The political writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York

254 Pages·2016·13.783 MB·English

THE
POLITICAL WRITINGS
)
OF ARCHBISHOP
WULFSTAN OF YORK
Edited and translated
by Andrew Rabin
•
PR
1795
THE POLITICAL WRITINGS OF A5
ARCHBISHOP WULFSTAN OF YO R33
2015
selected sources edited and translated
by Andrew Rabin
Manchester University Press
Copyright© Andrew Rabin 2015
The right of Andrew Rabin to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester MI 7JA, UK
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library ef CongressC ataloging-in-Publication Data appliedfar
ISBN 978 O 7190 8974 9 hardback
978 0 7190 8975 6 paperback
First published 2015
The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for
any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Typeset in Monotype Bell
by Koinonia, Manchester
Printed in Great Britain
by Bell & Bain Ltd, Glasgow
CONTENTS
page vii
IX
The Laws ef Edward and Guthrum 55
2. Concerning Episcopal Duties (Episcopus) 61
S. The 'Compilation on Status' 65
Concerning the Ranks ef People and Law ( Geþyncðu) 68
Concerning Wergild (Be wergylde/Norðleoda laga) 70
Concerning the Law ef the Mereians (Mircna laga) 71
Concerning the Mereian Oath (Að) 72
Concerning Priests' Oaths and Clerical Compensation (Hadbot) 72
4. Concerning Sanctuary ( Grið) 76
5. Northumbrian Church-Sanctuary (Norðhymbra Cyricgrið) 82
6. The Canons ef Edgar 85
7. The Institutes ef Polity 101
II: Homilies and homiletic tracts
I. On the Laws ef God and the World (Napier 5 1) 127
2. On Various Misfortunes (Napier 35) 130
S. On the Proper Support ef the Church (Napier 22/Bethurum 13) 133
4. On the Duties ef the Clergy (Napier 52) 138
5. On the Sins ef the Clergy (Napier 53) 141
6. On Justice, Virtue and the Law (Napier 50) 143
7. On the Duties ef the Laity (Napier 59) 154
8. On Heathen Practices (Napier 60) 159
9. On Christian Practices (Napier 61) 162
10, On Tithes and Tithing (Napier 23) 165
11. On Baptism and Confirmation (Napier 24) 168
III: Sources and analogues
I. God's Threat to a Sinning Israel (Bethurum 19) 173
2. Evil Rulers (Bethurum 21) 177
S. An Admonition to Bishops 180
vi CONTENTS
4. Two Versions of VII Æthelred 184
5. Cnut's Proclamation of 1020 192
6. The Northumbrian Priests' Law 197
Appendix: Manuscripts Containing Archbishop Wulfstan's Political
Writings 207
Bibliography 225
Index 247
•••
PREFACE
Although Archbishop Wulfstan' s Sermo lupi ad Anglos is familiar to every first
year Old English student, his other works have not garnered the same level
of attention, even among Anglo-Saxonists. In compiling an anthology of his
political writings, many of which are translated here for the first time, my goal
has been to make Wulfstan's works accessible to a wider audience of students
and professional scholars, both those specialising in Old English and those
engaged in the study of medieval legal and political history more generally.
A volume of this sort does not have a 'thesis' per se, but I do hope that readers
will come away from this collection with a greater appreciation for Wulfstan's
significance in the history of medieval political theology and, more broadly, for
the theoretical sophistication of early English social thought.
If this volume proves to be a useful contribution to the study of Wulfstan
and his times, it will be because of the help and support of a large number
of people. I am especially grateful to Lisi Oliver, Stefan Jurasin ski, Jay Gates,
Stephen Harris, Tom Hall, Nicole Marafioti, Bryan Carella, and Bruce O'Brien
for sharing their views on Wulfstan, providing clarification on points of law,
and suggesting new or better ways of translating problematic passages. At my
home institution, the University of Louisville, special thanks are due to Pamela
Beattie, Tom Byers, Susan Griffin, Karen Hadley, Aaron Jaffe, Tom Maloney,
Glynis Ridley, and Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe, all of whom served as sounding boards
for my frequently off-kilter ideas and offered invaluable advice as the project
developed. This book is infinitely better for their help; the errors that remain
are, of course, my own.
