CRANE— MEDIEVAL SERMON-BOOKS AND STORIES. 379 



well represented, and Nicole de Bozon's " Contes moralizes," William 

 of Wadington's " Manuel des Pechiez " and its translation by Robert 

 of Brunne, " Handlyng Synne," are among the most important works 

 of their kind. Two of the works treated rather inadequately by Mr. 

 Mosher have been published since my " Jacques de Vitry," and I may 

 consider them here very briefly out of their chronological order. 

 They are: "Jacob's Well" (ed. Brandeis, Early English Text So- 

 ciety, No. 115, 1900) and John Mirk's " Festial " (ed. Erbe, E. E. 

 T. Soc. Extra Series, No. 96, 1905). The latter, which is earlier in 

 date, was written by a member of the Augustinian canonry of 

 Lilleshul in Shropshire before 141 5.® The work consists of seventy- 

 four sermons for the festivals of the ecclesiastical year, with copious 

 use of illustrative stories, many of which (26) are, as would be 

 expected, from the " Legenda Aurea," three only are from the 

 " V'itae Patrum," usually more freely drawn upon. " The sermons," 

 as Professor Wells says, op. cit., p. 302, " are all intended to provide 

 material for delivery by ill-equipped priests, of whom, says the 

 Prsefatio, ' mony excuson ham by defaute of bokus and sympulnys 

 of lettrure.' . . . But especially notable is the extensive use of nar- 

 rative, not merely in the main line of the discourse, but in the hun- 

 dred or more illustrative narrationes. Clearly, unlike Wycliffe and 

 his followers, Mirk approved heartily of employment of tales in 

 preaching, indeed, he directly defends the practice. But he shows 

 control and judgment in use of them. The narrdtiones, sometimes, 

 as many as five in a sermon, are always closely connected with the 

 theme; they are introduced with the declared purpose of enforcing 

 the issue through conviction or stimulation ; and, the story ended, 

 the hearers are usually brought back to the point illustrated. The 

 tales vary much in kind ; some are over-marvelous, some have local 

 flavor. It is not at all wonderful that these simple pieces of prose 

 full of narrative, caught the popvilar taste, and that, when the other 

 native collections and cycles were on the wane, these were copied 

 into many MSS., and (unlike any of the other groups), as soon as 

 the press was available, were printed in edition after edition." 



^ See G. H. Gerould's " Saints' Legends," Boston and New York, 1916, 

 pp. 184, 363, and J. E. Wells's " A Manual of the Writings in Middle English, 

 1050-1400," New Haven, 1916, pp. 301, 807. 



