Edited by O.S. Pickering (1984). Edited from MS St. John’s College, Cambridge, B.6
The 3048-line Ministry and Passion, written in the late thirteenth century, is one of the temporale narratives associated with the South English Legendary collection, and the earliest Passion poem of the group. Only a fragment from another manuscript has previously been printed. It is closely related to the better-known Southern Passion (EETS OS 169), which is revealed to be a careful revision, in the direction of fidelity to the Gospels, of a slightly earlier form of the extant Ministry and Passion. The introduction also discusses the latter’s own use of the Gospels, its other Latin sources, and its relationship to other South English Legendary poems. The edited text is accompanied by a critical apparatus, and there are detailed explanatory notes.
This volume is currently out of print.