 These warnings could well be directed toward contemporary society (e.g., toward friars and prelates respectively), rather than toward actual members of the anticipated readership.Most of the materials of which Life of Soul is composed associate it with the large and diffuse category of catechetical manuals, basic manuals of religious instruction, in which annotated lists of virtues, commandments, works of mercy, etc., are a staple.Seven such enumerations formed the basis of Archbishop Peckham's plans in the previous century to educate the English laity and secular clergy.