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‘Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis’: A Sermon for All Saints, and its Use in Old English Prose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

J. E. Cross*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool

Extract

The Latin sermon ‘Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis’ has been considered by Anglo-Saxonists a number of times within the past two decades. In 1958 I noted the contact between Ælfric's sermon on All Saints and the only version of the Latin sermon which is printed in modern and accessible text. This version, in PL 94.452–455, unfortunately is an incomplete text with extensive omissions. In 1959 C. L. Smetana independently recorded the same source for Ælfric's sermon, while adding that the Latin sermon was included within augmented versions of Paul the Deacon's homiliary. My minor opposition to one deduction in this important paper took the opportunity of refining my previous comments by illustrating that Ælfric used a complete version of the Latin sermon such as that in the printing of Paul the Deacon's homiliary by Eucharius Cervicornus in 1539. Further contacts with the sermon over the range of Old English prose have convinced me of the general dissemination of this sermon in our period (probably within homiliaries) and, as I hope to argue here, of its value in helping to date the ‘original’ version of the Old English Martyrology.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Cross, J. E., ‘A source for one of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies,’ English Studies 39 (1958) 248251.Google Scholar

2 Smetana, C. L., ‘Ælfric and the Early Mediaeval Homiliary, Traditio 15 (1959) 194.Google Scholar

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8 The lists below were compiled with the help of various scholars who generously offered their expertise and knowledge. C. L. Smetana allowed me to see his present list of the versions of Paul the Deacon's homiliary and noted the manuscripts of the sermon A ii, v, viii, ix. Bernhard Bischoff commented on manuscript dates as indicated below and noted the manuscripts A i, B iii, v. Dom R. Weber also provided references to A i, B v, as well as to A iv, B i, ii, iv, vi, vii, viii, ix, x, xi, xii. I had seen the reference to A iv in the discussion of J. Winandy (see The Date and the Author of the Sermon, below), and by identifying our sermon in M. P. Cunningham's discussion of the Newberry Library Homiliarium in Sacris Erudiri 7 (1955), there unidentified, I was led by his notes to A vii, and later to A vi.Google Scholar

9 Now in Munich, Staatsbibliothek. Bischoff, Bernhard, Dis südostdeutschen Schreibschulen und Bibliotheken in der Karolingerzeit, Teil I: Die bayerischen Diözesen (Wiesbaden 1960) 112, 116, comments on aspects of the manuscript, but in a generously detailed letter commenting on the Newberry Homiliarium below, he noted that this section of the manuscript was written in Freising in the second quarter of the ninth century.Google Scholar

10 Now in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe. Dr. Gerhard Stamm of the Library, who commented on some features of the manuscript, gave me Bernhard Bischoff's oral opinion that the manuscript is early tenth century. Engelmann, Ursmar, Reichenauer Buchmalerei: Initialen aus einem Lektionar des frühen 10. Jahrhunderts (Freiburg 1971), considers this manuscript and notes, p. 26, that the section fols. 9r–276v is in a hand of the first half of the tenth century.Google Scholar

11 Cunningham's, M. P. dating, 267, as ‘early ninth century’ is now outdated by a discussion (with detailed reasoning) by Bernhard Bischoff in a letter of May 10, 1974. He concludes that the manuscript is from Southern France, of the second half of the tenth century; the five hands, A–E (see Cunningham), were working at the same time; corrections are from the twelfth century.Google Scholar

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14 James, M. R., A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the library of Pembroke College, Cambridge (Cambridge 1905) 22. Our sermon is recorded as item 51, p. 24.Google Scholar

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19 Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France: Départements (Paris 1877) VI 17. The manuscript is described as ‘fragments d'un lectionnaire.’Google Scholar

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22 Information from Bernhard Bischoff in a letter of June 3, 1974 referring to P. Ruf, 1200 Jahre Kloster Schäftlarn 762–1962 (Shäftlarn 1962) 41.Google Scholar

23 Vichi and Mottironi, 320, say eleventh century. Poncelet, A., Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Latinorum bibliothecarum Romanarum (Brussels 1909) 365, says twelfth century. Our sermon is Vichi and Mottironi item lxxiv p. 331.Google Scholar

