Homily 2

[Based on the Holt edition, ll. 899-1,797, with many excerpts from Jan van Vliet via Ker]

Orm bases this on Luke 1:18.

Ker notes that Vliet supplied the Latin pericope for Homily 2: Evangel. II. S. Luc II. Expositio largior. Dixit Zacharias ad Angelum. Unde hoc sciam? Ego sum senex.

Ker, ll. 11-371

Because God’s angel promised him so many things, the priest Zacharias became all astonished at his promise and was not sure immediately that he should be so worthy and said thus to Gabriel, just as the Gospel makes known, “Through what can I know this now, that it should be me? I and my mate Elizabeth, we two are both very old so that the time for us two to propagate and to bring forth [children] is all gone, and she is found such a woman that she never bore a child.”

All thus was Zachary there unsure in his belief that God’s angel said to him the truth, and that was wrong and ill because God’s angel saw and heard what he said, that it ought not to be them evidently. For what he should believe and all that God’s angel does, it is good to follow completely, and because Zachary was unsure in his belief of that which was declared to him there by Gabriel the archangel and, therefore, began to ask him by what he might believe it.

That angel said thus to him to make him believe, “Know that I am Gabriel that forever and ever stands before our Lord God to praise him and to obey, and hither am I sent to you, to make known to you this bliss. And you shall be from this completely mute until it iss carried out because you would not believe me. You did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled at their proper time.”

Sequitur exposition: We ought to understand well that God’s angels are before God the same time that man sees them on earth.

Euang. II.: We surely ought to be for all that God’s angel commands, though we surely will not be for all that man commands us, for many a man is full of mockery and bestows on you little and commands very many things of you that do not last.

All that was commanded of him there and that which Zac [Zac.] was always at the temple, day and night, completely until his week’s end, to serve God with offerings, and then after him, and each one after another, so that each one protected him well completely until his week’s end. He did not go to his wife or abode, which God gave such an example to our priests: noble, steadfast, strong against all sins.

That was those set through Lord God because it should signify to us that our folk who are unlearned and stand at the mass ought to ask Christ inwardly that he receive their priest’s offering and their priest’s prayers with a humble heart so that he can serve God and make offerings to please him.

[…] wholly mute out of the temple and took to beckoning them with [his] hand etc.

[…] towards the end of harvest […]

[…] and on that other day he went home to his own abode […]

[…] the man who should cease to serve heavenly God […]

[…] who should set Christianity through his disciples [lerning cnih(h)tes] and teach those etc.

[…] to serve God with wholly good practices […]

That God’s angel was declared before Zachary […] [Ker fixes Vliet’s “aþþned” to “awwned”; “stretched out” to “declared”]

[…] and free will might, between them very heavenly, settle to choose heaven’s light and gleam or hell’s darkness.

ita et paulo post: That there was little light and gleam and much darkness […]

[…] to punish the body here with confession and penitence, with fasting and song of prayer, with kneeling and watching [vigil] to gain eternal rest and peace by their body-pain and to follow Christ’s laws well completely according to their ability; they all may spiritually produce gain and good deeds and righteousness and holiness and was found little onward […]

NB: Ker notes that his ll. 126-142 were in the margin of van Vliet’s transcription of ll. 747-50 from column 9. Ker’s footnote, “They illustrate the use of 3ho.” [Vliet writes “gho”]

Sic et postea de eadem Elysabeth: For five months, Elizabeth hid her blessing, that she was with child, of which she was very happy.

et iterum: She was very joyful of that which she was made such with child that she was not called unhappy among womankind, and though she was, which you know well, much ashamed of that same [thing] that she, a woman so advanced in winters, was made then with child, and though she was with child, nevertheless, she hid it because she was a humble woman all the same and thus she said in her thoughts about her secret blessing, “Thus has the Lord done with me through his measureless mercy.”

[Ker’s l. 142 ends before Elizabeth’s thought above.]

