Ælfric of Eynsham
Encyclopedia
Ælfric of Eynsham (c. 955 – c. 1010) was an English
abbot
, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography
, homilies
, biblical commentaries
, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian (Alfricus Grammaticus), Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist. In the view of Peter Hunter Blair
, he was "a man comparable both in the quantity of his writings and in the quality of his mind even with Bede
himself."
Ælfric was educated in the Benedictine
Old Minster
at Winchester under Saint Æthelwold
, who was bishop there from 963 to 984. Æthelwold had carried on the tradition of Dunstan
in his government of the abbey
of Abingdon
, and at Winchester he continued his strenuous efforts. He seems to have actually taken part in the teaching activities of the abbey.
Ælfric no doubt gained some reputation as a scholar at Winchester, for when, in 987, the abbey of Cerne
(Cerne Abbas
in Dorset
) was finished, he was sent by Bishop Ælfheah (Alphege
), Æthelwold's successor, at the request of the chief benefactor of the abbey, the ealdorman
Æthelmær the Stout
, to teach the Benedictine monks there. This date (987) is one of only two certain dates we have for Ælfric, who was then in priest's orders. Æthelmaer and his father Æthelweard
were both enlightened patrons of learning, and became Ælfric's faithful friends.
It was at Cerne, and partly at the desire, it appears, of Æthelweard, that he planned the two series of his English homilies (edited by Benjamin Thorpe
, 1844–1846, for the Ælfric Society and more recently by Malcolm Godden and Peter Clemoes
for the Early English Text Society
), compiled from the Christian
fathers, and dedicated to Sigeric
, Archbishop of Canterbury
(990-994). The Latin preface to the first series enumerates some of Ælfric's authorities, the chief of whom was Gregory the Great, but the short list there given by no means exhausts the authors whom he consulted. In the preface to the first volume he regrets that except for Alfred
's translations, Englishmen had no means of learning the true doctrine as expounded by the Latin fathers
. John Earle
(Anglo-Saxon Literature, 1884) thinks he aimed at correcting the apocryphal, and to modern ideas superstitious, teaching of the earlier Blickling Homilies
.
The first series of forty homilies is devoted to plain and direct exposition of the chief events of the Christian year; the second deals more fully with church doctrine and history. Ælfric's teaching on the Eucharist
in the Canons and in the Sermo de sacrificio in die pascae (ibid. ii.262 seq.) was appealed to by the Protestant Reformation
writers as a proof that the early English church did not hold the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation
.
After the two series of homilies, he wrote three works to help students learn Latin, the Grammar, the Glossary and the Colloquy. In his Grammar, he translated the Latin grammar into English, creating what is considered the first vernacular Latin grammar in medieval Europe. His glossary is unusual in that the words are not in alphabetical order, but grouped by topics. Finally, his Colloquy was intended to help students to learn how to speak Latin through a conversation manual. It is safe to assume that the original draft of this, afterwards maybe enlarged by his pupil and copyist, Ælfric Bata
, was by Ælfric, and represents what his own scholar days were like.
A third series of homilies, the Lives of the Saints, (hagiography
) dates from 996 to 997. Some of the sermons in the second series had been written in a kind of rhythmical, alliterative prose, and in the Lives of the Saints (ed. W. W. Skeat, 1881–1900, for the Early English Text Society
) the practice is so regular that most of them are arranged as verse by Professor Skeat. Appended to the Lives of the Saints there are two homilies, On False Gods and The Twelve Abuses. The first one shows how the Church was still fighting against the ancient religion of Britain, but also against the religion of the Danish invaders.
By the wish of Æthelweard he also began a paraphrase
of parts of the Old Testament
, but under protest, for he feared that its wider dissemination might lead the uneducated to believe that the practices of the Ancient Israelites were still acceptable for Christians. There is no certain proof that he remained at Cerne. It has been suggested that this part of his life was chiefly spent at Winchester; but his writings for the patrons of Cerne, and the fact that he wrote in 998 his Canons as a pastoral letter for Wulfsige
, the bishop of Sherborne
, the diocese
in which the abbey was situated, afford presumption of continued residence there.
