Myrrour of the blessed lyf of Jesu Christ (Dodesham)

''The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ'' is an adaptation/translation of

Pseudo-Bonaventure Pseudo-Bonaventure ( la, Pseudo-Bonaventura) is the name given to the authors of a number of medieval devotional works which were believed at the time to be the work of Bonaventure: "It would almost seem as if 'Bonaventura' came to be regarded as ...

's ''

Meditations on the Life of Christ The ''Meditations on the Life of Christ'' ( la, Meditationes Vitae Christi or '; Italian ''Meditazione della vita di Cristo'') is a fourteenth-century devotional work, later translated into Middle English by Nicholas Love as ''The Mirror of the ...

'' into English by Nicholas Love, the

Carthusian The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...

prior Prior (or prioress) is an ecclesiastical title for a superior in some religious orders. The word is derived from the Latin for "earlier" or "first". Its earlier generic usage referred to any monastic superior. In abbeys, a prior would be l ...

Mount Grace Priory Mount Grace Priory is a monastery in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England. Set in woodlands within the North York Moors National Park, it is represented today by the best preserved and most accessible ruins among the nine houses ...

, written ca. 1400. Not merely a translation of one of the most popular Latin works of

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

devotion on the life and passion of Christ, but an expanded version with

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

al additions against the Wycliffite (

Lollard Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catholic ...

) positions on the

ecclesiastical hierarchy The hierarchy of the Catholic Church consists of its bishops, priests, and deacons. In the ecclesiological sense of the term, "hierarchy" strictly means the "holy ordering" of the Church, the Body of Christ, so to respect the diversity of gif ...

and the

sacrament A sacrament is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite that is recognized as being particularly important and significant. There are various views on the existence and meaning of such rites. Many Christians consider the sacraments ...

s of penance and the

eucharist The Eucharist (; from Greek , , ), also known as Holy Communion and the Lord's Supper, is a Christian rite that is considered a sacrament in most churches, and as an ordinance in others. According to the New Testament, the rite was instit ...

, Love's ''Mirror'' was submitted to

Thomas Arundel Thomas Arundel (1353 – 19 February 1414) was an English clergyman who served as Lord Chancellor and Archbishop of York during the reign of Richard II, as well as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1397 and from 1399 until his death, an outspoken o ...

archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

, around the year 1410 for approval. This submission was in accordance with the strictures of the

Oxford Constitutions Wycliffe's Bible is the name now given to a group of Bible translations into Middle English that were made under the direction of English theologian John Wycliffe. They appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395. These Bible translati ...

, forbidding any new biblical translations written since the time of

John Wycliffe John Wycliffe (; also spelled Wyclif, Wickliffe, and other variants; 1328 – 31 December 1384) was an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, biblical translator, reformer, Catholic priest, and a seminary professor at the University of O ...

, in any form whatsoever, unless the translation was submitted to the local

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

for approval. Arundel not merely approved the ''Mirror'', but commanded its propagation. Love's additions include quotations from

Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berbers, Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia (Roman pr ...

Pope Gregory I Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...

Aelred of Rievaulx Aelred of Rievaulx ( la, Aelredus Riaevallensis); also Ailred, Ælred, and Æthelred; (1110 – 12 January 1167) was an English Cistercian monk, abbot of Rievaulx from 1147 until his death, and known as a writer. He is regarded by Anglicans a ...

, and

Henry Suso Henry Suso, OP (also called Amandus, a name adopted in his writings, and Heinrich Seuse or Heinrich von Berg in German; 21 March 1295 – 25 January 1366) was a German Dominican friar and the most popular vernacular writer of the fourteenth centu ...

. Love considered his additions to be marginal annotations and separated them from the Pseudo-Bonaventure text with special markings. It survives in sixty-four manuscripts. It appears to have been the most popular new piece of literature in fifteenth-century England and was published at least ten times between 1484 and 1606.Michelle Karnes, ''Imagination, meditation, and cognition in the Middle Ages'', (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), p212.

References

* * Salter, Elizabeth. ''Nicholas Love's "Myrrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ"''. Analecta Cartusiana 10. Salzburg, Austria, 1974.

External links

''The Mirrour of the Blessed Lyf of Jesu Christ''
Lawrence Fitzroy Powell 1908
''The Life of Christ''

Saint Bonaventure Bonaventure ( ; it, Bonaventura ; la, Bonaventura de Balneoregio; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Catholic Franciscan, bishop, cardinal, scholastic theologian and philosopher. The seventh Minister G ...

William Henry Hutchings 1881 1400 books 15th-century Christian texts Books about Jesus {{Christian-book-stub