Preaching the Policraticus : The re-use of John of Salisbury's Policraticus in selected sermons produced in England during the later Middle Ages

This thesis investigates the re-use of John of Salisbury's Policraticus in sermons produced in England during the later Middle Ages through examining the transmission of the Policraticus, the types of quotations reused and the nature of Policraticus' authority. A transmission history of the Policraticus is given in order to pinpoint the most likely ways in which later medieval sermon writers could have accessed the text. The re-use of the Poficraticus in several influential florilegia and chronicles, alongside excerpt editions, emerge as the more accessible forms of the Poficraticus during this time. Chapter two develops an original typology of source re-use that assists in negotiating the difficult boundaries of the nature of authority in sermons. Chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 discuss the sermons of William Herebert, Thomas Brinton, four macaronic sermons from Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 649, three Middle English sermons from Worcester, Cathedral Library, MS F.10 and the 'Procession' sermon from London, British Library, MS Harley 2268. The case studies offer close lexical analysis of each example of re-use of the Policraticus in sermons. Each case study also suggests the ways in which the specific sermon writers could have accessed the Policraticus. Finally, each sermon writers' use of sources is compared to the use of the Policraticus and assesses the extent to which John and his book function as authorities in these texts. The thesis concludes that most sermon writers would have known the Poficraticus only in excerpt form, through the mediation of compilers or excerpt copies of the text. The Policraticus, when cited in the sermons, functions authoritatively on a similar level to other classical and medieval sources.