1005 is the other certain date we have for Ælfric, when he left Cerne for nobleman Æthelmær’s new monastery in Eynsham
, a long eighty-five-mile journey inland in the direction of Oxford. Here he lived out his life as Eynsham’s first abbot, from 1005 until his death. After his elevation, he wrote his Letter to the Monks of Eynsham, an abridgment for his own monks of Æthelwold
's De consuetudine monachorum
, adapted to their rudimentary ideas of monastic life; a letter to Wulfgeat of Ylmandun; an introduction to the study of the Old and New Testaments (about 1008, edited by William L'Isle
in 1623); a Latin life of his master Æthelwold; two pastoral letters for Wulfstan, archbishop of York
and bishop of Worcester, in Latin and English; and an English version of Bede
's De Temporibus.
The last mention of Ælfric Abbot, probably the grammarian, is in a will dating from about 1010.
Ælfric was a conscientious monk who left careful instructions to future scribes to copy his works carefully because he did not want his works' scholarly, salvation-bringing words marred by the introduction of unorthodox passages and scribal errors. Through the centuries, however, Ælfric’s sermons were threatened by the terrorism of Viking
axes and the dangerous banality of human neglect when — some seven hundred years after their composition — they nearly perished in London's Cotton Fire that scorched or destroyed close to 1,000 invaluable ancient works.
Ælfric was the most prolific writer in Old English. His main theme is God's mercy. He writes, for example: "The love that loves God is not idle. Instead, it is strong and works great things always. And if love isn’t willing to work, then it isn’t love. God’s love must be seen in the actions of our mouths and minds and bodies. A person must fulfil God’s word with goodness." (“For Pentecost Sunday”)
He also observes in “For the Sixth Day (Friday) in the Third Week of Lent” and in “For the First Sunday After Pentecost”: "And we ought to worship with true humility if we want our heavenly God to hear us because God is the one who lives in a high place and yet has regard for the deep down humble, and God is always near to those who sincerely call to him in their trouble. . . . Without humility no person can thrive in the Lord."
And in the "Fifth Sunday After Pentecost” he reminds us: "Bosses who cannot permit those working under them to know kindness during this life of labour should never themselves enjoy lives of luxury because they could easily be kind to their workers every day. And then they would have some kindness in their souls. God loves kindness.”
Contrast this leitmotif of God's mercy with Archbishop Wulfstan’s trenchant pulpiteering and thundering sermons. Ælfric by no means expressed the popular opinion of the time. His forward-thinking views toward women (though they were not 'modern' views, by any stretch of the imagination) and his strong stance on 'clǽnnes', or purity, were more extreme than others during that time (see for instance his homily on Judith
). This was, no doubt, related to his service under the monastic reformer Saint Æthelwold in the monastery at Winchester.
. Though Ælfric had formerly been identified with the archbishop, thanks to the work of Lingard and Dietrich, most modern scholars now identify Ælfric as holding no higher office than abbot of Eynsham. However, in the past, there have been attempts to identify him with three different people:
(1) As above, Ælfric was identified with Ælfric of Abingdon (995-1005), Archbishop of Canterbury. This view was upheld by John Bale
; by Humphrey Wanley; by Elizabeth Elstob
; and by Edward Rowe Mores
, Ælfrico, Dorobernensi, archiepiscopo, Commentarius (ed. G. J. Thorkelin, 1789), in which the conclusions of earlier writers on Ælfric are reviewed. Mores made him abbot of St Augustine's at Dover, and finally archbishop of Canterbury.
(2) Sir Henry Spelman
, in his Concina ... printed the Canones ad Wulsinum episcopum and suggested Ælfric Putta
or Putto, Archbishop of York
, as the author, adding some note of others bearing the name. The identity of Ælfric the grammarian with Ælfric archbishop of York was also discussed by Henry Wharton
, in Anglia Sacra.
(3) William of Malmesbury
suggested that he was Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Crediton
.
The main facts of his career were finally elucidated by Eduard Dietrich in a series of articles in the Zeitschrift für historische Theologie, which formed the basis of subsequent writings on the subject.
Hagiography
Old English Heptateuch
Correspondence
Other
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...
abbot
Abbot
The word abbot, meaning father, is a title given to the head of a monastery in various traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not actually the head of a monastery...
, as well as a consummate, prolific writer in Old English of hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
, homilies
Homily
A homily is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture. In Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox Churches, a homily is usually given during Mass at the end of the Liturgy of the Word...
, biblical commentaries
Exegesis
Exegesis is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially a religious text. Traditionally the term was used primarily for exegesis of the Bible; however, in contemporary usage it has broadened to mean a critical explanation of any text, and the term "Biblical exegesis" is used...
