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EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
THE EXEMPLA
OR
ILLUSTRATIVE STORIES FROM THE SERMONES VULGARES
OF
JACQUES DE VITRY.
EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION, ANALYSIS, AND NOTES,
THOMAS FREDERICK CRANE, M.A.,
Professor of the, Romance Languages in Cornell University.
LONDON : PUBLISHED FOR THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY
BY DAVID NUTT, 270, STRAND, W.C.
1890.
WESTA11NSTEK
ritlNTEU BY NICHOLS AND SONS 25, PA11LIAMENT STREET.
BV
Co H. L. D. WARD,
IN GRATEFUL APPRECIATION
OP HIS PROFOUND KNOWLEDGE
OF
MEDIAEVAL ROMANCE.
PREFACE.
WHEN tins work was undertaken in 1886, 1 hoped to be able to put upon the title-page " edited for the first time.'' I then knew of only a few exempla which had been printed by Lecoy de la Marche in his edition of Etienne de Bourbon, and by others as illustrative material to Moliere, etc. I very soon, however, discovered that the selection of Latin stories edited by Mr. T. Wright for the Percy Society (Vol. VIII., 1842) con tained a considerable number of Jacques de Vitry's exempla, although the name of the author was not mentioned. After the present work, with the exception of the Introduction, was in the hands of the printer, and the text partly in type, I received Cardinal Pitra's Analecta Novissima Spicilegii Solesmensis (Altera continuatio, Tom. II., 1888), containing selections from Jacques de Vitry's Sermones Vulgar es, and pp. 443-461, from a MS. in the Vatican library, a Speculum Exemplorum, or collec tion of exempla from these sermons. Had this work appeared earlier I should probably not have undertaken the present edition. Still, I trust it may not seem superfluous, since the MS. used by Cardinal Pitra for his selections from the sermons, as he himself confesses: " innumeris scatet vitiis"; and a number of exempla are omitted for obvious reasons, while com parative notes are entirely wanting.
Finally, after the present edition was wholly printed, except the Introduction, appeared the Conies moralises de Nicole Bozon
X EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE V1TEY.
(Socidte des anciens textes frangais, 1889) also containing a number of exempla from the same MS. which I have followed. I have availed myself of this work, as well as of others which have come to my notice since my text and notes were in print, for additional references which will be found in the Intro duction.
It remains to say a few words about the object of the present work, and to apologise for certain of its defects. Until recently the importance of the pulpit for the diffusion of popular tales was almost wholly unknown, and no attempt was made to give a general view of the subject until the writer's paper on Mediaeval Sermon-Books and Stories (American Philosophical Society, 1883). /The object of this book is to show the im portance in this respect of a single preacher, by exhibiting as fully as possible in the notes the diffusion of his stories ; first, among other preachers, and secondly, among the public at large by means of their sermons. / 1 could have made my notes much more extensive by appropriating the labours of Oesterley and others in this field ; but I have, unless otherwise stated, confined myself to works and references which I have myself seen and verified. It was impossible in my situation to even attempt to cover the entire subject of facetiae, etc., and I have in general contented myself with referring the reader to the sources of information.
Owing to my absence abroad it was impossible for me to correct the proofs of the Latin text, and in order to insure greater accuracy I entrusted this task to M. Couderc of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, who also made the copy for the present work. The proofs were read with the original MS. ; but in spite of every care a small number of exempla were omitted in their regular order (they are to be found on page 127) and several allusions, not properly exempla, were admitted into the text. It is hoped that the annoying mistakes in
PEEFACE. XI
numbering some of the exempla will cause no confusion, since the exempla are referred to in the first index by page and folio as well as by number.
I should indeed be ungrateful if I failed to acknowledge publicly the debt I owe Mr. H. L. D. Ward, of the British Museum, for the assistance he has rendered me in the present work, and to Harvard College Library for the generous loan ot many indispensable books.
T. F. CRANE.
Ithaca, N.Y., Feb. 22, 1890.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION
EXEMPLA
135
ANALYSIS AND NOTES .
273 INDEX TO EXEMPLA
294 INDEX TO NOTES
INTRODUCTION.
I.
of cxcmpla in sermons prior to Jacques de Vitry. Definition of exemplum— Gregory's use of cxcmpla— References to
en .
in Bcde and Aelfric— Exemvla prescribed in homiletic works— Revival «
preaching in xiiith century by Dominican and Franciscan orders- Domi nick's use of cxempla.
II.
Life and works of Jacques de Vitry.
1 Materials for life of Jacques de Vitry- Early life and education - Attracted to Oignies by fame of St. Mary-Becomes a preacher of the crusade ao-ainst the Albigenses-Death of St. Mary-Jacques de Vitry's activity as i preacher of the crusade against the Saracens-Elected bishop of Acre-Sets out for Rome-Finds Innocent III. dead at Perugia-His successor, Honorms 1 consecrates Jacques de Vitry- Journey to Genoa-Embarks for Acre-Arrival at Acre and description of the city-Daily life of Jacques de Vitry as bishop- Journey to the maritime cities of Syria-Arrival of Crusaders-Takes part m the expeditions against the Sultan Malek al Adel-Bnilds Districtum and reconstructs fortifications of Caesarea-Advocates expedition to Egypt-Sails forDamietta-Capture of that city-Jacques de Vitry writes history-Visit of St Francis of Assisi-Expedition to Cairo-Surrender of Damietta to the Saracens- Jacques de Vitry's return to Acre-Summoned to Council of Verona —At Acre again— Perilous journey to Rome-Resigns his bishopric at Acre- Returns to Europe and is sent to Belgium to preach crusade against the Albigenses-Consecrates church at Oignies-Created cardinal and bishop of Tusculnm— Elected patriarch of Jerusalem-Election not ratified by Pope-
Dies at Rome.
2. Historical works-Life of St. Mary of Oigmes-Histona orientals-
XVI EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
Historia occidentalis — Spurious second book of the Hlstoria oriental-is — Letters of Jacques de Vitry — Sermones dominicales — Sermones de sanctis — Sermones vulgares — Sermones communes vel quotidiani.
3. The exempla of Jacques de Vitry — Manuscript collections of exempla taken from the Sermones vulgares — Exempla attributed to Jacques de Vitry not in Sermones vulgares — History of Jacques de Vitry's exempla in modern times.
III.
The use of exempla in sermons posterior to those of Jacques de Vitry.
Brother Peregrinus — Martinus Polonus— Petrus de Palnde {Thesaurus novus) — St. Vincent of Ferrer — Johannes Herolt (Discipulus) — Mcffreth (Ilortulus reginae) — Johan Gritsch (Quadragesimale) — John Felton — Paratus de tempore et dc sanctis — John of Werden (Sermones Dormi secure} — Michael Lochmair— Bernardino da Siena— Gabriel Barletta— Bernardinus de Bustis — Gottschalk Hollen— Later fate of exempla.
IV.
Collections of exempla for the use of preachers.
1. Collections containing exempla alone — Sources of exempla — Form of col lections—Alphabetical collections— Etienne de Besanson (Alplialctum narra- tionum) — Anonymous manuscript alphabetical collections — Printed collections — Speculum cxemplorum — Magnum speculum cxemplorum — Promptuarlum of Martinus Polonus — Promptuarium of Johannes Herolt (Discipulus) — Miracles of the Virgin by the same author — Later imitations of works above mentioned — Exempla virtutum et vitiorum of Herold — Promptuarium exemplorum of Hondorf— Florcs exemplorum of d'Averoult — Exempla virtutum et vitiorum of Rossi (Erythraeus) — Modern collections of stories for the use of preachers.
2. Collections of moralized stories — Moralizing tendency of later Middle Ages — Speculum sapientiae of Bishop Cyril — Dialogus crcaturarum of Nicolaus Pergamenus — Narrationes of Odo de Ceritona (Eude de Cheriton) — Liber moralizatlonum liistoriarum of Holkot — Gcsta Romanorum — Scala Cell of Johannes Gobii — Bonuni universale de Aj/ribus of Thomas Cautipratanus — Formicarius of Johannes Nider— Moralizing tendency extended to entire field of natural history — De naturis rerum of Alexander Neckam — DC cxemplis et simllitudini'bus rerum of Johannes de Sancto Geminiano — DC proprietatibus rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus (Glanville).
3. Exempla contained in homiletic treatises — Liber de septetn donis Spiritiw Sancti of Etienne de Bourbon — Liber de abimdantia cxemplorum attributed to Albert the Great — Summa virtutum ac vitiorum of Guilelmus Peraldus — Liber Sapientiae of Holkot — Summa praedicantium of John Bromyard — Pre- ceptori'nm of Gottschalk Hollen.
INTRODUCTION. XV11
V. s
Collections of cxcmpla not in Latin, but based upon the Latin collections and intended for the edification of the general reader.
Latin collections sometimes translated in their entirety — Spanish collection, Libro clc los Enxcmplos— Catalan collection, Recull do Eximplis e Miracles— Last mentioned work a translation of Etieune de Besanson's AtyJiabctum narrationum — Spanish Libro de los Gatos a translation of the Narrationes of Odo de Ceritona (Eude de Cheriton) — Portuguese collection — Italian manuscript collections — Italian printed collections — Gli Astempri of Era Filippo da Siena — Exempla in Italian moral treatises — Corona de* Monad — Spccchio delta vcra penitenzia of Jacopo Passavanti — Fiore di Virtu — Fiore di Filosofi c di molti Savl — French manuscript collections — French printed collections — Contes moralises of Nicole Bozon — Exempla in French moral treatises — Fleur des commandcmens dc Dicu and its relation to the Promptuarium of Herolt — English translation by Andrew Chertsey — Manuel des pccliicz by William of Wadington — English translation by Kobcrd of Brunne (Ilandlyng Synne) — Somme des vices et vcrtus of Lorens translated by Dan Michel of Northgate {Ayenbite of Inwyt ) — English manuscript collections — Survival of rxi'inpla in later collections of facetiae.
I.
Use of exempla in sermons prior to Jacques de Vitry.
THE use of apologues for the conveyance of moral doctrine far antedates the introduction of Christianity, and the Founder of that religion in his frequent employment of parables simply followed a method of instruction always popular in the East. The frequency with which apologues (including under this term the various classes of stories capable of use for moral instruction) would be used would depend upon the nature of the audiences addressed by the teacher. The more popular the audience the more frequently the teacher would employ apologues. The systematic use of apologues, or, as they will hereafter be termed, exempla, in what we should consider their most appropriate place — sermons — does not extend back to a very early date, partly, perhaps, because
b
XV111 EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
such popular sermons have not been preserved, or, if they were, the exempla have been omitted.*
The first somewhat systematic use of exempla (although taken exclusively from the legends of the saints) is to be found in the homilies "in Evangelia" of Gregory (before 604). These homilies, forty in number, were addressed to the people and pronounced in the various basilicas of Rome. In twelve of them a legend illus trative of the theme is introduced, generally near the end. It should not be forgotten that the Dialogues of Gregory furnished later preachers with an abundant store of exempla. In the pro logue to the Dialogues (Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. LXXVII., p. 153) Gregory says in the person of his interlocutor Peter : " Et sunt nonnulli, quos ad amorem patriae coelestis plus exempla, quam praedicamenta succendunt." The Dialogues were later translated into the various languages of Europe, and exercised a powerful influence on later collectors of legends.
Gregory's employment of exempla does not seem, however, to have led to their use in sermons. f
* The word cxcmplum is employed by the ecclesiastical writers in two mean ings, first, our "example" in a general sense; second, an illustrative story. This second meaning of the word is, I think, not earlier thfin the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the thirteenth century. The two meanings of the word may easily be confused, and give rise to incorrect inferences, as, for instance, where Gregory, in one of his homilies (xxxviii., Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. Ixxvi., p. 1290, sect. 15), says : " Sed quia nonnunquam mentes audientium plus exempla fidelium quam docentium verba convertuirc." This passage was later taken as an authority for the use of exempla in the restricted sense of illustrative story.
f Etienne de Besan9on, in his Alpliabctum narrationum, ad verb. Excmplwm (cited by P. Meyer in the introduction to the Contcs moralises clc Nicole J3ozon, Paris, 1889, p. xi.), says : " Beda, in Hystoria Anglorum. Quidam episcopus litteratus et subtilis valde missus fuit ad conversionem Anglorum, et utens sub- tilitate in sermonibus suis nichil profecit. Missus est alius minoris litterature qui utens narrationibus et exemplis in sermonibus suis, pene totam Angliam convertit." No such statememt is found in Bede, but the reference undoubtedly is to the conversion of the Northumbrians through the influence of King Oswald, at whose request Aidan was sent from lona. Bede says (Hist, cedes, ed. Stevenson, iii., 5, p. 166) that before Aidan was sent: "missus fuerit primo alius austerioris animi vir, qui cum aliquandiu genti Anglorum praedicans nihil
INTEODUCTION. XIX
r It was not until the end of the twelfth or the beginning of the < thirteenth century that the practice became common, for reasons - which we shall soon see.*
The duty of public preaching, which at first was reserved for the bishop, was later extended to the priests, but for a long time was a privilege jealously guarded and granted to comparatively few. The foundation in the thirteenth century of the two great orders of Franciscans and Dominicans, the latter par excellence the oi'do pr aedicator urn, gave an enormous impulse to preaching and entirely changed its character.f The monks of these orders
proficeret, nee libenter a populo audiretur, redierit patriom, etc." There is no mention of cxcmpla in this connection. The spurious passage from Bede was frequently cited as an authority for the use of exempla, for example, by Etienne de Bourbon in the prologue to his work, Liber de scptem donis Spiritus Sancti, and from him by the unknown author of Liber de abundantia exemplorum in his prologue. It is also found in the prologue to Meffreth's Sermones Hortulus licgine de Sanctis.
I owe to Prof. Child the following reference to the use of stories, which, while it is too vague to be much value, is worth citing here. It occurs in Aelfric's preface to his translation of the Old Testament (about the year 1000), and may be found in Grein's Bibliotlieli der angelsaclisisclien Prosa, i., p. 7 : "He (that is Solomon) gesette J?re6 bee J?urh his snoternisse. An ys Parabole J?at ys bigs- pellboc, na svilce ge secgaft, ac visdomes bigspell and vanning, etc."
* Alain de Lille (Alanus de Insulis, died 1202), in his treatise, Summade arte jpracdicatoria, c&p. 1 (Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. ccx., p. 113), says: "In fine vero, debet uti exemplis, ad probandum quod intendit, quia familiaris est doctrina exemplaris." I have examined all the other similar treatises at my disposal, such as Humbertus de Romanis, De eruditions praedicatorum ; Petrus Cantor, Verbum abbrcviatum ; and Guibert de Nogent, Liber quo or dine ser mo fieri debeat ; but have found no reference to exempla in them, although Lecoy de la Marche, La Chairc frangaise au moyen age, Paris, 1886, p. 300, says that Humbertus de Komanis recommends the frequent use of exempla. In the later treatises on sermon-writing elaborate directions are given in regard to exempla, or similitudines, as they are sometimes called, see, for instance, Ulrich Surgant's Manuale Curatorum (written 1502-1508), lib. i., Consideratio xvi. : "Et iste modus amplificandi sermonum valde utilis est auditoribus et specialiter rudibus et simplicibus." The use of fables he does not approve, although they may be employed : " Quando deprehenderit auditores somnolentos vcl attediatos, ad excitandum eos et sublevandum eorum tedium." 3 f In the preparation of this introduction I have been much aided by the fol lowing works : L. Bourgain, La Cliaire frangaise au Xlle Siecle, Paris, 1879 ;
XX EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
obeyed literally the words of the Founder of Christianity, and went into all the world and preached the Word to every creature. The popular character of the audiences modified essentially the style of preaching, and it became necessary to interest and even amuse the common people who had gradually become accustomed to an entertaining literature more and more secular in its character, and who possessed, moreover, an innate love for tales. The founder of the ordo praedicatorum himself set the example in this respect, and his biographer (Quetif et Echard, Scriptores ordinis praedica torum, i., p. 23, in Vita edita a Fratre Jordano, sect. 45) says of him: " Ubicunque versaretur sive in via sive cum sociis, aut in domo cum hospite reliquaque familia, aut inter magnates principes aut praelatos semper aedificatoriis affluebat sermones, abundabat exemplis,quibus ad amorem Christi seculive contemtum audientium animi flecterentur." The same statement is made in almost the same words in the Altera Vita (Op. cit., p. 35, sect. 44).*
A. Lecoy de la Marche. La Chain; frangaisc an moyen age, 2C ed., Paris, 1886 ; 11. Cruel, Geschichtc dcr deutsclicn Prcdigt im Mittelalter, Detmolil, 1879 ; A. Linsenmcyer, Gescldclite dcr Prcdigt in Deutscliland von Karl dem Grosscn Ms zum Ausgang dcs vierzeknten Jahrhunderts, Munich, 188G ; and V. Le Clerc, IHscours sur Vetatdeslcttres auquatorzieme sicclc in Histoire litteraire de la France, vol. xxiv., pp. 363 -382.
* The use of exempla is generally defended by reference to Jerome's Vitac Patrnm, Gregory's Dialogues, etc. Jacques de Vitry, in the prologue to his life of St. Mary of Oignies (Acta Sanct., June 23, torn, v., p. 547 of Palme's edition) says, after citing the above authors : "Multi enim incitantur exemplis, qui non moventur praeceptis." Etienne de Besan9on in the prologue to his Alphabetwn narrationum (cited in Hist. litt. de la jFrance,-*.*.., p. 273) says : " Antiquorum Patrum exemplo didici nonnullos ad virtutes fuisse inductos narrationibus aedi ficatoriis et exemplis. llefert enim de se ipso Augustinus, quod, Pontiano vitam beati Antonii coram eo recitante, ad imitandum statim exarsit. Narrationes qui- dem hujus (modi) et exempla facilius intellectu capiuntur, et memoriae firmius imprimuntur, et a multis libentius audiuntur. Utile igitur et expediens nimis est, viros praedicationis officio deditos, proximorum salutem per terram discurrendo quaerentes, exemplis talibus abundare, quibus modo in praedicationibus com- munibus, modo in locutionibus familiaribus, ad omne genus hominum salubriter (excitandum) utantur." He also cites the example of Gregory and St. Domi- nick. Etienne de Bourbon, in his prologue, also relies on the example of Gregory. The unknown author of the Speculum Exemplorum, after citing
INTRODUCTION. XXI
It will be seen in the course of this introduction that almost all who played an important part in the use of exempla, either by employing them in their sermons or by collecting them for other preachers, were Dominicans.*
A notable exception to this rule was the eminent prelate Jacques de Yitry, who by his example gave a powerful impulse to the use of exempla in sermons, and thus has played an im portant part in the diffusion of popular tales. A somewhat detailed account of this distinguished historian and preacher will now be necessary.
Gregory and Christ's use of parables, continues : " Vade igitur, et tu fac sinri- liter, quia exempla mentem efficacius movent, memoriae firmius haerent, intel- lectui facile lucent, delectant auditum, fovent affectum, removent taedium, vitam informant, mores instruunt, et. dum sua novitate sensum permulcent, odiosam praedicatori somnolentiam fugant. Tempus me narrante deficiet, si voluero omnes exemplorum dicendorum utilitates retexere." Johannes Gobii, in the prologue to the Scala Cell, gives a more philosophical reason for the use of exempla. He says : " Cum enim reverende pater impossibile sit nobis super- lucere divinum radium nisi sub velamine similitudinis et figure ; ut testatur in angelica ierarchia. Hinc est quod mentis nostre ratio in tarn excellent! luce non figitur nisi earn aspiciat per similitudines et exempla. Unde unigenitum dei verbum ut sedentes in tenebris et in umbra mortis ad celestia elevaret in exemplis et parabolis loquebatur eo quod fortius moveant ; avidius audiantur ; firmius retineantur et a terrenis mentem erigant ad eterna ut Augustinus attestatur. Quia vero noster animus ridetur ad celestia inhiare eo quod delectetur narra- tionibus et sanctorum exemplis." Finally Herolt, in the prologue to his Promp- titarium, cites, without acknowledgment, a passage from Etienne de Besan9on's preface, and refers to the example of St. Dominick.
* Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit. p. 200, gives an enumeration of the preachers of the thirteenth century. Of 318, 91 belonged to the secular and 227 to the regular clergy. Of the latter number 98 were Dominicans and 53 Franciscans. The remaining 76 belonged to the other orders, or their status was unknown.
XX11 EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
II.
Life and Works of Jacques de Vitiy.
1. Materials for the history of the early life of Jacques deYitry are wholly wanting.* Nothing is known with certainty of the
* The sources for a life of Jacques de Vitry will be found enumerated in U. Chevalier, Repertoire des sources liistoriqucs flu moycn age, Paris, 1877-S6? p. 1150. It may be well to pass briefly in review those which I have been able to examine. For convenience I shall divide them into four classes : auto biographical and contemporaneous, independent biographies, literary historians and biographical encyclopaedias, and illustrative works.
The autobiographical material (besides unimportant references to himself in the Historia orientalls ct occidentalis^ Vita B. M. 0. and sermons) consists of the twelve letters examined later in detail. These letters extend from 1216, when he set out for Rome to be consecrated bishop of Acre, to the capture of Damietta in 121&, and subsequent events down to the spring of 1221 (Damictta was surrendered to the Saracens on the 8th of September of the same year). Although these letters cover but a short time, they give us an excellent idea of the writer's personality.
The contemporaneous accounts (besides references in the various historians of the Crusades, and in such writers as Etienne de Bourbon and Thomas Can- tipratanus) consist of a biography in the Acta Sanctorum, and the notice in Vincent of Beauvais {Speculum historialc, lib. xxxi., cap. 10). The biography {Acta Sanct , June 23, vol. v., June, p. 572, ed. Palme) is in the nature of a supplement (it bears that title in the Acta Sanct.~) to Jacques de Vitry's life of St. Mary, and was written by a certain Frater N., a regular canon of the monastery of Chantimpre, near Cambray, after Jacques de Vitry's elevation to the cardinalate (1228), and before his death (1210). The author does not give his name, and Papebroch (Acta Sanct., vol. cit., p. 546) supposes that the initial denotes Nicholas, or some such name. Now, a passage in the Supple mentum appears in the same words in the Bonum universale de apibits of Thomas Cantipratanus, and is evidently copied from the Supplementum without acknowledgment. This would naturally be the case were Thomas himself the writer of the Supplementum. Were it, on the other hand, by a different writer, Thomas would likely (to judge from other instances) have mentioned and praised the author. Finally the use of the letter N., to conceal the real name, is found as early as the first half of the fourteenth century, and may have arisen earlier. These arguments of Quctif and Echard (Script, ord. praed., i., p. 254) seem to me conclusive as to the authorship of the 8upplementumt which, after all, is of no value for the early life of Jacques de Vitry, and contains but few details of interest.
INTEODUCTION. XX111
place or date of his birth. It is stated in the Magnum Chronicon Belgicum (cited by Matzner, p. 1) that he was born at Argenteuil, a town on the Seine, near Paris. This statement was followed by
A second biography entitled, Appendix de Jacobo Vitriaco scriptore, is also found in the Acta Sanctorum, vol. cit. p. 581, and although not contemporaneous may be examined here. It is by an unknown writer and probably not earlier than the fourteenth century. It contains the following details: time when sermons were written ; that Jacques de Vitry was curate of parish of Oignies before elevation to episcopate ; intimacy with St. Mary, and eloquence in preaching a gift of her prayers ; success in preaching the Crusade ; works written by him ; two anecdotes (also in Thomas Cantipratanus) illustrating Jacques de Vitry's power in prayer ; gifts bestowed upon school at Oignies by him ; commands his body to be buried at Oignies ; date of death (day of the month only) ; and apparition after death to several persons. It is clear to me (what has not been noticed before, I think) that the Appendix has no original worth, but is simply a com bination of Thomas Cantipratanus and Vincent of Beauvais. The two anecdotes above mentioned are taken literally from the Bonum universale de apibiis, i., 22 ; ii., 18, and the rest from the Speculum historialc, lib. xxxi., cap. x., with the exception of the first sentence in regard to the date of Jacques de Vitry's sermons : " Ea tempestate, qua Bomae deguit, illos solennes sermones tarn de tcmpore quam de sanctis confecisse, qui usque hodie in ecclesia de Oignies con- servantur."
There remains the account of Vincent of Beauvais. Like similar notices of that day it does not contain a single date, and gives only the vaguest sketch of Jacques de Vitry's life.
The only separate life of Jacques de Vitry is that contained in the inaugural dissertation of F. L. Matzner : DC Jacobi Vitriacensis crucis praedicatoris vita ct rebus gestis, Munich, 1863, an admirable work which I have made the basis of my own sketch.
