FRAGMENT OF A SERMON, BY ROWLEY.* Havynge whylomme ynn dyscourse provedd, orr soughte toe proove, the deitie of Chryste bie hys workes, names, and attributes, I shalle in nexte place seeke to proove the deeitie of Holye Spryte. Manne moste bee supplyedd wythe Holye Spryte toe have communyonn ryghtfullye of thynges whyche bee of Godde. Seyncte Paulle prayethe the Holye *This Fragment was printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1782, with this note annexed. "The following fragment has been produced as a transcript from a sermon by Thomas Rowley, Priest, of the fifteenth century. There being little reason, however, to suppose that Chatterton, who apparently forged all the other pieces attributed to this occult personage, could be the immediate author of such a performance, to learn from whence the ground-work of it was borrowed is the object of the present insertion. If any person who has leisure and opportunity should happen, in the course of his researches after things of greater moment, to make such a discovery, and will communicate satisfactory proof of it through the channel of this Magazine ; as a small acknowledgment for his trouble, a set of books chosen by himself, and of three guineas value, shall be at the service of the earliest satisfactory communicator." The words ascribed to Cyprian are supposed not to belong to that Father. They are taken from a tract, De Cardinalibus Christi Operibus, formerly imagined to be Cyprian's, but long since rejected by the best critics, and attributed by Bishop Fell to Arnold of Chartres, Abbot of Beauval, a contemporary and friend of St. Bernard, A.D. 1160. See the citation of Arnold's Works, as printed in the Appendix to Fell's edition of Cyprian, p. 60, De Spiritu Sanctot. In the number of the same Magazine for the following month there appeared this solution of the difficulty: MR. URBAN, "Wrexham, May 14. "I will not be confident that I have discovered the ground. work of the fragment enquired after, p. 177; but, if your correspondent consults the latter of two sermons on the Deity of the Son and Holy Spirit,' by the Rev. Caleb Evans of Bristol, printed for Buckland, 1766, he will find the beginning very similar to the fragment; and also, upon reading the former, that Mr. Evans's proof of the Deity of Christ is agreeable to Rowley's reference. If, too, he reads p. 72 of the above sermon, Mr. Evans quotes Herman Witsius, a Dutch divine; the quotation is from his Exercitationes in Symbolum. Now, whether Chatterton's inquisitive genius did (as he easily might) understand so much Latin as to dip into Witsius, or might get it translated, it is certain that the very address to the Spirit, said to be from St. Cyprian, is in the beginning of Exercit. XXIII., and is introduced in almost the same words as in Rowley's fragment. I observe, further, that Witsius has, Spryte toe assyste hys flocke ynn these wordes, The Holye Sprytes communyonn bee wythe you. Lette us dhere desyerr of hymm to ayde us, I ynne unplyteynge and you ynn understandynge hys deeite: lette us saye wythe Seyncte Cyprian. Adesto, Sancte Spiritus, & paraclesin tuam expectantibus illabere cælitus; sanctifica templum corporis nostri, & consecra inhabitaculum tuum. Seyncte Paulle sayethe yee are the temple of Godde; forr the Spryte of Godde dwellethe ynn you. Gyff yee are the temple of Godde alleyne bie the dwellynge of the Spryte, wote yee notte that the Spryte ys Godde, ande playne proofe of the personne and glorye of the thryrde personne. The personne, gyftes, operatyonns, glorye, and deeitie, are all ynn Holye Spryte, as bee prooved fromm diffraunt textes of Scrypture: beeynge, as Seyncte Peter sayethe, of the same essentyall matterr as the Fadre ande Sonne, whoe are Goddes, the Holye Spryte moste undisputably bee Godde. The Spryte orr dyvyne will of Godde moovedd uponn the waterrs att the creatyonn of the worlde: thys meanethe the Deeitie. I sayde, ynn mie laste discourse, the promyse of Chryste, whoe wythe Godde the Fadre wolde dwelle ynn the soughle of his decyples; howe coulde heie soe but bie myssyonn of Holye Spryte? Thys methynkethe prooveth ne alleyne the personallitie of Holye Spryte, but the verrie foundatyonne and grounde wurch of the Trinitie Sect. XXXII., Rowley's argument, "Seyncte