Wulfstan the Cantor
Encyclopedia
Wulfstan the Cantor also known as Wulfstan of
Winchester, was an Anglo-Saxon
monk of the Old Minster, Winchester
. He was also a
writer, musician, composer and scribe. Wulfstan is most famous for his hagiographic work
Vita S. Aethelwoldi.
in 971. These references have led scholars to believe that Wulfstan was born c.960 and was given as a child to the Old Minster where he spent his mature life. At the Old Minster, Wulfstan studied under Æthelwold of Winchester
, about whom he would write his Vita S. Aethelwoldi. Wulfstan became a monk and a priest; he then rose to become a precentor
, and hence is often referred to in contemporary sources as Wulfstan Cantor. As precentor
, Wulfstan would have been responsible for leading chants, recruiting and training the choir, and composing poems and hymns, among other things. In addition to theses musical responsibilities, Wulfstan worked as a scribe and as a hagiographic author. The day of his death, 22 July, is recorded in a New Minster calendar, however the year of his death is not known. His latest datable writing is his Vita S. Aethelwoldi, which was composed no earlier than 996. He presumably died some time in the early eleventh century.
Though the work contains no statement of authorship, it is undoubtedly the writing of Wulfstan. Not only do later sources, such as William of Malmesbury
, attribute the work to Wulfstan, but the piece also bears striking stylistic similarities to Wulfstan’s other writings. For example, in Wulfstan poem Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno, several phrases and even large sections of text, including two entire chapters from Vita S. Aethelwoldi, appear.
The Vita was written for the purpose of recording the miraculous powers of St. Aethelwold in order to prove that Aethelwold was a vessel of divinity who could be appealed to through prayer as an intermediary to God. Wulfstan’s Vita follows a format similar to other hagiographic works of the time. The piece appears to have been largely inspired by Lantfred
of Winchester’s Translatio et miracula S. Swithuni, which was completed c.975. Wulfstan’s work uses a similar style of prose to that of Bede
’s Vita S. Cuthberti, which, like the Vita S. Aethelwoldi, contains 46 chapters. Some events described in Wulfstan’s Vita are very similar to events described in Sulpicius Severus
’ Vita S. Martini. It is likely Wulfstan drew heavily on these authors in constructing his Vita.
style, illustrating Wulfstan’s skill as a poet. The poem describes the elevation of St. Swithun and is also thought to be the original source of the well-known British weather lore
that if it rains on St. Swithun’s Day, 15 July, it will rain for the next 40 days.
s preceded by a prologue of 20 lines of epanaleptic couplets and ending with an epilogue of 27 hexameter
s. Breuiloquium de omnibus sanctis is a metrical version of an anonymous Carolingian
sermon on All Saints
called Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis. The sermon was very popular in Wulfstan’s time and was widely circulated. Wulfstan’s poem begins by describing Pope Boniface IV
’s explanation of the Pantheon
in Rome, and then goes on to list various categories of saints venerated by the Church and commemorated on All Saints
Day.
.
, Wulfstan would have been responsible for providing various prayers, tropes, and hymns needed for the celebration of the cult. Wulfstan is also thought to have composed various hexametrical rubrics, tropes and sequences within the musical manuscripts the “Winchester Tropers”. Many of these works attributed to Wulfstan bear no explicit indication of authorship and attribution depends mainly on stylistic arguments.
. Though other works about St. Aethelwold exist, Wulfstan’s is the longest and contains the largest amount of information.
As is very clear from the Vita S. Aethelwoldi, Wulfstan was the primary figure in effecting the canonization
of St. Aethelwold and was also instrumental in establishing and promoting the Cult of St. Aethelwold. The promotion of the cult was dependent on the publication of a suitable Vita text to display Aethelwold’s sanctity and miraculous powers, as well as the composition of the necessary hymns and prayers for the liturgical commemoration of the saint on his feast-day. As precentor
, Wulfstan fulfilled these duties and solidified Aethelwold’s position as an honoured Anglo-Saxon saint.
