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The Use Of "Exempla" In 'Fasciculus Morum', Sarah Anne Gray

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Among the many pastoral aids compiled for parish priests in the late Middle Ages, Fasciculus morum: A Fourteenth-Century Preacher's Handbook, is among the more important but is surprisingly little studied. In this thesis I focus direct attention on its use of the preaching exemplum. Although it is not an exempla collection per se, a study of the exempla in the work offers many insights into other such collections. This thesis examines these exempla--the types of characters found in them, their sources, and their function within the context of Fasciculus morum proper. As the literary review which opens Chapter 1 indicates, …