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Handlyng Synne

Mannyng, Robert (fl. 1288-1338)

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Roberd of Brunne's “Handlyng Synne.”
  
[THE PROLOG.]
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[section]
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[The First Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Tempted Monk.]
  
[On Witchcraft and Dreams.]
  
[The Tale of the Witch and her Cow-sucking Bag; and how a Bishop faild to work her Charm, because he didn't believe in it.]
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[The Second Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[Against Swearing Oaths.]
  
[The Tale of the Bloody Child.]
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[The Third Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
The Tale of the Vine-Storms and the Saturday half Holy-Day.
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[The Fourth Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Fond Father.]
  
[The Tale of the Mother who curst her Child.]
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[The Fifth Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Knight who had a Vision of the Judgment.]
  
A tale
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[The Sixth Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Adulterous Wife, whose Skeleton split in two.]
  
[The Tale of St. Macaire and the Two Good Married Women.]
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[The Seventh Commandment.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of Zenon, the would-be Thief: how he reformd himself.]
  
[The Tale of the Knight who robd a Poor Man.]
  
[The Tale of Seint Forsyne's Visit to Hell.]
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[subsection]
  
[The Eighth Commandment.]
  
[Tale of the Rich Forswearer at a Trial in London.]
  
[The Bible-story of John the Baptist's Death.]
  
[þe Gest of Syre Jepte,—or the Tale of Jephthah and his Daughter.]
 9. 
[The Ninth Commandment.]
 10. 
[The Tenth Commandment.]
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Here bygynneþ þe seuene dedly synnes.
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[The Seven Deadly Sins;—and first of Pride.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Hypocritical Monk of the Abbey Tangabaton.]
  
[The Tale of the Proud Lady, who was burnt to ashes again and again in Hell by a Burning Wheel.]
  
[The Tale of the Knight and Monk who lovd new Fashions.]
  
[The Tale of the backbiting English Monk.]
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[Of Anger, the 2nd Deadly Sin.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Merciful Knight, and how the Crucifix kist him.]
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[Of Envy, the 3rd Deadly Sin.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Bear which kept the Hermit's Sheep, and how it was slain by envious Monks.]
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[Of Sloth, the 4th Deadly Sin.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the English Squire who put off his Repentance till too late.]
  
[Against Tournaments.]
  
[The Tale of the Minstrel who was kild for disturbing a Bishop.]
  
[A Tale of Bishop St. Robert Grostest of Lincoln, and why he lovd Music.]
  
[The Tale of the Father that would not chastise his Child.]
  
[The tale of ‘Syre Ely’ and his wicked Sons.]
  
[The Tale of the Priest Carpus's Vision, and how merciful God is.]
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[Of Covetousness, 5th Deadly Sin.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Hard Judge.]
  
[Of Simony.]
  
[Of Usurers.]
  
[The Tale of Pers the Usurer.]
  
[The Tale of Lucretius, and how the Devil leapt into him.]
  
[The Tale of the good Hermit who gave away the Money he had saved.]
  
[The Tale of the Cambridgeshire Miser-Parson.]
  
[The Tale of the Three Dishonest Executors.]
  
[The Tale of the Two wicked Kesteven Executors.]
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[On Gluttony.]
  
[subsection]
  
[Against making Men drunk.]
  
[The Tale of Dives and Lazarus.]
  
[The Tale of St. John the Almoner, and his great Liberality and Courtesy.]
  
[The Tale of Bishop Troylus and his Thirty Pounds.]
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[Of Lechery.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of St. Benet's Temptation, and how he freed himself by rolling in Thorns and Nettles.]
  
[The Tale of the Jew who heard some Devils' Reports of their Deeds to Satan; and how the Devil who got a Bishop to pat a Nun on the Back was most praisd.]
  
[The Tale of the Priest's Concubine, and how Fiends carried off her Dead Body.]
  
[The Tale of St. Justyne, and how the Sign of the Cross protected her from Devils.]
  
[The Tale of the tempted Hermit, or How we should never Despair.]
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Here bygynneþ Sacrylage.
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Reproof that a Norfolk Bondman gave a Knight for not respecting the Sanctity of a Churchyard.]
  
[The Tale of Valentine, and how Devils puld his Body out of its Grave in the Church.]
  
[The Tale of the Temptation of St. John Chrysostom's Deacon.]
  
[The Tale of the Sacrilegious Husband and Wife who stuck together.]
  
The Tale of the Sacrilegious Carollers, and how they danst together for twelve Months without stopping, and then went hopping about singly ever afterwards.]
  
[The Tale of the Devil's Disappointment with the Chattering Women.]
  
[The Tale of Belshazzar's Feast, and the Prophet Daniel.]
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Here bygynne the Seuenþe Sacramentys of holy cherche.
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[Of Holy Bapteme.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Midwife who christend a Child wrongly.]
  
[The Tale of the Bad Bourgeois who lay with his God-daughter and was kild for it.]
 2. 
[Of Confirmation.]
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[Of the Sacrament of the Altar.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of the Priest for whom the Sacramental Bread and Wine were turnd into a Child's Flesh and Blood.]
  