, and other genres. He is also known variously as Ælfric the Grammarian (Alfricus Grammaticus), Ælfric of Cerne, and Ælfric the Homilist. In the view of Peter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair
Peter Hunter Blair was an English academic and historian specializing in the Anglo-Saxon period. In 1969 he married Pauline Clarke. She edited his Anglo-Saxon Northumbria in 1984....
, he was "a man comparable both in the quantity of his writings and in the quality of his mind even with 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...
himself."
Life and works
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Old Minster
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....
at Winchester under Saint Æthelwold
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....
, who was bishop there from 963 to 984. Æthelwold had carried on the tradition of Dunstan
Dunstan
Dunstan was an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, a Bishop of Worcester, a Bishop of London, and an Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church...
in his government of the abbey
Abingdon Abbey
Abingdon Abbey was a Benedictine monastery also known as St Mary's Abbey located in Abingdon, historically in the county of Berkshire but now in Oxfordshire, England.-History:...
of Abingdon
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon or archaically Abingdon-on-Thames is a market town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, England. It is the seat of the Vale of White Horse district. Previously the county town of Berkshire, Abingdon is one of several places that claim to be Britain's oldest continuously occupied town, with...
, and at Winchester he continued his strenuous efforts. He seems to have actually taken part in the teaching activities of the abbey.
Ælfric no doubt gained some reputation as a scholar at Winchester, for when, in 987, the abbey of Cerne
Cerne Abbey
Cerne Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 987 AD in the town now called Cerne Abbas by Æthelmær the Stout. Ælfric of Eynsham, the most prolific writer in Old English was known to have spent time at the abbey as a priest and teacher....
(Cerne Abbas
Cerne Abbas
Cerne Abbas is a village located in the valley of the River Cerne, between steep chalk downland in central Dorset, England. The village is located just to the east of the A352 road north of Dorchester. There was a population of 732 at the 2001 census, a figure which has fallen from 780 in 1998.In...
in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
) was finished, he was sent by Bishop Ælfheah (Alphege
Alphege
Ælfheah , officially remembered by the name Alphege within some churches, and also called Elphege, Alfege, or Godwine, was an Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Winchester, later Archbishop of Canterbury. He became an anchorite before being elected abbot of Bath Abbey...
), Æthelwold's successor, at the request of the chief benefactor of the abbey, the ealdorman
Ealdorman
An ealdorman is the term used for a high-ranking royal official and prior magistrate of an Anglo-Saxon shire or group of shires from about the ninth century to the time of King Cnut...
Æthelmær the Stout
Æthelmær the Stout
Æthelmær the Stout or Æthelmær Cild was ealdorman of the western provinces from c. 1005 to 1015. He was the son of Æthelweard the historian, and descended from King Æthelred I....
, to teach the Benedictine monks there. This date (987) is one of only two certain dates we have for Ælfric, who was then in priest's orders. Æthelmaer and his father Æthelweard
Æthelweard
Æðelweard, King of Hwicce, apparently jointly with his presumed brothers Æthelheard, Æthelberht, and Æthelric. He was the son of Oshere.He is known from charters:...
were both enlightened patrons of learning, and became Ælfric's faithful friends.
It was at Cerne, and partly at the desire, it appears, of Æthelweard, that he planned the two series of his English homilies (edited by Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe
Benjamin Thorpe was an English scholar of Anglo-Saxon.-Biography:After studying for four years at Copenhagen University, under the Danish philologist Rasmus Christian Rask, he returned to England in 1830, and in 1832 published an English version of Caedmon's metrical paraphrase of portions of the...
, 1844–1846, for the Ælfric Society and more recently by Malcolm Godden and Peter Clemoes
Peter Clemoes
Peter Alan Martin Clemoes was a British historian.Born in Southend-on-Sea and educated at Brentwood School, he originally wished to become an actor and won a scholarship to RADA but the Second World War intervened and he served with the Royal Corps of Signals...
for the Early English Text Society
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes are in Middle English and Old English...
), compiled from the Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
fathers, and dedicated to Sigeric
Sigeric the Serious
Sigeric was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 990 to 994.It is unclear whether the epithet "The Serious" originated from his learning, or if it derived from transliteration of his name into Latin as Serio.- Biography :...
, Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
(990-994). The Latin preface to the first series enumerates some of Ælfric's authorities, the chief of whom was Gregory the Great, but the short list there given by no means exhausts the authors whom he consulted. In the preface to the first volume he regrets that except for Alfred
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was King of Wessex from 871 to 899.Alfred is noted for his defence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of southern England against the Vikings, becoming the only English monarch still to be accorded the epithet "the Great". Alfred was the first King of the West Saxons to style himself...
's translations, Englishmen had no means of learning the true doctrine as expounded by the Latin fathers
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were early and influential theologians, eminent Christian teachers and great bishops. Their scholarly works were used as a precedent for centuries to come...
. John Earle
John Earle (professor)
John Earle M.A., LL.D. was a British Anglo-Saxon language scholar. He was twice Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford. Earle wrote more than a dozen scholarly books. He is perhaps best known as the author of Two Saxon Chronicles Parallel , and Anglo-Saxon...
(Anglo-Saxon Literature, 1884) thinks he aimed at correcting the apocryphal, and to modern ideas superstitious, teaching of the earlier Blickling Homilies
Blickling homilies
The Blickling Homilies are the second largest collection of anonymous homilies written in Old English. The Blickling Homilies are written in prose and said to have been written down by possibly two different scribes before the end of the 10th century. This might be one of the oldest collection of...
.
The first series of forty homilies is devoted to plain and direct exposition of the chief events of the Christian year; the second deals more fully with church doctrine and history. Ælfric's teaching on the Eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
in the Canons and in the Sermo de sacrificio in die pascae (ibid. ii.262 seq.) was appealed to by the Protestant Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
writers as a proof that the early English church did not hold the Roman doctrine of transubstantiation
Transubstantiation
In Roman Catholic theology, transubstantiation means the change, in the Eucharist, of the substance of wheat bread and grape wine into the substance of the Body and Blood, respectively, of Jesus, while all that is accessible to the senses remains as before.The Eastern Orthodox...
.
After the two series of homilies, he wrote three works to help students learn Latin, the Grammar, the Glossary and the Colloquy. In his Grammar, he translated the Latin grammar into English, creating what is considered the first vernacular Latin grammar in medieval Europe. His glossary is unusual in that the words are not in alphabetical order, but grouped by topics. Finally, his Colloquy was intended to help students to learn how to speak Latin through a conversation manual. It is safe to assume that the original draft of this, afterwards maybe enlarged by his pupil and copyist, Ælfric Bata
Ælfric Bata
Ælfric, called Bata , was a monk and a disciple of Ælfric the abbot, called Grammaticus some time before 1005. From the Oxford MS...
, was by Ælfric, and represents what his own scholar days were like.
A third series of homilies, the Lives of the Saints, (hagiography
Hagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
) dates from 996 to 997. Some of the sermons in the second series had been written in a kind of rhythmical, alliterative prose, and in the Lives of the Saints (ed. W. W. Skeat, 1881–1900, for the Early English Text Society
Early English Text Society
The Early English Text Society is an organization to reprint early English texts, especially those only available in manuscript. Most of its volumes are in Middle English and Old English...
) the practice is so regular that most of them are arranged as verse by Professor Skeat. Appended to the Lives of the Saints there are two homilies, On False Gods and The Twelve Abuses. The first one shows how the Church was still fighting against the ancient religion of Britain, but also against the religion of the Danish invaders.
By the wish of Æthelweard he also began a paraphrase
Biblical paraphrase
A Biblical paraphrase is a literary work that has as its goal not the translation of the Bible but, rather, the rendering of the Bible into a work that retells all or part of the Bible in a manner that accords with a particular set of theological or political doctrines...
of parts of the Old Testament
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
, but under protest, for he feared that its wider dissemination might lead the uneducated to believe that the practices of the Ancient Israelites were still acceptable for Christians. There is no certain proof that he remained at Cerne. It has been suggested that this part of his life was chiefly spent at Winchester; but his writings for the patrons of Cerne, and the fact that he wrote in 998 his Canons as a pastoral letter for Wulfsige
Wulfsige
Wulsige is an Anglo-Saxon name that can refer to a number of people.* Wulfsige of Sherborne Bishop of Sherborne* Wulfsige of London Bishop of London* Wulfsige of York Bishop of York...
, the bishop of Sherborne
Sherborne
Sherborne is a market town in northwest Dorset, England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The A30 road, which connects London to Penzance, runs through the town. The population of the town is 9,350 . 27.1% of the population is aged 65 or...
, the diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
in which the abbey was situated, afford presumption of continued residence there.
