The multi-lingual pulpit in England (1100-1500)

Neophilologus

Volumn 80, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 479-492

  Iglesias Rábade, Luis ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA   (Spain)

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EID: 34248771951     PISSN: 00282677     EISSN: 15728668     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/bf00312427     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. J. Vising, Anglo-Norman Language and Literature (London: Oxford University Press, 1923) p. 18.
2. This assertion was previously suggested by G. Hill, Some Consequences of the Norman Conquest (London: 1904), p. 93;
3. and by M. Bateson, Medieval England (London: 1905), p. 174.
4. This belief was also supported much later by V. H. Galbraith in "The Literacy of the Medieval English Kings", Proceedings of the British Academy, XXI, 227.
5. R. M. Wilson, "English and French in England 1100-1300", History, 28 (1943), 42.
6. R. M. Wilson, History, Op. cit., pp. 13-14.
7. The works of A. Lecoy de la Marche, La chaire française au Moyen Age (Paris: Librairie Académique, 1868))
8. and of G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1961) and
9. Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge: University Press, 1926) are particularly relevant to an understanding of the social integration of priest and audience in medieval times, but there is no specific treatment of the languages used in preaching based on historical records. See, however, Lecoy de la Marche's la chaire . . . , pp. 221 et passim or Owst's Preaching . . . , pp. 224-265 and his 1st chapter of Literature and Pulpit.
10. Preaching in Medieval England, Op. cit., p. 48 ff.
11. See W. Rothwell, "The role of French in the Thirteenth Century England", Bulletin of John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 58 (1975-6), p. 462.
12. The Pope's ordinance arose from the political struggle between the Eastern and Western Churches. Slavonic churches used to read the bible in vernacular. See A. C. Partridge, English Biblical Translation (London: Andre Deuten, 1973), p. 21.
13. De Rebus a se gestis, cap. xviii.
14. See also J. Vising, De Rebus A Se Gestis, op. cit., p. 14.
15. "Homo (Edmund) erat eloquens, Gallice et Latine, magis ratione dicendorum quam ornatui innitens. Scripturam Anglice scriptam legere novit elegantissime, et Anglice sermocinari solebat populo, sed secundum linguam Norfolchiae, ubi natus et nutritus erat" (Chronica Joscelini de Brakelond, ed. J. G. Rokewoode, London, Camden Society, 1879-80, Rolls Series, 96 I. p. 245.
16. "In expositionibus Scripturarum divinarum, et in tractatibus, quos undecumque sumens materiam vel in scriptum redigebat vel ad edificationem audientium nunc Latine mine Gallico sermone, frequenter vero ad edificationem rudis vulgi lingua materna publice pronunciabat" (J. S. Brewer, ed. Chronicon Monasterii de Bella, London, Impensis Societatis, 1846, p. 163).
17. "Prater Hogo de Eversdone. ... In Anglico idiomate, sive Gallico, nulli secundus, sed parum nactus de Latino . . ." (Thomas Walsingham, Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, ed. T. Riley, London, Longmans, 1867, Rolls Series, 28, vol. III, p. 113).
18. "(Bacon) Non tarnen intelligo ut qualibet sciat has linguas sicut maternam in qua natus est, ut nos liquimur Anglicum, Gallicum et Latinum (Baconis Compendium Studiil in Opera Quaedam Hactenus Inedita, ed. J. S. Brewer, London, Longmans, 1859, Rolls Series, 15, vol. I, p. 433).
19. See previous note.
20. G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926), p. 225.
21. According to Owst the friar Thomas Richard of York exhibits at his trial the Latin version of a sermon that he had delivered in vulgari (G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England , op. cit., p. 225).
22. See also, D. Wilkins, Concilia (London: 1737) vol. iii, p. 487.
23. In like manner, the friar John Russell confessed at his trial that "Upon Corpus Christi Day, in this town Stamford taught and openly preached in vulgari "evel and wekkedly" this errour . . . and afterwards wrot this conclusion in Latyn" (Owst, Concilia, op. cit., p. 225.
24. See also A. Lecoy de la Marche: "Tous les sermons adressés aux fidèles (in France in the 14th century), même ceux qui sont écrits en latin, étaient prêchés entièrement en français. Seusl, les sermons adressés àdes clercs étaient ordinairement prêchés en latin", Concilia, op. cit., p. 221.
