18. Sir John Nevill, in Harwood church, Yorkshire. Died 22nd Edward IV., 1482.
I presume that MR. EDWARD FOSS would refer to the curious passage in the printed Rolls of Parliament, vol. iii. p. 313., wherein it appears that Richard II., in the 20th year of his reign, formally declared that he assumed, bore, and used, and that by his leave and wish persons of his retinue also bore and used, the livery of the collar of his uncle, the Duke of Lancaster.
Mr. John Gough Nichols, in the Gent. Mag. for 1842, quotes the principal part of this passage, and produces some interesting evidence in favour of the view that the livery of the collar of the Duke of Lancaster was the collar of SS.
LLEWELLYN.
WRITTEN SERMONS.
(Vol. iii., pp. 478. 526.; Vol. iv., pp. 8. 41.)
The statement that the reading of sermons did not prevail in the early ages of Christianity not having been called in question, although irreconcileable with the practice of the Fathers, as ascertained from their own writings, I am induced to observe that in Ferrarius de Ritu Sac. Concionum, evidence is adduced that extemporaneous preaching was occasionally superseded by more elaborate and written discourses, sometimes committed to memory, sometimes recited, that is, read.
"Narrat Gregorius (Hom. 21. ex Libro Quadraginta Homiliarum) solemne ibi fuisse dum Concionem haberet, per Dictatum loqui; additque, Ob languentem stomachum jam legere se non posse quæ dictaverat; ac proinde velle se Evangelicæ Lectionis explanationem non amplius per Dictatum, sed per familiares collocutiones pronunciare. Per Dictatum autem loqui nihil aliud fuit Gregorio quam de scripto dicere ex eo perspicuum fit, quod verbo Dictare pro Scribere passim usi sunt Veteres Auctores, Sidonius Epistola septima Libri primi, undecima quarti, ultima septimi, sexta octavi, tertia noni; Aldhelmus de Laudibus Virginitatis, cap. vii., Gregorius Magnus, lib. x. Epistolarum, Ep. xxii. "ad Joannem Ravennæ Subdiaconum," et "Epistola ad Leonardum;" quæ præmittitur Expositioni in Job, et alii: usu nimirum ex prisco more petito quo Auctores olim, ut est apud Plinium in Epistolis non uno loco, Notariis dictare consueverant. Vox præterea Legere qua usus est Gregorius hoc ipsum aperte confirmat; ea enim dumtaxat legere possumus quaæ scripta sunt et ante oculos posita."—Ferrarius, ut suprà, lib ii. 15.
Fabricius, in his Bibliothecaria Antiquaria (cap. xi., De Concionibus Christianorum), thus refers to this passage:
"Conciones plerasque dictas ex memoria, quasdam etiam de scripto recitatas, observatum Ferrario, lib. ii. cap. 15."
It may therefore be inferred that he knew of no other testimony equally pertinent, but surely we may surmise that other fathers, e.g. Gregory Nazianzen (who, in the words of Bellarmine, "sapientiam mirificè cum eloquentia copulavit") occasionally were unable to commit to memory the numerous discussions which they had so diligently prepared.