24 Omont, H., Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France: Départements (Paris 1886) I 410.Google Scholar

25 Poncelet, A., Catalogus codicum hagiographicorum Latinorum Bibliothecae Vaticanae (Brussels 1910) 94, says ‘saec. xiii in,’ but Dom R. Weber says twelfth century. The printed Codices Vaticani Latini, <e>edd. M. Vatasso and P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri (Rome 1932), do not yet include our manuscript.edd.+M.+Vatasso+and+P.+Franchi+de’+Cavalieri+(Rome+1932),+do+not+yet+include+our+manuscript.>Google Scholar

26 Wilmart, A., Codices Reginenses Latini (Vatican 1937) I 165. Our sermon is item 11.Google Scholar

27 Wilmart, A., II 605. Our sermon is item 5.Google Scholar

28 Vichi and Mottironi, 162. Our sermon is item lxxxii p. 175.Google Scholar

29 Information from Dom R. Weber. Lauer, P., Bibliothèque Nationale, Catalogue général des manuscrits latins (Paris 1939), does not yet include our manuscript.Google Scholar

30 Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France: Départementes (Paris, 1900) XXX 172, dates the manuscript as ninth century, but Bernhard Bischoff says that it is from the third quarter of the ninth century. H. Barré discusses the sermon in Revue Bénédictine 68 (1958) and notes 209 note 1 (in relation to the edition of Combéfis) that the sermon ends as at ‘anti[quorum]’ line 91 of the text edited here.Google Scholar

31 Jonathan Foster has generously helped with the presentation of this text. Google Scholar

32 Cunningham, M. P., ‘Contents of the Newberry Library Homiliarium, Sacris Erudiri 7 (1955) 268.Google Scholar

33 The identification is by Cunningham 294.Google Scholar

34 Information from Dr. G. Stamm of the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe.Google Scholar

35 Professor Bernhard Bischoff has generously looked at this manuscript for me.Google Scholar

36 ‘Le IIIe livre des homélies de Bède le Vénérable,’ Recherches de théol. ancienne et médiévale 14 (1947) 216 n. 28.Google Scholar

37 See above under Sources.Google Scholar

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39 Winandy, J., Ambroise Autpert, moine et théologien (Paris 1953) 28.Google Scholar

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42 Ibid. Google Scholar

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44 Revue Bénédictine 60 (1950) 117 n. 1.Google Scholar

45 The information comes from a note by Ambrosius Autpertus himself, cited by Dom R. Weber in the introduction to his edition Ambrosii Autperti Opera, Expositionis in Apocalypsin libri I–V (CCL 27.xi).Google Scholar

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49 The quotation and biographical information are from Barré, 212.Google Scholar

50 Barré 221.Google Scholar

51 See above under Manuscripts, A i.Google Scholar

52 Thorpe, B., The Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric (London 1844–46) I 538–556.Google Scholar

53 See above, notes 1 and 3.Google Scholar

54 Cross, ‘Mediaeval Homiliary’ 23 note 1.Google Scholar

56 Thorpe, I 212.Google Scholar

57 See e.gCross, J. E., ‘Ælfric — Mainly on Memory and Creative Method in Two Catholic Homilies,’ Studia Neophilologica 41 (1969) 135155, and ‘More Sources for Two of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies — in die Ascensionis — Ælfric's Retentive Memory,” Anglia 86 (1968) 67–78.Google Scholar

59 The Blickling Homilies, <e>ed. R. Morris (EETS) 115 (for the passage under discussion below).ed.+R.+Morris+(EETS)+115+(for+the+passage+under+discussion+below).>Google Scholar

60 PL 76.1259–65.Google Scholar

61 Thorpe, Sermones II 536 et seq.Google Scholar

62 Toller, T. N., An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Supplement (Oxford 1921) sub for-þwyrftan. Google Scholar

63 Gregory, Blickling Homily X and Ælfric's Passio S. Mauricii on the World's Youth and Age,’ Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 66 (1965) 327330.Google Scholar

