Homilies

Homiliary begun in the second quarter of the twelfth century (1140s?). Begins with a unique homily on St Chad (pp. 1-18). Fols 18-152, 179-252, 279-90 are homilies for 24 June to 30 November, from Ælfric's First Series of Sermones catholici. Pages 253-78, 290-395 are catechetical and mainly Ælfrician, and most also occur in MS. Hatton 115. The ‘Tremulous Hand’ adds glosses in Latin and English. Homilies Pages 399-402 are two waste leaves, a bifolium of a copy of a Summa of the Decretum of Gratian, 12th century, last quarter, used as a pastedown and flyleaf. The collect ‘Deus qui dedisti legem Moisi in summitate montis Sinay. et illic / per angelum tuum corpus Katerine uirginis. mirabiliter / collocasti. tribue quesumus. ut eius meritis et intercessione ad montem qui Cristus est ualeamus peruenire. ’ and antiphon ‘Ecce crucem domini. fugite partes aduerse de tribu Juda radix David. Alleluia.’ were added slightly later in the 12th century in the five lines remaining blank on p. 395. A note in Thomas Barlow's hand identifies the collect with that in Roman and Sarum service-books for 25th November, St. Katherine's day, specifically concerning her reception by angels. The antiphon was used as an exorcism or healing formula. It is interesting to note this addition for St. Katherine in a manuscript associated with the region that produced the early thirteenth-century manuscript, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 34, containing the Katherine-Group of Saints' lives and other texts.