No More Learning

The gloomy tale is nowhere better told than in the Chronicle,
which, written in simple language, alone marks for more than half a
century the continuance of literary activity in England.
See note on p. 445.


## p. 109 (#129) ############################################

The Old English Chronicle 109
The beginning of the Chronicle is usually ascribed to the influence
of Alfred, and it continues for two and a half centuries after that
king's reign, long after the last English king had been slain and the
old tongue banished from court and school. Its principal recen-
sions' differ from one another not in the main story, but in the
attention given to various details, and in the length to which they
are carried. Owing to the number of hands employed in its
composition, the literary merit is very unequal; sometimes the
entries consist of a date and the simple statement of an event; at
others we find passages of fluent and glowing narrative, as in the
record of the war-filled years from 911 to 924. The period from
925 to 975 is very bare, and such entries as exist relate mostly
to church matters. It is, however, within this time that the
principal poems of the Chronicle are inserted. Under 991 is
told the story of Anlaf's raid at Maldon in which Byrhtnoth fell.
In the years 975—1001, the Chronicle is of extreme interest, and
the annals for the year 1001 are very full. Some time about
the middle, or towards the last quarter, of the eleventh century
the present recension of the Winchester chronicle was transplanted
to Christ Church, Canterbury, and there completed with Canterbury
annals, passages being interpolated in various places from begin-
ning to end from the chronicle kept at St Augustine's, Christ
Church library having been previously burnt. Before this, the
notice taken of Canterbury events was so extremely slight that
we do not even hear of the murder of archbishop Aelfhēah (St
Alphege) by the Danes. The MS known as Cott. Tib. A. VI
seems to have been originally meant to serve as an introduction
to further annals, which, however, were never written; and it
is, apparently, a copy of the original Abingdon chronicle (itself
a copy of the original Winchester, written at Abingdon), which
did not reach beyond 977. The MS under consideration is shown,
by a mass of internal and external evidence, to have been written
about 977, the year to which its annals reach. It may fitly be
called the shorter Abingdon chronicle to distinguish it from the
longer Abingdon chronicle referred to below, with which it has
did not reacof internal an which its anne
i The Winchester or Parker chronicle, in the library of Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge; the shorter Abingdon chronicle (Cott, Tib. A. VI); the longer Abingdon
chronicle (Cott. Tib. B. I); the Evesham or Worcester chronicle (Cott. Tib. B. IV);
the Peterborough chronicle (Bod. Laud. 636).
* The recension under notice is a copy of the original Winchester chronicle, which
latter was also the source of the original Abingdon chronicle. Hence the agreement
with Tib. A. VI, and Tib. B. I, up to 892. Naturally, it does not incorporate the
Mercian chronicle, but maintains a kind of separate parallelism from 894–915.


## p. 110 (#130) ############################################

110
Alfred to the Conquest
From
much in common’; both, for example, bodily insert the Mercian
annals (sometimes called the chronicle of Aethelflaed). These
extend from 902–925, and tell, with some detail, of the warlike
feats of the Lady of Mercia. It may be noted, in passing, that these
Mercian annals occur in the so-called Worcester chronicle, where,
however, they are distributed, with some omissions, amongst other
matter. These Mercian annals are of the greatest interest, both in
origin and history. Their chronology differs considerably from that
of other chronicles. Perhaps the original document, or some copy
of it, in which they were contained, is to be traced under the
record Cronica duo Anglica in the Catalogi veteres librorum
Ecclesiae Dunelmi, where we also find the record of Elfedes Boc
in the same place. This at once suggests to us the existence
of these annals in a book of Aethelflaed, telling of her fight for
English freedom. Thus, the inscription and record bring us into
close connection with what may well have suggested and stimulated
the heroic poem of Judith.
The (longer) Abingdon chronicle is so called because, from its
references to the affairs of that monastery, it is supposed to have
been written there. This longer chronicle is not expanded from
the shorter, nor the shorter extracted from the longer. Both have
a number of independent annals up to the very year 977 where the
common original ended. It may be surmised that the author of
the recension under notice found the original Abingdon ready up
to 977 (when the troubles consequent on Edgar's death may have
accounted for many things), and further annals up to 1018, to
which he made later additions. The MS tells of the election of
Siward, abbot of Abingdon, as archbishop of Canterbury in 1044,
the appointment of Aethelstan as his successor to the abbacy,
Aethelstan's death in 1047 and archbishop Siward's return to the
monastery after his retirement from office in 1048.
In 892, a copy of the southern chronicle was sent to a northern
cloister, and there was revised with the aid of the text of Bede's
Ecclesiastical History. There seems, also, to have been a northern
continuation of Bede's History, and, from this, were woven into
the chronicler's text annals from 737–806. Fifteen of these annals
are wholly, and sixteen partly, Northumbrian. That these annals
were taken from some such source seems to be proved by their
being found also in other works. The chronicler then followed
southern sources until 904, when he began to weave into his
text the book of Aethelflaed, mingling with it southern and
1 Cott. Tib. B. Le Cott. Tib. B. IV. See p. 142