Wulfstan’s Vita is thought to have inspired Aelfric of Eynsham's Vita S. Aethelwoldi, although scholars debate which text was written first. The similarities between the two texts indicate that one author was drawing on the other’s text, though there is debate as to whether Aelfric is summarizing Wulfstan or Wulfstan is expanding on Aelfric. Aelfric’s version has 29 chapters and can be precisely dated to the year 1006. While some scholars argue that Wulfstan could have written after 1006, more recent scholarship has dated Wulfstan’s Vita c. 996, making it the earlier work. Aelfric is well known for abridging the texts of other authors, which again leads recent scholars to believe Aelfric’s Vita S. Aethelwoldi is a summary of Wulfstan’s. Regardless of whose Vita was composed first, Aelfric’s Vita was not as widely circulated as Wulfstan’s, and therefore, the vast majority of subsequent writing about Aethelwold is based on Wulfstan’s version.
In addition to Aelfric, many other hagiographic writers drew on Wulfstan’s Vita S. Aethelwoldi in composing their own works. The work of Goscelin
of Saint-Bertin, a professional hagiographer writing at the end of the eleventh century, contains miracle stories that are very similar to, and appear to be inspired by, those contained in Wulfstan’s Vita. Orderic Vitalis
(1075–1142) authored a reworking of Aethelwold’s life based on Wulfstan. In the twelfth century, the author of the Libellus Aethelwoldi or The Book of Aethelwold drew on the information contained in Wulfstan’s Vita, as did the anonymous author of Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon. The Peterborough Chronicle
of Huge Candidus incorporates several chapters of Wulfstan’s Vita. Even as late as the fifteenth century, works such as the poem The South English Legendary
which contains a “Life of Adelwold”, utilized Wulfstan’s work. Wulfstan’s Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno, De tonorum harmonia, and many of the hymns attributed to him, were also widely read and referenced by other writers in southern England
, though not to the extent of his Vita.
Winchester, was an Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
monk of the Old Minster, Winchester
Old Minster, Winchester
The Old Minster was the Anglo-Saxon cathedral for the diocese of Wessex and then Winchester from 660 to 1093. It stood on a site immediately north of and partially beneath its successor, Winchester Cathedral....
. He was also a
writer, musician, composer and scribe. Wulfstan is most famous for his hagiographic work
Vita S. Aethelwoldi.
Life
Very little is known about Wulfstan’s life. The date of his birth is not known, but personal references within his poem Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno suggest he was a child at the time of St. Swithun’s canonizationCanonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
in 971. These references have led scholars to believe that Wulfstan was born c.960 and was given as a child to the Old Minster where he spent his mature life. At the Old Minster, Wulfstan studied under Æthelwold of Winchester
Æthelwold of Winchester
Æthelwold of Winchester , was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984 and one of the leaders of the tenth century monastic reform movement in Anglo-Saxon England....
, about whom he would write his Vita S. Aethelwoldi. Wulfstan became a monk and a priest; he then rose to become a precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
, and hence is often referred to in contemporary sources as Wulfstan Cantor. As precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
, Wulfstan would have been responsible for leading chants, recruiting and training the choir, and composing poems and hymns, among other things. In addition to theses musical responsibilities, Wulfstan worked as a scribe and as a hagiographic author. The day of his death, 22 July, is recorded in a New Minster calendar, however the year of his death is not known. His latest datable writing is his Vita S. Aethelwoldi, which was composed no earlier than 996. He presumably died some time in the early eleventh century.
Vita S. Aethelwoldi or The Life of St. Aethelwold
Wulfstan’s most famous work, Vita S. Aethelwoldi, tells of the life and miracles of St. Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester. The work is 46 chapters long, elaborately composed using complex sentences and displays a familiarity with many earlier hagiographic writings. The Vita was written very soon after Aethelwold was canonized, which took place 10 September 996. Some scholars believe the Vita was written to coincide with this event.Though the work contains no statement of authorship, it is undoubtedly the writing of Wulfstan. Not only do later sources, such as William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury
William of Malmesbury was the foremost English historian of the 12th century. C. Warren Hollister so ranks him among the most talented generation of writers of history since Bede, "a gifted historical scholar and an omnivorous reader, impressively well versed in the literature of classical,...
