: Boston 1957) I (A) 507–510.Google Scholar
14 See Testamenta vetusta cited above, and also the comments of Rosenthal, Joel T., The Purchase of Paradise (Toronto 1972) 93. The contribution which the Beauchamps made to St. Mary's Collegiate Church in Warwick and their instructions to be buried there suggest that the church may have been the site of the delivery of this sermon.Google Scholar
15 See Wells, John Edwin, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 1050–1400 (New Haven 1926) 482, 372. See also Wyclif's sermon for the twenty-first Sunday after Trinity in Arnold, T., Select English Works of John Wyclif (Oxford 1869) II 365–68. The motif appears in other manuscripts as well: MS Arundel 286 fols. 20r–81v; MS Bod. 788 fols. 324r–325v (sermon); MS Bod. 95 fols. 96r–98v (sermon).Google Scholar
16 For the texts of the charters see: Spalding, Mary C., The Middle English Charters of Christ (Bryn Mawr Monographs 15; Bryn Mawr 1914). For comment on their use by poets see: Woolf, Rosemary, The English Religious Lyric in the Middle Ages (Oxford 1968) 210–14; Gray, Douglas, Themes and Images in the Medieval English Religious Lyric (London 1972) 130. Certainly the Pardon Scene in Piers Plowman (Skeat 226–50) seems to owe something to the charter tradition as well as the royal pardons.Google Scholar
17 The Incendium Amoris of Richard Rolle of Hampole, ed. Deansley, Margaret (London 1915); English Prose Treatises of Richard Rolle de Hampole , ed. Perry, George G. (EETS os 20; London 1866) treatise 11 (Active and Contemplative Life) 33–35.Google Scholar
18 One of the best discussions is still Mohl, Ruth, The Three Estates in Medieval and Renaissance Literature (New York 1933); for a recent work see Mann, Jill, Chaucer and Medieval Estates Satire (Cambridge 1973). a mei written above the line.Google Scholar
19 The transcription presents the manuscript text as far as possible. Standard abbreviations have been expanded silently. Words appearing separately in the text but combined in modern usage have been hyphenated. Capitalization, punctuation, and paragraphing are my own. The macaronic nature of the sermon, its date, and the clear evidence of scribal error have made guidelines for emendation difficult. In general, I have let English spelling and syntax stand as they appear. In regard to the Latin, I have let variations in spelling stand when they appear consistently throughout the text as long as the word is readily identifiable (for example, the use of -e as the equivalent of -ae for feminine inflection). As for syntax, especially inflectional agreement of case, number, and gender, I have emended when the particular example appears to be an exception to the consistent practice in the text (for example, the occasional use of the genitive ‘sui’ instead of the more common ‘suum’). All emendations are indicated by brackets or footnotes. I wish to express my thanks to the Trustees of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for permission to print the text.Google Scholar
20 Ps. 49.11.Google Scholar
21 This may be a reference to Guido de Chartres, Abbot of St. Denis, the author of the Sanctilogium. The text is extant only in manuscript, and I have not been able to examine it. a sui. b sui. c sitis. d et. e dolor.Google Scholar
22 The ‘Universale’ of Jacobus de Yoragine referred to may be Cronaca di Genova. ed. Monleone, Giovanni, Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo (Rome 1941) 84–86; but I did not find any reference to the campus Elisius. Google Scholar
23 Ps. 36.37. a videntis. b sagitte.Google Scholar
24 The ‘Magister Historiarum’ is Peter Comestor. The reference is to his commentary on the Book of Genesis in the Historia scholastica (PL 198.1074).Google Scholar
25 Mt. 13.38.Google Scholar
26 This is an example of the o/e confusion found in some Middle English manuscripts. For an explanation see Robbins, Rossell Hope, ‘Two Mystical Poems of the Fourteenth Century,’ Modern Language Review 35 (1940) 320–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
27 Gen. 3.21.Google Scholar
28 See note 24 above.Google Scholar
29 Unidentified, this quotation is at best a pseudo-Augustinian paraphrase, its vocabulary is not Augustine's, and its Latinity is scholastic rather than patristic. Cf. Ps.-Augustine (Paulinus of Aquileia), Liber exhortationis, vulgo de salutaribus documentis 40 (PL 40.1061): ‘Semper ante oculos nostros versetur ultimus dies, et cum dilicuio surrexerimus, ne ad ves-peram nos confidamus pervenire, et cum in lectulo membra deposuerimus, de lucis non confidamus adventu: et facillime poterimus corpus nostrum a vitiis et concupiscentiis malis refrenare.’ The idea that the thought of death is the best weapon against sin — the memento mori motif so common in medieval spiritual literature — is found in this treatise, which in the manuscript tradition has been ascribed erroneously to St. Augustine.Google Scholar
