A Christian Mannes Bileeve: A Critical Edition of a Middle English Commentary on the Apostle's Creed

FAIN: FT-249219-16

Nicole Danielle Smith
University of North Texas (Denton, TX 76203-5017)

A scholarly edition of A Christian Mannes Bileeve, a 14th-century commentary on the Apostles' Creed written in Middle English.

My project is a critical edition of A Christian Mannes Bileeve (CMB), which Middle English Texts (Heidelberg, Germany) has agreed to publish. CMB is an unpublished and unedited vernacular explanation of the Apostles’ Creed. Its place at the beginning of a long and popular tradition of commentaries on the Creed that extends into the 17th century position it as a seminal text that documents the human condition and its relation to literacy and theology. In particular, CMB presents women as having a licit stake in theological argument. All four surviving manuscripts provide evidence of spiritual prose written for--and perhaps even by--religious women, thus placing them at the center of a complex and nuanced literary playing field informed by vigorous theological debate in late 14th-century England. CMB accordingly stands to influence the way we understand the intersection between women’s literacy and vernacular theology as England found itself on the cusp of intense religious reform.

Associated Products

A Christian Mannes Bileeve: Edited from Washington, Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections, MS 4 (Book)
Title: A Christian Mannes Bileeve: Edited from Washington, Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections, MS 4
Author: Nicole D. Smith
Editor: Nicole D. Smith
Abstract: ‘A Christian Mannes Bileeve’ (CMB) is a vernacular prose commentary on the Apostles’ Creed likely composed in the first half of the fourteenth century. It has received little attention and has not previously been published. Growing out of a tradition of commentaries on the Creed, the CMB is the longest and most substantial of the four known Middle English versions. In the CMB, each article of faith is given in Latin with a paraphrase in Middle English followed by a detailed explanation. It is this feature that makes the CMB distinctive; the explanations include Latin and English lyric poetry, scriptural verse, exempla, and a range of material drawn from Latin theological writers such as Augustine, Gregory the Great, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Bonaventure. The CMB was of particular interest to women; of the four manuscripts, three are known to have been in the possession of aristocratic laywomen and female religious communities. In its introduction, this volume discusses the manuscripts and their provenance, language and localization, date and context of the CMB, and the lyrics that are embedded in the text. The edited text is supported by an apparatus of variant readings, commentary, and a glossary, followed by a bibliography.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.winter-verlag.de/en/detail/978-3-8253-4811-3/Smith_Ed_A_Christian_Mannes_Bileeve/
Primary URL Description: Universitätsverlag Winter (Heidelberg) Press website
Publisher: Universitätsverlag Winter
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 978-3-8253-481
Copy sent to NEH?: No

The Thinking Heart of Female Spirituality and the Apostles’ Creed in A Christian Mannes Bileeve (Article)
Title: The Thinking Heart of Female Spirituality and the Apostles’ Creed in A Christian Mannes Bileeve
Author: Nicole D. Smith
Abstract: A Christian Mannes Bileeve is a little-known Middle English commentary on the Apostles’ Creed that was read by women religious to learn ecclesiastical doctrine. It presents, in a unique way, the figure of the thinking heart to reconcile the gendered binaries of Latin and vernacular, pastoral and devotional, prose and poetry, intellect and affect. Rather than portray Christ in the excessively erotic context usually associated with affective spirituality, A Christian Mannes Bileeve stages a dialogue of voices that teaches how to “think with the heart.” This new understanding of affective piety does not position “heart knowledge” (sapientia) and “head knowledge” (scientia) as mutually exclusive. Instead, A Christian Mannes Bileeve fuses reason (“skil”) with affect (“kyndenesse”), generating a reasonable love borne from gratitude for God that arises from knowing the Apostles’ Creed. The work thus offers a new way of conceiving both women’s affective piety and the relationship between vernacular and clerical theology.
Year: 2018
Primary URL: https://read.dukeupress.edu/jmems/article-abstract/48/2/227/134140/The-Thinking-Heart-of-Female-Spirituality-and-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Primary URL Description: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies website
Format: Journal
Publisher: Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, Duke University Press

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