And she said because then [there] was a great need to beget [a child], for the Lord had then said through his prophet’s tongue that same man is a cursed man and separated from God’s kingdom who does not make the seed of the race in the people of Israel. The seed that was named there signified good deeds and cursed is the same man, which you know well truly etc., who does not continue, nevertheless, to please Christ with deeds.

[…] and also he could not speak among the people but took to beckoning them with [his] hand that which he wished to speak.

paulo post: […] was made with child from her mate’s company.

[…] wholesome instruction […]

[someone?] with virtue should produce offspring and beget good children.

[…] to produce children […]

[…] and all that duty of the priest also with offerings and with prayers […]

[…] Before God’s eyes […]

To serve God with offerings was falling greatly and made worse just as it was decrepit through falsehood and mockery and weak faith and also through greediness of learned and unlearned people. The law was lost, and the priest’s duty was made worse so because [it] was both weak and fake to beget and to spiritually turn children to the Lord through holy instruction and example. For learned folk ought to know completely the profound mystery of all the instruction that the Lord gave us through his servants, and, subsequently, it behooves them to go forth to teach the unlearned folk how they ought to believe in God and to plead eagerly Lord God with prayers and offerings […]

] their duty to please […] [The open bracket at the beginning of this line is taken directly from Ker’s publication of van Vliet’s excerpts.]

[…] to serve God with the pleasant fire of incense and of burning coals […]

That he then should soon beget John, who signifies to us all that which is pleasing to God.

And this happened truly to Christ’s holy priests, for, if they, with burning desire, learn the profound instruction, etc., just as it was produced for them there how a person can please the Lord. Many wicked priests do not take care to teach the holy lessons that were signified through Gabriel his messenger. Then they will be mute to the folk to know that they do not speak and were most all the same as those […] priests. [Ker could not read the word before “prestes” in van Vliet’s excerpts; “The last letters appear to be wistte,” (10, fn213).]

So very foolish were those who knew not what they beheld, the offering that then was offered […] nor all what was said to them through the prophets, nor even how the law was understood spiritually because they could not speak [spellen] about their laws.

[…] the law book was full of profound and secret instruction that Moses, the Lord’s servant, wrote for us and spoke secretly of the many ways of the kin, and secretly he wrote it for us and hid in secret so that few understand it. In all that long time that was divided in five valleys, Christ’s coming was secretly told in many ways from the Creation continually to Noah’s flood.

There he is clothed with a holy garment with the priest with the offering with the covering [with prest with lac with wæde] […]

[…] the priest was appointed by God and ordained.

hic metra et parecbasis sequitur: His duty was to serve God with prayers and offerings all clothed with a priest’s holy garments before God’s altar. His duty was to go in before his people to reconcile them with their God if they were not. Always when the Lord was angry with them for any of their sins, the priest should make him glad with offerings and prayers so that they might overcome it and obtain God’s mercy. His duty was to serve God with many kinds of offerings to obtain and to cleanse of such faults and sins so that they should well be able to please God and obtain God’s mercy through innocent life and sincere belief. He can bless all those whom the Lord would bless, and also he can curse those whom the Lord would curse.

The priest was often filled then with the mystery of the Holy Spirit so that he could direct well his people in many ways away from God’s wrath through the Holy Spirit and through his holy duty. […] to exalt and to obey him, to honor and to worship all that they own to their God concerning offerings and the tenth [part…] and this can altogether turn to a great profit for you if you follow their path and their good example, if your priest is a holy man and beloved and dear to the Lord. And if he is loathsome to the Lord and lies in heavy sin etc. […] If you take any care to follow his sins, and if you are negligent to follow Christ’s teachings […]

So good a man as him ought to […]

[…] and always to help the poor people in need of the same kind […]

[…] that were pleasing to the Lord […]

And then you should go forth with them at your life’s end to begin to enjoy eternal life with all of God’s angels. Now I have shown you some part by my Lord’s help.

