Page:Old English Gospel of Nicodemus - Hulme 1904.djvu/12

12 (2) Homilia, Repleatur os meum laude ut possum cantare, (3) Homilia de Ascensione D. N. Jesu Christi, (4) Sermo de S. Michale.

No. 15, Homilia de Ascensione D. N. Jesu Christi, is the one in which I am especially interested, because the first part of it is devoted largely to a discussion in homiletic fashion of the Descensus Christi ad inferos; while the latter portion deals with the ascension in the same way.

In looking through the Bede MS in the summer of 1901, I accidentally stumbled upon this homily, which, excepting Wanley's description, is, so far as I know, not mentioned elsewhere. It has certainly never been printed. The collections of Thorpe, Morris, and Skeat contain not a single reference to any one of the homilies of this MS. But Professor Napier is now engaged in the preparation of a new collection of OE. homilies, which will, I think, include them all. I copied the piece myself and made a careful collation and comparison of my copy with the original.

There is no need of a description of the MS 41 here, or of a discussion of its probable date, etc. These may be found in the Introductions of Miller and Schipper. Wanley assigns no date to this piece, and Miller's date for the Bede, "about the time of the Conquest," is sufficiently exact for my present purpose. Wanley says of the homily: "Homilia de Ascensione D. N. Jesu Christi. Hec est dies quam fecit dn̄s, exultemus et letemur in ea."

I am able to assign no definite date to the homily, nor have I succeeded in finding out anything about its source and authorship. Mr. Alfred Rogers, assistant librarian of the Cambridge University Library, and an authority on paleography, thinks "it is no doubt later than the Bede." "I should think," he writes me, "it is XI$th$ century." Judging from the hand, language, and style, I should say the piece belongs about the end of the eleventh century. The frequent use of the phrase her (or hit) sagað in