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The unknowable audience of the Blickling Homilies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Milton McC. Gatch
Milton McC. Gatch
Affiliation:
Union Theological Seminary, New York
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Extract

Manige men beoð þe beforan oþrum mannum hwæethugu god begangaþ 7 raþe hie hit anforlataþ, forþan þe Crist sylfa cwaæþ pæt he nelle gehyran þæs gimleasan 7 þæs forgytenan mannes gebedrædene. Ne þæt to nahte nyt ne bið þæt man godne mete ete oþþe þæt betste win on gebeorscipe drince gif þæt gelimpeþ þæt he hit eft spiwende anforlæteþ, þæt he ær to blisse nam 7 to lichoman nyttnesse. Swa we þonne þa gastlican lare unwæriice ne sceolan anforlætan, þe ure saul big leofaþ 7 feded bið. Swa se lichoma buton mete 7 drence leofian ne mæg, swa þonne seo saul gif heo ne bið mid godes worde feded gastlice hungre 7 þurste heo bið cwelmed. Forþon myccle swiþor we sceolan þencan be þæm gastlicum þingum þonne be þæm lichomlicum

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 18 , December 1989 , pp. 99 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

1 Blickling homily v (Dominica V in Quadragesima), MS (see below) 3314–v3 (Morris 57/1–14; see below). (‘There are many who, in the presence of others, do some good and promptly abandon it. For that reason, Christ himself said that he would not hear the prayers of any negligent or forgetful man. Nor is it of any use if one eat good meat or drink the best wine at a feast, if it comes to pass that he later, vomiting, loses what he took for merriment and for the body's use. Just so, then, we should not carelessly lose the spiritual teaching that our soul lives and is fed by. Just as the body cannot live without meat and drink, so the soul, if it is not fed with the word of God, is killed by spiritual hunger and thirst. We must, therefore, meditate much more on spiritual than on bodily things.’) For texts of Blickling sermons in this article, I follow the typescript edition of the late R.L. Collins, citing parenthetically as ‘Morris’, by page and line, the edition of Morris, R., The Blickling Homilies, EETS os 58, 63 and 73 (1874–1880). Abbreviations are silently expanded, and punctuation and capitalization are modernized. Translations are mine, although I have kept an eye on Morris's published translation. For description of the manuscript, now Princeton, New Jersey, Scheide Library, 71 (s. x/xi), seeGoogle ScholarKer, N.R., Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1957), no. 336, and ‘A Supplement to Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon’, ASE 5 (1976), 121–32, at 125;Google ScholarThe Blickling Homilies, the John H. Scheide Library, Titusville, Pennsylvania, ed. Willard, R., EEMF 10 (Copenhagen, 1960), 13–41; andGoogle ScholarCollins, R.L., Anglo-Saxon Vernacular Manuscripts in America (New York, 1976), pp. 52–7.Google Scholar

2 On the history of the compilation of the Blickling Book and its relation to other manuscripts and to the homiletic corpus as a whole, see Scragg, D.G., ‘The Homilies of the Blickling Manuscript’, Learning and Literature in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. Lapidge, M. and Gneuss, H. (Cambridge, 1985), pp. 299–316, and ‘The Corpus of Vernacular Homilies and Prose Saints’ Lives before Ælfric', ASE 8 (1979), 223–77, esp. 233–5.Google Scholar

3 Toronto, 1977; see esp. pp. 24–59.

4 The discussion of the designations for liturgical manuscripts has been carried further, with some useful corrections and distinctions, by H. Gneuss, ‘Liturgical Books in Anglo-Saxon England and their Old English Terminology’, Learning and Literature, ed. Lapidge and Gneuss, pp. 91–141.

5 This paper originated as ‘post-prandial divagations’ delivered at the conference dinner of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, Toronto, 22 April 1987.I am grateful to Professor Roberta Frank for the commission to prepare it and to her and Dr Ann Hutchison for gracious care during the conference. I am also gratefiil to Professor Jane Rosenthal for an invitation to read another version of this paper to the Medieval Seminar of Columbia University in 1987–8.