[…] the priest who then was very dear to the Lord […]

[…] eager always to follow […]

[…] and how that example of the people can well turn you to help […]

The priest’s garment (with cracks) was a breast-linen in front on his breast and shoulder-linen on his shoulder and other clothes taken then etc. […] [Ker notes that van Vliet’s manuscript reads, “Prestes wæde (cum rima) was,” in a footnote to l. 302 (13).]

People had engraved fairly & well […]

[…] up to Christ’s coming […]

[…] they had regard for neither Christ nor Christ’s mother […]

[…] on from above their shoulders […]

[…] and bear properly with knowledge and reason each happiness and each unhappiness and endure with perfect patience, gladly for love of Christ.

[…] for if you shall bear to be born […]

[…] against his breast […]

[…] ought to continue to govern well his heart and his thoughts and his desires constantly so that he eagerly desires not to go against God’s commandment nor against his will.

[…] ought to continue and take care to follow completely the example of all that holy flock. They gave an example of all that is good help to the soul concerning true patience, concerning true meekness, concerning true obedience, concernting true love to God etc.

To permit [uþen?] and to kill all evil, they gave examples of true cleanliness, of rejecting pride, etc. And the desires for worldly things, they gave examples of restraint and moderation in meat and in drink and of shielding you from cold with very plain clothes; of rejecting deceit and all witchcraft; of rejecting each immorality and cunning guile and hate and malice and fighting and rage and boasting and all idleness and sinful abundance; to speak evil; to injure in accusing and prattling and all that is unpleasing to Lord God in each folly, in each idleness in foolishness and in trifles; of being obedient to the priest and town’s lord; of lawfully leading you against your [leȝ(h)e sweȝȝness]; of always helping unfortunate people in the same way that the Patriarchs [Pat.] gave examples to us.

And [a person] ought to follow them both, the learned person and unlearned, and that was shown to us very clearly through their names.

[…] was clothed completely throughout externally in his holy shroud with little white bells that the Lord had commanded him to do.

[…] Our father, the priest of Christ. [Ure fader Cristes Prest] […]

NB: Van Vliet’s excerpts in Ker for the missing folios (columns 13-28) end at l. 371, so the text below comes from Holt (beginning at l. 899, p. 28) again until the next batch of missing folios at the end of the homily.

[…] and to us ourselves both, and God of heaven himself always wished to hear those bells ringing whenever the priest was clothed with them to go to God’s altar, to serve and to worship God with prayers and with offerings. And it was a great need to him that God heard those bells ringing so he would not fall dead there by God’s wrath and vengeance, for if God could not hear the bells ringing whenever the priest was clothed with them to go to God’s altar, God would take vengeance on him the priest so that he should perish because he did not take care to fulfill his duty completely.

Now, lordings, we look at what this can mean for us, how it teaches us a great good of our soul’s need. The bell-sound means to you that sound you ought to hear whenever the priest tells us a sermon before God’s altar, and if he does not preach to you the Gospel book’s teaching, he falls certainly for that crime in God’s wrath and vengeance, just as the Jewish priest should perish through the Lord if he were negligent to ring his bells. Now look to your priest, he who happily preaches to you, he who teaches you least of all at the same Sunday, all about how you ought to conduct yourself and believe in Christ and love God and love humanity and keep God’s laws; and you ought to turn yourself very happily to his instruction and keep it and follow it always according to your ability. Now, if your priest and you thus go between one another, then [you] can be good to your priest and to yourself both, that which the Jewish priest was so hung round with bells and which was such a great need to him that God heard them ringing.

And of that shoulder-linen and his breast-linen both and of those twelve names also that were put on there, somewhat I have shown you for your soul’s food, if you will follow it and you turn to good.

And now I will show you some part, with God’s help, of that Jewish folk’s offering that was very pleasing to the Lord and great help to the folk, to the learned and unlearned, before the Lord Christ was born here to people. But now it is not useful to them to obtain each bliss, though they stand day and night to serve God and to make offerings, for it is completely against God, though they do not think so, because they do not have regard for either Christ or Christ’s mother. Nevertheless, now I will disclose to you about their offerings, how they signify a great good to us about our soul’s need because all that offering was set through God, for it should signify how Christ’s servant ought to make offerings to Christ spiritually in good practices with all that which was signified through all their offerings.

