Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in the Age of Wyclif. By Siegfried Wenzel. Pp. 740. (Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 53.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. isbn 0 521 84182 8. £95.

This important book by a well-known scholar of medieval literature will be of great value to all serious students interested in sermons, literature, and church history. It consists of four main sections. Firstly the author discusses the authors where known, the style, and main contents of the sermon collections he has found, including at the end a much briefer account of some that lie outside his chosen dates of c.1350–1450. Then there is a discussion of the occasions for preaching, first outlining the canonical obligations of the clergy and giving evidence for much more frequent preaching than one might suppose. There follow chapters on preaching by bishops, monks, friars, and at university, with a chapter on other occasions for sermons (e.g. parliament). Part III, ‘Orthodox Preaching’, concludes that what we have reflects the theology of the schools as applied practically to the needs both of the clergy and parishioners. These sermons are not, for the most part, deep theological discussions. Two chapters here consider what the preachers had to say about the pastoral office and of course particularly about preaching itself, which was of great concern to many of them, and then the preaching of the basic Christian life and duties, the pastoralia. A chapter discusses the very wide variety of styles and methods, even though preachers used many of the same conventions and exempla. A chapter then discusses the impact of Lollardy, concluding that it is often impossible to distinguish an orthodox zeal for reform from a Wyclifite one, but that the emphasis on straightforward belief in the eucharistic presence, insistence on the need to confess to one's parish priest, and the defence of images and pilgrimage probably reflect matters which Lollardy had caused to be contested, even if the preacher never mentions heretics. The final section is an inventory of all the sermons, numbering them, giving the occasion, theme, biblical source, incipit and explicit, and the name of the preacher, with printed editions and other copies, if any.