64 See Leclercq, J. on Paul the Deacon's ‘original’ homiliary in Scriptorium 2 (1948) 205214, and Smetana, C. L. (note 2 above) for Ælfric's reliance on a version of this homiliary.Google Scholar

65 Morris 161 (for the passage referred to below).Google Scholar

66 Blickling Homily XIV’ 152–153 (note 5 above).Google Scholar

67 MGH: Gest. Pont. Rom. I: Libri Pontificalis, pars prior, <e>ed. T. Mommsen (Berlin 1898) 165.ed.+T.+Mommsen+(Berlin+1898)+165.>Google Scholar

68 MGH: Auct. ant. XIII: Chronicum minorum III, <e>ed. T. Mommsen (Berlin 1898) 310.ed.+T.+Mommsen+(Berlin+1898)+310.>Google Scholar

69 Sisam, Celia, ‘An Early Fragment of the Old English Martyrology, Review of English Studies n.s. 4 (1953) 213.Google Scholar

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71 As Miss Sisam notes, 213, the martyrology ‘in its English form was copied as late as the eleventh century with hardly any adaptation to changed conditions.’ Certainly there is only one change by one manuscript which could at all be regarded as an ‘updating’. This is the erroneous information in MS BM Cotton Julius A x (c. a.d. 1000) that half of Aidan's (August 31st) bones were in Glastonbury. The other text, MS Corpus Christi College Cambridge 196 (c. a.d. 1050) correctly records that they were in St. Cuthbert's minster, i.e. Lindisfarne. The differences between these two main manuscripts are, apart from this, only individual words by substitution or error, in word-order, and by omission. Since in Miss Sisam's stemma (212) these two manuscripts are not closely related, and since no more kinds of difference occur when the two more fragmentary manuscripts are compared (MSS BM Addit. 23211, late ninth century, and BM Addit. 40165A, late ninth century), we may reasonably assume that the extant text fairly represents the content of the original.Google Scholar

72 I have not yet seen any awkward Old English constructions, which sometimes arise from a literal translation from a Latin original.Google Scholar

73 Herzfeld, George, An Old English Martyrology (EETS 116; London 1900) xxxiii. I count eight references.Google Scholar

74 Herzfeld xxxvi–xlii. It should be added that LP is one of the sources for Fabian (January 20th) as well as for Sixtus (August 6th), neither of which is given a source by Herzfeld. Herzfeld's sources for some other sections on popes need some refinement.Google Scholar

75 Herzfeld xxxiv.Google Scholar

76 Herzfeld xxxvii.Google Scholar

77 Herzfeld xl.Google Scholar

78 Herzfeld 198. I am grateful to Günther Kotzor of Munich who is preparing a new edition of the Martyrology and has allowed me to see a typescript draft. Herzfeld's text has been modified against this.Google Scholar

79 Ed. cit. 310. Miss Sisam generously called my attention to Ado's use of DTR. Google Scholar

80 See apparatus to line 3 of the edited text above.Google Scholar

81 Ed. cit. 286.Google Scholar

82 See Text line 6 and Sources for the text.Google Scholar

83 Lines 6–14.Google Scholar

84 Herzfeld xxxiii. The martyrologist names Arculphus, who was Adamnan's informant.Google Scholar

85 Herzfeld xxxiii. Herzfeld's notes passim refer only to Aldhelm's poem on the subject. but the martyrologist also used the prose tract. I hope to discuss this point in more detail in future.Google Scholar

86 Herzfeld 235 cites a Latin passage, incorrectly ascribed to Fulgentius. It is in fact Augustine, Sermo 309 § 4 (PL 38.411).Google Scholar

87 Herzfeld xxxvii (Emiliana, January 5th), xxxix (Cassius, June 29th), xxxix (Processus, Martianus, July 2nd) and xliii (Felicitas, November 23rd).Google Scholar

88 Blickling Homily XIV’ 155–156 (note 5 above).Google Scholar

89 Sisam 214.Google Scholar