Homily 56, Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

by: Anne B. Thompson (Editor)

from: The Northern Homily Cycle  2008

Dominica vicesima prima post festum Sancte Trinitatis. Evangelium secundum Johannem.1 Erat quidem regulus cuius filius infirmabatur Capharnaum et cetera.2
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 175 180 185 190 195 200 205 210 215 220 225 230 235 240 245 250 255 260 265 270 275 280	Seynt John the good Gospellere3 Seyth thus in oure Gospel here: A town was callid Capharnaum To whilk Crist was wont to com; A kingis sone ful sike ther lay, And whan his fader the king herd say That Crist was comen to that cuntré That than was callid Galilé, He com and preyd Crist as his frend That he wolde to his hous wend, And help his sone that ther sike lay; And than Crist to him gan say: “But if ye wonderful tokins se, Ellis trowe ye not in me.” The king seyde, “Lord, come in hi And help my sone or than he di.” Than answerid Crist and bad him gange, And seyde, “Thi sone is hol and strange.” He trowid Crist and was ful fayn, And turnid him fast homward agayn; And as he wente be the strete, His owne servauntis gan he mete, That told him in that ilke stound That his sone was hol and sound. The king hem askid what tyme and whan That he was hol, and thei seyde than: “Yesterday as we yow say The fyvere him lefte about mydday.” The king him umbethought than right, It was the same tyme that Crist him hight That his sone schuld helid be Therfor in Crist ful wel trowid he. This is the strengthe of oure Gospelle, But herof I wile sumthing telle.    How this king trowid not stedefastli In oure Lord God Almyghti; For this king bad him com Bodili unto Capharnaum, For he wende that his manhed Myght mor do than his Godhed That his sone hol were wrought, For his Godhed knew he nought. Therfor wold Crist lete him se That overal was his pousté, And bad him gon with mylde chere, And seyde his sone was hol and fere; As who say, “Thu may wite therbi That thouh I come not bodili Mi Godhed is myghti nevertheles To hele thi sone of his syknes.” For Goddis myght and his maystri In alle stedis is ay so redi, That nouht so privé may be done That he ne knowith it als sone; And that not thorw his manhede But thorw the myght of his Godhede. And therfor we may understande That this king was mystrowande Whan he preyd Crist to come Bodili unto Capharnaum; For if he had ben stedefast In trouthe he schuld have seyd in hast: “Lord, thi wil thu schew to me For ther ageyn may no thing be. Comaunde, Lord, for thi mercy, That my sone be hol in hy, For I trowe Lord stedefastli That thu art God Almyghti.” But for he wende that his manhed Was mor of myght than his Godhed, Therfor he bad Crist come in haste To hele his sone or he yald the gaste; And therfor seyde Crist him to: “But if ye se me wondres do, Ellis trowe ye not that I Be Goddis Sone Almyghty.”    Here may we seen that the Godhede Is more to love than his manhede, And mannes soule withouten les Of the Godhed hath the liknes. Therfor schuld we mekil more Loke that oure soule wel wore Than oure foule wrecchid bodi, And ellis oure lyf is al foli; For the bodi schal rote in clay, But the soule schal laste for ay.    But in this world is many a man That mekil werldli wisdom can, And to the bodi thei take good yeme In lust and liking it to queme. But of the soule thei rekke no del Whether that it farith ille or wel. With worldli welthe the flesch thei fede And not the soule with no good dede; Forsothe me thinkith that alle swiche Unto this king may wel ben liche, That mor worschipid Cristis manhed Than he dide his heye Godhede. For who so do his soule nedis, He worschipith God in his dedis; For mannes soule as we rede here Is Goddis owne ymage clere. Therfor if we oure lawe wile yeme, God himself make we ful queme, For everi holi soule is Goddis spouse That he schal bringe to blisful house.    But here arn many men to wite That love these fayre men and white Mor for fayrhed of hire bodi Than for the vertu of the soule gostli. But forsothe if thei myght se The liknes of the Trenyté That in mannes soule is wrought, And how dere that it was bought, Thei wold more love therto kithe Than to the bodi a thousand sithe. But with the bodi wold thei wlate, And honoure the soule for the grete state. We schuld love men for hire goodnesse Mor than for bodily fayrnesse. And that may we seen be a tale here That acordith to this matere.    Seynt Basil tellith sothfastli, That in a lond was a nonneri Wherin nonnes dwellid good won; And among hem was on That caste hire love so inwardli Upon oure Lord God Almyghti, That of hireself nothing sche rought, But on Jhesu was hire thought. Hire chere was ay semand sori. Hire felawis held hire wod forthi, And made of hire ful gret skornyng, And callid hire oule and outcasting; For alle the nonnes that were thore Wend wel that sche fonned wore, And summe on hire foul water keste, And sumtyme draf and sumtyme yeste; And summe rubbid hire withoute With ground mustard al aboute. But sche made no grucching For al hire evyl skornyng, But all sche suffrid ful mekeli, And to hire servise was ay redi. For oftetymes sche grecid hire schos, And wisch hire vessel as a quystroun dos. And whatsoevere thei put hire to Wit a good wil al dide scho. Hire hed was wounden al aboute With a foul lynen cloute; And for sche was so unlikli Alle thei letin of hire skornrfulli. But yet sche was ful derworthi Beforn oure Lord God Almyghti. Thus led sche longe ful holy lyf, But sche made nevere hire goodnes ryf, For evere hire holynes sche hid But atte laste oure Lord it kid.    