The notices in the older literary histories (ecclesiastical writers) are unsatis factory and in many cases utterly worthless. The latter is the case with the notices in Bellarmin-Labbe, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1622, p. 246 ; Paris, 1660, vol. i., pp. 493-495 ; Ceillier, Histoire generate des auteurs sacres ct ccclesiastiqiies, Paris, 1757, vol. xxi., pp. 163-4; Dupin, Nouvelle bibUotheque des auteurs ecclesiastiques, Paris, 1693-1755, vol. xiii., p. 223 ; Henricus Gandavensis, in Bibliotlieca ecclesiastica, ed. Miraeus, Antwerp, 1639, p. 169 ; Miraeus, op. cit., p. 249 ; Trithemius, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1546, p. 179. Fabricius, Bibliotlicca latina .mediae ct infimae actatis, Florence, 1858, vol. iii., p. 312, simply recapitulates the statement of the above and others, and Cave, Scriptonun cccle&iaxticorum historia literaria, Oxford, 1740-43, vol. ii., p. 288 adds nothing. The best of this class of notices is that in Oudin, Commcntarius dc scrl^torilus ccclesiae, Frankfort, 1722, vol. iii., p. 46,
XXIV EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
later writers until recently, when the fact that Jacques is in variably termed "of Vitiy" (" a Vitriaco ") has led to the sup position that he was born at a town of that name. Of such there are two : Vitry-le-Brule and Vitry-le-Fran9ais, the former in the department of the Seine, five miles from Paris, the latter in the department of the Marne, nineteen miles south-east of Chalons. Matzner inclines in favour of the latter, on the ground that there was formerly in that place a monastery of St. James (" Sancti Jacobi de Vitriaco"), and it would be quite in accordance with custom to name a child after the patron saint of his birthplace.
The date of his birth is also a matter of mere conjecture. As he was ordained priest in 1210, and as at that time no one was ordained priest before his thirtieth year, that would make the date of his birth some time before 1180.
Of his family we know nothing. From the fact that he became
who does not, however, do more than bring together conveniently the opinions of earlier writers with a few unimportant additions of his own.
The more recent writers of this class are : Becdelievre (Bec-de-Lievre Ilamel), Biographic liegeoise, Liege, 1836, vol. i., p. 91, whose notice is entirely worth less (he mentions Jacques de Vitry under erroneous date of death, 1244). The same may also be said of Duthilloeul, Bibliographic donaisienne, Douay, 1842, vol. i., p. 72. This notice is so brief that it may be cited here in its entirety as an example of this kind of work : "Jacques de Vitry naquit a Argenteuil pros Paris, dont il fut cure. Gregoire IX. le nomma cardinal et eveque de Tuseulum. II mourut a Rome en 1244." The article in Foppens, Biblwtheca bclgica, Brussels, 1839, vol. i., p. 542, is also incomplete and incorrect, and that in Graesse, Lehrluch einer allgemeinen Literargeschichte, ii., ii. Abth, lste Hiili'te, p. 1GO ; ii., iii. Abth., 2te Hiilfte, p. 1058, is the usual compilation.
There remain of this class of notices three excellent articles in the Histoirc litteraire de la France, vol. xviii., pp. 209-246 ; Nouvelle biographic generalc, Paris, Didot, 1858, vol. xxvi., pp. 260-264 ; and in Ersch and Gruber's Ency- hlop'ddwt ii. 13, pp. 182-184. The first is by Daunou, the second by Haureau, and the third by Wachter. The last is especially remarkable for its historical perspective ; the other two are good general biographies, in which, as is natural, the stress is laid upon Jacques de Vitry as the historian of the Crusades.
The last class of works illustrative of the life of -Jacques de Vitry will be men tioned in the proper place ; they are such works as Du Boulay's history of the University of Paris, Hoius's edition of the Hist or ia orivntulis, Michaud, and other historians of the Crusades, etc.
INTRODUCTION. xxv
later a regular canon, it is probable that his family was of some rank, as only the noble or those distinguished for their learning or virtues could be received into that order, and at the time of his reception Jacques de Vitry had not so distinguished himself.
Concerning his early education we are also ignorant. Later he pursued theological studies at the University of Paris (Du Boulay cited by Matzner, p. 4, says in the early years of the reign of Philip Augustus, that is 1180 to 1190). These studies he pursued with great fervour (the author of the Supplementum, p. 573, says : "Relictis Theologicis studiis, quibus fervebat immodice") and took his master's degree. While still engaged in his studies (1208-1210) he is said (Supplementum, p. 573) to have heard of the fame of Mary of Oignies, whose life he afterwards wrote, and to have abandoned Paris and his studies for the purpose of visit ing her.* A very tender and lasting friendship was formed between the two, and Jacques de Vitry never ceased to have for her the deepest reverence.
After a brief stay at Oignies, Jacques de Vitry, at the instance of Mary, returned to Paris to complete his studies and receive consecration. He was ordained in 1210 and returned to Oignies, where he was received with great honour by Mary and the canons of the monastery (Supplementum, I., 2) and celebrated his first mass in their church in the presence of his friend (Vita B. M. 86). Shortly after he became a member of their order and curate of the parish of Oignies (Appendix, p. 581), and, at the instance of Mary, devoted himself to preaching, in which, by her advice and prayers, he soon attained great eminence. t
* Mary was born at Nivelles, in Belgium, about 1177, of a family of rank and wealth She was married in 1191, but her husband soon died, and she gave her floods to the poor and lived a life of ascetic retirement, first at Willebroc, and from about 1206 at Oignies, where sho was a member of the society of Begumes. She died in VI 3 Although termed indiscriminately sancta and leata, she does not seem ever to have been formally canonised, but papal licenses must have been given for the translation of her body, and her name was admit! various martyrologies.
f The Supplement™, I., says : •' Compulit ergo ancilla Christi dictum vcne-
XXVI EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
In 1212, Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, was expelled from his sec by Count Raymond VI., and went to preach the crusade against the Albigenses in the north of France and Belgium. He had intended to visit Liege, but owing to the dissensions between the Emperors Otto IV. and Frederick II., that city had been besieged, captured, and the neighbourhood laid waste. Foulques, therefore, led by the fame of Mary of Oignies, turned aside to that place, where he probably remained all the winter (Vita B . M., p. 547, 2). That he became an intimate friend of Jacques de Vitry is shown by the dedication to him by the latter of his life of St. Mary, and it is also probable that Foulques induced him to devote to the service of the crusade against the Albigenses his remarkable gifts as a preacher. For this purpose he received permission from the Papal legate, Cardinal Robert de Common, and prepared himself to discharge his duty (Vita B. M., p. 569, 96) ; but as his friend Mary was in her last illness, he was un willing to leave her, and restricted his preaching to the vicinity of Oignies. Mary died on the 23rd June of that year (1213), and Jacques de Vitry was with her in her last moments (Vita B. M.t pp. 569-572).
After her death he preached the crusade against the Albigenses in France, especially in the diocese of Rheims, and his preaching was attended with great success. Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum Htstoriale, lib. xxxi., x.) say : " Unde et ipse crucem contra Albi genses in Francia predicans, eloquii suavitate atque dulcedine multos atque innumerabiles ad signum crucis accipiendum provo- cavit." The following year he led a large army of crusaders to the siege of Toulouse. He was not present at the siege of the city, having set out again upon his preaching. It was during his
rabilem virum praedicare populis, revocarc animas quas diabolus conabatur aufcrre : enituitque in co illud speciale miraculum, quod precibus ct meritis beatissimae feminac in brcvi tempore ad tantam eminentiam pracdicationis attingeret, ut in exponendis Scripturis et destructionc peccaminum vix ei quisquam inter mortales posset aequari." In the life of St. Mary, 79, Jacques relates an interesting anecdote about his early failure as a preacher, owing to his desire to. say too much, and how he was corrected of his fault by a parable told him by his friend.
INTRODUCTION. XXV11
stay in Franco, as a preacher of the crusade, that Jacques do Vitry wrote, at the request of his friend Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse, the life of Mary of Oignies (Vita B. If., p. 546).
Meanwhile Innocent III. was stirring up the Christian world for a new crusade, and the preaching against the Albigenses was exchanged for preaching against the Saracens. Upon this new crusade Jacques de Vitry entered with great vigour, and achieved even greater success than in the other. The continuer of William of Tyre says : "II ot en France un clerc, qui avoit iiom Jacques de Vitry, cil en croisa mult, la ou il estoit en la predication (Michaud, Ilistoire des Croisades, Paris, 1862, vol. ii., p. 363, n.), and Etienne de Bourbon (Prologue cited in Histoire titt. de la France, vol. xviii., p. 215) says of him : " Vir sanctus et litteratus praedicando per regnum Franciae et utens exemplis in sermonibus suis, adeo totam commovit Franciam, quod non putat memoria aliquem ante vel post sic movisse." The practical result of Jacques de Vitry's preaching was that a considerable number of persons from Lower Lorraine and the province of Kheims engaged as crusaders, and were later found in Syria and Egypt.
We are without any details of Jacques de Vitry's life for the next two years. He probably continued his preaching, and his fame spread to the East, for in 1214 the canons of the city of Acre in Palestine elected him bishop to fill the vacancy made by the promotion of the former bishop to the patriarchate of Jerusalem. The approval of the Pope (Innocent III.) was given the following year, and early in 1216 Jacques de Vitry set out for Rome to be consecrated. The details of this journey are given in a letter to his friends at Oignies (No. 7 in the list of letters given later).
He accepted with great unwillingness the onerous office to which he had been called through no effort of his own, and he laments in a pathetic manner his separation from his old friends (Letter VII., p. 29). He was accompanied by a few friends, and reached Lombardy in May. There he came near losing his mule laden with his books and luggage, in a river swollen by the melting snow. He reached Milan in safety, which city he calls
XXVlii EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
" foveam haereticorum " (Letter VII., p. 30), and remained there a few days to preach, apparently without success. From Milan he proceeded over the old Via Aemilia to Perugia by way of Piacenza, Parma, Reggio, Modena, Bologna, Faenza, and Rimini, reaching Perugia July 18 (Letter VII., p. 30). On his arrival he learned that the Pope (Innocent III.) had died two days before. His body was not yet buried, and Jacques de Vitry saw it exposed in the church of St. Lawrence, and abandoned by the citizens and cardinals, who were busy with the election of a new pope. The decomposed body was nearly naked, and had been stripped of its rich garments the night before by thieves. Jacques de Vitry says (Letter VII., p. 30) : " I entered the church, and saw with my own eyes how brief and vain is the uncertain glory of the world." On the following day the conclave elected Cardinal Savelli, who assumed the title of Honorius III., and was conse crated the following Sunday, July 24. A week from that day the pontiff consecrated Jacques de Vitry bishop of Acre. He tells us in the same letter (p. 31) that he had intended to return to France ; but as he was unable to obtain from the pope the office of defender of crusaders or legate of crusades, he determined to proceed at once to Acre, rather than endure the reproaches of those whom he was unable to protect against the oppression of the powerful and of usurers.
At the end of August, when the pope returned to Home, Jacques de Vitry set out for Genoa, taking with him no very favourable idea of the papal court. He says (Letter VII., p. 31) : " Multa inveni spiritui meo contraria, adeo enim circa saecularia et tem- poralia, circa reges et regna, circa lites et iugia occupati erant, quod vix de spiritualibus aliquid loqui permittebant." While three days' journey from Genoa, on account of the difficult and mountainous road, he took ship at some port, and after a stormy passage reached Genoa in safety (Letter VII., p. 32). He found the Genoese on the eve of attacking a certain castle belonging to the Pisans, and in accordance with their custom they carried oft'
INTRODUCTION. XXIX
the stranger's horses, although they gave the owner a friendly reception. During the absence of the men, Jacques de Vitry preached the crusade to the women and old men, so that, as he says, if the men took away his horses he took away their wives and daughters. Upon their return many of the war riors also took the cross, greatly to Jacques de Vitry 's delight, for the Genoese were a wealthy people engaged in commerce with Syria and Egypt, and were the only mariners who continued their navigation during the winter. After remaining at Genoa the month of September, Jacques de Vitry hired, at his own expense, a ship to take himself and companions to Acre.*
The voyage was a stormy one, and twice the ship vvas nearly wrecked, but on the 5th of November they safely reached Acre, where Jacques de Vitry was received by the citizens with due solemnity (Letter VIII, p. 36). The new bishop devotes a large part of the letter to Lutgarde, to a gloomy account of the moral condition of his residence, and describes in detail the various sects which divided the city. He endeavoured at once to check the licentiousness which reigned and restore unity in the church. His efforts were crowned with the happiest results (Letter VIII., p. 38) .t The following year he undertook a journey to the mari- * Interesting details are given in the same letter (p. 33) of the hire of the ship, the stock of provisions needed, &c. The account of the journey, which lasted from about Oct. 1 to Nov. 5, is given in Letter VIII, to Lutgarde of St. Trond and the convent of Awirs. See Saint-Genois, op. cit., pp. 33-43.
f In the same letter (p. 39) he gives a most interesting picture of his daily life, and, as it will give a better notion of the man than anything else, it may be well to transcribe it here in his own words.
"Ego vero vitam meam donee veniat exercitus sic ordinavi, quod, summo diliculo roissa celebrata, peccatores recipio usque post meridiem ; dcuique sumpto'cibo cum magna difficultate (meum appetitum manducaudi et bibendi amisi ex quo terram ultramarinam ingressus sum), infirmos per civitatem opportet me visitare usque ad nonam post vesperas. Post hoc vero causas orphanorum et viduarum et aliorum, quibus in justicia dicere non valeo, cum tumultu et o-ravaminc mngno recipio, ita quod dilecte tempus lectioms non habeo nisi ad missam vel ad 'matutinam vel quum aliquod modicum spacmm me abscondo Tempus autem orationis et considerationis quieti noctis tempore reservavi, quumque turn ita fessus sum vel turbatus, quod nee orationis nee proprie infirmitatis consideration! possum vacare."
XXX EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
time cities of Syria to preach the crusade, and came near falling a victim to an emissary of the Old Man of the Mountain. He was everywhere received with great reverence, and his preaching produced its usual effect, even converting some Saracens whom he baptized (Letter VIII., p. 40). While at Margat, on the point of taking ship to Antioch, he was recalled to Acre by the Patriarch of Jerusalem by the news that the army of crusaders was ex pected. They arrived in the autumn of 1217, and Jacques de Vitry seems to have taken part in the expedition they made in November and December of that year against the Sultan, Malek al Adel, who was encamped at Betsan, on the Jordan, and against the fortress constructed five years before by the same prince on Mount Thabor (Wilken, GeschicJite der Kreuzziige, Leipzig, 1830, vol. vi., pp. 142, 148). In the latter expedition many captives were taken, and Jacques de Vitry ransomed the children by his prayers and money and sent some to Europe and entrusted others to pious women to be educated.
The following year (1218), after the return of the King of Hungary and the failure of the crusade, we find Jacques de Vitry engaged in the building of Districtum (also called Castellum Peregrinorum), a port south of Acre, and in reconstructing the fortifications of Caesarea (Letters I., II., toHonorius III., Martene and Durand, Thes. nov. III., pp. 288, 289). He returned to Acre with the crusaders to celebrate Easter, which fell that year on the 13th of April (Letter II., op. cit., p. 290). He was a warm advo cate of the plan long cherished of attacking the Saracens in Egypt (Letter II., op. cit., p. 290), and after the arrival at Acre, in May, of the German and Frisian crusaders (Jacques de Vitry, Historia orientalis in Bongars, p. 1132, and Wilken, op. cit., vol. vi., pp. 127, 163), it was determined to recover the Holy Land through Egypt. Jacques de Vitry equipped two ships at his own cost (Letter III., op. cit., p. 296) and sailed from the harbour of Districtum the Sunday after • the festival of the Ascension (27th of May), arriving at Damietta the 30th of May. The other
INTRODUCTION. xxxl
crusaders reached there a few days later (Letter II., op. cit., p. 290; Historia orientalis, Bongars, p. 1132).
It would be foreign to the purpose of this sketch to narrate in detail the events of 1218-1221, including the capture of the tower which was built in the middle of the Nile, and connected with the city of Damietta by a bridge and iron chains, which prevented the crusaders from ascending the river (taken by the crusaders August 25th) ; the capture of Damietta by storm on November 4th, 1219 ; the ill-starred expedition to Cairo in the summer of 1221 ; and the inundation of the Nile which compelled the cru saders to surrender Damietta to the Saracens in return for their own deliverance.
Jacques de Vitry bore a prominent part in all of these events. Before the arrival of the legate Pelagius, he appears to have dis charged the duties of that office and reported the progress of affairs to the Pope. After the capture of the tower in the Nile he was anxious to attack the city at once, but he was overruled, and the attack was delayed until the arrival of fresh forces of
crusaders.*
The privations which he in common with the others suffered during this memorable siege he describes in Letters II. and III. to Honorius III. To these privations were added the dissension between Pelagius and King John and the disheartning delays which prevented the capture of the city. At last, by the advice of Pelagius, the city was taken by storm, Nov. 4th, 1219 (Letter IV., op. cit., p. 301, et seq.). Again, we find Jacques de Vitry ransom ing and baptising the children found in the city, and sending
* This statement is Matter's, op. cit., p. 53. Jacques de Vitry, in the Letter II., op. cit., p. 293, simply says : " Nobis valde periculosus ct clifficilis est tran- situs propt'er fluminis incrementum : undo in festo S. Crucis in Septembri, quando has letteras scripsimus, nondum fluvium transieramus, vel civitatem obsideramus; sed praeparantes naves et alia vasa ad transitum nccessana, novos cxpectamus peregrines, qui sunt ex qualibet mnndi partc cum mnltitudinc copiosa et iimumerabili ad obsulionein civitatis, sicut nunliatum est nobis, venire festinabunt."
XXX11 EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
them to his friends to be reared in the Christian faith (Letter IV., op. cit., p. 304).
The winter following the capture of the city was spent by Jacques de Vitry in writing his history (see Prologue to the Historia Hier- osol. in Bongars, p. 1047, and in Canisius, Lectiones Antiquae, vol. vi., pp. 1324, et seq.). It was during this winter also that St. Francis of Assisi made his fruitless journey to Damietta. The crusaders remained at Damietta in shameful inactivity, sometimes cut off by the enemy's fleet from all communication by sea, and sometimes besieged in turn on land (Letter V., D'Achery, Spicile- gium, Paris, 1668, vol. viii., p. 373).
The legate Pelagius in vain attempted to arouse the crusaders to undertake an expedition against Cairo. It was not until the following summer (1221) when fresh forces arrived that the ill- starred expedition was undertaken. The responsibility for it has usually been thrown upon Pelagius, but it seems that owing to the lateness of the season he feared the rising of the Nile, and advised that Alexandria should be the object of attack (Matzner, op. cit., p. 57). Jacques de Vitry, on the other hand, was strenuous in favour of Cairo, on account of his hope of a union with the fabulous Christian king of the Tartars. The expedition started the 8th or 9th of July, Jacques de Vitry remaining in charge of the garrison of Damietta. The lamentable result of the expedition is well known; and on the 8th of September, 1221, Damietta was surrendered to the Saracens.
Jacques de Vitry returned disheartened to Acre, and henceforth made every effort to be released from the burden of his bishopric and to return to his beloved friends at Oignies.
The following year he was summoned by the pope to the council at Verona, which came to naught owing to the pope's illness, nor did Jacques de Vitry succeed in being released from his bishopric. In 1224 he was in Acre again, for the pope wrote him to be of good cheer for a fresh band of crusaders was soon to sail for Syria (Baronius, Annales ecclesiastic^ ed. A. Theiner, Anno 1224, 11).
INTEODUCTION. XXX111
In the autumn of 1226, Jacques de Vitry seems to have been again at Rome, and it was on this journey that he came so near shipwreck and believed he was saved by the intervention of St. Mary of Oignies (Supplementum, cap. iv. 20, 21). It is not certain whether Jacques de Yitry was at this time relieved of his bishopric as the author of the Supplementum declares, or somewhat later.
Matzner (p. 61) himself thinks that he was relieved of his bishopric by Gregory IX., who succeeded Honorius III. (March 19th, 1227), and was sent by him back to Syria there to resign his office.
After his resignation had been duly carried out, he returned to Rome the same year, and was at once sent by the pope to Belgium to preach the crusade against the Albigenses (Baronius op. cit. 1228, 23). He returned to Oignies to consecrate the church built by Prior Aegidius, and for the adorning of which he had already sent gifts from the East (Supplementum, cap. ii., 13), and where he deposited the remains of St. Mary (Supple mentum, cap. iv., 21). t
Jacques de Vitry continued to preach the crusade diligently in the province of Rheims (Supplementum, cap. iv., 21), and seems to have had the spiritual charge of the entire diocese of Liege (Supplementum, cap. iv., 26). At the end of 1228, Gregory IX. created Jacques de Vitry cardinal and bishop of Tusculum.
Little is known of the remainder of Jacques de Vitry's life. In the strife between the pope and the emperor, Jacques de Vitry acted as mediator between the two. We also find his name appended to various papal documents, dated 1231 and 1237. Pro-
* Supplementum , cap. iv., 21 : " Non multo autem post (i.e., the journey just mentioned) Romam perveniens, a Domno Honorio, hujus nominis Papa tertio, Episcopatu absolvi se petiit : quern multarum precum instantia devictus absolvit." Haureau, in his article in the Nouvclle 'biograpliie generate, vol. xxvi., p. 2C1, puts it a little later, in 1229.
f For Jacques de Vitry's generosity towards the monastery of Oignies, see Saint-Genois, op. cit., p. 9, and document in Marteue and Duraiid, Ampllsslma Coll., Vol. I., pp. 1278-1280.
c
XXXIV EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
bably in 1239 he was elected by the clergy of the Orient patriarch of Jerusalem. The pope did not approve their choice, as he was unwilling to allow Jacques de Vitry to leave him.*
The date of Jacques de Vitry's death is given variously from 1240 to 1260. That he was dead in 1240 is shown clearly by the letter of Gregory IX. just cited, and which is dated the 14th of May, 1240. In it Jacques de Vitry is spoken of as " bonae memoriae," which proves that he must have died before that time, probably at. Rome. In accordance with his own wish (Appendix, 4), his body was transported to Oignies and buried in the church, which he himself had consecrated, and where were interred Mary and other friends of his.t
2. Jacques de Vitry's works may be divided into two classes — historical and concionatory. The first class embraces Vita Beatae Mariae Oigniacensis, Historia orientalis, Historia oocidentalis, and Letters. The second class comprises : Sermones dominicales, Ser- mones de sanctis, Sermones vulgares, and Sermones communes vel quotidiani.% These works will now be briefly examined in order.
* His words are : " Vacante dudum Hierosolymitana Ecclesia, dilecti filii capitulum ipsius Ecclesiae bonae memoriae Tusculanum episcopum ad ipsius regimen postularunt. Sed cum episcopi ejusdem praesentia non solum llomanae, sed etiam Ecclesiae generali apud Sedem Apostolicam utilis haberetur, eum ipsorum postulationi merito non duximus concedendum" (Baronius, op. cit., 1240, 47).
f Mention is made in the Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v., p. 582, of a portrait supposed to be painted from life which was preserved at Oignies, and a cut is given of the image upon his tomb. Du Chesne in his Ilistoire de tons Us cardinaux frangais de naissance, vol. ii., p. 176 (cited by Matzner, p. 66), gives the following epitaph :
Vitriacus jacet hie Romana columna Jacobus, Quern vivum coluit, colit orbis uterque sepultum.
$ The work DC arte praedicandi, sometimes attributed to Jacques de Vitry, is probably only the prologue to the Sermones vulgar es ; and the Speculum exemplorum cited under his name is nothing but the exempla collected from the same sermons either by the author himself or by some other hand. Finally, the Liber de sanctis mulieri'bus Leodlcnsilus is the prologue to the Vita Beatae Mariae Oigniacensis.
INTRODUCTION. XXXV
We have already seen from Jacques de Vitry's life his relations with St. Mary of Oignies, and the profound affection and venera tion which he felt for her. He undertook an account of her life a few years after her death (which occurred June 23rd, 1213), and while the author was preaching the Albigensian Crusade before his departure in 1216 for Palestine (Acta Sanctorum, vol. cit. p. 546). The work is in two books, the first containing in thirteen chapters the history of her outer life and conversion; the second, in the same number of chapters, the history of her inner life and holy end.* The work is of little historical interest, and is merely the record of a life of asceticism, and its accom panying recompense of ecstatic vision.
