Wycliffe Treatises

Various treatises attributed to John Wycliffe but of doubtful authorship, including On the Ten Commandments, On the Lord's Prayer, The Mirror of Sinners and the parts of The Pore Caitif known as The Charter of Heaven and The Three Arrows of Doomsday.

Contents: (1) ff. 2-37, 'Here bigynneþ þe abcde. and next pater noster aue marie and crede and next þe heestis and oþer þingis shortli touchid to helþe of euery persoone þat þenkiþ to be saued.' Divisible into eighteen sections: (a-e) f. 2r-v, The alphabet (a-z, ȝ, þ, 7, est, amen), Lord's Prayer, Hail Mary, Creed, Blessing; (f) ff. 2v-9, On the ten commandments, 'Alle manere men shulde holde... ony man doiþ', printed from this copy by Kellogg and Talbert, pp. 371-6 (see Bibliography below); (g) ff. 9-13, On the deadly sins, 'Pride and Enuye... do to ihesu crist': Jolliffe, A check-list of Middle English prose writings of spiritual guidance, F.21a; (h-n) ff. 13-19, Seven pieces setting out the five wits of body and of soul, the seven spiritual virtues, the seven works of corporal and of spiritual mercy, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit and the seven sacraments; (o) f. 19r-v, A prologue, 'This litil compilation biginneþ wiþ praier... and not oonli bi drede', which looks back to (b, d, f) and forward to (p-r) and occurs with (p-r) also in Durham Cathedral A. IV. 22, pp. 98-116; (p) ff. 19v-24v, 'þe twelue lettyngis of preier': Jolliffe, M.4; (q) ff. 24v-25v, 'Of beleeue in general. Also touchinge þe crede... and come to bliss'; (r) ff. 25v-37, 'Of diuerse degrees of loue': Jolliffe, G.3.

(2) ff. 37-54, Þe pater noster, exposition on the Lord's Prayer attributed to John Wycliffe (this and the next three titles are running titles). 'Siþ þe pater noster is þe best praier þat is... in blisse and ioie wt hym to wone wt outen eende. Amen'. Shirley, A catalogue of the original works of John Wyclif, English 64 (see Bibliography below). Thomas Arnold (ed.), Select English works of John Wyclif, vol. 3, pp. 98-110. Cf. English MS 90 , item (2).

(3) ff. 54v-64, Þe mirrour of synners. Jolliffe, F.8. Horstmann, Yorkshire writers, vol. 2, pp. 436-40 (see Bibliography below). Cf. Lambeth Palace Library MS 3597, item (3).

(4) ff. 64-72v, Þe chartir of heuene. Part of The Pore Caitif: Jolliffe, B.5.

(5) ff. 72v-81v, 'Þe þre arowis. Who þat wole haue in mynde þe dredful day of dome... upon þe rode tre. Amen'. Basically the same, but fuller than the text printed by Horstmann, vol. 2, pp. 446-8. Cf. Lambeth Palace Library MS 3597, item (3).

(6) f. 1, Text on the flyleaf, twenty-three lines on the recto and twenty-five on the verso, all more or less faded: the first sentence begins 'Wymen schulden make ensaumple as hester þt was a qwene to aray hem' and another sentence begins 'Also seint poul repreueþ'.

Script: Gothic textura. Written space: 93 x 65 mm. 19 or 20 long lines. The hand changes at item (2).

Secundo folio: kide crist (f. 3).

Decoration: There are numerous 2-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes.

Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 409. By permission of Oxford University Press.

Purchased by Mrs Enriqueta Rylands from Henry Yates Thompson in 1897, and later transferred to the John Rylands Library. Accession no. R4999.

(1) There are several early inscriptions as follows: 'Iste liber constat Iohanni Ade Cum magno gaudio et honore' (f. 83v), end of 15th century; Thomas Wylkes (f. 4v), 16th century; William Wester[t]on (f. 84r); Willym Vycary (f. 84r); Thomas Page[t] (f. 84r); Marg[are]tt Kyghtley (iv recto), 17th century.

(2) Once part of the library founded in 1684 by Archbishop Thomas Tenison (1636-1715) in the church of St Martin in the Fields, London: see the catalogue of 1786 by Samuel Ayscough (British Library, Add. MS 11257), no. 75. Sotheby's sale of Tenison's library on 1 July 1861, lot 97; sold to Lilly for Lord Ashburnham for £37 10s.

(3) Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham. Appendix no. 27B.

(4) Henry Yates Thompson. He purchased the Ashburnham Appendix in May 1897 and almost immediately resold the manuscript to Mrs Rylands.

Thomas Arnold (ed.), Select English works of John Wyclif (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869-71), vol. 3, pp. 98-110, on Þe pater noster.

Edward Carpenter, Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury: his life and times (London: S.P.C.K., 1948), pp. 23-6.

Carl Horstmann, Yorkshire writers: Richard Rolle of Hampole and his followers, 2 vols (London: S. Sonnenschein & Co., 1895-6).

P.S. (Peter Sydney) Jolliffe, A check-list of Middle English prose writings of spiritual guidance (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974).

A.L. (Alfred Latimer) Kellogg and Ernest W. Talbert, 'The Wyclifite Pater Noster and Ten Commandments, with special reference to English Mss. 85 and 90 in the John Rylands Library', Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 42, no.2 (1960), pp. 345-77.

G.A. (Godfrey Allen) Lester, The index of Middle English prose. Handlist 2, a handlist of manuscripts containing Middle English prose in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester and Chetham's Library, Manchester (Cambridge: Brewer, 1985), pp. 14-24.

G.A. (Godfrey Allen) Lester, 'Unedited Middle English prose in Rylands manuscripts', Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 68, no. 1 (1985), pp. 135-60, especially pp. 153-4.

N.R. (Neil Ripley) Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), p. 409.

W.W. (Walter Waddington) Shirley, A catalogue of the original works of John Wyclif (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1865), English 64.

Sotheby's, Catalogue of a highly valuable collection of manuscripts, formed by Archbishop Tenison... [to be] sold by auction, by Messrs. S. Leigh Sotheby & John Wilkinson... on Monday the 1st day of July, 1861, etc. (London: printed by J. Davy and Sons for S. Leigh Sotheby & John Wilkinson, 1861).

See also a letter in the John Rylands Library archive from Peter A. Hoare, who was working on Archbishop's Tenison's Library, 27 May 1963.