The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment

Description

In the last quarter of the fourteenth century, the complete Old and New Testaments were translated from Latin into English, first very literally, and then revised into a more fluent, less Latinate style. This outstanding achievement, the Middle English Bible, is known by most modern scholars as the Wycliffite or Lollard Bible, attributing it to followers of the heretic John Wyclif. Prevailing scholarly opinion also holds that this Bible was condemned and banned by the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Arundel, at the Council of Oxford in 1407, even though it continued to be copied at a great rate. Indeed, Henry Ansgar Kelly notes, it was the most popular work in English of the Middle Ages and was frequently consulted for help in understanding Scripture readings at Sunday Mass. In The Middle English Bible: A Reassessment, Kelly finds the bases for the Wycliffite origins of the Middle English Bible to be mostly illusory. While there were attempts by the Lollard movement to appropriate or coopt it after the fact, the translation project, which appears to have originated at the University of Oxford, was wholly orthodox. Further, the 1407 Council did not ban translations but instead mandated that they be approved by a local bishop. It was only in the early sixteenth century, in the years before the Reformation, that English translations of the Bible would be banned. Cover Contents Preface List of Abbreviations Chapter 1. A History of Judgments on the Middle English Bible Chapter 2. Five and Twenty Books as ‘‘Official’’ Prologue, or Not Chapter 3. The Bible at Oxford Chapter 4. Oxford Doctors, Archbishop Arundel, and Dives and Pauper on the Advisability of Scripture in English Chapter 5. The Provincial Constitutions of 1407 Chapter 6. Treatment of the English Bible in the Fifteenth Century Chapter 7. The End of the Story: Richard Hunne and Thomas More Conclusion Appendices APPENDIX A: A Note on the Manuscripts, Versions, and Dates of the Middle English Bible APPENDIX B: Cardinal Gasquet and His Critics APPENDIX C: Present Participles in -inge and -ende in EV APPENDIX D: EITHER/OR Preferences in the MEB APPENDIX E: The Uses of FORSOOTH APPENDIX F: Simple Creature’s Statement on Ex APPENDIX G: The Question of a Stylistic Break in Baruch APPENDIX H: The Translation of Secundum by AFTER or UP APPENDIX I: Absolute Constructions as Discussed in GP and Actually Treated in EV/LV APPENDIX J: Other Participial Constructions in GP and EV/LV APPENDIX K: Summary of Participle Usage in Luke 1–6 (Vulgate, EV, and LV) APPENDIX L: Other Constructions Discussed in GP APPENDIX M: Some Features Not Dealt With in GP APPENDIX N: Preface to the Longleat Sunday Gospels Longleat House MS 4 APPENDIX O: The Oxford Committee of Twelve, 1410–11 APPENDIX P: Wyclif’s Works and the 267 Condemned Propositions, 1411 APPENDIX Q: William Lyndwood’s Commentary on the Constitution Periculosa APPENDIX R: The Admonition Periculum animarum of John Stafford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1441 Notes Works Cited Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y