The Grammar of Good Friday: Macaronic Sermons of Late Medieval England by Holly Johnson (review)

That the events of Christ's Crucifixion were central to medieval religious consciousness almost goes without saying; what scholars of the Middle Ages may profit by is having their understanding deepened of those various means whereby the Church installed the Crucifixion in the hearts and minds of the faithful. One of those means was preaching the Passion. In this book, Holly Johnson has edited, translated, and copiously commented on, a group of Good Friday sermons from late-medieval England and, in doing so, has brought us closer to appreciating the effects achieved in and resources deployed by her chosen sermons when treating the matter of Good Friday (or the Grammar of Good Friday, as Johnson has preferred to call it).

In general, she is well equipped for her task. Students who have a longstanding familiarity with the sermon literature of late-medieval England will already know all of the sermons she has edited; substantial scholarly work had been done on them before Johnson turned to them, and she has been able to draw on much that is already in print to help her. For sermon experts, then, Johnson's book holds few surprises; for them, its merits will chiefly lie in having a number of sermon texts on a core episode of Christian history made reliably available and set side by side between the covers of one book for convenient comparison. For students less familiar with the texts and traditions of late-medieval English preaching, however, the book will also serve as a comprehensive introduction to one of its important niche markets.

Johnson's commentary on the edited texts is extensive. She begins by placing the sermons in the wider tradition of preaching on the Passion and then proceeds to offer a series of persuasive literary assessments of their techniques, along with an account of their characteristic materials. There is much industry in evidence in the preparation of this book, and we must be grateful to her for it. It is not, however, without the odd blemish, something hardly avoidable in a book of its size. Translations from the Latin occasionally leave a little to be desired. Here are a number of cases: the third-person singular perfect tense of the verb pendere (to hang), pependit, is rendered as if this were a present tense (p. 6); contristavi (p. 8n26) is translated "saddened,", though "hurt" or "offended" would seem more appropriate here; a translation of John Wyclif (p. 36) is a little loose, and another (p. 38) is perilous. Anyone who wishes to build an argument solely on the basis of her translation may wish to check the original in case there may be slips. There also are signs of insufficient housekeeping in the tidying up of the book's presentation. Is it to be Cross or cross, Church or church, Mass or mass? All three alternatives may be found for the same referent. However, such things apart, what Johnson has served us with here is a book that is to be welcomed. It will have a durable shelf life.