Pore Caitif


The Pore Caitif is a didactic Christian religious treatise written in Middle English in the 1390s. The goal of the author—the 'poor wretch' of the title—is to impart to his readers the truths necessary for salvation. The text is associated with the rise of the Lollards in England, although it does not necessarily espouse Lollard theology.

Manuscripts

Fifty-seven manuscripts of the Pore Caitif have been identified, of which 54 are extant. Only 30 of these copies are full texts. The earliest manuscripts are three that are nearly contemporary with the work: New York, Public library, MS De Ricci 68; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS Anglais 41; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 13. Several manuscripts contain alterations and interpolations to bring the text into line with the theology of John Wycliffe. These seven "heterodox" manuscripts are known as the Lollard group and include Anglais 41.

Content

The Pore Caitif consists of a prologue and fourteen tracts. The rubrics of the tracts vary in the manuscripts but they usually begin with a decorated initial. Certain manuscripts, the "free products of individual scribes who felt no obligation to exact transmission", rearrange the tracts, but the text itself "did not undergo rewritings, expansions or shortenings". The tracts are:
  1. Credo
  2. On the Ten Commandments
  3. On the Lord's Prayer
  4. The Counsel of Christ
  5. Of Virtuous Patience
  6. Of Temptation
  7. The Charter of Heaven
  8. The Horse or the Armour of Heaven
  9. Love of Jesus
  10. Desire of Jesus
  11. Of Meekness
  12. The Effect of Will
  13. Active Life and Contemplative Life
  14. On the Mirror of Chastity
The first three tracts on the Apostles' Creed, Ten Commandments and Lord's Prayer take up over two thirds of the entire work. The single longest tract is that on the commandments, which has its own prologue and epilogue, entitled "The Charge of the Heestis".