The second historical work of Jacques de Vitry is usually cited as Historia orientalis Libri iii. One of the three books, however, does not belong to Jacques de Vitry, and of the other two one is devoted to a history of the West. A better division then is : His toria orientalis, that is book i. of the Historia orientalis Libri iii. ;f and Historia occidentalis, that is book iii. of the work just men tioned. J Jacques de Vitry did intend to write a book iii., that is a second book of the Historia orientalis, describing events from the Lateran Council, 1214, to the capture of Damietta, 1221. § Book
Several other works are mentioned by Daunou in his article in the Hist. litt., vol. xviii., p. 220. Two are of a polemical nature, a book against the Saracens and a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew. Five others are of a miscel laneous character, Moralizationcs (probably a collection of exempla), De con- fcssionc, Summa de conversione pcccatoris, De gratia speeiali quibusdam data, and proverbs or religious maxims. In regard to these I have been unable to obtain any further information.
* The life of St. Mary is in the Acta Sanctorum, ed. cit., June 23, vol. v., pp. 542-572. Potthast, Bibliotheca liistorica, p. 802, cites a French translation, Nivelles, 1822, which I have not seen.
f Edited by Fr. Moschus, Douay, 1597, also in Bongars, Gcsta Dei per Francos, Hanover, 1611, p. 1047.
J To be found only in the edition of Moschus cited above.
§ See preface to Ilistoria orientalis, in Bongars, op. cit., p. 1047, and Canisius, Lectiones Antiquae, vol. vi., p. 1324.
c2
XXXVI EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
iii., attributed to Jacques de Vitry,* is not by him, but is a mere compilation from Oliverus Scholasticus, Historia Damiatina, and two other sources : a description of the Holy Land, and a histori cal sketch of the fate of that country down to 1200. f Jacques de Vitry, as he himself tells us in the preface to his work, began his history during his sojourn at Damietta (winter of 1219-20), but probably did not complete the two books until after his return to Europe. J The second book was not finished in accordance with the plan announced by the author, and, as we have j ust seen, the third book, which was to continue the first, was never written. § The place of the lacking third book of Jacques de Vitry's history is taken, as has already been said, by the same author's letters, of which twelve are extant.
It may be convenient to give here a list of the letters of Jacques de Vitry, with the place where they are to be found, and a state ment of their relation to each other.
* Printed in Bongars, op. cit., pp. 1125-45, and in Martene and Durand, Thesaurus novug, Paris, 1717, vol. iii., pp. 268-287.
f See G. Zacher, Die Historia orientalis des Jacob von Vitry. Eln quellen- kritischer Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kreuzzuge. Inaugural Dissertation, Konigsberg, 1885, pp. 10-13. The author says, p. 9: "Der Verlust dieses dritten Buches, wenn Jacob ein solches iiberhaupt geschrieben hat, ist aber leicht zu ertragen, da die uns erhaltenen Briefe Jacobs an Pabst Honorius III., seine Freunde u. s. w. einen vollstiindigen Ersatz dafiir bieten."
J M. Barroux, Positions dcs Theses, etc., Paris, 1885, p. 25, places the com position of Book I. between 1219-23, and of Book II., between 1223-26.
§ The second book was to contain the recent history of the Occident, with an examination of the secular and religious orders, together with a consideration of the religion of the Crusaders and the advantages of the Crusades. This latter topic is not discussed in the finished work, but its place is taken by a liturgical disquisition. It is to be regretted that the second book is so difficult of access, having been printed but once, in Moschus's edition. It is, however, disappoint ing in the entire absence of historical anecdotes which one might have expected of an author who avows that his object in writing his work is to facilitate the understanding of the Scriptures and to furnish material for preachers. See preface to Historia oriental-is, in Bongars. op. cit., p. 1047, and Zacher, op. cit., pp. 8, 9.
INTRODUCTION. XXXV11
1. To Pope Honoring III.
Martene and Durand, Thesaurus novus, vol. iii., pp. 288-289.
2. To Pope Honorius III.
Martene and Durand, op. cit., vol. iii., pp. 289-294.
3. To Pope Honorius III.
Martene and Durand, op. cit., vol. iii., pp. 294-300.
4. To Pope Honorius III.
Martene and Durand, op. cit., vol. iii., pp. 301-306.
5. To Pope Honorius III.
D'Achery, Spicilegium, Paris, 1668, vol. viii., pp. 373-383 ; Nova editio, Paris, 1723, vol. iii., p. 801.
6. To Foulques, Bishop of Toulouse.
This is the prologue to the Vita B. M. Oign., Ada Sand., ed. cit., June 23, vol. v., p. 547.
7. To his Friends.
Memoires de VAcademie royale des sciences, des lettres, et des beaux-arts de Belgique, xxiii., Brussels, 1849: " Sur des lettres inedites de Jacques de Vitry, eveque de St. Jean d' Acre, etc., ecrites en 1216, par M. le Baron Jules de Saint- Genois," pp. 29-33.
8. To Lutgarde of St. Trond and to the Convent d'Awirs.
Saint-Genois, op. cit., pp. 33-43.
9. To the Monks, Friends, and Acquaintances of his in Lorraine,
touching the capture of Damietta. Bongars, p. cit., pp. 1146-1149. This is the same as 4. Saint-Genois, op. cit., p. 13, says that
in some MSS. it is addressed to Jean de Nivelle, hence the
opinion (Hist. Litt. de la France, vol. xviii., p. 216) that it
was a new letter.
10. To his Friends.
Saint-Genois, op. cit., p. 15 (MSS. de la villc et de 1'univer- site de Gand, No. 554).
XXXV111 EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
Saint- Genois says that this is the same as 2, with some un important differences. The version in Saint-Genois was probably a copy sent by Jacques de Vitry to his friends in Belgium.
11. To Lutgarde and the Convent of Awirs. Saint- Geiiois, op. cit., p. 16 (MS. cit.). Saint-Genois says that this letter is the same as 9.
12. To Leopold of Austria.
Saint-Genois, op. cit., p. 17 (MS. cit.).
Saint-Genois says that this is the same as 5, with the addi tion of a long passage upon " David rex Judaeorum, qui presbyter Johannes a vulgo appelatus." This passage is given in full in Saint-Genois, op. cit., pp. 19-26, and in Eccard, Corpus historicum medii aevij vol. ii., pp. 1451-54 (" Relatio de David, rege Tartarorum Christiano ").
The contents of these letters and their biographical worth have been sufficiently dwelt upon in the sketch of Jacques de Vitry 's life.
The second class of Jacques de Vitry 's works consists of four collections of sermons.
1. Sermones in Epistolas et Evangelia Dominicalia totius anni* These are the usual sermones dominicales, with three sermons for each Sunday and feast day, the texts being taken respectively from the introit of the mass, the epistle and gospel for the day. This use of the introit of the mass as a text was, I believe, an innovation by Jacques de Vitry. The author intended this work for the first part of the usual collection de tempore et de sanctis, with the addition of a collection of sermones vulgares, or,
* Antwerp, 1575, fol., pp. 931, besides 14, not numbered, of prefatory matter. Cardinal Pitra, Analccta novissima Spieilegil Solesmcnsis alteva continuatio, vol. ii., p. xxi , says that this edition was reproduced at Venice in 1578, in 4to, pp. 1405. and remarks that both editions are very incorrect.
INTRODUCTION. XXXIX
as they were sometimes called, ad status, or ad omne hominum genus*
Although the sermones dominicales belong to the class of sermons intended for the laity,t they are very disappointing, so far as materials for the history of the culture of the people is concerned, exempla of all kinds (including historical anecdotes) being entirely wanting. This is probably due to the fact that the author had already determined to write the sermones vulgares, for which he wished to reserve such material.
It is impossible to give the exact date of this or of the following collections of sermons. They are supposed to have been written late in Jacques de Yitry's life.J
* Jacques de Vitry expresses this intention in the prooemium to the sermones dominicales, which was to serve as a general introduction to the entire work. This work he fancifully divided into six parts according to the division of the ecclesiastical year into five parts, adding to these the sermones -vulgar cs. The five divisions are : " Tempus revocations, quod cst Prophetiae et doc- trinae, a principio Adventus Domini usque ad Nativitatem : tempus dcvia- tionis, quod est culpae et poenae, a Septuagesima usque ad Octavas Paschae : tempus reconciliationis, quod est dilectionis, a Pascha usque ad Octavas Pente- costis : tempus peregrinationis, quod est luctae et pugnae, ab Octavis Pente- costis usque ad Adventum Domini. Quinta pars (i.e., division of the ecclesias tical year) ad Sanctorum solemnitates pertinet,qui nobis sunt exempla justitiae." To these the author purposes to add a sixth part : " sextam in Sermonibus nostris addidimus partem, secundum diversitatem personarum a se invicem diversis officiis, et moribus differentium, proprios ct speciales Sermones subjun- gendo : Ad Praelatos, ad Sacerdotes in Synodo, ad Monachos et Moniales, et alias Regulares personas, ad Scholares, ad Peregrinos et Cruce-signatos, ad Milites, ad Mercatores, ad Agricolas et Mercenaries, ad Servos et Ancillas, ad Virgiries et Viduas ct Conjugatas. Secundum enim varietatem personarum oportet non solum variare Sermones, sed et sententias, et plerumque loquendi modum et scribendi stylum. Non enim competit omnibus morbis unum emplas- trum." The Sermones dominicales correspond to the first four divisions, the sermones de sanetis to the fifth, and the sermones vulgarcs to the sixth.
f Prooemiuniy p. 1 : " Quando vero in conventu et congregatione sapientum Latino idiomate loquimur, tune plura dicere possumus, eo quod ad singularia non oportet descendere : laicis autem oportet quasi ad oculum, et sensibiliter omnia demonstrare."
J The anonymous writer of the brief life of Jaques de Vitry known as
Xl EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
2. Sermones de Sanctis.
The only part of Jacques de Vitry's collection which has been printed is the first (or, as he considered it, the first four parts), mentioned in the preceding paragraph. The rest have remained in manuscripts of rare occurrence. The fifth (really second) part which, as we have seen, Jacques de Vitry purposed writing was the sermones de sanctis. These I have been unable to examine, and cannot pronounce upon their character.*
3. Sermones vulgar es.
Of far greater interest are the sermones vulgares, from which the exempla in the present work are taken. These sermons belong to the class of sermons for the clergy and laity, and are arranged to meet the wants of the various divisions or conditions of these classes, hence the names applied to these collections: sermones
Appendix dc Jacobo a Vitriaco scriptorc in Acta Sanctorum, June, vol. v., ed. cit., p. 581, says : " Interea vir sanctus crcditur ea tempestatc, qua Romae deguit, illos solennes sermones tarn de tempore quam de sanctis confecisse, qui usque hodie in ecclesia de Oignies conservantur." As Jacques de Vitry took up his residence in .Rome after he had been named cardinal in 1228, the sermons would he posterior to that date, and before 1240 the year of the author's death. M. Barroux, op. cit., p. 24, places the composition of the sermons after 1226. Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit., p. 55, assigns the same date. P. Meyer in his in troduction to the Contes moralises dc Nicole Bozon, Paris, 1889, p. xii., says the sermones vulgares appear to have been preached before Jacques de Vitry's election to the bishopric of Acre, which took place in 1217. No ground is given •for this statement.
• * The Hist. litt. de la France, vol. xviii., p. 220, indicates where the MSS. of these sermons may be found. I am indebted to my friend Prof. Burr, of Cornell, for the following reference. The printed catalogue (1875) of the University library of Liege contains the title " Jacobi de Vitriaco, Sermones de Sanctis per totum annum," and adds that they have never been printed, and are different from those in the Antwerp edition of 1575. The MS. which came from the Convent dcs Croisiers, at Huy on the Meuse, contains 328 (334) ff., and is dated, " Expliciunt sermones Magistri Jacobi de Vitriaco de festivitatibus Sanctorum, finiti per fratrcm Christianum Conventus Huyensis, anno Domini 1475."
INTRODUCTION. xli
vulgares, ad status, or ad omne hominum genus* This work, as has already been stated in the preface, has been printed only in the extracts contained in Cardinal Pitra's Analecta novissima Spicilegii Solesmensis.^
The sermones vulgares begin with an extensive prologue (fo. 2ro-3ro) which has been printed in full by Cardinal Pitra (op. cit. pp. 189-193). J The sermons are seventy-four in number, and the
* Saint-Genois, op., cit. p. 21, makes the mistake of supposing that they were so called because, " il employait non pas le latin, mais la langue parlee, c'est-a-dire en France et dans la partie de la Belgique qu'il frequentait habituellement, 1'idiome roman alors en usage. Aussi ses sermons sont-ils designes sous le norn de sermones vulgares."
t The MSS. of the Sermones vulgares are enumerated by Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit., p. 514. But two of them, as he says, are complete : Paris, Bib. Nat. MSS., Lat. 17,509, and Bib. Sainte-Genevieve, D.L. 26. The MS. Bib. Nat., MSS. Lat. 3284 (" finiti ultimo die Februarii anno domini M. quingentesimo tricesimo scptimo ") appears to me also complete. The MS. used for the present work is the one above cited, Bib. Nat. MSS., Lat. 17,509, thirteenth century, parchment ; containing 153 fols., minus fols. 1, 97. On the inside of the cover is written, " Cl. Joly, J'ay eu ce MSS. a Chaumont en Bassigni en 1655," and lower down, " A la bibliotheque de 1'eglise de Paris." The other MSS., except the Bib. Nat. 3284, I have been unable to examine.
To the MSS., mentioned by Lecoy de la Marche, must now be added the one used by Cardinal Pitra, and in regard to which he gives no details, except that it is of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century.
J It is proper to give here only that portion of the prologue referring to the use of exempla, MS. 17,509, fo. 2VO : " Relictis enim verbis curiosis et politis, convertere debemus ingenium nostrum ad edificationem rudium et agrestium eruditionem, quibus quasi corporalia et palpabilia et talia que per experientiam norunt frequentius sunt proponenda. Magis enim moventur exterioribus ex- ' cmplis quam auctoritatibus vel profundis sententiis. De Joseph quidem legimus quod tantam tritici multitudinem congregavit, ut coequaretur arene maris. Verba enim sacre Scripture coequanda sunt auditoribus infirmiset rudibus juxta capacitatem eorum ; et in III. Reg. X. dicitur, quia Salomon fecit ut tanta esset abnndantia argenti in Hicrusalem quantam lapidum et cedrorum prebuit multi tudinem, quasi sicomori qui nascuntur in campestribus. Per lapides ct sicomoros simplices et laici rudes designantur, quibus coequari et commensurari debct verbum Dei, ut rota sacre Scripture ex una parte elcvctur, quantum ad majores> ct ex alia parte deprimatur, quantum ad minorcs. In Ezechiel autem legitur quod cum ambulabant animalia, ambulabant pariter et rote juxta ea : nam sine
Xlii EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
following is a list of the classes addressed and the texts of the
sermons.
I. [fo. 3VO] To prelates and priests. Acts xx., 28 : Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock.
II. [fo. 4VO] Same. Isaiah vi., 2 : Above it stood the seraphims ; each one had six wings.
scientia scripturarum ncc pedem movere debemus. Quibus tamen plerique vulgaria exempla ad laicorum excitationem et recreationem sunt interscrenda, quo tamen aliquam habcant cdificationem, ne forte illud propheticum nobis objiciatur : "Narraverunt mihi iniqui fabulationes, sed non ut lex tua." Dum enim contra diabolum pugnaturi, civitatem obsidemus, secundum legis mandiitum, infructuosa ligna scindere debemus et non fructuosa. Infructuosas enim fabulas et curiosa poetarum carmina a sermonibus nostris debemus relegare. Sententias philosophorum in quibus est utilitas, possumus interserere, sicut apostolus ex verbis gentilium ait : " Cretenses male bestie, pigri ventres."
Sed etiam fabulas ex quibus vcritatem edificationis dicimus interserere aliquando valemus. Sicut in libro Judicum XX. legimus de rampno et lignis silvarum et de situ vite et olivae que lignis silvarum prcfici renuerunt. Similiter et IV. Reg. XIV. legimus quod Joas rex Israel dixit ad Amasiam regem Juda : " Carduus Lybani misit ad cedrum que est in Lybano, dicens : Da filiam tuam, filio meo uxorem, transieruntque bestie saltus et conculcaverunt carduum." Licet hec sunt secundum litteram fabulosa, non tamen fabulose dicta, sed ad reprehensionem elationis Amasie, qui de viribus suis presumens provocabat regem Israel ad prelium sine causa, volens se potentiori coequare.
Haec diximus contra quosdam neophytos, qui sibi videntur scioli, nee repre- hendere formidant illos qui per experientiam noverunt quantus f ructus proveniat ex hujusmodi fabulosis exemplis laicis et simplicibus personis, non solum ad edificationem, sed ad recreationem, maxime quando fatigati et tedio affecti incipiunt dormitare. Dicunt tamen predicti rcprehensores : " Musica in luctu importuna narratio." Ad luctum non ad risum menandi sunt audi tores, sicut in Exodo X. dicitur quod tubis ululantibus convocata est populi multitudo. [fo. 3r°] Objiciuntinsuper illud quod in Ecclesiastes X. Salomon ait : " In risu faciuntpanemetvinum." Quis dubitat quin ad luctum incitandi sint auditores ? Qui tamen ne nimio merore confundantur, vel nimia fatigatione torpere incipiant, aliquando sunt quibusdam jocundis exemplis recreandi et expedit quod eis pro- ponatur fabulosa, ut postmodum evigilent ad audiendum seria et utilia vcrba. " Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci." Experto credite : cum aliquando protraherem sermonem, et viderem populi multitudinem affectam tedio et dormi- tantem, uno modico verbo, omnes incitati sunt et innovati ad audiendum. Exempli gratia, aliquando mcmini me dixissc : " Ille qui in loco illo dormitat,
INTRODUCTION. xliii
III. [fo. Gvo] Same. Genesis xliii., 11 : Take of the best fruits in the land.
IV. [fo. 8VO] To prelates. Proverbs vi., 1 : If thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger.
V. [fo. 10] To prelates and priests. St. Luke xvi., 2 : How is it that I hear this of thee ? give an account of thy stewardship.
VI. [fo. 11VOJ Same. Isaiah Ixi., 6 : But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord.
VII. [fo. 14] Same. Ezekiel xxxiv., 15 : I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down.
VIII. [fo. 15VO] Same. Isaiah Ixii., 10 : Go through, go through the gates.
IX. [fo. 17] To secular canons and other clergy. Numbers xviii., 20 : Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land.
X. [fo. 18VO] To canons and secular clergy. Numbers xviii., 5 : And ye shall keep the charge of the sanctuary.
XL [fo. 20VO] Same. Lamentations v., 18 : Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
XII. [fo. 23] To secular canons on elections. Numbers xxvii. 16 : Let the Lord, the God of the spirits.
XIII. [fo. 24VO] On orders, or on the ordaining of clergy. 1 Kings x.. 4 : And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom.
XIV. [fo. 27V°] On the ordaining of clergy. Daniel iii. 88 : Benedicite Anania, Azaria, Misael Domino (Vulgate).
XV. [fo. 28VO] That we should refresh ourselves in the treasury of the Scriptures before refreshing others. Ecclesiasticus vi., 36 : Et si videris sensa- tum, evigila ad eum (Vulgate).
XVI. [fo. 31] To scholars. Exodus iii., 21 : When ye go, ye shall not go empty.
XVII. [fo. 33] To judges and lawyers. Proverbs xxvi., 10 : Judicium determinat causas (Vulgate).
secrcta mea vel consilium meum non revelabit." Unusquisque autem pro se dictum credens oculos aperiebat, et facto strepitu, postmodum in silentio utilia et seria verba attente audicbant : " Sapicntia igitur justificata est a suis filiis." Quamvis de intentione eorum qui talia interserunt, quidam audacter nimis judicare presumant, dicentes : Deus non indiget mendaciis nostris.
Scurrilia tamen aut obscena verba ve.1 turpis sermo ex ore predicatoris non procedant. Illud insuper in hujusmodi proverbiis similitudinibus et vulgaribus cxemplis adtendendum est, quod non possunt ita exprimi scripto, sicut gestu et verbo atque pronuntiandi modo, nee ita movent vel incitant auditores in ore unius, sicut in ore alterius, nee in uno idiomate, sicut in alio. Aliquando qui- dem cum audiuntur, placent ; cum scripta leguntur, non delectant. Expedit tamen ut scribantur, ut habeant materiam hii quibus Deus dat gratiam auditores incitandi ex modo pronuntiandi."
EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
XVIII. [fo. 34VO] Same. 1 Corinthians vi., 4 : If then ye have judgements of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
XIX. [fo. 36VO] To theologians and preachers. Ezekiel iii., 1 : Eat this roll.
XX. [fo. 38VO] Same, Song of Solomon vii., 13. All manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.
XXI. [fo. 40] Same. Jeremiah xxix., 5 : Build ye houses and dwell in them.
XXII. [fo. 42VO] To the Benedictines. Ezekiel xli., 21 : The posts of the temple were squared.
XXIII. [fo. 44VO] Same. Song of Solomon v., 11 : His locks are bushy (Comae ejus sicut elatae palmarum. Vulgate).
XXIV. [fo. 4GVOJ To the Cistercians. Numbers xxiv., 5 : How goodly are thy tents 0 Jacob.
XXV. [fo. 46VO] Same. Isaiah Iviii., 13 : If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath.
XXVI. [fo. 50VO] To the Benedictine nuns. Jeremiah ii , 32 : Can a maid forget her ornaments.
XXVII. [fo. 51VO] Same. Exodus xxxv., 25 : And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun.
XXVIII. [fo. 53VO] To the white nuns of the Cistercian order, to the gray and others. Esther ii., 2 : Let there be fair young virgins sought for the king.
XXIX. [fo. 55VO] Same. 2 Kings iv., 9 : I perceive that this is an holy man of God.
XXX. [fo. 57VO] To regular canons. Isaiah xi., 15 : And shall smite it in the seven streams.
XXXI. [fo. 59VO] Same. Numbers vi., 2 : When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow.
XXXII. [fo. 62] Same. Ecclesiastes ii., 4 : I made me great works ; I builded me houses.
XXXIII. [fo. 63VO] To hermits and recluses. Job xxxix., 5 : Who hath sent out the wild ass free ?
XXXIV. [fo. 65VO] Same. Ezekiel viii., 1 : As I sat in mine house.
XXXV. [fo. 67] To the Franciscans. Proverbs xxx., 24 : There be four things which are little upon the earth.
XXXVI. [fo. 69] Same. Jeremiah xxxv., 6 : Jonadab the son of Rechab our father.
XXXVII. [fo. 71] To the military orders. Zechariah ix., 8 : And I will encamp about mine house.
XXXVIII. [fo. 73VO] Same. Song of Solomon i., 9 : I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots.
XXXIX. [fo. 75VO] To the hospitalers and nurses of the sick. Psalms xli., 1 : Blessed is he that considereth the poor (or sick).
INTRODUCTION. xlv
XL. [77VOJ Same. Proverbs xvi., 6 : By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.
XLI. [fo. 80] To lepers and other sick. James v., 11 : Ye have heard of the patience of Job.
XLII. [fo. 82VO] Same. Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii. 9 : My son, in thy sickness be not negligent.
XLIII. [fo. 84] To the poor and afflicted. Wisdom of Solomon iii., 5 : And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded.
XLIV. [fo. 86VO] Same. Isaiah xxxviii., 14 : O Lord, I am oppressed ; undertake for me.
XLV. [fo. 88VO] To those grieving for the death of relatives or friends. 1 Thessalonians iv., 13 : But I would not have you to be ignorant.
XL VI. [fo. 90VO] To those grieving for the death of relatives. St. John xi., 25 : I am the resurrection and the life.
XLVII. [fo. 93] To crusaders, or those about to be crusaders. Eevelation vii., 2 : And I saw another angel ascending.
XL VIII. [fo. 94VO] Same. Jeremiah iv., 6 : Set up the standard toward Zion.
XLIX. [fo. 98] To pilgrims. Galatians iii., 1C: Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.
L. [fo. 100] Same. Zechariah, xiv., 18 : There shall be the plague, where with the Lord will smite the heathen.
LI. [fo. 102VO] To the mighty and to soldiers. Psalms ii., 10 : Be wise now, therefore, 0 ye kings.
LII. [fo. 104™] Same. St. Luke iii., 14 : And the soldiers likewise demanded of him.
LIII. [fo. 107] Same. Ecclesiastes x., 17 : Blessed art thou, 0 land, when thy king is the son of nobles.
LIV. [fo. 109] Citizens and burghers. Psalms iv., 2 : O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame ?
LV. [fo. Ill] Same. Eevelation xviii., 4 : Come out of her (Babylon).
LVI. [fo. 113VO] To merchants and money-changers. St. Luke xix., 13 Occupy till I come.
LVII. [fo. 115VO] Same. Ecclesiasticus xxvi., 28 : A merchant shall hardly keep himself from doing wrong.
LVIII. [fo. 117ro] Same. Psalms xxxvii., 21 : The wicked borroweth and payeth not again.
LIX. [fo. 120] Same. Psalms Ixxii., 14 : He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence.
LX. [fo. 122] To husbandmen, vinedressers, and other labourers. Zechariah xiii., 5 : I am an husbandman.
LXI. [fo. 124] To husbandmen and other labourers. Proverbs xxiv. 27 : Prepare thy work without.
LXII. [12GVO] To artificers. Psalms cxxviii., 2 : For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands.
Xlvi EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
LXIII. [fo. 12SVO] To sailors and mariners. Psalms cvii., 23 : They that go down to the sea in ships.
LXIV. [fo. 130VO] To manservants and maidservants. Psalms cxxiii., 2 : Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters.
