The Narrative Tradition of the Medieval Franciscan Friars On the British Isles. Introduction to the Sources

461 Franciscan Studies 63 (2005) THE NARRATIVE TRADITION OF THE MEDIEVAL FRANCISCAN FRIARS ON THE BRITISH ISLES. INTRODUCTION TO THE SOURCES* Introduction Ever since Herodotus storytelling – legein ta legomena, the telling of what has been told – has had an undisputed place in the making of history . From the moment the mendicants entered the stage of European history in the thirteenth century, they contributed to its making in most remarkable ways. Bound up with their multiple social functions as itinerant preachers, confessors, missionaries, legates and in particular as members of a universal order was their function as storytellers and as professional communicators of the middle ages.1 The Friars’ contribution to the production and circulation of stories throughout * The work here presented relies on a year of post-doctorate study in Oxford, made possible by a generous grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), and thereafter carried on as a research fellow in the Dresden Sonderforschungsbereich 537 Institutionalität und Geschichtlichkeit (directed by Prof. Dr. Gert Melville). Most cordial thanks to Greyfriars, University Hall, Oxford, to the Warden Father Tom Weinandy and also to Father Stephen Innes, who took me on board in Greyfriars Hall as an associate visiting fellow in the academic year 1999-2000. Greyfriars offered me an agreeable working base in its library, which includes the former library of A. G. Little, it also gave me access to Little’s unpublished papers, now kept in the Bodleian Library Oxford. I am very much obliged and grateful to David d’Avray (University College, London), to Michael Robson (St. Edmunds, Cambridge), and to Jens Roehrkasten (University of Birmingham), who encouraged my interest in Franciscan studies in many ways, such as putting substantial question marks to my suggestions, sharing data base material and patiently replying to letters. A most heartfelt thank you to Henrietta Leyser (St. Peter’s, Oxford) and Lesley Smith (Harris Manchester, Oxford) and to their students in the Medieval History Seminar on St. Francis and St. Claire for sharing with me the enthusiasm for Franciscan stories, and finally to Marjorie Reeves (†) for her wisdom and to Tim Gorringe for his patience and the proofreading. 1 A. G. Little, Unpublished Papers, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Engl. hist. c. 973. Materials for the history of the Franciscans in the 15th cent, fol. 51 summarized the friars ’ social functions in their activities as “preachers, confessors, gossips and beggars.” 462 ANNETTE KEHNEL bution to the production and circulation of stories throughout medieval Europe was closely linked to a particular lifestyle, especially to the organization of community life within in the order. Every mendicant house (conventus) throughout medieval Europe functioned as a nodal point in the Friars’ network of communication. Especially the early provincial chronicles capture in serial snapshots these communicative aspects of mendicant existence. The following paper attempts to trace the mendicants’ narrative traditions in three consecutive steps: first, I will look at the mendicant house as a place of storytelling. Next, I turn to an introduction to the sources, that is, to the body of texts preserving Franciscan narrative traditions from the British Isles. Finally, I look at “Franciscan stories” from the Tractatus of Thomas of Eccleston, from the exempla collection in the manuscript in the Bibliotheque Municipale in Auxerre 35, and from the so-called Northern Franciscan chronicle, better known as the first part of the Lanercost chronicle. I. The mendicant house as an ideal “place of memoirs and raconteurs” The contribution of the mendicant orders towards the production and circulation of narrative traditions in the Middle Ages need not be stressed here. Not only did the Friars’ prime task of popular preaching stimulate their interest in stories and anecdotes, but also there was a strong internal urge to make available edifying and didactic material for the education of the brethren and for the formation of a corporate identity in the order.2 The Friars led the way as story-collectors, as 2 Mendicant exempla-collections have often been read too one-sidedly, exclusively in view of the needs of the friars as popular preachers. Their internal function within the order, the edification of its members, has recently received increasing attention. Cf. Bert Roest, Reading the Book of History...