That folk’s offering was sheep and goat and ox and dove and turtle[-dove] and their offering was bull and lamb and two bucks together and incense smoke and bolted bread that was baked in an oven and smeared well with oil and made fat and soft. And at times that offering was completely unleavened bread, and at times it was baked very hard and firm in an oven; and at times that offering was burned and turned completely to ashes. And salt was always offered with each gift before the Lord and it was done, which you know well, to signify a great thing. All their offering was such and such to signify another thing that is such a great necessity for us to follow and to believe, for we ought to offer all those gifts to God now properly in that way that is signified to us through those offerings.

And you know that one wall-covering was spread from wall to wall before an altar that was inmost in their temple. That wall-covering was hung there because it should hide all that which was within there from unlearned folk and learned, except the bishop himself, with blood and also with incense, should come there one time a year and him completely alone. And angels come there often and speak with the bishop on God’s behalf about many a thing, to comfort him and his folk. And by that altar stood always the sacred things of that folk, which were in an ark well and appropriately kept there. And there over that ark was an overwork [“sepulchral monument” in Old English, according to the Oxford English Dictionary] built well.

[INSERTED LEAF ll. 1036-45

That was called Propitiatorium in Latin speech, from that word that is called Propitiari in Latin, which can be called in English “mercy” and “to show mercy,” for whoever does his mercy on the tibi propitiatur, according to that, it can be said well enough in Latin speech.

END OF INSERTED LEAF]

And there upon that overwork [← marginal insertion], they had painted the likeness of cherubim and had painted it in two places. All the angel-host is divided into nine kinds of people, and cherubim and seraphim are the two people that are nearest of all to the Lord and highest up in heaven. And concerning that one, the cherubim, they had painted the likeness upon that overwork that was built above the ark. And at the temple door there was an altar outside, and by that altar the offering was prepared in many ways by priests, as the true book tells us, of Aaron’s children. And on that altar they prepared the glowing coals. And concerning that (sacrificial) animal that was prepared there to honor the Lord, the bishop took the blood from him, just as his book taught him. And he took coals in his censer there on that altar and put enough incense in there to serve the Lord, always when he should walk in up to that other altar, which was always once a year, and always he himself alone, to signify to us a great thing, which we all ought to believe. He took the incense and the blood and went up to that altar that was within the wall-cover, just as I have shown, and then he burned incense there to serve God acceptably so that there was great smoke from the incense at that altar so that he himself was hidden completely there and looking within there. And then he took that same blood that he had prepared there, that blood that he had brought there, and scattered it there with sprinkling everywhere upon that holy table and everywhere on that altar. And then he went out from there to sprinkle in the temple outside their wall-covering, just as his book taught him. And then he came to the folk and washed his clothes himself, but, nevertheless, he was unclean all day up to evening.

Now I have shown you some part of the Jewish offerings, which the Lord took very graciously before Christ’s coming, and of that priest who was then and of that bishop both. And also I have shown you some part of their duty, and now I will show you all that which it signifies and how it can turn all to your soul’s help and how you may serve God spiritually in good practices with all the Jewish offerings that I have shown you, for now you ought to offer all those gifts before God, completely in that way that is signified to you through those offerings. Those offerings can cleanse them of faults and of sins and make God glad, if he was angry at them for their crimes. And you know well that Latin book makes known to us very certainly some gift was offered for the priest, some offered for the bishop, and some was offered for the folk to cleanse them of sin.

The ram was offered for the priest to cleanse him of sin; and for the bishop the dove was offered in their way; and for the folk the bull was offered to praise and worship the Lord, he who forgave them their crimes by his mercy. I have shown you here three offerings for three kinds of people, for the bishop and under-priest and folk’s need. And our Lord Jesus Christ bade his three prayers before he was taken and nailed upon the rood. And there he asked, for all those who should believe in him, for the bishop and for the under-priest and also for unlearned people—and his prayer was worth more than all their offerings—to free and cleanse people of all kinds of guilt, and, nevertheless, their offering, before Christ’s coming, was very pleasing to the Lord in all those who upheld God’s laws.