## p. 111 (#131) ############################################

III
The Old English Chronicle
northern records. From 983—1022, he returned to his Abingdon
source. After this he struck out on his own line. From the
original thus created was copied the extant MS commonly known
as the Worcester or Evesham chronicle', which shows especial
acquaintance with the midlands and north. The close connection
between Worcester and York is shown by the fact that the arch-
bishop of York is mentioned simply as “the archbishop. ” The
chronicle shows strong feeling on the subject of Godwin's outlawry,
and in every way supports that nobleman. Alone amongst the
chronicles it tells the sad tale of the battle of Hastings. The
original, from which the above chronicle was copied, seems also to
have been the basis for that patriotic Kentish chronicle, now lost,
which was the chief source both of the Peterborough chronicle up
to 1123 and the recension known as Cott. Dom. A. VIII, 2.
The Peterborough chronicle is the longest of all, extending to
the year 1154. In 1116, the town and monastery of Peterborough
were destroyed by a terrible fire, which left standing only the
monastic chapterhouse and dormitory, and when, in 1121, the
rebuilding was completed, the annals contained in this chronicle
were undertaken to replace those lost in the fire. They were
based on the lost Kentish chronicle, which must have been for-
warded to Peterborough for that purpose. This original Kentish
chronicle is full of patriotic feeling, and shows great knowledge
of southern affairs from Canute's death, the burial of Harold
Harefoot (the record of which it alone rightly tells) and the
viking raid on Sandwich, to the feuds between English and
Normans in the reign of the Confessor. It relates count Eustace's
broils with the English at Canterbury and Dover, and the flight of
archbishop Robert, leaving his pallium behind him, an annal recorded
with dangerously schismatic glee. The scribe had lived at the
court of William the Conqueror, and had, therefore, seen the face
of the great enemy of the English. The entries for the tenth
century are very meagre; but from 991 to 1075 they are much
fuller and contain, among other contemporary records, the story
of the ravages of Hereward. Towards the end of the chronicle,
which is written in a somewhat rough and ready manner, occurs
the famous passage, often quoted by historians, telling of the
wretchedness of the common folk during the reign of Stephen and
its civil wars.
From the lost Kentish chronicle is derived the recension known
as F or Cott. Domitian A. VIII, 2, seemingly written by one hand
1 Cott. Tib. B. IV.
* Bod. Land. 636.


## p. 112 (#132) ############################################

112 From Alfred to the Conquest
in the twelfth century, and of interest because of its mixed use
Bar of Latin and English. In this it indicates the approach of the
employment of Latin as the general literary vehicle of English
culture. There is great confusion in its bilingual employment
of Latin and English ; sometimes English is the original and
Latin the copy, at other times the process is reversed; finally,
in some passages, Latin and English become ludicrously mixed.
Two other recensions exist as mere fragments : one, of three
damaged leaves, in a hand of the eleventh century, is bound
up with a copy of Bede's Ecclesiastical History? ; and the other?
consists of a single leaf. The manuscript to which the former of
these fragments belonged was edited by Wheloc in 1644 before it
was consumed in the Cottonian fire.
The following table adapted from Plummer shows the relations of the
various MSS to each other, the extant MSS being indicated by initial letters:
Original Winchester
(A) Winchester Original Abingdon
(B) (shorter) Abingdon (O) (longer) Abingdon Original Worcester
Lost Kentish
(D) Worcester
Lost enlarged Kentish (F) MS. Cotton Dom. A. VIII, 2.
(E) Peterborough
The Chronicle is of inestimable value as an authority for the
history of the time. The impression it leaves on the reader
is one of almost unrelieved gloom. Records of harrying with
fire and sword occur on almost every page, and, whether the
English ealdormen or the Danes “possess the place of slaughter,"
the wild lawlessness and the contempt for human life which pre-
vailed during the greater part of the period are plainly visible.
Sometimes the chronicler displays bitter indignation at the mis-
government of the country, as when he tells how Aethelred and
his ealdormen and the high witan forsook the navy which had
been collected with immense effort by the people and “let the
toil of all the nation thus lightly perish. ” But the entries are
usually of an entirely impersonal kind; the horror and desolation,
the fiery signs in the heaven and the plagues that befell men and
cattle upon earth, are recorded without comment; such misfortunes
were too common to call for special remark in the days of the long
struggle between Dane and Englishman.
Cott. Oth, B. XI, 2.
• Cott. Tib. A. III, fol. 175,


## p. 113 (#133) ############################################

The Monastic Reform
113
It has already been said that this portion of the Chronicle
contains several fragments of verse. These will be noticed later.
Here, it may, however, be remarked that some passages, written as
prose, are based on songs which have been inserted, after some
slight modification, by the scribe; and, towards the end of the
Peterborough chronicle, there occur some long stretches of rhythmic
prose almost akin to the sung verse of the people. These may be
either a development of the loose rhythm of Aelfric's prose, or may,
possibly, result from the incorporation of ballads and their reduc-
tion to prose. The subject is, however, still too obscure to admit
of any very definite statement on this point, and most of what has
been said on this subject seems far removed from finality.
From this brief description of the manuscripts of the Chronicle
we must turn to the homilists, who showed especial vigour between
960 and 1020. The development reached in style and in literary
tradition is at once apparent; it had its origin, doubtless, in the
religious revival of the tenth century, which emanated from Fleury,
and was identified in England with the names of Dunstan, Aethel-
wold and Oswald, the "three torches” of the church.
At the beginning of the tenth century, English monasticism and,
therefore, the state of learning in England, were in a deplorable
condition, from which all the efforts of king Alfred had been
unable to lift them. There were religious houses, of course, but
most of these seem to have been in the condition of Abingdon
when Aethelwold was appointed abbot"a place in which a little
monastery had been kept up from ancient days, but then desolate
and neglected, consisting of mean buildings and possessing only
a few hides. ” To the influence of the Benedictine reformers
we owe much of the prose literature of the tenth and eleventh
centuries. The great bond thus knit once more between English
literature and the literature of the continent ensured our share in
what was then living of classical and pseudo-classical lore.
With the accession of Edgar (959) better times dawned. On
the death of Odo, Dunstan became archbishop, and, in 961, Oswald,
Odo's nephew, was consecrated to the see of Worcester. His
appointment was followed in 963 by that of Aethelwold, abbot
of Abingdon, to the see of Winchester, and the three bishops set
about a vigorous ecclesiastical reform. During the reigns of
Edgar and his sons no fewer than forty monasteries for men
were founded or restored, and these were peopled chiefly by
monks trained at Abingdon or Winchester.
E. L. I. CH. VII.
8