25. See Owst, Preaching in Medieval England, op. cit., pp. 231 (footnote) and 272.
26. See also, MSS Harl. 7322, fol. 29 "reuthe et treuthe; resoun eciam tresoun"; fol. 163b "of thi lif non litil lete: for thou art tomid to wormis mete".
27. See also, Bod. 649;
28. Jo. Rylands (Manchester, 367), fol. 299b
29. (Owst, Jo. Rylands, ibid.).
30. In 1083 Thurston, a Frenchman from the monastery of Caen, was nominated abbot of Glastonbury. A great discord arose between the new abbot and his monks. The latter accused the abbot of bad treatment and of imposing shifting disgraceful practices. One day the abbot called for his Norman soldiers, and they came into the chapter and fell fully armed upon the monks. The French knights broke into the choir and shot arrows towards the altar where the monks were. Three monks were killed and eighteen were wounded (See The AngloSaxon Chronicle for the year 1083).
31. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle shows evidence of the way in which foreign ecclesiastics took over their offices. Thus, in 1070, Turold, nominated abbot of Peterborough, entered the monastery accompanied by 160 French archers.
32. According J. Vising, seventeen Cluniac colonies, most of them from Normandy, had settled in England before the death of Henry I in 1135. In like manner, at least fifty Augustinian monasteries had been founded by that time. An equal number of Cistercian monasteries were also founded, particularly in the northern areas and at a much later time (J. Vising, Jo. Rylands, op. cit., p. 11).
33. Thomas Eccleston says that in 1256 there were 1,242 Franciscans in fortynine monasteries, ["anno scilicet ab adventu fratrum in Angliam XXXII (arrival 1224) numerati sunt viventes fratres, in provincia Angliae, in XLK. locis, MCCXLII" (The Adventu minorum in Angliam in Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland: Monumenta Franciscana. Vol. I, p. 10)J.
34. Most of the religious houses and parish churches held their lands in frank almoigne, a tenure held by the duty of giving alms.
35. Augustus Jessopp, Before the Great Pillage (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1901), p. 105.
36. The Black Death and the social events that followed (the Statute of Labourers, the Peasant's Revolt) produced a serious shortage of parish revenues and the younger sons of noblemen were no longer eager to take up a Church career.
37. Pope Nicholas IV ordered a Taxatio on all the churches of England and Wales levying a tenth for a crusade to be entered upon by Edward I. According to E. L. Cults the Taxatio accounts that 1,487 vicarages had been instituted in the 8,085 churches of England and Wales (Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in England (London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1898), p. 385.
38. R. A. R. Hartridge states that the real number of vicarages were 1,514, 1,033 had revenues of less than ten marks yearly [A History of Vicarages in the Middle Ages (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), p. 79J.
39. Most of the vicarages had revenues of less than ten marks yearly each. This sura was too little for the greed of a gentleman, so the sons of villeins would apply for this job. In so doing, if a villein wanted one of his sons to be a vicar he paid a tribute to the lord to take the tonsure. The boy picked up some knowledge of the duties from the parish priest from having served for years as a holy-water clerk or chaplain. See R. A. R. Hartridge, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, ibid.
40. Concilium Clarendoniae 8. cal. Feb. 1164: "Filii rusticorum non debent ordinari absque assensu domini, de cujus terra nati esse dignos cuntur" (D. Wilkins, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 436).
41. Constitutium Othonis, 1237: "Sacer ordo eo est digno dignius conferendus, quo ab ordinato sacramenta caetera conferuntur. Quare cum periculosum sit, minus dignos, idiotas, illigitimos, irregulares, illiterates, et extraneos, aut sine titulo certo et vero aliquos ordinari, statuimus . . ." (D. Wilkins, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 651).
42. Cutts, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, op. cit., pp. 131-2.
43. Cutts, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, op. cit., p. 132.
44. It was not until 1406 that the Statute of Artificers decreed in Parliament that every man or woman, of whatever state or condition could send their children to school within the realm.
45. Sometimes there was a "dispensatio defectu natalium". A serf might pay a tribute to his lord to send his son to school. In 1361 Walter Martin paid 5s for the privilege of sending his son "ad scholas" in the manor of Woolrichston in Warwickshire; in 1371, William Porter payed 13s. 4d. to send his son "ad scholas" and take orders (Cutts, A History of Vicarages in the middle Ages, op. cit., pp. 1131-2).