And now I will show you, with my Lord’s help, completely how you can make an offering to God spiritually in good practices, with all those Jewish offerings that is shown to you earlier. If you follow true meekness and true innocence, then you make an offering of a sheep to the Lord spiritually in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy, for a sheep is a completely innocent and meek and gentle animal, and it does not make much noise if one wishes to bind it; not even when one kills it does it resist greatly. And because that Latin book says, which does not lie throughout, that our Lord Jesus Christ took on our human nature patiently without struggle, him whom people bound with wickedness, just the same as the sheep meekly accepts when one shears it.

And if you quench in yourself and learn from me to quench in me the foul stench of lust and their foul lusts and follow always the path of cleanness and learn to follow me, you who make an offering with a goat to the Lord spiritually in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy, for a goat is, which you know very well, a lustful animal and stinks foully and, therefore, it signifies very well the hot stenches of wantonness. And, therefore, they are all those who should [be] made equal to a goat and called a goat in hell, in the Gospel book’s instruction, because that foul stench of sin shall separate them from Christ.

And if you follow reason and discernment and wisdom in good practices and you have it, though you may be young, you appear as an alderman and you lead skillfully and properly and fairly and reflect on, forever and ever, how you might please the Lord and love him and fear him and keep his laws; with an ox you make an offering to the Lord spiritually in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy. Because the ox goes on cloven feet and separates his claws, by that he signifies reason and discernment and wisdom in good practices, and an ox walks skillfully and exists solemnly and gives an example of that which concerns you completely, skillfully and properly leads you without struggle and anger, and it shows you, though you may be young, you appear as an alderman. And an ox chews his cud where he walks and where he stands and chews and, moreover, where he lies to give you an example that you ought to think about always and chew in your heart how you can please your Lord and obtain eternal bliss. Thus, you can make an offering to the Lord God with an ox in good practices if you lead yourself with reason and discernment and fair[ness] and think day and night about how you can please the Lord.

And if you assist strange people always according to your power and are yourself always mild and meek and completely without gall, you make an offering to your Lord spiritually with a dove in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy, for a dove is mild and meek and sweet and completely without gall, and feeds the brood of other doves just as if it were their own.

And if you lead a clean life and murmur in your heart, you who dwell here so long so far from God’s kingdom, and yearn to be allowed to ascend into heaven swiftly, up to your Lord Jesus Christ, to love and obey him, with a turtle[-dove] you make an offering to your God spiritually in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy. For the turtle[-dove] leads a mournful life, which you know very well because, when her mate is dead, she keeps no other but searches always because she cannot find him anywhere. And if you are very anxious to come up to Christ and you choose not to follow nor to serve another god without Christ who was and is your Lord and your chief, you make an offering spiritually to God with a turtle[-dove] in your practices.

And if you quench pride in yourself completely throughout and teach others also to do through instruction and also through example, you make an offering to your God spiritually with a bull in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy, for the bull conducts himself proudly and carries his head up and drives other cattle from him and holds himself completely for the lord.

And if you properly know your God and attend to his preaching [spelless] and lay all your heart in him and follow and submit to him and, for the love of him, you avoid all heathen gods and are yourself always mild and meek and soft and still and gentle, you make an offering to your Lord spiritually with a lamb in your practices so that it can greatly help you obtain God’s mercy. For a lamb is a soft and still animal and meek and mild and gentle, and it can know very well where his mother bleats among a thousand sheep, even though they all bleat. And also you ought to know well your God and all his instruction and completely reject heathendom and all other gods, just as the lamb flees other sheep and follows always his mother.

