PDF hosted at the Radboud Repository of the Radboud University Nijmegen The following full text is a publisher's version. For additional information about this publication click this link. http://hdl.handle.net/2066/147623 Please be advised that this information was generated on 2021-10-11 and may be subject to change. THE POST-TR1DENTINE ENGLISH PRIMER THE POST-TRIDENTINE ENGLISH PRIMER Promotor: Professor T. A. Birrell THE POST-TRIDENTINE ENGLISH PRIMER Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor in de letteren aan de Katholieke Universiteit te Nijmegen, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. P. G. A. B. Wijdeveld volgens besluit van het College van Decanen in het openbaar te verdedigen op donderdag 7 juni 1979 des namiddags te 4.00 uur door JOANNES MARIA BLOM geboren te Nijmegen Krips Repro B. V., Meppel - 1979 CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations viii Introduction 1 Chapter I. The history of the Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis 2 Chapter II. The Tridentine primer in English 13 Chapter III. The place of the primer in England 34 Chapter IV. The printers and publishers of the primer 48 Chapter V. The hymn-translations and their translators 76 Chapter VI. The history of the manual from 1583 to 1800 112 Chapter VII. Other devotional works related to primer and manual 137 Chapter VIII. A hand-list of the Latin-English and English editions of the primer of the reformed Roman use and the editions of the manual during the period 1583-1800 163 Appendix to Chapter VIII. Hand-lists of the editions of The key of paradise, The office of the holy week and The evening office of the Church 190 Chapter IX. A catalogue of the English translations of Latin hymns in the editions of the primer from 1599 to 1800 197 Appendix to Chapter IX. A catalogue of hymn-translations in some other Roman Catholic devotional and liturgical works 239 Bibliography 252 Index of places, persons and institutions 277 V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to thank the authorities and staffs of the following libraries for permission to examine printed books and manuscripts in their possession, for their willingness to have microfilms made of books and manuscripts, and for the trouble they have taken over answer- ing my queries: The British Library; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; Cambridge University Library; St. Augustine’s Priory, Newton Abbot; Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp; Trinity College, Cam­ bridge; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; Pembroke College, Cambridge; Henry E. Huntington Library, California; Newberry Library, Chicago; Downside Abbey, Bath; Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington; Farm Street Church, London; Heythrop College, London; Lambeth Palace, London; Law Society’s Library, London; Brompton Oratory, London; the Catholic Record Society, London; Corpus Christi College, Oxford; St. John’s College, Oxford; Magdalen College, Oxford; St. Mary’s Abbey, Colwich; Hatfield House, Hatfield; the National Library of Ireland; the National Library of Scotland; Diocesan House Library, Liverpool; University of Texas, Austin; Algemeen Rijksarchief, Brussels; Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague; University Library of Leyden; Berchmanianum, Nijmegen; Albertinum, Nijmegen and the Univer­ sity Library of Nijmegen. Thanks are also due to the following scholars who contributed to this book in a variety of.ways: Miss M. Pollard of Trinity College, Dublin; Mr. A. F. Allison; Mrs. S. Dean of the Newberry Library; Mr. K. Bishop of the Lancashire Record Office; the Very Reverend Bishop Foley of Lancashire; the Reverend B. Egon of Dun Mhuire, Killiney; Mr. M. J. Walsh of Heythrop College and Dr. D. M. Rogers of the Bodleian Library. I am indebted to Brother Richard Yeo of Downside Abbey for his help during my stay there, to Sister Mary Bede of St. Scholastica’s Abbey for her kind interest in my work and to Mr. Th. Dekker of Nijmegen for his willingness to discuss a number of hymn- translations with me. The Netherlands Organisation for the Advancement of Pure Research (Z.W.O.) and the British Council provided grants which enabled me to do part of my research in British libraries. Finally I would like to thank V. Kleerekoper, M. Smolders, M. Faber, M. Seuren, D. de Vaan, A. Kaarup Jensen and E. Moor- mann for secretarial work. Marieke Schlatmann made her own contribution to this book and I am particularly indebted to Ria Derks who was an invaluable help during the final stages of my research. I dedicate this book to my mother and to the memory of my father. vii ABBREVIATIONS A&R A. F. Allison and D. M. Rogers, “A catalogue of Catholic books in English printed abroad or secretly in England 1558-1640”, Biographical Studies III, nos. 3 and 4, 1956 Clancy Thomas H. Clancy, English Catholic books 1641-1700: A bibliography, Chicago 1974 CRS Catholic Record Society DNB L. Stephen and S. Lee (eds.), Dictionary of National Biography, London 1908-1937 Gillow J. Gillow, A literary and biographical history, or bibliographical dictionary o f the English Catholics. .. 