Ffor god wolde þat alle men ferde weel & were sauid : a Late Middle English Pater Noster Tract

The anonymous tract whose critical edition will be here presented is a late Middle English work; it differs from the most common Pater Noster expositions of the period. Since, as R. Raymo argues, A more ambitious commentary on the Pater Noster than the standard exposition…survives in two early fifteenth-century manuscripts . This quotation does not only highlight the originality of the tract, but it gives useful information for its dating. It is noteworthy that since the beginning of the XVth century prose became the preferred form of expression when writing works of religiuos instruction and the habit of addressing directly to the individual was spreading as well. The tract, as aforesaid, has come to us in two manuscripts: the former is Ms.158.926.4g.5, 58v-88r, in Norwich Castle Museum (ff. NCM), the latter is the Harleian Ms. 1197, 28v-48v, (ff. H) in the British Library Collections. The work deals wih the explanation of the seven petitions of the Lord's prayer connecting them in turn with the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, the beatitudes and the two precepts of love; in both manuscripts it is integrated among writings of religious character included in Jolliffe's Check-list. What is really relevant is the fact that the Pater Noster tract, in NCM and H as well, is immediately preceded by Lavynham's treatise , a brief discussion dealing with the seven deadly sins by the carmelite friar Richard Lavynham. This order is interesting because it may well suggest a common source for the two manuscripts. The text that has been chosen for the present critical edition is the one taken from H. It is not greatly different, neither for the contents nor for the language, from the variant text kept in NCM but for a passage at least situated by the middle of the tract.