For an ermyte wonid ther beside, That in that lond was knowen ful wide. Protormes the ermyte hyght; To him God sente an aungil bright, That swiche wordis unto him seyde Ther he was in his preyeris leyde: “Thu wenist,” he seyde, “that thou here art An hali man and clene of hert. Ther is a woman I wot wel whore, That of holynes hath mekil more Than evere thu yet had in thee; And if thu wilt, thu may hire se. Wit a good tokne I schal thee bynde How thu schalt that mayden fynde: Unto that nonneri thu go to morn, And calle the nonnes alle thee beforn, And sche that hath hire hed wounden And al with cloutis aboute bounden, That is sche that holy may That servith God bothe nyght and day. Hire felawis don hire tene and tray, And al sche takith it in play. Sche preyth for alle that don hire mys, Forthi with God ful dere sche is. And thu sittist here al alone, And anger and tene sufferist thu none, And wenist thiself be ful holi, And beforn God ful derworthi. Thu latist thin herte ful wide stray, And thinkist on worldli game and play. Therfor I sey thee full witterli, Thu art not half so holi As is that blisful and holy may That suffrith so gladli tene and tray.”    Upon the morn this ermyte aros, And to the nonneri faste he gos; And als sone as he com there, The nonnes made him good chere. So holi man and good was he, That alle were fayn him for to se. Thei askid sone what was his wille, And of his comyng to wite sum skille. He answerid and seyde to hem than: “Among yow is a good woman That I am come for to se, For of hire wile I blissid be.” He lokid about him ful wide whore, And askid if thei alle were thore. “Me thinkith,” he seyde, “that I hire mysse For whom I come heder iwisse.”    To this ermyte than answerid thei, And seyde ther was not on awey But a caytif, a fonnyd wight That schuld come in no mannes sight. “Sche is so foul and so fulsome That sche aforn men may not come.” Than answerid this holi man And seyde, “I wile seen that woman.” Than yede a nonne hire for to calle, And brouht hire forth beforn hem alle. Whan this ermyte of hire had sight, To hire fete he fil doun right. Sche was affrayd that he dide so, Hire schamyd sore and was ful wo. To the ground plat fil sche thore, And wepte ful tenderli and sore. Whan the nonnes saw hem don thus Thei seyde unto Protamus: “Rise up, Fader,” thei seyde in hi, “Thu dost thiself gret vileny; Thu liggist beforn a foul sage That lyvith in wodnes and in rage.” “Ye gabbe,” he seyde, “alle witterli; In this woman is non foli, But ye arn folis and have ben longe That have dispisid hire with wronge For wite ye wel without les, Sche is of wel mor worthines Beforn Jhesu Cristes face Than alle that stande in this place. An aungil told me al hire state Forthi hire goodnes al I wate.”    Than made the nonnes ful mekil mone, And on hire knes thei fille ilkone, And askid hire forgifnes sone Of al that thei had hire mysdone; And seyde, “We arn worthi to blame For we han don hire mekil schame.” This blissid mayden ful myldeli Forgaf hem alle ful inwardli, And seyde, “My Lord God Almyghty On yow and me he have mercy.” But whan sche saw that mor and les Knew hire lyf and hire goodnes, Al worldly loos sche thouhte to fle, For in worschipe sche wold not be. Sche fled awey upon a nyght, And com no mor in mannes sight. Mighte no man seththe in no land Of this mayden here mor tidand. But we trowe that God hire tok To Paradys, for sche forsok Al this wrecchid worldis blis, That nothing but fantam is.    Be this tale may we seen wel That God is be the hundrid del Bettere payd of that fayrnes That in a mannes soule is, Whan he is out of dedli synne, Than of al this worldis wynne. For this woman was in hire bodi Foul of syghte and unlykly, But hire soule notforthi Was to God ful derworthi. Therfor be we not to bolde Of oure flesche that schal rote in molde; But be we tendere of that drury That Crist so dere on rode wolde by: That is oure soule that I of mene God geve us grace to hold it clene For als often as we it file Goddis ymage make we vile. If we this ymage so despite, And he be wroth, who may him wite? God graunte us grace it clene to bringe To hevene blisse at oure endinge. Amen.	which go did say Unless; miraculous signs believe in haste before he dies go whole believed; glad very moment well fever reflected promised believed (see note) Because thought; physical presence (t-note) To make his son whole Divinity; (t-note) power countenance healthy and strong As if to say; know mastery places secretly immediately mistrustful faith; at once; (t-note) against it whole believe greater in power gave up the ghost (t-note) more to be loved lies much See that our soul be upright otherwise rot forever (see note) Who much; knows great care desire; please care not at all nourish everyone like attends to take heed of pleased blame (see note); (t-note) beauty truly; (t-note) created dearly; purchased show times be disgusted its good spiritual condition is appropriate; (t-note) (see note); (t-note) (t-note) according to good custom one directed; (t-note) cared expression; in appearance sorrowful considered her to be crazy were scornful of her owl and outcast; (see note) Thought; insane threw chaff; pig swill; (see note) complaint their; scorn polished their shoes And washed their dishes as a scullion does bound cloth because; ugly mistreated her scornfully precious public made known hermit dwelled; (see note); (t-note) was called Where; positioned think; [you] are; (t-note) pure know; where sign; give tomorrow head wound about cloths maiden companions; annoyance and mischief do her wrong Therefore to precious allow; wander certainly maiden Such a glad at once know; reason all about him do not see here one missing Except a wretch; deranged creature ought to disgusting before wish to see went frightened She was ashamed flat hastily wrong You lie; idiot; (see note) madness deceive yourselves; certainly madness wrongly know; without lies condition know great moaning each one done wrong earnestly [may] he have everyone fame to be worshipped since news believe (t-note) phantom a hundred times satisfied pleasure unattractive nevertheless precious confident earth treasure wished to buy pure defile scorn blame

