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Some Continuing Traditions in English Devotional Literature

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Helen C. White
Helen C. White*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin
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Extract

One of the things that most surprises the student of the sixteenth century is the place held by religious literature even in the realm of vernacular publication. The product of the early English presses is religious to an extent that the modern reader finds quite outside his experience. It has been estimated that more than forty per cent of all English books published between the beginning of printing in England and 1640 belong to the various types of religious literature. That preponderance is easy to explain in the light of the ecclesiastical traditions of learning, and there is no doubt that certain aspects of the earlier body of publication as compared with that of more recent times are to be explained in terms of those origins, but the fact is that even when the machinery of religious life had been gravely disturbed, the relative predominance of the genre persisted.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 57 , Issue 4-Part1 , December 1942 , pp. 966 - 980
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1942

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References

Note 1 in page 966 Edith L. Klotz, “A Subject Analysis of English Imprints for Every Tenth Year from 1480 to 1640,” The Huntington Library Quarterly, i (1937–38), 417–419.

Note 2 in page 967 Catholic Record Society, Unpublished Documents Relating to the English Martyrs, Vol i, 1584–1603, col. and ed. John Hungerford Pollen, S. J. (London, 1908), p. 318.

Note 3 in page 967 Robert Parsons, A Christian Directorie guiding Men to their Saluation ([n.p.], 1585), p. 6.

Note 4 in page 967 Iohn Carpenter, A Preparatine to Contentation: Conteining a display of the wonderfull distractions of men in opinions and straunge Conceits (London, 1597), p. 9.

Note 5 in page 967 A Compendious or briefe examination of certayne ordinary complaints, of diuers of our country men in these our dayes (London, 1581), sig. B2.

Note 6 in page 968 Bradsha[w], Henry, Holy lyfe and history of saynt Werburge (London, 1521), sig. s2.

Note 7 in page 969 There are exceptions, of course, like the publication of Antony Marten's translation of John Barnarde's The tranquillitie of the minde (London, 1570), but there is no evidence that this book exercised any influence.

Note 8 in page 970 John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of these latter and perillous dayes (London, 1563).

Note 9 in page 970 Ibid., sig. C4 ff.

Note 10 in page 970 Ibid., sig. Ii6 ff.

Note 11 in page 971 Samuel Clarke, A Generall Martyrologie … Whereunto are added, The Lives of Sundry Modern Divines, Famous in their Generations for Learning and Piety, etc. (London, 1651).

Note 12 in page 971 Walton, Izaak, Lives, of Donne, 1640, Wotton, 1651, Hooker, 1665, Herbert, 1670, Collected, 1670, Dr. Sanderson, 1678.

Note 13 in page 971 In The seconde parte of the bokes, which Thomas Beacon hath made (London, 1560, etc.)

Note 14 in page 971 The translation which H. K. dedicated to Anne, Countess of Pembroke, and Henry Bynneman published in 1576 under the title of The Mirror of Mans Lyfe makes no mention of the author's name but notes that the book was written three hundred and sixty years past, sig. ¶2.

Note 15 in page 972 Thomas Becon, “The Flower of godly prayers,” in The seconde part of the bokes, which Thomas Beacon hath made, sigs. 3F3-3H2v.

Note 16 in page 972 Authority was probably encouraged to meet this need by the availability of the distinctly traditional prymer in An vniforme and Catholyke Prymer in Latin and Englishe, published according to Queen Mary's “letters patentes” in 1555.

Note 17 in page 972 The Primer set forth at large, with many godly and devout prayers, Anno, 1559 (Parker Society, 37).

Note 18 in page 973 Sixe Spirituall Bookes; Fall of Merveilous Pietie and Deuotion. And First, Certaine Deuout and Godile Petitions, Commonlie Called, The Iesus Psalter (Doway, 1618).

Note 19 in page 973 As in the edition bound up uniformly with the H. Wykes' edition of The Queenes praiers (1568).

Note 20 in page 974 See Hore Beatissime virginis Marie ad legitimum Sarisburiensus Ecclesie ritum (Paris, 1527), sigs. P3-8v.

Note 21 in page 974 Praiers of Holi Fathers, etc. (London, 1544), sigs. 04v-P4v.