LXV. [fo. 132VO] Same. Proverbs xxx., 21 : For three things the earth is disquieted.
LXVI. [fo. 135] To the married. Genesis ii., 18 : It is not good that the man should be alone.
LXVII. [fo. 137VO] Same. Psalms xlix., 12 : Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not.
LXVIII. [fo. 139] Same. Song of Solomon vii., 1 : The joints of thy thighs are like jewels.
LXIX. [fo. 141] To widows and the continent. 1 Timothy v., 5 : Now she that is a widow indeed, and is desolate.
LXX. [fo. 142] Same. Song of Solomon i., 10 : Thy cheeks are comely.
LXXI. [fo. 145VO] To virgins and young girls. Song of Solomon ii., 1 : I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.
LXXII. [fo. 147VO] Same. Wisdom of Solomon iv., 1 : 0 quam pulchra est casta generatio (Vulgate).
LXXIII. [fo. 149VO] To boys and young men. Proverbs xxii., G : Train up a child in the way he should go ; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
LXXIV. [fo. 151VOJ Same, llevelation xvi., 15 : Blessed is he that watcheth.*
4. Sermones communes vel quotidicmi.
These sermons, intended for general use as their title indicates, I know only from the references in Barroux, op. cit., p. 26, and Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit., p. 514, who states that MSS. of the work are to be found at Liege and Brussels,
3. The fame of Jacques de Vitry as a preacher, and the attractive character of the illustrative stories employed in his sermons, must
* In Cardinal Pitra's list, op. cit., p. 347, there is a seventy-fifth sermon : On confirming ecclesiastical elections, 1 Timothy, v., 22 : Lay hands suddenly on no man. Cardinal Pitra says of this sermon : " Appendix cst addititia, brevis et imperfecta." The explicit of MS. Bib. Nat. 17,500 [fo. 153] is : " Expliciunt sermones ad status, qui sunt numero Ix. et xiiii. in volumine isto. Amen."
INTRODUCTION.
soon have led to a demand for some convenient edition of the exempla alone. Probably the first form was a collection of exempla accompanying the sermons, as was later the case with the promp- tuaria of Herolt and Martinus Polonus. Such an edition occurs in the MS. Bib. Nat. anc. fonds, 3283 (xivth cent.), where in the same hand are sermons and exempla. There is no table of con tents, or index, and no references from sermons to exempla, or vice versa.
Whether Jacques de Vitry himself made a collection of the exempla used by him' in the sermones vulgares is doubtful, and the existing collections are so irregular in their form and contents that it seems more likely that they were made by other preachers for their own use. The exempla in the MS. just cited are given in the baldest form, a line or two for each story, and were undoubtedly mere memoranda to be expanded at the preacher's will. This same collection of exempla is apparently reproduced alone in Bib. Nat. MS. Lat. 16, 529 (xiiith cent.), fols. 137-161. Usually the exempla in the independent collections are given as in the sermons. The number and choice of the exempla vary with the taste and object of the different collectors. Sometimes moral reflexions, etc., are ! considered exempla, and sometimes mere references to biographical or historical fact are so treated. The order of the exempla in the sermons is usually followed unless fresh material is interpolated. The MS. Bib. Nat. 16,515 Lat. (xiiith cent.) contains, beginning with fo. 66VO, one hundred and twenty exempla; the beginning is as follows, the corresponding stories in the present edition being in brackets: i. (viii.), ii. (ix.), iii., De quatuor osculis sacerdotum, iv. (xi.), v. (xvii.), vi. (xviii.), vii. (xix.), viii. (xx.), ix. (xxii.), x. (xxv.), xi. (xxvii.), xii. (xxviii.), xiii. De Hieronimo verberato ab angelo (for reading Cicero), xiv. (xxxi.), etc.
Still closer is the extensive collection of Jacques de Vitry's exempla (with the exception of the Harl. MS. 463, and the Vatican MS. to be mentioned later, the most extensive which I have yet seen) contained in the Bib. Nat. MS. Lat. 15, 661 (about
EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITKY.
1300), fols. 129-162. The work is entered in the catalogue as " Exempla Archiepiscopi Tyrensis (Jacobo de Vit.)". There is no indication of author or source of exempla at either beginning or end. The exempla follow exactly the order in the sermons. The first sixteen, for instance, are the same as the first sixteen in the present edition, except that xii., which, properly speaking, is not an exemplum, is omitted.
Of a similar nature is the collection in the Brit. Mus. MS. Harl. 463 (xivth cent.), the source of which is not indicated.* The order is as follows, it being evident that the beginning of the collection has been lost: i. — Ixxxi. (Ixxiii. — cliii.), xci. — xciv. — ccxix. (cliv. — ccxcvi.), Ixxxii. — Ixxxv. (ccxlvii. — ccc.), Ixxxvii. — xc. (ccci. — ccciii.)t
* From this MS. Mr. Thomas Wright took thirty-six exempla for his Latin Stories (Percy Society, vol. viii.), but was unaware of their source.
"f Some of the exempla of the Harl. MS. are not found in the present edition, consisting in moral sentences or in interpolations peculiar to this collection. I am indebted to Mr. Ward's notes for the following list of such differences. Harl. iv. (fo. 1, b), Devil only appears to the very good or very bad ; xiv. (fol. 3> b, col. 2), Joseph in prison in Egypt and the Macabees ; xxiii. (fo. 5, b.), St- Paulinus of Milan sells himself to redeem a widow's son (Gregory, Dialogues, iii., 1); xxvi., A Hermit is asked who has stripped him half naked and he answers : " The Gospel " ; xxxviii. (an insertion on the upper margin of fols. 8, b, 9, and 9, b), A chaplain in Sussex named Godfrey sees his dead mother appear in church telling him that it is only worse torment to have mass said for her ; xlviii., A moral sentence relative to the first-born son of a king, imprisoned by the subjects whom he comes to protect : inserted in the upper margin of the page : and an incident from a vision of hell, introducing two lovers, half-buried face to face, introduced on the lower margin of fo. 10, b ; li., Confessing sins compared to currying a horse, a moral sentence inserted in the upper margin of fo. 11 ; Hi. (fo. 11), Christ rescuing sinners from the devil compared to a tigress pursuing the hunter who has stolen her cubs and rushing upon the hunting spear for their sake ; Ixxxvi. (fo. 14, col. 2), Note on the fawning dog that bites; xcii. (fo. 14, b), Note on four animals symbolical of sinners ; xciii. (fo. 14, b, col. 2), Note on the three chief teachers : Fear, Shame and Love ; ciii. (fo. 15, col. 2), The horse-dealer who used to wink at his customers (Wright, No. 90, and cccix. of present edition, added later) ; civ. (fo. 15, col. 2), is cccx. of present edition, added later ; cxx. (fo. 16, b), A jongleur in danger of drowning
INTRODUCTION. xlix
The most extensive collection of Jacques de Vitry's exempla is that contained in the Vatican MS. 9352, parch., xivth cent., fols. 1-88, which contains practically all the exempla of the sermons. As an analysis of this MS. has been given by Cardinal Pitra in his Analecta novissima Spicilegii Solesmensis, ii., p. 443, it is un necessary to dwell upon it here.
Other thirteenth century collections are contained in the Bib. Nat. MS. Lat. 16,515, fols. 66VO-91VO ; same collection, MS. 2042, anc. fonds, fols. 165-182.* There is also a collection of Jacques de Vitry's exempla in the library of Troyes, MS. 1750, xiiith cent., 128 in number, which I have been unable to examine. There is a brief collection in the Brit. Mus. MS. 26,770, fols. 75- 80, Exempla magistri JacoU de Vitriaco (begins : " De profundis clamavi," and ends " mutuans participes sunt lueri"). It con tains 23 exempla, and is the briefest collection I have seen. Several of the exempla in it are not in the present edition.
The collections thus far examined have consisted of exempla
says to a lord : " To-day we must both drink of the same cup and wash in the same bath ;" cxlix. (fo. 19), St. Germanus tracks a horrible serpent to the tomb of a wanton ; cli. (fo 19), Lion always kills an adulterer when he meets one, part of ccxxxiv. of present edition ; civ. (fo. 19, b), the author professes to be ready to speak well of women ; clvii. (fo. 19, b), the wife who took the place of a maid servant, with whom her husband used to commit adultery ; clxi. (fo. 19, b, col. 2), a saying that those priests may be supposed to have concubines who have " manicas ad cubitum perforatas "; clxviii. (fo. 20, col. 2), the woman who stored up the knives of her lovers, as reminders when they should be grown old ; clxx. (fo. 20, b), sentence relative to procuresses ; clxxxviii. (fo. 22), sentence against those who assert that only near relations will recognise each other at the day of judgment ; cxci. (fo. 22, col. 2), the woman who placed the holy wafer in a hollow tree and forgot it for some time, and who then found it closed up with honeycombs in the forms of a pixis and capsula : cii. (fo. 22, b, col. 2), a detractor compared to an ape that befouls an image of the cross.
* Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit., p. 59, cites Bib. Nat. MS. Lat., ] 5,972, which seems, however, to be a collection of extracts from sermons, not of exempla. The same author also cites MS. 581 (fo. 174) of the library of the Arsenal at raris. I was unable to find this MS. in the catalogue, but I noticed there MS. 540 (595, T.L.), Sermones vulyares magistri Jacobi de Vitr.iaco, fifteenth century.
d
1 EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITKY.
taken from the sermons of Jacques de Vitry, more or less exten sive, and following more or less closely the order of the exempla in the sermons themselves. In these collections the exempla are in the same form as in the sermons, although in some of the collec tions already noticed the exempla are given in a condensed shape. It would not be surprising if, under the literary conditions of the times, there should soon be attributed to Jacques de Vitry stories which he had never related, or at all events had not related in the sermones vulgares. That this was later the case we shall see when we come to examine the great collections of exempla made in the xivth century. This false attribution of stories began, however, in the same century in which Jacques de Vitry lived, and is found to a remarkable extent in a collection of exempla purporting to be taken from his sermons. The collection in question is found in the Bib. Nat. MS. Lat. 18,134 (xiiith cent,). The table of con tents, " Incipiunt capita exemplorum magistri Jacobi de Vitriaco que narrat in sermonibus suis," begins at fo. 173ro and extends to end of fo. 175, giving titles of 137 exempla. The first 39 are not found in Jacques de Vitry 's sermones vulgares ; the xl. is Jacques de Vitry's cclxxii. ; the two following exempla are not in the sermons, and with the xliv. begin, properly speaking, the extracts from Jacques de Vitry.* This collection seems to have
* The correspondence is as follows, the exempla of Jacques de Vitry in brackets : xliv. (xix.), xlv. (xiv.), xlvi. (xxxi.), xlvii. (xxxix,), xlviii. (xlii.), xlix. (xlvii.), 1. (li.), li- (lii.)> 1". (liii.), hii. Oii.), Hv. (Ivii.), Iv. (lix.), Ivi. (Ixi.), Ivii. (Ixiv.), Iviii. (cccvii.), lix. (Ixx.), Ix. (Ixvi.), Ixi. (Ixvii.), Ixii. (Ixviii.), Ixiii. (Ivi.), Ixiv. (Ixxii.), Ixv. (Ixxv.), Ixvi. (Ixxvi.), Ixvii. (Ixxviii.), Ixviii. (Ixxxii.), Ixix. (xciii.), Ixx. (xciv.), Ixxi. (xcv.), Ixxii. (xcvii.), Ixxiii. (xcix.), Ixxiv. (ciii.), Ixxv. (civ.), Ixxvi. (cvii.), Ixxvii. (cix.), Ixxviii. (cxiv.), Ixxix. (cxvi.), Ixxx. (cxix.), Ixxxi. (cxxi.), Ixxxii. (cxxviii.),lxxxiii.(cxxxiii.), Ixxxiv. (civ.), Ixxxvi. (clxviii.), Ixxxvi. (clxix.), Ixxxvii. (clxx.), Ixxxviii. (clxxvi.), Ixxxix. (clxxvi.), xc. (clxxxi.), xci. (ccxxxvii.), xcii. (ccxx.), xciii. (ccxxi.), xciv. (ccxxii .), xcv. (ccxxviii.), xcvi. (ccxxxi.), xcvii. (ccxxxii.), xcviii. (eel.), xcix. (ccxxxi.), c. (ccxxxiv.), ci. (ccxxxvi.), cii. (ccxlv.), ciii. (ccxlvi.), civ. cclxxxii.), cv. (ccci.), cvi. (cclxxxviii.), cvii. (ccxlvii.), cviii. (cxcvi.), cix. (cc.), ex. (cciii.), cxiv. (ccxii.), cxv. (cclxxiii.), cxxviii. (cclxxxix.) cxxxv (ix.), cxxxvi. (cxxxiv.), cxxxvii. (cclxix.).
INTRODUCTION. H
been made by some preacher for his own use and to have been put together with little system. The stories in it, not found in Jacques de Yitry's sermons, are the usual monkish stories taken from Gregory, Caesar of Heisterbach, etc. There was undoubtedly, as we shall see later, a large mass of stories in circulation attri buted to Jacques de Yitry, and some of them may have been told by him in his sermons while preaching the Crusade in France, and have been noted or remembered by his hearers.*
The above are all the independent collections of Jacques de Yitry's exempla which I have seen, and I do not find any mention of such collections in the catalogues of the library of Munich or Berlin, and I have myself searched in vain the British Museum, Bodleian, Cambridge University Library, all the Florentine libra ries, and the ducal library at "Wolfenbiittel.
It will be the object of the following pages to trace the influence of Jacques de Yitry's use of exempla upon the preachers of his own and succeeding ages ; for the sake of completeness I shall
* This is not the place to examine in detail the stories not contained in Jacques de Vitry. Among them are : i., De abbate et monachis quibus demones illuserunt, " Convent of Demons," see Eticnne de Bourbon, 79, p. 75, where Jacques de Vitry is cited as authority ; v., Exemplum de Aristotile et uxore Alcxandri, " Aristotile saddled and ridden by queen," see Dunlop-Liebrecht, and Benfey, Pantschatantra, i., p. 462. The same story is given by Herolt (Discipulus) Promptuarium,M. 67, where Jacques de Vitry is cited as authority; vii., Exemplum do heremita cui diabolus in specie hominis ministrabat et quomodo decipit cum, " Devil gives hermit cock and hen, and so leads him to sin carnally," see Legrand d'Aussy, v., p. 179, and Contcs moralises de Nicole Bozon, pp. 18G, 297 ; xvii., De diavolo qui duxit uxorem cujus litigium non potuit sustinere, " Belphegor," see Dunlop-Liebrecht, p. 273 ; xxx., De symia que dcnarios projectit in mare, " Ape steals purse and throws money unjustly acquired into the sea," see La Fontaine, xii. 3, Pauli, Schimpf und Ernst, 375 ; xlii., De duobus burgensibus et de rustico, " Bread to be eaten by one who has the most remarkable dream," see Petrus Alphonsi, xx., ed. Schmidt, p. 63 ; cxi. De duobus amicis, Petrus Alphonsi, ed. cit., p. 35, etc.
These exempla cxtravagantla will be mentioned from time to time when we come to speak of the various printed collections in which they are found. A certain number of these cxem-pla arc discussed by K. Godeke in an article in Orient und Occident, vol. i., p. 530, which we shall have occasion to mention again.
d2
Hi EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
here briefly refer to the history of the recent interest in his exempla.
Aside from the references to Jacques de Vitry in the class of works containing stories for the use of preachers, no mention of him, except as a historian, is to be found until a very recent date.* None of the writers like Wright {Latin Stories, pp. vii.-viii.), Douce {Illustrations of Shakespeare, ii., p. 335) or Warton {Disser tation on the Gesta Eomanorum, in the third volume of his History of English Poetry) allude to Jacques de Vitry, and it was not until 1861 that K. Godeke, in an article {Asinus vulgi) in Orient und Occident, vol. i., p. 531, first called attention to the exempla. Godeke himself had never heard of the sermones vulgares, or seen any of the collections of Jacques de Vitry 's exempla, which are to be found in Paris and elsewhere. He only knew that the author of the Scala Celi had used a Speculum exemplorum Jacobi de Vitriaco, and he also learned from the catalogues that a MS. in Troyes contained : " cxxviii. exempla sumpta ex sermonibus Jacobi de Vitriaco," and a Paris MS. 3283 (xivth cent.) con tained : " sermones et exempla Jacobi de Vitriaco." From a comparison of the stories in the Scala Celi attributed to Jacques de Vitry with those in Wright's Latin Stones, Godeke inferred that of the 225 exempla of the Harl. MS. 463 many were by Jacques de Vitry.f Godeke's valuable article does not seem to have aroused any interest in Jacques de Vitry's exempla, and it was not until 1868 that scholars were finally enlightened in regard to the mysterious exempla and their whereabouts. In the first edition of his admirable work on the French pulpit in the Middle Ages {La Chaire frangaise au moyen age, Paris, 1868), Lecloy de la Marche
* The articles in the various biographical and bibliographical dictionaries refer, of course, to his sermons also. In the Biographic universelle (Michaud) there is no reference to sermons or exempla, in the Nouvclle Vwgraplile generate the sermons and extracted exempla are briefly mentioned, and in Ersch and Gruber the printed sermons alone are named.
f In fact, thirty-six of Wright's stories are by Jacques de Vitry, although Wright was unaware of it.
INTRODUCTION. Hii
gave for the first time a satisfactory account of the exempla of Jacques de Vitry, showing that they were originally contained in the sermones vulgar es, and were afterwards, by various hands, gathered into partial collections.*
A few years later the same writer edited a work of almost equal value for the history of mediaeval fiction and culture, Anecdotes Mstoriques, legendes et apologues tires du recueil inedit (FEtienne de Bourbon (Societe de Vhistoire de France), Paris, 1877. In this work Jacques de Vitry is constantly cited by the author, and the learned editor has occasionally printed in a note the original story by Jacques de Yitry.
Since Lecoy de la Marche all that has been said about Jacques de Vitry has been based upon the two works just mentioned. f
Such is a brief sketch of the fate of Jacques de Vitry's illustra tive stories in modern times ; their vicissitudes during a more remote period, and the use made of them by mediaeval collectors of anecdotes, will be described in the following pages.
III.
The use of exempla in sermons posterior to those of Jacques de Vitry.
It is impossible within the limits of this article to give a com plete history of the use of exempla in sermons succeeding those of Jacques de Vitry, and it is also difficult to distinguish between sermons intended for the use of preachers and independent collec tions. The latter difficulty is, however, not one of great moment, as it is probable that all collections of sermons by well-known preachers were used as magazines, from which less competent
* A second edition of this invaluable book, corrigee et augment ee, has since appeared, Paris, 1886, which is the one cited in the present work.
f I have been unable to see the thesis of M. Barroux on the subject of Jacques de Vitry, presented to the Ecole des Chartes in 1885. An analysis of it is given in the Positions dcs theses for 1885.
v EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
preachers drew. The illustrations for this section are largely taken from German sources. This class of works was especially popular in that country, and the collections of sermons by preachers of other lands were often first printed in Germany.*
The earliest complete course of Latin sermons for Sundays and festivals of the whole year (usually denominated " sermones de tempore et de sanctis ") is that of Brother Peregrinus, a Domini can and provincial of the order in Poland.f He was prior of the monasteries of Ratisbon and Breslau, where he probably preached and composed his work at the end of the xiiith century. The sermons are, properly speaking, mere sketches, and the exempla are not reserved for the end of the sermon, but are sparingly em ployed wherever the preacher sees fit.J
The legends in the Sermones de sanctis, so far as I have com pared them, seem to follow very closely the Legenda aurea of Voragine.
An extensive collection of sermons was left by the celebrated Dominican chronicler, Martin of Troppau (in Bohemia), generally known as Martinus Polonus, because the Bohemian Dominicans belonged to the Polish province of the order. He was of a noble
* The presses of Hagenau, Strassburg, Nurembnrg, etc., fairly teemed with such works ; see Cruel, op. cit., p. 468.
f Quetif andEchard,i.,p. 551; Cruel, p. 336 ; Linsenmeyer, p. 372 ; Fabricius, Bibliotheca latino, mediae et infinac aetatis, Florence, 1858, vol. v., p. 215. Hain cites seven editions before 1500; my copy is without date, place, or printer (Hain, 12,580, " Typis Kyserianis "), fol.
$ The following are all the exempla I have noted : fo. 4VO, Phaeclrus, ii., 6, see Kirchof ed. Oesterley, 7, 173; fo. 16r°, Jacques de Vitry, cclxxxvii. ; fo. 18ro, Gesta Eomanorum, 33 ; fo. 20V0., fo. 24ro, Vitae Pat. ed. Lyons, 1616, p. 286 ; fo. 25VO, fo. 41V», fo. 42VO, fo. 43™, fo. 51ro, fo. 55VO, Jacques de Vitry, cxxxv. \ fo. 60ro, Jacques de Vitry, xcvi., or rather Etienne de Bourbon, 144, not men tioned by oversight in my notes, p. 175; fo. Glv°, Jacques do Vitry, cclxxxviii., fo. 61VO, fo. 63ro, fo. 65ro, Jacques de Vitry, cclvii.; fo. 6Gro, Pauli ed. Oesterley, 435 ; fo. 67ro, Jacques de Vitry, ix. ; fo. 68ro ; fo. 69™, Vitae Pat., given as authority ; fo. 75ro ; fo. 78ro, Jacques de Vitry, cxx. ; fo. 80ro ; fo. 81ro; fo. 82ro ; fo. S7ro. The exempla for which I have found no parallels are the usual monkish stories and possess little value or interest.
INTRODUCTION. Iv
family of the name of Strepus, and was distinguished as a preacher and became papal chaplain and penitentiary. In 1278 he was made Archbishop of Gnesen, but died (1279) on the way to his see, and was buried at Bologna. Martinus Polonus is chiefly known for his historical work, Chronica summorum pontificum imperatorumque, which, although possessing no independent worth, was for centuries the chief source of historical knowledge.* The first edition of the sermons appeared at Strassburg in 1480. f In the edition of 1484 the sermons are 321 in number, and constitute the usual course known as De tempore et de sanctis. Each Sunday and feast day, however, has at least two sermons devoted to it, one taken from the Epistle, the other from the Gospel for the day (in some cases there are two sermons from the Epistle and one from the Gospel), and there are two or more sermons for each saint. As the work is provided with a storehouse of exempla, reference is made in the sermons to the Promptuarium (not vice versa), where the suitable exemplum may be found. The sermons of Martinus Polonus were not very popular, and had but a slight influence on the diffusion of exempla.
A more popular collection is that known as " Thesaurus novus sive Sermones de tempore per totum annum in tres partes divisi, hyemalem, aestivalem, et quadragesimalem." J The author is
* For life of Martinus Polonus see Quetif and Echard, i., p. 361 ; for history see Potthast, Itib. hist., p. 435, and Wattenbach, DeutsclilancVs Gescliichts- quellcn im Mittelalter, 2d ed. Berlin, 1874, ii., p. 326.
f Hain registers four editions before 1500, two of which are clearly accom panied by the Promptuarium to be mentioned later. It is impossible to tell from Hain whether the editions of Strassburg, 1480 (the first) and 1486 (the third) contain the Promptuarium > but I am inclined to think they do. My copy is Strassburg, 1484 (Hain, 10,854).
\ Graesse, Literargescliichtc, ii., ii., i., p. 165, cites editions of Antwerp, 1571, Venice, 1584, and Cologne, 1 608. I have noted the following: Sermones quadra- gcsimales, Nuremburg, A. Koberger, 1496 (Panzer, ii., p. 222, No. 275); Strass burg, 1485 (in Bib. Naz. Florence), ibid., 1487, 1488, 1493 (all in Wolfenbiittel) ; DC Sanctis, Nuremburg, 1496 (Bib. Naz., Florence); DC tempore,, Nuremburg, 1496 (Bib. Naz. Florence). I have myself the Sermones quadra gcsimales, Nuremburg, A. Koberger, 1496, and DC Sanctis, an incomplete copy, probably same place and date.