[Homilies 57–58 not included in this edition. See Explanatory Notes.]

Go To Homily 59, Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity

Footnotes

HOMILY 56, TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY: FOOTNOTES

1 Twenty-first Sunday after the feast of Holy Trinity. The Gospel according to John

2 Latin rubric (John 4:46–53): And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. [He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and prayed him to come down, and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said to him: Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not. The ruler saith to him: Lord, come down before that my son die. Jesus saith to him: Go thy way; thy son liveth. The man believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way. And as he was going down, his servants met him; and they brought word, saying, that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better. And they said to him: Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him. The father therefore knew, that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house.]

3 Marginal notation: John 4:46. MS D has numerous marginal annotations of this type, in a later hand (probably sixteenth century). See the textual notes for a listing of them.

HOMILY 56, TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY: EXPLANATORY NOTES

Abbreviations: MED: Middle English Dictionary; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; NIMEV: The New Index of Middle English Verse, ed. Boffey and Edwards; PL: Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne; Tubach: Index Exemplorum, ed. Tubach. For manuscript abbreviations (ED, A, D, G, L, V), see the Introduction.

This segment comes from D; it has been lost from A, and G has only the homily. The exemplum of the nun despised for her ugly looks is the third instance of a hermit taken to task for thinking himself more holy than others, in particular, those tested by worldly temptation and/or suffering (see the exempla of the Harsh Hermit, pp. 113–17, and King Oswald, pp. 147–50). The NHC-poet here expresses once again his sensitivity to and sympathy for his audience, who must deal with the temptations of everyday life: the reclusive hermit whose “holiness” is shown up by comparison with the ascetic life of King Oswald reveals the poet’s sense of humor; even more significantly, the experiences of the young hermit assailed by physical desire and the nun scorned for her ugliness strike a note that would surely have resonated with the experience of ordinary layfolk.

