Three separate terms for the soul's post-mortem destination are seen in these supplications for the soul's safety after death. An antiphon from the funeral mass refers to the soul's journey to the sinus Abrahae, while the terms locus refrigerii and paradisus appear in two Anglo-Latin prayers preserved in the Royal Prayerbook (London, British Library, Royal 2. A. xx) and the Book of Cerne (Cambridge University Library, Ll. 1. 10) respectively. This chapter charts the shifting fortunes of the definitions sinus Abrahae, locus refrigerii and paradisus in the larger literary groups represented by these texts – the early medieval funeral liturgy, and Anglo-Latin prayers from the eighth and ninth centuries. By analysing the contrasting use of these terms within private prayer and public worship, I explore further that monastic ambivalence towards the concept of the interim paradise, which we have already discerned in the writings of Bede and Ælfric.

Four prayerbooks, codicologically similar and with several textual links, were compiled for private devotion in Southumbrian monasteries between the latter half of the eighth century and the beginning of the ninth.