Pricke of Conscience; Wycliffe commentary on the Lord's Prayer

Known as the Corser Manuscript after one of its previous owners, this volume contains two works: the first is a manuscript copy of the Pricke of Conscience; and the second is an exposition on the Lord's Prayer attributed to John Wycliffe. The Pricke of Conscience is divided into 8 books with additions in Latin prose and English verse. Also contained in the manuscript, on ff. 1 and 66, are badly defaced accounts relating to payments to a certain Stanlou by parishes of the diocese of Vannes in Brittany.

Contents: (1) 'The myȝt off þe fadur almyȝti ... þt for ous fouched saff to henge.' Ed. Richard Morris, The pricke of conscience (see Bibliography below). For this version in eight instead of seven parts, much as in Bodleian Library, Ashmole MS 60, see K.D. Bülbring in Englische Studien, xxiii (1897), pp. 23-8, and H.E. Allen, Writings of Richard Rolle (1927), pp. 388-93. The two points at which the largest amounts of Latin and English are interpolated into the text are: between lines 192 and 193, 440 lines of English verse interspersed with Latin prose (ff. 2v-7); between lines 6894 and 6895, Latin prose (ff. 39-41, 46-8) and 563 lines of English verse interspersed with Latin tags and longer pieces of Latin (ff. 41-6). After line 9474 come 112 lines of English verse (f. 61r, col. b, line 19 to f. 61v col. b, line 41), most of them taken from lines 6346-6401, which do not occur in their usual place after f. 37r, col. a, line 3. Part 8 begins in this section (f. 61r, col. b, line 29) 'Nou off þe viii part...'. At the end (f. 62v) is a note in Latin: 'Hoc nomen consciencia componitur ab hoc preposicione... agendorum et non etc'.

(2) ff. 63-65v, Exposition on the Lord's Prayer attributed to John Wycliffe, 'Sith the pater noster ys the beste preyer þat is... blisse and ioye with him with outen ende Amen.' W.W. Shirley, A catalogue of the original works of John Wyclif (1865), English 64. Thomas Arnold (ed.), Select English works of John Wyclif (1869-71), vol. 3, pp. 98-110. Cf. English MS 85 , item (2).

Script: 'More or less current anglicana' (Ker); item (2) is in a different hand from (1). In item (1) n, m and u are usually made of straight, backward-sloping strokes. Written space: 277 x 200 mm. 2 columns, 48-52 lines.

Secundo folio: Al holy writ (f. 3).

Decoration: Nine 4-, 5-, 6- and 7-line initials in blue ink with red penwork flourishes and infill on ff. 2r, 8r, 11r, 14v, 19v, 26r, 37r, 51v and 61r; numerous 2- and 3-line initials in the same style.

Other features: ff. 1 and 66 comprise two pieces cut from an account roll (?) of which the dorse (ff. 1v and 66r) was left blank. f. 66v is hardly legible. f. 1r contains thirty-five entries dating from the 14th century, all but five of them beginning 'la paroessz de...': no. 34 begins 'lislle de bellislle' and no. 35 'lissle de quibeuron'. The formula continues after the place-name with 'Ransone et paie au dit stanlou' and a sum of money in francs which varies from 30 to 350. The places referred to are in the diocese of Vannes. Presumably these accounts belonged to an English receiver (Stanlou/Stanlow) during Edward III's wars in Brittany. A John de Stanlow was with the army in France in 1346 (Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1345-1348, p. 507).

Description derived from N.R. Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 413-14. By permission of Oxford University Press. Prof. Robert Lewis assisted Ker with the description of item (1).

Purchased by the John Rylands Library from the London booksellers J. and J. Leighton in 1908 for £54; invoice dated 6 July 1908. Accession no. R16586.

(1) At St Albans in the 15th/16th century, to judge from a scribble on f. 1v: 'Iste sunt testes hugone Chattok Taylor of Sint Albons Wyllyham scheddebolt Bayly araunt dwelling in the same Tovne'.

(2) Philip Mainwaring. Inscription on f. 2r: 'Ph: Mainwaringe pre: 3s'. Probably Philip Mainwaring of Over Peover(d. 1647). Ker believes that the manuscript was included in the Mainwaring of Over Peover sale on 28 August 1837, either lot 497, 'Poetical Commentary on the Pater Noster, MS. on vellum, very curious' bought by James Crossley, or lot 498, 'A curious MS. of Devotional Poetry, Eng. and Lat. on vellum', bought by Crossley for £4; Crossley purchased Rylands French MS 63 in the same sale for £8 5s. A marked-up copy of the sale catalogue is in Manchester Central Library, SC 1837.

(3) James Crossley (1800-1883) of Manchester, writer and book collector. His library was said to contain 50,000 volumes, including many rare tracts and manuscripts: see his entry in the ODNB. Crossley probably passed it on to his fellow founder of the Chetham Society:

(4) Rev. Thomas Corser (1793-1876), rector of Stand near Manchester, and literary scholar, 'the owner of a particularly fine library of early English literature formed with great judgement between 1840 and 1860' (Seymour de Ricci, English collectors of books & manuscripts, p. 150). His sale at Sotheby's 28 July 1868, lot 697; sold to [F.S.] Ellis for £39 10s, according to the marked-up copy of the sale catalogue at Chetham's Library (information kindly supplied by the Librarian, Dr Michael Powell).

(5) Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878). Ashburnham Appendix sale at Sotheby's, 1 May 1899, lot 165; according to Ker it was sold to F.S. Ellis for £39 10s.

(6) John Scott (1830-1903) of Halkshill, Largs, Ayrshire, shipbuilder and engineer. His sale at Sotheby's, 27 March 1905, lot 1961.

See the Ashburnham Wycliffe Collection (Eng MSS 75-87 and 92) for more manuscripts of John Wycliffe once owned by the Ashburnham family.

H.E. (Hope Emily) Allen, Writings ascribed to Richard Rolle hermit of Hampole and materials for his biography (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1927).

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

G.C. (George Clement) Boase, 'Corser, Thomas (1793-1876)', rev. Nilanjana Banerji, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6358.

K.D. (Karl Daniel) Bülbring, 'Zu der Handschriften von R.R.'s "Pricke of Conscience"', Englische Studien, vol. 23 (1897), pp. 1-30.

Stephen Collins, 'Crossley, James (1800-1883)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/6358.

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.

N.R. (Neil Ripley) Ker, Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, vol. III, Lampeter-Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 413-14.

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. 30-1.

Seymour de Ricci, English collectors of books & manuscripts (1530-1930) and their marks of ownership (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930); see p. 150 on Thomas Corser.

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the first portion of the valuable & extensive library, formed by the Rev. Thomas Corser, M.A., F.S.A., of Stand Rectory, near Manchester... which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge... 28 July 1868 (London: J. Davy and Sons, 1868).

W.F. Spear, 'Scott, John (1830-1903)', rev. Anita McConnell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/35990.

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

See also the collection bibliography above.