A Repertorium of Middle English Prose Sermons - Cambridge, Sidney Sussex College

Cam/SidSus/74

NAME

74.

DESCRIPTION

Parchment; iii + 207 [numbered] + ii; 256 x 170; fifteenth century (early).

f. i recto: Contents list in a seventeenth-century hand; ff. i verso–ii verso: Blank; f. iii recto: Late sixteenth-century notice about the Wycliffite sermons; f. iii verso: Blank; ff. 3r–142v: Set 1 (Sunday Gospels) of the Wycliffite Sermons (IPMEP 340), used as prothemes to epistle sermons, which are not from the Wycliffite cycle, beginning imperfectly with the epistle sermon for Pentecost and ending imperfectly with the gospel sermon for the Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension; ff. 143r–166v: Pater noster of Richard Ermyte (IPMEP 150); f. 167r: Blank; f. 167v: Blank, apart from the heading to the next item in a seventeenth-century hand; ff. 168r–179r: Thomas Wimbledon's sermon, Redde racionem villicationis tue (IPMEP 560); ff. 179v–180v: Blank, apart from two words on f. 179v and one medieval Latin line on f. 180v; ff. 181r–189v: On the Ten Commandments; ff. 189v–191v: On the Hail Mary (IPMEP 276); ff. 191v–207r: Sermons on the following themes: ff. 191v–192v: Puer natus est nobis, ending imperfectly, f. 193: Missing, ff. 194r–196r: Diliges dominum deum tuum, ff. 196r–198r: Estote prudentes et vigilate in oracionibus, ff. 198r–200r: Sana, domine, animam meam quia peccaui tibi, ff. 200r–202r: Hodie oportet me in domo tua et manere, ff. 202r–204r: Mortuus viuet, ff. 204r–204v: Christum sanctificate in cordibus vestris for 'Dominica v post festum sancte trinitatis', ff. 204v–207v: Ememus panes, ending imperfectly owing to a missing folio.

PARALLEL TRADITIONS

For the Wycliffite Sermons see BL/Add 40672; for the epistle sermons see Bodl/Bodl 95; for Wimbledon's sermon see Cam/Christ's/7; and for the sermons on ff. 194r–204v see Man/Eng. 109. The last sermon in the manuscript on ff. 204v–207v is also found in BL/Add 37677, ff. 98r–101v. Both sermons are imperfect owing to missing folios and/or illegibility; the Additional manuscript has folios missing after f. 98v and the Sidney Sussex manuscript is both illegible and has missing folios at the end. For this reason neither of them is completely suitable as 'base text'; the summary here is mainly based on the Sidney Sussex text but supplemented from the Additional text (BL/Add 37677/002) where the Sidney Sussex text is imperfect.

COMMENTS

Folios 146, 163 and 177 occur twice so there were originally 210 folios in the manuscript but now the first two folios are missing and the manuscript is much mutilated; for a list of the missing folios see Hudson and Gradon 1983–96:I, 70–71 who calculate that there are 181 folios present. The current foliation is medieval and takes no account of missing folios. The Wycliffite sermon section contains extensive Latin annotation in a later medieval hand. Annotation, comprising glossing, commentary, and correction in an early seventeenth-century hand occurs in Wimbledon's sermon. Pasted onto stubs on the inside back cover are six parchment strips pasted in vertically; the second, third, fourth, and sixth contain eighteenth-century English text on the rectos (the fourth being pasted in upside-down). As noted on the bookplate, the manuscript was donated to Sidney Sussex College by Samuel Ward on his death in 1643; Ward became the third Master of the College on 9 January 1609–10 and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1622–23. In LALME:I, 64–65 it is noted that there is uncertainty about the delineation of the hands but with the exception of ff. 143r–167v, which is localised in Warwickshire, and ff. 168r–176r, which is localised in Northamptonshire, most of the rest is localised in Worcestershire.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

James 1895:52–53; Hudson and Gradon 1983–96:I, 70–72.

Sermon Description: Cam/SidSus/74/001

OCCASION

Fourth Sunday in Lent or Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity.

HEADING/TITLE

alius sermo.

THEME

Ememus panes [Io 6:5 (L)].

LENGTH

204v–207v.

