Part 54
--_2, l. 3 f. b._ geendung thyssere worulde. _It was an universal belief at the time throughout Europe, that the world was to end in the year 1000_: M. Michelet _has collected the principal passages to be found in the old writers relative to this superstition_. Concil. Trosl. a. 909 (Mansi, xviii. p. 266): "_Dum jam jamque adventus imminet illius in majestate terribili, ubi omnes cum gregibus suis venient pastores in conspectum Pastoris aeterni_," etc.--Trithemii Chron. a. 960: "_Diem jamjam imminere dicebat_ (Bernhardus, eremita Thuringiae) _extremum, et mundum in brevi consummandum_."--Abb. Floriac. a. 990 (Gallandius, xiv. 141): "_De fine mundi coram populo sermonem in ecclesia Parisiorum audivi, quod statim finito mille annorum numero Antichristus adveniret, et non longo post tempore universale judicium succederet_."--Will. Godelli Chron. ap. Scriptt. Fr. x. 262: "_A.D._ MX, _in multis locis per orbem tali rumore audito, timor et moeror corda plurimorum occupavit, et suspicati sunt multi finem saeculi adesse_."--Rad. Glaber, l. iv. ibid. 49: "_Aestimabatur enim ordo temporum et elementorum praeterita ab initio moderans saecula in chaos decidisse perpetuum, atque humani generis interitum_." Hist. de France, t. ii. p. 300, _note_, ed. Bruxelles.
--_6, l. 8._ heofenas. Sic MS. _for_ heofenes _or_ heofenan.
--_8, l. ult._ awecdh. MS. Reg. _has_ awyhtdh, _and after_ anre handa _adds_ and ealle eordhan he belicdh on his handa. {621}
--_10, l. 11 f. b._ nordh-daele. _So Caedmon_, p. 3, l. 8.
tha he worde cwaedh, . . . . . thaet he on nordh-daele h['a]m and heah-setl heofena rices agan wolde.
_In fact the whole beginning of the work ascribed to Caedmon appears to be a metrical paraphrase of this homily._ Andweald _is corrupt orthography for_ anweald.
--_26, l. 13 f. b._ _for_ geferena, MS. Reg. _has_ thegena.
--_28, l. 2 f. b._ _After_ acenned waes, MS. Reg. _adds_, sedhe aefre buton anginne of tham Aelmihtigan Faeder acenned waes.
--_42, l. 12._ Nis nan ... Haelend Crist. _These words seem an interpolation, or incidental remark of Aelfric; they are therefore inclosed as a parenthesis in the translation._
--_58, l. 9._ maegdhhad _should correctly have been rendered_ virginity.
--_84, l. 9 f. b._ _This passage concerning Rachel is not clear: it may possibly refer to some rabbinic tradition about her children._
--_98, l. 8 f. b._ on thissere stowe, _in this place_. _The place where Aelfric composed the homily, probably Cerne abbey_ (Cernel).
--_100, l. 10 f. b._ nelladh heora thing wanian. _This passage is obscure, and the translation purely conjectural. Monday was accounted an unlucky day by the old Germans._ _See_ Grimm, D. M. p. 662, _and on superstitions connected with the moon_, ib. p. 407.
--_108, l. 13._ _This passage is evidently the original of the lines in the_ Codex Exoniensis, p. 69, 30 _sq., and contribute to strengthen the opinion that Cynewulf was the author of that work, as well as of the Vercelli poetry. To him Aelfric dedicated his Life of S. Aethelwold._
--_174, l. 9._ _On praying to saints for their intercession, see also_ Theodori Lib. Poeniten. xlviii. 1, 2. _in_ 'Ancient Laws and Institutes of England.'
--_190, l. 13 f. b._ we his gelyfadh. _The construction with the genitive is worthy of notice: in another place we have_, we dhe gelyfadh Cristes aeristes.
--_242, l. 16._ alefed. _This word is probably akin to_ laepeo (T. Roffens. laeweo) _in the_ Laws of Eadward and Guthrum, x. {622} (Anc. LL. and Inst.), _which in the old Latin version is rendered_, membris disfactus.
--_244._ Rubric. "_The_ Litania Major _is St. Mark's day, and the_ Litania Minor _is for the Rogation time, or the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, by the Anglo-Saxons called_ Gang-days. _The service both on St. Mark's day, and on the three Rogation days before the Ascension is the same, and from the present homily it seems, that on the Rogation days the Litany in the time of Aelfric was called Major, as it is also in the Canons of Charlemagne, and in some very old MSS. of the Liturgy; though by the Council of Clovesho_, A.D. 747, _the service used on St. Mark's day was called_ 'Litania Major,' _leaning for the use of the term on the authority of Rome. The distinction is still strictly observed, the_ Litania Major _signifying St. Mark's day, the other the Rogation week_."--R.