46. "For two hundred years after the Norman Conquest, French remained the language of ordinary intercourse among the upper classes in England. At first those who spoke French were those of Norman origin, but soon through intermarriage and association with the ruling class numerous people of English extraction must have found it to their advantage to leam the new language, and before long the distinction between those who spoke French and those who spoke English was not racial but largely social" (A. C. Baugh, A History of English Language (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1971), p. 135.
47. For a more detailed approach concerning the status of French and English in the postConquest period, refer to L. Iglesias-Rábade, El uso del inglés y froncés en la Inglaterra normanda y plantagenet (Santiago de Compostela: Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, 1992).
48. See also D. Kibbee, For to speke Frenche trewely: The French Language in England 1000-1006 (Amsterdam: John Benjamin, 1991).
49. See note 8 above.
50. William Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, ed. A. Hamilton (London: Longmans, 1870), Rolls Series, 52, 431-432.
51. "Homo (Edmund) erat eloquens, Gallice et Latine, magis ratione dicendorum quam ornatui innitens. Scripturam Anglice scriptam legere novit elegantissime, et Anglice sermocinari solebat populo, sed secundum linguam Norfolchiae, ubi natus et nutritus erat" (Chronica Joscelini de Brakelond, ed. J. G. Rokewoode, London, Camden Society, 1879-80, Rolls Series, 96 I. p. 245.
52. "...... in multis ecclesiis fit sermo in conventu Gallice, vel potius Anglice, ut morum fieret aedificatio, non literaturae ostendio", Chronica Joscelini de Brakelond, ibid., 326.
53. "In expositionibus Scripturarum divinarum, et in tractatibus, quos undecumque sumens materiam vel in scriptum redigebat vel ad edificationem audientium nunc Latine nunc Gallico sermone, frequenter vero ad edificationem rudis vulgi lingua materna publice pronunciabat" (J. S. Brewer, ed. Chronicon Monasterii de Bella, London, Impensis Societatis, 1846, p. 163).
54. Life, Letters and Sermons of Bishop Herbert de Losinga (Oxford: Parker & Co., 1878), vol. II, p. 425.
55. F. M. Powicke also states that Stephen Langten must have preached both in French and English, "but sermons in the vernacular rarely, if ever, survive from this period" (Stephen Longton, London, Merlin Press Ltd., 1965, p. 42).
56. See note 11 above.
57. The Loss of Normandy in 1204 did not prevent a new French reinforcement in the thirteenth century. Three important infiltrations of foreigners poured into England, the first coinciding with the marriage of King John to Isabel of Angoulème and the leadership of Peter des Roches, who had been nominated bishop of Winchester, Chancellor and Justiciar of England. The second occurred with the marriage of Henrry II to Eleanor of Provence in 1236 and the third took place when Henry's mother died in 1246. Henry's five half brothers from Poitou made their way to England with legions of followers.
58. In the Cronicon de Lanercost we read that Robertus Grosetest "non cessabat circuire visitando, et in vulgari populo praedicando, vel quando sibi non vacabat fratres Minores subrogando" [edited by J. Stevenson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh Printing Co., 1939), p. 43J.
59. In the Constitutions of 1238? sent by the bishop to the rectors, vicars, etc. in the diocese of Lincoln, he ordered them to preach their people in English; "eademque populo sibi subjects frequenter praedicet et exponat . . . doceant frequenter laicos in idiomate communi" (Robert Grosseteste, Epistolae, London, Longmans, Rolls Series, 25, p. 155).
60. The foreigner "suspensus est ab officio episcopali, pro eo quod eo quod noluit admittere quendam Ytalicum Anglicanae linguae ignarum ad quoddam opimum beneficium in episcopatu suo" [(Mathew Paris, Chronica Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (London: Longmans, Rolls Series, 57), vol. V, p. 227].
61. As previously mentioned, men of servile origin were banned by ecclesiastical authorities occupy a Church post. See, for example, the Constitutions of Clarendon (1164) or the Constitutions of Otho (1237).
