Carthusian Preaching Materials

Abstract

British Library MS. Royal 18 B. xxiii, a collection of Middle English sermons copied down in the “middle of the fifteenth century,” were “compiled at Oxford University.”1 Their editor, Woodburn O. Ross, dates their composition to between 1378 and 1417 and asserts that they were “designed for delivery to lay audiences.” These vernacular sermons, “were expected to serve as models for preachers [and] to be preached not simply to be read.”2 Whether these sermons were constructed in the “ancient” or “modern” style, each sermon included several exempla.3 As Ross points out, medieval vernacular sermons, designed for lay audiences, “never deal subtly with theological questions, but … attempt to explain in a simple fashion the significance and proper conduct of human life.”4 Ross’s collection of late Middle English sermons provides some evidence that certain exempla, current during Margery Kempe’s life, may have served, at least in part, as a touchstone for the structure given to Kempe’s Book.