6 On catechesis and catechetical writing, see my ‘Basic Christian Education from the Decline of Catechesis to the Rise of the Catechisms’, A Faithful Church; Issues in the History of Catechesis, ed. Westerhoff, J.H. III and Edwards, O.C. Jr, (Wilton, Connecticut, 1981), pp. 79–108, andGoogle ScholarDay, V., ‘The Influence of the Catechetical Narratio on Old English and some other Medieval Literature’, ASE 3 (1974), 51–61.Google Scholar

7 Ker, Catalogue, no. 556, art. 7; see also Willard, R., ‘The Blickling-Junius Tithing Homily and its Sources’, Philologica: the Malone Anniversary Studies, ed. Kirby, T.A. and Woolf, H.B. (Baltimore, 1949), pp. 65–78. Morris' homily xvi is a misbound singlet that has now been properly inserted as fol. 30 in no. iv at Morris 53/2; see The Blickling Homilies, ed. Willard, p. 22.Google Scholar

8 The dating for Junius is Ker's. For Blickling, Ker allows for activity into the eleventh century; but Collins prefers a tenth-century terminus despite some correctors' entries of later date, and Scragg implicitly agrees.

9 No. XXXIII in the edition by Morin, G., CCSL 103, 143–7.Google Scholar

10 Junius reads ‘se godes lareow’ (Willard, “Tithing Homily”, p. 72). The use of ‘æþela lareow’ in Blickling needs to be studied closely. (See also below, n. 14.) Here it clearly means not the apostle Paul (as is assumed at Morris 38/1) but the major authority on whom the sermon relies; see Willard, ‘Tithing Homily’, p. 66.

11 2251–10 (Morris 39/1–7). (‘He said. Now the time approaches when we ought to gather our possessions and fruits [of the field]. Then let us eagerly give thanks to the Lord who gave us those fruits, and let us be mindful of what Christ commanded in this gospel. He said that we always once a year give back a tenth of what we possess.’)

12 Willard (‘Tithing Homily’, p. 78, n.) suggests it may have been assigned to Lent because plough-alms were due in England a fortnight after Easter. This suggestion seems to me strained. In any case, the harvest references are out of place.

13 CCSL 103, 143, lines 3–4.

14 To take examples only from the opening section of Blickling IV, cf. 22VI5–16 (Morris 41/4–5), ‘sægþ on þissum bocum þæt dryhten sylf cwæde’, introducing a paraphrase of Exodus XXII. 29; 2311–2 (Morris 41/8), ‘cwæþ se æþela lareow’, introducing a quotation of Proverbs III.9–10; and 23VI–2 (Morris 41/23), ‘on þyssum godspelle sægþ’, introducing a passage based on Caesarius. Note that where Blickling refers to ‘se æþela lareow’, Junius (Willard, ‘Tithing Homily’, pp. 72–3) reads ‘on ðissum bocuum’ or ‘on bocum’. The term also occurs in the section of this Blickling sermon that is based on the Visio Pauli: 23ri–2 (Morris 43/5); 24r5–6 (Morris 43/32); 25V3 (Morris 45/12–13), with goda for æpela; 25V19 (Morris 45/24); 26V10 (Morris 47/10), halga; and 27V13 (Morris 49/9). It seems throughout (although the sources are not always known) to be a tag to indicate quotation from a main source.

15 ‘Tithing Homily’, p. 65.

16 Healey, A. diPaolo, The Old English Vision of St Paul, Speculum Anniversary Monographs 2 (Cambridge, Mass., 1978), 51–2. Note, however, that at 27V30 (Morris 49/14) St Paul is named as the source of material derived from Matthew xvi.19 and xviii.18.Google Scholar

17 27r7–13 (Morris 47/24–8).

18 28r3–8 (Morris 49/18–22).

19 ‘Tithing Homily’, pp. 70–2.

20 Godden, M.R., ‘The Development of Ælfric's Second Series of Catholic Homilies’, ES 54 (1973). 209–16.Google Scholar

21 30V5–21 (Morris 195/17–26). I had drafted this sentence before becoming aware that Paul Acker had argued the same point in ‘The Going-Out of the Soul in Blickling Homily IV’, ELN 23.4 (1986), 1–3.

22 31V3–21 (Morris 53/19–33).