## p. 114 (#134) ############################################

114 From Alfred to the Conquest
The most famous school of all was that founded at Winchester
by Aethelwold, one of the most distinguished of the pupils of
Dunstan, and himself an enthusiastic teacher, who did not scorn
to explain the difficulties of Donatus and Priscian to the postulants
and other youthful frequenters of the Benedictine school. The
most important of his scholars was Aelfric, the greatest prose
writer in the vernacular before the Conquest.
The inhabitants of the newly restored monasteries naturally
required instruction in the Benedictine rule, and to this necessity
is due the version of the rule which Aethelwold drew up under
the title Regularis Concordia Anglicae Nationis Monachorum
Sanctimonialiumque. In the beginning of this he stated that the
work had the sanction of the king, and that it was framed at a
council at Winchester. The name of the writer is nowhere given,
and, were it not that Aelfric, in his Letter to the Monks of
Eynsham, says that the source of his information is bishop
Aethelwold's De Consuetudine, and quotes long passages from the
Regularis (evidently the same work), we should be ignorant
of the authorship?
But it was not enough to multiply copies and commentaries
of the Rule in Latin. Many of the newly admitted postulants
and novices were quite ignorant of that language, and, therefore,
king Edgar further entrusted Aethelwold with the task of
translating the Rule into English, giving him, in acknowledgment,
the manor of Southborne, which he assigned to the newly restored
monastery at Ely. There are several MSS containing an Old
English version of the Rule, and, in one of them, it is followed
by a historical sketch of the monastic revival of the tenth century,
which recounts Edgar's share in the movement, his refounding
of Abingdon and his command to translate into English the Rule.
Schröer thinks that this tractate is by the author of the foregoing
version of the Rule; but, since the writer calls himself everywhere
“abbot,” and not “bishop,” if it is by Aethelwold, he must have
made it between 959, the year of Edgar's accession, and 963, when
he became bishop of Winchester.
It is possible that the Blickling Homilies, so called because
the MS is preserved at Blickling Hall, Norfolk, were also due
to this religious revival. They are nineteen in number, but several
are incomplete, and some are mere fragments. The earlier
Miss Bateson, Rules for monks and secular canons after the revival under king
Edgar, Eng. Hist. Review, 1894.
2 Faustina A.


## p. 115 (#135) ############################################

The Blickling Homilies 115
homilies are sermons, properly so called; but the later are largely
narrative in character, and are based on legendary sources.
The style of these homilies stands midway between the style --
of Alfred and that of Aelfric; it is more developed than the
one, more primitive than the other; it is rude, vehement and
homely, more indulgent of legend and shows the primitive love
for recitative; the syntax is clumsy, and the vocabulary often
archaic. On the other hand, the treatment is sometimes very
poetical, though this characteristic appears rather in simile and
metaphor than in rhythm of structure. “The redness of the rose
glitters in thee, and the whiteness of the lily shines in thee," says
Gabriel to Mary; and Heaven is pictured as a place where there
“is youth without age; nor is there hunger nor thirst, nor wind
nor storm nor rush of waters. " The palm branch in the hand
of the angel who announces to the Virgin her approaching death
is “bright as the morning star," and the Lord appears to Andrew
with a face “like that of a fair child. ” Equally poetical are the
passages that deal with more sombre themes, such as doomsday,
the lamentation of the lost at the barrowing of hell and the vision
of St Paul of the souls clinging to the cliffs from which the devils
sought to drag them away. Morris has pointed out that there is
a good deal of similarity between this last passage and the well-
known lines in Beowulf which describe the “rimy groves” which
grew above the abyss where Grendel had his home. But exactly
similar descriptions are found in all other versions of this aged
legend? . Aelfric, it is true, rejected the legend on critical grounds,
but the coming centuries were to see it become the basis of a
masterpiece of the world's poetry. Comparisons of these Old
English legends with their sources and cognate branches lead
to the conclusion that the poetic element which was inherent in
them could scarcely be destroyed altogether, however poor the
translation might be.
The probable date of these homilies is towards the close of / --
the third quarter of the tenth century; they refer to the universal
belief, based on a misunderstanding of the Talmudic metaphor
prevailing throughout the Revelation of St John, that the year
1000 would see the end of the world; and one of them, the
eleventh, contains a statement to the effect that it was composed
in 971. This date cannot be accepted as indisputably that of the
whole collection ; the passage may be an interpolation, and,
1 Cf. the Provençal.
82


## p. 116 (#136) ############################################

116 From Alfred to the Conquest
moreover, there is nothing to prove that all the homilies were
composed at the same time, or by one writer.
During these years Aelfric was growing up in the monastery
school at Winchester. The exact year of his birth is not known,
but, as he himself tells us that he spent many years as a pupil
of Aethelwold, who died in 984, we may, perhaps, put the date at
about 955. It is worth noticing that, in his Life of St Swithun,
Aelfric describes with some detail the translation of the relics
of that saint to the restored cathedral at Winchester, and, as this
took place in 971, he was then, probably, a postulant. We know
that he was a priest, and over thirty years of age, when, in 987,
he was sent to the abbey of Cerne in Dorsetshire to instruct
the brethren in the Benedictine rule, that is to say, when he was
novice-master of Cerne abbey.
It was soon after this that Aelfric composed his first homilies,
in two series, each of which has a Latin preface addressed to
Sigeric, archbishop of Canterbury. As Sigeric's years of office
extended only from 989 to 995, and as he was absent in Rome
during the first two or three of these years, the homilies were,
probably, composed between the years 990 and 995. The second
series is more exactly dated by a reference in the Latin preface to
the Danish attack on Southampton in 994, so that we may assign
the first collection to the years 990 to 993.
In addition to the Latin prefaces, there is prefixed to each
series a statement in English composed much later, probably after
1016, recounting the reasons which had induced the author to turn
them from Latin into the vernacular. In the first, he explains that
he has done it for the sake of unlearned men, who, especially at
this time, when the end of the world is approaching, need to be
fortified against tribulation and hardship; and, remembering the
injunctions of Christ, Aelfric believed it to be his duty also to
teach the ignorant. The English preface to the second series is
much shorter, simply stating the author's reasons for dividing
the homilies into two books, and giving the sources in general
terms.
According to the original plan each collection was to consist of
forty sermons, and each was to cover the whole of the church year,
the second treating of such Sundays and feast-days as were not
mentioned in the first. But neither in the manuscripts nor in
Thorpe's edition does the number of homilies correspond with this
scheme; for, while the first series contains forty, the second has
forty-five, of which the last six do not belong to the original


