The Lay Folks Mass Book Part 6
Welcome to new subscribers! If this is your first time reading the Lay Folks Mass Book, notes are at the end of this post.
Men ought to say the creed some time,
when thou hear it, say thou thine.
This that follows in english letter
I would thou said it for thy better;
but when they say [it] say thou not else,
but do as the book thee tells.
Here to look thou take good heed,
for here is written thine english creed.
I trow [believe] in God, full of might,
that all has wrought,
heaven and earth
and all of nought.
And in Jesu, that God-es son is,
all holy,
both God and man, endless,
in him trow I;
through the meekness of the holy ghost,
that was so mild,
he lied in Mary maiden chaste,
become a child.
Under Ponce Pilate pinned was he,
us to save
down on the cross and dead he was and lied in his grave.
The soul of him went to hell,
the sothe [truth] to say,
up he rose in flesh and fell [skin]
upon the third day;
up he rose to heaven with his wounds
through his pouste [power],
now sitt-es he on his father right hand
in majesty.
Therein shall he come us all to deme [possess or rule]
in his manhood
quick [living] and dead, all that have been
of Adam seed.
Well I trow in the holy ghost,
and holy kirk that is good;
and so I trow that housel [the blessed sacrament] is
both flesh and blood;
and of my sins, forgiv-e-ness,
if I will amend;
uprising also of my flesh,
and life without end.
We have now reached the point where the Creed is recited. The one the priest reads (or the choir sings) is the Nicene creed but the Lay Folks Mass Book does not put that into English; instead it gives a version of the Apostles’ Creed.
The transliteration of Pontius Pilate as “Ponce Pilate” I found interesting. Apparently this was the standard English version of his name and lasted in this country in the Anglican church until 1661. If you think about it, the way we write it now is a bit nonsensical; the first name retains its original Latin, the second name is Anglicised to Pilate instead of “Pilatus”. Really we should say “Pontius Pilatus”. So it seems we have retained a bit of the old English version, but not all.
The eagle-eyed among you may notice that while the Communion of Saints is not mentioned in this version of the creed, it is replaced by a statement of belief in the “housel”. This word as a noun refers to the Eucharist; it comes from Old English and Norse, meaning offering or sacrifice. In medieval England it was also used as a verb; to be houseled meant to receive communion. In the context here we would today use the words “Blessed Sacrament”.
What I really enjoy in this text is the way familiar concepts are phrased differently - “uprising of my flesh” meaning “resurrection of the body”. Somehow it seems more personal!
This is an excerpt from The Lay Folks Mass Book, a verse poem from the 14th/15th century, originally written in Middle English.
Each Sunday I post a short excerpt, transcribed into modern English for ease of reading, and harmonised from the 4 surviving versions which are in different dialects and with some variations in text.
Notes on the transcription: like German, the letter “e” on the end of words is often pronounced. In general, modern English has dropped all these so in transcribing it I have generally followed modern English which means that in most cases the rhyme and meter work. But occasionally, I have put letters in square brackets where required for the verse, or sometimes separated the endings with a hyphen to indicate that they should be pronounced as a separate syllable.
Most of the words have a modern English equivalent which is very similar, but where that doesn’t happen I have put the meaning in [ ].
One important word: the term for Mass in middle English is Messe, with the “e” pronounced, as in German. I have generally written it as Mess for the sake of the rhyming.
The text used is the one published by Thomas Frederick Simmons in 1879 and reprinted in 1968.