392 CRANE— MEDIAEVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 



recent editions of collections of cxempla, beginning with A. G. 

 Little's " Liber Exeniplorum ad usuni Prsedicantium," Aberdeen, 

 1908 (British Society of Francisca4i Studies, Vol. L). The manu- 

 script, in the Library of Durham Cathedral, contains two hundred 

 and thirteen chapters or stories, and belongs to the class of treatises 

 for the use of preachers. It is divided into two parts: the first 

 treats "of things above," and the subjects are arranged in the order 

 of precedence — Christ, the Blessed Virgin, Angels and St. James. 

 The second part treats " of things below," and here the subjects 

 are in alphabetical order: Dc accidia, dc advocatis, da avaritia, and 

 so on tO' de mortis memoria, where the MS. breaks off. The author 

 does not mention his name in the part of the MS. which has been 

 preserved, although he gives us considerable information about him- 

 self, from which we infer that he was an Englishman by birth, prob- 

 ably of Warwickshire; he probably entered the order of the Friars 

 Minor, and, after study in Paris, spent many years of his life in 

 Ireland. Mr. Little, whom I follow in these details, concludes 

 that the work was written probably between 1275 and 1279. The 

 compiler, who nearly always mentions his sources, draws largely 

 from Giraldus Cambrensis, "Gemma Ecclesiastica " (29 times); 

 " Vitre Patrum" (38) ; Gregory's "Dialogues" (15) ; "Miracles of 

 the Virgin " (4) ; Peraldus, " Sumnia Virtutum ac Vitiorum " (10) ; 

 " Life of Johannes P^leemosynarius " (9) ; " Barlaam and Josaphat " 

 (2) ; etc. ]\Iany of the stories are familiar to us from other collec- 

 tions. " Some are," as the editor says, " of a more individual char- 

 acter and are the result of the writer's experience in Ireland." 

 Among these (I use the editor's analyses) arc: No. 95, the story 

 of the bailiff of Turvey, who while going along a lonely road one 

 night saw a horrible beast coming towards him. Knowing that it 

 was the devil, he made with his axe a circle of crosses, and at once 

 hastened to confess his sins to God. h'^orthwith there began to rise 

 around him a wall which grew with every sin confessed. Against 

 this wall the devil threw himself in vain, and could only terrify the 

 poor sinner by showing his face over the top. 



The duty of paying tithes is enforced by the story (No. 105) of 

 the woman of Balrothery, " in our times," who had twenty lambs. 

 To avoid giving two to tbe Cliurch, she hid ten under a covering 



