378 CRANE— MEDIEVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 



Caesariiis of Heisterbach belongs to Germany and Odo of Cheriton 

 was an Englishman. The use of cxcmpla by French and German 

 preachers has been fully treated by Lecoy de la Marche and R. Cruel 

 in the works mentioned above. The history of exempla in the Neth- 

 erlands during the Middle Ages is the subject of a book by Dr. C. 

 G. N. De Vooys : " Middelnederlandsche Legenden en Exempelen. 

 Bijdrage tot de Kennis van de Prozalitteratoor en het Volksgeloof 

 der Middeleeuwen," S-Gravenhage, 1900, 8vo, pp. xi, 362. The 

 plan of Dr. De Vooys's book is as follows : The first chapter is de- 

 voted to the principal sources of exempla: the " Vitse Patrum," Greg- 

 ory's " Dialogues," the " Exordiuum magnum ordinis Cisterciensis," 

 Cfesarius's " Dialogus miraculorum," Thomas Cantimpratensis's 

 " Bonum universale de apibus," Vincent of Beauvais's " Speculum 

 historiale," and Voragine's " Legenda aurea." The second chapter 

 treats of the rise, development and spread of exempla, and discusses 

 briefly the use of exempla in sermons and their collection in homi- 

 letic treatises. The following nine chapters treat of exempla classi- 

 fied according to personages, etc. : the Virgin, Jesus, the Devil, the 

 Jews, the Sacrament, Prayer and Confession, and the " Quotuor 

 novissima " (Death, the Judgment, Hell, and Heaven). The last 

 three chapters are devoted to the allegorical element in exempla, 

 the influence of mysticism in exempla, and moralizing exempla. 



Dr. De Vooys's book is a convenient resume of the whole sub- 

 ject, indeed, almost the only one thus far, and he cites a large number 

 of Dutch works, printed and manuscript. The most important of 

 these are certain fifteenth-century treatises containing exempla 

 sporadically. They are interesting only as showing the persistence 

 of the genre and its wide diffusion. 



To trace the history of " The Exempluni in the Early Religious 

 and Didactic Literature of England" (New York: The Columbia 

 University Press, 191 1, 8vo. pp. xi, 150) is the task which Mr. J. H. 

 Mosher has undertaken. The exemplum began its course in Eng- 

 land in the early translations of Gregory's "Dialogues" and the in- 

 fluence of his " Homilies." Later, some of the most important col- 

 lections of exempla were made by Englishmen, such as Odo of 

 Cheriton, Holkot, Bromyard, the uncertain author of the " Speculum 

 Laicorum," etc. The other classes of exempla literature are equally 



