Marston MS 243     England, s. XV 1
Richard Rolle, etc.

1. f. 1r  Hee sunt reliquie que habentur in ecclesia appellatiua [?] in qua
requie sit corpus beati Jacobi sebedei.  Primo corpus beati Jacobi nepotis
virginis marie fratris Johannis apostoli...Item vna spinorum corone christi.

List of relics in an unidentified church of St. James, probably in Spain
(at Compostela?), given the Saints listed and the contents of art. 2.  
Individuals mentioned include James the Greater, Athanasius and his disciple
Theodore, bishop Fructuosus, Silvester martyr, Cucufas, James the Less 
(head and tooth only).

2. f. 1r-v  Hee sunt indulgencie concesse a sanctis patribus...ad ecclesiam
beati Iacobi...et si veniendo discesserit omnia sunt ei remissa.
[list of indulgences, ending:]  veniendo vel redeundo discesserit ab omnibus
peccatis sicut penitus absolutus.

Indulgences for various prayers, masses, etc. when visiting the church
of St. James (cf. art. 1).

3. ff. 2r-3v  We chul vndirstond %p#t we must leue %goure synnes and not delite
in hem but bewar of hem and of %p#e .v. soteltes of %p#e fend as it chewith
in %p#e last ende of %p#s boke in %p#e last lef [cf. art. 9] and vse gede
vertuse whech may be conceiued in oure hertes...and blisse to man for his
wel worchinge.

Unidentified Middle English devotional text.

4. f. 3v  Dominus Ihesus christus pro sua magna pietate perpetue te absoluat
et ego te absoluo autoritate mihi commissa...Accipe spiritum sanctum et
viuas in secula seculorum.

Unidentified prayer, probably a form of absolution related to indulgences
in art. 2.

5. ff. 4r-14r  Incipit speculum peccatoris.  Quoniam carissime in huius via
vite fugientes sumus.  dies nostri sicut umbra pretereunt.  necesse est igitur
corde solicito memorari...quomodo sane sapies quomodo recte intelliges et
quomodo nouissima tua prudenter prouideas//  Explicit speculum peccatoris.

Ps.-Augustine, Ps.-Bernard, etc., and wrongly attributed to Richard
Rolle, Speculum peccatoris, ending imperfectly.  PL 40.983-92;
Stegmueller, no. 1481.  See also H. E. Allen, Writings Ascribed to Richard
Rolle Hermit of Hampole (New York and London, 1927) p. 353.

6. ff. 14v-42r  Libellus Ricardi heremite de hampole de emendacione peccatoris
siue de modo viuendi et vocatur libellus iste Regula perfeccionis qui
continet in se xij capitula videlicet.  De emendacione peccatoris.  Capitulum
I m.  Ne tardes conuerti ad dominum et ne differas de die in diem
[Eccli. 5.8].  Nam subito rapit miseros in clemencia mortis...et cum ineffabili
gloria iubilacione et melodia ipsum eternaliter laudare...Amen.  Explicit
Regula perfeccionis.  ff. 42v-43v  blank

Richard Rolle, De emendatione vitae; Bloomfield, Virtues and
Vices,
no. 3191 (Marston MS 243 not cited); Allen, op. cit., pp. 230-45 (this
manuscript cited on p. 238, LXIX).

7. ff. 44r-102v  [Title in upper margin:]  Oleum effusum.  [text:]  Expulsus
a paradiso pro transgressione diuini precepti in pomo vetito.  primus parens cum
posteritate sua astrictus...in tua dulcedine te mecum et meis comendo sine fine.
Amen.  Amen.  Explicit Oleum effusum.

Richard Rolle, Oleum effusum (final four sections of the Comment on the
Canticles); Allen, op. cit., pp. 62-88 (this manuscript cited on p. 66,
XIV).

8. ff. 102v-106r  [I]gnorancia sacerdotum populum precipitat in foueam
erroris et clericorum stulticia uel ruditas...si puro corde quia [or
quoque?]
animo detrahetur....  [added below:]  Versus.  Clamat intra polum vox sanguinis 
vox sodomorum vox oppressorum merces...retenta laborum.

John of Peckham, extract from Constitutiones; Bloomfield, Virtues and
Vices, no. 2501.

9. f. 106r-v  Kyng pharao had v soteltes or wiles.  %p#t he dede to %p#e
children of israell %pei [?] betokene %p#e wiles of %p#e ffend.
This is %p#e first he graunted %p#t goddis peple schuld go...for %pus %pei
lese al here gode werkes of kynd and %p#e mede %p#t chuld sue of hem.
[added later:]  Verte iam ad primum folium libri [cf. art. 3].

A previously unrecorded text of the Middle English The Five
Wiles of the Pharaoh (we thank A. S. G. Edwards for this identification);
see Jolliffe K 7 (a) for other texts

Parchment (thick), ff. iv (original parchment flyleaves; i = pastedown, now
lifted; ff. i, 1-3) + 104 (ff. 4-107; f. 107 = pastedown, now lifted).
171 x 113 mm.  Folios 4r-102r:  written space 115 x 75 mm.; 25 long lines;
single horizontal and vertical bounding lines, full across; ruled in lead.
Irregular formats for ff. i, 1-3, 102v-106.
I 4 (ff. i, 1-3), II-XIV 8.  Catchwords, lower margin near gutter, verso.
Quire and leaf signatures (e.g., a j., a ij., beginning on f. 4) lower margin,
recto; some quires also signed with letters of the alphabet, verso.
Arts. 5-7 written by a single scribe in anglicana bookhand (cf. Parkes,
Cursive Book Hands, pl. 2, ii).  Other texts by contemporary scribes in less
careful bookhands, with art. 4 in a less formal hand.
Flourished initials of good quality, 4- to 2-line, blue with red penwork
designs incorporating leaf motifs and marginal extensions.  Headings in red.
Paragraph marks in blue.
Binding:  England, s. xv.  Original, caught up sewing with very heavy
thread on four tawed skin, slit straps laced from out to inside beech boards 
and pegged in channels which are filled with gesso [?].  Green and gold, beaded
endbands  are sewn on cord cores laid in grooves in the outside of the boards. 
Spine lined with tawed skin.
Covered in tawed skin, originally pink, with two fastenings, the catches 
on the lower board, the upper one cut in for brown leather straps.  Spine 
covering disintegrating, thus exposing sewing.  Covers much worm eaten.

Written in England in the first half of the 15th century.  Belonged in the
15th century to the Augustinian priory of St. Mary Overy in Southwark,
Surrey; its ex libris, f. 102v:  "liber Sancte Marie Ouerey In Sowthwerke"
(see N. R. Ker, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2nd ed. [London, 1964]
pp. 180-81, and A. G. Watson, Supplement to the Second Edition [London, 1987]
p. 63).  Early inscription on f. i verso indicates that the manuscript was 
given by William Baldwin to Henry Vesey ("Ex dono Guiliel. Baldwini/ Henr.
Vesey").  Sold at Sotheby's, 2 March 1921, no. 275 and bought by Sir 
Leicester Harmsworth (see Allen, op. cit., p. 238); his sale (Sotheby's,
16 October 1945, no. 2091).  Modern notes in pencil
on f. i:  "29" in a circle (bis), "967."  Purchased in 1956 from Maggs Bros.,
London, by L. C. Witten (inv. no. 1099), who sold it in 1959 to
Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  [f. 5r:]  qui suum

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 92, no. 243.

Barbara A. Shailor