Cate Gunn & Catherine Innes Parker 
Texts and Traditions of Medieval Pastoral Care 
Essays in Honour of Bella Millett

New essays on the burgeoning of pastoral and devotional literature in medieval England.


Pastoral and devotional literature flourished throughout the middle ages, and its growth and transmutations form the focus of this collection. Ranging historically from the difficulties of localizing Anglo-Saxon pastoral texts tothe reading of women in late-medieval England, the individual essays survey its development and its transformation into the literature of vernacular spirituality. They offer both close examinations of particular manuscripts, and of individual texts, including an anonymous
Speculum iuniroum, the
Speculum religiosorum of Edmund of Abingdon and later vernacular compositions and translations, such as
Handlyng Synne and Bonaventure’s
Lignum Vitae. The reading and devotional use of texts by women and solitaries is also considered. They therefore form an appropriate tribute to the work of Bella Millett, whose research has done so much to advance our knowledge of the field.


Contributors: Alexandra Barratt, Mishtooni Bose, Joseph Goering, Brian Golding, C. Annette Grise, Cate Gunn, Ralph Hanna, Bob Hasenfratz, Catherine Innes-Parker, E. A. Jones, Derek Pearsall, Elaine Treharne, Nicholas Watson, Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

Table of Content

Preface: Bella Millett

Bibliography of Bella Millett’s Writings

Introduction – Derek Pearsall

‘Vae Soli’: Solitaries and Pastoral Care – E.A. Jones

Scribal Connections in Late Anglo-Saxon England – Elaine Treharne

Gerald of Wales, the
Gemma Ecclesiastica and Pastoral Care – Brian Golding

Time to Read: Pastoral Care, Vernacular Access and the Case of Angier of St Frideswide – Jocelyn Wogan-Browne

Lambeth Palace Library MS 487: Some Problems of Early Thirteenth-century Textual Transmission – Ralph Hanna

Pastoral Texts and Traditions: the Anonymous
Speculum Iuniorum [c. 1250] – Joe Goering

Reading Edmund of Abingdon’s
Speculum as Pastoral Literature – Cate Gunn

Middle English Versions and Audiences of Edmund of Abingdon’s
Speculum Religiosorum – Nicholas Watson

Terror and Pastoral Care in
Handlyng Synne – Bob Hasenfratz

Prophecy, Complaint and Pastoral Care in the Fifteenth Century: Thomas Gascoigne’s
Liber Veritatum – Mishtooni Bose

Pastoral Concerns in the Middle English Adaptation of Bonaventure’s
Lignum Vitae – Catherine Innes-Parker

Prayer, Meditation and Women Readers in Late-Medieval England: Teaching and Sharing through Books – C. Annette Grise

‘Take a Book and Read’: Advice for Religious Women – Alexandra Barratt

About the author

Nicholas Watson teaches English at Harvard University. His research focuses on medieval English and North European literature, intellectual history, visionary writing and the role of the written vernacular.