Wulfstan

Wulfstan
Archbishop of York
Other posts	Bishop of London Bishop of Worcester
Personal details
Died	1023

Wulfstan (d.1023) was an influential monk and a remarkable writer of homilies.

It is speculated that he was born in York. His date of birth remains a mystery. It is also speculated that he was born into a family that owned lands which they lost upon the arrival of the Danish Warrior, King Cnut, in England in 1016.

Wulfstan received a Benedictine education at Winchester (a foundation that houses the relics of the saint who founded Western monasticism in the 7th century). Winchester became known as the center of the Benedictine reform in England in the late 10th century. Wulfstan was later elevated to bishop of London in 996-1002, and then he became the archbishop of York from 1002 to 1016. Wulfstan was familiar with the Benedictine Reform movement. This movement sought to free monasteries from secular control and to establish a more committed discipline among monks. Wulfstan was the student and the disciple of Æthelwold of Winchester, which allowed him to write The Life of St. Æthelwold in 1000.

Life

Almost nothing is known about Wulfstan’s youth, only that part of his family probably lived in the Fenland area of the East Midlands. Because of his later career and association with the Benedictine Reform, he possibly once studied and worked as a Benedictine monk at Winchester. In 996, he became the bishop of London. In 1002, he was elected Archbishop of York, and later he gained control over the district of Worcester.

Wulfstan thought that the reign of king Æthelred was full of sin and he saw it as a period of failure. He wanted to create new law codes to make things better. Besides that, he also created laws for the Danish king Cnut, who took England’s throne in 1016. He was an important person in England at that time, because of his control over the district of York. Wulfstan was also a prominent figure in the royal court since he was the legal craftsman for both Æthelred and Cnut.

Church reform

As a bishop – and later archbishop – Wulfstan was very active in church reform. He emphasized the importance of the church in the education of the people as well as in aiding the king. His religious efforts eventually started to include even secular matters. This was partly to make sure that the church would still be able to interfere with secular matters.

Homilies

Wulfstan is known as one of the most notable and unique Old English writers. He was best known for his religious texts (homilies, sermons, religious canon) but also for political theory and writing of laws. Wulfstan was one of the two major writers in early 11th century England. His writing of religious text was influenced by Benedictine Reform - which tried to unite the rules for monks, including the promotion of regular life for priests and a strict church order. Wulfstan used his homilies to teach priests and monks.

Wulfstan’s homilies had a few specific details, his special rhythmical system being one of them. Wulfstan also used specific vocabulary and frequently repeating literary devices.

Wulfstan’s works were appreciated by people living at that time as well. Wulfstan’s works are so complex that they were impossible to be translated. Wulfstan knew his audience well. His works were written for an average English Christian. He wrote over 30 sermons in Old English.

The motive of Wulfstan’s works was often religious, depicting the evil of the world before the second coming of Christ, a motive that can be seen in his work Evil Days. One of his works, Secundum Lucam, describes how terrible hell is.

His works were often influenced by the political situation at that time, addressing social instability.

Wulfstan influenced other writers of homilies. Sometimes it is hard to decide whether a work was actually written by Wulfstan because they followed his composition and rhetoric. One of the most famous imitations was by Napier, as his works were essentially his version of Wulfstan’s homilies. Even though Wulfstan’s works are often referred to as homilies, they are actually in fact sermons. Wulfstan does not present his ideas phrase by phrase, he only uses a general theme for his sermon.

Language and style

Wulfstan was a native speaker of Old English, the West-Saxon dialect. He also spoke Latin and Old Norse (which was brought to England by people of Scandinavian origin).

Wulfstan wrote most of his works in Old English. Other works he wrote in Latin. In his writing, there are some particular words that no other author used. Old English words that are exclusive to Wulfstan’s works are: sibleger ‘incest’, tōfēsian ‘to rout’, ægylde ‘uncompensated’, and morðwyrhta ‘murderer’.

A page from a Wulfstan manuscript at the British Library (MS Cott., Nero A.i): Sermo Lupi ad Anglos quando Dani maxime persecuti sunt eos quod fuit anno millesimo XIIII ab incarnatione Domini nostri Jesus Christi

Wulfstan’s unique words of Scandinavian origin are: þræl ‘slave, servant’ (Old Norse þræll, Old English þēow), bōnda ‘husband, peasant’ (Old Norse bóndi, Old English ceorl), eorl ‘nobleman of highest rank’ (Old Norse jarl, Old English ealdormann). Those words are related to the topic of social classes. Another important word is lagu ‘divine law’ (Old Norse lag, Old English ǣw).

Wulfstan is known for his recognizable writing style. Wulfstan plays with sounds in his prose. He uses alliteration (repetition of sounds at the beginning of two or more successive words). Two-stress rhythm is very typical for him. Wulfstan often repeats distinctive collocations (unrihta fela ‘much unlawfulness’) and rhyming binominals (two words linked by conjunction, for example stalu and cwalu ‘theft and murder’, wær and wis ‘aware and wise’), intensifiers (swyðe þearle ‘very severely’). His style is close to Old English poetry. He uses punctuation to make sure his texts can be read aloud easily.

Some of his works can be recognized through his handwriting and text organization. In his homilies, he uses wide margins. His writing is perfectly aligned on the left side.

Works

Wulfstan used the Latin pen-name Lupus (‘wolf’) in many of his works. There are other works that are recognized as his because of his unique writing style. Twenty-six sermons are recognized as Wulfstan’s based on his style.

The four categories of Wulfstan’s works are: homilies, legal texts, philosophical texts, and poetry.

The Homilies focus on themes such as: eschatology (study of the end of the world, specifically related to Christianity in Wulfstan’s works), the afterlife, the Judgement Day, and the Antichrist theme (Wulfstan warns about fake Christ wanting to seduce men). Wulfstan wanted to warn about possible corruptions of faith. He also encouraged loving God.