## p. 117 (#137) ############################################

The Works of Aelfric
117
collection. This gives only thirty-nine; but, if the two sermons
for mid-Lent Sunday are counted separately, we arrive at the
proper number. The two series were designed to give alternate
sermons for the greater feast-days, the first series being simple,
doctrinal and instructive, the second discursive, historical and
more elaborate, with much narrative?
Although the subjects of the sermons are appropriate to the
days for which they were intended, there is also an attempt to give
a large survey of biblical and ecclesiastical history. Thus, the first
homily of the first series, De Initio Creaturae, treats not only
of creation, but relates the stories of the fall, the flood, the
dispersal of tongues, the patriarchs and the Mosaic law. Then
follows another, De Natale Domini, which gives the life of Christ
from His birth to His ascension. The second series treats more
particularly of the history of the apostles, the origin of monastic
life, the foundation of the English church under Gregory the
Great and its expansion in the days of St Cuthbert. The didactic
element is less pronounced in the second part than in the first,
and, while the first part seems to have been intended for the
instruction of the ignorant in the primary facts of their belief,
the second is devoted mainly to the exposition of the teaching
of the church. It is in this second series that we find the famous
sermon on the Eucharist which, owing to the difficulty of expressing
in the unaccustomed English tongue the undeveloped and indefinite
standpoint of the period, has led to much controversy, based on the
mistake of reading into the tenth century the ideas of modern
times. The reformers gave us our first editions of this sermon in
the form of controversial pamphlets.
The chief sources of these sermons were, as the homilist himself
tells us, the works of St Augustine, St Jerome, St Gregory, Bede,
Smaragdus and Haymo. Förster regards the homilies of St Gregory
as the groundwork. Additional sources are Alcuin, Gregory of
Tours and Rufinus, the Vitae Patrum of Ratramnus, and many
others. The English song on St Thomas he did not use, and he
1 The manuscripts of these homilies vary much in arrangement of matter, and it
has been supposed that three recensions existed. The first answers to Thorpe's edition
of the Cambridge MS, in which the two parts are kept asunder and all the prefaces
are retained, although other matter is also found. The second is represented by such
MSS as C. C. C. C.
188, which has only the first set of sermons, no prefaces, some
sermons divided and the homily on the nativity of Our Lady following that on the
birth of St John. It has also a new sermon for a confessor's feast, with the statement
that, although the author had written it for another (Aethelwold, bishop of Winchester,
1007–1013), yet he was to have a copy of it himself. Hence, this recension dates after
1007. Thirdly, there are several MSS in which both parts are recast together in the
order of the church year, with additional sermons.


## p. 118 (#138) ############################################

118
Alfred to the Conquest
From
rejected St Paul's vision in favour of English works on St Peter
and St Paul. But all these are treated very freely, and, although
Aelfric was often hampered by the inadequacy of the language to
express abstract ideas, his skill as a teacher is especially visible in
the lucidity with which he explains the mysteries of their religion
to his ignorant audience.
The treatment, throughout, is highly poetical; alliteration
abounds, and ten of the homilies are in a rhythm identified by
Einenkel and Trautmann as the four beat verse of the Old High
German poet Otfried, though the reality of this identification is
doubtful. These are the homilies on the Passion, the invention
of the cross, Joshua's victories, St James the Just, Clement,
Alexander, St Martin, St Cuthbert, Irenaeus and that on love.
Of the three senses of Scripture, the mystical is most delighted in,
and symbolism is prominent. Similar feeling and outlook is
reflected in most Middle English homilies. Thus, the dead skins
in which our first parents were clad after the fall betokened
that “they were then mortal who might have been immortal, if
they had kept that easy commandment of God. ” Such a use, in
the lengths to which it was then carried, although faithfully
reflecting the ideas of the early and subsequent centuries of the
Middle Ages, is strained to the modern mind, and to the modern
reader. Aelfric's imagination is better seen in the tender and
pathetic passages describing the slaughter of the Innocents or
the solitary sojourn of St Cuthbert on the island of Lindisfarne.
Aelfric's next works, though equally significant of his zeal as
a teacher, were much less ambitious. They consisted of a Latin
grammar, a Latin-English vocabulary and a Latin colloquy or dia-
logue, intended to instruct the novices at Winchester in the daily
speech of the monastery. The Grammar, like so many of Aelfric's
works, has two prefaces, one in English and one in Latin, the
former explaining that the book is based on the greater and lesser
Priscian, to the end that, when “tender boys” have mastered the
eight parts of speech in the grammars of Donatus (the shorter
of which was the general medieval text-book), they may proceed
to perfect their studies both in Latin and English; while the latter
tells how the grammar was undertaken after the two books of
eighty sermons, because grammar is the key to the understanding
of those books. He insists, also, on the fact that the maintenance
of religion depends on the encouragement of learning, and reminds
his readers of the evil years before Dunstan and Aethelwold, when
there was scarcely an English priest who could write, or even read,
a Latin letter.
of which war of speech in the entender boya",


