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Chabham's Penitential and Its Influence in the Thirteenth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Helen F. Rubel
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Extract

Among the penitentials of the middle ages, that by Thomas Chabham is of particular importance on account of its detailed classification of minstrels and players. In distinguishing different classes among these players and entertainers instead of condemning all alike, Chabham affords a notable illustration of the gradual growth in the Church of a tolerant attitude toward innocent amusements. M. Gautier, while recognizing the importance of this passage in Chabham's Penitential, raised the question whether “cette somme n'est qu'une compilation d'oeuvres antérieures, ou s'il y faut voir l'original de plusieurs autres Sommes de pénitence.” In order to decide this question it is necessary to consider such evidence as is available concerning the author and the date of the Penitential.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 40 , Issue 2 , June 1925 , pp. 225 - 239
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1925

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References

1 See text below, and also in Hauréau, Not. et Ext. Paris, 1876, p. 285; and E. K. Chambers, Medioeval Stage, London, 1903, II, 262.

2 Les épopées Françaises. Paris, 1892, II,22n.

3 See Medieval Stage, I, 59, and II, 262, where he both attributes the Penitential to Bishop Cobham, and confuses the facts of the bishop's life.

4 Oxford, 1709, cap. CCLXXXVI, p. 299.

5 Robert Plimton was abbot of Tavistock in July, 1131, and archdeacon of Totness in Devon near Salisbury. He wrote a De Poenitentia and Sermones Dominicales, and died in 1141 or 1145. See G. Oliver, Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis. London, 1846, p. 90; William of Newburgh, Historia Rerum Anglicarum. ed. Thos. Hearne. Oxford, 1719, p. 710; Leland, Commentarii, cap. CCLXXXV, p. 298.

6 The bishop's name is invariably spelled Cobham.

7 Illustrium Maioris Brit. Script., Basil, 1549, p. 129. The account is virtually the same in the 1557 edition.

8 Bale's Index. ed. R. L. Poole. Oxford, 1902, pp. 433f.

9 Relationum Historicarum de Rebus Anglicis. Paris, 1619, No. 416, p. 405.

10 Bibl. lat.m.e. inf. aet. Florence, 1858, p. 540.

11 Anglia Sacra. London, 1691, I, 532.

12 Bibl. Brit.-Hib. London, 1748, p. 172.

13 This date for Alan Basset is corroborated by many other documents dating between the years 1220-8 in which his name appears as a witness, Charters and Documents of Salisbury. ed. W.R.Jones. London, 1891, pp. 105, 182, 200f. He died in 1232; see Dugdale, Baronage. London, 1675, p. 384.

14 Not. et Ext. Paris, 1876, p. 274.

15 Les épopées Françaises, II, 22n.

16 Mediœval Stage, I, 59.

17 See, M. F. Guessard, Anciens Poetes de la France. Paris, 1860, vol. V. Huon de Bordeaux. Pref. vin.

18 Tabulae Codicum in Bibl. Palatina Vindobonensi. Vindobonae, 1864, I, 263, 265. Nos. 1621, 1628.

19 Hauréau, Not. et Ext. Paris, 1876, pp. 269ff. Also Not. et Ext. Paris, 1890, I, 185, No.3218; II, 206, No.3239; III, 75, No.14593; V, 132, No. 16419.

20 Camden, Britannia. ed. E.Gibson. London, 1695, I, 160. Map p. 185; William Lombarde, A Perambulation of Kent. ed. E. Bollifant. London, 1596, pp. 66, 93, etc.; Victoria County History of Surrey. London, 1908. III, 442.

21 Victoria County History of Surrey. III, 413; Camden, Britannia. 1695, I, 153; and ed. Gough. London, 1789, I, 166.

22 Fasti Ecclesiae Sarisberiensis. ed W. R. Jones. Salisbury, 1879, p. 438; Le Neve, Fasti. ed. T. D. Hardy. Oxford, 1854, II, 619.

23 Sarum Fasti, p. 191; Register of St. Osmund of Sarum. ed. W. R. Jones. London, 1883, II, 70.

24 Register of St. Osmund, I, 297, 380; II, 108. See further, Charters and Documents of Salisbury. Nos. XCVI, CI, CXXI, CCV, CCXIII, CCXVIII.

25 Rel. Hist, de Rebus Anglicis, p. 405.

26 Fasti, II, 619.

27 Ibid., II, pp. 438-40.

28 Richard Newcourt, History of the Diocis of London. London, 1708, I, 148n.: “He was Doctor of Divinity of Oxford, Canon and Sub-Dean of Salisbury, fairly chosen by the monks of Canterbury to that Archbishoprick in 1313.”