Ivi EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
supposed to be Pierre de la Palu, or Petrns Paludanns of Bur gundy or, according to others, of Bresse, in France, a Dominican, licentiate of theology at Paris in 1314, and Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1329 to his death in 1342.*
The Sermones de sanctis contain a number of exempla, e.g., xxx., A, from Etienne de Bourbon ; Ixiv., U, from Vincent of Beauvais, Spec. hist. ; cxix., K, from Pliny's Hist. not. ; cxx., G. ; ibid. K., anecdote of Queen Theodosia from Paulus Diaconus ; ibid. L, from Gregory's Dialogues. Exempla are also very sparingly introduced into the sermones quadragesimales (Ixxxvi., the story of Solomon and the worm, the blood of which cracked glass, with allegorical explanation) ; they are usually historical or taken from the com mon ecclesiastical sources, Gregory, etc.
One of the most famous preachers of his order was St. Vincent Ferrer, a Spanish Dominican, born at Valencia in 1355, and died at Vannes, in France, in 1419, leaving sermons, letters, and several treatises. f The sermons are the usual de tempore et de sanctis. I have seen only the first part, the hyemales, in the edition of Lyons, 1539. Exempla are very sparingly used by St. Vincent, only twenty-six are given in the Tabula, to which may properly be added some sixteen others mentioned under the heading historia. These are of little interest, and are usually given in a very bald and concise form ; among them are : fo. 41VO, " King for a year," Jacques de Vitry, ix. ; fo. 104, man hung on spot where he had once beaten his mother ; fo. 183, story of the woman who was a sinner who expired in church from contrition, etc.
The most popular, perhaps, of all the preachers whom we shall consider in this connection is John Herolt, a Dominican monk of
* Quetif and Echard, vol. i., p. 603, do not accept the Sermones thesauri novi as Pierre de la Palu's, for various reasons, among them the facts that the autho rities cited are later than Pierre, and Franciscan writers are cited more frequently than Dominicans.
f Quetif and Kchard, i., p. 763, ii., pp. 338, 812, and Graesse, op. cit. p. 85. The most popular of his works after the sermons is the Ojniscnlnm de fine miindi. See Hain for eaily editions of this and of sermons.
INTRODUCTION. Ivii
Basel, who flourislied during the first half of the xvth century.* The date of the composition of his sermons is given in Sermo Ixxxv. (detempore et de sanctis), " a Christo autem transacti sunt mille quadrigenti decem et octo anni; " but in Sermo vi. of the de sanctis he mentions as heretics Huss, Jerome, and Procopius, the latter of whom did not assume the leadership of the Hussites until 1424, and was not killed until 1434, in the batble of Boemischbrod. This discrepancy can easily be explained, on the supposition that Herolt inserted in his collection his earlier ser mons, and either forgot to change the first date or purposely left it.f The collection was probably published between 1435-40, and this will also be the date of the Promptuarium (to be de scribed later), as constant reference is made in it to the sermons, and vice versa, and its object was undoubtedly to afford the preachers who used the sermons a wider range of exempla.% The author modestly styles himself " Discipulus," and his work is usually cited under that name. He himself explains it as
* Scanty notices of him will be found in Fabricius, op. cit., Graesse, op. cit., ii., ii., 1, p. 169 ; Cruel, p. 480, and Val. Schmidt in his edition of the Dis- clplina clericalis, Berlin, 1827, p. 99, note 3.
f Cruel, p. 480.
| The enormous popularity of the Sermoncs de tcmpore et de sanctis, in cluding the Promptiiarium, may be seen by a glance at Hain and Panzer; the former registering twenty-nine editions with place and date, and seven without, before 1500, the latter, fifteen editions after the above date. The edition cited in this work is Strassburg, 1495, M. Elach, fol. (Hain, 8505). It contains the above mentioned sermons, the Promptuarinm, and a collection of miracles of the Virgin filling thirty-one pages. I have also a very convenient edition, Venice, 1606, 4to., which besides the above works of Herolt contains also Scr- inoncs Discipuli in quadragcsima. The latest edition of Herolt's sermons seems to be that edited by another Dominican, B. Elers, Augsburg, 1728, 4to. In spite of the " Divisio et series operis " on p. ii., in which the editor announces all the above mentioned sermons of Herolt and the Promptuarium and miracles of the Virgin, he has reprinted only the scrmones de tempore, omitting all the others. The editorial work consists in a Directorium and some indexes, with marginal references. The reprint so far as I have compared it follows the original exactly, and is valuable only as showing how long Herolt's influence lasted.
Iviii EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
follows, at the end of the Sermones de tempore : " Finiunt sermones collecti ex diversis sanctorum dictis et ex pluribus libris, qui inti- tulantur sermones discipuli ; quia in istis sermonibus non subtilia per modum magistri, sed simplicia per modum discipuli conscripsi et collegi." Nothing is known of Herolt's life ; besides the works above mentioned, he left a collection of sermones super epistolas, and a treatise entitled Liber de eruditione Cliristi fidelium*
The most important of Herolt's works is the collection of sermones de tempore et de sanctis, to which the Promptuarium (to be examined later) is appended. The sermones de tempore are 164 in number, the de sanctis 48, in all 212. As is usually the case, two sermons are given to each Sunday or festival, but one, however, is devoted to each saint. The exempla are regularly introduced at the end of the sermon, although they are occa sionally found elsewhere also. Sometimes more than one is given at the end, and in a few cases none at all is employed. The Promptuarium is to be regarded as a storehouse containing an extra supply of exempla. We have seen in the sermons of Martinus Polonus that the exempla were contained entirely in the Promptuarium also appended to them, and that reference was made in the sermons to the Promptuarium. This is not the case with Herolt, whose Promptuarium registers all the stories in the sermons, but is not referred to in the sermons. The sermons are preceded by an elaborate table of the exempla in the sermons, 283 in number. They are of the same character as those in the Promptuarium, and will be examined in detail when that work is later examined.
The Sermones in quadragesima are 47 in number, containing 52 exempla of the same character as those in the other sermons.
* There is a copy of the sermones super epigtolas, without date or place, in the Astor Library, New York. It is of no interest in this connection. The second work I have not seen. To Herolt is also ascribed a history of the Albi- gensian war, but no such work has been found by Potthast, Monod, or Franklin, and its existence was earlier doubted by Quetif and Echard (i., p. 7G2).
INTRODUCTION. lix
One of the most extensive collections of sermons which we shall encounter is that of Meffreth, a priest of Meissen, of whom nothing is known except that he finished the sermones de sanctis in 1443, and began at once the sermones de tempore, on which he was working until 1447.* He calls his work Hortulus Reginae, in honour of the church represented by the Queen of Sheba,f and was led to com pose it because it is the duty of priests to teach the faithful, and this he was prevented from doing in the pulp it. J His work con sists of the usual sermones de tempore et de sanctis, arranged, how ever, in three parts, one containing the de tempore, pars aestivalis ; the second, the de tempore, pars Jiyemalis ; and the third, the de sanctis. Cruel (op. cit. p. 486) says that three or four sermons are given to each Sunday in the de tempore ; in the de sanctis two or more are given to each saint. Cruel gives an elaborate account of the de tempore and the wide range of the author's citations. He does not expressly mention the exempla, but I presume they are of frequent occurrence. This is the case at least with the de sanctis, of which alone I can speak of my own knowledge. Here exempla (i.e., stories, properly speaking, and not mere extracts
* Cruel, p. 486. Fabricius says he was living in 1476. Hain registers ten editions before 1500. I have been able to use only the de sanctis, without place or date (Hain, 11,000).
f The author says in a verse at the end of the de sanctis :
" Hortulus iste quidem de cujus gramine pascit Se regina Saba, sponsaque sancta Dei."
In the prologue the author makes the usual statement in regard to the value of exempla : " Insuper in his hujus operis sermonibus exempla aliqua inserui legendarum quae ab auditoribus audientur et magis memoriae commendentur, quod secundum Augustinum, lib. vi., De doctrina Christiana : Plus decent
exempla quam verba subtilia Quare et ego hoc perpendens exemplis
hinc inde repertis hanc materiam pro profectu pauperum studentium exornavi subtilia evitando."
J What the cause was we do not know. He says : " Et cum omnium ego abortivus sum et indignus Christi sacerdotum, ne nomen subirem quod debet officium perdi et inciderem in dictum hujus doctoris gloriosissimi, hujus operis onus suscepi docens collectione quod non potui sermone."
Ix EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VTTRY.
from works on natural history, etc.) are of constant occurrence.* Meffreth's work is of considerable importance and deserves further study.
We have already had occasion to notice the sermones quadra- gesimales of Herolt. These sermons for Lent arose from the custom of daily preaching during that season which prevailed in Italy from the beginning of the thirteenth century. This custom extended into Germany in the following century, and in the fifteenth century had become so prevalent that it was necessary to make provision for it in the collections of sermons for the use of preachers, which now often consisted of three parts, de tempore et de sanctis, and quadragesimale, the latter frequently appearing as a separate work.f The most popular of these independent collec tions is the Quadragesimale of Johan Gritsch, a Franciscan, of whom we know nothing but that he was a native of Basel and famous as a pulpit orator during the Council held in that city (1431-1449).:]; He left sermones quadragesimales and de passione Domini. The former alone have been printed, and were written shortly before 1440. The work contains forty-eight sermons, the themes for which are taken from the gospel for the day. In order to make the work serviceable for the whole year (for which its extent and variety of contents fitted it), the author added at the end a set of outline sermons for the whole year, with references
* Among these are Serm. xxxvii., B. miracle of St. Appolonia ; xxxix., C.. miracle of St. Matthew; xlii., B., story of Armenius from the Vltae Pat mm • xlv., K., what happened to one who took the Host unworthily; xciii., F., story of Theophilus on the authority of Voragine and Vincent and Sigibcrtus ; xcv., L., stor) of the thief miraculously supported on the gallows from Vincent ; cxiii., L., story from Jacques de Vitry's prologue to life of St. Mary; cxiii., L., certain relics of one of the virgin martyrs of Cologne returns to that city, because the abbot to whom they were sent neglects to enclose them in a proper shrine ; cxv., B., story of Monk Felix in Longfellow's Golden Legend, etc.
f See Cruel, p. 556, Linsenmeyer, pp. 131, 134, 1G6, and Lecoy de la Marche, p. 220.
t A brief notice of him may be found in the Allge-meine dcutsche Biograpltie by Kellner. See also Cruel, p. 558. For editions of the Quadragesimale see Hain, who registers 26 before 1500. My copy is the second (Hain, 8058).
INTRODUCTION. Ixi
to the place in the Quadragesimale where the material proper for the expansion of the outline could be found. The sermones quadra- gesimales themselves are of unusual length, and divided into three pai'ts, each of which may be still further sub-divided. Our interest in the work is solely from the standpoint of illustrative stories, and it is indeed rich in these. A pecularity of the work is the extensive use of Ovid's Metamorphoses, with moralizations (see iv., 2, of this introduction), and at times euhemeristic explanations.* Exempla are also found frequently, 34 are registered in the index, but a much larger number is to be found in the sermons. A comparatively small number of Jacques do Vitry's exempla is to be found in Gritsch (for these see Index to Notes of present work), but a considerable number of the most popular stories of the middle ages is to be found in the Quadra- gesimale.-f Gritsch's work, in short, is one of the most original and entertaining of its kind, and from its enormous popularity contributed largely to the diffusion of stories.
Our attention is next attracted by an Englishman, John Felton, a fellow of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, and vicar of the church of St. Mary Magdalen- without- the- walls, Oxford. He nourished about 1430, and was so famous for his preaching that he gained the name of "homiliarius," or " concionator."^ He left several works : AlpJiabetum theologicum ex opusculis Hobt. Grostvte collection ; Lccturae Sacrae Scripturae ; Pera Peregrini, and
* These are entered in the index under Fcibula ; among them are : <; Tabula Castoris et Polucis et amore Christi ;" " Tabula Laomedontis promittante et foyente et non solvente ; " " Tabula Priami amoris et compassione Christi ; " " Fabula Cassandre de incredulitate ; " " Tabula Lichanois in lupum conversi de pietate Christi, et ingratitudine et dolositate ; " " Tabula Phebi et Clytie et facti amoris," etc. Cruel, pp. 559-60, gives several examples in full,
f The following stories in the three great collections are also in Gritsch : Gesta Ilomanontm, 9, 11, 17, 35, 36, 41, 42, 45, 48, 50, 60, 61, 67, 71, 77, 97, 108, 112. 126, 137, 138, 174, 231, 253 ; Pauli's Scldmpf imd Ernst ,7, 26, 32, 84, 116, 135, 169, 226, 359, 392, 412, 433, 481, 487, C31, 625, 647 ; Kirclihof's Wcndnnmuth, 1, 57 ; 3, 203 ; 5, 121 ; 5, 124 ; 6, 73 ; 7, 39 ; 7, 73.
\ See Dictionary of English Biography and sources there cited (Pits, Bale, Tanner, and Leland), to which may be added Oudin and Tabricius.
x EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITJJY.
sermons, in which alone we are at present interested. The scrmones dominicales (I have not seen the " two other volumes of sermones " referred to in the Dictionary of English Biography) are frequently found in English libraries.* They are the usual sermones dominicales, 58 in number, and at the end is the table of contents, sometimes of sermons, sometimes of texts. The exempla are gathered together under the letter N". (Narracio) in the index and are about 67 in number, and others are doubtless to be found scattered through the sermons in other places. Among these exempla are : The angel who stopped his nose at sight of sinful youth (Jacques deVitry, civ.) ; Man fleeing from unicorn (Jacques do Vitry, cxxxiv.) ; True son refuses to shoot at father's body (Gesta Eom. 44) ; Guy of Warwick in Constantinople and the lion ; Jew in the temple of Apollo, and temptation of Andrew, bishop of Fundi (Jacques de Vitry, cxxxi.) ; Atlanta; Codrus, king of Athens ; Alexander bearing thirst ; Death of Alexander and vanity of the world ; Titus and Pilate ; Darius fleeing from Alexander ; Xerxes weeping at sight of his army, etc. Besides these Oesterley in his notes to the Gesta Romanorum cites the following : Enmity between two brothers and their reconciliation (Gesta Rom., 39) ; Socrates marries emperor's daughter (Gesta Rom., 61) ; Princess hangs up in chamber weapons of knight who restored her to her kingdom but dies in so doing (Gesta Rom., 66) ; King gives kingdom to most indolent one of his three sons (Gesta Rom., 91) ; King gives to rich and noble temporal gifts, to the poor his dominion over the rich and noble ; these buy it and give it back to the king (Gesta Rom., 131).
One of the most popular collections of the time we are now considering (the middle of the xvth century) is the anonymous
* I have consulted the following in the Brit. Mus., 20,727 ; 22,572 ; Harl. 238 ; 868. There is a copy also in Corpus Christi library, Cambridge, Parker collection, ccclx. (cod. memb. in 4to., sec. xv. script). The prologue found in all of these is as follows : " Penuria studencium in materia morali, paupertasque juvenum qui copia privantur librorum, ac importuna sociorum meoruin instancia,
INTRODUCTION.
one known as Paratus de tempore et de sanctis* The name comes from the first word of the opening texts of each part : " Paratus est judicare vivos et mortuos " I. Peter, iv., 5) and " Paratus sum et non sum turbatus ut custodiam mandata tua" (Psalms, cxviii.,60, Yulgate; cxix., CO, Authorised Version.) There are 157 sermones de tempore, and 78 de sanctis. Two sermons are usually given for each day, and these two sermons consist of three parts : a sermon on the epistle, a commentary (expositio textualis) on the gospel, and a sermon on the same. The sermons are short and practical, and owed their great popularity to this fact and also to the frequent use of exempla. One is generally given in each sermon, sometimes two or more (in the cxxxii. no less than fourteen are given, but this is an exceptional case). I have counted 50 exempla, properly so called, in the first hundred sermons, besides other illustrative stories not introduced by the word exemplum.1i
Still more popular although less valuable for our purpose, was the collection of sermons by another German, John of Werden, a
non temeritatis audacia, induxerunt me ut de singulis evangeliis dominicalibus que per anni circulum leguntur aliquam facerem compilacionem sermonnm. Hinc est quod de micis quas collegi que cadebant de mensa dominorum meorum, scilicet Januensis, Parisiensis, Lugduncnsis, Odonis et ceterorum, quorum nomina scribuntur in margine libri, unum opusculum compilavi ad laudem Dei et gloriose Virginis Marie et Sancte Marie Magdalene, omniumque sanctorum et ad legentium utilitatem et mihi adjuvamentum. Amen."
* Hain registers 17 editions before 1500. My edition is not in Hain, and is without year, place, or printer, 4to.
f The majority of the exempla are the usual monkish tales devoid of interest. The exempla in the de sanctis are miracles of the saints (in xxiii. is story of Theophilus). Of the exempla in the de tempore the following are the most popular : ii. (Gesta Mom,, 22-i) ; x. (variant of Jacques de Vitry, Ixvi.) ; xxv. ( O-eista Rom., 66) ; xxviii.. Cock comes to life to refute blasphemers who said that neither Peter nor Christ could restore it to life (for extensive literature of this story see F. J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, i. pp. 238, 505) ; xxxiv., Philosopher prefers to give daughter to man needing money rather than to money needing a man ; Ixiv. (Pauli, 6-17) ; Ixxix. (Jacques de Vitry, ccxlvi.) ; Ixxx. (Jacques de Vitry, cxxviii.) ; cix. (Jacques de Vitry, cxx.) ; cxxxii. (Jacques de Vitry, clxxiv.); cxxxii. (Jacques de Vitry, cii.); cxlv. (Gesta Rom., 143).
Jxiv EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
Franciscan, of Cologne, who nourished about the middle of the xvth century. They are usually known as the Sermones Dormi secure, from the words in the introduction : " Sermones dominical es cum expositionibus evangeliorum per annum, satis iiotabiles et utiles omnibus sacerdotibus, pastoribus et capellanis, qui alio nomine Dormi secure vel dormi sine cura sunt nuncupati, eo quod absque magno studio faciliter possint incorporari et populo praedicari, incipiunt feliciter." * The sermons (71 in number) are the usual dominicales with the theme taken from the Gospel. The author makes the common renunciation of originality at the end : " Ex- pliciunt sermones Dormi secure, ex variis diversorum doctorum sermonibus collecti et in unum compilati." In one case (JDe Pas- sione Domini sermo xxiv.) an entire sermon from Jacobus de Vora- gine is inserted.t John of Werden's sermons are remarkable for the allegorical or figurative exposition of the Scriptures, and the frequent use of the material found in the mediaeval works on natural history (see iv., 2, of this introduction). Exempla pro perly speaking are seldom used, and the work is not of much importance for the diffusion of stories.
In this connection may be briefly mentioned the sermons of Michael Lochmair, canon of Passau, who nourished about 1430, and left among other works sermones de tempore et de sanctis. I have been able to see only the latter. J Exempla are sparingly used, 26 being cited in the index, and are of little interest. §
* Hain registers 25 editions before 1500 ; my copy is Hain; 15,9G9 (without year, place, or printer, but Ulm, J. Zainer). Eor John of Werden see Cruel, p. 478, and Hist. Hit. de la France, vol. xxiv., p. 373 ; xxv., p. 81 ; and xxix., p. G14. In a recent catalogue of incunabula belonging to M. Madden the Sermones Dormi secure are attributed to a certain Matthew Heer, a German Franciscan, about whom I can find nothing.
t Cruel, p. 478, mentions other cases of wholesale borrowing ; but with the exception of the one mentioned above they are not acknowledged.
£ My copy is Hagenau, John Byuman, 1507, fol. The sermons are 114 in number, 23 of them written by Lochmair's colleague Paul Wann, himself a famous preacher (see Cruel, p. 517).
§ Among them is the fable of the wolf and the lamb (Jacques de Vitry, cxxxv.).
INTRODUCTION. IxV
Our attention is next attracted by a group of famous Italian preachers, the earliest of whom, San Bernardino da Siena, was born in 1380 and was renowned for his charitable work during the pestilence of 1400. Two years later he assumed the habit of St. Francis, and was conspicuous as a reformer of that order and the founder of an enormous number (300) of convents. He died at Aquila in 1444, and was canonised by Pope Nicholas V. in 1450. He left a number of sermons, religious treatises, and commentaries upon the Apocalypse. Forty sermons in Italian preached at Siena in 1426 have been preserved.* The exempla are 39 in number (one is omitted in the printed edition), and are mostly local anec dotes or monkish tales of no value. t
The most famous preacher of the xvth centry in Italy, and one of the most famous in Europe, was Gabriel Barletta or Bareleta or Bareletta, an Italian Dominican, who either took his name from the city of Barletta, or, as Quetif (i. p. 844) thinks, was born at Aquino from a family by the name of Barletta. He preached with great applause in several cities in the kingdom of Naples during the second half of the xvth century, and probably lived until 1480 (until 1470, according to Quetif). His popularity was so great that it gave rise to the proverb, " Nescit praedicare, qui nescit bar- lettare." He preached in Italian, but his sermons have reached us only in a Latin translation.! Barletta has achieved an unfor-
* The illustrative stories contained in these sermons have been collected and published by F. Zambrini in the Scelta di curiosita letterarie, Disp., xcvii., under the title : Novellette, esemjri morali e apologhi di San Bernardino da Siena, Bologna, 1868.
f Besides those in Jacques de Vitry, the following are of general interest : iii. QLa Fontaine, iii., 1, the famous apologue of the miller, his son, and the ass) ; vi. (La Fontaine, xi., 6, the wolf and the fox in the well); ix. (Lion hearing confessions of other animals and pronouncing judgment, see Voigt, Kleiner e lateinische Dcnkmaler der Thicrsage, Strassburg, 1878, pp. 81, 138) ; xiv. (Etienne de Bourbon, p. 393, No. 456).
J Quetif (i., p. 844) says his sermons were taken down by an amanuensis and afterwards interpolated, etc., in the editing. Ifain mentions but two editions of his Scrmoncs quadragesimalcs et de sanctisbeione 1500. My copy is Lyons, 1505, small 4to. In this edition the frequent citations from Dante, which apparently were in Italian in the earlier editions, have been translated into Latin.
e
Ixvi EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
tunate reputation by his apparent levity and fondness for jesting in the pulpit. His printed sermons, however, do not differ materially from those already examined in regard to the exempla which they contain. These are not as numerous as in some col lections, and do not occur in the regular place — at the end of the sermon — but are introduced at the will of the preacher, who some time relates several in one sermon and omits them altogether in others.* It may be said in conclusion that the exempla of Barletta are neither numerous nor original, and possess little value for comparative storiology.
Another Italian preacher who enjoys a reputation of somewhat the same character as that of Barletta is Bernardiiius de Bustis, a Franciscan of Milan, who nourished at the end of the fifteenth century (Fabricius puts his death after 1550), and left a large number of edifying works. He was famous for his preaching and for the share he took in establishing the Festival of the Holy Name of Jesus, and founding the Italian monts-de-piete. Of his many sermons we are here interested only in the Rosarium sermonum praedicabilium.-f The author says in the introduction that if any one wishes to preach the whole year with few books he
* The usual sources are cited (quite often the sermones Thesauri Nom attri buted to Pierre de Palu, and the CJironica ordinis, i.e., the Dominican order), and the stories are given in the concise form common to the collections of ser mons, where they undoubtedly were intended as memoranda for the use of preachers, to be developed at will. Besides the exempla found in Jacques de Vitry, the following are a few of the most interesting stories in Barletta's sermons : fo. xiiv0., story of Thais from the Vitae Patrum; fo. xv., story of Midas ; fo. xvii., story of St. Martin bestowing half his cloak on the beggar ; fo. xli., Ass punished for trivial cause, wolf allowed to go free, Pauli, 350; fo. liiv0., Murderer thinks it time to repent when his child finds grey hairs in his head, Pauli, 292 ; Sermones de sanctls, fo. Ixxxii., Diogenes at Alexander's tomb, Gesta Rom. 31 ; fo. Ixxxii., Jacques de Vitry is cited as authority for story found in Pauli, 388, persons who danced at Christmas miraculously com pelled to dance the whole of following year ; fo. lxxxivvo., Damon and Pythias, Gesta Rom., 108.
f Hain registers two editions before 1500. My copy is the first (Hain, 4163), Venice. 1498, 2 parts in 1 vol., 4to.