## p. 119 (#139) ############################################

The Works of Aelfric
119
In many of the MSS which contain the grammar it is followed
by a Latin-English Vocabulary, the earliest of its kind extant,
arranged according to subjects, not alphabetically, and largely
derived from the etymologies of St Isidore. That it is Aelfric's
is proved not only by its inclusion in the manuscript containing
the grammar, without any pause between them, but also by the
presence of many words characteristic of his vocabulary.
The Colloquy, of which only two MSS exist, is exceedingly to
interesting both in method and theme. It is in the form of a'
conversation between the teacher, a novice and a number of
other persons representing the various occupations of the day.
The ploughman tells how he leads his oxen to the field, while the
neatherd, like Caedmon in Bede's famous story, takes them at night
to the stable and stands watching over them for fear of thieves.
The shepherd guards his sheep against the wolf and makes butter
and cheese. The hunter captures harts and hares and is rewarded
by the king with horses and collars, while the merchant trades
in palls and silk, gold and precious stones, strange garments,
perfumes, wine and oil, ivory, brass, tin, glass and silver. Last
of all, the novice describes the division of his day, and how, if he
sleeps through the bell for nocturnes, his comrades awaken him
with rods. The authorship is proved by a note in one of the
MSS :-Hanc sententiam latini sermonis olim Aelfricus Abbas
composuit, qui meus fuit magister, sed tamen ego Aelfricus Bata
multas postea huic addidi appendices. The colloquy has an Old
English gloss, which is certainly not the work of Aelfric. The
additions made by Aelfric's disciple to the text, with the object
of providing more matter for practice, in every way destroy the
simplicity and neatness of the original.
In one MS of Aelfric's Grammar we meet the famous version
of the Distichs of Cato. Hence, there has been a certain tendency
to ascribe these also to Aelfric. They are marked by clearness of
expression and show great sense of adaptability. They seem to be
a combination of two translations, one to distich 68, the other to
the end. Two of the distichs are taken from Aelfric's Deuteronomy,
and the fact that one of the three MSS in which these distichs
are contained also includes the Grammar, both works being
written in one hand, places them, at any rate, in close connection
with Aelfric's school? It is, perhaps, best to regard them as the
result of Aelfric's influence.
These school-books were followed in 996 or 997 by a third
1 The MS is Trin. Coll. Camb. R. 9. 17.


## p. 120 (#140) ############################################

120 From Alfred to the Conquest
series of homilies, The Lives, or Passions, of the Saints. These
homilies, also, are introduced by two prefaces, one in Latin
explaining the origin and occasion of the work, while the other is
an English letter addressed to the ealdorman Aethelweard, the
father of the founder of Cerne abbey.
“Thou knowest, beloved,” says Aelfric in the letter, that we translated
in two former books the passions and lives of the saints whom the English
nation honours with festivals; now, it has seemed good to us that we should
write this book concerning the sufferings and lives of the saints whom monks
in their offices 1 honour among themselves. ”
The Latin preface further states that only such lives have been
chosen from the Vitae Patrum as are suitable for narration to the
lay attendants at monastic services.
The best manuscript of this work contains thirty-three lives,
six general homilies and a narrative without title on the legend
of Abgarus, thus, like the two previous series, comprising forty
sermons in all. They are arranged in the order of the church
year, beginning with an address on the nativity of Christ, ending
with the life of St Thomas (21 December) and including an interest-
ing Rogation Sunday homily on auguries, witchcraft, etc. , and one
(25 August) in which we have an early appearance of the devil
of the later mysteries.
Besides the Vitae Patrum, which is the only source mentioned
by Aelfric in his preface, other authorities cited are Ambrosius,
Augustine, Jerome, Terentian, Abbo of Fleury, Bede and St Oswald.
The story of St Swithun is partly based on a letter of Lanferth, but
owes still more to local tradition.
- These homilies exhibit the style of Aelfric in its maturity;
only one, that on the Nativity, is in prose; the others are in the
loose alliterative rhythm which he had already used in some of
his previous sermons. In the long run, this excessive recourse
to alliteration became an obstacle to clear expression and was
alien to the true development of prose; but the monotonous
rhythm, closely akin to the ballad verse of the common people,
was, no doubt, very attractive to lay audiences. The Lives,
since they deal with fact and not theory, throw less light on
Aelfric's doctrine than the earlier homilies; but, on the other
hand, they provide many valuable side-lights on contemporary
manners, and on the life of the homilist himself. The most
1 i. e. the customary Divine Hours, daily chanted by the monks in choir, a publio
service which the secular clergy could not, of course, maintain. The offico-books for
the two, probably, also differed.
: Cott. Jul. E. VIL.


