John Mirk was an Augustinian Canon Regular, active in the late 14th and early 15th centuries in Shropshire. He is noted as the author of widely copied, and later printed, books intended to aid parish priests and other clergy in their work. The most famous of these, his Book of Festivals or Festial was probably the most frequently printed English book before the Reformation.
Life
Biographical information
Nothing is known of Mirk's life apart from what can be gathered from his works.Powell (2004) Mirk was a canon of Lilleshall Abbey and later prior of the abbey. Until recently he was generally considered to have written mainly around 1400,Bateson but is now thought to have been active from rather earlier – probably the 1380s. His use of language and his name suggest he may have originated in northern England, a region strongly influenced by Norse settlement and culture. He seems to have been deeply committed to pastoral work and his work was directly relevant to the situation of Shrewsbury and its environs in his period.Coulton, p.5 This has similarities to the work of lay catechesis pioneered under John of Thoresby, the Archbishop of York a generation earlier.
Historical context
While biographical information is scant, the religious and political background to Mirk's work is fairly well-known. The defining event in Mirk's background was the Black Death,Ford, p.2. which killed half the population and had major and protracted consequences for society and economy, as well as the spiritual life of the survivors. However, Shropshire's agrarian crisis started much earlier in the century, with a major cattle murrain and crop failures between 1315 and 1322Baugh and Elrington, section 1 Moreover, the prolonged recovery from the disasters was jeopardised by the disorder of the early years of Henry IV's reign, when Owain Glyndŵr's revolt and the uprisings of discontented English nobles devastated many areas.
Lilleshall Abbey, Mirk's home, was a 12th-century foundation, originally intended to follow the rigorist teachings and practices of the Abbey of Arrouaise in northern France. Richard de Belmeis, one of the founders, was dean of the collegiate church of St Alkmund in Shrewsbury and was able to have the college suppressed and its wealth turned over to the abbey. This meant that Lilleshall was closely involved in the town of Shrewsbury, as much of its property was close to, and some within, the town. Lilleshall was brought to a nadir in the early 14th century by the agrarian crisis and the mismanagement and criminality of some abbots, notably John of Chetwynd, but made a surprisingly good recovery, largely through a reorganisation imposed by William de Shareshull. By Mirk's time, the abbey had entered a period of stability, reflected in a relatively high standard of monastic life and liturgy.
However the most powerful monastery locally was Shrewsbury Abbey, a Benedictine house which greatly prized the relics of Saint Winifred. In the late 14th century a new shrine was built to contain them. A group of monks and abbey servants then stole the relics of St Beuno, Winifred's uncle and confessor, from Rhewl and installed them in the abbey church.
Shropshire was dominated by the FitzAlan Earls of Arundel,Baugh and Elrington, section 2 who had a strong influence on all aspects of political life, including parliamentary representation, in ShropshireL. S. Woodger. Shropshire in Roskell, Clark, and Rawcliffe. and in ShrewsburyL. S. Woodger. Shrewsbury in Roskell, Clark, and Rawcliffe. Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel was one of the Lords Appellant, opposed to Richard II's policies and his reliance on favourites The Appellants dominated the kingdom from 1387 to 1397 and Richard's brother, Thomas Arundel, became Archbishop of Canterbury. However, in 1397 the king moved against the Arundels and their allies. Earl Richard was arrested on 12 July, attainted, and executed on 21 September, while Thomas went into exile. Shortly afterwards, King Richard and his uncle, John of Gaunt, both stayed at Lilleshall Abbey, in connection with a session of Parliament held from 27 to 31 January in Shrewsbury, which brought looting by members of the royal household. It is not surprising that the Archbishop and Thomas FitzAlan, 12th Earl of Arundel, his nephew, were closely involved from the outset in the new Lancastrian regime of Henry IV, who seized power in 1399. The Battle of Shrewsbury, decisively securing Henry's grip on power, was fought just to the north of the town in 1403, causing considerable damage to the surrounding area. After this, Arundel tightened his grip on Shropshire, operating through an affinity of local landowners pledged to his service. These retainers were confirmed in his circle and in mutual solidarity by participating in his religious benefactions. In 1407, for example, a group of Arundel's retainers, including Robert Corbet, his brother Roger together donated a house in Shrewsbury to the Abbey.L. S. Woodger. CORBET, Robert (1383–1420), of Moreton Corbet, Salop. in Roskell, Clark, and Rawcliffe. This outward piety did not stop them taking part in an armed raid directed against Wenlock Priory a few years later.
