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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
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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References
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55
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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
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81 Ed. cit. 286.Google Scholar
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