American Society of Church History

Two Uses of Apocrypha in Old English Homilies

Author(s): Milton McCormick Gatch
Source: Church History, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Dec., 1964), pp. 379-391
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church History
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TWO USES OF APOCRYPHA IN OLD ENGLISH HOMILIES
MILTON MCCORMICK GATCH, Shimer College, Illinois
It has long been recognized that the homilies preserved in Old
English from the early Middle Ages are almost entirely derived from
Latin writings.' It has also been known that, in selecting sources for
adaptation, the Anglo-Saxon writers did not subject Latin materials
to rigorous tests of orthodoxy and canonicity.2 Several important
studies have been devoted to analysis of the relation of homilies which
derive from apocryphal literature to their sources.3 They show that a
relatively restricted number of apocryphal documents exercised an im-
portant influence on the popular religious literature of the late Old
English period.
With such analyses as a background, it is now possible to carry
research further: from the details of reliance and the aberrations of
doctrine carried over from Latin materials one can move to an in-
vestigation of the use made of apocryphal writings within the theo-
logical framework of the Old English homilies themselves. Thus,
while one must know what went on before-and is, therefore, deeply
indebted to those who have discussed the sources of the homilies-the
real concern has becomewhether the homilist has reshapedthe materials
to suit his own purposes and whether, in so doing, he has departed
from the doctrinal implications of the works of his predecessors.
The following article will examine the Old English borrowings
from Latin versions of the Apocalypse of Thomas and the Visio Sancti
Pauli with reference to the manner in which such traditions are handled
by the homilists.
I. The Apocalypse of Thomas
The Apocalypse of Thomas must stand first because of the com-
pleteness of the adaptations by Anglo-Saxon homilists. It is used ex-
tensively in homilies from two well-known collections: Homily VII
of the Blickling Book4 and Homily XV of the Vercelli Codex (MS.
CXVII, Biblioteca Capitolare, Vercelli, Italy).5 It has also been rec-
ognized as a source for two less wellknown Old English sermons:
Homily III of MS. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 41, a manu-
script which belonged to the cathedral at Exeter at the time of the tran-
scription of the homilies into its margins (henceforward, the Exeter
text) ;6 and Homily XXXIX of MS. Corpus Christi College, Camb-
bridge, 162 which also occurs as Homily III of Bodleian MS. Hatton
116 (the Corpus-Hatton text).7 All four versions, however late their
transcriptions, date from the middle or the first half of the tenth cen-
tury8 and thus precede the rather more cautiously orthodox period of
English sermon writing inaugurated by .Elfric of Eynsham in the
final decade of the first millennium.
379

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380 CHURCHHISTORY

The Latin Apocalypse of Thomas exists in two recensions, the

second of which contains an interpolation at the beginning which al-
ludes to events in the first half of the fifth century as contemporary.9
Long undiscovered, although known to have existed and to have been
proscribed by Gelasius in the fifth century,10the Latin Apocalypse
was identified early in the twentieth century and has been thoroughly
studied since then." Perhaps written in Greek in the second, third, or
fourth century, and acquiring its interpolation in the same language
or in Latin in North Africa or Italy,l2 the document apparently cir-
culated rather widely in northwestern Europe. The extant manu-
script versions date from the eighth through the eleventh century, ex-
cept for one fifteenth century version.
In the uninterpolated versions of the apocryphon, "the Son of
God the Father" and "father of all spirits" addresses Thomas and
reveals to him the signs of the end of the world. After a very short
statement on civil distress, famine, pestilence, and war, he proceeds
immediately to enumerate the "signs in heaven" of the "seven great
days." On the sixth day, the consuming fire occurs and the resur-
rection of the bodies of all men, to be reunited with their spirits and
borne to heaven; on the seventh day occurs the war between the an-
gels and the seeking out of the elect; and on the eighth there is a tender
voice from heaven and the angels "rejoice that the destruction of this
world hath come."'3
The interpolated version is cut short at the sixth day and in-
troduces, at the beginning, a long passage concerning historical mani-
festations of the approach of the last days. The apocryphon is given
an epistolary salutation after which there follows a description of the
woes which issue from the reign of Theodosius I. The special ma-
terials in this version of the apocryphon, which are used extensively
in Vercelli Homily XV, probably derive from the Antichrist or Sibyl-
line legends.14
This apocryphon, especially as it was re-shaped by the Irish, was
a chief source for the later medieval fifteen signs before Doomsday,
although the seven-sign tradition continued to be known in such works
as the Middle English Debate between the Body and the Soul. But the
elaborated version was current as well at the end of the Old English
period.l5 It is, evidently, the interpolated, seven sign tradition, in-
dependently translated from several Latin texts, with which we have
to deal in the four pertinent anonymous Old English homilies.16
The Apocalypse of Thomas is employed both extensively and in
a limited way in these homilies; but in each case it is employed in a
more complete context than evidently surrounded the original apoc-
ryphon. Blickling VII and the Corpus-Hatton text use the Apocalypse
in the limited manner, desiring only to excerpt the seven days' signs

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 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHA IN OLD ENGLISH HOMTT,TES381

for their own rhetorical purposes.