29 Patent Rolls. 32 Edward I. Year 1306, p. 206; Rymer, Foedera. 1705; II, 992; Le Neve, Fasti, II, 385.

30 Close Rolls, 4 Edward II. p. 361. Ordered to France, June 16, 1311. Also pp. 357 and 419.

31 Wharton, p. 532; Tanner, p. 172b; Le Neve, Fasti, III, 154; Fr. Godwin, Praesulibus Angliae Commentarius. ed. Gul. Richardson. Canterbury, 1743, p. 103.

32 Le Neve, Fasti, III, 184; Tanner, p. 172b; Newcourt, I, 148n.

33 Papal Register, II, 115. 8 Clement V, Le Neve, Fasti, I, 16.

34 Patent Rolls, 11 Edward II. p. 52, Le Neve, Fasti, III, 55; Papal Register, II, 124. Nov. 15, 1316.

35 It is curious also to find Le Neve inexact, but he evidently copied from the incorrect Sarum Fasti.

36 See Gautier, épopées Françaises, II, 7f.; and also The Complete Works of St. Augustine. Paris, 1878, vol. XVIII, sermo 198, p. 845, etc.; Isidore of Spain, Etymologiae. ed. Gintherum Zaimer. 1472, lib. XVIII. cap. XVI; Pseudo-Egbert, Concilia. ed. Hy. Spelman. London, 1639, II, 277-78. Penitential No. 34; John of Salisbury, Migne, Patrol. CXCIX, col. 406.

37 Sententiarum. Paris, 1841, vol. I. lib. IV, dist. XVI, col. 368.

38 Migne, Patrol. XL, col. 1126.

39 Acta Conciliorum, ed. Labbe. Paris, 1714, VII. canon xxi, p. 35.

40 Sarum Fasti, pp. 269, 438.

41 Acta Conciliorum. VII, canon xvi, p. 34.

42 Hauréau, Not. et. Ext. 1876, pp. 278-80.

43 No.362.fol. 49. cap. De officio cuius libet. Compare with the reprints of the manuscripts in the Bibl. Nat. lat. 3218. fol. 32 verso, and 3529a.fol.40 in Hauréau, Not. et Ext. 1876, 284-5; and also in Gautier, épopées Françaises, pp. 22f.; and in Chambers, Mediœval Stage, II, 262. Compare also the reprint of the Sorbonne manuscript 1552. fol.91 in Guessard, Anciens Poetes de la France. Paris, 1860, V, vi.

44 Altered from dum ipse.

45 For a discussion of this anecdote see Chambers, Mediœval Stage, I, 59n.

46 Bibl. Nat. lat. 14859. fol. 322. Text in Gautier, loc. cit., II, 24n.

47 Paulin Paris, Les MSS. François de la Bibl. du Roi. Paris, 1838, II, 161f. No. 685, especially fol.342.

48 Opera Omnia, ed. Bernardini. Florence, 1889, IV. “Sententiarum.” lib. IV. dist.xvi. pt. I. dub.xiii. 401.

49 Ibid., note 8: “Vers 7, ubi Exod. 32, 6 allegatur. Sedit populus manducare et bibere, et surrexerunt ludere etc.”

50 Ibid., note 9: “Sermo 9. (alias 96. de Tempore) sive de Decern Chordis c.9.n.13: In illis spectaculis [hominum] non id est venator, quod citharista; aliud agit venator, aliud citharista; in spectaculo Dei unum est; tange easdem decern chordas [praecepta], et feras occides, utrumque simul facis.” See also St. Augustine, Opuscula Plurima. ed. Bertoilus. Venice, 1491. De decern chordis, p.ccii., col. 2.

51 Sententiarum, ibid., note 1: “Vers 20: Sumsit ergo Maria… tympanum in manu sua, egressaeque sunt omnes mulieres post earn cum tympanis et choris.”

52 Raimundo de Pennafort, Compendio Sacramentorum. Cologne, 1502, fol. XCIII.

53 Ibid., fol. XCVI.

54 ed. Rome, 1886, vol. III. quaest. CLXVIII. 1088f.

55 Ibid., art. II. 1091.

56 Ibid. art. III. 1093.

57 Ibid., art. IV. 1094.

58 Hauréau, Not. et. Ext. 1876, 272 etc.

59 ed. 1473? lib. III., pt. III. dist. vi. This story is taken from St. Gregory Dial. IV. 17 (Migne Patr. Lat. LXXVII, col. 348).

60 Ibid., dist. vii.

61 Ibid., dist. xii. fol. 179.

62 Super Sapientiam Salomomis. Lectio 173.