ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to demonstrate through a study of song manuscripts from thirteenth-century England whose contents suggest links to the practices of preaching and ministry. It investigatea – by means of a case-study of one manuscript, London, British Library, Arundel MS 248 – whether this pattern is merely coincidence, or whether explanations may be sought in the production or use of song books for the appearance of songs and sermons as curious bedfellows. The songs have texts in all three of England’s literary languages Latin, Anglo-Norman French and Middle English, in some cases side-by-side in a single manuscript, and span a thematic spectrum from secular love-songs to high-brow lyrics on devotional and theological topics. The topics explored in the songs are themes on which preachers and confessors might have wished to discourse: warnings against the perils of sin, advice on the Christian life and the succour afforded by devotion to the saints, especially the Blessed Virgin.
