MS260

NORTHERN HOMILY CYCLE, PRICK OF CONSCIENCE ETC.

A composite manuscript consiting of three portions.

Part 1.
ff. 1ra-63ra. The Northern Homily Cycle: a collection of homilies consisting of paraphrases of the Gospel for each Sunday with illustrative exempla, composed in rhyming English verse. The text belongs to the original, first recension composed in northern England (possibly Yorkshire) at the turn of the fourteenth century (James E. Carver suggested 1295 x 1306 based on internal textual evidence: see 'The Northern Homily Cycle, and Missionaries to the Saracens', Modern Language Notes 53 (1938), pp. 258-61). In addition to the fifty-two Sundays of the year, from Advent through to the twenty-fourth Sunday following the Feast of the Holy Trinity, the cycle also includes Gospels and exempla for the feasts of the Purification/Candlemas (2 February), the Annunciation (25 March) and the Ascension. Selections from the cycle have been edited by John Small, English Metrical Homilies from Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (Edinburgh, 1862), and, more recently and using the present manuscript as a source for comparison, Anne B. Thompson, The Northern Homily Cycle (Kalamazoo, 2008). Sixteen extant manuscripts contain the text of the first recension, and the present manuscript is one of nine which are reasonably complete. It includes the Prologue, Ratio, and homilies up to the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity, the contents of which are fully listed in Carleton Brown, A Register of Middle English Religious and Didactic Verse, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1916-20), vol. 1, pp. 432-8. The Gospel for the twenty-fourth Sunday is given in Latin prose only (f. 62vb: Matthew 9:18), and is followed by a Latin homily beginning (f. 62vb) 'Inter omnia miracula que dominus noster per semetipsum ostendit...' and ending (f. 63ra) '... partem in regno celorum habere mereamur. Quod ipse prestare dignetur etc.' A homily in English verse for the 'twenty-fifth' Sunday after Trinity follows (twenty-fourth in Thompson's edition), only the first twelve lines of which have been written:
'Saynt John (th)e gospelere
tells als ye may now here
ine (th)is gospell of (th)is day
luke ye bere it wele a way
mykyll folk com jhesu till here
fra ilk syd fere and nere
and sone he said whene (th)at he saw
sa mykyll folk to hym draw
to saint philyp (th)at stod hym by
whare may we mete till (th)is folk by
till faynd hym etc. Require superius in quarta dominica quatragessime ibi, to faynd hym etc. (see f. 31ra). Expliciunt exposiciones dominicales per totum Annum.

f. 63rb-66vb. Fourteen short Latin homilies on the Gospels for the Common of Saints. Begins 'Incipiunt commune sanctorum expositiones.'
1. John 15:12 (Hoc est preceptum meum ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos etc.): 'Dominus noster propter hoc dignatus est descendere de celis ... ut nos cum nostro conditore in eterna vita gaudere possimus ipso adiuvante.'
2. John 15:17 (Hec mando vos [sic] ut diligatis invicem etc.): 'Dominus noster in hoc loco nos ammonet ut semper inter nos veram dilectionem habeamus ... ut cum sanctis suis gaudere possimus ipso adiuvante etc.'
3. Matthew 10:16 (Ecce ego mitto vos sicut oves in medio luporum etc.): 'Dilectissimi fratres attendamus diligenter quemadmodum dominus noster missit discipulos suos ... tribulaciones mundi sustinere sicuti fecerunt et virtutes eorum in quantum possimus oportet imitari. Dominus noster ihesu christus hoc nobis prestare dignetur. Qui vivit et regnat'.
4. Luke 10:1 (Designavit dominus jhesu et alios septuaginta duos et misit illos binos ante faciem suam...): 'Istud sequens evangelium manifestat quod dominus misit discipulos suos ... ut nos reiuvenationem celestem possimus in futuro ab illo suscipere. Qui vivit et regnat etc.'
5. Matthew 16:24 (Si quis vult per me venire abneget semetipsum et tollat crucem suam...): 'Salvator noster fratres karissimi ammonet nos ut abnegemus ... ut ad illud pervenire mereamur quod suis fidelibus preparavit. per dominum ihesum christum etc.'
6. Matthew 5:1 (Videns jhesu turbas ascendit in montem...): 'Dominus noster quando predicabat in hoc mundo multi veniebant ad eum ... quia cum sanctis martiribus in vita eterna gaudebimus. Quod ipse prestare dignetur etc.'
7. Luke 21:9 (Cum audieritis prolia et sediciones nolite terreri etc.): 'Salvator noster denunciat nobis persecuciones et mala mundi huius ... cum domino in perpetuum gaudebimus ipso adiuvante.'
8. Matthew 10:34 (Nolite arbitrari quod venirem pacem mittere...): 'Pax [non] semper ponitur in bona significacione sed in mala ... cum sanctis gaudere perpetualiter mereamur. Quod ipse prestare dignetur etc.'
9. John 15:1 (Ego sum vitis vera...): 'Dominus noster fratres karissimi qui ad redempcionem humani generis ... quam fidelibus suis ante secula promisit. Cui est honor in secula seculorum Amen.'
10. Matthew 25:14 (Homo quidam peregre proficissens [sic] vocavit servos suos...): 'Dominus noster interrogatus a discipulis suis de die iudicii ... Venite benedicti patres mei percipite regnum quod nobis paratum est ab origine mundi etc.'
11. Luke 11:33 (Nemo accendit lucernam et in abscondito...): 'Si quis homo secundum lucernam accendit ... Concedat nobis dominus fidem habere rectam ut secum sine fine gaudere mereamur, ipso adiuvante in secula seculorum amen.'
12. Luke 12:35 (Sit lumbi vestri precincti et lucerne ardentes...): 'Iste sunt virtutes quas dominus docuit ... ut cum fidelibus suis in eterna gaudia gaudere possimus. Quod ipse prestare.'
13. Matthew 25:1 (Simile est regnum celorum decem virginibus que accipientes lampades...): 'In hoc loco per regnum celorum debemus intelligere sanctam ecclesiam ... ante faciem dei, ipso adiuvante. Quod ipse prestare dignetur qui cum spiritu sancto vivit et regnat deus etc.'
14. Matthew 13:44 (Simile est regnum celorum thesauro abscondito...): 'Thesaurus absconditus in agro signat celeste ... et nos ad illud gaudium pervenire faciat quod omnibus suis promisit fidelibus. Quod ipse prestare dignetur qui cum patre et spiritu sancto vivit et regnat in secula seculorum amen.'
'Expliciunt etc.' (f. 66vb).