Corpus-Hatton is perhaps the most unusual setting for the signs,
for they are, with a judgment scene, added to the seasonal introduc-
tion of a homily for Rogation Wednesday. The sermon opens with
an exhortation to proper observance of the Rogation and Ascension
seasons, emphasizing especially the need of prayers to the saints for
intercession, and enjoining the usual Rogation procession to bless the
fields and pray for the crops. To this latter end, we must pray "that
[God] turn his wrath from us and grant us his mercy in all our life,
whether in this present or that coming.""7 The audience is reminded
that they must heed the teaching of him who will also be their judge.
Therefore, they are urged to stand in awe of the judgment and of the
coming Doomsday which is described as the day of misery, "of the
assembling of dwellers in heaven, earth and hell," of the "exchange
of bodies and souls," of "trumpets and their soundings," and a day
whose coming will be fortokened by "great commotion."'8 In this
context, the signs of the Thomas apocryphon are introduced as a say-
ing of the Lord himself. The historical phenomenaare briefly described
and are said to have become common occurrences: "These earthly
signs we now often see occurring. Then will occur these signs seven
days before the Judgment."'9 The cosmological signs of the Apocalypse
of Thomas are then translated rather more freely than in the other
three versions.20 The homilist continues to give a Judgment Day scene,
relating first the resurrection of the dead, however they may have
died, at the sound of the trumpet, the assembling of the angels and
saints, the vision of the Lord's Rood and wounds. Men's deeds are
judged according to the record of the Book of Life; the blessed are
gathered and the condemned sent to hell. Returning to his hortatory
theme, the homilist bids his audience beware of the punishments of
hell and prepare for the blessings of the heavenly kingdom which he
describes by quotation from the Johannine Apocalypse. Let us, he con-
cludes, praise God and pray for mercy.21
The Corpus-Hatton homily, thus, adapts primarily the cosmo-
logical, or uninterpolated, portions of the Apocalypse of Thomas in
order to put men in mind of the coming Judgment and of their need
to repent. Convinced that the foretokening events are already mani-
fest, the homilist lists the cosmological signs by way of warning and
as an introduction to the Judgment scene which, as he has said, one
must have in view as he participates in the Rogation processions. The
apocryphon is, in other words, used as a rhetorical tool to heighten
the urgency of the day's devotions and the vividness of the Dooms-
day scene which it is his chief purpose to depict.
The purpose of the quotation from the Apocalypse of Thomas
in Blickling VII22 is quite different from that in the Corpus-Hatton

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382 CHURCH HISTORY

text, although it is a similarly limited adaptation. The homily, in-

tended for Easter, conflates a pseudo-Augustinian source with a Des-
census ad ,nfernum23 and introduces a discussion of the salvation
wrought by Christ. The congregation is bidden to recall what recom-
pense we owe Him for this act in view of the coming Judgment. The
cosmological signs of the Apocalypse of Thomas are then introduced
as a means of underlining the dreadfulness of the approaching Doom
and of introducing a concluding exhortation to prepare by good works
for the Last Day. While the Judgment itself is not depicted in Blick-
ling VII, as it is in the Corpus-Hatton text, the signs are not so im-
portant for themselves as for the awe the approach of the second Ad-
vent is intended to inspire. Yet, in this text, the signs serve to do
more than to make a transition or merely to inspire fear: structurally,
they balance the miracles of salvation wrought by the descent into
hell, thus turning our minds to the fulfillment of the work of salva-
tion which will be presaged by the cosmological signs and the descent
from heaven, just as the Easter token of salvation, the first resurrec-
tion, was presaged by the descent into hell.
Both interested only in the cosmological seven signs, Blickling VII
and Corpus-Hatton make rather different use of their very similar
materials: for Blickling VII uses the signs to counterbalance the ac-
count of the work of Christ which preceded the first resurrection;
while Corpus-Hatton uses the apocryphon as a means to heighten the
urgency of right performance of one's Rogationtide devotions, as a
connective between the liturgical functions of the day and the coming
event for which one prepares in the spring procession.
In Vercelli Homily XV and the Exeter text, on the other hand,
nearly all of the Thomas apocryphon is translated and is used in the
construction of a full account of the events of the Last Day. Vercelli
XV, which bears the rubric, "ALIA OMELIA DE DIE IUDICTI,"
begins with an account of the reply given "in these books" by the Lord
to the question of Thomas, "when Antichrist's coming would be,"24
and proceeds to translate almost entirely the Apocalypse of Thomas,
giving both the historical signs, whose remote allusions the translator
fails to understand, and the cosmic.25 From the foretokens, the homi-
list proceeds to an account of the Judgment itself in which Saints
Mary, Michael, and Peter intercede for the sinful.26 The apocalypse
thus constructed is given only the most cursory homiletic touches in
a final paragraph.27 Here, then, the Thomas tradition is used in an
effort to assemble a fairly complete account of the last times.
The intention of the Exeter text of MS. Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge, 41 is similar, but the piece is given more of a homiletic
framework and is set with an even more adventuresome adaptation
of the Judgment scene. The Exeter homily opens with an allusion