23 Dalbey, M.A., ‘Hortatory Tone in the Blickling Homilies: Two Adaptations of Caesarius’, NM 70 (1969), 641–58. For a summary of what is known of uses of Caesarius by writers of Old English, seeGoogle ScholarTrahern, J.B. Jr, ‘Caesarius of Aries and Old English Literature’, ASE 5 (1976), 105–19, at 114–19.Google Scholar

24 ‘A Probable Source for the ubi sunt Passage in Blickling Homily v (Morris 59/15–21)’ was identified by McCord, L., NM 82 (1981), 360–1. (The passage is at 55r7–17.)Google ScholarThe source is pseudo-Basil, Admonitio adfilium spiritualem, viii (PL 103, col. 690). I am grateful to Professor J.E. Cross for confirming my recollection on this matter in a personal letter, 2 March 1987. Cross, of course, published the basic study of ‘“Ubi sunt” Passages in Old English – Sources and Relationships’ Vetenskaps-societeteti i Lund, Arsbok (1956), 25–44, esp. 40.Google Scholar

25 32r1 and 36r17 (Morris 55/1 and 61/19).

26 Gatch, M. McC., ‘Eschatology in the Anonymous Old English Homilies’, Traditio 21 (1965), 117–65, at 120.Google Scholar

27 ‘The Homilies of the Blickhng Manuscript’, pp. 300–1 and 304.

28 32r5–6 (Morris 55/3–4, ‘afterwards to give back and offer up worthy fruit’).

29 A Microfiche Concordance to Old English, ed. Healey, A. diPaolo and Venezky, R.L. (Newark, Delaware, 1980).Google Scholar

30 See , Gatch, ‘Eschatology’, and ‘Two Uses of Apocrypha in Old English Homilies’, Church History 33 (1964), 579–91, for discussion of eschatological motifs in the preaching traditions. As Scragg observes (‘Corpus of Vernacular Homilies’, pp. 266–7), ‘tradition was an extraordinarily narrow one’.Google Scholar

31 This scriptural passage – like others – is attributed in Blickling v to ‘Crist sylfa’, 34VI–2 (Morris 59/1). The passage also recalls Isaiah xL.6–9.

32 34v16–17 (Morris 59/9).

33 35r8–10 (Morris 59/15–17).(‘Where then will be the frivolous desires and the sweetness of sex that he loved so hotly before?’)

34 See above, n. 24. The pseudo-Basil text is ptd in PL 103, col. 690.

35 The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Hexameron of St Basil … and the Saxon Remains of St Basil's Admonitio ad Filium Spiritualem, ed Norman, H.W. (London, 1848), pp. 31–55.Google Scholar

36 37r9 (Morris 61/26).

37 38V8 (Morris 63/20). Dictionary of Old English, fascicle D, ed. Cameron, A. et al. (Toronto, 1986), s.v. dema.Google Scholar

38 ‘The Homilies of the Blickling Manuscript’, p. 503.

39 For some discussion of Rogationtide among the Anglo-Saxons and of preaching texts for the season, see the introduction to Eleven Old English Kogationtidt Homilies, ed. Bazire, J. and Cross, J.E. (Toronto, 1982), pp. xiv–xxv. The list of items for the occasion is based on Ker, Catalogue, p. 5 29. To this list, Willard (The Blickling Homilies, pp. 39–40) added Blickling ix-x, which lack rubrics. The comment of Bazire and Cross that Willard's conclusion is speculative (Eleven Homilies, p. xvii) seems over-cautious.Google Scholar

40 Ibid. pp. xxiv-xxv, and Gatch, ‘Basic Christian Education’, pp. 93–9.

41 Morris, p. 107.

42 65r5–7 (Morris 107/7–8; Bright's 2–3, see below; ‘male or female, young or old, wise or unwise, rich or needy’). For this homily I also supply references (as Bright's by line) to text no. 9 in Bright's Old English Grammar and deader, ed. Cassidy, F.G. and Ringler, R.N., 3rd, corrected, ed. (New York, 1971), at pp. 196–203, which has some variant readings from Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 198, 314r–316r (s. xi1 and xi2).Google Scholar

43 65V2–66r5 (Morris 107/21–109/8, Bright's 12–25). (‘The end of this world is very near, and many calamities have appeared and men's crimes and woes greatly multiplied. And from one day to the next we hear of monstrous plagues and deaths occuring throughout the country, and we often see that nation rises against nation and unfortunate fighting gives rise to iniquitous deeds. And we hear very frequently of the death of men of substance, whose life was dear to men, and whose life seemed fair and beautiful and pleasant. We are also informed of various diseases in many places in the world and of increasing famines; and many evils, we learn, are becoming general and flourishing in this life, and no good abides here, and all worldly things are very sinful; and the love that we ought to have for our Lord cools greatly, and we abandon the good works that we should observe for our soul's health. Such are the signs which I mentioned earlier concerning this world's tribulations and calamities, as Christ said to his disciples that all these things should come to pass before this world's end.’)

