Add MS 41181

"DIRECTIONS Leading a well willing Soule by a facill and easie way to Perfection . . . composed by the Rd Far A[ugustine] B[aker] of the holy order of S Bennet": a compendium of (1) "The Summary of Perfection"; (2) "Instructions for the right and profitable use of mental Prayer" (a revised version of Baker's "Directions for the Ideots Devotions," similar to Ampleforth MS. 146, which was copied in 1656 from an exemplar dated 1645); (3) selections from "The Ideots Devotions." The history and MSS. of these works are discussed by Dom Justin McCann in Ampleforth Journal, vol. xxxiv, 1929, pp. 135-150 (on "The Ideots Devotions"); Life of Father Augustine Baker, Appendix II, pp. 183-4,197-8; Memorials of Father Augustine Baker, Catholic Record Society, vol. 33, pp. 274- 293. The contents are as follows:-

1. "A Summarie of Perfection," consisting of:-(a) "A Preparatiue to the ensueing Sumary," f. 4; (b) "The Summarie of Perfection Cosisting of tenne Articles," f. 5; (c) "An Advertisment Vpon the foresaid Treatis," f. 12.

2. "Instrvctions for the right and pofitable (sic) vse of Mentall Prayer," coinsisting of:-(a) "The Preface to the Reder," f. 17; (b) "Certain obseruations for the Reader abut (sic) the vse of this booke," f. 21 b; (c) "Instructions for the right vse of the Acts or exercise of imperfect Loue," f. 23; (d) "How one is to behaue himself in time of Desolation & Aridtie (sic)," f. 42; (e) "Instrvctions for the right vse and vnderstanding of the exercises of Resignation," f. 53; (f) "Certaine Obseruations concerning the desires or Affeetions of the perfect Loue of God," f . 73; (g) "Of Proper Aspirations," f. 78; (h) "Of the Excellencie of Praer. Expressed by a deuout writer," f. 86.

3. "The Acts Affections or Desires of the Will," consisting of:-(a) "The Acts of the first sort which are Affections or Desires. Of the Imperfect soule," f. 90; (b) "The Actes of the Second Sorte which are Affections or Desires of The perfect Loue," f. 124; (c) "The Acts of the Third sorte: which are of Resignation," f. 127; (d) "Certaine Choise Aspirations according to the former Instructions," f. 153; (e) "Soliloqvies which are Amorous speakings of ye soule to her selfe," f. 155 b; (f) "A Patterne of Acts which a soule may exercise towards God as Absent," f. 160; (g) "A Patterne of some speakings supposed to be made by God to a sowle," f. 163 b. Paper; ff. xxix + 164. Octavo. Mid xvii cent. Binding of limp vellum, probably not original, as the leaves have been shorn. Two fragments from the Commune Sanctorum of a 13th cent. Gradual, taken from the binding, are preserved at the beginning (ff. ii, iii). On ff. 2 b, 3 are the signatures "Hen: Ben: Hall" and "Henry Hall" respectively; the latter may he Henry, son of William Hall, of Highmeadow, co. Glouc. (d. 1644), in which case the date of the MS. is fixed between 1638, when "The Summary of Perfection" was composed, and 1644; the former is almost certainly his nephew Henry Benedict, son of Benedict Hall (d. 1684). Henry Benedict Hall's; mother and two sisters entered the Benedictine nunnery at Cambrai, hence it is highly probable that the manuscript, like so many copies of Baker's works, was written there; and since his granddaughter Benedicta Maria Theresa married Thomas, 1st Viscount Gage, it is to be presumed that, like 41182 (q.v.), it passed into the posseession of the latter. For these members of the Hall family see S. Rudder, Hist. of Gloucestershire, pp. 569, 690; Bennet Weldon, English Benedictine Congregations : Chronological Notes, pp. 210-211 ; H. N. Birt, Obitbook of the English Benedictines, pp. 215, 221. Descriptions by Dom Justin McCann of Ampleforth MS. 146 and of Newport Public

Libraries MS. M.120/012 (the best MS. of the "Directions for the Ideots Devotions"),with copies of two letters, are bound in at the beginning. Bought at Puttick's with 41182 (,sale-cat., 4 Feb. 1925, lot 197).