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 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHAIN OLD ENGLISHHOMTTJ,TE 383
to the two cities: the joys of the heavenly city, Jerusalem, "vision of
peace," are unrecountable;but those who now merit these joys through
keeping God's laws and "preservation of the snow-white garment of
baptism" will experience them.28 Enumerating the blessings of heaven,
the homilist entreats us to work and pray that we may see this light
and fairness with angels, prophets, apostles, and saints and share their
endless bliss.29 The preacher now turns his attention to the coming
of that order, drawing on the Apocalypse of Thomas. Without men-
tioning Antichrist, he summarizes the interpolated introduction, gen-
eralizing and condensing the historical signs, before proceeding to
translate quite literally the seven signs.30 Because of what we have
heard of the coming end, he concludes, we must stand in awe of it and
of the ensuing separation of the elect and the condemned, seeking in
our lives to merit it.31 Pursuing his remarkable concentration of in-
terest in the nature of the heavenly Kingdom, the homilist now draws
on the Apocryphon of the Seven Heavens to round out his piece.82
There are seven heavens to which souls progress through seven doors,
being punished if need be, until they reach the heaven of the Holy Trin-
ity where they are separated, the sinful being consigned to the power
of diabolic dragons in an iron-walled hell.
As in Vercelli Homily XV, the Apocalypse of Thomas is em-
ployed in the Exeter text quite fully and as a major portion of a homily
whose chief purpose is to set out a schematic account of the last times.
It serves here as a transition between a consideration of the joys
promised the elect and the tribulations involved in the attainment of
those joys. But, as in none of the other three instances, the Apocalypse
of Thomas is used in combination with a distinctly unorthodox apoc-
ryphon, in conjunction with a view of heaven and Judgment which
accords better with a gnostic picture than with the usual Western,
heroic Doomsday scene. The conclusion to which the cosmological
tokens lead is startling and mal a propos.
These four uses of the Apocalypse, all of them independent in
Old English, and probably all translating independent Latin for-
bears,33suggest that in certain parts of western Christendom in the
ninth and tenth centuries the Thomas Apocalypse was accepted as vir-
tually canonical. It is very unlikely that the Gelasian proscription of
the document was widely known at this time. And the Latin of the
apocryphon,after all, draws so much of its imagery from the Johannine
Apocalypse34that it has an aura of authenticity. One might very
easily regard it as a reasonable systematization of the Scriptural ex-
pectations, even if one realized that it was not a saying or letter of
Christ to St. Thomas (and this is an attribution which is excised in
three of the four versions treated here). Thus an apocryphal work,
useful in many homiletic and didactic settings, handily summarizing
events which were pivotal in the current thinking of churchmen, as-

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384 CHURCHHISTORY

sumed an authority which was unquestioned. In the Old English homi-

lies, it is used to good effect and quite openly. If once it is used in a
distinctly unorthodox setting, that is not really unexpected in view
of the frequent juxtaposition of less objectionable but formally con-
flicting eschatological images which is so evident in the Vercelli col-
lection. The remarkablething is the frequency with which the Apoc-
alypse of Thomas is translated in the small corpus of homiletic litera-
ture which survives from before A.D. 990; and not much less notable
is the fact that the text is treated quite cautiously so that, at least in
the case of the cosmological signs of the seven days, its integrity is
unimpaired. Few texts were treated with like respect.
II. The Apocalypse of Paul and
The Address of the Soul to the Body
It is precisely the stability of the tradition of the signs of the
seven days before Doomsday which distinguishes the uses of the Apoc-
alypse of Thomas in Old English from the adaptations of sources de-
rived from the Apocalypse or Vision of Paul. The pseudo-Pauline
material was, indeed, so prolix and so patently speculative that its
text invited excerpting and editing; thus it is not surprising that its
derivatives are many, both in number and in variety.
Almost certainly written in an heretical milieu at the end of the
fourth century, though put together from much earlier material, the
Apocalypse of Paul survives in various versions in the Eastern and
Western classical and vulgar languages.35 Probably a product of the
Egyptian monastic-eschatological imagination, the Vision caught and
held the popular imagination,
Because it offered [as did no other apocryphon]a complete Baedeker
to the other-world,embodyingbeliefs and legends already familiar to
its readers from other writings and giving informationas to the fate
of the soul, in a relativelystraight-forwardexpositionwhich avoidedthe
subtletiesof theology, and stressed with a concretenessthat was readily
comprehensiblethe justice of God, Christ'smercy, and the simple rela-
tionship between earthly morality and the rewards and punishmentsof
the life to come.36
The Apostle, caught up into the third heaven, was told by the
Lord that creation cries out against the sinfulness of man, and the
angels report to God man's good and evil acts. Paul is shown the
righteous in heaven after death and sinners' souls in the bottomless
pit. On request, he sees souls undergoing individual judgment as they
depart from the world; good and evil angels clash over the possession
of the souls, and souls address their bodies. Paul is taken to see the
paradise of the blessed in a long and elaborate passage which con-
trasts with the ensuing visit to hell. He obtains a Sunday rest from
torment for the lost, and is granted a vision of paradise.
From the central portion of this Apocalypse, describing the death
of good and evil men and their first judgement, descends in a plethora