f. 66vb. Note on 'quare non dentur decime de pueris qui renouantur sicut de aliis rebus', followed by verses in Latin and English:
O spes in morte me salva maria precor te
Hanc animam posco quam plenam crimine nosco
My hope maydene I ask and crafe
In (th)is trans (th)at yu me safe
... etc.
Ending: Wilfridus clamidem quam suscepit per attridem
Servavit pridem casus dedit abstulit idem.
A late hand (sec. xvi ex. or xvii in.) has underlined 'Wilfridus' and written the name below (cf. front flyleaf, f. i verso).

ff. 67ra-79ra. The Convertimini, a collection of exempla designed as a preaching aid by the Dominican friar and theologian Robert Holcot (c. 1290-1349), c. 1337-1341 (see B. Smalley, ‘Robert Holcot O.P.’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum, 26 (1956), pp. 5-97, and English Friars and Antiquity in the Early Fourteenth Century (1960), pp. 133-202 at 147). For other manuscripts containing the Convertimini see R. Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 (1997), pp. 554-5, supplemented by S. Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England (2005), p. 222, n. 59. The complete collection appears to contain forty-eight chapters, the contents of which are listed in J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, vol. 3 (1910), pp. 116-55. The present manuscript contains only twenty-three chapters, in the following order:
1. Convertimini.
2. Ego si exaltatus.
3. Diligite iusticiam.
4. Lignum vite.
5. Oculi mei.
6. Donec deficiam.
7. Caro concupiscit.
8. De propiciacione.
9. Posside sapienciam.
10. Egredietur dominus.
11. Lingua tercia.
12. Nolite detrahere.
13. Loquere que docent.
14. Omnes qui credebant.
15. Nescis quia miser es.
16. Prepara animam tuam.
17. Non simus inanis.
18. Dedisti metuentibus.
19. Hortamur vos.
20. Scito et vide.
21. Quare moriemini.
22. Vallerius [albertus] in libro de vegetalibus.
23. Panis quem ego dabo; ending: '... ipsa est mihi auxiliata' (f. 79ra).

ff. 79ra-83vb. A collection of stories and allegorical images in Latin with many passages in English.
1. Image at Rome (Depingebatur rome quedam ymago pulcherima). Dove on head.
2. Sapiencia ut regina iacens in lecto depingebatur.
3. Ten hours of day. Latin and English verses. Secundum commentatorem macrobii.
4. Josephus. De alexandro magno et eius humilitate.
5. Pictura misericordie. English verses on death.
6. Pallas and apple (of discord).
7. Theodosius de vita alexandri magni. Rex cecilie.
8. Romulus in annalibus iudeorum. In iudea fuerunt leges tres. English verse.
9. Achilles in Scyros (Ovid).
10. Cautela Darii contra Alex.
11. Joculator et armiger. English.
12. Carthage. Ara Priapi. Mystic letters. English.
13. Love of god etc. Loue god suffrandly in qwhame is al (th)i rest etc.
14. Nichil ita subtrahit hominem a peccato.
15. Legitur in gestis alexandri magni. Taper lighted.
16. Taking of Carthage. Four gold rings.
17. Duo socii qui ad bankum (?) regis ibant. (Embellished initial with vine and flowers: f. 82vb; comparable to those in the Prick of Conscience).
18. Quidam clericus cum diu laborasset circa prosperitatem seculi
19. Pictura virginitatis. Fulgencius.
20. Two hermits. One had book with three leaves.
21. Virgil at Rome condidit basim vitream.
22. Duo clerici oxonie. Nil tibi promisi dulcia verba nisi.
23. General leaves casks of wine for his enemies. Refert Julius
24. Condemned soldier's appeal.
25. Knight at tournament. Signum accepit de puella quam dilexit. A garment inscribed with verses (Latin and English).
26. Giants fight against gods. Contra cupiditatem.
27. Fish called fastex.
28. Breaking the faggot, 'union is strength.' De unitate et concordia.
29. Pains of Christ in His passion.
30. Tu homo es et habes certum (sertum) de floribus.