NIMEV 2935, 2859. Manuscripts: A: (missing); G: fols. 146v–147v (homily only); D: fols. 203r–206r; L: fols. 60v–61r.

34 But herof I wile sumthing telle. Though Gregory’s homily on John’s text is not cited, it is similar in theme and emphasis (Forty, Homily 28, pp. 221–25).

87–88 But in this world is many a man / That mekil werldli wisdom can. Compare Gregory: “We do not respect in people their nature, made in God’s image, but their riches and reputation. When we consider what is important about them we scarcely regard what they are within. We pay attention to what is physically displeasing about them and neglect to consider what they are” (Forty, Homily 28, p. 222). The last sentence also parallels the theme of the exemplum which follows, concerning a nun whose physical appearance is loathsome but whose soul is pure and beautiful.

108 That love these fayre men and white. This line, along with its marginal annotation, love faire whit men, reminds us of one of the most important components of the medieval ideal of beauty. As Curry notes, “[W]hite is very commonly used to describe beautiful women and children and handsome men as well” (Middle English Ideal, p. 80). Isolde “of the white hands,” Blancheflur, the eponymous heroine of Floris and Blancheflur, and Chaucer’s Blanche, who is evoked through a pun, “And goode faire White she het” (Book of the Duchess, line 948), suggesting the link between whiteness and beauty, are just a few of the many examples found throughout medieval literature (Curry, Middle English Ideal, pp. 80–81). Interestingly, the religious symbolism which frequently associates white with religious virtue and purity is absent; here white marks only the external beauty which is to be shunned (Lampert, “Race, Periodicity,” p. 401).

123 Seynt Basil tellith sothfastli. Tubach 3504: Nun, worthiest. The exemplum comes from the Vitae Patrum, where it is found in several different places: PL 73.1140, PL 74.299, attributed to Heraclides Paradisus, and PL 73.984, attributed as in the NHC, to Saint Basil. Middle English versions include the AT (322), and Jacob’s Well (12).

134 And callid hire oule and outcasting. All versions of this exemplum are very similar, but NHC contains a good many more colorful details than the others regarding the nun’s appearance and the other nuns’ treatment of her.

138 yeste. This word also occurs in Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity (49.330). Here, as there, the meaning “pig-swill,” as suggested by McIntosh, fits the context better than the MED definition, “the yeasty froth from the top of fermenting ale, or barm” (p. 199).

159 For an ermyte wonid ther beside. See the Introduction, p. 6, and Fifth Sunday after Epiphany (12.121–22n) for general information about hermits.

229 foul sage. Ordinarily a sage is a wise person, but must here (as MED notes with reference to the term fol sage, though NHC is not cited), mean something else: “one who feigns or pretends to wisdom.”

HOMILY 56, TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY: TEXTUAL NOTES

Abbreviations: MED: Middle English Dictionary; Nevanlinna: Nevanlinna, The Northern Homily Cycle; NHC: Northern Homily Cycle; Small: English Metrical Homiles, ed. Small. For manuscript abbreviations (ED, A, D, G, L, V), see the Introduction.

40 Myght. The scribe has omitted either the last half of the m or the first stroke of the y.

42 For his Godhed knew he nought. D contains many marginal notations in a different hand (italic, probably late sixteenth century) throughout the entire manu­script. Their purpose is chiefly to draw attention to what the annotator con­siders to be the most important aspects of the text; here, the notation reads: he knew not his godhead.

62 have. MS: have had, with had canceled.
seyd is written above in.

77 D distinguishes major transitions in the text by beginning the line with a large capital letter in blue or red. I have indicated this by indenting the lines where these letters occur.

108 Marginal notation: love faire whit men.

111 Marginal notation: yf a man might see the likeness of the trinitie in the soule of man how he would worshyp it.

122 Marginal notation: St Basill.

123 Marginal notation: Narracio (in yet another hand).

124 Marginal notation: A nunnerie.

127 Marginal notation: A nun.

159 Marginal notation: Protormes an Hermite.

165 thou. So V. MS: now.

261 worldis. MS: wlorldis, with a cancellation mark under the initial l.