"It may be well to remark, that there is nothing peculiar to the MS. we have been describing, in the order in which it gives the books of the New Testament. The same order is to be found in many MSS. and early printed copies of the Vulgate; and, for example, in the edition of 1511, to which I have already alluded, now before me. "It is also important to observe, that the MS. before us has been in the University Library since the Restoration, and that before that period it was in the possession of Archbishop Ussher." The Dublin MS., as Dr Todd states, contains a memorandum, which enables us to ascertain its date. It was written in the year 1522, but there is reason to believe that it is a transcript from a much earlier copy. I have adopted the Dublin Codex', as the principal text of the Romaunt Version of the New Testament, for three reasons:-first, because this copy is the most complete that has yet been discovered: secondly, because it is more accessible than any other to English critics: thirdly, because it corresponds very closely with the Grenoble and Zurich MSS., while it has some affinity with the Paris MS. 8086. Moreover, it bears internal marks of having followed the text of a translation as old as the twelfth century. This last assertion requires explanation. In the collection of MSS. which formerly belonged to Archbishop Ussher, and which is now in the custody of the University of Dublin, there are many documents called Waldensian, which passed through the hands of Perrin, the histo aliquot voluminibus comprehensis adjectum, Cantabrigiæ in Bibliotheca Publica, me evolvisse recordor." 1 The Provost and Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, through the kind intervention of Dr Todd, allowed me to have the use of this valuable MS. at my own house, and to transcribe the whole of it. I beg them to accept this my very thankful and respectful acknowledgement of the favour they conferred upon me. rian of the Waldenses and Albigenses, previously to the year 1619, the date of his book. Perrin made a very unfaithful use of some of these documents, in order that the doctrines and discipline of the ancient Waldenses might appear to assimilate more closely with those of the reformed churches of Germany, France, and Switzerland, than was really the case. Perrin ignorantly or fraudulently gave to others the dates of 1100, 1120, and 1130, which internal evidence proves to be false. Leger, Morland, and other writers' on the subject, misled by Perrin, followed in the same wrong path; and such blunders have had the effect of throwing a shade of discredit on the whole collection. But, although a portion of these documents cannot be dated higher than the 15th and 16th centuries, there are many of them which bear the stamp of the 12th and 13th. Some of the latter are poetical treatises, and others are prose. The most celebrated of the metrical pieces are La Nobla Leyczon (The Noble Lesson), La Barca (The Bark), Lo Novel Sermon (The New Sermon), Lo Novel Confort (The New Comfort), Lo Payre Eternal (The Eternal Father), Lo Despreczi del Mont (Contempt of the World), L'avangeli de li 4 Semencz (The Gospel of the four Seeds). All of which were meant to convey as well instruction in sacred history as religious precepts. They are composed in the Romaunt language, and specimens of them have been printed in the second volume of Raynouard's Choix des Poesies des Troubadours. The whole of these savour of the twelfth century, to judge from a comparison of the style in which they are written, and of the structure of the verse, with other works 1 I confess to have been one of these, in my earlier publications on Waldensian subjects twenty-four years ago. of the Troubadours acknowledged to be of that age. One of them, the Noble Lesson,' contains two lines which seem to indicate the period at which it was composed. "Ben ha mil e cent ancz compli entierament, Que fo scripta l'ora, car sen al derier temp." "A thousand and one hundred years have been fully completed, since the hour was written,-for we are in the last time." A curious parallel mode of giving a date is found in Dante, A metrical history of the Albigensian Crusade, published by M. Fauriel, contains a similar passage. "li vers de la chanson Que fon ben comenseia l'an de la encarnatio Another occurs in the beginning of one of the most celebrated of the Troubadour poems, the Breviari d'Amor. "En l'an que hom, ses fallensa, De Jhesum Crist mil e dos cens. Comenset, lo primier dia De primavera, sus l'albor, I have thought it necessary to dwell upon these passages, because various constructions have been put upon the words Bel ha mil e cent ancz, and much controversy has arisen as to the date expressed by them. The general tenour of the poem, and its exemption 1 Il Paradiso, Cant. xi. See Cary's Translation, Vol. II. p. 101. 2 Histoire de la Croisade contre les Albigeois, traduite et publiée par M. C. Fauriel, p. 16. line 205. Paris, 1837. 3 Lexique Roman, Raynouard. Tom. I. p. 515. from the bitterness which prevailed after the Albigensian Crusade, at the beginning of the 13th century, together with the absence of all allusion to certain theological questions that arose at the end of the 12th, and the beginning of the 13th century, seem to fix its composition nearer to the year 1100 than 1200. But there are indications also of a later period; and in order that debateable ground may be avoided in this discussion, let it be allowed that the Noble Lesson' was composed not long before, or about the year 1200, in deference to the opinions of those critics who are unfavourable to an earlier date. Now 'the Noble Lesson,' as it is printed in Raynouard's Choix des Poesies des Troubadours, and other metrical pieces, which are coeval with it, and are found in the same collection, quote the New Testament in terms corresponding almost verbatim with texts in the Dublin MS. of the Romaunt Version; consequently the original copy, which served as the basis of the Dublin Codex, must have been older than the Noble Lesson,' and the other treatises which cite it; and must have been extant in the 12th century. The following examples will shew the similarity between the text of the Dublin MS. and that cited in 'the Noble Lesson.' 66 1 See the discussion of this question in the nineteenth Volume of the British Magazine, especially the papers by a writer on The Poems of the Poor of Lyons," p. 260-265. See also Elliott's "Hora Apocalypticæ," Vol. II. Part III. Ch. 7. NOBLE LESSON. E neun non departa, ço que Dio a ajosta. Line 241. Ma la novella di, al postot non jurar. Line 245. Ama li teo amic, e aures en odi li enemic. Line 252. Ma ama li vostre enemic, e facze ben ha aquilh lical ayreron VOS. Line 254. E aura per li perseguent, e per li acaisonant vos. Line 255. Car, segont l'escriptura, son era fait moti antichrist. Line 460. The same may be said of some of the older devotional prose treatises: The Book of Virtues,' for instance, which 1 It has been observed that the last stanza of Lo Novel Confort contains lines worthy of Dante: "Vene, e non atende a la noyt tenebrosa, Aquel que ven de noyt, ja l'espos, ni l'esposa, "Come now, and wait not for the gloomy night, For ne'er to him who comes by night shall bride |