St John's College MS. 65

Richard Fitzralph, Sermons

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1^ra–177^vb:

Rubric: Sermones Domini RICARDI dei gracia archiepiscopi ARMACANI Hybernie habiti auinion’ et aliis locis quam pluribus de diuersis sanctis et temporibus provt inferius intitulantur ⟨I⟩ncipit sermo primus in die cinerum

Incipit: Cvm ieiunias vnge […] Matthei 6. et in Ewangelio hic nunc lecto Per caput mentem intellige vnge caput tuum scilicet mentem tuam intrinsecam oleo

Explicit: dignetur puer ille cui magi ipsi munera offerebant Qui est deus benedictus in secula seculorum Amen

RICHARD FITZRALPH, Sermones,

the ‘sermon-diary’, also in BodL, MS Bodley 144; BL, MS Lansdowne 392; and, incompletely, Oxford, New College MS 90 (Sharpe, no. 1329 [478–81], Schneyer, 5:150–8, nos. 1–57, 61–88). See the full discussion, Aubrey Gwynn, ‘The Sermon-Diary of Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Sect. C 44 (1937), 1–57, our MS described at 4–5; and Katherine Walsh, A Fourteenth-Century Scholar and Primate: Richard FitzRalph in Oxford, Avignon and Armagh (Oxford, 1981), 474 and numerous references passim (see 501–2).

2. Fols. 177^vb–81^rb

Rubric: Proposicio domini RICARDI ARMACHANI ex parte regis Anglie Edwardi tercii post conquestum in consistorio domini pape Auinion’ pro gracia Iubilea eius domini Regis populo optinenda Anno domini Millesimo CCC^mo xlix. in mense Augusti

Incipit: Domine salua nos permissus Matthei 8 capitulo Pater sanctissime uos sanctitas vestre deuoti filii insulares occeani de Anglia et hybernia inter omnes cristianos

Explicit: sacro misterio nobis ille prestare dignetur cuius vicem in terris geritis Amen ihesus cristus

RICHARD FITZRALPH, The first of the three ‘propositiones ad papam’

(Sharpe, 480, ‘sermon diary’, no. 89), unedited.

3. Fols. 181^va–4^vb

Rubric: Proposicio domini ARMACHANI contra fratres et eorum priuilegia ex parte prelatorum et omnium curatorum tocius ecclesie coram Domino papa in publico consistorio Anno domini Millesimo CCC^mo l. Mense Iulii die quinta

Incipit: Unusquisque in quo vocatus […] prima ad corinthos 7. capitulo Pater sanctissime loqui prohibeor et tacere non possum \loqui prohibeor quia timeo [margin]/

Explicit: si sanctitati vestre placuerit propalabit

RICHARD FITZRALPH, The second ‘propositio’ (Sharpe, 480, ‘sermon diary’, no. 90), ed. L. L. Hammerich, ‘The Beginnings of the Strife between Richard Fitzralph and the Mendicants, with an edition of his Autobiographical Prayer and his proposition Unusquisque’, Det Kgl. Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab., Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser 26, 3 (1938), 53–73.

4. Fols. 184^vb–96^va

Rubric: Proposicio domini ARMACHANI facta in consistorio coram domino papa et cardinalibus ac Prelatis ad vtilitatem cleri ac populi cristiani super materia mendicitatis ac priuilegiorum contra fratres de ordinibus mendicancium quibuscunque apud Auinion’ die octauo Mensis Nouembris Anno domini Millesimo CCC^mo lvij^o

Incipit: Nolite iudicare secundum faciem […] Iohannis 7. Pater sanctissime in principio mei sermonis protestor quod non intendo aliquid asserere

Explicit: per me tacta iuxta peticionem quam feci Nolite iudicare secundum faciem sed iustum iudicium iudicate

Final rubric: Explicit proposicio domini ARMACHANI contra fratres mendicantes

RICHARD FITZRALPH, The third ‘propositio’, the ‘Defensio curatorum' (Sharpe, 480, ‘sermon diary’, no. 91), frequently printed, e.g. Defensorium Curatorum (Paris, 1625), but perhaps most available in John Trevisa’s Middle English translation, ed. Aaron James Perry, Dialogus…, EETS 167 (1925), 39–93.