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 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHAIN OLD ENGLISHHOMTTTIES
385
of forms the Soul and Body literature.37 Professor Willard discerns
three such forms in the Old English literature which he distinguishes
as to the time "at which the soul makes an address to its body"38and
which must now be discussed with reference to their doctrinal sig-
nificance.
The first of these is the address at the hour of death, which oc-
curs in two manuscripts of the eleventh century39and derives ulti-
mately from the central portion of the Visio Pauli40in which the separa-
tion of a good soul and an evil from the body is described. The Old
English version, set in one case after a prose version of the Be domes
dcg,4' tells of the separation of a wicked soul which, seeing devils
waiting to take charge of him, bewails the fact that he was ever born
into his evil body and castigates the body which must only rot while he
must be led to hell. The devils accost the body and take the soul which,
seeing "a great brightness along the way" which he cannot recognize,
is told that it is the "joy of the kingdom of heaven" whence he came to
dwell in the body on earth. Bewailing his fate, he is led off to be shot
into the mouth of a fiery dragon, killed immediately, and spewed out
into the hottest fires of hell-punishment.42The concept of the pre-
existence of the soul, here implied, seems generally to be foreign to
the Old English homiletic tradition, but clearly derives from the more
extreme anchorite traditions which fostered this kind of legend.
In a similar version of the Vision, the bodies speak as the souls
depart to be received of the good or evil angels who, after a battle,
have won custody of them.43
In this form of the Address of the Soul to the Body, which is set
at the hour of death and which was the most faithful to the pseudo-
Pauline tradition, there is a clear implication of a purgatorial or para-
disaic existence for the soul after death; and there is even, in some
versions, the suggestion that the existence of the soul antedates its
union on earth with the body. It is, in other words, a relic of that late
Hellenist philosophicaldoctrine, most often associated in theology after
the Gnostic period with the name of Origen, which held that souls
(logikoi) had a prior existence from which, after their fall, they were
banished to the fleshy prison and to which they can, by a series of
stages, return. Clearly heretical in its implications, this version was
-if the survivals are any indication-the least often employed ver-
sion in the Old English literature and (presumably) in the Latin ad-
aptations from which they are translated.
Numerically, the greatest number of English versions of the Ad-
dress tradition are of a type in which the soul returns to the body at
intervals and addresses it. This development seems to have been an
extension of the annual or weekly respite from punishment gained
for souls at the intercession of Paul in the Visio.4 Three versions of
this variant of the tradition call for attention. The first of these, the

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386 CHURCH HISTORY

poetic Address of the Soul to the Body, is preserved in the Vercelli

Book with addresses of both sinful and righteous souls and in the
Exter collection with only the remarks of the sinful.45 For three hun-
dred years weekly on Sunday, unless Doomsday intervenes, the spirit
revisits the body. If the body did not merit bliss, the soul berates it,
claiming that, sent by God to the body,46he was brought to ruin by
the body and now suffers hell-torments. He reminds the body that
he, too, will be called to account at the Judgment. The soul leaves
the body which cannot reply to it or offer help, but suffers the ravages
wrought by worms under their captain, "Glutton."47The soul of the
good body, however, greets it as "dearest friend," and assures it that,
despite the worms, it will come fair to the Father's Kingdom. His
happiness he attributes to his body as he looks forward to their bliss in
the future.
A second version of this tradition is found in a mid-eleventh
century manscript.48The sinful soul addresses his body, bidding it see
in him what torment the future holds for it, calling it devil's house,
bewailing the fact that he, with his soul, did not love the eternal
things. In reverse terms, the good soul addresses his body; and the
homilist moves on to an exhortatory passage.49
A third example of this type5?has the soul returning annually on
Easter Day51 as it is only through Christ's resurrection that it has
rest; the good soul addresses his body first, praising it and bidding it
rest in peace until their eternal reunion; and the evil accosts his body
reminding it of their mutual fate.
Now these adaptations of the Address theme have certain doc-
trinal advantages over the death-day speeches, advantages which have
not been adequately noticed. For the death-day versions can only with
difficulty avoid stating a clear doctrine of purgatory, while in the
periodic return the mechanism of the soul being led off by whichever
group of angels has won him is avoided. Further, in the two latter
versions, although there are references to the sufferings or joy of the
soul-like the references which account for much of the ambiguity in
the Blickling and Vercelli books-, there is no crass preoccupation
with the purgatorial or the paradisaic per se. The Latin homilists and
the Anglo-Saxon translators have, in other words, found a way to use
this striking and eminently homiletical theme while at the same time
avoiding patent heterodoxy. This kind of attitude, it seems to me, may
go a long way towards explaining the theological ambiguity of the
anonymous or pre-iElfrician Old English homilies with regard to the
state of the individual between death and the resurrection of the body.52
The homilists found the soul and body dialogue useful rhetorically
but did not care (or, indeed, recognize the need) to pursue logically
the implications of such materials.