The Jewish folk’s book told them that they are compelled to bring two goats together to the priest at the temple door, and then they did happily, just as the book taught them, and brought two goats there to make an offering to the Lord with them. And at the temple door the priest took those two goats and in that one he laid there all their enmity and sin, and let it run immediately completely out into the wild desert; and [he] took and slaughtered that other goat to make an offering to the Lord with it. All this was done for their need and also for our need: for them it helped to cleanse them of sin before God, and it can also help you if you will very inwardly believe with complete faith all that which was signified there, to worship and to believe, those may, who believe, aid you in obtaining God’s mercy.

Those two goats signify to us one god of two natures, which is Lord Jesus Christ who is of two natures, for Jesus Christ is very certainly True God in divine nature and he is also very certainly True Man in human nature. For Christ is both God and Man, one head of two natures, and each person who yearns for God’s mercy ought to believe this. One goat ran away from there completely alive with all the folk’s sin, and Christ’s divine nature was completely alive and completely unhurt where Christ was nailed upon the rood-tree for our need. And Christ’s living and completely without pain divine nature bore our sins away there where Christ’s human nature drank the drink of death on the rood-tree for our wrong deeds. And as the other goat took the pain of death with it to honor the Lord as a sacrifice there for all folk’s sin, so too Christ’s human nature received the pain of death on the rood-tree because he wished to be offered as a sacrifice to the Lord there, to cleanse us of impure sins through his death.

And just as the living goat went into the wild desert, so too Christ’s divine nature went completely alive up to heaven, which before Christ’s death was as if it were a desert because both angels and humans had rejected it before. For angels had lost the place of heaven completely justly because they wished to make themselves equal to God through pride, for which they fell immediately down from heaven to hell to eternal woe because they rejected eternal bliss. And all those who fell in this way are loathsome devils, and persevere to supplant people’s souls through hate and malice, but you can defend yourself from them by right belief in Christ and by that work that pertains to Jesus Christ’s help there. And our two first humans that the Lord shaped from earth also lost heaven’s bliss with proper judgment for their crime, by which they rejected the Lord’s counsel for the devil’s counsel. And, therefore, all the place of heaven was completely just as if it were a desert because both angels and humans had rejected it before, and Christ’s divine nature came living into heaven’s desert with our sin, completely just as that goat ran away out into the wild desert completely alive and bore away with it the folk’s enmity and sin.

And if that is what you wish to believe now with complete faith, that Christ is both God and Man, one head from two natures; and if that is what you wish to believe now with complete faith, that Christ’s divine nature was completely alive and completely unhurt where Christ was dead on the rood-tree for all humankind’s need; and if that is what you wish to believe now with complete faith, that Christ, where he was nailed on the tree for our need, suffered severe and heavy pain enough through five grim wounds, then you can make an offering to your Lord spiritually in true belief with all that was signified for you to believe by those two goats.

And if you please your Lord by days and by nights, with fasting, with prayer-song, with kneeling, with watching [vigil], then you make an offering with incense in this way to your God in your practices so that it can well help you obtain God’s mercy, for just as the smoke of incense is sweet before humans, so too the good prayer of humans is sweet before God.

And if your heart is merciful and mild and soft and tender so that you can show mercy well to him who is rendered guilty against you and completely forgive him very near the right punishment of judgment, then you always make an offering to your God spiritually in your practices with a loaf that is completely smeared with oil and softened. The right judgment is firm and hard and completely the right punishment, just as if it it were a scorched loaf that is without crumbs. And mercy and pity and mildheartedness and right forgiveness, that is the loaf that is smeared with oil and softened. And if you wish to make a loaf, you thresh your sheaves, and then you winnow your corn; and you separate it from the chaff and gather together in such a way the clean corn completely from the chaff and grind it and kneed it and harden it with heat. Then you can make an offering to your Lord with it acceptably if you lead a holy life in thought, in word, in deed.

