Seminar: ‘A deere Ihesu, whider may I flee?’ Holy Name Devotion in the West Midlands in the Late Middle Ages
Benjamin Barootes (Mellon Fellow, PIMS)
Oxford, Trinity College MS 8, better known as the Beauchamp Missal, is the oldest exemplar of the Mass for the Holy Name of Jesus. While this evidence for Sir William Beauchamp’s devotion to the Holy Name predates other early missals by several decades, this aspect of his personal piety certainly didn’t arise ex nihilo. This paper examines the material and literary evidence for the Holy Name cult and other, parallel Christological devotions in the West Midlands in the period leading up to, and immediately following, the production of the Beauchamp Missal (c. 1390). In so doing, it offers insights into a sustained regional interest in Christological devotions and likewise suggests some of the routes by which the cult came to Sir William’s eyes, ears, heart, and mind.