62. "quia tot oppressionibus atteritur et provisionibus laceratur, quod, sitientibus propriis, lac porrigere cogitur, proh dolor, alienorum et extraneorum usibus, ac genti ignotae perfectibus ampla sua cedunt patrimonia, quae pia procerum regni devotio pro divini cultus augmentatione et ministrorum ecclesiae ac pauperum Christi sustentatione duxit devotissime conferenda, quae jam contra fundatorum voluntatem occupant perperam, non tantum ignoti, sed plerumque capitales inimici . . . linguam non intelligent (my emphasis), animarum curam negligunt, et famen pecuniam in magnuam regni depauperationem colligunt et asportant" [Epistolae, ed. H. R. Luard (London: Longman, 1861), pp. 442-443].
63. John Gower recommended the use of vulgar tongues (English or French) because Latin was unintelligible to most lay people "And thogh the clerk and the clergesse / In Latin tunge it rede and singe, / Yit for the more knoulechinge / Of trouthe, which is good to wite / I shal declare as it is write / In Engleissh, for thus it began" (Confessio Amantis, book vi, 1.980-985).
64. "Les clercs en scievont la leçoun / De leur latin, mais outres noun, / Par quoy en langue de romance / J'en fray la declaracioun / As lays pour informacioun" (Mirour de l'omme, 1.27476-81).
65. The prelate ordered his churchmen to preach in vernacular: "exponat populo vulgariter, absque cujuslibet sustilitatis textura fantastica" (J. Stevenson, Chronicon de Lanercost, Edinburgh, 1839, p. 43
66. and D. Wilkins, ed. Concilia Magnae Brtanniae, London, R. Gosling etal., 1737, vol. II, p. 54.
67. "At provinciae consilio, super hoc sic duximus ordinandum, ut quilibet rector, vicarius, capellanus, parochialis et curatus alius, saltern diebus dominicis, sine exquisita verborum subtilitate exponant.. . populo in vulgari" (Latin version); "Thurgh the consaile of his clergy / The ilkane that vndir him has kepynge of saules / Openly on English open Sononndaies / Teche and preche thaim, that thai haue care of / The lawe and the lore to knawe god all-mighten" (English version). [The Folks' Catethism or the English and Latin Versions of Archbishop Thoresby's Instruction for the People (London: E. E. T. S., 1901), n2 118, p. 6.
68. "Englysch or Latyn, whether me seyth" [Instructions for Parish Priests, ed. E. Peacock (London: E. E. T. S., 1868), p. 5J.
69. Mirk also considers that poor Latin does not spoil the sacrament of Baptism when he says: "Of these wordes (Latin) take thow non hede, / The folghthe ys gode wythoute drede / So that here entent & here wyt / Were forto folowe hyt" (Instructions for Parish Priests, op. cit., p. 18).
70. Edited by T. F. Simmons (London: E. E. T. S., n. 71, 1879).
71. Edited by W. Greet (London: E. E. T. S., n2 171, 1927. Greet concludes that prelates used Latin when the matter was of interest only to scholars or when the laity "would be tempted to reason further on their own part, and so fall into error" (p. 87).
72. Register of John de Grandisson, ed. Hingeston-Randolph (London: George Bell & Sons, 1899), Part ii, p. 939.
73. Thomas de Eccleston, De adventu fratrum, cap. II.
74. G. R. Owst, De Adventu Fratrum, op. cit., p. 5.
75. A. G. Little, The Grey Friars in Oxford (Oxford: Oxford Historical Society, 1892) p. 64.
76. Reginald Pecock, The Reule of Christen Religioun, ed. W. C. Greet, EETS, 171,1927, p. 87.
77. See also pp. 21 and 90 quoted by M. Aston, "Lollardy and Literacy", History, 62 (1967), 350-51.
78. M. Deanesley, The Lollard Bible (Cambridge: 1920),
79. quoted by A. Hudson, "Some Aspects of Lollard Book Production", p. 327.
80. For a cheerful endorsement of Wycliff on the influence of his work on English language see, R. Buddensieg, John Wycliff Patriot and Reformer (London: 1884),
81. G. P. Krapp, The Rise of Literary Prose (New York and London: 1915)
82. and R. W. Chambers, On the Continuity of English Prose from Alfred to more and his School (E.E.T.S., 186 (1932). They consider Wycliff as the father of English prose, and they also state that England owes to him her present language, the Reformation of the Church and, to a certain extent, her religious and political liberty.
