was probably Bishop Poor, who died in 1237, and lies buried in his cathedral church at Salisbury. His Rule of the Anchoresses was written for a small community consisting only of three pious ladies and their domestics or lay sisters at Tarrant Kaines, or Kingston, near Crayford Bridge, in Dorsetshire. The house remained a religious home, and was afterwards incorporated with the Cistercian order; but the author of the "Rule" written for their instruction said, "If any ignorant man ask you of what order ye are, say that ye are of the Order of St. James. If such answer seem strange and singular to him, ask him, What is Order, and where he can find in Scripture Religion more plainly described than in the canonical epistle of St. James? He saith what Religion is, and right Order: 'Pure Religion and without stain is to visit and assist widows and orphans, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.' Thus doth St. James describe Religion and Order." The Rule written for the Anchoresses is in eight parts, and treats (1) of Devotional Services, (2) of the Government of the External Senses in keeping the Heart, (3) Moral Lessons and Examples, Reasons for Embracing a Monastic Life, (4) of Temptations and the means of Avoiding and Resisting them, (5) of Confession, (6) of Penance and Amendment, (7) of Love or Charity, (8) of Domestic and Social Duties. Probably for the same community, possibly for another convent of women who had turned from earthly wooing to set all their love on Christ, the writer of the "Ancren Riwle" wrote this piece called THE WOOING OF OUR LORD. Jesu, sweet Jesu, my love, my darling, my Lord, my Saviour, my honey-drop, my balm! sweeter is the remembrance of thee than honey in the mouth. Who is there that may not love thy lovely face? what heart is there so hard that may not melt at the remembrance of thee? Ah! who may not love thee, lovely Jesu? For within thee alone are all things joined that ever may make any man worthy of love to another. Beauty, and lovesome face, flesh white under clothing, make many a man the rather and the more to be beloved. Gold and Treasures and Wealth of this world cause some to be beloved and praised. Others for their Generosity and Liberality, that prefer graciously to give than niggardly to withhold. Some for their Wit and Wisdom and worldly prudence; and others for Might and Strength, to be distinguished and brave in fight to maintain their rights. Some are loved for their Nobility and highness of Birth; others for Virtue, and Politeness, and their faultless Manners. Some for Kindness, and Meekness, and goodness of heart and deed; and yet, above all this, nature causes friends of Kin to love one another. Jesu, my precious darling, my love, my life, my beloved, my most worthy of love, my heart's balm, my soul's sweetness, thou art Lovesome in countenance, thou art altogether bright. All angel's life is to look upon thy face, for thy cheer is so marvellously lovesome and pleasant to look upon, that if the damned that boil in hell might eternally see it, all that torturing pitch would appear but a soft warm bath; for, if it might be so, they had rather boil evermore in woe and evermore look upon that blissful beauty, than be in all bliss and forego the sight of thee. Thou art so shining and so white, that the sun would be pale if it were beside thy blissful countenance. If I then will love any man for fairness I will love thee, my dear life, mother's fairest son. Ah, Jesu, my sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. But now I will choose my beloved for Wealth; for everywhere with chattels one may buy love. But is there any one richer than thou, my beloved, that reignest in heaven, thou that art the renowned kaiser that has created all this world? for as the holy prophet David says, "The earth is the Lord's and all that fills it, the world and all that lives therein;" heaven with the mirths and the immeasurable blisses, all is thine, my sweet one, and all thou wilt give me, if I love thee aright. I cannot give my love to any man for a sweeter possession. I will hold then to thee, my beloved, and love thee for thyself, and for thy love forsake all other things that might draw and turn my heart from thy love. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. But what is wealth and world's weal worth without Liber ality? And who is more free than thou, for first thou didst make all this world and didst put it under my feet, and didst make me lady over all thy creatures that thou didst create on earth, but I miserably lost it through my sins. Ah! lest I should lose all, thou gavest thyself to me, to deliver me from pain. If I will love then any one for liberality, I will love thee, Jesu Christ, most free beyond all others; for other liberal men give these outward things, but thou didst give Thyself for me, that thou couldst not withhold thy own heart's blood. A dearer love-token gave never any beloved to another. And thou that gavest me first all thyself, thou hast promised me, my beloved, the gift, all to myself, to reign on thy right hand, crowned with thyself. Who is then more generous than thou? who, for largess, is better worthy of being beloved than thou, my dear life? Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. And But largess is worth little when Wisdom is lacking. if that I will love any man for wisdom, there is none wiser than thou, that art called the wisdom of thy Father in heaven; for He through thee, that art wisdom, created all this world, and ordereth it and divideth it, as it seemeth best. Within thee, my dear love, is hidden the treasure of all wisdom, as the book bears witness. Ah! Jesu, swert Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. But many a man through his Strength and Courage also makes himself beloved and esteemed. And is any so hardy as thou art? Nay; for thou alone dreadest not with thine own dear body to fight against all the terrible devils of hell: that whichever of them is least loathsome and horrible, it he might, such as he is, show himself to man, all the world would be afraid to behold him alone, for no man may ser him and remain in his wits, unless the grace and strength of Christ embolden his heart. Thou art moreover herewith so immensely mighty that, with thy precious hand nailed on the rood, thou boundest the hell-dogs, and bereftest them of their prey which they had greedily grasped and held it fast on account of Adam's sin. Thou brave renowned champion robbedst hell-house, and deliveredst thy prisoners and broughtest them out of the house of death, and ledde them with thyself to thy jewelled bower, the abode of eternal bliss; wherefore of thee, my beloved, was it truly said. "The Lord is mighty, strong and keen in battle." therefore if a stalwart lemman please me, I will love the. Jesu, strongest over all, so that thou mayest fell the strong foes of my soul; and that the strength of thee may help my great weakness, and thy boldness embolden my heart. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. But noble men and gentle and of high Birth often obtain the love of women at a very small cost; for oftentimes many a woman loses her honour through the love of a man that is of high birth; then, sweet Jesu, upon what higher man may I set my love? where may I a more gentle man choose than thou, that art the king's son, that wieldest this world, and art king equal with thy father, king over kings, and lord over lords? and yet, with respect to thy manhood, born thou wast of Mary, a maiden meekest of mood; child of royal birth, of king David's kin, of Abraham's race. No higher birth than this is there under the sun. I will love thee, then, sweet Jesu, as the most noble life that ever lived on earth, and also because in all thy life never was any vice found, my dear faultless beloved one; and that came to thee of birth and of nurture, because thou didst ever dwell in the court of heaven. Ah! my precious lord; SO noble and so gracious; suffer me never to settle my love on churlish things, nor to desire earthly things nor fleshly things in preference to thee, nor to love against thy will. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. Meekness and Mildness make a man every where to be beloved; and thou, my dear Jesus, for thy great meekness wast compared to a lamb, because anent all the wrong and the shame that thou sufferedst, and anent all the woe and the painful wounds, thou never openedst thy mouth to murmur against it; and yet the shame and the wrong, that the sinful each day do unto thee, thou sufferest meekly; nor dost thou take vengeance immediately after our sins, but long awaitest our repentance, through thy mercy. Since thy goodness may cause thee everywhere to be beloved, therefore is it right that I love thee and leave all others for thee, for thou hast shown great mercy toward me. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. But because friends of Kin naturally love one another, thou clothest thyself with our flesh; tookest man of her flesh, born of a woman. Thy flesh took of her flesh without commerce of man; took fully, with that same flesh, man's nature to suffer all that man may suffer, to do all that man doth, except sin alone; for thou hadst neither sin nor ignorance. Then against nature goes each man who loveth not such a kinsman, and leaveth all others. Seeing that truer love ought to be amongst brethren, thou becamest man's brother of one father, with all those that sing Pater noster in purity; but thou art a son through nature, and we through grace, and man of that same flesh that we bear on earth. Ah! whom may he love truly who loveth not his brother: then whosoever loveth not thee is a most wicked man. Now, my sweet Jesu, I have left for thy love flesh's kinship, and yet born-brothers have cast me aside, but I reck of nothing whilst I hold thee, for in thee alone may I find all friends. Thou art to me more than father, more than mother. Brother, sister, or friends, none are to be esteemed as anything in comparison with thee. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. Thou then with thy Beauty, thou with thy Riches, thou with thy Liberality, thou with Wit and Wisdom, thou with thy Might and Strength, thou with nobleness of Birth and graciousness, thou with Meekness and mildness and great gentleness, thou with Kinship, thou with all the things that one may purchase love with, hast bought my love; but above all other things thou makest thyself worthy of love to me, through those hard horrible injuries, and those shameful wrongs that thou didst suffer for me. Thy bitter pain and thy passion, thy sharp death on the rood, rightly tells upon all my love, and challenges all my heart. Jesus, my life's love, my heart's sweetness, three foes fight against and yet may I sore dread for their blows; and it behoves me, through thy grace, prudently to guard myself against the world, my flesh, and the devil. me, The homily then dwells upon the peril of man and Christ's suffering and death for his salvation. Then it proceeds : Lady, mother, and maiden, thou didst stand here full nigh, and sawest all this sorrow upon thy precious son. Thou wast inwardly martyred within thy motherly heart when thou sawest his heart cloven asunder with the spear's point. But, Lady, for the joy that thou hadst of his resurrection the third day thereafter, grant me to understand thy sorrow and heartily to feel somewhat of the sorrow that thou then hadst; and that I may help thee to weep because he so bitterly redeemed me with his blood, so that I, with him and with thee, may rejoice in my resurrection at doomsday, and be with thee in bliss. Jesus, sweet Jesu, thus thou foughtest for me against my soul's foes; thou didst settle the contest for me with thy body, and madest of me, wretch, thy beloved and spouse. Thou hast brought me from the world into the bower of thy birth, enclosed me in thy chamber where I may so sweetly kiss and embrace thee, and of thy love have spiritual delight. Ah! sweet Jesu, my life's love, with thy love hast thou redeemed me, and from the world thou hast brought me. But I now may say with the Psalmist, Quid retribuam Domino pro omnibus quæ retribuit mihi-Lord, what may I requite thee for all that thou hast given me! What may I suffer for thee for all that thou didst endure for me! But it is needful for me that thou be easy to satisfy. A wretched body and a weak I bear on earth, and that, such as it is, I have given thee, and will give to thy service. Let my body hang with thy body nailed on the rood, and enclosed transversely within four walls; and hang I will with thee, and never more come from my cross until I die; for then shall I leap from the rood into rest, from woe to weal and into eternal bliss. Ah! Jesus, so sweet it is with thee to hang; for when I look on thee that hangest beside me, the great sweetness of thee bereaves me of many pains. But, sweet Jesus, what is my body worth in comparison with thine? for if I might a thousandfold give thee myself, it would be nothing compared to thee that gavest thyself for me; and yet I have a heart, vile and unworthy, and destitute and poor of all good virtues; and that, such as it is, take to thyself now, dear life, with true love, and suffer me never to love anything against thy will, for I may not set my love better anywhere than on thee, Jesu Christ, that didst redeem it so dearly. There is none so worthy to be loved as thou, sweet Jesu, that hast in thyself all things for which a man ought to be love-worthy to another. Thou art most worthy of my love, thou that didst die for the love of me. Yet if I offered my love for sale and set a value thereupon, as high as ever I will, yet thou wilt have it, and moreover to what thou hast given thou wilt add more; and, if I love thee aright, wilt crown me in heaven to reign with thyself, world without end. Ah! Jesu, sweet Jesu, my love, my beloved, my life, my dearest love, that didst love me so much that thou didst die for the love of me, and hast separated me from the world, and hast made me thy spouse, and all thy bliss hast promised me, grant that the love of thee be all my delight. Pray for me, my dear sister. This have I written thee because that words often please the heart to think on our Lord. And therefore, when thou art in ease, speak to Jesu, and say these words; and think as though he hung beside thee bloody on the rood; and may he, through his grace, open thine heart to the love of him, and to ruth of his pain.' The English poem by Layamon, "The Brut," in more than 32,000 lines, which, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, developed Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the British Kings" into national poetry with enlargement of its Arthurian traditions, will be described in the volume of this Library which treats of larger works not specially religious. Produced, perhaps, a few years later than Layamon's "Brut" (which was finished about the year 1205), and of about the same date as the "Ancren Riwle," and "The Wooing of Our Lord,” was a long religious work in verse, "The Ormulum.” This is named after its author, who calls himself at the opening of his work, Orm "This book is nemned Ormulum, But he evidently there writes only Orm to account for the first syllable of Ormulum, since, at the close of the dedication, the lines immediately preceding those which open the poem itself were— "I that this English have set I was there there I christened was With mouth, and eke with heart" Beg Christians who hear the book read or who read it, to pray for my soul. What we know of Ormin we learn from himself; and as his work is not of a kind to yield internal evidence of