Odo of Cheriton

Who is Odo of Cheriton?

Odo of Cheriton was an English preacher and fabulist.

He visited Paris, and it was probably there that he gained the degree of Master. Bale mentions a tradition that he was a Cistercian or a Præmonstratensian; but he can hardly have taken vows if, as seems most likely, he was the Master Odo of Cheriton mentioned in Kentish and London records from 1211 to 1247, the son of William of Cheriton, lord of the manor of Delce in Rochester. In 1211-12 William was debited with a fine to the crown, for Odo to have the custodia of Cheriton church, near Folkestone. In 1233 Odo inherited his father's estates in Delce, Cheriton, and elsewhere. A charter of 1235-6, by which he quitclaimed the rent of a shop in London, has his seal attached, bearing the figure of a monk seated at a desk, with a star above him. He died in 1247.

Like Jacques de Vitry, he introduced exempla freely into his sermons; his best known work, a collection of moralized fables and anecdotes in Latin, sometimes titled Parabolæ from the opening words of the prologue, was evidently designed for preachers. Though partly composed of commonly known adaptations and extracts, it shows originality and the moralizations are full of pungent denunciations of the prevalent vices of clergy and laity.