Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T19:56:45.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Mirk's Festial

from Part I - The Collections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Siegfried Wenzel
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

Though this work was written in English, it warrants inclusion in this study because it contains several unusual features whose importance for the history of preaching in the later Middle Ages has so far not been sufficiently appreciated. Like Repingdon, John Mirk was an Augustinian canon, living at Lilleshall Abbey, Shropshire. Little else is known about him, but from manuscript attributions it emerges that he composed three important aids for parish priests: the Manuale sacerdotis in Latin, a handbook called Instructions for Parish Priests in English verse, and the Festial or Liber festivalis in English prose. It is the last which calls for attention here.

Like Felton's cycle of sermons on the Sunday gospels, Mirk's Festial begins with a preface that states his intention to help simple priests who lack books and education in their task of teaching their parishioners:

On account of my insufficient learning I understand how it goes with others of the same rank who have the cure of souls and are required to teach their parishioners all the main feasts that occur in the year, showing them what the saints suffered and did for God's love, so that the people should have greater devotion to God's saints and come to the church more willingly to serve God and pray to the holy saints for their help.[…]

Type
Chapter
Information
Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England
Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif
, pp. 58 - 65
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Mirk's Festial
  • Siegfried Wenzel, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511483394.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Mirk's Festial
  • Siegfried Wenzel, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511483394.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Mirk's Festial
  • Siegfried Wenzel, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book: Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England
  • Online publication: 22 September 2009
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511483394.014
Available formats
×