Summary This book sheds new light on the Latin background of various Old English homilies, and of certain homilies from related vernacular traditions. Two broad themes are treated, the Nativity of Christ and Christian eschatology; the volume contains five Latin texts dealing with each theme. Critical editions, full English translations, and detailed introductions and commentaries are included, as well as case studies that demonstrate the relevance of each text to one or more homilies written in Old English, and, in a few cases, early Middle English and Old Norse. While the volume is intended for scholars of early English preaching, many of the texts hold considerable intrinsic interest and should have general appeal for medievalists, students of preaching, and those working on the transmission of biblical apocrypha in the Latin West. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Abbreviations Sigla codicum Introduction TEXT ONE A Christmas Homily from the Bavarian Homiliary (BH I.2) TEXTS TWO AND THREE Carolingian Sermons on the Miracles at Christ's Birth TEXTS FOUR AND FIVE Hiberno-Latin Christmas Homilies TEXTS SIX AND SEVEN Eschatological Sermons Included in Some Manuscripts of the Homiliaries of Angers and Saint-P re de Chartres TEXT EIGHT A Sermon Related to an Early Redaction of the Visio Pauli (Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek, 27, fols. 104v-106v) TEXT NINE A Doomsday Sermon from a Carolingian Priest's Handbook (Laon, Biblioth que municipale, 288, fols. 38r-39v) TEXT TEN The Three Utterances of the Soul: Recension IV Conclusions Appendix 1: A Christmas Homily Related to Texts 1 and 5 Appendix 2: Latin Analogues for Middle Irish and Middle High German Lists of Miracles at Christ's Birth Appendix 3: A Latin Vision of the Otherworld and Its Middle English Descendants Bibliography Index of Manuscripts Index of DOE Short Titles of Old English Homilies Cited or Discussed General Index