The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

I. f.1 Headed in a xviith cent. hand: Marcellus
Life of St John the Almoner in French verse.
Li siecle ueit mult en declin
De vre en autre tent a sa fin
Del amender ne ad nul semblant
De jur en jur ueil en peirant.
The next section (f.1b) begins by praising alms
Mult est almodre grant uertu
Dunt a pechur poet uenir pru
and speaks of St John the Almoner.
f.102 is a contemporary insertion, with the recto blank, of a portion of text omitted.
Ends f.121b
Seint Johan si pleisir uus est
Mustrez si mun trauail uus plest
En ceo me rendez mun seruise
Que eschaper peusse del Juise
V la uengance serrat prise.
de quanque feit iert cuntre assise.
Si dune me feites guarantise
Bien me aurez rendu mun seruise.

II. f.122 A French metrical version of the Clementine Recognitions
In a somewhat larger hand.
Li clert de scole ki apris unt
Tant que aukes entendant sunt
Mult se peinent de liures faire
E de sentences en lung traire.
The next section (f.122b) is
Ki veut oir de seint clement
Dunt il fud nez et de qel gent
De sun pere e de sa mere
E de ses freres en quel maniere
Li uns des autres departi furent
E cument puis se recunuerunt
A seint pierre cument tornerent
Par ki tuz se entretruuerunt
Ki tut cest sauer uuldra
Par cest rumanz bien le aprendra.
Uns liures est . meis poi usez:
Ki liure clement est apelez
E si ad un autre nun:
Petri itinerarium.
The translator says that he has not inserted all the disputations, and that he has transposed the order of the story a little. Accordingly he begins not, as the first book of the Recognitions, with Clement's own reflections, but with the story of his parents.
Quant nostre sire iesu crist
Charn en la seinte uirgine prist
E uint en terre pur la salu
De tut le mund ki perdu fu
En eel tens esteit a rume
Vn bien riche e puissant hume
Apele fud faustinien
E en sa lei esteit paien.
The story of the Recognitions ends (with the episcopate of Peter at Antioch) on f.328. Then follows the ordination of Clement, and Peter's charge to him, and to the people, which is of great length.
Next follows (f.348b) the Passion of Peter and Paul, which does not get beyond the dispute of Peter, Paul and Simon Magus before Nero. After the incident of the dogs and the bread (f.355b) the poem ends unfinished with these lines
Pierres dist Symun me ad mult veu
E de mun cunseil ad mult séú
A lé me est suuent a cuntraire
Que en palestine . que en cesaire,
E que en Judéé sun pais
Kar cuntre mei se est pose ad pris.
The rest of f.356a is blank, and also ff.356b, 357.

III. In a contemporary hand.
f.358 The Passion of Peter and Paul by Marcellus
(see Lipsius Acta Apostolorum Apocrypha).
Cum uenisset Paulus Romam conuenerunt ad eum omnes iudei.
Ends f.368b Ego marcellus discipulus domini mei petri apostoli que uidi scripsi.
On which a xvith cent. hand remarks
Credat ludaeus Apella.
Four blank leaves follow.
The two first tracts in the volume have never been printed.

Burrows, D.P., The life of Saint Clement: a translation of La vie de seint Clement (Tempe, Arizona, 2016)

Meyer, P., Notice d'un manuscrit de Trinity College (Cambridge) contenant les vies en vers francais de Saint Jean l'Aumonier et de Saint Clément, Pape (Paris, 1903)

Urwin, K., ed., The Life of Saint John the Almsgiver, 2 vols. (London, 1980-1)