1005 is the other certain date we have for Ælfric, when he left Cerne for nobleman Æthelmær’s new monastery in Eynsham
Eynsham Abbey
Eynsham Abbey was a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in England between 1005 and 1538. King Æthelred allowed Æthelmær the Stout to found the abbey in 1005. There is some evidence that the abbey was built on the site of an earlier minster, probably founded in the 7th or 8th...
, a long eighty-five-mile journey inland in the direction of Oxford. Here he lived out his life as Eynsham’s first abbot, from 1005 until his death. After his elevation, he wrote his Letter to the Monks of Eynsham, an abridgment for his own monks of Æthelwold
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....
's De consuetudine monachorum
Regularis Concordia (Winchester)
The Regularis Concordia, or Monastic Agreement, was a document produced at Winchester, England, in about 970.The document was compiled by Æthelwold, who was aided by monks from Fleury and Ghent. A synodal council was summoned to construct a common rule of life to be observed by all monasteries...
, adapted to their rudimentary ideas of monastic life; a letter to Wulfgeat of Ylmandun; an introduction to the study of the Old and New Testaments (about 1008, edited by William L'Isle
William L'Isle
William Lisle was an English antiquary and scholar of Anglo-Saxon literature. He studied at Eton and King's College Cambridge, where he achieved a B.A. and an M.A. . He is one of the known owners of the [F] manuscript of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the so-called Peterborough Chronicle, in which...
in 1623); a Latin life of his master Æthelwold; two pastoral letters for Wulfstan, archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
and bishop of Worcester, in Latin and English; and an English version 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 De Temporibus.
The last mention of Ælfric Abbot, probably the grammarian, is in a will dating from about 1010.
Ælfric was a conscientious monk who left careful instructions to future scribes to copy his works carefully because he did not want his works' scholarly, salvation-bringing words marred by the introduction of unorthodox passages and scribal errors. Through the centuries, however, Ælfric’s sermons were threatened by the terrorism of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
axes and the dangerous banality of human neglect when — some seven hundred years after their composition — they nearly perished in London's Cotton Fire that scorched or destroyed close to 1,000 invaluable ancient works.
Ælfric was the most prolific writer in Old English. His main theme is God's mercy. He writes, for example: "The love that loves God is not idle. Instead, it is strong and works great things always. And if love isn’t willing to work, then it isn’t love. God’s love must be seen in the actions of our mouths and minds and bodies. A person must fulfil God’s word with goodness." (“For Pentecost Sunday”)
He also observes in “For the Sixth Day (Friday) in the Third Week of Lent” and in “For the First Sunday After Pentecost”: "And we ought to worship with true humility if we want our heavenly God to hear us because God is the one who lives in a high place and yet has regard for the deep down humble, and God is always near to those who sincerely call to him in their trouble. . . . Without humility no person can thrive in the Lord."
And in the "Fifth Sunday After Pentecost” he reminds us: "Bosses who cannot permit those working under them to know kindness during this life of labour should never themselves enjoy lives of luxury because they could easily be kind to their workers every day. And then they would have some kindness in their souls. God loves kindness.”
Contrast this leitmotif of God's mercy with Archbishop Wulfstan’s trenchant pulpiteering and thundering sermons. Ælfric by no means expressed the popular opinion of the time. His forward-thinking views toward women (though they were not 'modern' views, by any stretch of the imagination) and his strong stance on 'clǽnnes', or purity, were more extreme than others during that time (see for instance his homily on Judith
Judith (homily)
Judith is a homily written by abbot Ælfric of Eynsham around the year 1000. It is extant in two manuscripts, a fairly complete version being found in Corpus Christi College Cambridge MS 303, and fragments in British Library MS Cotton Otho B.x, which came from the Cotton Library.The homily is...
). This was, no doubt, related to his service under the monastic reformer Saint Æthelwold in the monastery at Winchester.
Identification
Until the end of the nineteenth century, the true identification of Ælfric had been problematic, primarily because Ælfric had often been confused with Ælfric of Abingdon, who served as Archbishop of CanterburyArchbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
. Though Ælfric had formerly been identified with the archbishop, thanks to the work of Lingard and Dietrich, most modern scholars now identify Ælfric as holding no higher office than abbot of Eynsham. However, in the past, there have been attempts to identify him with three different people:
(1) As above, Ælfric was identified with Ælfric of Abingdon (995-1005), Archbishop of Canterbury. This view was upheld by John Bale
John Bale
John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...