date, there is only the language from which to infer the time when it was written. He was a canon regular of the order of St. Augustine, and at the request of Brother Walter, also an Augustinian canon, he planned and executed his work, of which the object was-as far as the Church allowed to bring the Gospel story, and the teaching founded on it, straight home, in their own tongue, to the understanding of the people. The English conscience never was at ease with a mere reading of the Bible to the people in an unknown tongue. If that Book was the foundation of their faith, it was felt that they should have it to build on. The honest fear of the Church was that if ignorant men read the Bible for themselves they would interpret it blindly for themselves, and there would be ruin of souls by the diffusion of heresies; therefore in Ormin's time, and long after, the Book of Psalms This translation is substantially that given by Dr. Morris, with the original text, in his excellent edition of "Old English Homilies," already mentioned. was the only part of Scripture which it was permitted to translate. In First-English days, not only was there a translation of the Psalms ascribed to Aldhelm, but there was translation by Ælfric of the Pentateuch, and the books of Joshua, Judges, part of the books of Kings, Esther, Job, Judith, and the Maccabees. Also, as we have seen, the Gospels were translated for the people and divided into sections, that they might every year be read through in the churches. And now that they were being read still, although in Latin, Brother Ormin's care was to provide for the people in a sort of rhythm, through which pleasant tales might be told to them by the wayside and "on ember-eves and holy-ales," the whole series of those portions of the New Testament that were read in the daily offices of the Church, each Gospel being associated with a little homily of explanation, doctrinal and practical, often containing ideas borrowed from Bede or Elfric. There is only one MS. of the "Ormulum," and that is in the collection given by Francis Junius to the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Though of considerable extent, it is but a fragment. Homilies were written by Ormin for all, or nearly all, the daily services of the year, and of these there are left us only thirty-two. Ormin's verse is seldom rhymed, and is without alliteration, imitating a mediæval Latin rhythm in verses of fifteen syllables in two sections, the metrical point being placed at the end of the eighth syllable, or fourth foot, and the fifteenth syllable unaccented, almost always a syllable of inflection, e, en, or ed. In his writing Ormin used a device which was perhaps meant to help a Norman-English reader of his lines to such pronunciation of them as would be understood by the people for whose benefit they were written. He always doubled the consonant after a short vowel in the same word, and avoided doubling it after a long vowel. This duplication is, in fact, a special characteristic of the written English of the "Ormulum." Ormin's work was, then, a putting of the entire Gospel history into verse, with a running commentary of doctrine and exhortation, in a form that would be welcome to the people's ears, and with provision that whoever recited any part of it for their instruction should, as far as he could contrive, not make a dead language of its English, or take the pleasantness out of his rhythm by pronouncing it amiss. "And whoso," he says to the copyists, "shall will to write this book again another time, I bid him that he write it rightly, so as this book teacheth him entirely as it is upon this first pattern, with all such rhyme as is here set, with just as many words, and that he look well that he write a letter twice where it upon this book is written in that wise." Here is the whole of one of Ormin's metrical Homilies. It is Christ's Teaching of Nicodemus upon (St. John, chapter iii.). The opening of the homily I give in Ormin's English, with interlinear translation, and then modernise the rest, but without attempting to reproduce, in our uninflected language, the weak fifteenth syllable once formed by an inflection, and of which the music was often imitated by adding That tegg till mannkinn haffden, And out of the pain of hell, Wel shollde wurrthen borrghen. Surely should be saved. Thiss wereld, tatt he sennde The middell ærd off helle? The mid-earth from hell? Thurrh whatt wass heffness whel forrgarrt For what was heaven's wheel (the firmament) com To dreghen helle pine? To suffer pain of hell? And lifft, and land, and waterrflod, And air, and land, and water flood, Hu wærenn thegg forrwrohhte To dreghenn wa withth mikell rihht To suffer woe with much right Inn helle withth the defell? In hell with the devil? Off thise fowre shaffte iss all Of these four created things (elements) is all Thiss middell werelld timmbredd, This middle world built, Of heffness whel and off the lifft, Off waterr, and off erthe; Of water and of earth; And deserve pain of hell. We ought to know now that for uɛ The race of man alone; Of heaven's fire, and of the air Of water, and of earth: 30 [pelled 40 And since man's Soul is through the world Here surely signified, 50 30 |