Royal MS 17 A XXV

THEOLOGICAL TRACTS in Southern English, viz.:-

1. ' Here bigynneþ a litil tretice of þe seuene sacramentis of textis of hooli writte treuli declared to oure bileuc of diuerse seinctis and doctours.' Beg. 'The mist of þe fadere, þe grace and þe comownynge of oure lord Ihesu Criste'; ends 'encrese in vertues and þanne ascende to heuen blis. amen'. f. 1.

A new hand begins with art. 2, a third hand with the fourth quire at f. 25, and a fourth hand with art. 3.

2. 'Ardeat in nobis diuini feruor amoris': a tract in 24 chapters (colophon, 'Explicit tractatus diuini amoris'), of which there are other copies in Arundel MS. 197, f. 10, Harley MSS. 1706, f. 154 b, 2409, f. 1. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde, 1506, as Rycharde Rolle hermyte of Hampull in his contemplacyons of the drede and loue of god, and from this and other MSS. by Horstmann, Rich. Rolle and his Followers, ii, p. 73. There seems no MS. authority for the attribution. In the Arundel MS. (not used by Horstmann) the title is Fervor Amoris. The table of chapters beg. 'Þis schort pistil þat folowiþ is diuided in sundri maners'; preface, 'In þe bigynnynge and eendinge of alle gode werkis'; text, 'Among alle creaturis whiche god of his endeles myzt'. Ends (wanting the prayer given in the printed text) 'in helpynge of þy soule'. f. 13.

3. ' Here begynnyth a litil schort tretice that tellyth how þer weren sixe maistirs asembliden togidur . . . and alle þey weren acordid to speke of tribulacioun': a very brief tract, apparently translated from a Latin text which Bale (Index, ed. Poole, p. 3) attributes to Adam Carthusianus, who seems to be the same as the author of the Speculum Spiritualium, sometimes called Henricus Carthusianus (see 7 B. XIV and Cat. of the Library of Syon Monastery, ed. Bateson, p. 107, note 4). Other copies of the English are in 17 C. xviii, art. 1, and Harley MS. 1706, f. 54 b, and at Oxford, Corpus Christi Coll. ccx, University Coll. cxlii, &c. Printed by Wynkyn de Worde with XII Profytes of Tribulacion, 1530, and by Horstmann from this MS. among works wrongly attributed to R. Rolle, op. cit., p. 390. Beg. 'The friste maistir seyde þat if eni þing hadde be bettir'. f. 62.

Vellum; ff. 63. 6¹/₂ in. x 4¹/₄ in. Early XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (last⁷). Sec. fol. 'colour of'. On f. 63 b is written 'Robartus Neswek laycus ', and in another (16th cent.) hand 'Frer Neswyke'. Old Royal press-mark 'no. 863' (Westm. invent. of 1542, Add. 25469, f. 22) ; not in the other old catalogues.