ff. 84ra-90vb. Latin prose sermons.
1. Dominica in l(a) [recte Septuagesima]: Matthew 20:8 (Voca operarios et redde illis mercedem...): 'Sicut dicitur ecclesiastes 3 [3:5] tempus amplexandi et tempus longe fieri ab amplexibus ...
2. Dominica in lx(a): Luke 8:5 (Exiit qui seminat seminare...).
3. Dominica in l(a): Luke 18:38 (Jhesu fili david miserere mei...).
4. In die cinerum: Jeremiah 6:26 (Accingere cilico et conspergere cinere...).
5. Dominica prima xl(e): Matthew 4:2 (Cum ieiunasset xl(a) diebus et xl(a) noctibus...).
6. Dominica ii(a) xl(e): Matthew 15:22 (Mulier chananea a finibus illis...).
7. Dominica iii(a) xl(e): Luke 11:14 (Cum eiecisset demonium locutus est mutus...).
8. Dominica iiii(ta) xl(e): John 6:9 (Est puer unus hic qui habet quinque panes...)
9. Dominica in passione: John 8:59 (Jesus abscondit se et exivit de templo).
10. No heading: 2 Timothy 2:3 (Labora sicut bonus miles...). This sermon and the following are in a different ink tone, and clearly written later than the rest.
11. Dominica i(a) post oct. pasch. John 10:16 (Vocem meam audient...). Missing two folios after f. 89, as indicated by the contemporary arabic ink foliation. The final sermon (or another?) ends incomplete at f. 90vb, missing a further folio.

Part 2.
ff. 91r-99v (single columns). The Tractatus de sphera of Johannes de Sacrobosco (d. c. 1236), a treatise on elementary cosmology and Ptolemaic astronomy dealing with the structure of the universe, the circles of the celestial sphere, phenomena caused by the diurnal rotation of the heavens, and planetary motions and eclipses. As quite possibly the single most popular scientific work of the middle ages, it survives in hundreds of manuscripts and was printed repeatedly after the 'editio princeps' of 1472 (Ferrara). The Tractatus has been edited, with English translation, in L. Thorndike, 'The Sphere’ of Sacrobosco and its Commentators (1949). The present text contains all four chapters and includes three spherical drawings. Explicit: 'Liber finitur ars quo spere reperitur'. The folios have been trimmed at some point, resulting in the loss of some marginal text.

Part 3.
ff. 101ra-136vb. The Prick of Conscience (Stimulus conscientie), an anonymous, but extremely popular, didactic poem in English verse dealing with the four last things: Death, Judgment, Hell and Heaven. Originally composed in the mid-fourteenth century, and edited by Richard Morris as 'The Pricke of Conscience (Stimulus Conscientiae), a Northumbrian Poem by Richard Rolle de Hampole' (Berlin, 1863). The attribution to Richard Rolle is no longer maintained, but the present manuscript is one of a few (and the only northern) to explicitly ascribe it to him (see H. E. Allen, Writings Ascribed to Richard Rolle Hermit of Hampole (1927), pp. 372-97). It is described in R. E. Lewis and A. McIntosh, A Descriptive Guide to the Manuscripts of the Prick of Conscience (Oxford, 1982), pp. 79-80.
Incipit: 'The myght of (th)e fadyr almyghty / (th)e wyll of (th)e sone all wytty'. Explicit: 'un to whylk place he vs bryng / at for owre hele on (th)e rode wald hyng. Amen. Explicit tractus qui vocatur stimulus consciencie interioris per sanctum Ricardum heremitam de hampole.' A later hand notes: 'In septem partes huius libri diuiditur videlicet ...' This is followed by a note in Henry Savile's shorthand (see Custodial History).
f. 137 blank.
ff. 138r-139v. Alphabetical index to the Prick of Conscience, running from 'Avis' through to 've'.

Early 15th century

LPL