INTRODUCTION. LxvH
should have the author's Mariale and both parts of the Rosarium, together with the Defence of the Monts-de-piete, and then he can preach not only one year but three or four in the same place. Then follows a table for the whole year, with directions for using the above-mentioned work. The sermons are of inordinate length and crammed with every species of authorities. Exempla are frequently used, among them many local anecdotes from the preacher's own experience. A curious feature of the work is the copious quotation in the second part (Sermons xv.-xxx.) of Italian hymns (sometimes a Latin one, the " Stabat Mater," Sermon xv.), and passages from Dante, Ovid, etc. The exempla are in many cases of general interest, and the work of Bernardinus must have had considerable influence on the diffusion of tales.*
I shall close this very unsatisfactory review of sermons con taining exempla with a notice of the most remarkable production in the entire field. I allude to the Sermones super Epistolas Pauli of Gottschalk Hollen (or Holem or Hollem).t He Avas born at Corvey at the end cf the fourteenth century, and took the habit at Herford (he was a member of the order of the Hermits of St. Augustine). He was educated in Italy, and after his return to Germany distinguished himself as a preacher, and was present at the Council of Osnabriick, where he died in 1481. He left a number of edifying works, of which have been printed : Sermons on the Virgin Mary (Hagenau, 1517, 1520), Sermones dominicales super Epistola Pauli.$ and Preceptorium (to be mentioned later, iv., 3, of this Introduction). §
* It is impossible to enter into detail here in regard to the exempla of Ber nardinus de Bustis. It may be said, however, that 21 of his exempla are found in the Gcsta Ilomanorum, 39 in Pauli, and 5 in Kirchhof.
f See Allgcmeine dcutsche Blofjrapliie^ and Cruel, p. 502.
J My copy is Hagenau, Henry Gran, 1517, fol. There is an edition of the pars hy emails, 1519, same place and printer, and of the pars acstivalis, 1520, same place and printer.
§ The Allfjemelne dcutsche B'wg. says that a work, De Fcstis mobilibus et astronomia clericali, is said to have been printed at Florence in 1514.
Ixvlii EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
The sermons in question are the usual dominicales, the texts, however, being confined to the Epistles of St. Paul. The work is divided into the usual two parts — hy emails and aestivalis, the former containing 73 sermons (besides three by Johannes de Sancto Greminiano, see iv., 2, of this Introduction), the latter, 107 (besides 16, de dedications ecclesiarum) . The number of exempla contained in these 199 sermons is simply enormous, and exceeds all other works, with the possible exception of Bromyard's Summa Praedicantium (see iv., 3, of this Introduction). Every possible source is drawn upon, and in addition to the hackneyed stories of the earlier collectors, Hollen gives countless anecdotes from his own experience. Besides exempla properly so called, Hollen's work is a perfect mine for the study of mediaeval superstitions.* It is impossible to give here even a brief selection from Hollen's innumerable exempla, or to do more than direct the attention of students of Folk- Lore to the unusual importance of Hollen's sermons for their investigations.
This is the proper place perhaps to allude briefly to the later fate of exempla in sermons. There was always a great tempta tion for certain preachers to amuse their congregations by the recital of stories unsuited to the sanctity of the place and occasion. As early as the beginning of the fourteenth century we find in Dante a passionate outbreak against the preaching of his day.f The abuses which must have arisen everywhere in
* I can call attention here to but a few points. Sermon xv. for Christmas is full of superstitions and customs connected with that night : gamesters think that if lucky then they will be so all the year, use of disguises (Indus larvarttm), etc. Sermon xlvii. is devoted to the use of charms written in secret characters ; some seventeen cases are given in which they are wont to be employed. Sermon liii. contains much curious lore concerning physicians and medicines. Abuses in dress, colouring the hair, &c., are mentioned in Sermon iv. ; prejudices of various classes of persons concerning times and seasons in Sermon ix. ; condition of infants after death in Sermon xix., etc. f Paradiso, xxix., 103-120 (Longfellow's translation) : " Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi As fables such as these, that every year Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth,
INTEODUCTION. Ixix
this respect attracted the attention of the church, and we find allusions to the matter in various councils, although the word exempla is not specifically mentioned. At the Council of Sens, 1528 (cap. xxxvi. in J. Harduin, Ada Conciliarum, Paris, 1714), it was decreed : " Quod si secus fecerint, aut si populum more scurrarum vilissimorum, dum rediculas et aniles fabulas recitant, ad risus cachinnationesque excitaverint, .... nos volumus tales tarn ineptos et perniciosos concinnatores ab officio praedicationis suspendi," etc.*
The decrees of the councils were aimed at the improper use of illustrative stories, and probably checked to some degree the abuses which had arisen in this regard. That exempla continued to be used to a late date (in fact are still employed) will be
In such wise that the lambs, who do not know,
Come back from pasture fed upon the wind,
And not to see tbe harm doth not excuse them.
Christ did not to his first disciples say,
' Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,'
But unto them a true foundation gave ;
And this so loudly sounded from their lips,
That, in the warfare to enkindle Faith,
They made of the Evangel shields and lances.
Now men go forth with jests and drolleries
To preach, and if but well the people laugh,
The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked.
But in the cowl there nestles such a bird,
That, if the common people were to see it,
They would perceive what pardons they confide in."
* At the first Council of Milan, 1565 (Harduin, x., p. 641, cap. vi., Do praedi- catione verbi Dei) similar expressions are used : " Ne historias ex apocryphis scrip toribus populo narrent. Neve miracula, quae probate scriptoris fide non commendentur. Si quae tamen auditoribus salutaria judicarint, ita commemo- rent, ut a certa affirmatione abstineant. Ne ineptas et ridiculas fabulas recen- seant ; neve supervanea et parum fructuosa." In Spain the same prohibition was necessary, as is seen by the provisions of the Council of Burgos, 1624 (Harduin, vol. xi., p. 95, cap. viii.) : " Quae autem concinatori sunt fugienda, multa esse norunt omnes, sed haec dumtaxat praescribamus. Ne igitur certum tempus Antichrist! extremi judicii, apocrypha, falsa miracula, fabulas. profana, ambigua, obscura, dubia, dificilia, ac supra plebis captum afferat concionator."
xx EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
shown when we examine in the following section (iv., 1) the collections of cxempla made for the use of preachers.
IV.
Collections of cxempla for the use of preachers.
1. The demand for exempla soon led to the preparation of col lections varying in size and contents. Although there is a general resemblance between the manuscript collections now to be men tioned, there does not seem to have been any model ; but each monkish compiler followed his own caprice. Some of the collec tions, as we shall soon see, became popular and were frequently reproduced.
The sources of these collections are to be found in a prodigious number of works.* In reality, however, a comparatively small number were in constant use. These were : the Vitae Patrum, the Dialogues of Gregory, the Dialogue Miraculorum of Caesar of Heis- terbach, and various collections of legends of the saints (later Yoragine's Legenda aurea). For historical anecdotes Valerius Maximus was frequently cited, as well as the various historical compends of the middle ages. This material is of little worth, except so far as it shows what the popular literature of the day was, and did the collections of exempla contain no more they would be of slight value. They do, however, contain in addition
* See list of Etienne de Bourbon's authorities, ed. cit., p. xiii.; Johannes Major gives a long list of his sources in his edition of the Speculum Excm- plorum, ; Holkot's are given in the prefatory matter of Ryter's edition. See also Cruel, pp. 244, 451, and Linsenmayer, p. 168. A classification of the cxempla is given by Lecoy de la Marche in La Chaire frangaise, p. 302 (see also the same author's L'esprit de nos awux, Paris, p. vii.), as follows : exempla drawn from history or legend, especially from the ancient historians, chronicles of France, lives of the saints, historical books of the Bible ; cxempla taken from contemporary events, anecdotes which were public property or recollections of the writer; fables; and, finally, exempla taken from media; val works on natural history.
INTKODUCTION. Ixxi
a certain amount of historical anecdote not found elsewhere, and an enormous mass of material concerning the popular beliefs and superstitions of the middle ages.
The form of these collections is usually alphabetical (although there are many exceptions), and they are designated as Alphdbe- turn exemploriim or narrationum. The arrangement is by topics. The following beginning of the Brit. Mus. MSS. Add. 11,284 will give an idea of bhe topics usually treated : Abstinentia, adquisicio, advocatus injustuSj adulterium, amandus est deus, amor mundi, amor carnalis, amicitia, adulator, apostasia, avaricia ; Balivus, etc. The choice of topic varies, as has been said above, and some of the collections are of enormous length. The Brit. Mus. MS. just cited has 572 exempla, and the Harl. MS. 268 contains 792.
These collections are anonymous ; the author of one, however, is known, and as his compilation is frequently found in European libraries, I shall briefly mention him here. Etienne de Besan9on was born about the middle of the xiiith century, at Besan9on. He studied at Paris, and became, in 1291, provincial of the Domi nican order in France, and a year later was elected general of the entire order. During a visit to Italy he died at Lucca, the 22nd of November, 1294. He was the author of a commentary on Ecclesiastes and the Apocalypse, an AlpJiabetum auctoritatum, ser mons, and the work in question, the AlpJiabetum narrationum.* This extensive work occupies in the Harl. MS., fols. 45-201 vo, and contains 320 chapters or titles, and 792 exempla. The arrange ment differs from the usual one in that the stories are frequently
* For Etienne de Besan£on see Quetif and Echard, i., p. 429, and Histoire litteraire do la France, xx., p. 266. The prologue to the AlpJiabetum narra tionum may be found in Quetif and Echard, vol. cit. p 430, and partially in the Hist, litt., vol. cit. p. 273. I have seen the following MSS. of this work : Paris, Bib. Nat. MS., 15,255 (thirteenth century), 12,402 (fourteenth century) ; London, Brit. Mus., MS. Harl. 208, Arund., 378, both of the fifteenth century. There are also copies of this collection at Oxford, Coll. Universitatis, Ixvii., 1 (fourteenth century) ; Munich, Royal Lib., 7,995 (Kaish, 95), 14,752 (Em. b. 5), both of the fourteenth century ; and Florence, Bib. Naz. Cat. sup. monast., 1269, A. 7 ; Laurcnz, 188, Cod. cxcvi.
Ixxii EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITRY.
not grouped under a general heading, but constitute separate groups by themselves. The sources are mentioned by the com piler.* This collection, one of the most extensive and varied, was translated into English and Catalan in the xvth century.f
The most interesting of the anonymous alphabetical collections is the MS. 11,284 of the Brit. Mus., mentioned above. It bears in the catalogue the title : " Fabularum anecdotorumque collectio ad usnm Praedicantium, in seriem alphabeticam digestam," and is a small folio volume of the xivth century, parchment, containing 91 folios. J The extensive character of this collection may be seen by the fact that it contains 572 stories arranged under 91 headings. The value of the collection, however, consists in the fact that the compiler was undoubtedly an Englishman, and put into his work, besides the hackneyed monkish tales from the usual sources, a large number of anecdotes of a local character, and often imparted a local colour to one of the old stories. The work is also rich in allusions to English mediaeval superstitions. This collection is one of the most interesting I have examined, and deserves to be more widely known. §
* The principal ones are : Caesar of Heisterbach, Vitae Patrum, Jacques de Vitry, Gregory, Etienne de Bourbon, Petrus Damianus, Valerius Maximus, Petrus Alphonsi, Jacobus de Voragine and Helinandus.
f These translations are described in the following section (v.) of this Intro duction.
J This MS. formerly belonged to Mr. W. J. Thorns, and was purchased from him by the British Museum in 1837. Mr. Thorns sent 19 of the cxcmpln in the volume to M. Haupt and A. W. Hoffman, who published them in their Alt- dvutsche Blatter, Leipzig, 1840, vol. ii., pp. 74-82 (story 16 is Jacques de Vitry, cclxxxviii, and 19 is Jacques de Vitry, clviii.). The same collection is found in Brit. Mus. MS. Add. 17,723 (fifteenth century), and, according to Mr. Ward, an apparent abridgment in Harl. MS. 665, and MS. Add. 16, 167.
§ The British Museum possesses other alphabetical collections : MS. Add. 21, 144, " Summula secundum ordinem alphabeti que dicitur habundantia exem- plorum " (fourteenth century). The cxempla fill fols. 1-146, and consist almost entirely of moral sayings. A similar collection is in MS. Add. 10, 381, " Exempla de habundantia exemplorum " (a copy also in Wolfenbiittel, MSS. Helmst., fifteenth century ; the works just cited are not to be confused with the Tractates
INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii
The collecftons for the use of preachers would naturally be more convenient when arranged in alphabetical order by topics, and that we shall see is the usual arrangement of the later printed collections. There are, however, many collections of exempla not alphabetical, and these will be briefly described now. One of the most extensive collections in the British Museum is the Harl. MS. 463, which, as has already been shown, is a collection of Jacques de Vitry's exempla. Another important collection is Brit, Mus. MS. Add. 27, 336 (xvth century), containing 375 exempla, the sources of which are seldom mentioned (in the first twelve folios Gregory is quoted once, Vitae Patrum four times, Infantia Salva- toris, Josephus, Ambrose, Augustine, Cassianus, Abbot Peter, Liber translatus de greco in latino, each once). Other shorter collections in the same library are : Harl. 3244 (xivth century), 158 stories; Add. 18,364, fols. 1-88VO, 307 stories; Add. 15,883, fols. 81-176VO, 166 stories; Arund. 506, 249 stories; Add. 21,147 (xvth century), 133 stories. Besides these there is a multitude of shorter collec tions.
It is impossible to describe here even briefly the great number of similar collections in Paris, Munich, and elsewhere. Most of
de abundantia exemplorum, i.e. the compcnd of Etienne de Bourbon's work, to be mentioned later, which I have in print, and which exists in manuscript in Brit. Mus. Sloane, 3102).
It is not my purpose to give here a bibliography of the alphabetical collections of exempla existing in manuscript form. I shall mention here only those which I have seen or noted for some particular purpose : Oxford, Bod. Rawl. MS. C. 899, fols. 127-218 (fifteenth century), 145 exempla; the MSS. of Etienne de Besaneon's collection in the Brit. Mus., Bib. Nat., and elsewhere have already been mentioned ; the Munich Royal Library is very rich in collections of exempla, and among them are a number of alphabetical collections, see Halm and Laubmann, Cat. cod. manu scriptorum Sib. Rcgiac Monacensis, Munich, 1868, Cod. Lat. (Cod. vet. bib. Elect.), 587, Alphdbet'umnarrationumA.tantum letteram complectitur ; 3232, Alpliabetarius (Abstincntia-Zelus') ; 9598, Exempla ord. alpli. ; finally, I may add the two collections of mediaeval moralized tales in the Diocesan library of Derry, described in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, April 10, 1882, by J. K. Ingram, Vice-President R.LA., both of which are arranged in alphabetical order.
BXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
these, as has been said, have little value, drawing always from the same sources. Occasionally a collection like that in the Brit Mus. Add. 11,284 has a local character and contains historical or quasi- historical anecdotes. Such a collection is that in the library of Tours (205, xvth century), probably made in the second half of the xiiith century by a Dominican well acquainted with Touraine, Maine, and Anjou. The work is divided into nine parts, and deals with the various classes of the community as does Jacques de Vitry in his Sermones vulgares*
With the invention of printing the variety which had prevailed in this department of literature, as in all others, disappeared, and the numerous older manuscript collections were replaced by a few printed ones which enjoyed enormous popularity, and the influence of which is still felt. These printed collections were fresh compilations and not reprints of the earlier manuscript ones. Their sources were the same, and that the printed collections drew from the manuscript ones is beyond doubt (among the sources cited in the prologue to the Scala Geli is an Alpfiabefaim narrationum). I shall divide the printed works into two classes : those containing exempla pure and simple, and those containing exempla moralised, or particular classes of exempla (moralised natural history, etc.).f
The first collection of the former class which I shall mention is the Speculum Exemplorum, an anonymous work.J The author
* A description of this MS. is given in the Bibliotlicque de VEcole des Cliartcs, serie vi., tome iv. (18G8), pp. 598-608, and a number of the exempla contained in it have been published in a French translation by Lecoy de la Marche in L'csprit dc nos a'teux.
f Some of the works about to be mentioned undoubtedly existed in manuscript from before the invention of printing (this is the case with the Scala Cell, etc.), but as they survive in print alone I have classed them here.
J The editor of the enlarged edition to be mentioned presently, Johannes Major, did not know who the collector of the original edition was. It is some times attributed to a Carthusian monk, Aegidius Aurifabcr, who died in HGG. The author was probably a Belgian, or from the adjacent German provinces, and nourished about 1480 (this is the opinion of Quetif and Echard, i., p. 907, who do not think him a Dominican, although his work is largely compiled from
INTRODUCTION. IxXV
explains in the prologue the title of his book : " Et hnnc librum non abs re, nt arbitror, Speculum exemplorum statui nominarc, eo quod facile quicunque in eo legere contenderit, tanquam in purissimo speculo, aut decorem suum poterit, aut deformitatem conspicere," and wonders that although the art of printing was so widely spread no one had thought of collecting in one work exempla from the writings of various authors. It did not occur to him to arrange his material alphabetically (except in one chapter) ; but like Caesar of Heisterbach he divided it into distinctiones, of which there are ten, each taken from but one source (except in the cases mentioned below) named under each distinctio* The only original material in the book is found in the last distinctio^ but the thirty exempla, there cited are all monkish tales, worthless for comparative storiology.
A new lease of life was given to the Specuhim Exemplorum by the revision it underwent in 1603 at the hands of Johannes Major, a Jesuit of Douay (born at Arras in 1542, died at Douay in 1608), who added 160 exempla to the 1215 of the original work and arranged the whole in alphabetical order, placing at the end of each exemplum the source from which it was taken.f The revision
works by Dominicans). The first edition was printed at Deventer by Richard Paefroed in 1481 (Hain, 14,915). This was followed by editions at Cologne, 1485, Strassburg, 1487, 1490, 1495, 1497, and Hagcnau, 1512, 1519. My own copy is Strassburg, 1487 (Hain, 14,917), and I have also used the first edition at the Bib. Nat., Paris.
* These sources are : (i.) Gregory's Dialogues ; (ii.) Vitae Patrum ; (iii.) Bede, Chronicle of tlie Cistercian Order ; (iv.) Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Ilistoriale ; Helinandus, Historia scliolastica ; (v.) Thomas Cantipratanus, Liber de apibus ; (vi.) Caesar of Heisterbach ; (vii.) Life of St. Francis and various legendaries ; (viii.) various legendaries ; (ix.) 218 exempla from various writers arranged alphabetically by topics ; (x.) 30 exempla " que aut verissima relatione didici, aut in libris theutonicis scripta inveni, vel ipse facta cognovi," arranged in five categories.
f For Johannes Major and bibliography of his work see A. de Backer, Biblio- tlieciue dcs Ecrivains de la Comparjnie de Jesus, Liege, 1869, vol. ii., p. 1013. Seventeen editions (and one Polish translation), the last in 1718, are there enumerated. My edition is Douay, 1610. The editor gives a long list of his authorities and an interesting bibliography of those who " ex professo exem plorum libros scripserunt, vel suis operibus crebra exempla intersperserunt."
Ixxvi EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
was entitled Magnum Speculum, Exemplorum, and was deservedly popular on account of the convenience of its arrangement and the variety of its contents.
Besides such independent collections as those just mentioned, several preachers took the trouble to append to their collected sermons a promptuarium or repositary of exempla, the object of which was partly to enable the user of the sermons to vary the stories contained in them, and partly to afford preachers in general a magazine of illustrations. The earliest of these appendixes is that of the Dominican, Martin of Troppau (Martinus Polonus), whose sermons have already been examined (in Section iii. of this Introduction). The Prompttiarium follows the sermones de tcmpore et de sanctis, and is brief in extent, occupying 42 pages, and is without any table of contents. This work, like the famous Chronicle of the same author, has no original worth, being merely an abstract of Etienne de Bourbon's Tractatus de diversis materiis praedicabilibus (described in detail in the third division of this section of the Introduction).* The work of Martin apparently enjoyed little popularity and deserves but a brief mention here for its influence, not great in truth, in diffusing a certain number of exempla.
The most famous Promptuarium is that of Herolt (Discipulus), whose sermons have been described in the preceding section. f Herolt 's work, in the edition cited below, fills folios 315a-387b, i.e.,
* The correspondence is as follows, Etienne de Bourbon's work in brackets : i. (i., Tit. iii.) ; ii. (Tit. iv.) ; iii. (Tit. v.) ; iv. (Tit. vi.) ; v. (Tit. vii.) ; vi. (Tit. viii.) ; vii. (Tit. x.) ; viii. (ii., Tit. i.) ; ix. (Tit. ii) ; x. (Tit. iii.) ; xi. (Tit. iv.) ; xii. (Tit. v.) ; xiii. (Tit. vi.) ; xiv. (Tit. vi.) Then follow four short chapters : DC annunciatione, dc gloria etcrna, de virginibus, and quod bonum sit missas aiidirc, probably based also upon Tit. vi. of Etienne de Bourbon.
f The enormous vogue of Herolt's Proinptuar'mm may be seen from the fact that Hain registers 34 editions before 1500, and Panzer, H down to 1520. My copy is Strassburg, 1495 (Hain, 8505). So far as I can learn, the Promptuarium was never printed separately. The sermons, on the other hand, were sometimes printed without the Promptuarium (see Hain, 8478-9).
INTEODUCTION.
143 pages. The arrangement is the usual alphabetical one by topics, and the work contains 114 chapters, under 20 letters, embracing 917 exempla, of which 283 are found in the sermons and only- referred to in the Promptuarium. The authorities most fre quently cited are, Arnoldus Geilhoven de Roterodamis, Gnotosoli- ttis sive Speculum conscientiae, Caesar of Heisterbach, Gregory, Thomas Cantipratanus, and the Vitae Patrum. A large number of other authorities are cited, or at least drawn upon. Jacques de Vitry is mentioned three times, and twice the story is not found in the present collection (M. 67, "Aristotle and the queen;" V. 11, "A preacher saw a demon in church and asked him what he was doing; the demon replied, closing people's ears, and said that he had with him three companions closing hearts, lips, and purses.") Barlaam and JosapJtat is cited once, the Discipline clericalis once, and one story ("Weeping dog") is from the Seven Wise Masters. A large number of stories is given without any authority, but they are mostly monkish tales, and the collection as a whole has little value for the history of mediaeval culture or for comparative storiology.*
Before considering another class of collections of exempla, it may be well, for the sake of completeness, to notice briefly here the later imitations of the class just passed in review.
In 1555, John Herold, the great scholar and editor of Basel, collected and published what might be called a corpus of historical exempla under the title : Exempla virtutum et vitiorum, atque etiam aliarum rerum maxime memorabilium, futura lectori supra modum magnus Thesaurus, Basel, 1555, 3 vols., fol. The contents of this vast work are the following : Nicolaus Hanapus ; Valerius Maximus ; Aelianus, de varia historia, graece et latine ; Marcus Antonius Coccius Sabellicus ; Aristoteles, Oeconomicorum dispen-
* Herolt's Promptuarium is followed by a sort of appendix, entitled Promp- tuarium Diaoipuli de miracnlis Bcatc Mario Viryinis, which contains ICO miracles from the usual sources : Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum historiale, Caesar of Heisterbach, etc.
EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
sationum liber ; Baptista Campofulgosis ; Parthenius Nicensis graeco et latine ; Guido Bituricensis ; M Marulus Spalatensis ; Heraclicles graece et latine ; and Sextus Julius Frontinus.
Anotlier extensive historical collection is the Promptua/riwn Exemplorum of Andreas Hondorff: (also written Hondorf and Hohndorff), a Lutheran pastor at Ciistritz from 1563, and at Droissig, near Weissenfels, from 1572. He died in 1572. He was the author of a history of the martyrs (Frankfort, 1575), which was translated into French and Dutch, of the Theatrum histori- cum (Frankfort, 1575), translated into German, and of the Promptuarium Exemplorum (Leipzig, 1580).*
This great collection is in the form of a commentary upon the Decalogue, and from its subject would properly belong to the class of systematic treatises (see third division of the present section). It is, however, merely a collection of exempla of a historical nature (a long list of the principal authorities is given , at the beginning), with many local anecdotes, and is of consider able value for the history of the culture of the time.
Of even vaster extent is the Fleurs des Exemples ou Catechisme historial of Antoine d'Averoult, born at Aire in Artois about 1554, and rector of the " College du Faucon," at Louvain, until his entrance into the order of Jesuits in 1600. The rest of his life was consumed in the duties of his order until his death at Tournay in 1614.f The gigantic work above mentioned, occupying 1,405
* See article in Ersch and Gruber's Encykhyadie. The Promptuariwn appears to have been originally written in German ; at least, I can find no trace of a Latin edition earlier than the German one cited above and printed eight years after the author's death. That it was not the first edition is shown by the words on the title page : " Nun aber mit vielen Historien vermehrt, und in cine newe richtige Ordnung bracht. Auch mit schonen Figuren gezicrt. Durch Vin- centium Sturmium, etc."
f For life and bibliography of d'Averoult, see De Backer, op. cit., i., col. 337. The Flews des Exc.mplcs, first printed at Douay, 1603, 2 vols. 8vo., was trans lated by the author himself into Latin under the title, Flares Exemplorum sive Catcckismus historialis (Douay, 1614, Cologne, 1616, 4 vols. 4to., and fre quently). I have the edition of Cologne, 1685, 4to., with a Part V., "hactenus
INTRODUCTION.
pages in the edition cited below, is, as the sub- title indicates, an exposition of the Romish Catechism, and the exempla are arranged to illustrate its various precepts. These exempla are purely historical, or quasi-historical, in character, and are of no interest for the purpose of the present work.