Note 22 in page 974 Compare Thys prymer in Englyshe and in Laten (Paris, 1538), sigs. E6-7 and Praiers of Holi Fathers, sigs. F3-4v.

Note 23 in page 974 Christian Prayers and Meditations in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Greeke, and Latine (London, 1659).

Note 24 in page 974 A Booke of Christian Prayers, collected out of the auncient writers, and best learned in our tyme (London, 1578).

Note 25 in page 975 Compare Thys prymer in Englyshe and in Laten (Paris, 1538), sig. Z8 and A Booke of Christian Prayers (London, 1578), sigs. R2-3.

Note 26 in page 975 The Fifteen O's, and other Prayers (reproduced in lithography by Stephen Ayling, London, 1869), sig. 3v.

Note 27 in page 975 For example, Hore beatissime virginis marie (Antwerp, 1525), sigs. Tl-5; Hore Beatissime virginis Marie (Paris, 1527), sigs. 2a1-5; Thys prymer in Englyshe and in Laten (Paris, 1538), sigs. M3-8v.

Note 28 in page 975 See for instance, A Booke of Christian Prayers (London, 1578), sigs. X3-Aal.

Note 29 in page 976 Certein Places Gathered Out of S. Austens Boke intituled de essentia diuinitalis (London, 1548).

Note 30 in page 976 The Glasse of vaine-glorie: Faithfully translated (out of S. Augustine his booke, intituled Speculum peccatoris) into English, by W. P. (London, 1585).

Note 31 in page 976 A pretious booke of holie meditations, trans. T. Rogers (London, 1581). See especially chaps. 18 and 31.

Note 32 in page 976 Ascribed to Tobie Mathew, The Confessions of the Incomparable Doctour S. Augustine (St. Omer, 1620).

Note 33 in page 976 See especially the eighteenth and thirty-first chapters.

Note 34 in page 976 See Augustin de Backer, Essai Bibliographique sur le Livre de Imitatione Christi (Liége, 1864). This work needs to be corrected for the English translations.

Note 35 in page 977 The Imitation or Following of Christ, trans. Edwarde Hake (London, 1568), p. 18.

Note 36 in page 977 The Imitation of Christ, trans. Thomas Rogers (London, 1592), sigs. A3v-4v.

Note 37 in page 978 John Bradford, Private Prayers and Meditations, with Other Exercises, in The Writings of John Bradford (Parker Society) v, 230–242.

Note 38 in page 978 Luis de Granada is another notable example. See, for instance, Granados Deuotion, trans. F. Meres (London, 1598), An Excellent Treatise of Consideration and Prayer (London, 1599), The Sinners Guyde, “digested into English” by F. Meres (London, 1598), and Granadas Spirituall and Heauenlie Exercises, trans. F. Meres (London, 1598).

Note 39 in page 978 Robert Greene, “The Repentance of Robert Greene,” Life and Works of Robert Greene, M.A., ed. Alexander Grosart (London, 1881–86), xii, 165 ff.

Note 40 in page 978 Baxter, Richard, Reliquiae Baxterianae: or, Mr. Richard Baxter's Narrative of the most Memorable Passages of his Life and Times, ed. Matthew Sylvester (London, 1696), p. 3.

Note 41 in page 979 Robert Parsons, The first booke of the Christian Exercise, appertayning to resolution ([Rouen?], 1582), p. 2.

Note 42 in page 979 Edmund Bunny, A Booke of Christian Exercise, appertaining to Resolution by R. P. Perused, and accompanied now with a Treatise tending to Pacification (London, 1584), sigs. *2-2v.

Note 43 in page 979 Ibid., sigs. *5-7.

Note 44 in page 979 Robert Parsons, A Christian Directorie ([Saint Omer], 1584), fols. 10v-11.

Note 45 in page 979 Ibid., fol. 12.

Note 46 in page 980 Edmund Bunny, A Briefe Answer, vnto those idle and friuolous quarrels of R. P. against the late edition of the Resolution (London, 1589), pp. 53–55.

Note 47 in page 980 Robert Parsons, The Seconde parte of the Booke of Christian exercise (London, 1590), sig. ¶3.