It was also in 1407 that William Thorpe is thought to have preached a Lollard sermon from the pulpit of St Chad's Church, ShrewsburyCoulton, p.9 He proclaimed the centrality of the Word of God in preaching and Scripture against reliance on the sacraments and denounced the veneration of images and relics. He was particularly critical of pilgrimage, which he considered both futile in itself and surrounded by numerous social ills.Coulton, p.10 This all clashed with popular religion as practised locally, with its lucrative cult of St Winifred and its highly organised celebration of Corpus Christi, featuring procession of the town's many trades.Coulton, p.8 Thorpe was arrested, together with his associate, John Pollyrbach, and interviewed by Thomas Prestbury, the abbot of Shrewsbury, before being despatched to Archbishop Arundel. Thorpe's Testimony, purporting to recount these interviews, portrays the ensuing interchange as a victory for himself against Arundel, who was an enthusiastic persecutor of Lollards.Coulton, p.12 Whatever the truth of this, Arundel sent commissions to Shropshire in May 1407 to arrest suspected Lollards,Coulton, p.13 suggesting that the movement was perceived as a threat locally. Mirk's works are definitely orthodox and the Festial rejects Lollard teaching both implicitly and explicitly. It is possible that it was deliberately disseminated to combat Lollardy in the Midlands.
Works
Festial
The Liber Festivalis (Book of Festivals) or Festial is a collection of homilies for the festivals of the liturgical year as it was celebrated in Mirk's time in Shropshire. He began with Advent Sunday and worked his way through to All Saints' Day, with a final sermon for the consecration of a church, although the order is disturbed to some extent in some manuscripts. Each sermon features one or more narrations, intended to illustrate the theme. His most important source was the Golden Legend, an immensely popular collection of hagiographies compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the mid-13th century. However, Mirk chose to write in the vernacular, Middle English, a decision of ambiguous significance. It distinguished him from most other apologists for orthodoxy, as use of the vernacular was a key demand of the Lollards, although it was still not considered heretical in itself.Ford, p.113 Mirk was faced by the rise of a new class of literate laypeople,Ford, p.25 as well as by the sometimes unlettered parish clergy whom he acknowledges as his audience. His response was to present a compressed but comprehensive view of Christian teaching that privileges oral tradition above Biblical texts.
Mirk's narrations have often seemed simplistic or "materialist" to later ages. Ford comments that "English sermon collections composed with a popular audience in mind almost invariably favor a story-telling style and have been almost invariably criticized by scholars."Ford, p.18 The homily for Corpus Christi defends the doctrine of Transubstantiation, which the festival celebrates and the Lollards rejected, with just such a story, concerning Oda of Canterbury. OriginalFestial (ed. Erbe), p.170-1 ModernThis byschop had wyth hym of his clerkys þat beleuet not perfitly in þe sacrament of þe auter, and sayde þat þai myȝt not beleue þat Crist schedd his blod in þe masse. Then was þis bischop sory for her mysbeleue and prayed to God ȝorne for her amendement. And so, on a day, as he was at his masse, when he had made þe fraction as þe maner is, he saȝe þe blod drop doun from þe ost fast into þe chalice. Þen he made syne to hem þat mysbeleuet, to come and se. And whew þei saue his fyngurys blody and blod rane of Cristis body into þe chalis, þai weron agryset þat for veray fer þai cryet and sayd : Be þow blesset, man, þat has þis grace þus to handul Cristis body! We beleue now fully þat þis is verray Godis body, and his blod þat dropet þer into þe chalis. But now pray to hym þat þou hast þer in þi hondys, þat he sende no vengauwce vpon vs for oure mysbeleue! and so þe sacrament turnet into his forme of bred as hit was beforn; and þai weren good men and perfyte alway aftyr in þe beleue.This bishop had with him several of his clergy who did not have a perfect belief in the sacrament of the altar and said that they might not believe that Christ shed his blood in the Mass. So this bishop was sorry for their disbelief and prayed to God constantly for their amendment. And so, one day, he was at his Mass, and when he had made the fraction in the prescribed manner, he saw blood drop down from the Host into the chalice. Then he signalled those who disbelieved to come and see. And when they saw that his fingers were bloody and that blood ran from Christ's body into the chalice, they were terrified to the extent that they cried out in real fear: “Blessed be you that have this grace so to handle Christ's body. We believe now that this is truly God's body and his blood that dropped there into the chalice. But now pray to him, whom you have there in your hands, that he send no vengeance upon us for our disbelief.” And so the sacrament turned into the form of bread as before; and they were good men and always after perfect in their faith. Mirk goes on explicitly to reject Lollard teaching on images. OriginalFestial (ed. Erbe), p.171 ModernFor as Saynt Austyn sayde : Þe mynde of Cristis passion is þe best defence aȝens temptacions of þe fende. Herefor ben roodes sett on hey in holy chirch, and so by syȝt þerof haue mynd of Cristis passion. And þerfor roodes and oþyr ymages ben necessary in holy chirch, whateuer, þes Lollardes sayn.For as St Augustine said: the memory of Christ's passion is the best defence against temptations of the Devil. Hence crosses have been placed on high in the holy church, so that by seeing them you might remember Christ's passion. And therefore crosses and other images have been necessary to the Church, whatever these Lollards might say. Here Mirk is relatively sophisticated, arguing that the very traditional and popular religion that the Lollards rejected, properly interpreted, is not a distraction but actually a spur to a proper appreciation of Christian soteriology.