Some of Wulfstan’s legal texts are law handbooks about the laws during the reigns of different rulers. His The Institutes of Polity analyses the roles of the state and the Church.

Wulfstan collected books and texts. He put many of those texts together into a collection called Wulfstan’s Commonplace Book. This collection is divided into 10 blocks. Each block focuses on one theme. For example Wulfstan's Canon Law Collection contains the laws related to Christian Church.

Homilies

• De Anticristo (Latin)
• De Temporibus Antichrist (Old English)
• Secundum Lucam (Old English)
• Secundum Marcum (Old English)
• De Falsis Deis (Old English, a reworking of a homily by Ælfric)
• Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Old English)

Legal texts

• The Laws of Edward and Guthrum (Old English)
• The Canons of Edgar (Old English)
• Wulfstan's Canon Law Collection (Latin)
• Ethelred's legislation (Latin and Old English, multiple versions)
• Cnut's legislation (Old English, multiple versions)

Philosophical texts

• The Institutes of Polity I and II (Old English)

Poetry

• Qui legis hunc titulum (Latin)
• Poem on King Edgar's Succession (Old English, a part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle E)
• Poem on King Edward's Succession (Old English, a part of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle D)

References

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• “Conference at Worcester Cathedral Explores the Anglo-Saxon World of Archbishop Wulfstan | the Past.” The Past, 15 Jan. 2023, the-past.com/review/whats-on/conference-at-worcester-cathedral-explores-the-anglo-saxon-world-of-archbishop-wulfstan. Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.
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• Davis-Secord, Jonathan. "Rhetoric and Politics in Archbishop Wulfstan's Old English Homilies." vol. 126, no. 1, 2008, pp. 65-96. Rhetoric and Politics in Archbishop Wulfstan's Old English Homilies
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• Elliot, Michael D. “Wulfstan’s Commonplace Book Revised: The Structure and Development of ‘Block 7,’ on Pastoral Privilege and Responsibility.” The Journal of Medieval Latin, vol. 22, 2012, pp. 1–48. JSTOR, Wulfstan's Commonplace Book Revised: The Structure and Development of "Block 7," on Pastoral Privilege and Responsibility. Accessed 8 Jan. 2023.
• Gatch, Milton McC. Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon England: AElfric and Wulfstan. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1977.
• Gates, Jay Paul. “Preaching, politics and episcopal reform in Wulfstan's early writings.” Early Medieval Europe, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 93-116. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2015, Preaching, politics and episcopal reform in Wulfstan's early writings: Wulfstan's early writings.
• Hollowell, Ida Masters. “Linguistic Factors Underlying Style Levels in Four Homilies of Wulfstan.” Neophilologus, vol. 61, no. 2, Apr. 1977, pp. 287–296., Linguistic factors underlying style levels in four homilies of Wulfstan.
• Jost, Karl. Wulfstanstudien. A. Francke Verl., 1950.
• Knowles, David. The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216 (Second reprint ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1976.
• Kubouchi, Tadao. “Wulfstan’s Scandinavian Loanword Usage: An Aspect of the Linguistic Situation in the Late Old English Danelaw.” In Inside Old English: essays in honour of Bruce Mitchell, Chapter 7, 2006, p. 144.
• Lapidge, Michael. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1991, pp. 352, 384, 390, 515.
• Levin, Samuel R. “On the Authenticity of Five ‘Wulfstan’ Homilies.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, vol. 60, no. 3, 1961, pp. 451–59. JSTOR, On the Authenticity of Five 'Wulfstan' Homilies. Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.
• Lionarons, Joyce Tally. The Homiletic Writings of Archbishop Wulfstan: A Critical Study. D.S. Brewer, 2010.
• Mack, Katharin. “Changing Thengs: Cnut’s Conquest and the English Aristocracy.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 16:4, 1984, pp. 375-387.
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• Orchard, Adam. “Wulstan the Homilist”. In Lapidge, Michael (ed.). In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 1991, pp. 514-515.
• Pons-Sanz, Sara M. “Norse-Derived Vocabulary in Late Old English Texts: Wulfstan’s Works, a Case Study.” In North-Western European Language Evolution Supplement 22. University Press of Southern Denmark, 2007, pp. 36-124.
• Rudolf, Winfried. “Wulfstan at Work: Retrieving the Autographs of London, British Library, Additional 38651, fols. 57r–58v.” In Anglo-Saxon Micro-Texts, edited by Ursula Lenker and Lucia Kornexl, pp. 267–306. Anglia Book Series 67. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019. Wulfstan at Work: Recovering the Autographs of London, British Library, Additional 38651, fols. 57r–58v
• Smart, A. D. “Archbishop Wulfstan and the importance of paying God his dues.” International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church, 16:1, 2016, pp. 24-41.
• Whitbread, L. "‘Wulfstan’ Homilies XXIX, XXX and Some Related Texts." vol. 81, no. Jahresband, 1963, pp. 347-364. ‘WULFSTAN’ HOMILIES XXIX, XXX AND SOME RELATED TEXTS
• Whitelock, Dorothy. Sermo Lupi Ad Anglos. London: Methuen And Co. Limited, 1952.
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• Wormald, Patrick, “Æthelred the Lawmaker.” David Hill (ed.). Ethelred the Unready: Papers from the Millenary Conference, Oxford, 1978, pp. 47–80.
• Wulfstan of Winchester. Oxford Medieval Texts: Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St Æthelwold. Edited by Michael Lapidge and M. Winterbottom, PhilPapers, Oxford University Press UK, 1991, philpapers.org/rec/WINLOS-2. Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.