ST. KATHERINE, FROM SPECULUM SACERDOTALE, FOOTNOTES
1 In siche a day, On such and such a day [to be inserted by the speaker].
3 Alexandre, Alexandria.
5 ilettryd, educated ("lettered"); concludyd, defeated by arguments.
6 sputyd, disputed.
8 mayster, commander.
9 infidelité, unbelief.
11 bete with scourges, beaten with whips.
12 sytte, remain; by, for.
15 passiones, sufferings.
17 scilicet, namely; acordyngly, in harmony.
18 other two, two others; contrarily, in the opposite direction.
19 daggyd alle abowte outeward, made to project outward all around their rims.
20 contrarily sette, set against each other.
21 rent, torn.
22 in alle these, i.e., in the midst of these perils.
23 turmentis, instruments of torture.
26 hedid, beheaded.
27 hedynge, [place of] beheading.
28-29 Helethe of the trowynge, Savior of those who believe.
30 memorie, commemoration.
31 worschepynge, honoring; askynge, petition.
33 angre, affliction.
34 famyschynge evel, the danger (punishment) of famine; evel eyre, unwholesome air; noye, injure.
35 plenteuous, fertile; eyre, air; heleful, healthful.
36 fruytes, crops/profits.
37 unnethe, scarcely.
40 Eius ergo festum, et cetera, Therefore her feast, etc.
ST. KATHERINE, FROM SPECULUM SACERDOTALE, EXPLANATORY NOTES
16-22 This detailed description of the menacing wheels, which is even fuller and more vivid than the one in the stanzaic Life of St. Katherine (lines 450-64), stands in sharp contrast to the extreme brevity of almost everything else in the Speculum Sacerdotale's retelling of the legend. Presumably the wheels receive such emphasis because the author of this account wanted to explain the familiar emblem for Katherine, the wheel that was traditionally used in the visual arts to identify her and distinguish her from other virgin saints.
24-25 ten thousande men. Most versions of the legend, including the other two in this collection, use the somewhat less extravagant number of four thousand.
28-36 Compare the petitions in this version of Katherine's final prayer with those in the stanzaic Life (lines 709-16). Surprisingly, this otherwise restrained account of Katherine's life makes the most extreme, magical-sounding promises for the benefits her devotees will receive. Mirk's account completely omits Katherine's prayer and its response, perhaps out of uneasiness with the tendency to over-emphasize this aspect of the legend. The references to pestilence, venjaunce, famyschynge evel, and evel eyre (lines 33-34), however, remind us of the severe food shortages and visitations of plague which must have created an unusual demand in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for such promises of supernatural protection. Air was believed to be a carrier of disease, including plague; hence the fear of evel eyre. The term venjaunce could refer to any tribulation or series of tribulations inflicted as a punishment for sin, including fatal epidemics, floods, and other large-scale disasters.
39 mylke instede of blode. See explanatory note to the stanzaic Life of Katherine, line 754.
40 Eius ergo festum, et cetera. A fuller version of this closing formula, at the end of the Speculum Sacerdotale chapter on St. Stephen, calls on the faithful to keep the saint's feast day (by refraining both from earthly labors and from sins and by coming to church) and to pray for God's forgiveness and grace through the merits of the saint.