--_244, l. 16._ Uigenna, Vienne _in the former province of Dauphin['e]_.
--_246, l. 6 f. b._ haligdom _may here probably signify_ the host.
--_294, l. 13._ Lucas se Godspellere. _See_ Homily p. 314, _where the book of_ The Acts of the Apostles _is ascribed to St. Luke_.
--_298, l. 5 f. b._ twegen englas, etc. _See_ Cod. Exon. p. 28.
--_322, l. 15 f. b._ _See_ Cod. Exon. p. 295.
--_338, l. 8 f. b._ thonne. _In_ Matt. xviii. 12. _and_ Luke xv. 4. hu ne.
--_436._ Hom. de Assumptione, etc. _Here some leaves have been cut out of the MS.; the part wanting, reaching to p. 446, l. 3, is supplied from _MS. Reg._ It is also supplied (apparently by the hand of Wheelocke) in the MS. itself, but in a text far too corrupt for use._
--_448, l. 4._ _For_ nalaes, MS. Reg. _reads here_, ne laes, _which is followed in the version; but the entire passage is still far from clear_.
--_524, l. 9 f. b._ _Here a leaf has been cut out; the part wanting, reaching to p. 530, l. 11, is supplied from_ MS. Reg.
--_534, l. 9._ "_This passage refers to a ceremony once in very general usage. It was the custom to spread out a sheet of sackcloth on the floor, and on this to sprinkle ashes in the shape of a cross. Just as the dying person was in the last agony, he was taken out of bed, and stretched on the sackcloth and ashes; it being deemed more becoming, that sinful man should yield up {623} his soul thus, than on a soft bed, when his divine Redeemer died on the hard wood of the cross._"--R.
_This usage was not obsolete about twenty-five years since._
--_566, l. 5._ nywerenan (MS. Bodl. niwernan). _In the_ Bodley MS. _this word (which I do not recollect to have seen elsewhere) is glossed by_ tenero.
--_586, l. 6 f. b_. _An account of the passion of St. Andrew wholly different from that contained in this homily, is that on which the poem entitled_ The Legend of St. Andrew _is founded, for the details of which the reader is referred to the preface of Mr. Kemble's edition of_ The Poetry of the Codex Vercellensis. _In a very mutilated manuscript of Anglo-Saxon homilies at Blickling Hall, for the loan of which the Society is indebted to the kindness of_ THE DOWAGER LADY SUFFIELD, _there is a fragment of a homily which, it seems highly probable, was the immediate original of the Vercelli poem_.
--_598, l. 8 f. b._ aetwindan. _The meaning of this word here I do not understand: can it be an error for_ hit windan?
--_608, l. 9._ undergynnende. _I am not aware of the occurrence of this word elsewhere. In Aelfric's Preface to the Heptateuch_ (Analecta A.-S. p. 25) _we find_ underbeginnenne _in the sense of_ to understand.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
* * * * *
Corrections made to printed original.
P. 20:--"forluron tha gesaeldhe ure sawle"; 'gesaeldhae' in original.
Ibid.:--"we ne forluron n['a] tha undeadlicnysse"; 'undeadlicnyssae' in original.
P. 34:--"Ic eom se liflica hl['a]f"; 'lifllica' in original.
P. 46:--"mid heora fordhfaedera gebysnunge"; 'gebysnungae' in original.
P. 69:--"all the country of Asia"; 'allthe' in original.
P. 100:--"wyrigung of deofle"; 'deofie' in original.
P. 124:--"be dham cwaedh se apostol Paulus"; 'ce dham' in original.
P. 130:--"gefremman swa hwaet swa dhu wilt"; 'gefremmam' in original.
P. 186:--"Alii euangelistae ferunt"; 'euangeliste' in original.
P. 274:--"agyldan gescead hu he dha atuge"; 'ges cead huhe' in original.
P. 298:--"dhe bodade Godes acennednysse"; 'accennednysse' in original.
P. 519:--"whithersoever the angels fly"; 'whithersover' in original.
P. 571:--"Deliver unto us Daniel"; 'unto to' in original.
P. 591:--"Aegeas said, "I will with torments ...""; 'Egeas' in original.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church, by Ælfric