INCIPIT

Ememus panes, Iohannis vi, et in euangelio hodierno. 3e schulen vndurstonde þat by bred in holy writt is vndurstonden al þat euer falleþ to a monnes lyflode. Þerfore seþen a man is maad of two kyndes, body and soule, and boþe þuse neden hire sustinaunce, <þat> no3t acordyng, seþen ofte þat likeþ to þe body distruyeþ þe soule. And a3enward hym byhoufeþ boþe bodily bred and gostely, for 3ef he faile his bodily sustinaunce his body wol febly and turne into erþe, so 3ef he faute gostely bred he dyeþ on his soule. Herto acordeþ Crist in þe gospel, seyinge seying [sic], 'Not only in bodily bred stondeþ a mannes lyf bote on euery word þat goþ out of Godes mouþ.' [Cam/SidSus/74]

EXPLICIT

Ferst he shal be cursed if he be an opyn vsurere, he shal not be amytted to þe comounyng of þe auter, noþer be beried in holi place 3if he deie in þat synne, noþer offeryng to be don for [101r] hym. Þerfore me semyþ it is pereilous to deile wiþ þis hokterie, siþ it doþ awoy charyte withouten whom no man may be sauyd. [BL/Add 37677]

SUMMARY

Since a man is composed of a body and a soul, both need sustenance. Spiritual sustenance is the word of God, that is Christ [205r] who must be bought not with gold or silver but with hard work. Many enemies try to tear Christ from one's heart and fighting them is hard work for many reasons. Four reasons are given: (1) the length of the fight – both from Creation until Doomsday and the length of each individual lifetime; [BL/Add 37677/002 breaks off here.] (2) the number of fighters — the world, the flesh and the devil tempt one to deadly sins; [205v] (3) the different ways in which the devil fights, offering one temptation after another until he finds an effective one; (4) the subtlety of the fiend, calling sin by different names (so that covetousness becomes wisdom and usury, alms) and using people from his own 'scole' to tempt others. [206r] All must ask God for grace in this fight. [The theme is repeated.]

In the gospel, Christ gave his disciples five 'foles' (i.e. loaves) to feed five thousand people. Thus his later disciples, especially priests, are obliged to feed the people both bodily and spiritually with five loaves: (1) wisdom, (2) pity, (3) truth, (4) mourning, and (5) devotion. [Only the first two divisions are dealt with in this sermon.]

(1) Priests, especially curates, are bound on pain of damnation to feed the people with the loaf of wisdom and they are paid to do so. They should not neglect their spiritual duties in favour of secular ones; the only secular business clerks are allowed to carry out is the care of widows, fatherless children, and the poor. [206v]

It is not only curates who are culpable, but also the secular lords who employ them and keep them from their spiritual duties. Such priests can be compared to a woman leaving her household without her husband's permission to live with another man and allowing her household to starve. In such a case both the woman (the priest, 'þe houswyf of Cristis houshold') and the other man (the secular lord) are culpable. [BL/Add 37677/002 resumes.] If a king (Christ) had a number of knights (parishioners) to be ferried across the sea in a ship (the Church) and the priest as captain offered to take them, on pain of death, but he met some fishermen and chose to live with them, leaving his ship to be destroyed, how would he dare to look on that king's face again? [207r]

Those who take on secular occupations damn the souls of many of their parishioners who should have been in heaven. The good curate should not eat his bread in idleness but buy it through spiritual work. Thus 'we men of Holy Church' should give the bread of wisdom to earn bread.

(2) The second loaf is the loaf of pity which rich men should give to poor men out of charity. Likewise those who relieve men spiritually through preaching or prayer should do so freely. The preacher describes four types of people who deny the material loaf of pity to the poor, identifying them with the four types of 'hokestares' that Jesus drove from the temple – the sellers of oxen, sheep, and doves, and money-changers (Io 2:14–16). [207v] [At this point Cam/SidSus/74/001 becomes very faint so BL/Add 37677/002 [100r] is used as 'base text' from now on.] (1) Oxen-sellers are identified with greedy lawyers. [100v] Money overcomes the rhetoric of Cicero and the strength of Hercules. By this hucksterism the bread of pity is banished. (2) Sellers of sheep represent those who sell works of mercy, meekness, and pity. [Cam/SidSus/74/001 ends at this point.] It is loathsome to see how hypocrites sell their feigned holiness for the praise of men and for money.

(3) Since the Holy Spirit appeared in the likeness of a dove, sellers of doves represent those who, through simony, sell spiritual goods, such as benefices, sacraments, or offices. (4) The temple money-changers represent usurers. Christ says that the usurer is most cursed because he breaks five laws: natural law, pagan law, Jewish law, the law of the gospel, and papal law. [The penalties for usury under papal law are listed.] [101r] This type of hucksterism does away with charity without which no one can be saved.

BIBLICAL CITATIONS

Io 6:5 (L); Mt 4:4; cf. Io 1:1; cf. Ps 17:38; cf. Mt 4:1–11; Ps 90:7; II Tim 2:4; Mt 14:4; Ez 34:2–5; Is 3:7; cf. Prv 31:27; cf. Io 2:14–16; Ecl 10:19; Prv 23:23; cf. Ps 14:5.