The literary form of the Middle English pastoral manual with particular reference to the Speculum Christiani and some related texts

Pastoral manuals are designed as practical aids to the proper execution of the cura animarum and address themselves to the most immediate problems of parish life: basic catechesis of the laity and the administration of the Sacraments. By looking at the provision made in such works for teaching the rudiments of the Christian faith, it is possible to see how such books developed and evolved to meet the changing needs of the parish clergy (and ultimately of the literate layman), and to see the place of one of the most popular of such works, the Speculum Christiani, in this tradition of pastoral aid. The first section, ‘Context’, opens with an analysis of the legislation issued by the bishops in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and shows how it influenced and encouraged the emergence of manuals of pastoral care which were distinct from the larger penitential reference books. It examines the developing concern with ignorantia sacerdotum and discusses the ways in which the syllabus of instruction included in many sets of constitutions became a structural norm for the contents of the pastoral manual. Chapter two examines the elementary and grammar schools and their books to show the ways in which pastoral handbooks were perhaps influenced by and overlapped with the 'set-texts' in the medieval English schools. Chapter three is a study of some of the Latin and vernacular pastoral manuals found in clerical miscellanies from early in the thirteenth century to early in the sixteenth. It examines the form of these manuals, how their contents changes and how their authors developed techniques for presenting and enlivening basic teachings. The influence of the pastoral tradition on works such as Piers Plowman is also considered. Section two, ‘The Evolution of the Speculum Christiani’, is in the nature of a case history. In chapter four 1 discuss the Latin summa called Cibus Anime which seems to have provided most of the Latin quotations which make up the Speculum. An account of the versions of the text is given and the character of the text is discussed. An attempt is made to suggest the provenance and date of the work, which is anonymous. Chapter five provides a detailed analysis of the Speculum Christiani showing how its compiler exploited the resources of the Cibus Anime, reorganising the material into a working handbook of the pastoral care. A series of analytical tables chart the dependence of the Speculum upon the Cibus Anime and analyse the contents of some anomalous copies. The circulation of additional Latin texts (not included in the EETS edition of the Speculum but often found in the manuscripts) is charted and transcriptions of the texts provided. Some other works which also appear to draw on the Cibus Anime to support vernacular and Latin texts are discussed.