Christ's College : Christian religious texts

Christ's College

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This manuscript, probably copied near the end of the 16th century or in the first half of the 17th, contains a selection of <i>Christian religious texts</i>. These include visions of the afterlife and hortatory works on sin and penance, as well as texts on the basic topics of the Ten Commandments and the Twelve Articles of Faith. The prevailing theme is a cautionary one of the punishments in store for sin and the importance of repentance.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The manuscript includes texts written in both classical and vernacular Greek, some of which were of recent composition. Others are attributed to patristic authors and based on known works that circulated under their names, but contain other material as well, while some of the hagiographical texts also diverge significantly from their most common form.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The most notable of these texts is an account of a vision of the afterlife, with a particular focus on the punishment of corrupt clergy. This vision is supposed to have been shown to Demetrios, a miner from the village of Isvoros or Siderokausia, near Mount Athos, in the year 1579/80, and related by him to a priest named Metrophanes, who wrote down his account. The text is unattributed here, but it survives in at least two other copies, in St Petersburg, Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Biblioteka (BAN), MS Dmitirevski 23 and St Petersburg, Russkij arheologičeskij institut v Konstantinopole, MS N 130, both copied around the same time as this manuscript, in the first half of the 17th century. These attribute the composition of the work in its present form to the priest and monk Laurentios, who is supposed to have adapted Metrophanes's narrative into more accessible language.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Christopher Wright</p>