The Northern Homily Cycle

Composed in rhyming English verse, the earliest and most complete work of its kind (Gospel paraphrases with homilies on the theme of the Gospel texts), its widespread and enduring popularity witnessed by three distinct recensions and twenty surviving manuscripts ranging from the early fourteenth to the mid-fifteenth centuries.

Probably composed from 1295–1306 by an unnamed Augustinian canon, the Northern Homily Cycle is one of the earliest sermon cycles written in the vernacular to help lay parishioners make sense of the Latin Gospel readings that accompanied every Sunday mass. Each sermon begins with a Latin rubric from the Gospel lesson and a Middle English paraphrase, followed by a related homily (or lesson) drawn from patristic exegesis, and an illustrative exemplum—with all the English versified in rhyme. Recurring themes include pity for the poor, anger at economic inequality, and condemnation of corrupt clergy. The cycle’s textual sources, twenty surviving manuscripts in three distinct recensions, attests to its enduring popularity. This volume presents selections from the first recension, edited from two of the earliest manuscripts whose Yorkshire dialect approximates the original text’s northern language. Anne Thompson’s introduction and notes provide historical context, an overview of the liturgical calendar, and sources for individual sermons.