## p. 121 (#141) ############################################

The Works of Aelfric 121
interesting of all are those of the English saints, St Oswald,
St Edmund and St Swithun. In the first two we see portrayed
the ideal king of the Old English, protector and benefactor of his
people. Oswald breaks in pieces the silver dish on which his
meat is served, and commands Aidan to distribute the pieces
among the suppliants for his charity; St Edmund, after his
subjects have been slaughtered by the Danes, no longer desires
life. “This I wish in my mind, that I should not be left alone
after my dear thanes, who in their very beds, with their wives and
children, have, by these sea-goers, suddenly been slain. ” In the
life of St Swithun we have reminiscences of the happy time under
king Edgar, “when the kingdom still continued in peace, so that
no fleet was heard of save that of the folk themselves who held
this land. ”
The date of these Lives is known almost to the very year.
They are not dedicated, like the others, to archbishop Sigeric,
because he had died in 995; and they cannot have been written
earlier than 996, because in the sermon on Ash Wednesday
Aethelwold, who was canonised in that year, is spoken of as “the
holy bishop who now worketh miracles. ” But, as Aelfric says
that be borrowed his homily on St Edmund from Abbo of Fleury's
life of that saint (986), which came into his hands a few years after
it was written, they cannot well be much later than 997.
Appended to the best MSS of the Lives of the Saints is an
English version of Alcuin's Interrogationes Sigewulfi Presbyteri -
in Genesin. It begins with a preface and introduction on Alcuin
and the Latin text, which consisted of a series of catechetical
answers to questions on Genesis, asked by Alcuin's friend, Sige-
wulf. Then follow the translated interrogationes, abridged from
a hundred and seventy-eight to forty-eight essentials. The first
fifteen are on the moral law of the Creator and His creatures ;
the next five, relating to the material creation, contain an insertion
on the planets, derived from Bede by Aelfric, who was devoted to
the study of astronomy; then come four on the manifestations
of the Trinity in nature. These are succeeded by a series on
man's creation in the divine image and his end, followed by others
on the origin of evil. Last of all are questions on the ages of the
world, and the whole is concluded by a creed and the doxology.
Aelfric is nowhere stated to be the author, but the similarity -
of the translation to his acknowledged work in style, structure
and rhythm enables us to ascribe it to him with some confidence.
Two other works, closely connected in style and theme, also


## p. 122 (#142) ############################################

122
Alfred to the Conquest
From
unsigned, but attributed to Aelfric on the ground of style and
diction, were probably composed soon after the Lives of the
Saints. These are a translation of the Hexameron of St Basil,
and a version of the De Temporibus of Bede. The former, which
is a sermon on the six days of creation, the fall of the angels, the
day of rest, the expulsion from Paradise and the atonement of
Christ, is by no means a literal translation, but is partly original,
and partly derived from Bede's Commentary on Genesis. It is
found in the best MSS, refers to former sermons and has Aelfric's
loose alliterative rhythm. It shows a close resemblance to the
version of De Temporibus, which, as the compiler distinctly states,
is not to be considered a homily. It is, indeed, a scientific treatise,
adapted from Bede, but showing much independent learning in the
matter of astronomy, the entry on the feast of the circumcision
telling how the ancient year-systems began and were reckoned.
It is almost certainly Aelfric's, and was, probably, written between
991 and 995.
So far, all Aelfric's works had been of either a homiletic or an
educational character; but now, at the request of the ealdorman
Aethelweard, he embarked somewhat reluctantly on the task of
rendering the scriptures into the vernacular. For Aelfric had
already spent the best years of his life in the service of the church
and education, bringing nearer to his people the truths and sources
of their religion and morality. He was now in advanced middle life,
and felt keenly that these labours withdrew him from further study
and from the contemplation of the supernatural, towards which his
age, profession and, above all, the grievous state of earthly affairs,
that seemed indeed to foretoken the end of the world, now drew him.
At the same time, he had a mass of homiletic material ready, and,
at a time when scarce anyone could read, he felt that the living
voice of the preacher should be mainly used with the people.
Hence, we find his version of the Bible essentially meant to be
preached rather than read; he wrote for those who should teach the
as yet unlettered people. The version was intended to be of the
nature of a homily, and was not meant to be an accurate version
of Holy Writ. Name lists, genealogies and difficult passages were
left out.
Aelfi'ic's principal achievement in this department was editing
the paraphrase of the first seven books of the Bible. It is certain,
however, that his hand is not to be traced throughout. In the
prefatory letter, which he addressed to Aethelweard, he reminds
his friend how he had said that he need not labour any further in


## p. 123 (#143) ############################################

Aelfric's Biblical Translations 123
the book of Genesis than the story of Isaac, since another had
translated it from that point to the end. In the MS in the Cam-
bridge University Library only chapters i–xxiv of Genesis are given,
and Dietrich has observed that the style thenceforward to the end
of Leviticus is essentially different. In the fourth book of Moses
Aelfric's style is once more recognisable, and alliteration again
occurs. It is possible that Aelfric may have worked over another
translation of the books of Numbers and Deuteronomy; but he
himself tells us, in De Veteri et de Novo Testamento, that he had
translated Joshua and Judges at the request of Aethelweard. The
book of Judges was added afterwards : it was probably intended
originally to be included, like the homily on the Maccabees, in the
series of Saints' Lives. It is composed entirely in Aelfric's usual
rhythm, and ends with a short notice of the good kings Alfred,
Aethelstan and Edgar, who put to flight the Danes and fostered
religion and learning. With the exception of Daniel the work
consists merely of extracts. Since the Lives were written in 996, and
other homiletic work had followed, these paraphrases seem to date
from 997, and, in their completed state, from 998. It is important
to note in them that Aelfric merely signs himself as monk. They
were, probably, the last work done for Aethelweard, who is not
heard of after 999. But Aelfric's close friendship with his son
continued and bore important fruit in later years.
Three other biblical paraphrases or homilies may be traced
to Aelfric. In his tractate on the Old Testament he observes that
he formerly made in English a discourse or short exposition of
Job, and also that he had turned into English the book of Esther.
The MS of Job is lost, but a copy printed by L'Isle in 1638
shows unmistakable signs of Aelfric's workmanship, and the
theme resembles that of his other works; thus, a passage on
Antichrist is strongly reminiscent of some sentences in the preface
to the first series of homilies, and the whole treatment corresponds
to that of the thirty-fifth homily of the second series. Esther,
which also exists only in L'Isle's transcript, seems originally to
have belonged to the Saints' Lives. It is a series of extracts in
Aelfric's customary alliterative rhythm.
Aelfric also mentions, in the same place, a work on the apo-
cryphal book of Judith, but without claiming the authorship.
“It is also,” he says, “arranged in English in our manner, as an
example to you men, that you should defend your land with
weapons against the hostile host. " These words were formerly
supposed to refer to the beautiful poem Judith, which is found