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 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHAIN OLD ENGLISHHOMTLTTES
387
A further refinement, however, obviates even more of these dif-
ficulties. For, in at least two extant homilies, the addresses of the
souls are set at the Last Judgment. The formally more primitive of
these is a homily in manuscripts of the late eleventh and early twelfth
centuries53in which we are bidden to think of our soul's need and of the
Last Day. After reference to the transitoriness of life and the rav-
ages of the grave, the homilist introduces the condemned soul which
addresses his body and then the good soul. The scene is, as Willard has
remarked, "the mere introduction, by way of exemplum, of the ad-
dress material made to do duty in a new milieu."54
Far more artful is the use of the material in Vercelli Homily
IV,55 in which the addresses are integrated in a full account of the
Last Judgment. The material is an effective parenetic device be-
cause, by turning the attention of the listener from the usual central
figure of Judgment scenes-the Judge himself-to the judged, the
author is able adroitly to contrast psychologically the ideal Christian
with the careless and self-centered. At the great Doom, the blessed
soul intercedes with angels for the resurrection of his body and praises
the body for its perseverence in an ascetic Christian life. Reunited,
this body and soul are accepted by the Lord whom they praise as
"maker of life and lovesong of all the saints." But the wicked soul
(rather self-righteously) heaps blame upon his body as the source of
his troubles and as a force he was unable to control during his earthly
life. Reunited, they are condemned by the Judge.56
While this use of the address device confuses the Doomsday
imagery, it is even farther than the interim return from the dangers
implicit in the original version of the Visio Pauli. There is, after all,
no necessity to say anything here about what the soul has been doing
since death, and the homilist can concentrate on the contrasting psy-
chologies of those whom the Judge will find blessed or condemn.
It has been suggested that the heterodoxy of the Apocalypse of
Paul is responsible for its lack of textual stability as compared with
the Apocalypse of Thomas. The preceding analysis prompts one to
go further and to conclude that embarrassment with the original ver-
sion, combined with a recognition of its popularity and of its useful-
ness for parenetic and didactic purposes, may have led to the peculiar
development of its derivate, the Address of the Soul to the Body. Its
case history is not one of progressive elaboration, as textual critics
used always to expect, but of simplification to domesticate and make
useful material which in its original form raised more difficulties
than it solved. Yet all the forms remained in circulation and all were
found to be more or less useful by the anonymous Old English homi-
lists who did not, apparently, distinguish among the several versions,7

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388 CHURCHHISTORY

but who do seem to have preferred in some cases to avoid overt purga-
torial allusion.
A. B. van Os says of the inquest after death-an element of the
Visio Pauli and of the Address when it takes place at the time of death-
that "being of a philosophic character [it] failed to catch the imagina-
tion of the common herd" who preferred vivid descriptions of heaven
and hell to "the subtle reasonings of body and soul at the inquest be-
fore the Judgement Seat," and that it was, subsequently, lost sight of
in later medieval literature.58 Professor Willard holds that the move-
ment of the Address away from the death scene to the return visits of
the soul and to the Judgment-where, "taken literally [it] is not
without absurdity"-manifests an ambivalence between two types of
Judgment, an individual and the general; he recognizes further that
the transfer raises the question of the status of the soul between death
and Judgment, and that all this originates in an effort to "exter-
nalize" the beliefs concerning the fate of souls at death."59
In the light of this investigation, one must ask, however, whether
-especially when one keeps in mind the stability of the Thomas apoc-
ryphon-it was not precisely the speculativeness or "philosophic char-
acter" of the pseudo-Pauline tradition which led to its modification
and simplification, and whether the transfer of the time and setting
of the Address was not made in an effort to obviate the problem of
the interim existence of the soul raised by the vision in its original
form. Surely the answer must be that the Latin homilists, whose
works undergird those of the anonymous Anglo-Saxons, wrought
these changes to avoid the doctrinal questions raised. They recognized
useful and popular material and were able to adapt it to the needs of
a popular theology which was, in intention if not always in fact, con-
sciously orthodox.
The Apocalypse of Thomas was useful in more direct ways be-
cause its signs of the approaching Last Day were based on the canon-
ical tradition and needed little editorial work to make them usable.
Hence the latter apocryphon achieved a relative textual stability while
the former underwent numerous alterations in an effort to domesticate
its questionable, but arresting, materials.
1. The most important studies are those Two Apocrypha in Old English Hoin-
of the late Max Forster: e.g.,"Zu den ilies ("Beitrige zur Englischen Phil-
Blickling Homilies," Archiv fur das ologie," XXX [Leipzig, 1935]).
Stu,dium der neueren Sprachen und 2. As early as 1884, John Earle hailed
Litteraturen, XCI (1893), 179-206; the publication! of the Blickling Hom-
"Der Vercelli-Codex CXVII nebst ilies in his Anglo-Saxon Literature
Abdruck einiger altenglischer Homilien (London, 1884) as an important event
der Handschrift," in F. Holthausen providing background for the study of
and H. Spies, eds., Festschrift fur AElfric's work: "They are plainly of
Lorenz Morsbach. . . (Studien zur the age before the great Church re-
Englischen Philologie, L [1913]) 20- form of the tenth century, when the
179 [henceforward, Morsbach Fest- line was very dimly drawn between
schrift]. See also Rudolph Willard,
"Vercelli Homily XI and its Sources," canonical and uncanonical, and when
Speculum, XXIV (1949), 76-87; and quotations, legends, and arguments