, attribute the work to Wulfstan, but the piece also bears striking stylistic similarities to Wulfstan’s other writings. For example, in Wulfstan poem Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno, several phrases and even large sections of text, including two entire chapters from Vita S. Aethelwoldi, appear.
The Vita was written for the purpose of recording the miraculous powers of St. Aethelwold in order to prove that Aethelwold was a vessel of divinity who could be appealed to through prayer as an intermediary to God. Wulfstan’s Vita follows a format similar to other hagiographic works of the time. The piece appears to have been largely inspired by Lantfred
Lantfred
Lantfred of Fleury , also known as Lantfred of Winchester, was a 10th and 11th century Anglo-Saxon monk who lived in Winchester, Hampshire, England. He was originally from the French town of Fleury-sur-Loire. Lantfred is famous for having written Vita S. Swithuni and Translatio et miracula S....
of Winchester’s Translatio et miracula S. Swithuni, which was completed c.975. Wulfstan’s work uses a similar style of prose to that of Bede
Bede
Bede , also referred to as Saint Bede or the Venerable Bede , was a monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth, today part of Sunderland, England, and of its companion monastery, Saint Paul's, in modern Jarrow , both in the Kingdom of Northumbria...
’s Vita S. Cuthberti, which, like the Vita S. Aethelwoldi, contains 46 chapters. Some events described in Wulfstan’s Vita are very similar to events described in Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus
Sulpicius Severus was a Christian writer and native of Aquitania. He is known for his chronicle of sacred history, as well as his biography of Saint Martin of Tours.-Life:...
’ Vita S. Martini. It is likely Wulfstan drew heavily on these authors in constructing his Vita.
Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno
Wulfstan’s poem Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno is a hexametrical version of Lantfred of Winchester’s Translatio et miracula S. Swwithuni (c.975). Wulfstan’s poem was composed between 992 and 994, but was put into its final form after the composition of Vita S. Aethelwoldi in 996, when two chapters of Wulfstan’s prose from the Vita were turned into verse and incorporated into the poem. The poem consists of 3386 lines, making it the longest Anglo-Latin poem surviving today. It is also the most accomplished Anglo-Latin poem in terms of metricalstyle, illustrating Wulfstan’s skill as a poet. The poem describes the elevation of St. Swithun and is also thought to be the original source of the well-known British weather lore
Weather lore
Weather lore is the body of informal folklore related to the prediction of the weather.It has been a human desire for millennia to make accurate weather predictions. Oral and written history is full of rhymes, anecdotes, and adages meant to guide the uncertain in determining whether the next day...
that if it rains on St. Swithun’s Day, 15 July, it will rain for the next 40 days.
Breuiloquium de omnibus sanctis
Breuiloquium de omnibus sanctis is a recently discovered poem by Wulfstan. The poem bears Wulfstan’s name and is thus very significant to scholars as it provides a firm basis for the analysis of Wulfstan’s poetic style and technique, allowing it to be used as a template for the attribution of other works to Wulfstan. The poem is long, consisting of 669 hexameterHexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Greek mythology, hexameter...
s preceded by a prologue of 20 lines of epanaleptic couplets and ending with an epilogue of 27 hexameter
Hexameter
Hexameter is a metrical line of verse consisting of six feet. It was the standard epic metre in classical Greek and Latin literature, such as in the Iliad and Aeneid. Its use in other genres of composition include Horace's satires, and Ovid's Metamorphoses. According to Greek mythology, hexameter...
s. Breuiloquium de omnibus sanctis is a metrical version of an anonymous Carolingian
Carolingian
The Carolingian dynasty was a Frankish noble family with origins in the Arnulfing and Pippinid clans of the 7th century AD. The name "Carolingian", Medieval Latin karolingi, an altered form of an unattested Old High German *karling, kerling The Carolingian dynasty (known variously as the...
sermon on All Saints
All Saints
All Saints' Day , often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown...
called Legimus in ecclesiasticis historiis. The sermon was very popular in Wulfstan’s time and was widely circulated. Wulfstan’s poem begins by describing Pope Boniface IV
Pope Boniface IV
Pope Saint Boniface IV was pope from 608 to his death.Son of Johannes, a physician, a Marsian from the province and town of Valeria; he succeeded Boniface III after a vacancy of over nine months. He was consecrated on either 25 August or September 15 in 608...