44 66vi7–67r7 (Morris 109/30–111/:; Bright's 43–8). (‘Nor should anyone think that his body can or will change the burdens for sin in the grave, but there he shall moulder in the earth and await the great event, when the almighty God shall bring this world to an end. And when he will draw his burning sword and smite right through this world and shoot through the bodies and cleave this world and the dead rise up, then flesh will be as clear as glass [and] no trace of unrighteousness can be hidden.’)

45 86r10 (Morris 111/33; Bright's 76; ‘food for worms’).

46 The exemplum is 68r20–69V9 (Morris 113/4–115/4; Bright's 83–111). (69r7, dustsceawunga, ‘vision of dust’; 69V6–8, ‘þeos … gewiten’ (‘this world is altogether transitory’).) The source for this passage, Caesarius's ‘De elemosinis’ (CCSL 103, 135) or a version of the same circulating in pseudo-Augustine, Adfratres in eremo (PL 40, cols. 13 5 2–3), is discussed by Cross, J.E., ‘The Dry Bones Speak – a Theme in some Old English Homilies’, JEGP 56 (1957), 454–9. at 438–9.Google Scholar

47 Cross, J.E., ‘Gregory, Blickling Homily X and Ælfric's Passio S. Mauricii on the World's Youth and Age’, NM 66 (1965), 327–30, at 328–9. The passage of Gregory is Homilia in evangelia XXVIII (PL 76, cols. 1212–13).Google Scholar

48 On the adaptation of CCCC 198, see the apparatus at Brigit's, pp. 201–2.

49 ‘On the Blickling Homily for Ascension Day (No. XI)’, NM 70 (1969), 228–40. Bede on Acts is now available in CCSL 121, 3–91.

50 Cross (‘On … Ascension’, p. 233) corrects Morris's and my earlier reading of 7IVI7–72r15 (Morris 117/29–119/4).

51 72r10–11 (Morris 119/2, ‘even nine hundred and seventy-one years in the present year’).

52 The Chronicle derived this scheme of dating from its sources, annals kept in Easter tables; see Stenton, F.M., Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), pp. 15–16. Bede, also influenced by Easter tables, was the first significant user of the annus domini; seeGoogle ScholarBlair, P.H., The World of Bede (London, 1970), pp. 268–70.Google Scholar

53 72r18–19 (Morris 119/5–6, ‘whether this thousand is to be shorter or longer than that’). Cross (‘On … Ascension’, p. 234) thinks ‘þreo þusend’ must be scribal error.

54 On the source of this section, see Cross, ibid pp. 235–40, which advances the identification first made by Dawson, R. MacG., ‘Two New Sources for Blickling Homilies’, N&Q ns 14 (1967), 130–1. The best text of Adamnan is the ed. by D. Meehan, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 3 (Dublin, 1958); see alsoGoogle ScholarWilkinson, J., Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (Warminster, 1977), pp. 166–7 and 193–4 and pl. 2, and translation at pp. 100–1; both reproduce the manuscript schema for the church at the site of the ascension of Jesus, which greatly helps in visualizing the description in the sermon.Google Scholar

55 8014–14 (Morris 129/29–35). (‘And now, beloved, although we are not now present at the place of which I just spoke, nevertheless in these places where we are gathered we can become good [and] worthy before our Lord if we will do what is true and right in our life. Therefore every person, wherever he may be on earth, must please God through good deeds, and each must lift up his good works if he will become good and worthy.’)

56 80r17–19 (Morris 131/1–2, ‘to be charitable and merciful to the poor and humble amongst ourselves’).

57 See Gatch, , ‘The Achievement of Ælfric and his Colleagues in European Perspective’, The Old English Homily and its Background, ed. Szarmach, P.E. and Huppė, B.F. (Albany, 1978), pp. 45–73.Google Scholar