Finally,t hanks are due to my parents, Alan and Ellen Rabin, and most especially
to my wife Shira and my sons Ari and Eli for their love and patience as this book
was written. They've had to share far too much of their time with an eleventh
century archbishop, but without them, this project would never have come to
fruition. It is to them that this book is dedicated.
ABBREVIATIONS
Abt. The Laws of Æthelberht
1
Admonition The Admonition to Bishops
Af. The Laws of Alfred
AGu. Treaty ef Alfred and Guthrum
As. The Laws of Æthelstan
Atr. The Laws of Æthelred
C.C.C.C. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
C.U.L. Cambridge, University Library
Canons The Canons ef Edgar
Clerical Compensation On Priests' Oaths and Clerical Compensation( Hadbot)
Cn. The Laws of Cnut
Cn. 1020 Cnut's Proclamation of 1020
Eg. The Laws of Edgar
EGu. The Laws ef Edward and Guthrum
Em. The Laws of Edmund
Episc. ConcerningE piscopal Duties (Episcopus)
Ew. The Laws of Edward the Elder
God's Threat God's Threat to a Sinning Israel (Bethurum 19)
Mereian Law Concerningt he Law ef the Mereians (Mircna laga)
NPL The Northumbrian Priests' Law
On Baptism On Baptism and Confirmation (Napier 24)
On Justice On Justice, Virtue, and the Law (Napier 50)
On Ranks Concerningt he Ranks ef People and Law ( Geþyncðu)
On the Laws ef God On the Laws ef God and the World (Napier 51)
1 The abbreviations used for royal legislation were standardised by Felix Liebermann
in the Gesetze der Angelsachsen ( 1903-1916). When multiple pieces oflegislation have
been issued in a king's name, laws are cited according to legislative number, name,
clause number, and if applicable, sub-clause number. Thus 'V Atr. 22.1' refers to the
first sub-clause of the twenty-second clause of what has been designated Æthelred's
fifth law-code. Although the numbering of law-codes was originally intended to
indicate chronology, the order suggested by the numbering has been shown to be
inaccurate in so many instances that the numbers are now understood as little more
than a scholarly convention.
X ABBREVIATIONS
On the Proper Support On the Proper Support ef the Church
On Tithes On Tithes and Tithing(Napier 23)
On Wergild Concerning Wergild/The Northpeople'sL aw (Be
wergylde/Norðleoda laga)
PL
Patrologia Latina, ed. J.P. Migne
Polity The Institutes ef Polity
Sanctuary ConcerningS anctuary ( Grið)
Wi. The Laws ofWihtred
••
INTRODUCTION
It is a truth nearly universally acknowledged that the legislators of
Anglo-Saxon England lacked a sophisticated, theoretical understanding
of both law and politics. In early twentieth-century scholarship, this
belief underlay such blunt statements as William Dunning's claim that
'the Middle Age [sic] was unpolitical', and Sir Frederick Pollock's more
elaborate, if equally damning, assertion that 'an Anglo-Saxon court,
whether of public or private justice, was not surrounded with such
visible majesty of the law as in our own time, nor furnished with any
obvious means of compelling obedience'. 1 Even the great Ernst Kan to
rowicz concluded that early English lawmakers were 'probably quite
unaware of the highly complicated legal and constitutional premises'
behind their actions," More recently, the perception of pre-Conquest
jurisprudence as primitive and theoretically impoverished has led
legal historians to characterise Anglo-Saxon law as 'desperately weak'
and 'calculated to avoid reasoned decision-making'." Similar attitudes
prevail among scholars of political theory, who often dismiss the study
of Anglo-Saxon governmental practices as 'belong[ing] more to
the general historian than to the historian of ideas' because of their
presumed origin merely in 'practical demands or responses to them'.'
