The Role of Exempla in Educating through Emotion: The Deadly Sin of ‘lecherye’ in Robert Mannyng’s Handlyng Synne (1303-1317)

Abstract

Robert Mannyng’s Handlyng Synne,1 written between 1303 and 1317, has been praised for the superb view it gives of medieval life;2 I suggest that it is not just a view in the sense of being a window onto the medieval English world and what the people did, but a more fundamental view into minds and hearts. Study of the text will help a modern reader understand the mentality of those who used Handlyng Synne and other contemporary didactic works, the ordinary medieval people who form the majority of the community but have left few records of their lives. Modern scholarship has become increasingly aware of the disparate but enlightened audiences of medieval works through research such as Claire Mcllroy’s study of Richard Rolle,3 and Jocelyn Wogan-Browne’s edited volume on Middle English literary theory.4 This chapter associates my work with theirs by arguing that the way Mannyng wrote for his readers and listeners suggests that his audience was broad in class and education, yet capable of sophisticated understanding and discernment.