Stowe MS 52

"VITA beati Thomæ arehiepiscopi et martiris": the Quadrilogus, or compilation by E[lias?] of Evesham, from the four Lives by John of Salisbury, Herbert of Boseham, William of Canterbury, and Alan, Abbot of Tewkesbury. The prologue begins "Post summi favoris dote vestitos," and the Life itself "Thomas Londoniensis urbis indigena." It ends (f. 64b) "dies suos non dimidiarent." Printed in the Rolls Series, Materials for the History of Archbishop Thomas Becket, vol. iv., the present MS., however, not being mentioned. The following documents are appended to the Life (as in Harl. MS. 2, Lupus' printed edition, etc.): (a) " Cathalogus eruditorum beati Thomæ," omitting the paragraphs concerning Herbert de Boseham and Edward Grim, and ending with the words "patronos conquisivit" (Rolls ed., vol. iii. p. 529, § 60). f. 64b; — (b) "Causa exilii et martirii beati Thomæ martiris," viz. the Constitutions of Clarendon. f. 66b; — (c) "Aliæ constitutiones . . . quas constituit rex Henricus in Normannia, proseripto beato Thoma" [Michaelmas, 1169]: cf. Rolls ed., vol. vii. p. 147. f. 67b; — (d) "Epistola missa archiepiscopo super hiis": the letter of a friend, giving the tenor of the king's orclers [Michaelmas, 1169]: ibid., p. 146. f. 68; — (e) "Litteræ de canonizatione beati Thomæ," from Pope Alexander III. to the Chapter of Canterbury [12 March, 1173]: ibid., p. 545. f. 68; — (f) Letter of Pope Alexander on the same subject to the clergy and people of England, on the same date: ibid., p. 547. f. 68b; — (g) Letter of Pope Alexander announcing the canonization to [Walter] Bishop of Aversa: ibid., p. 549. f. 68 b. At the bottom of the first page of the Life are three hexameter lines, giving the names of Becket's murderers, in a hand of the early 14th cent.; and on the last page, in apparently the same hand, are nine hexameter verses, beginning "Balsamus et munda," containing the manner of constructing a symbolical "Agnus Dei" (cf. Harl. MS. 2406, f. 10). At the beginning are three leaves (ff. 1-3), and at the end four (ff. 70-73), taken from a 13th-cent. MS. of the Decretal of Gratian (completed in 1151), Part II., Causæ xii.-xvi. (cf. Migne, Patrologia, vol. clxxxvii. coll. 903-992). The "paleæ " are absent, and many sections which are given in Migne are omitted. Vellum; ff. 73. XIIIth cent. In double columns of 38 lines, except in the first two leaves and a half, which are in a better and slightly larger hand, with 29 or 30 lines to the column. Initials of chapters in red and blue; titles in red. Belonged (see f. 4) to Laurence Nowell [Dean of Lichfield, etc., ob. 1576]. Small Quarto.

Elias? of Evesham: Vita beati Thomæ archiepiscopi et martiris: 13th cent.

Saint Thomas Becket,; Archbishop of Canterbury: Life, by Elias of Evesham, and other documents: 13th cent.

includes:

• ff. 1-3, 70-73 Gratianus: Decretum: 13th cent.: Fragments.
• f. 69 b Poetry: Latin verses on a symbolical " Agnus Dei ": 14th cent.: Lat.