And you can also prepare a loaf spiritually in another way, and you make an offering with it to your Lord very well, very acceptably. If that is that you turn, through your speech [spell], that company, which was scattered before by many kinds of errors, to right belief, then you thresh your corn with a flail in that which you show them, how they led a sinful life before and how they pleased the devil and how they had earned well to suffer eternal pain and how the Lord had despised them all for their wickedness. With such you thresh well the folk if you deride them, for if you show me my wickedness, blame my works, say such, and you were such, you thresh me with words. And if you tell them about God and about his mildness, how well he can always receive those who seek God’s mercy; and if you show them what reward is prepared for them in heaven if they receive Christianity and uphold Christ’s laws and succeed with your speech so well that they undertake it and turn to Christianity and the right belief and separate from the heathen folk that is completely unpleasing to God because it is that same chaff that shall burn in hellfire when you winnow your threshed corn and separate it from the chaff and you gather together in such a way the clean corn completely from the chaff, for through that which you teach them to be of one voice and reconciled to serve Almighty God alone with one right belief and always to be about that alone to obtain eternal bliss, through that you gather them in God; you make them into catechumens and preach to them and teach all to reject pride, and hard and angry heart, and always to follow true meekness with desirable humility. Thereby you break well your corn and grind and soften it, and through that which you baptize them and dip them under water, you gather all your meal in one and kneed it together so that they shall all be one body and one soul; and Jesus Christ himself shall be the head upon that body, to feed and foster them, to direct and to save. And through that which you teach them to endure each unhappiness with inward heart and true patience, all for the love of Christ, all for that love that is hot in Christ’s servants’ hearts, thereby you bake God’s loaf and harden it through heat; through that you hardened them with speech to endure each unhappiness with true patience, all for that fire that follows true love. Because true love burns always, see if you can find something in it, and wherever it is, it hardens completely the good heart of a person, to endure with perfect patience all that which is unhappiness. And as soon as your loaf is totally well prepared by you thus and made ready, then you can make an offering to God in addition spiritually very acceptably, for the Lord receives humility by those who turn to him.

And if you lead a clean life in all kinds of ways, then you make an offering to your Lord in such a way spiritually in your practices with unleavened bread so that you can obtain God’s mercy. For unleavened bread is clean bread because it is unfermented, and it signifies clean life and completely clean practices and clean thought and clean word and completely clean deeds.

And if your heart is hard and firm and steadfast in Christ, to endure for the love of him all that which is suffering, then you make an offering to your Lord in such a way spiritually in your practices with firm and heavy loaf, and hard within and without, so that it can well help you obtain God’s mercy. And if you can reject here your father and mother and wife and child and house and home and friend and land and goods, and completely refuse to dwell among all people here; and lead a hard and holy life completely alone in the wild desert; and there always torment your body with cold and thirst and hunger, with fasting and with labor and sweat, with prayers and with watchings [vigils], then you can make an offering in such a way to your God spiritually in your practices with a gift that will be burnt completely throughout to praise and worship the Lord so that it will be right enough for you to obtain God’s mercy. For you cannot lead here a better life on earth than if you completely scorn and completely reject all worldly life and desire; and flee from people to the desert; and there will be eager, with a hard and holy life, to please Christ because such a life is all completely dead from desires of worldly things, and it is turned to dust completely through fire from true love of Christ because such people follow true meekness.

And salt was always with each loaf because it should signify all that which you desire to offer to God if it shall please him. It all ought to be offered with reason and completely with an admirable heart so that it is done cleanly from rightly-obtained goods so that the Lord Jesus Christ kindly takes it. This was signified through the salt that purifies our meat, if, that is, a person will do it with intelligence and reason therein, because intelligence and reason are signified well enough through taste of salt and because intelligence and reason are good in all things, just as salt is very good there were it is appropriate. And, also, because salt was always offered with all the gifts, therefore, nothing can be done to please Almighty God unless it is with intelligence and reason and admirably performed completely, thus you can now make an offering to God spiritually in your practices with all that gift that was offered before Christ’s coming.