; by Humphrey Wanley; by Elizabeth Elstob
Elizabeth Elstob
Elizabeth Elstob , the 'Saxon Nymph,' was born and brought up in the Quayside area of Newcastle upon Tyne, and, like Mary Astell of Newcastle, is nowadays regarded as one of the first English feminists...
; and by Edward Rowe Mores
Edward Rowe Mores
Edward Rowe Mores, FSA was an English antiquarian and scholar, with works on history and typography...
, Ælfrico, Dorobernensi, archiepiscopo, Commentarius (ed. G. J. Thorkelin, 1789), in which the conclusions of earlier writers on Ælfric are reviewed. Mores made him abbot of St Augustine's at Dover, and finally archbishop of Canterbury.
(2) Sir Henry Spelman
Henry Spelman
Sir Henry Spelman was an English antiquary, noted for his detailed collections of medieval records, in particular of church councils.-Life:...
, in his Concina ... printed the Canones ad Wulsinum episcopum and suggested Ælfric Putta
Aelfric Puttoc
Ælfric Puttoc , sometimes modernized Alfric Puttock, was a medieval Archbishop of York and Bishop of Worcester.-Early:Ælfric first appears in the historical record as the provost of New Minster, Winchester. He was probably a native of Wessex...
or Putto, Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
, as the author, adding some note of others bearing the name. The identity of Ælfric the grammarian with Ælfric archbishop of York was also discussed by Henry Wharton
Henry Wharton
Henry Wharton was an English writer and librarian.-Life:He was descended from Thomas, 2nd Baron Wharton , being a son of the Rev. Edmund Wharton, vicar of Worstead, Norfolk. Born at Worstead, Wharton was educated by his father, and then at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge...
, in Anglia Sacra.
(3) 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,...
suggested that he was Abbot of Malmesbury and Bishop of Crediton
Bishop of Exeter
The Bishop of Exeter is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. The incumbent usually signs his name as Exon or incorporates this in his signature....
.
The main facts of his career were finally elucidated by Eduard Dietrich in a series of articles in the Zeitschrift für historische Theologie, which formed the basis of subsequent writings on the subject.
Further reading
- Davis, Graeme.The Word Order of Ælfric. Edwin Mellen Press, 1997.
- Frantzen, Allen J. The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1983.
- Gatch, Milton McC. Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: Ælfric and Wulfstan. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977.
- Godfrey, John. The Church in Anglo-Saxon England. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
- Grundy, Lynne. Books and Grace: Ælfric’s Theology. King’s College London Medieval Studies VI. London: King’s College, 1991.
- Hurt, James. Ælfric. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1972.
- Lutz, Cora E. Schoolmasters of the Tenth Century. Archon Books (1977).
- White, Caroline L. Ælfric: A New Study of His Life and Writings: With a Supplementary Classified Bibliography Prepared by Malcolm R. Godden, Yale Studies in English II. 1898. Ed. Albert S. Cook. Hamden: Archon Books, 1974.
- Whitelock, Dorothy. “Two Notes on Ælfric and Wulfstan.” 1943. In History, Law and Literature in 10th-11th Century England, 122-26. London: Variorum Reprints, 1981.
- Wilcox, Jonathan, ed. Ælfric’s Prefaces. Durham Medieval Texts, Number 9. Durham: Durham Medieval Texts, 1994.
- Hugh Magennis and Mary Swan (eds.). A Companion to Ælfric (Leiden, Brill, 2009) (Brill's Companions to the Christian Tradition, 18).
Selected bibliography: editions of works by Ælfric
Homilies- Pope, John C., ed. Homilies of Ælfric: a Supplementary Collection. Being twenty-one full homilies of his middle and later career for the most part not previously edited, with some shorter pieces, mainly passages added to the second and third Series. 2 volumes. EETS 259, 260. London: Oxford University Press, 1967, 1968.
- Clemoes, Peter, ed. Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: the First Series Text. EETS. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
- Eliason, Norman and Peter Clemoes, eds. Ælfric’s First Series of Catholic Homilies. British Museum Royal 7 C. XII fols. 4-218. EETS. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile 13. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1966.
- Elstob, Elizabeth. An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory: anciently used in the English-Saxon Church. Giving an account of the conversion of the English from paganism to Christianity, Translated into Modern English, with notes, etc.. London: W. Bowyer, 1709.