Paulle sayeth yee are the temple of Godde," &c., and speaks of the " personne, giftes, operatyonns, &c. of the Holy Spryte," all which Chatterton might acquire by a very shallow acquaintance with Latin, and indeed most of them by only reading the table prefixed to the Exercitation. I will not say where he got the curious notion, that it will be the peculiar office of the Holy Spirit to "destroye" the "worlde" (perhaps it was Mr. Chatterton's own), nor yet whence he had the extract from St Gregory; but your correspondent will be struck with the similarity, I was going to say, sameness, of the supposed Rowley's reasoning, that "the Holy Spryte cannot bee the goode thynges and vyrtues of a man's mynde' with that of Mr. Evans, p. 57-60. Is not the expression, Deity of the Spirit, more modern than the fifteenth century? But it is in the beginning of Mr. Evans' Sermon. "Your's, &c. "AN ENQUIRER." yttselfe. The Holye Spryte cannot bee the goode thynges ande vyrtues of a manns mynde, sythence bie hymm wee bee toe fast keepe yese goode thynges: gyff wee bee toe keepe a vyrtue bie thatte vyrtue ytt selfe, meethynckes the custos bee notte fytted toe the charge. The Spryte orr Godde ys the auctoure of those goode thynges and bie hys obeisaunce dheie mote alleyne bee helde. I maie notte be doltysh ne hereticalle toe saie, whate wee calle consyence ys the hyltren warninge of the Spryte, to forsake our evylle waies before he dothe solely leave our steinedd soughles. Nete bee a greaterr proofe of mie argument thann the wurchys of Holye Spryte. Hee createdd manne, hee forslaggen hymm, hee agayne raysedd mann fromm the duste, ande havethe savedd all mankynde fromme eterne rewynn; he raysedd Chryste fromme the deade, hee made the worlde, and hee shalle destroye ytt. Gyff the Spryte bee notte Godde, howe bee ytt the posessynge of the Spryte dothe make a manne sayedd toe bee borne of Godde? Ytt requyreth the powerr of Godde toe make a manne a new creatyonn, yette suche dothe the Spryte. Thus sayethe Seyncte Gregorie Naz. Of the Spryte and hys wurchys: Γενᾶται Χριστος προτρέχει Βαπτίζεται μαρτυρεῖ· Πειραζέται αναγεῖ• Δυναμεις ἐπιτελεῖ. ξυμπαραμαρτεῖ· Ανέρχεται. The Greek quotation from Gregory Nazianzen contains in itself the most unquestionable proof that it was not copied from any MS. of the fifteenth century. It will be allowed, I presume, that Chatterton could only copy the characters which he found in the originals. He had no skill to vary the forms of the letters, to combine those which were apart, or to separate those which were connected together. We may be certain, therefore, that his transcript (involuntary errors excepted) was in all respects as like to his archetype as he could make it. But his transcript differs totally from all the specimens which I have ever seen of Greek writing in the fifteenth century. It appears to me to have been evidently copied from a printed book.-TYRWHITT. [Mr. Tyrwhitt has annexed a fac-simile of the MS. in Chatterton's hand writing with the Greek attached, from which any reader can judge for himself. The Greek quotation is from Greg. Ñazian. Orat. xxx. v. i. p. 610. edit. Paris, 1639. In Chatterton's fragment, the sentence is left imperfect for want of the verb diadeXεTαí.-ED. EXTRACTS FROM CHAUCER.* But great harme was ytt as it thoughte me, Chaucer's charac. Coke. Rounde was his face and camisde was his nose. Sounde of men at labor. Reevr's Tale. To plaies of miracles and to maryages. Wyfe of Bathe, Prologue. Doe come he saied mye minstrales, And jestours for to tellen us tales, Anon yn mine armynge, Rime of Sir Thopas. Of all mannere of minstrales And jestours that tellen tales, Both of weeping and of yame, And of all that longeth unto fame. The Third Book of Fame. Chaucer, when of the Inner Temple, as appears by the record, was fined two shillings for beating a Franciscan Friar in Fleet street. Speght. *From a MS. in Chatterton's hand-writing in the British Museum. [These Extracts are worth preserving, as they evidence Chatterton's acquaintance with Speght and Chaucer, and shew that his habit was to transcribe such passages as he afterwards intended to introduce in his works. At the end of the Antiquity of Christmas Games, he has printed two of the above extracts.-SOUTHEY's Edition.] |