I said to you now a little before here in this lesson some part concerning: that one wall-covering was spread from wall to wall before an altar that was innermost in their temple among the Jewish folk before Christ’s coming; and also I said that it was hung there in that corner because it should hide there all that there was within from learned and unlearned folk and completely from their sight. Outside that, the bishop himself, with blood and also with incense, should serve there one time in the year and by himself completely alone. And also I said here a little before in this lesson that by that altar stood one of that folk’s holy things that was well and worthily kept in an ark there; and that there was also an overwork built over that ark, and they also had painted above that the likeness of cherubim and seraphim, of the two angel-folk for them; and that the bishop one time in the year and by himself alone came into that place to serve God with blood and also with incense; and that he burned incense there so much at that altar that he was completely hidden with the smoke to signify a great thing; and that then he scattered the blood with sprinkles on that altar and on that table and then outside there in the temple; and that he came out himself then and washed his clothes; and that he was unclean, though, that day up to evening. I said all this to you here a little before above more than a little, and I ought to show you this, what it can signify to you, and with which it can resolve you in your right belief.

All that was signified there before Christ’s coming; it was totally fulfilled, each part, by Christ in Christ’s time, and your priest discloses it all always when he sings Mass there where he handles, hallows, and offers Christ’s flesh and blood. The Lord Christ himself was signified to us by that bishop because Christ is completely a good bishop to save his people, and his clothes that he washed signifies Christ’s servants, whom Christ himself washes here always because he forgives sins. And that bishop’s censer alone was very open to receive of Christ’s body, which was full of the power of divine nature, properly just as if it were completely full of glowing coals to burn all that is evil away in his servants. That incense that the bishop burned before the altar there, that incense that was very certainly burned there to signify those prayers that the Lord Christ made for his servants, that he may give them bliss. And so much smoke came out of that burnt incense there that the bishop was completely hidden and looked there within; that great smoke signified to them and to us and to all people that Christ’s holy prayer can go to his father unspeakably more enough than any being can think. That blood that was sprinkled on those things there by the bishop, that blood signified Christ’s blood that was poured out on the rood. That overwork that was built above God’s ark, that overwork signifies well the Father up in heaven because the Father, eternal God, is over the christened group, to comfort and to encourage it, to teach and to direct; and the christened group is under the Father’s mercy in this life, and it is God’s ark and is completely full of holy things, completely full of good and clean people that are very peasing to God. That altar, which animal-blood was sprinkled on everywhere, that altar, truly indeed, signified God’s angels because God’s angels always bear up to the Father’s sight the offering that our priests here hallowed on God’s altar, and, therefore, they are always with priests […].

NB: The next batch of missing folios, columns 45-52, begin here at Holt l. 1,797. The rest of Homily 2, which is fragmented, comes from van Vliet via Ker (ll. 372-415).

[…] and heaven’s region was signified through that lot of the temple. It was signified through that lot that then was dispersed outside all the wall-covering.

[…] bodily on earth they all go to that place […]

[…] Christ’s death was truly very pleasing to his father. […] and made peace with the father in such a way […]

[…] For the angel-host [Engleþed] was increased through that blood with holy souls.

[…] and they should be deserving to be in heaven.

[…] and our Lord Jesus Christ appeared [ansihte] and wholly moved up to the region of the kingdom of heaven himself alone.

[…] both are all one rank, the body and the head […]

[…] But he was all day, nevertheless, unclean up to the evening.

[…] he sends the Holy Spirit to comfort his servants.

[…] Soon after […]

[…] to comfort and to cleanse them of their sins.

[…] and your priests disclose to you all this in their Mass.

[…] and oil and bread, now unleavened, now sour, now firm and hard, now soft; such an offering was a very simple offering.

[…] and, therefore, those priests may, by God’s permission, marry because their offering was all the yearly offspring of things.

[…] Moreover, he discloses to you always all that which was signified to you through that bishop’s duty.

[…] he has mercy on those who keep Christ’s laws.

[…] Immediately […]

[…] through the infirmity of the flesh […]

[…] But she [ȝho] will not follow it.

[…] So great is that duty that Christ’s priest is ordained to.