- idem. An English-Saxon Homily on the Birth-day of St. Gregory: anciently used in the English-Saxon Church. Giving an account of the conversion of the English from paganism to Christianity, Translated into Modern English, with notes, etc.. London: W. Bowyer, 1709. Created by Timothy Graham and designed by John Chandler. Kalamazoo, MI: The Board of the Medieval Institute, 2002. [cited 11 October 2004]. http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/research/rawl/elstob/cover.html.
- Fausbøll, Else, ed. Fifty-Six Ælfric Fragments: the Newly-Found Copenhagen Fragments of Ælfric's Catholic Homilies with Facsimiles. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen, 1986.
- Godden, Malcolm, ed. Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: Introduction, Commentary, and Glossary. EETS. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- idem. Ælfric’s Catholic Homilies: the Second Series Text. EETS. London: Oxford University Press, 1979.
- Temple, Winifred M. "An Edition of the Old English Homilies in the British Museum MS. Cotton Vitellius C.v.” 3 volumes. Diss. Edinburgh University, 1952.
- Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. and trans. The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church. The First Part, Containing The Sermones Catholici, or Homilies of Ælfric. In the original Anglo-Saxon, with an English version. 2 volumes. Ælfrices Bocgild. London: Richard and John E. Taylor, 1844, 1846.
- Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. 3rd ed. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1977.
Hagiography
- Skeat, Walter W. (ed. and tr.). Ælfric’s Lives of Saints. Being a set of sermons on saints’ days formerly observed by the English Church. 2 volumes. EETS OS 76, 82 and 94, 114. London: N. Trübner & Co., 1881–85, 1890-1900. Reprinted as 2 volumes, 1966.
- Griffiths, Bill, ed. and trans. St Cuthbert: Ælfric's Life of the Saint in Old English with Modern English Parallel. Seaham: Anglo-Saxon Books, 1992.
- Needham, G. I., ed. Ælfric: Lives of Three English Saints. Gen. ed. M. J. Swanton. Exeter Medieval English Texts. 2nd ed. Exeter: University of Exeter, 1984.
- Smith, Alexandra. “Ælfric’s Life of St. Cuthbert, Catholic Homily II.X: an edition with introduction, notes, translation, and glossary.” Diss. Queen’s University at Kingston, 1972.
- Corona, Gabriella, ed. Ælfric’s Life of Saint Basil the Great: Background and Content. Anglo-Saxon Texts 5. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2006. ISBN 978-1-84384-095-4 http://www.boydell.co.uk/43840952.HTM
- Upchurch, Robert, ed. Ælfric’s Lives of the Virgin Spouses with Modern English Parallel-Text Translations. Exeter Medieval Texts and Studies. University of Exeter Press, 2007. http://www.press.uchicago.edu/presssite/metadata.epl?mode=synopsis&bookkey=5984689
Old English Heptateuch
Heptateuch
The Heptateuch is a name sometimes given to the first seven books of the Hebrew Bible. The first five of these are commonly known as "the five books of Moses", the Torah or the Pentateuch; the first six as the Hexateuch. With the addition of the Book of Ruth, it becomes the Octateuch...
- Crawford, Samuel J., ed. The Old English Version of the Heptateuch, Ælfric’s Treatise on the Old and New Testament and His Preface to Genesis. EETS OS 160. London: Oxford University Press, 1969.
Correspondence
- Fehr, Bernhard, ed. Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics: in Altenglischer und Lateinischer Fassung. 1914. With a supplement to the Introduction by Peter Clemoes. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1966.
- Jones, Christopher A. Ælfric's Letter to the Monks of Eynsham. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Other
- Crawford, Samuel J., ed. Exameron Anglice or The Old English Hexameron. Hamburg: Verlag von Henri Grand, 1921.
- Henel, Heinrich, ed. Ælfric’s De Temporibus Anni. EETS OS 213. 1942. Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1970.
- Zupitza, Julius. Ælfrics Grammatik und Glossar. Berlin: Weidmannsche BuchhandlungWeidmannsche BuchhandlungWeidmannsche Buchhandlung is a German book publisher established in 1680 that remained independent until it was acquired by Verlag Georg Olms in 1983..-History:...
, 1880. scans available online - Throop, Priscilla, trans., Aelfric's Grammar and Glossary, Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2008.
- Garmonsway, G. N., ed. Colloquy. Ælfric. 2nd ed. 1939. Exeter: University of Exeter, 1999.