’s explanation of the Pantheon
Pantheon, Rome
The Pantheon ,Rarely Pantheum. This appears in Pliny's Natural History in describing this edifice: Agrippae Pantheum decoravit Diogenes Atheniensis; in columnis templi eius Caryatides probantur inter pauca operum, sicut in fastigio posita signa, sed propter altitudinem loci minus celebrata.from ,...
in Rome, and then goes on to list various categories of saints venerated by the Church and commemorated on All Saints
All Saints
All Saints' Day , often shortened to All Saints, is a solemnity celebrated on 1 November by parts of Western Christianity, and on the first Sunday after Pentecost in Eastern Christianity, in honour of all the saints, known and unknown...
Day.
De tonorum harmonia, also known as Breuiloquium super musica
De tonorum harmonia is a lost work by Wulfstan. Little is known about the piece, but the majority of information comes from a fifteenth century anonymous commentary entitled De musica. The author of De musica makes four references to the work of a figure named ‘Wulstan’, which is likely Wulfstan. The references reveal that De tonorum harmonia, or Breuiloquium super musica as it is sometimes called, was concerned with the theory rather than the practice of music. Wulfstan is cited as an authority on musical theory. Though lost, Wulfstan’s De tonorum harmonia is of unique value in that it is the only known work on music composed by an Anglo-SaxonAnglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
.
Other works
Wulfstan is known to have written liturgical materials relating to the Cult of St. Aethelwold. Wulfstan was active in promoting the Cult of St. Aethelwold and as precentorPrecentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
, Wulfstan would have been responsible for providing various prayers, tropes, and hymns needed for the celebration of the cult. Wulfstan is also thought to have composed various hexametrical rubrics, tropes and sequences within the musical manuscripts the “Winchester Tropers”. Many of these works attributed to Wulfstan bear no explicit indication of authorship and attribution depends mainly on stylistic arguments.
Contribution to knowledge of St. Aethelwold
Wulfstan’s Vita S. Aethelwoldi is the principal source for knowledge of St. Aethelwold, who was one of the champions of the Monastic Reform movement in WinchesterWinchester
Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...
. Though other works about St. Aethelwold exist, Wulfstan’s is the longest and contains the largest amount of information.
As is very clear from the Vita S. Aethelwoldi, Wulfstan was the primary figure in effecting the canonization
Canonization
Canonization is the act by which a Christian church declares a deceased person to be a saint, upon which declaration the person is included in the canon, or list, of recognized saints. Originally, individuals were recognized as saints without any formal process...
of St. Aethelwold and was also instrumental in establishing and promoting the Cult of St. Aethelwold. The promotion of the cult was dependent on the publication of a suitable Vita text to display Aethelwold’s sanctity and miraculous powers, as well as the composition of the necessary hymns and prayers for the liturgical commemoration of the saint on his feast-day. As precentor
Precentor
A precentor is a person who helps facilitate worship. The details vary depending on the religion, denomination, and era in question. The Latin derivation is "præcentor", from cantor, meaning "the one who sings before" ....
, Wulfstan fulfilled these duties and solidified Aethelwold’s position as an honoured Anglo-Saxon saint.
Influence on later writing
Many of Wulfstan’s writings enjoyed wide circulation throughout Medieval England, especially his Vita S. Aethelwoldi, which had an influence on later hagiographic writing. In fact, scholars believed that Wulfstan’s Vita was one of the most widely read of all pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin saints' lives.Wulfstan’s Vita is thought to have inspired Aelfric of Eynsham's Vita S. Aethelwoldi, although scholars debate which text was written first. The similarities between the two texts indicate that one author was drawing on the other’s text, though there is debate as to whether Aelfric is summarizing Wulfstan or Wulfstan is expanding on Aelfric. Aelfric’s version has 29 chapters and can be precisely dated to the year 1006. While some scholars argue that Wulfstan could have written after 1006, more recent scholarship has dated Wulfstan’s Vita c. 996, making it the earlier work. Aelfric is well known for abridging the texts of other authors, which again leads recent scholars to believe Aelfric’s Vita S. Aethelwoldi is a summary of Wulfstan’s. Regardless of whose Vita was composed first, Aelfric’s Vita was not as widely circulated as Wulfstan’s, and therefore, the vast majority of subsequent writing about Aethelwold is based on Wulfstan’s version.
In addition to Aelfric, many other hagiographic writers drew on Wulfstan’s Vita S. Aethelwoldi in composing their own works. The work of Goscelin
Goscelin
Goscelin of Saint-Bertin was a Benedictine hagiographical writer, born between 1020–1035 and who died shortly after 1107...
of Saint-Bertin, a professional hagiographer writing at the end of the eleventh century, contains miracle stories that are very similar to, and appear to be inspired by, those contained in Wulfstan’s Vita. Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis
Orderic Vitalis was an English chronicler of Norman ancestry who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and Anglo-Norman England. The modern biographer of Henry I of England, C...
(1075–1142) authored a reworking of Aethelwold’s life based on Wulfstan. In the twelfth century, the author of the Libellus Aethelwoldi or The Book of Aethelwold drew on the information contained in Wulfstan’s Vita, as did the anonymous author of Chronicon monasterii de Abingdon. The Peterborough Chronicle
Peterborough Chronicle
The Peterborough Chronicle , one of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, contains unique information about the history of England after the Norman Conquest. According to philologist J.A.W...
of Huge Candidus incorporates several chapters of Wulfstan’s Vita. Even as late as the fifteenth century, works such as the poem The South English Legendary
South English Legendary
The South English Legendary is a Middle English hagiographic manuscript, best preserved in MS Harley 2277 and CCCC 145, which contain 92 narrative lives, extremely varied in length, usually including one of two prologues and often including a life of Christ and/or temporal items...
which contains a “Life of Adelwold”, utilized Wulfstan’s work. Wulfstan’s Narratio metrica de S. Swithuno, De tonorum harmonia, and many of the hymns attributed to him, were also widely read and referenced by other writers in southern England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, though not to the extent of his Vita.
Editions and translations
- Lapidge, M. and M. Winterbottom. Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St. Aethelwold. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991. [Latin and English]
- Winterbottom, Michael. Three Lives of English Saints. Toronto: Hunter Rose Company, 1972. [Latin only]
Secondary sources
- Fisher, D.J.V. “The Early Biographers of St. Ethelwold.” English Historical Review 67, 1952): 381-91.
- Gneuss, H. “The Life of St. Aethelwold.” Notes &Queries 20, (1973): 479-80.
- John, Eric. “Wulfstan of Winchester’s The Life of St. Aethelwold.” Catholic Historical Review 80, no.3 (1994): 575-584.
- Lapidge, Michael. The Cult of St. Swithun. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Lapidge, Michael. “Poeticism in Pre-Conquest Anglo-Latin Prose.” Proceedings of the British Academy 129, (2005): 321-337.
- Lapidge, M. and M. Winterbottom. Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St. Aethelwold. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
- McIntosh, Angus. “Wulfstan’s Prose.” In British Academic Papers on Anglo-Saxon England, selected and introduced by E.G. Stanley, 111-144. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
- Robinson, J.A. The Times of St. Dunstan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1923, 104-22.
- Speed, Diane. “Text and Meaning in the South English Legendary Lives of Aethelwold.” Notes &Queries 41, (1994): 295-301.
- Winterbottom, Michael. Three Lives of English Saints. Toronto: Hunter Rose Company, 1972.
- Winterbottom, Michael. “Three Lives of Saint Ethelwold.” Medium Aevum 41, no. 3 (1972): 191-201.
- York, Barbara. “Wulfstan of Winchester.” English Historical Review 109, no. 434 (1994): 1244-1245.