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 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHA IN OLD ENGLISH HOMTTJTFS389
were admissible which now surprise us
in a sermon" (p. 213).
3. Willard's "The Address of the Soul
to the Body," (P.M.L.A., L [1935],
957-983) and his Two Apocrypha are
the most valuable, concerted efforts to
reconstruct the legends which lie be-
hind apocalyptic fragments in the 0.
E. literature.
4. R. Morris, ed., The Bliccling Homilies
of the Tenth Century. . . (Early Eng-
lish Text Society, Original Series 58,
63, 73; London, 1874-1880) [hencefor-
ward, Morris]. The text of Hom. VII
("Dominica Pascha") with tranb. is
at pp. 82-97. MS. reproduced in Wil-
lard, ed., The Blickling Homilies, The
John H. Scheide Library, Titusville,
Pennsylvania [now Princeton] ("Ear-
ly English MSS. in Facsimile," X;
Copenhagen, 1960). MS. described and
sources listed in N. Ker, Catalogue of
Manuscripts containing Anglo-Saxon
(Oxford, 1957), 382, art 7 [hence-
forward, Ker with citation to catalo-
gue number of ms. in question and ar-
ticle of ms.].
5. Codex never completely published,
though a facsimile (Forster, ed., II
Codice Vercellese con Omelie e Poesie
in Lingua Anglosassone [Rome, 1913])
exists and Forster's article in Mors-
bach Festschrift and his uncompleted
edn. (Die Vercelli-Homilien. . . [I
Halfte; "Bibliothek der Angelsich-
sischen Prosa," XII; Hamburg, 1932]
print many of the homilies. The text
of HIomily XV (ef. Ker 394, art. 17)
is printed in Morsbach Festschrift,
117-128.
6. Cf. Ker 32, art. 12 (written in the
margin c. 1100). Printed in FSrster,
"A New Version of the Apocalypse
of Thomas in Old English," Anglia,
LXXIII (N.F. LXI; 1955), 17-27;
concluding portion, except final para-
graph, printed in Willard, Two Apoc-
rypha, 4-6.
7. Cf. Ker 38, art. 37 (c. 1020) and 33,
art. 26 (c. 1100), the latter only print-
ed by F6rster in Morsbach Festschrift,
128-137. Some readings from the form-
er in' Forster, Anglia, LXXIII (1955),
27-33.
8. Forster, Anglia, LXXIII (1955), 12-
13.
9. Ibid., 11-12. At pp. 9-10, Firster lists
the six extant Latin versions. The his-
torical allusions to Theodosius I, Ar-
eadius and Honorius are discussed by
E. Hauler, "Zu den neuen lateinischen
Bruchstiicken der Thomas-Apokalypse
und eines apostolischen Sendschreibens
im Codex Vind. Nr. 16," Wiener
Studien, XXX (1909), 330-340. Trans.
of the two types of text by M. R.
James in Apocryphal New Testament
(1st edn., corrected; Oxford, 1955),
556-562. A Latin text is given by F.
Wilhelm, Deutsche Legende und Leg-
endare Leipzig, 1907), 40*-42*.
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10. Forster in Morsbach Festschrift, 76.
The decretal is published in P.L., LIX,
157-164. It was probably known to
AElfric for it is reproduced in a ms.
closely associated with him (cf. E. M.
Raynes, "MS. Boulogne-sur-Mer 63
and 2Elfric," Medium &uvwm, XXVl
[1957], 71).
11. To the works cited by Firster in
Anglia, LXXIII (1955), add W. W.
Heist, The Fifteen Signs before
Doomsday (East Lansing, Michigan,
1952).
12. Forster, Anglia, TXXTITT (1955), 11-
12. James (Apocryphal N.T., 556) is
inclined to regard the Latin as origin-
al.
13. James, Aprocryphal N.T., 559-562.
14. Cp. the text at Morsbach Festschrift,
121, ff. with W. Bousset, The Anti-
christ Legend, trans. A. H. Keene
(London, 1896), 121, ff. James (Apoc-
ryphal N.T., 562) notes dependence of
the Latin passage on apocalypses of
the Daniel type.
15. On the relationship of the versions,
the accounts of Nolle and Grau (cf.
Forster, Anglia, LxxIIJ [1955], 16)
are now displaced by Heist, The Fif-
teen Signs before Doomsday. See esp.
the derivation charts at pp. 99, 100,
102 and pp. 193, ff. For a 12th cen-
tury 0. E. Quindecim Signa, see B.
Assmann, "Vorzeichen des jiingsten
Gerichts," Anglia, XI (1889) 369-