5. Fols. 196^vb–202^va:

Rubric: Incipiunt obiecciones domini ARMACHANI contra seipsum in in [sic] materia de mendicitate et aliis cum suis solucionibus

Incipit: Qvia in proposicione nuper facta coram domino nostro papa et Reuerendissimo cetu

Explicit: ad statum sanctum sue institucionis primarie reuocentur Quod vobis cum gracia in presenti et gloria in futuro prestare dignetur omnipotens deus trinus et vnus qui est [form ending] Amen

Final rubric: Expliciunt sermones domini ARMACHANI cum suis proposicionibus contra fratres mendicantes et eorum priuilegia

RICHARD FITZRALPH, The ‘Responsiones’ (Sharpe, 481, ‘sermon diary’, no. 92), ed. with item 4 in Defensorium curatorum (Paris, 1533), pp. 95–140. Followed (fols. 202^vb–3^vb) by a table for all the sermons, arranging them into a ‘temporale’ cycle, a ‘sanctorale’, and several miscellaneous groups.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: sciencia

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Extent: Fols. i + 203 + i (numbered fol. ii).

Dimensions (leaf): 287 × 190 mm.

Foliation: There is an accurate medieval foliation, in arabic numerals.

Collation

1–16¹² 17¹² (–12, probably blank). Catchwords at the centre of the leaf, most cut away, wholly or partly; signatures on all leaves in the first half of each quire, a letter and roman numeral, only fully present in quires 1, 5–15 (which are signed +, d–o).

Layout

In double columns, each column 205 × 55–60 mm. , with 9 mm between columns, in 48 lines to the column. No prickings; bounded in brown crayon, but unruled.

Hand(s)

Written in anglicana, fols. 67–72 perhaps by a different scribe from the remainder. Punctuation by point and medial point.

Decoration

Headings in red, introduced by 1-line unflourished blue lombards.

At the head (fol. 1^ra) a 7-line champe in blue, violet, and gold leaf, with a leafy spray.

The sermons are introduced by 3-line blue lombards on red flourishing.

Sermons broken with alternate red and blue paraphs and red-slashed capitals; red underlining for biblical citations.

Decorative top-line ascenders are often filled with faces and various animal shapes (fish, lions’ heads, birds), frequently coloured with rubricator’s red.

See AT, no. 318 (32), dating s. xiv^3/4.

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on six thongs. At both the front and rear, one modern paper flyleaf (at the rear, ii).

History

Origin: s. xiv ex. ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

‘liber fratris nicolai Stremer ar’ ⟨....⟩ conuentus ordinis ⟨....⟩ warrewici quem partim emit et partim mendicauit a dompno Iohanne Savell Monacho ordinis sancti benedicti Anno gracie M^occcc^olxxix^o. tunc diaconus et cursor Oxon’ (fol. 203^vb, following the explicit, partially erased) (Ker, MLGB 194, 313, the Warwick Dominican convent). Stremer was at Oxford 1478–9; he was eventually (1501–5) prior provincial of his order; the biography at BRUO 1802 notes other books possibly associated with him, but BRUO, in spite of the cross-reference in this entry, does not include John Savell.

Probably, given William Paddy’s donation to St John’s and his ownership of other books from this source, identical with a book owned by Henry Savile of Banke; see Watson, Savile, no. 23 (22). In his catalogue, Savile notes ‘My lord Carew had this book. lost’. George, Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totnes (d. 1629), a courtier under the first two Stuart kings, was a friend of antiquaries and an avid collector of material on Ireland (where he had served under Elizabeth). Most of his MSS passed to Laud and eventually to Lambeth Palace Library (see DNB).

'Liber Collegij Divi Johannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Dominj Gulielmj Paddej Militis et ejusdem Collegij olim Convictoris 1634’ (fol. 1, upper margin).

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.

Bibliography

J. J. G. Alexander and Elźbieta Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford, 1985).

A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford. 1957–9).

Aubrey Gwynn, ‘The Sermon-Diary of Richard FitzRalph, Archbishop of Armagh’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Sect. C 44 (1937), 1–57.

L. L. Hammerich (ed.), ‘The Beginnings of the Strife between Richard Fitzralph and the Mendicants, with an edition of his Autobiographical Prayer and his proposition Unusquisque’, Det Kgl. Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab., Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser 26, 3 (1938), 53–73.

N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks. 2nd edn. (London, 1964), extended by Andrew G. Watson, MLGB: Supplement to the Second Edition. RHS Guides and Handbooks 15 (1987).

Ute Lotz-Heumann, 'Carew, George, earl of Totnes', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (this entry published in print and online 23 September 2004).

Aaron James Perry (ed.), Dialogus inter militem et clericum; Richard FitzRalph's sermon 'Defensio curatorum'; and, Methodius: 'þe bygynnyng of þe world and þe ende of worldes', Early English Texty Society 167 (1925).

Johannes Baptist Schneyer, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für doe Zeit von 1150-1350, 11 vols. (Münster i. W., 1969–90).

Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout, 1997).

Katherine Walsh, A Fourteenth-Century Scholar and Primate: Richard FitzRalph in Oxford, Avignon and Armagh (Oxford, 1981).

Andrew G. Watson, The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London, 1969).

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-12: First online publication

A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges