[In the following essay, originally published in 1955, Pantin discusses how Mirk's work was significant in providing religious instruction for parish priests.]

In some respects, as in ecclesiastical politics, for instance, the fourteenth century, when viewed as the outcome of the thirteenth century, may seem disappointing, something of a misfit or an anticlimax; thus we may ask whether the episcopal appointments of the fourteenth century were what men like Innocent III had intended. But in the realm of religious literature we can see, in the clearest and most satisfactory way, the achievement of the fourteenth century as the logical outcome of forces at work in the thirteenth century and earlier.

There were three factors at work, which were closely interconnected. In the first place there was the disciplinary legislation of the Church; this was the product of the great movement for ecclesiastical reform, which had been going on from the eleventh to the thirteenth century, culminating in the Lateran Council of 1215 and in the synodal constitutions of the English bishops in the thirteenth century, which followed the lead of the Lateran Council.¹ These constitutions provided, among other things, an elaborate programme of religious instruction for the laity; and this was all the more necessary because of the great social and economic phenomenon of the age, the revival of town life and the consequent rise of an educated laity. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of the educated layman in late medieval ecclesiastical history.

Secondly, there was the development of a technical literature, especially through the compilation of various Summae, dealing with in the Regimen animarum, but with greater prolixity. The Pupilla oculi became popular; there are many manuscript copies, and it was printed at Rouen in 1510, the only one of these fourteenth-century treatises to be printed at that period. It is uncertain how far it superseded the earlier treatises like the Oculus sacerdotis or the Regimen animarum.

Finally, at the end of the century, there are several works composed by John Mirk, the Prior of the Augustinian Priory of Lilleshall, Salop, c. 1400.

MIRK'S INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARISH PRIESTS²

This consists of 1934 lines of English verse, suitable, like Gaytrick's catechism, for learning by heart. On some manuscripts it is described as a translation of the Pars Oculi, i.e. of Part I of the Oculus sacerdotis, but it is in fact not a complete or literal translation of that work. Its structure is as follows. There is a short prologue dealing with the behaviour of the parish priest, his clothing, and so forth. The next section deals with what the parish priest should teach his parishioners (corresponding to Part II of the Oculus sacerdotis); this includes lay-baptism in case of necessity, the duties of midwives, the care of children, regulations concerning marriage, reverent behaviour in church and churchyard, tithe-paying, witchcraft and usury; there are English versions of the Lord's prayer, the Hail Mary and the Creed; the fourteen articles of faith and the seven sacraments are also included. The last section explains what the priest ought to do in the administration of the sacraments (cf. Part III of the Oculus sacerdotis). The section on confession (over 1000 lines, more than half the whole poem) includes instruction on how to hear confessions with interrogation of the penitent as to his religious knowledge and as to his sins under the headings of the ten commandments, the seven sins and the five senses (cf. Part I of the Oculus sacerdotis).

MIRK'S MANUALE SACERDOTIS³

This treatise is written in Latin and is much more elaborate and learned than Mirk's Instructions; indeed, it is very interesting to see one man writing in two completely different styles, though both intended for parish priests. The Manuale is addressed to a certain ‘I. de S., vicar of A.’, a kinsman of Mirk. Mirk apologizes for his ‘rustic speech’, rather self-consciously, I think, or conventionally, because the work is obviously written in the ‘elegant’ style of the period. The Manuale is primarily a treatise on the responsibilities and duties of the priestly state. In some ways it may be regarded as the medieval equivalent of a book like George Herbert's Priest to the Temple, while from another point of view it perhaps has some affinities with medieval books of courtesy and instructions for household servants, with a great deal of moral advice and religious reflection thrown in.

The Manuale consists of five books. Book i is on the priestly state. The priest is reminded that ‘the Gospel is the rule of priests’; there is much about the evils of frivolity and ignorance among priests, but Mirk points out that an unlearned but humble priest is better than a learned but presumptuous one. There are two interesting sketches, not unlike the ‘characters’ of the seventeenth century, of the ‘life [conversacio] of the good priest’ and the ‘life of the bad priest’. It should be noted that both of these sketches, among other things, imply that the acting parish priest or ‘curate’ is normally not beneficed, but a salaried employee, working as an assistant or a substitute for an incumbent, or as chaplain to a lord. This can be illustrated by the following passages:

c. xi (The good priest). The priest of God, whose soul is in his hands always, knows that he is hired to celebrate every day … therefore he disposes himself to live soberly as to himself, justly as to the master he serves and piously towards God. … The priest also lives justly, when he renders to each man what is his due. To his master indeed he renders what is his due, when in return for the salary which he receives from him, he pays back spiritual commodities; not only by celebrating everyday for him one single Mass, but also in other spiritual services, as for instance the seven penitential psalms, the fifteen gradual psalms, devout litanies, offices of the dead, and other like spiritual things.

c. xii (The worldly priest). Him we call the worldly priest, who loves the world … [his aims are worldly, to be well fed, well clothed, to lead an easy life]. … Therefore to gain these things, they give themselves over to the world, that is they offer themselves to a certain worldly magnate, the patron of churches, to serve him, hoping to receive a church from him. Thus the world's priest works, through right and wrong, to the end that he may be wedded to the world and be bound to its service. On taking office, he goes to the altar, not when devotion invites him, but when his lord insinuates; not out of devotion, but from habit; thinking nothing of Christ's Passion, but only thinking how to prolong or shorten the Mass according to the will of his lord. … This man with sighs and groans tries to please his auditors, that without deserving it, he may get a name for himself for holiness. Wherefore he often bends the knee, raises his hands to heaven, beats his breast, utters groans; clearly he is acting like a madman, for this devotion does not proceed from the heart but from the mouth. … Nor does this priest only strive to please his lord whom he serves, but also the whole household, so that at the opportune time, that is, when any church falls vacant, of which his lord is patron, then they also may put in a good word for him to the lord. … Then on receiving the presentation to the church, he hastens to the bishop, taking with him Master Symon, because he is potent in work and word with the bishop and all his servants. And this Master Symon so speeds and expedites his business, that all impediments put on one side, he is at once admitted, and the business being done, he returns in haste rejoicing and cheerful. When he enters upon his church he carefully inquires, not about the burden of souls, but about the value of the church, for he thinks more about the number of marks than about the salvation of souls.⁴

Books ii and iii deal with the priest's daily life, the kind of clothes he should wear, the saying of office in church, the right keeping of his conscience and so forth. Book iv deals mostly with the Mass. Book v deals with the rest of the priest's day, his reading, his hearing of confessions, his meals. Here again we have two little pictures of the table-manners of the good priest and the bad priest; the latter is undisciplined and minus facete educatus, and his avidity and inordinate gestures are such that one wonders that he does not gouge out his eye with his knife! After dinner, ‘honest manual work’ is recommended, reading or writing, or gardening. I do not think the work contains any directions about house-to-house visiting in the parish, which would be an important part of the priest's duties by modern standards. Then the author deals with the priest in sickness and old age, and again we have sketches of the good old priest and the bad old priest. According to St Bernard, we are told,⁵ the bad old priest is garrulous, wrathful, full of proverbs and given to fables; sitting among his boon companions, he recites the wars of princes [bella principum], and instills into the ears of his juniors anecdotes of his early life, which he ought to weep for rather than repeat. A deplorable character no doubt, but the modern student of medieval literature and folk-lore would give much to spend an hour or two with him. The Manuale ends with the priest's supper and bedtime; an allegorical discussion of the nightingale; and a meditation on Heaven and Hell. Mirk takes a gloomy view of his contemporaries, including the kinsman whom he is addressing. He is doing his best to improve them, but he doubts if it will be of much use.

MIRK'S FESTIALL

This is the well-known collection of English sermons, arranged for the ecclesiastical year. It hardly comes into the category of literature that we are considering, except that it contains among other things a piece of advice to parish priests on how to deal with tiresome laymen who ask the priest difficult questions about the liturgy of Holy Week, in the hope of putting him to shame.⁶ It throws a curious sidelight on medieval parish life and the relations of clergy and laity.

It is interesting to examine the authors of these manuals, so far as we can identify them. They are a miscellaneous lot, ranging from an archbishop, a university chancellor and a canonist at the Roman Curia to a parish priest, an Augustinian canon and two Benedictine monks. It is curious how many of these writers, such as Archbishop Thoresby, the canonist, the two monks, and perhaps the university chancellor, were men who had probably little or no practical experience of work as a parish priest. The difficulty was no doubt that the clerical world was divided rather sharply into ‘sublime and lettered persons’ in high places, and a clerical proletariate which would be more or less inarticulate and unlikely to produce literary works. The important exception is William of Pagula, the author of the Oculus sacerdotis, who seems to have been a working parish priest all his life; and there may well be others yet to be identified.

The accumulated mass of the manuals that were turned out during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries for the instruction of parish priests is very impressive. We can see many serious-minded men at work, trying hard to educate and improve the parish clergy. They knew well the need for such work, the ignorance and slackness and worse that had to be fought against; whatever other failings the men of that age had, complacency was not one of them, as we can tell from the contemporary sermon literature. If books could create an exemplary clergy, omnia bene might have been written against every parish. But unfortunately books in themselves were not enough; what was needed was a systematic training and formation of the clergy, of the kind given in earlier days in the bishop's familia or in the later seminaries, and that solution was not to be reached until the Council of Trent in the sixteenth century.

APPENDIX

The following Summae or manuals of pastoral theology were produced in England in the thirteenth century, and were the forerunners of the manuals which I have been discussing:

(1) The Summa ‘Res grandis’ of Robert of Flamborough, written at the request of Richard Poore, c. 1208-10; it is a penitential.

(2) The Summa ‘Cum miseraciones Domini’ or ‘Summa de penitentia’ of Thomas of Chabham, Sub-dean of Salisbury, written c. 1215-22; pastoral as well as penitential.

(3) The Summa ‘Qui bene presunt’, by Richard Wethershed (or Wetheringset), Chancellor of Cambridge, written c. 1220-9.

(4) The Summa ‘Signaculum apostolatus mei’, a manual for prelates, written perhaps c. 1245-50.

(5) The Summa ‘Templum Domini’ of Robert Grosseteste, written c. 1238-45.

(6) The Summa ‘Speculum Iuniorum’ (inc. ‘Racionalem creaturam’), written c. 1250-60.

(7) The Summa ‘Ad instructionem iuniorum’ (sometimes called Speculum iuniorum or minorum) of Simon of Hinton, O.P., written c. 1250-60.

(8) The Summa ‘Animarum regimen’, a short treatise on confessional practice, written c. 1250-70.

I owe this list to Father Leonard Boyle, O.P.

Notes

1. M. Gibbs and J. Lang, Bishops and Reform (Oxford, 1934), part III, passim; C. R. Cheney, English synodalia in the thirteenth century (Oxford, 1941), passim; E. J. Arnould, Le manuel des péchés (Paris, 1940), chapter 1.

2. Ed. E. Peacock, in EETS, 31; Wells, Manual, 361 (vi, 38).

3. Bodleian, MS. Bodley 549, fo. 121; MS. Bodley 632.

4. Bodleian, MS. Bodley 549, fo. 131v-132v. …

5. I have not been able to identify this passage in St Bernard.

6. Speculum, xi (1936), 224; Mirk's Festiall, ed. T. Erbe (EETS, ES, 96), 124.

List of Abbreviations

EETS: Early English Text Society (ES: Extra Series).

Wells, Manual: J. E. Wells, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1400 (New Haven, London and Oxford, 1916); and Supplements (in progress).