83. Th. Arnold (ed.), Select English Works of John Wycliff (Oxford: 1869-71), V. III, p. 100.
84. Select English Works of John Wycliff, Ibid., V. III, p. 184.
85. Select English Works of John Wycliff, Ibid., Arnold, ed. III, p. 98.
86. However, language is not so important as faith and charity, "but however a man speke in dyvers tungis of men, ouber English or French, Latyn or ober language, his voice is like a sound of brass bat distriep himsilf, but 3if he have charite, bi which he deserveb blisse" . . . this quotation is related to St Paul's words, "Paul seib, 3if he speke wip mannis tongis and angel hinges, and he had no charite, he is made as bras sounnynge and a cymbat tynkyng ..." And on be same manner, 3if man speke in angel tunge, wip clere vois or florishid wordis, speke he nevere so sutilly, 3if he wante charite wip bis, he is as a tynkyng cymbale (John Wyclif. Selected English Works, ed. Arnold (Oxford, 1987) 1, II, p. 265.
87. Lollards rose in arms against the king and the official Church on January 8 and 9 of 1414 under the leadership of Sir John Oldcastle. The revolt was an utter failure and the leaders were hanged on 13 January.
88. John Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. S. R. Cattley and G. Townsend (London: 1837-41) III, p. 585,
89. quoted by M. Aston, Acts and Monuments, op. cit., p. 352.
90. Bishop Nesville's Register (Salisbury) ff. 52 r-v; 57 v,
91. quoted by Hudson, "Some Aspects of Lollard Book Production", Medium AEvum, XL (1971), p. 148, 156-7.
92. "Preach and teach these days openly and privily divers new Doctrines, and wicked heretical and erroneous Opinions contrary to the same Faith and blessed Determinations of the Holy Church; and of such Sect and wicked Doctrine and Opinions, they make unlawful conventicles and confederacies, they hold and exercise Schools, they make and write Books, they do wickedly instruct and inform People, and as much as they may excite and stir them to Sedition and Insurrection . . . Upon which Novelties and Excesses above rehearsed, the Prelates and clergy aforesaid, and also the Commons of the Realm being in the same Parliament, [praying] our Sovereign Lord the King, that His Royal Highness would vouchsafe in the said Parliament to provide a convenient Remedy"... "And "may by the authority of the said Ordinance and Statute cause to be arrested persons so convicted and refusing to abjure shall be publicly burnt" [Statutes of the Realm, the Statute "De Heretico Comburendo" (Against the Lollards) II. pp. 126-7].
93. John Foxe,.Actt and Monuments, op. cit, IV. p. 218,
94. quoted by A. Hudson, "A Lollard Compilation and the Dissemination of Wycliffite' Thought", Journal of Theological Studies, N. S. Vol. XXIII PT. i (1972), p. 80.
95. PRO C. 81/563 no 11026, printed by H. G. Richardson "Heresy and the Lay Power under Richard II, English Historical Review, 51 (1936) 1-28, aqu_ p. 28, en Hudson 186.
96. (Addressing the Lollards) "Tu qui es illiteratus ... non ascendas alcius, non moneas allas materias, non pertinet at te ... laicus qui nescit lifteras intromittet se as fer sicut magister in theologya, non in parais materiis sed in altissimis et maxime periculosis, et non solum homines verum et mulieres cum suis Anglicis libris smateren hem of clergy (MS Bodley 649, ff. 80, 98).
97. Note, however, that Church authorities required the use of english by lower clergy when they performed specific acts affecting individual rights, i.e. in cases of excommunication victims had to be notified in an intelligible language. For such cases The Register of John de Grandisson stated in 1348 that the victims had to be "publice nuncietis, ac premissa omnia et singula exponatis et exponi faciatis intelligibiliter in vulgari" (London: George Bell & Sons, 1899), vol. II, p. 1053.
98. In the same year and for a similar case this Register records that the excommunicated person had be "publice et solemniter nuncietis, ac omnia et singula premissa exponatis intelligibiliter in vulgari (The Register of John de Grandisson, ibid., vol. II, p. 1061). The Register of John de Grandisson includes similar edicts in 1351 (Vol. II, p. 1109) and in 1354 (Vol. II, p. 1149) with the specific mention of "exponentes and publice in vulgari" and "exponentes intelligibiliter in vulgari", respectively.