371.
16. Forster, Anglia, T,XXlJJ (1955), 13.
17. Morsbach Festschrift, 129 (transla-
tions mine).
18. Ibid., 130.
19. Ibid., 130-131.
20. Ibid., 131-133; Forster, Anglia, LXX-
III (1955), 27-33.
21. Morsbach Festschrift, 133-137.
22. Morris, 91-95. Forster in Anglia, LX-
XIII (1955), 6-36, compares this text
with the other 0. E. versions.
23. Cf. Ker 382, art. 7; Firster, Archiv,
XCI (1893), 182; Forster, "Alt-
englische Predigtquellen," Archiv, CX-
VI (1906), 301, ff.
24. Morsbach Festsehrift, 116.
25. Ibid., 117-120.
26. Ibid., 126-128.
27. Ibid., 128.
28. FSrster, Anglia, Tl X ]l (1955), 17-
18.
29. Ibid., 18-19.
30. Ibid., 19-26.
31. Ibid., 26-27.
32. For a study of this apocryphon, see
Willard, Two Apocrypha, 1-30, and,
for the conclusion of the Exeter text,
pp. 4-7. The apocryphon occurs in O.
E. only here, but it is preserved also
in Latin and in the Old Irish, notably
in the Vision of Adamnan and the
Evernew Tongue. Ultimately perhaps
a Priscillianist document, with traces,
at any rate, of a gnostic concept of the
progression of the soul, the apoeryphon
390 CHURCH HISTORY
was very popular in Ireland. Willard
speculates that it may also have been
widely known in England, but have
been discarded in favor of the de-
veloped doctrine of Purgatory or of
the popular Visio Pauli or that the
texts may have been destroyed by the
monastic reformers (p. 30). This Ver-
sion-which according to Forster (Ang-
lia, LXXIII [1955], 33-35) has phono-
logical traces of the Old Mercian of c.
800-850-is nonetheless a curious relic;
perhaps the Exeter scribe's source is
an old heterodox collection of homilies
which survived both the Danes and the
reformers in remote Devonshire.
33. FPrster, Anglia, LXXIIl (1955), 13.
34. Ibid., 14.
35. James, Apocryphal N.T., 525-526,
555; text trans. at 526-554; T. Sil-
verstein, Visio Sancti Pauli ("Studies
and Documents," IV; London, 1935),
3-90. As with the Apocalypse of
Thomas, I have not attempted here to
assemble a complete bibliography, but
refer the reader to Silverstein and to
the notes in Willard, P.M.L.A., L
(1935), 957-983.
36. Silverstein, Visio Sancti Pauli, 5.
37. For a hypothetical reconstruction of
the descent of some of these doc-
uments, see L. Dudley, "An early
Homily on the 'Body and Soul'
Theme," Journal of English and Ger-
manic Philology, VIII (1909), 225-
253. The descent of the portions of
the homilaries with which we are con-
cerned via Latin homilies is discussed
by Willard in P.M.L.A., L (1935),
957-983; this article is the basis of my
remarks on the O.E. literature. The
Soul and Body remains are not the
only evidences of the survival of the
Visio Pauli in the O.E. period: Elfric
condemns the work (B. Thorpe, ed.,
The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon
Church: . . . The Sermones Catholici,
or Homilies of 3Elfric [2 vols.; Lon-
don, 1844, 1846], II, 332); it is used
in Blickling Homilies IV and XVI (cf.
Ker 382, arts 4 and 16): additional
references cited by Silversein, Visio
Sancti Pauli, 6-12 and notes 34-55 to
Chap. I; an unedited, fragmentary 0.
E. trans. of the work survives in Ker's
336, art. 4. There is a remarkable sim-
ilarity between the Blickling XVI
passage (Morris, 209-211) and lines
1357, ff., of Beowulf (for the litera-
ture, cf. F. Klaeber, ed. Beowulf and
The Fight at Finnsburg [3rd ed. with
1st and 2nd Supplements; Boston,
1950], 182-183, 456).
38. P.M.L.A., L (1935), 965.
39. Ker's 331, art. 22, printed by A.
Napier in Wulfstan: Sammlung der
ihm zugeschriebenen Homilien. . .
Erste Abteilung: Text und Varianten
("Sammlung Englischer Denkmailer in
kritischen Ausgaben, " IV; Berlin,
1883), 140 line 3-141 line 25. The other
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version, which K. Jost (Wulfstanstu-
dien ["Swiss Studies in English,"
XXIII; Bern, 1950], 206-207) thinks