The same may be said of a brief collection of exempla (177 in number), made by Janus Nicius Erythraeus, the Latinised name of Giovanni Vittorio Rossi, a Roman scholar, born in 1577, and who died in 1647. He occupied a high place among modern Latinists, and left a number of orations, dialogues, epistles, homilies, and the work in question, Exempla virtutum et vitiorum*
It remains to say a word in regard to modern collections of stories for the use of preachers. The only one bearing the old title is : The Preacher's Promptuary of Anecdote, by Rev. "W. F. Shaw, London, 1884. It contains 100 stories, and differs from its pro totypes in being arranged neither alphabetically nor topically. Curiously enough it contains at least six stories which are found in the older collections. f
Similar works are : Things new and old, or a Storehouse of Illustrations by John Spencer, to which is added a treasury of similes by Robert Candry, London, 1880, 4th ed. ; Dictionary of
nunquam edita." There are also German and Polish translations, and a Latin compcnd in two vols. Svo., Cologne, 1614. De Backer says the f lores Excmplorum was partly reprinted in Major's Magnum Speculum, Exemplorum, and thence translated into Polish. I think this must be a mistake. I find no trace of d'Avcroult's work in Major's collection ; on the contrary, my edition of the Flores Exemplorum says on the title page : " Aucta ex Magno Speculo Exem- plorum Joannis Majoris excerptis selectioribus."
* I have the second edition, Cologne, 1645, 8vo. The exempla fill 235 pages, and are, for the most part, edifying anecdotes collected by the author.
t These are : No. 43, " The wife that would gossip " (Scala Cell, 50) ; 47, "The man and his three friends" (Scala Cell, 9, Speculum Exemplorum, 4, 17) ; 50, " Oh, Adam ! " (Scala Celt, 136v°,Herolt, Surmones dc tempore, 60, F.); 51, " The murderer and his mother " (Liber cle abundantia exemplorurn, 34) ; and 73, " The dog and his shadow » (Scala Cell, 19). Story, No. 42, " The three black crows," is found in the Gesta llomanorum.
1XXX EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
Religious Anecdote by Rev. W. Baxendale, London, 1888 ; Clerical Library, New York, 1886, vol. vii., " Platform and Pulpit Aids ... To this is added a selection of pithy and striking anecdotes," vol. viii., "Anecdotes illustrative of Old Testament texts."
The task of studying the use of stories in modern sermons I shall leave to another, and content myself with this brief mention of the survival of a time-honoured custom.
2. The exempla which we have thus far examined have been illustrative stories intended for insertion in sermons. The moral lesson to be drawn from them was left entirely to the judgment of the preacher. In other words, the exemplum was a story which had no independent value, and, as we have seen, was usually given in a very concise form to be expanded at the preacher's will. We have now to consider an entirely different class of exempla in which the story has appended to it a moral conclusion, or an explanation of the hidden or allegorical meaning of the story. The Christian Church has always made extensive use of allegory and symbolism, which was greatly fostered by the attempt to explain Old Testament customs and events as types and symbols of Christ. As early as the second century of the Christian era this tendency produced the Physiologus, the influence of which will be later examined. Just when the allegorising propensity of the middle ages seized the class of stories now under consideration it is difficult to say. The Physiologus was enormously popular throughout the whole period, and it was easy enough to apply the same principle of symbolical interpretation to stories in which animals were introduced as actors. As a matter of fact this system of interpretation was first applied, so far as I know, to fables, towards the end of the twelfth century, and rapidly extended to other classes of exempla. The result of this method was to render the exemplum more independent by appending to it an allegorical or symbolical explanation, and thus investing the story with a certain interest of its own. From this time more care is taken with the form of the exemplum ; it is given in a less
INTRODUCTION.
concise shape, and the great collections gradually assume the appearance of collections of entertaining stories.
The first person who seems to have applied this method to fables and other exemplavras an English Cistercian monk, Odo de Ceritona (Eude de Cheriton), who nourished in the last quarter of the xiith century, and left a collection of moralised fables and parables most industriously copied by later writers in this field.* The value of Odo's work consists in the large number of fables which it aided most powerfully to diffuse through later collectors and preachers. Although his work was not made specifically for the use of the latter class, its didatic tendency and allegorical character made it enor mously popular.f Although Odo's work consists chiefly of fables,
* The few details of Odo's life are collected, and the authorities given in Oesterley's edition of the Narratloncs in the Jalirbuch fur romanisclie und englisohe Litteratur, ix., p. 121 ; xii., p. 129 ; and in Voigt's Kleinere lateinisclic Dcnkmaler tier Thiersage aus dem xii. bis xiv. Jalirliundert, Strassburg, 1878, p. 45. Paul Mayer, in his introduction to the Contcs moralises de Bozon, p. xii., says that he took his surname (incorrectly written Shirton, Sherstou, Cherrington, Sherington), from Cheriton in Kent. The Narrationcs of Odo (45 in number), from the Brit. Mus. MS. Arund., 292, were first printed by Oesterley in the JaUrTtu-ch just cited ; to these he added (JaJwluch, xii., p. 129), 47, contained in an Italian MS. (now in the library at Wolfenbiittel). Later Voigt, in the work cited above, gave 30 parables of Odo (ten of them doubtful, in the opinion of the editor), with critical text, and a comparative table containing the 76 fables, etc., attributed to Odo, according to their manuscript sources. Thirty-seven additional fables from MSS. in Munich were also pub lished by Voigt in ZeitscJirift fur deutsches Alterthum, xxiii., p. 283 (" Odo de Ciringtonia und seine Quellen "). A valuable review of Voigt's first mentioned work may be found in the Anzeigcr fur deutsches Alterthum und deutsche Litter atur, v., 2, April, 1879, p. 99 . Finally Hervieux, in Les Fabulistes Latins, vol. i., pp. G44-689, has re-examined the whole field, and printed in vol. ii., pp. 587-713, the first complete edition of Odo's fables and parables.
f Odo says in his prologue (Hervieux, op. cit. ii., p. 588), " Et quoniam, ut dicit Gregorius, plus quam subtili dogmate sive typo [verba, compungunt exempla], aperiam in parabolis os meum et similitudines et exempla quae libentius audiuntur, proponam, quibus intellcctis sapiens sapientior erit." The allegorical explanation is usually introduced by the word mistice (the verb mysticarc was used during the Middle Ages with the meaning to symbolise), sometimes oonstruotio, and cxpo.ntio, once moral-Mas. The last word was the
EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
many interesting exempla are scattered through it : among these may be mentioned the curious story (Hervieux, op. cit., p. 592) of Thcodosius, Bishop of Sion (Switzerland), who went to the Rhone to see his fishermen. They drew in a large block of ice instead of a fish, whereat the bishop rejoiced, as he suffered from heat in his feet. As he rested his feet upon the block of ice a voice issued from it, saying that the soul of a sinner was tormented within it, and could only be liberated if the bishop would say mass for it thirty days in succession. The bishop begins his task, but is inter rupted twice by riot within the city and war without, and is com pelled to begin over again. The last day the whole city seemed to be in flames, and the bishop's servants besought him to fly. He answered that he would not cease even if the whole city should be consumed. When the mass was finished the ice melted, the soul was freed, and the flames disappeared, having done no harm.*
Other interesting exempla are : (Hervieux, op. cit., p. 595) " Le Lai de 1'Oiselet" (p. 596); uMan and Unicorn," from Barlaam and Josaphat (p. 614) ; " True and Untrue " (p. 675) ; Parnel's " Hermit."t
one employed by later writers, and we have moraluatio for a moralised story, and the verb moralizarc.
* This interesting legend is also found in Brit. Mus. MS. Harl. 3244, fo. 85, col. 2 ; MS. 11,284, fo. 22, b ; and in Libro de los Enxemplos in Romania, vii., p. 502, No. 28. A similar story, so far as the interrupted service is concerned, is that of the " Knight in the Chapel," see Kohler's article in Jahrlucli fur romanische und englische Lit., vi., p. 326 (and ix., p. 351).
f Although it is the purpose of this introduction to examine only such works as have a bearing upon the use of stories in sermons, still, for the sake of com pleteness, it may be well to mention here two curious productions which belong to the class of moralised tales. They are the Speculum Sapient'iac attributed to a certain Bishop Cyril, and the Dialogue Creaturarum (the authorship of which will be considered in a moment), accessible to the student in the recent edition by Dr. J. C. Th. Graesse, under the very misleading title, Die bciden dltestcn lateinisclien Fa~bclbuclicr dcs Mlttelalters. Bibliothek des litterarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, Bd. 148, 1880. The author of the Speculum Sapicntiac is. accord ing to the printed editions (I possess the rare one of the fifteenth century, without place, year, or printer (Hain, 5904). but said by Ebert, i., 432. to be printed at Strassburg by Eggesteyn), Bishop Cyril, but what bishop of that name
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii
A short but important collection of moralised stories was made by Robert Holcot (or Holcoth, Holkott, Olchot, as the name is variously spelled), an English Dominican, born at Northampton,
is intended we do not know. In a manuscript of the university of Prague the attribution is, "Editus a Cirillo episcopo alias Gwidenon laureate poeta." and Graesse, for some unaccountable reason, sees in this ground for stating that the author was a certain Cyrillus de Quidenon. a Neapolitan from Quidone, a small town of the province of Capitanata, in the kingdom of Naples. The author was probably an Italian ecclesiastic of the fourteenth century, or one who had there received his training (see E. Voight, Kleiner e lateinische Dcnkmaler dcr Thiersage, p. 57, and P. Rajna in the Giornale storico delta littcratura italiana, iii., p. 2). The author, whoever he was, was a learned man. He cites anecdotes from Sallust and Valerius Maximus, and quotes Virgil and Horace. Graesse has taken the trouble to note the numerous passages from the Bible cited by the author, who was an acute scholastic philosopher, as well as a learned theologian. He was not acquainted with Aesop, and from a remark which he makes in Bk. i., cap. 18. it is evident he knew no Greek. His work is of little importance for the history of mediaeval fiction, for it did not exert the slightest influence. Graesse says, p. 291, " Im Mittelalter selbst kann er von seinen Zeitgenossen nicht benutzt worden sein, demi ich habe nirgends wo in den aus dem 13-16 Jahrhundert crhaltenen Schriften sein Werk citert oder benutzt gefunden." It is, how ever, interesting in itself, and was translated into German, Spanish, and Bohemian. The author in the prologue makes the usual apology for the form of his work : " Secundum Aristotelis sententiam in Problematibus suis quam- quam in exemplis in discendo gaudeant omnes, in disciplinis moralibus hoc tamen amplius placet, quoniam structura morum ceu ymagine picta rerum simi litudinibus paulatim virtutis ostenditur. eo quod ex rebus natural ibus, animalibus, moribus et proprietatibus rerum quasi de vivis imaginibus humanae vitae qualitas exemplatur. Totus enim mundus visibilis est schola et rationibus sapientiae plena sunt omnia." A glance at the contents of the book will show that the author was more concerned with the moral of his fables than with the fables themselves. No attention, except in a few rare cases, is paid to the nature of the animals brought upon the scene, and they are made to utter the most arbitrary and incongruous lessons. Scarcely a thing to which the adjective fabulous will apply is to be found in the work. Graesse mentions only the story of Gyges (iii.. 4). the Indian gold mountains (iii., 10). and the death of the viper (iii., 26 ; iv., 8, 10). which is found in all the liestlaires. There are also some fox- fables {e.g. i.. 24), which resemble some of the episodes of the Roman du Rcnart, and a number of the fables have a certain similarity to those in well-known collections.
Of much greater literary interest, although by no means so profound or original.
/a
IxXXl'v EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITKY.
and professor of theology at Oxford, where he died of the plague in 1349, leaving a large number of commentaries on various books of the Bible, the best known one on the Wisdom of Solomon, which will be soon examined. The work in question is variously entitled : Liber de moralizationibus, or de moralitatibus, or Morali- tates, or Liber moralizationum historiarum* The exempla are 47 in number (in the edition of 1586), and each is followed by an
is the Dialogus Crcaturarum, attributed by Graesse, on the strength of an explicit in a Paris MS., to Mcolaus Pergamenus. an otherwise entirely unknown author. The subject of the authorship of this work is elaborately discussed by Pio Eajna in a learned article in the Giornale storlco della litteratura italiana, iii., 1, x., 42 (since published separately under the title, Intorno al cosiddetto Dialogus Creaturarum cd al suo autore, Turin. 1888). in which it is shown with reasonable certainty that the author was an Italian physician of Milan named Mayno do' Mayneri, born between 1290 and 1295. The form of this work closely resembles that of the Speculum Saplcntiac ; there is the same apologetic prologue (not found in the MSS., and probably not by the author of the book), and the same arbitrary treatment of the subject ; but already the desire to interest has assumed prominence, and the fable proper is followed by a mass of sentences, anecdotes, etc. The work contains 122 dialogues not divided into books. The author was familiar with the whole range of mediaeval literature, including the classic authors popular at that time. He does not seem any more acquainted than Cyril with the great Oriental collections of fables as such, although separate fables from the Pantschatantra may have reached him through Occidental channels, as Graesso remarks, p. 304. Instead of the half-dozen fables in Cyril's work which may be compared with those of other collections, the Dialogus Creaturarum offers rich material for the student of comparative storiology. An English trans lation of this work was published, under the title The Dialogues of Creatures Moralysed. without place, date, or name of printer. Lowndes supposes it to have been printed, if not translated, by John Rastell. The Huth catalogue says it was probably printed at Paris, and later than 1520, the date assigned to the work in the catalogue of the British Museum. There is a reprint of this edition. London, 1816, also very scarce, as about half of the limited edition (90 copies) was destroyed by fire.
* The work occurs frequently in MS., see Oesterley's edition of the Gesta Romanorum, p. 246, where the bearing of Holcot's work on the Gesta Roman- ovum is considered. I have noticed the folloAving MSS. in the Brit. Mus. : Reg. 6. E. iii., 55 ; Add. 27,583; Eg. 2258 (incomplete, fifteenth century). The work has been printed often : Venice, 1505 ; Paris, 1507, 1510, 1513, and at the end of the Libur Sapientiae, Basel. 1586, ed. llyter, which I possess.
INTRODUCTION. LxXXV
elaborate cxpositio moralis, or tropologia* The cxempla themselves aro of little interest, and are taken largely from classical sources (Ovid, Pliny, Valerius, ancient history, etc.).
To the class of moralised stories belongs also the most famous of all mediaeval collections, the Gesta Romanorum, which is too well known to be examined here in detail, and which I shall briefly mention for the sake of completeness. No new light has been thrown on the question of the time and place of this remark able collection since Oesterley's edition of 1872. The results of this editor's painstaking investigations are chiefly negative.! This is not surprising to those who are acquainted with this kind of literature, and who know how impersonal and vague it is. It is nowhere stated that the Gesta Romanorum was compiled for the use of preachers, but it was probably intended for that purpose, although its arrangement is exceedingly inconvenient, and I do not know of any MS. or printed edition provided with a topical index. It is doubtful whether at the probable date of the com pilation (end of the xiiith or beginning of the xivth century) such a work could have been designed for the general reader. The Gesta Romanorum does, however, reveal a distinct tendency in that direction. The form of the stories has entirely changed from the bald versions in the older collections, and we have interesting stories, often of considerable length and narrated with no slight skill. More than this, the character of the stories has totally changed also, monkish tales are almost wholly lacking, Gregory and Caesar of Heisterbach are not once cited, the Vitae Patrum but twice. Over 90 of the 283 stories in Oesterley's edition are -Prom pagan (classical) sources. J
* The number of the cxempla varies in the different MSS. and printed editions. In the Cod. Confluent, 116, cited by Oesterley. op. cit., p. 248, there are 75 cxempla ; in the Paris edition, 1510, there are 52.
j- They may be conveniently found by the English reader in Ilerrtage's intro duction to the Early English Versions of the Gesta Ilomanorum {Early English Text Society. Extra Series, xxxiii., 1879).
It should be remembered that it was at the close of the thirteenth or
EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
The connecting link, however, between the earlier collections and the class we are now examining is a work in which the exempla are arranged alphabetically according to topics, and frequently accompanied by a brief moralisation. The author names himself, in his prologue, " Frater Johannes Junior, ordinis fratrum predicatorum."* He nourished about the middle of the fourteenth century, and composed a work entitled Scala Celi (I have followed the mediaeval spelling of the word as it appears in all the printed editions), which he dedicated to Hugo do Colu- beriis, provost of the church of Aix (" sancte Aquensis ecclesie proposito").f
This " Ladder to Heaven," the author says in the prologue, he composed so that by means of it, " Postposito alio studio terreno et curioso ascendamus ad contemplanda aliqua de eternis." The sides of the ladder are two, " Cognitio supernorum et amor eorum ex quibus excluduntur diversa peccata et secundantur virtutes." The rounds of the ladder are, u Diverse materie que secundum alphabeti ordinem contexuntur." Then follows the list of the books from which the author drew his material : Vitae Patmm Dialogues of Gregory, Legenda aurea, Historia scJiolastica, Jacques de Vitry's Speculum exemplorum, Jerome's Comment on the Bible, Vincent of Beauvais, Etienne de Bourbon, Mariale Magnum, Liber de vita et perfectionefratrumpraedicatorum, and AlpTiabetum narratio- num (Etienne de Besan9on's ?). He adds, " Verum aliquid interdum
beginning of the fourteenth century that purely secular collections of stories were made. This is the date assigned to the Italian Novcllino by D'Ancona (Studj di Critica e atoria letteraria, Bologna, 1880. p. 252), who assumes the influence of the Latin collections, especially of the work of which we are now speaking.
* His surname was Gobii. and he was of a family from Alais, in the south of France, see Quetif and Echard, i., p. 633.
| The name of this dignitary is omitted in the Gallia Christiana, according to Quetif and Echard, who place him between 1320 and 13G3. Hain cites editions of Liibeck, 1476 ; Ulm, 1480 ; Strassburg. 1483 ; Louvain, 1485 ; and Seville. 1496. My copy, cited in the text, is the edition of Ulm (Hain. 9406), a reprint of the first.
INTRODUCTION. IxXXVU
inserui applicando ad mores vel recitando que ita conscripta non reperi ; sed in predicationibus aliorum audivi."*
The work contains 122 chapters arranged alphabetically, accord ing to topics, e.g., abstinentia, accidia, adulatio, adulterium, etc. The exempla are not given independently, as in the earlier collections, but are connected by a very slender thread of discourse, too slender to make the book one of the class of systematic treatises to be treated presently. The moralisation (omitted in a great number of cases) is not formally introduced by such words as mistice, as in Odo de Ceritona, or moralizatio, as in the Gesta Romanorum, and is usually very brief .t The stories are usually given in an interesting form, and, in some cases, are taken from works now unknown. {
A considerable number (47) of exempla in the Scala Cell are attributed to Jacques de Vitry, which are not to be found in the present edition. Some of these are contained in the MS. collection of Jacques de Yitry's exempla in the Bib. Nat., Paris, 18,134 (Scala Celt, fo. 37VO = fo. 182ro). Others are anecdotes attributed to
* Many other authorities are cited in the course of the work, although not men tioned in the prologue, among them Valerius Maximus, Petrus Alphonsi, Caesar of Heisterbach, Helinand, Petrus Damianus, Bede, etc. A large number of exempla, are introduced by a simple " legitur."
f The following (fo. 6) is the explanation of the fable of the fox, crow, and the cheese (Jacques de Vitry, xci.) : ''' Corvus est nobilis, vulpis est hystrio et adu lator, pecia carnis (vel caseum) sont bona temporalia ad que habenda fingunt dolos et mendacia."
J This is the case with the curious version of the Seven Wise Masters found under Femina (fols. 87vo-96) ; see Goedeke in Orient uncl Occident, iii., p. 385, where the version is reprinted from the edition of Liibeck, 1476. Still more interesting is that fact (which I first pointed out in 1885 in the Germania, vol. xviii. (N.F.), P- 203) that the Scala Ccli contains fragments of several fairy tales'; these are : fo. 54 (cited from fitienne de Bourbon), and fo. 99*°, the latter an incomplete version of Grimm, Household Tales, No. 97, " The Water of Life." Another story of Grimm's, No. 124, " The Three Brothers " (comp. No. 129, " The Four Skilful Brothers ") is also in the Scala Ccli, fo. 99. So far as I know, this is the first appearance of the Fairy Tale in modern European litera ture.
Ixxxviii EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
Jacques do Vitiy, of which, large numbers must have been in circulation in the last half of the thirteenth century, and many of which, as has already been said, may have been told by him in sermons preached in various parts of France and elsewhere, which have not been preserved.*
* A number of these exempla extravagant la have been examined by K. Goedeke in Orient und Occident, i.. 543. It may be well to pass in review here all the stories in the Scala Cdi attributed to Jacques de Vitry, and not found in the present edition. Scala C'eli, fo. 33ro, from Vita B. M. Oign., Prolog, cap. v., fo. 37VO, priest unable to say a single paternoster without thinking of horse promised him if he can control his thoughts, see Goedeke, in Orient und Occident, vol. cit., p. 543, no. 5 ; fo. 49, husband disguised as priest hears wife's confession, see Goedeke, loc. cit.. no. 7, Kirchhof, Wendunmuth, 3245 ; fo. 49VO, sick man allowed to drink wine mixed with water ; takes wine first, does not care for water then, see Lecoy de la Marche, IS Esprit de nos Aieux, p. 84 ; fo. 55, woman dies in church from contrition, great light seen ascending to heaven ; fo. 55VO, father commits incest with daughter, and kills wife ; is in turn killed by daughter, who, later, dies of contrition, see Etienne de Bourbon, 174. Gering, Islendzlt Aeventyri, ii., p. 395, Rccull de Eximplis. clxxvii., Passavanti, i., 133 ; fo. 57, a clerk of unclean life sees in a vision his name written often in the Book of Life, and as often blotted out on account of his sins ; fo. 62VO, two stories illustrating the sinfulness of dancing ; fo. 63VO, bees build a tabernacle of wax about a pyx lost by careless priest, a similar story is in Caesar of Heist., ix., 8. see also Prompt. Exemp., E., 36, Etienne de Bourbon, p. 265, no. 317, and Thomas Cantipratanus, Bonum universale de apibits, 2, 40, 1 ; fo. 83, king extorts money from merchant, is advised by queen to bestow an equal amount upon the poor during a famine ; fo. 84, bishop in purgatory can only be released when his relatives give from his estate as much in alms as lie had expended in vanities ; fo. 84VO, woman tempted to hang herself delivered by sound of bell at elevation of the Host ; fo. 85, executors likened to a black dog which carried food to a child ; fols. 100VO-101, seven stories of thieves and robbers, one of which is found in Pauli, Anhang, 17 ; fo. 103VO, a heretic feigns madness to escape the Inquisition and is chained in the church, other madmen break their chains and burn the pretended one ; fo. 104VO, priest gets rid of minstrel, whose vigils the saint does not need ; fo. 104V0. thieves visit at night house of minstrel, who says he does not know what they can find there at night when he can find nothing by day ; this old joke is found also in Bebclius,bk. i.; fo. 107VO, a certain wrathful count refused to forgive his humble servants and was destroyed by a thunderbolt ; fo. 126, three stories of physicians who cure their patients of gluttony ; fo. 12GVO, a knight tells his squire to exaggerate what he says at court ; when asked why he does not take off cap, knight says his head is somewhat
INTRODUCTION. Ixxxlx
Some idea of the popular character of the contents of the Sccda Celi may be formed from the fact that of the excmpla contained in it 40 are found in the Gesta Romanorum, 59 in Panli's, and 17 in Kirchhof 's collections. The Scali Geli is after the Gesta Bomanorum the most interesting of all the medieval story books, and a selec tion of the stories not duplicated in the above-mentioned collec tions would be a valuable contribution to popular tales.