30 Anglicus, Bartholomaeus, De rerum proprietatibus 12.31 (Frankfurt 1601; repr. Frankfurt a. M. 1964) 546. Aristotle, Both, De incessu animalium 10, ed. Ross, W. D., The Works of Aristotle (Oxford 1908–52) V 710a, and Pliny, , Naturalis historia 10.22, ed. Mayhoff, Carl (Leipzig 1892–1909) I 169, discuss the shedding of the peacock's feathers but do not moralize it.Google Scholar
31 Eccli. 7.40.Google Scholar
32 Valerii Maximi factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem 2.8.7, ed. Kempf, C. (Leipzig 1888; repr. Stuttgart 1966) 97 lines 10–16. a se expuncted for deletion following esse. b quercus. c vice. d testatur. e suo expuncted for deletion following pro.Google Scholar
33 Isa. 28.5. a generi. b naturali.Google Scholar
34 Mt. 13.19.Google Scholar
35 Prov. 31.16.Google Scholar
36 Jer. 41.8.Google Scholar
37 Aristotle, , Ethica Eudemia 3.5 (Works IX 1232b). a 13. b honoris.Google Scholar
38 Mt. 13.24.Google Scholar
39 PL 41.156.Google Scholar
40 Gen 11.1.–9.Google Scholar
41 For the interpretation of Babel as a tower of pride, see the Glossa ordinaria (PL 113.114). a In after sic. b fortudine. c for. d cor.Google Scholar
42 Hans Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi: Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters (Carmina Medii Aevi posterioris latina 2.1–5; Göttingen 1963–67) I. 400–401 nos. 3417, 3418. Whiting, Bartlett Jere, Proverbs, Sentences, and Proverbial Phrases (Cambridge, Mass. 1968), lists several proverbs containing the heart/tongue comparison, particularly 601 T 383. See also mouth/heart comparisons, 418 M 755.Google Scholar
43 Aristotle, , Ethica Nicomachea 4.7 (Works IX 1127b).Google Scholar
44 Lev. 19.19. a duplicitati. b agmendum. c Fuit. d written in left margin with caret mark in line indicating place of insertion.Google Scholar
45 Ex. 9.25.Google Scholar
46 4 Kgs. 3.19. a stricta. b agmentasti.Google Scholar
47 Wis. 6.6.Google Scholar
48 Whiting lists several examples, but none match exactly. See 129 D 184: 53 B 447, 450.Google Scholar
49 Prov. 24.27. a knyʒhode. b assimulatur. c confegit.Google Scholar
50 Cant. 2.1.Google Scholar
51 I did not find this exact quotation in the common encyclopedias, but comments on ‘hordeum’ do appear. For instance see Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 17.3.10, ed. Lindsay, W. M. (Oxford 1911). In book xv Bartholomaeus (see note 30) describes ‘hordeum’ as ‘aridum.’ Usually, Bartholomaeus' work is not commonly known as De naturis rerum, but elsewhere in MS Laud misc. 706 a reference to ‘De naturis’ is glossed accurately as ‘Bartholomaeus.’ See Horner, Patrick J., f.s.c, ‘John Paunteley's Sermon at the Funeral of Walter Froucester, Abbot of Gloucester (1412)’ in The American Benedictine Review 28 (1977) 156.Google Scholar
52 2 Kgs. 14.1–33.Google Scholar
a canaria. b quem.Google Scholar
53 1 Tim. 6.10. This is, of course, the text which the Pardoner uses as his theme; Robinson, VI (C) 334.Google Scholar
54 Ezech. 36.20.Google Scholar
a dereliquid. b neuer. c conxuianum. d tibibi. e sufficiter.Google Scholar
55 1 John 3.17.Google Scholar
56 Lev. 6.12.Google Scholar
57 Bradwardine, Thomas, De causa Dei cap. 1 corr. pars 32 (London 1618) 52–3.Google Scholar
a tempus. b mundine. c quid.Google Scholar
58 The word appears clearly in the manuscript, but I have been unable to find a suitable English translation in any of the standard dictionaries of Medieval Latin. It is possible that the word is a variant of mondina (a measure of grain). The context suggests, however, that the preacher is describing some kind of fair which fills the field during the day but leaves it abandoned at nightfall. Another possibility is that the preacher has coined his own word based on mundus and dives—a word which could well apply to the merchants who have amassed worldly riches.Google Scholar
59 Isa. 5.8.Google Scholar
a qui written twice. b Beata. c spiritum.Google Scholar
60 Luke 12.33.Google Scholar
61 Gen. 27.27.Google Scholar
62 Sermo 2, in Sancti Bernardi opera, edd. Leclercq, J. and Rochais, H. M. (Rome 1968) V 341.Google Scholar
63 Mt. 5.3.Google Scholar
a assimulatur. b honore. c dicut. d fractu. e pauper. f conxuianorum.Google Scholar
64 I have been unable to find a definite source for this reference. It may be an allusion to Solinus, Caius Julius, Collectanea rerum memorabilium, ed. Mommsen, Th. (Berlin 1895) 129. This is a discussion of the Jordan river which is surrounded by fertile lands in some parts, but by barren deserts in the Dead Sea area.Google Scholar
65 Ps. 64.12.Google Scholar
a fractus. b de.Google Scholar
66 Ps. 95.12.Google Scholar