was used by the composer of the
pseudo-Wulfstan piece is printed in
B. Thorpe, ed., Ancient Laws and In-
stitutes of England (Folio edn.; Lon-
don, 1840), 466 lines 24-34 and 467
line 49-468 line 52 (cf. Ker 50, art. 2).
40. Sees. 14-16 in the version trans. by
James, Apocryphal N.T., 531-534.
41. Napier, Wulfstan, 136 line 28 -140
line 2.
42. Ibid., 140 line 9-141 line 25.
43. Ibid., 235-237; cf. Willard, P.M.L.A.,
L (1935), 965, n. 3. On the fusion of
this Visio Pauli motif with the apo-
cryphon of the Three Utterances of
the Soul, see Willard, Two Apocrypha,
74-76.
44. Sees. 43-44, James, Apocryphal N.T.,
547-549; Willard, P.M.L.A., L (1935),
966-979.
45. G.P. Krapp and E.V.K. Dobbie,
eds., The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records:
A Collective Edition (6 vols; New
York, 1931-1953), II, 54-59 (Vercelli)
and III, 174-178 (Exeter).
46. The expression, "and I was a soul
in you sent from God" (Vercelli, line
46), may be a relic of the doctrine of
pre-existence but can no longer be said
to intend such an idea, but rather the
concept of the soul as the life-or
motivating-force of the body.
47. For a comparison of this image with
other similar, but less sharp, ones
(but, I think, not for the Manichaean
mediation of the notion), see B.P.
Kurtz, "Gifer the Worm: an Essay
toward the History of an Idea,"
University of California Publications
in English, II (1929), 235-261.
48. Ker 336, art. 2; the Soul-Body sections
printed by Willard, P.M.L.A., L
(1935), 961-963. Note that art. 4 of
the same MS., in a different hand,
is a trans. of a large portion of the
Visio Pauli (sees. 4-17), the only pre-
modern vernacular text (unedited).
49. Willard, P.M.L.A., L (1935), 959,
gives a summary of the end of the
homily which emphasizes the last times.
50. Ker 18, art. 40 (late 12th century);
pertinent sections printed by Willard.
P.M.L.A., L (1935), 963-965, the rest
summarized, 960. The first part is
trans. from pseudo-Augustine, Ad fra-
tres in eremo, LXVIII (P.L., XL,
1354) and the part after the address
from the same collection, LXVI (P.L.,
XL, 1352, sec. 1), so the soul-body
portions may also be from a ps-Aug.
source now unknown.
51. For the evolution from an annual to
a weekly return, see Willard, P.M.L.A.,
L (1935), 968-974.
52. On the problem of purgatory in the
O.E. homilies, see my The Eschato-
logy of the Anglo-Saxon Homilists
 TWO USES OF APOCRYPHA IN OLD ENGLISH HOMTT,TFS391
(unpublished Ph.D. diss; Dept. of
Religion, Yale University, 1963),
passim. In general, it can be said that,
while the homilies contain the ma-
terials for a doctrine of purgatory,
the homilists show no desire to de-
fine the doctrine and that problems
of ambiguity are raised when these
facts are viewed in conjunction with
the strong emphasis placed on Dooms-
day materials.
53. Ker 56, art. 11, and 153, art. 5; the
former is printed, the latter collated,
by B. Assmann, ed., Angelsiichsische
Homilien und Heiligenleben ("Biblio-
thek der Angelsachsischen Prosa,"
III; Kassel, 1889), 164-169, with the
Address at 167, ff.
54. P.M.L.A., L (1935), 980.
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55. Forster, Die Vercelli-Homilien, 72-
107. Cf. Willard's analysis in P.M.-
L.A., L (1935), 980-982.
56. F6rster, Die Vercelli-Homilien, 89.
57. It is interesting, however, that the
Vercelli Book contains reference only
to the interim return (Soul and Body)
and the Judgment addresses (Homily
IV) and the Blickling (Homs. IV and
XVI) only to visionary materials and
exhortations to intercession, while the
death-day scene and the Visio itself
occur, with the interim and Doomsday
versions, only in later mss.
58. Religious Visions: The Development of
the eschatological Elements in medie-
val English religious Literature (Am-
sterdam, 1932), 177.
59. P.M.L.A., L (1935), 982-983.