[The Tale of the Priest who was enabled to see Folk's sins in their Faces.]
  
[The Tale of the Priest who was waited on by a Dead Lord whom he afterwards sang out of Purgatory.]
  
[The Tale of the Suffolk Man who was taken out of Purgatory by two Masses his Wife got sung for him.]
  
[Bede's Tale of Jumna and Tumna; or, How an Abbot's Mass-singing made the Fetters fall off a Knight in Prison.]
  
[The Tale of the Miner, and how his Wife's Offerings for his Soul fed him while he was buried alive in a Mine.]
 4. 
[Of Penance.]
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[Of the Fifth Sacrament—Holy Orders.]
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of Paschasius's Punishment for not agreeing to the Election of the best Man for Pope.]
  
[A Tale of Warning against buying Bishoprics, and worshipping Bad Bishops' Bodies.]
 6. 
[Of the Sixth Sacrament,—Marriage.]
 7. 
[Of the Seventh Sacrament,—Aneylyng or Extreme Unction.]
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Here bygynneþ shryfte.
  
[subsection]
 1. 
The fyrste poynt of shryfte.
 2. 
The Secunde poynt of shryfte.
 3. 
The þred poynt of shryfte.
 4. 
þe fourþe poynt of shryfte.
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þe fyueþe poynt of shryfte.
 6. 
The syxte poynt of shryfte.
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þe seuenþe poynt of shryfte.
 8. 
The eyȝtþe poynt of shryfte.
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The nyȝnþe poynt of shryfte.
  
[subsection]
  
[The Bible-Tale of Ananias and Sapphira.]
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þe tenþe poynt of shryfte.
 11. 
þe eleuenþe poynt of shryfte.
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þe twelueþ poynt of shryfte.
  
[subsection]
  
[The Tale of how Shrift made a Woman's unconfest Sin fly out of her Mouth as a ‘Blak,’ a ‘Fende of Helle.’]
 1. 
The fyrste grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
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þe secunde grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
 3. 
The þred grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
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The fourþe grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
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The fyfueþ grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
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The syxte grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
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The seuenþe grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
  
[subsection]
  
[A Tale of How to put the Devil's Eye out spiritually, or How by Shrift a Man made himself invisible to the Fiend who before used to lead him about chaind.]
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The eyghte grace þat shryfte ȝyueþ.
  
[subsection]
  
That þou falle nat yn wanhope.
  
That þou excuse nat þy synne.
  
That þou make nat þy synne lytyl to seme.
  
That þou make no skornyng yn shryfte.
  
[The Tale of how the Devil came to be Shriven.]

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386

That þou falle nat yn wanhope.

Haue no wanhope, for no maner of kas;
Be nat lyke Kaym ne Iudas.
Þe werst þarfore, y wylle fyrst grope,
Þat man kalle ‘wanhope:’
Al tymes ys God more wroþer with þys
Þan with any oþer þyng þat ys;
Þyr ys no synne þat men of rede,
Só moche withseyþ þe godhede;
For wanhope wenyþ þat þe foly
Be more þan Goddës mercy;
And ȝyf þou wene þat synne be more,
Þou wenest þat þe godhede, so moche ne wore,
Ne had so mochë myȝt hym ynne,
Þat hyt myȝt fórȝyue alle þy synne.
Se how wanhope, man wyl shende
Aȝens þe godhede with-outyn ende!
Hyt ys no wundyr, þogh he be wroþe;
Hyt aȝenseyþ hys myȝt & hys mercy boþe.
Swych shryfte madë wreched Kaym,
whan he hadde hys broþer slayn;
‘Of God,’ he seyd, ‘he was nat wurþy,
For hys grete synne, to haue mercy.’
For hys wanhope, þat foule glotoun,
God ȝaue hym hys malysun;
And alle þo, þat trowe synne may be
Morë þan Goddës pyte.
And swych shryftë, made Iudas;
He shrouë hym of hys trespas,
He hadde grete sorowe and contrycyun
Þat he ded hys lorde tresun;
Þer-of he repented hym so gretly,
he ȝede and hyng hym self ful hy;
He shroue hym with grete répentaunce,
387

But of Goddys mercy he hadde none affyaunce.
Here mowe ȝe se, þat shryfte and sorowe
Alle only may no man borowe,
But he haue gode hope, whan he ys shryue,
Þat hys synne shal be forȝyue:
Þys shal ȝe beleue, with-outë nay,
Þat, God wyl forȝyue, and may.
An holy man þys samë spelleþ
Þat of Iudas wanhope telleþ,
‘For hys wanhope, God wroþer was,
Þan for hys tresun or ouþer trespas;
Hys wanhope toke he more to grefe,
Þan hys takyng, as a þefe.’
Ihesu, ful of mercy mylde,
Fro wanhope vs allë shylde,
And graunte vs alle swych hope & stedfast trouþe
þat þy mercy on vs haue rouþe!
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