## p. 124 (#144) ############################################

124
Alfred to the Conquest
From
in a fragmentary state in the Beowulf MS; but Assmann has
shown that an Old English version of the story contained in two
MSS has all the characteristics of Aelfric's style. Moreover,
it contains many passages parallel with others in his preface to
the Old Testament
About the year 998, Aelfric was asked by bishop Wulfsige
of Sherborne to compose a pastoral for him. It is written in
the bishop's name, and, after a short preface addressed to Wulfsige,
admonishing him to reprove his clergy more frequently for their
neglect of the ecclesiastical canons, it treats of celibacy, clerical
duties, synods and the Benedictine rule, ending with a warning
against clerical attendance at lykewakes. This concludes the first
part. The second is entirely concerned with the rite of the
presanctified and the proper length of time for the reservation
of the sacrament, and expresses the same views that Aelfric
had already advanced in the homilies, based upon St Augustine
(probably the Enarratio in Psalm xcviii), through the famous
Ratramnus, opponent of Paschasius Radbertus, abbot of Corbie.
It thus shows Aelfric as a keen follower of contemporary
"science" abroad. Aelfric sided, seemingly, against Radbertus ;
his opinions are nowhere exactly reflected to-day, though the
obscure Augustinian “spiritual,” rendered in English “ gāstlice," did
the good service of giving us editions of him in the sixteenth
century, when he was quoted by Foxe and others. It is an
anachronism to impute any fully developed modern opinion to
the tenth century.
About the same time must be dated Aelfric's Advice to a
Spiritual Son, translated from St Basil's work with the same title.
The author is not expressly named, but, from internal evidence,
we know that he was a Benedictine monk, and that he had already
written about Basil. It speaks of St Basil's Hexameron in al-
most the very words Aelfric used earlier; it contains passages on
St Basil closely resembling some in the Interrogationes Sige-
wulfi Presbyteri; and, inclusive of the preface, it is composed in
Aelfric's loose rhythm. The subject is the admonition of a spiritual
father to his son to lead a righteous life.
In a manuscript in the Bodleian, under the general heading
Sermones Lupi, occurs a homily on the sevenfold gifts of the
Holy Ghost, which, owing to its presence in that manuscript,
was formerly ascribed to Wulfstan. But that Aelfric com-
posed a homily on this subject we know from his own state-
* Corpus Christi Coll. 303 and Cott. Oth. B. 10. Junius 99.


## p. 125 (#145) ############################################

's Minor Works
125
ment? : “Sevenfold gifts he giveth yet to mankind, concerning
which I wrote formerly in a certain other writing in the English
speech. ” This homily is seventh from the superscription, which
only seems to apply to those immediately following it (two in
number). We are, therefore, as Napier in his work on Wulfstan
pointed out, justified in rejecting the ascription of the seventh
homily to Wulfstan, and it may be by Aelfric.
In 1005, Aelfric was called from Wessex to Mercia. The thane
Aethelmaer, who had formerly invited him to Cerne, and for whom
many of his works had been composed, had recently acquired
two estates in Oxfordshire, which he, in turn, presented to his
newly founded abbey of Eynsham. These are interesting on account
of their connection with the hero of Maldon, himself a patron
of learning, who had fallen, some fourteen years before, fighting
against the Danes? Hither Aethelmaer retired for the rest of his
life, and hither he summoned Aelfric as first abbot. The monastery
followed the Benedictine rule, and it was for the instruction of its
inmates that Aelfric wrote, soon after his instalment there, the
Latin Letter to the Monks of Eynsham, to which reference has
already been made. His object was to give an account of the rule
as practised at Winchester, and he says that the source of his
information is bishop Aethelwold's De Consuetudine Monachorum,
by which title, as we have already seen, he refers, in all probability,
to Aethelwold's Regularis Concordia.
It is in the preface to this letter that Aelfric speaks of the
years spent by him in the school of Aethelwold, and, as a further
acknowledgment of the debt he owed his great master, he com-
posed soon afterwards, in Latin, his Vita Aethelwoldi. In the
preface to this Life, Aelfi'ic calls himself abbot and alumnus of
Winchester, and, greeting Kenulph, bishop of Winchester, and the
brethren of the monastery there, he says that it now seems right
to him to recall to men's memory some of the deeds of their father
and great teacher, St Aethelwold (d. 984), who had been dead for
twenty years. Since Kenulph was not appointed to the see till
1006, and died either the same year or the next, the Life must
have been finished about this time. Of the two recensions of the
Life, one, by Aelfric alone, shows his usual characteristics ; the
other is apparently Aelfric's life, “written over” by Wulfstan,
precentor of Winchester, with additional matter concerning post-
humous miracles.
i De Veteri et de Novo Testamento, preface.
See p. 144.