In the works thus far considered the story has been the import- * ant thing, the morality something adventitious and perfunctory. In some cases the collector did not trouble himself to add the moralisation, but simply remarked at the end of his story: " Mo- raliza, sicut vis " (Odo de Ceritona, in Hervieux, op. cit. ii., p. 708). We have now to consider a class of works in which the allegory assumes greater importance and the stories are introduced only by way of illustration. These works all belong to the domain of moralized natural history and are derived from the Physiologus mentioned above.* The earliest of these is the Bonum universalo
sore, the squire says his whole head is scabby ; fo. 126vn, a man whose house was burned down asked a neighbour to give him shelter, and then refuses to leave or rebuild his house ; fo. 127, horse jockey lies about his horse, see Pauli, 112. and Kirchhof, 1, 185 ; fos. 127-127VO, five stories of knights, one is in Pauli, 93, another in Dialogue creaturarwn. 75, Bromyard, D. 12, 15, and £nxemplog,25; fo. 180, a father forgives the reaper who innocently killed his son. and the image of Christ in the Church embraces and kisses the father, a variant of the legend of St. John Gualberto, the founder of the order of Vallombrosa ; fo. 133VO, a story found also in Gcsammtalentheucr, 35 ; fos. 134-134VO, four stories of women, one of which occurs also in Pauli, G57 ; fo. 135, a story found also in Pauli. 577 ; fo. 137, a dying monk drives away demons by his prayers ; fo. 166V0. a woman gives away all she has in charity : a hare miraculously brings her money ; fo. 166V0. a story found also in Etienne de Bourbon, 79, Islendzk Aeventyri, p. 124, Martinus Polonus, Prompt, viii., 1. ; fo. 168, two eagles carry off body of usurer who did not make restitution at death.
* The history of the Physiologus has recently been written by Dr. Fricdrich Lauchcrt, Gcscliichtc (leg Physiologus, Strassburg, 1889. His treatment of that branch of tbe subject we are now considering is unsatisfactory, and the student must supplement it by the admirable work of J. V. Cams, Gcscliickte der Zoologic, Munich, 1872, and the special treatises soon to be mentioned.
XC EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITRY.
de apibus by Thomas Cantipratanus, a Belgian Dominican.* He was born at Leeuw- St. -Pierre, near Liege, about 1210, and entered as canon the monastery of Augustinian monks at Cantimpre, near Cambray, whence the name by which he is usually known. His first writings were of a hagiographical character, consisting of lives of St. Christine (written in 1232) and St. Lutgarde (written in 1247 or 1248). t He is, however, better known by his work De Naturis rerum, of which only the chapter on bees has been pub lished in the form of the Bonum universale (the date of the com position of which is doubtful, it was between 1245-1263). Thomas spent, he says, fifteen years on the work De Naturis rerum (1233- 1248), attended the lectures of Albert the Great at Cologne, and visited Paris. The contents of his great work are given in Carus (op. cit. p. 213), and need not be repeated here. The portion pub lished is only a moralised paraphrase of a small part of the original work, and has no value whatever for natural history. It is, however, of the greatest importance for the history of the culture of the times. The work is divided into two books (containing respectively 25 and 57 chapters), the first devoted to the prelates of the church, the second to the laity. Each chapter is headed by a statement
* Material for the life and works of Thomas Cantipratanus may be found (besides the usual ecclesiastical historians, notably Quetif and Echard, i.. p. 250) in the notice by George Colvener prefixed to his edition of the Bonum universale, Douay, 1605 ; in Carus. op. cit., p. 211 ; Bormans, Bulletin de V Academic royale de Belgique, xix., le Partie, 1852, pp. 132-159 ; P. Kirsch, DCS Thomas von Cliantimpre Buck der Wundcr und denkmurdigen Vbrlilder, Gleiwitz. 1875 ; and Hist. litt. de la France, xxx., p. 365 (L. Delisle. Traites divers snr les proprietcs deft clioses). The Bonum universale is a rare book. Hain registers but one edition (a copy of which is in the library at Wolfenbiittel). I have used an edition unknown to Hain at the Bib. Nat., Paris (Reserve D. 5685), printed at Paris evidently in the fifteenth century, but with no place, date, or printer. Quetif and Echard cite editions of Deventer, 1478 ; edition without year, place, or printer, perhaps German : Paris about same time ; edition of Colvener, Douay, 1597, 1605. 1627. The second of the Colvener editions I possess and cite in text.
f He is possibly the author also of the Supplementum ad vitam S. Mariae Oigniac., which has been examined above among the material for the life of Jacques de Vitry.
INTRODUCTION. XC1
concerning the natural history of the bee, which then is referred to some quality or duty of clergy or laity. An example or two will show this: Book i., chap. i. (ed. cit. p. 3), "Quod Praelatus debet esse bonae vitae et bonae famae. Cap. primum, quod in quinque partes dividitur. Rex apum mellei coloris est, ex electo flore, et ex omni copia factus." Then follows a disquisition upon the character of the prelate in general, in the midst of which is inserted the story of the wonderful election of Mauritius, bishop of Le Mans in France. Some other headings are: "Rex apum nullum habet aculeum, maj estate tantum armatus. Quod Praelatus debet esse clemens " (i. 4); "Apesquae aculeum perdunt, mella de cetero facere non possunt. De periculo carentium zelo correc- tionis " (ii. 17), etc. The number of illustrative stories is very great and their value consists in the fact that they are almost wholly of the nature of historical anecdotes — the commonplaces of the older collectors of exempla being few in number (the exemplum de duolus amicis, p. 228, for example, is taken from Petrus Alphon- si's Disciplina clericalis, ed. Schmidt, p. 36). The exempla cover almost every condition of society and contain precious material for the history of superstitions.*
The work of Thomas Cantipratanus called forth a century later a similar book, in which the ant takes the place of the bee. The author, Johannes Mder (or Nyder), was born at Isny, in Swabia, between 1380-90. f He was educated at the school of the Bene dictine monastery of his native place, and later entered the Domi-
* A convenient analysis of the contents of the work in relation to the history of society may be found in the work of Paul Kirsch cited above.
f Material for Nider's life may be found in the ecclesiastical biographers, and especially in the extensive work of K. Schieler, Magister Johannes Nider aus dem Orden dcr Prediger-B ruder, Mainz, 1885. Nider's own work, the Formi- carius, contains many biographical details, and the life in Quetif and Echard, i., p. 792, is made up almost exclusively from this source. The bibliography of the Formicariiis may be found in Schieler, p. 373. I own the Strassburg edition of 1517, 4 to. edited by J. Wympfeling, which seems to be the best of the older editions ; and the last edition by Hardt, Helmstiidt, 1692. I have also used at Paris an edition apparently of the fifteenth century, without date, place, or printer, not cited by Hain.
EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
nican order at Colrnar. His philosophical and theological studies were made at Vienna and Cologne, at which latter place he was consecrated priest. At some unknown date he visited the Council of Constance, and made a journey to the north of Italy, He then returned to Vienna, where he took his academic degree (in 1425-26) and taught theology until called to JSTuremburg as prior in 1427. Four years later he was chosen prior at Basel, where the general council was held. He played an important part in this assembly, and undertook at its instance several legations. He abandoned the Council in disgust at the difficulties which arose in consequence of its reformatory tendency and opposition to the Pope (Eugene IV.), and gladly obeyed the call of his superiors to return to Vienna and resume his professorship of theology at the university. He died at Nuremburg in 1438, while on a journey for the affairs of his order. His life, although a short one, was unusually busy, and he played an important part in the reforma tion of the order to which he belonged. He was celebrated as a preacher, and wrote a number of works which enjoyed the greatest popularity. Among these were the Formicarius ; a work on the Decalogue ; Consolatorium timoratae conscientiae ; a work of ascetic nature in German, " Vier und zwanzig Guldin Harfen halten den nachsten Weg zum Himmel," and many sermons. The author, in the prologue, says that during his travels, especially in Germany, he has heard complaints that God did not fortify his church with miracles or revelations as formerly. These murmurs the author proposes to subdue by relating what miracles and revelations he has seen or heard during the present time or shortly before. The work which follows does not differ materially from the Bonum universale de apibus of Thomas Cantipratanus. It is in five books instead of two, and is thrown into the form of a dialogue between Pigcr (the " sluggard " of Proverbs vi., 6) and his master Theo- logus* The latter, in the first chapter, explains that there are
* The subjects of the five books are : the extraordinary examples and works of good men ; of genuine good revelations ; of false and deceptive visions ; of the good works of the perfect ; of sorcerers and their deceits.
INTRODUCTION, XClll
sixty qualities or properties possessed by the ant, and proposes to discuss twelve of these in each book. The exempla are introduced from time to time to illustrate the master's precepts, and, like those in the Bomtm universale, are historical anecdotes, arid throw much light upon the history of mediaeval superstitions. This is especially true of book v.*
The books of Thomas Cantipratanus and Nider are constantly cited as typical examples of the medieval passion for allegory. They are not, and the nature of the two Avorks is constantly mis understood. They are quasi-historical works, and the moralisa- tion does not at all affect the story, but serves simply as a frame work in which to enclose it. Their relation to other works derived from the Physiologus is also peculiar, for while the latter embrace usually the whole field of natural history, or some one extensive division of it (as zoology, etc.), the former are confined to a single example each from the particular branch of natural history selected by the authors. This is not the place to examine the remarkable series of works which, starting with the Physiologus, ended with such works of pure entertainment as Richard de Fournival's Bestiaire d' 'Amour. Two compilations of an allegorical nature should, however, be mentioned briefly, as they were the storehouses from which preachers drew this class of material.
The author of the first work to be mentioned was an English man, Alexander Neckam, born at St. Albans in 1157.f He was educated at Paris, and became Abbot of Cirencester in 1213. He died at Kempsey, near Worcester, in 1217. His most important work is the De Naturis rerum, and a Latin poem in ten distinc-
* The whole of this book is published in the Malleus Maleficanim, ed. L. Zetzner, Frankfort, 1588, 2 vols. 8V0., vol. i., pp. 694-806. It has lately been translated into Spanish and published in the BlUiotcca de las Tradiciones popularcs espanoltn, Madrid, 1881, in vols. ii., iii., iv.
f The few details oi: his life may be found in the preface to Thomas Wright's edition of the De Naturis rcrum and Do laudilnis divinac Saplcntlao in the Rolls series, London, 1863. Neckani's fables in Latin verse may best be found in Hervieux, op. eit. ii., pp. 787-812.
XC1V EXEMPLA OF JACQUES DE VITEY.
tiones, De laudibus divinae sapientiae, which is a paraphrase of the prose work. As Neckam's work is easily accessible in Wright's edition, and as the editor has given an elaborate analysis of the whole work in the preface, it is not necessary to dwell upon it here. I may say, however, that in Neckam's work the allegorical tendency is subordinate, and the stress is laid upon the supposed scientific value of the contents. Mingled with the usual scraps of natural history borrowed from earlier writers are many interesting stories and references to contemporary superstitions.*
Of more extensive range is a work by an Italian Dominican, Johannes de Sancto Geminiano, who nourished in the first half of the xivth century, and left a book entitled : Summa Magistri Johannes de Sancto Geminiano ordinis fratrum predicatorum de exemplis et similitudinibus rerum."\ This work was distinctly in tended for the use of preachers, as is shown by the incipit : " Incipit summa insignis ac perutilis predicatoribus de quacumque materia dicturis." It is encyclopeediac in its character, and dis cusses, in ten books, Heaven and the elements, metals and stones, vegetables and plants, fish and fowls, land animals, man and his members, visions and dreams related by the scriptures, canons and laws, artificers and things artificial, and human acts and manners. An illustration or two will show the character of the work. In Book III., 33, the just man is likened to the palm tree, and then follow five reasons : ibid. 34, the tears of the penitent are like the juice of the aloe, then follow the various properties of the aloe.
The two works just mentioned belong, as has been seen, to the class of allegorical or moralised works dealing with natural his-
* Ncckam's work De Naturls rerum contains, for example, the earliest reference to the Man in the Moon (ed. cit. p. xviii.). The great importance of the same work in the diffusion of the Virgil legend is too well known to dwell upon it here (see Tunison's Master Virgil, Cincinnati, 1890, p. 10).
f In some of the earlier editions the work is attributed to a certain Helwicus Teutonicus, but even in these the author's true name is revealed in the course of the work (see Quetif and Echard, i., p. 528). The work was very popular. Hain registers six editions before 1500. My copy is Basel, 1199 (Hain, 7546).
INTRODUCTION. XCV
tory. It remains to notice briefly a work on natural history, in which the allegorical tendency is lacking. The book is mentioned here because, although not avowedly composed for the use of preachers, it was constantly cited by them. I refer to the De proprietatibus rerum of Bartholomaeus Anglicus, generally, but incorrectly, called Bartholomew Glaiiville. He was a Franciscan, born probably in England, as his surname would seem to show, but who lived in France and flourished between 1226 and 1248.* The work is divided into nineteen books, and embraces, besides natural history, geography, phenomena of nature, the angelic hierarchy, etc. Although it has no real scientific worth, merely repeating the ideas of earlier writers, it is an advance over the works just mentioned, f
3. Besides the above collections of exempla, with or without moralisations, there are certain systematic treatises for the use of preachers which also contain large numbers of exempla. The earliest and most interesting (from the author's connection with Jacques de Vitry) is the work of Etienne de Bourbon, a Dominican of the thirteenth century, whose treatise, for reasons soon to be mentioned, is generally known as the Liber de septem donis Spiritus sancti.^ The real title is : Tractatus de diversis materiis predicabi- libus ordinatis et distinctis in septem paries, secundum septem dona
* Nothing was known with certainty of Bartholomew until L. Delisle estab lished the facts mentioned above in his article in the Hist. litt. de la France, xxx., p. 355 (" Traites divers sur les proprietes des choses "). The work was exceedingly popular (Hain registers twenty-six editions before 1500, including the various translations) and was early translated into French. English, Dutch, and Spanish. My copy is Strassburg, 1505, 4to.
f If space permitted I should like to show the influence of the works mentioned in the last section upon works composed in the modern languages of Europe. The field is too extensive, however, and I must pass over without a mention the long series of Sestiaires and Lapidairef, and such works as the Poeme moralise siir les propribtbs des choses (see Delislc's article just cited, p. 388. and Romania, xiv., p. 442).
£ Etienne's work has been partially edited by A. Lecoy de la Marche for the Societe de Vhistoire de France under the title : Anecdotes historiques, Ugcndes et apologues tires du recuell inedit d' Etienne de Bourlon. Paris, 1887. The
XCV1 EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITEY.
Spiritus sancti, etc.* The work unhappily is incomplete, the author having been arrested, probably by death, in the midst of the fifth division. So we have (in the inverse order in which they are given in the Yulgate) the divisions concerning the gifts of fear, piety, knowledge, might, and about the half of counsel ; the gifts of understanding and wisdom are lacking. The exempla are connected by a running comment, which sometimes is merely accessory, and sometimes assumes the proportions of an inde pendent treatise. Etienne de Bourbon, himself an inquisitor and preacher of the crusade against the Albigenses, was naturally brought into contact with Jacques de Vitry, whom he constantly cites as one from whom he had heard many of his exempla.^ What, however, distinguishes Etienne de Bourbon's work, and imparts to it a great and peculiar value, is the large number of exempla drawn, not from the usual magazines, but from the writer's own experience. Many deal with the superstitions of the day, and are thus a precious source for the history of this branch of mediaeval folk-lore. As they are now accessible in Lecoy de la Marche's edition, I shall dwell no longer on this most interesting and valuable work.
Etienne de Bourbon's treatise was extremely popular and is constantly cited (as Liber de septem donis Spiritus sancti, or, more commonly, from the subject of the first division, Liber de dono timoris) in all later collections, and was the medium through which Jacques de Vitry's stories obtained a wide circulation. It also called forth an imitation known as Liber de abundantia
editor has included (with rare exceptions) only the exempla which Etienne relates de visu or de auditu. A sufficient life of Etienne de Bourbon will be found in the edition just cited, see also Quetif and Echard, i.. pp. 184-194, where are given the prologue (partly) and copious extracts from the work.
* See Isaiah, xi., 2, 3. In the Authorized Version the sixth gift, *pi/rituspietatif, is omitted.
f The large number of Jacques de Vitry's excmpla, cited by Etienne, may be seen from the second index of this work, and others are, probably, to be found in the portion of Etienne's work not edited by Lecoy de la Marche.
INTRODUCTION. XCV11
exemplorum, attributed, without cause, to Albert the Great.* This work is based upon the first division of Etienne de Bourbon's treatise, de dono timoris, which it closely follows. t A widespread influence was exerted by the work of another French Dominican, William Perrault, or Perauld, or Guilelmus Peraldus (or Paraldus), as he is usually termed, who died about 1275. J He was administrator of the diocese of Lyons during the absence of the archbishop, Philip of Savoy, whence Peraldus is supposed by some to have been suffragan bishop or co-bishop. He wrote a number of sermons and treatises, the best known of which is the one entitled : Summa virtutum ac vitiorum. § The work, as the title indicates, is a treatise upon the virtues and vices, and is divided into two parts. The first part is subdivided into five treatises : of virtue in general ; of the three theological virtues (faith, hope, charity) ; of the four cardinal virtues ; of gifts ; and of the beatitudes. Each of these treatises is still further divided into a multitude of sections treating of forty virtues, or re lated topics. The second part consists of nine treatises on vice in general, gluttony, sensuality, avarice, sloth, pride, envy, wrath,
* There is but one edition of this work, of which I possess a copy, without place, year, or printer (Hain, 484. Ulm. J. Zainer). The question of the authorship of the work is discussed by B. Haureau in the Hist. lift, de la France, xxix. 546 (see note by writer of this Introduction in The Academy, Feb. 20, 1886). The work is also attributed with greater reason to Humbertus de Romanis, see Quetif and Echard, i., pp. 147, 186.
f It is impossible from the nature of Lecoy de la Marche's edition to compare the two works exactly ; but apparently the Liber de abundantla exemplorum has no independent value, and has borrowed its materials almost entirely from Etienne de Bourbon. This is also the case with the Promptuarium of Martinus Polonus mentioned above (iv.. i).
t Tor life of Peraldus see Hist. lltt. de la France, xix., 307. An elaborate article is to be found in Quetif and Echard. i., pp. 131-136, especially valuable for the bibliographical notice which it contains.
§ Contemporary MSS. are very common (Quetif and Echard, i., p. 132 : " Sum- mae intcgrae innumera prostant in Bibliothecis MS. exempla." The first printed edition with a date is Cologne, II. Quentell. 1479 (Hain, 12, 387). My copy is Cologne, 1629. and is provided with excellent indexes.
XCV111 EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITEY.
and sinful speech. Forty-one vices, or kindred subjects, are treated in the second part. The author's method is the one generally followed in such works and in their later imitations (examples of which will be mentioned in the following section), and consists in stringing together sententious extracts from Christian and pagan authorities. The use of exempla is not so frequent as in later writers, and the chief sources are the Vitae Patrum and Gregory's Dialogues.* The work of Peraldus is also of value for the history of mediaeval culture, see, for example, in the second part (De superbia, p. 213) many interesting details in regard to women's dress, use of rouge, false hair, etc.t
"We have already examined the Liber moralizationum Mstoriarum of Robert Holkot, whose treatise or commentary on the Wisdom of Solomon (Opus super sapientiam Salomonis, or Praelectiones ccxiii. in librum sapientiae regis Salomonis) deserves mention here.J The
* A few exempla not in these two works may be mentioned here : Part i., p. 108, legend of Theophilus ; p. 213, ape tears off woman's false hair (see Bourgoin, La cliairefranqa'i&e, etc., p. 12, n. 4 ; the same story is in fttienne de Bourbon, p. 228); p. 227, scholar at Paris ashamed of his father, who in return refuses to give him any money, Pauli, 643 ; p. 307, true son refuses to shoot at father's body, G-esta Rom., 45.
f For the extensive use of Peraldus's work by Brunetto Latini (in his Trcsor') see Sundby, Brunetto Latinos Levnet og Skrifter, Copenhagen, 1869, p. 187. The influence of the Summa may also be seen in the work of Nicolaus de Hanapis (or Hanapus) : Virtutum v\tiorumc[uc exempla ex imiversae divinac scripturae promptuario desumpta. The author was also a French Dominican, who became bishop of Acre (1288) and patriarch of Jerusalem, dying at Acre in 1291. For details of his life see Quetif and Echard, i., p. 422, and Hist. lift, do la France, xx., pp. 61-78, 785-786. The work abounds in MS., and was frequently printed. I have the edition of Antwerp, 1535. An elaborate analysis and bibliography of the work may be found in the Hist. lltt. de la France, vol. cit., pp. 64-78. As the title indicates, the work consists of the events of the Scriptures arranged under various headings for convenience of reference. The events are given in the baldest form, and the author seldom adds a remark of his own.
% llain registers eight editions before 1500. 1 have the third mentioned by him (8757), Spires. Peter Drach, 1483, and also the edition of Basel, 1586. ed. J. Eyter, referred to earlier, containing the Liber moralizationum liistoriarum. I shall cite the last-named edition as the more accessible.
INTRODUCTION. XC1X
work consists of 213 lectiones (postillas), as they were earlier called, remarkable for the extraordinary number of citations from pagan authorities, especially the poets. The work is a vast repertory of exempla and historical anecdotes embedded in the most elaborate metaphors. A good example of Holkot's method may be found in the Lectio Ixiv., where he discusses chap, v., v. 9-10 of his text: " All those things are passed away like a shadow, and as a post that hasteth by ; and as a ship that passeth over the waves, which, when it is gone by, the trace thereof cannot be found, neither the pathway of the keel in the waves." As there are three kinds of sin, original, venial, and mortal, so there are three kinds of shadows corresponding in shape to the cylinder, cone and inverted cone (chilindroydes, conoydes and calathoydes) . In speaking of the simile of the ship, Holkot quotes from Jerome's epistles, cxv., the story of Xerxes weeping because none of those he beheld at a review of his army would be alive in a hundred years. He then compares penitence to a ship on account of its figure, capacity for carrying, and possibility of wreck. This affords Holkot an oppor tunity, after citing Job, Boethius, and Gregory, to describe the Sirens and Ulysses' adventure with them. His sources are, as he states, Alexander in scintillario poesis (this is Alexander Neckham, see Leyser, Hist, poetarum et poematum medii aevi, Halle, 1721, p. 993), and Boethius, de Consoled, iii., 3. In the third lectio, Holkot mentions Alexander and the pirate (Gesta Rom., 146) ; in the ninth occurs the fable of Jupiter and the farmer (La Fontaine, vi., 4) ; in the fourteenth, the story of Atalanta (Gesta Rom., 60), cited from Ovid ; in the forty-fifth, the story of the two snakes (Gesta Horn., 92), cited from Valerius Maximus, 4, 6, 1 ; in the seventieth, the sword of Damocles (Gesta Rom., 143), cited from Macrobius, Somn. Scip., i., 10 ; in the eighty- second, the poisoned wine (Gesta Rom., 88), cited from Frontinus, Strateg. 2, 5, 12 ; in the eighty-sixth, the judge flayed (Gesta Rom., 29), cited from Helinandus, Bk. xv. ; in the one hundred and thirteenth, the ring of forgetfulness and memory (Gesta Rom., 10, of the Emperor
C EXEMPLA OP JACQUES DE VITEY.
Vespasian), cited from "magister in historiis super Exodus," the story is told of Moses ; in the one hundred and thirty- seventh, story of Merlin ; in the one hundred and forty-first, the story of Phalaris and the brazen bull (Gesta Rom., 48), cited from Ovid; in the one hundred and fifty-sixth, story of Narcissus (from Ovid) and Paris ; in the one hundred and seventy-fifth, the story of Coriolanus (Gesta Rom., 137), cited from Val. Max., 5, 4, 1 ; in the one hundred and eighty- eighth, the fable of the animals and the plague (La Fontaine, vii., 1) ; in the one hundred and ninetieth, the legend of Silvester II. (Grerbert) ; ibid., wax image of husband shot at by wife's lover (Gesta .Rom., 102). I have mentioned but a few of the stories most popular during the Middle Ages, and the above citations can give only a feeble idea of the mass of historical and mythological references to be found in this work of Holkot.
The most extensive and important work of the class we are now considering is without doubt the Summa Praedicantium of John Bromyard.* The author was an English Dominican, who took his name from his birthplace in Herefordshire.! He was educated at Oxford, where he was celebrated as both jurist and theologian, and later was professor of theology at Cambridge. He was an ardent opponent of "Wyclif, and is said to have opposed him at the fourth Council of London (1382). His name, however, does not appear in the lists of those present. He died in 1418, leaving besides the Summa some writings against Wyclif, theological treatises, and a work entitled Opus trivium sive tractatus juris civilis
* The first edition, of which I have a copy, is without year, place, or printer (probably 1485, Basel, see Hain. 3993). Other editions are : Nuremburg. 1485, 1518, 1578; Paris, 1518 ; Lyons. 1522; Venice, 1586; and Antwerp, </