The assumption that pre-Conquest legislators understood their duties
in only the most primitive way has caused readers to overlook the
influence and complexity of the largest corpus of vernacular legal and
political prose to survive from the early Middle Ages. Among the
5
1 Dunning 1930: IS I; Pollock 1893: 250. Pollock later repeated his criticism in Pollock
and Maitland 1968: 14. For a critique of Pollock and Maitland's conclusions, see
Wormald 1996: 1-20, and Wormald 1998: 1-25.
2 Kantorowicz 1957: 343.
S Baker 1990: 4-5; Whitman 2008: 41, 53. For a more extended discussion of Baker's
comments, see Rabin 2007: 225-6.
4 Ryan 2012: 219. Ryan is unusual in even mentioning the Anglo-Saxon period. More
common in general histories of political thought is the omission of the Anglo-Saxon
period entirely, as is the case, for instance, in McClelland 1996 and Kloska 2011. A
notable exception is Burns 1988.
5 All told, the pre-Conquest legal corpus is comprised of roughly seventy legisla
tive texts (most of which are included in Felix Lieberrnann's three-volume Gesetze
2 INTRODUCTION
most significant texts in this corpus are the laws, homilies, and political
tracts produced by the early eleventh-century ecclesiastic Archbishop
Wulfstan of York. Wulfstan was the leading English churchman of his
day, serving as bishop of London from 996 to 1002, bishop of Worcester
and archbishop of York from 1002 to 1016, and archbishop of York
alone from 1016 until his death in 1023. More than just an ecclesias
tical administrator, Wulfstan used his episcopate to advance his vision
of a 'Holy Society', one in which the organisation of a Christian state
mirrored both the divinely ordained hierarchy of a Christian cosmos
and the moral order of the individual Christian soul. This vision took
6
shape in a series of homilies and political tracts that Wulfstan wrote
and repeatedly revised throughout his career, as well as in the legis
lation he composed on behalf of Kings Æthelred (r. 978-1016) and
Cnut (r. 1016-1035). Among Anglo-Saxonists, Wulfstan has come to
be recognised as a political theorist 'of prodigious abilities'," a 'prose
stylist of the first importance' 'one of the half dozen leading influences
,8
on the formation of Early English culture'," and 'the greatest English
ideologue of the age'. Yet, despite Wulfstan's influence, many of his
io
works, especially the legal homilies and shorter political tracts, remain
unfamiliar to those interested in the history of early medieval social
thought. 11 The majority of his writings were last edited more than a
century ago, in many cases prior to their attribution to Wulfstan, and
published in volumes which are now out-of-print, unreliable, or difficult
to use for those not conversant with late nineteenth-century academic
German. 12 Accordingly, in making these texts available in new, more
accessible translations, it is hoped that this volume will both introduce
readers to the range of Wulfstan's political writings and shed light on
the development of English law during the early eleventh century.
der Angelsachsen) and approximately 1,500 charters. The foremost histories of
pre-Conquest law are Wormald 1999d and Hudson 2012. Overviews of the Old
English legal corpus can be found in Hough 2001, Rabin 2012, and Oliver 2013.
6 The first, and still most influential, account of Wulfstan's vision of a Holy Society
can be found in Wormald 1999a: 244-6.
7 Keynes 1980: 190.
8 Gatch 1977: 18.
9 Wormald l 999a: 225.
10 Blair 2005: 496.
11 On this point, see Abels 1988b: 294; Powell 1994; Wormald 1999d: SSO; Orchard
2002:311-12.
12 This issue has been discussed by; among others, Dammery 1994: 51-61; Lionarons
2004b: 165-8; Orchard 2004: 63-4; Orchard 2007: 318-19; Lionarons 2010: 2.