## p. 126 (#146) ############################################

126
Alfred to the Conquest
From
Besides these Latin works, in the first year of his office as
abbot, Aelfric wrote an English letter addressed to a thane
called Wulfgeat, “at Ylmandun," a place which has been identified
with Ilmington, about thirty miles from Eynsham. It begins with
a six line address to Wulfgeat, in which Aelfric refers to former
English writings, lent to the thane, and to his promise to lend
him more. Since he calls himself abbot, and since in 1006 Wulfgeat
fell into disgrace and lost all his possessions, being supplanted by
Eadric the famous traitor, the letter was evidently written in
1005 or 1006.
It was probably two or three years after this that Aelfric
composed his treatise on the Old and the New Testaments De
Veteri et de Novo Testamento. It begins with a long address
to Sigferth or Sigweard, a thane living at Easthealon, the modern
Asthall, which is only twelve miles distant from Eynsham. Aelfric
begins by saying that Sigferth had very often asked him for
English books, but that he would not grant his request till the
thane had proved his sincerity by good deeds. But, since he had
complained to Aelfric that he could not obtain his works, the
abbot had written this especially for him. The tractate, which is
based on St Augustine's De Doctrina Christiana, is, in substance,
a popular introduction to the contents of the Bible, and falls into
two parts. The first, on the Old Testament, is especially valuable
because, in the course of his summary of the various books, Aelfric
gives the particulars to which we have already referred, concerning
his translations from the Bible. The second part, on the New
Testament, begins with the story of John the Baptist, treats of
the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the epistles and the
book of Revelation, and, after certain allegories, some words on
the duties of the three stations of life, workers, praying folk and
fighters, and a description of the capture of Jerusalem by Titus,
ends with an admonition against the Teutonic habit of setting
folk to drink beyond their measure-a native pleasantry which, it
seems, Sigferth bad endeavoured to impose upon Aelfric when
visited by him.
It was to the same nobleman that Aelfric, about the same time,
addressed his letter on the celibacy of the clergy, for Sigferth
entertained among his household an anchorite who affirmed that
the marriage of mass-priests (i. e. full priests as distinguished from
“preostas," a generic name including deacons and minor orders
as well) was permissible. But Aelfric, though loth to differ from
this “good friend,” if he were a God-fearing man, could not refrain
cuse, in the course on the Old Testamente Bible, and falls


## p. 127 (#147) ############################################

Aelfric's Later Works
127
from pointing out that the earlier usage of the church required
celibacy from all the clergy, and the letter is a prolonged argument
on this theme.
Aelfric's last important work was a pastoral letter written for
Wulfstan, who, from 1002 to 1023, was archbishop of York,
and, till 1016, held also the see of Worcester, being thus a
neighbour of the abbot of Eynsham. It falls into two parts,
of which the first speaks of the three periods of the law, and goes
on to the theme already treated in the letters to Wulfsige and
Sigferth. The subject of the marriage of the clergy is reviewed
from a historical standpoint, and the letter further admonishes the
clergy on the celebration of the Eucharist, as their great function,
and treats of the seven grades of holy orders. The second part
deals with the use of the holy oils and the administration of the
last sacraments to the dying. Mass was not to be said in
laymen's houses, nor churches used for worldly purposes. The
work must have been composed after 1014, since it contains a
quotation from Aethelred's laws of that date; and, probably, before
1016, when Wulfstan's connection with Worcester came to an end.
The epistles were written in Latin and translated into English
by Aelfric himself, at Wulfstan's request, in the following year.
Aelfric's life was now drawing to a close. The exact date of
his death is not known, but he died, probably, soon after 1020.
His last years were passed in times not favourable for literary
work. They were eventful years for England, for they witnessed
the Danish sack of Canterbury in 1011, the murder of St Alphege
by the Danes at Greenwich, the flight of Aethelred before Sweyn,
the strife of Edmund Ironside and Canute and Canute's final
triumph.
Aelfric was not only the greatest prose writer, he was also /
the most distinguished English-writing theologian, in his own time,
and for five centuries afterwards. Yet he was in no sense an
original thinker; his homilies, as he frankly states, are borrowed
from others, and in them he reflects the thought of the west,
especially the teaching of St Augustine its great Father. His chief
object was to convey to the simple and unlearned the teaching
of the Fathers; and in this he was pre-eminently successful. If
Dunstan and Aethelwold first kindled the flame, it was Aelfric who,
through dark years of strife and warfare, when men's thoughts
were absorbed by the pressing anxieties of their daily life, kept
the lamp alight and reminded them of spiritual ideals. His
influence lasted long after his death, as is shown by the many late


## p. 128 (#148) ############################################

128 From Alfred to the Conquest
manuscripts of his writings, some of which date from the twelfth
century; and if it had not been for his faithful, modest labour, the
difficulties of Lanfranc and Anselm would have been even greater
than they were.
As he himself tells us, he took Alfred for his model, but, in
ease and grace, his style far surpasses that of his great predecessor.
Both Aelfric and Wulfstan write and translate in a free style, but
it is no longer the gossiping colloquialism of Alfred. English had
become a literary language, polished in the cloisters with long
use as a vehicle for translation and original works. In the cloisters
Latin was still a living language and, hence, Latin constructions
became common. The necessity of having to express difficult
ideas in a form intelligible to ignorant men helped Aelfric in his
choice of words and in his effort after lucidity, while, with the
instinct of a true teacher, he refused to be led astray by the
example of Latin syntax and preferred simple constructions.
Unfortunately, as time went on, he deferred more and more
to the preferences of his audience, and debased his prose
by throwing it into the rhythmical alliterative form popular
with the vulgar. Perhaps it was felt that a more pompous,
rhetorical style than that of ordinary speech should be used in
treating of solemn themes. However that may be, the later,
florid manner which Aelfric affected in the Saints' Lives, and
in some of his other treatises, is distinctly inferior to that of
the first two series of homilies. His prose is seen at its best in
simple narrative, and, to appreciate the difficulties under which
he laboured, the homilies on the Eucharist and on the Creation
(both philosophic subjects) should be read together. The first
is confused and complex, compared with the flowing ease of the
great Father upon whose work it was based and, obviously, the
language was not, at this time, equal to abstruse metaphysical
speculation. The second, which deals with a simpler subject, is
clear and comprehensive. Aelfric shows power in his treatment
of pathos as well as of philosophy, when both are simple; as may
be seen in the homilies on the Holy Innocents and on the Creation.
But, whatever his theme, he is always logical and persuasive ; and
the "sweet reasonableness” of his methods especially distinguishes
his sermons from the fiery denunciations, and the direct, strenuous
language, of his contemporary and friend, archbishop Wulfstan,
who goes to the point without any of the abstract moralising to
be found in Aelfric. Wulfstan delivers his Christian doctrine as
a statement of facts, and his phrases have a legal smack about


## p.