1534 to the present time, 5 Vols., London/New York 1885 GK III The current library catalogue of the British Library (i.e. the British Museum General Cata­ logue of Printed Books Photolithographic Edition to 1955, London 1960-1966; its two supplements: 1956-1965, London 1968 and 1966-1970, London 1971; and all the additions registered in the general catalogue kept in the Round Room of the British Library.) Hoskins E. Hoskins, Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis or Sarum and York Primers with kindred books, London 1901 (Gregg reprint 1969) NUC National Union Catalog Pre-1956 Imprints, Lon­ don/Chicago 1968- STC A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, A Short- Title Catalogue o f Books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland. And o f English books printed abroad. 1475-1640, London 1926, [Vol. II, 2nd ed., W. A. Jackson et al., London 1976. Since Vol. I of the new STC was not published when this book went to press, no attempt has been made to systematize all references to NSTC] Wing D. G. Wing, Short-Title Catalogue o f books printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and British America, and o f English books printed in other countries, 1641-1700, New York 1945- 1951 (Vol. I, 2nd ed., New York 1972) INTRODUCTION When Richard Verstegen published the first English translation of the post-Tridentine Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis in 1599, he gave the English Roman Catholic community a book that would prove to be one of its most popular works of private devotion for more than two centuries. During the period 1599 to 1800 overforty editions of the English primer (as the translated Officium BMVwas called) were published. What is more, these editions represent a development: in the course of these two centuries in the history of the primer the book was revised many times and new translations were made of the material it contained. This study tries to approach the primer from a number of different angles. lts central place in the history of English Catholic devotional literature justifies a thorough investigation into its origin, the number of its editions and the translators and editors involved. Thanks to its great popularity its printing history takes on considerable significance: the primer forms part of the individual histories of many of the most important printing houses working for the English Roman Catholics in the 17th and 18th centuries. One aspect of the primer that will be given particular attention is the body of hymn-translations that the book contains. After Verste­ gen’s first translations of the hymns in 1599, new translations appeared in subsequent editions at fairly regular intervals during the two hundred years of our survey. The hymn-translations contained in the primer found their way into many other books of private devotion. This means that these hymns formed an indispensable part of the daily lives of countless people. Apart from their importance as popular literature, the various translations also serve as a mirror of the changing style of English literature over the period in question. In the course of this study the legal and political position of the primer will be discussed and in the final chapters reference will be made to other books of devotion in order to define the place of the Roman Catholic primer in the history of English devotional litera­ ture. l CHAPTER I The history of the Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis When Dr. William Allen and Father Robert Persons^. J. started organizing the English Counter-Reformation during the last decades of the sixteenth century, one of their plans was to provide the English Roman Catholics at home and abroad with an English translation of the Tridentine Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis.1 The first English translation of the book appeared in 1599. The English primers of the revised Roman rite, and the hymn-translations they contain, form the main subject of this study. However, it seems useful first of all to briefly go into the history of the Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis itself so as to provide the background against which the English primers can be discussed in more detail.2 It is not easy to give an exact answer to the question as to which elements constitute the book Officium Beatae Mariae Virginis. In the course of this study more will be said about the actual contents of a number of primers, but for the moment it suffices to say that the Officium BMV can be characterized as a book containing in any case the hours of the Virgin Mary (either from Purification to Advent only, or for the whole year), the seven penitential psalms, the litany of the Saints, the fifteen gradual psalms, the office for the dead, the commendations of souls and some “informative” elements such as the calendar.