Search results
Archbishop Wulfstan of York is among the most important legal and political thinkers of the early Middle Ages. A leading ecclesiastic, innovative legislator, and influential royal councilor, Wulfstan witnessed firsthand the violence and social unrest that culminated in the fall of the English monarchy before the invading armies of Cnut in 1016. This book introduces the range of Wulfstan's political writings and sheds light on the development of English law during the early eleventh century. In his homilies and legal tracts, Wulfstan offered a searing indictment of the moral failures that led to England’s collapse and formulated a vision of an ideal Christian community that would influence English political thought long after the Anglo-Saxon period had ended. More than just dry political theory, however, Wulfstan’s works are composed in the distinctive voice of someone who was both a confidante of kings and a preacher of apocalyptic fervour. No other source so vividly portrays the political life of eleventh-century England: what it was, and what one man believed it could be.
archbishop of York alone from 1016 until his death in 1023. More than just an ecclesiastical 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. 6 This vision took shape in a series of homilies and
– charitable payment towards upkeep of burial ground and burial society Haham – learned man/chief rabbi Hazan – leader of the congregation Hebra Guemilut Hassadim – Society of Deeds for Love and Kindness Hebra Kadisha – Holy Society or Burial Society Mahamad – governing body of the congregation Novo Cemetery – ‘New’ Cemetery, Mile End Parnassim – governor of the congregation Sephardim – Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin Seudat Havra'ah – food
extended, panoramic critique of Manifest Destiny, but similarly to earlier American narratives about cities on hills and divine mandates, ‘Manifest Destiny’ in history as in literature has never been solely about America. Deborah Madsen identifies the double-sided coin of the early Puritan notion of exceptionalism, namely, that these early colonies were ones upon which the ‘world’s eyes’ were turned, and they were poised for either greater glory or failure than any people, depending on their faithfulness to their covenant to create a reformed church and a holy society
vivid illustrations of Wulfstan’s developing vision of a would-be holy society confronting the threats of the outside world. TRANSLATION VII Æthelred 1 K ING Æ THELRED AND HIS COUNSELLORS DECREED THIS AT B ATH : 2 [1] First, that the one God is to be praised and honoured above
the love of God, and greatly honoured God’s houses and God’s servants’. 14 In this sense, the ‘Compilation’ serves as one of Wulfstan’s earliest attempts to imagine a legal polity that would fulfil his vision for a holy society. It thus marks a first step towards the more far-reaching vision present in such texts as the Institutes of Polity and I–II Cnut
at the forefront of engaging with these challenges, especially when Cnut ascended the throne. Joyce Tally Lionarons suggests that, for Wulfstan, the coming of Cnut ‘signaled a reprieve and a chance to rebuild the English nation into Wulfstan’s vision of a holy society’. 39 Like Ælfric, Wulfstan demonstrates a highly developed sense of authorship. While my interest in this chapter lies mainly in Wulfstan’s homiletic corpus, it is important to note that he also wrote numerous legal tracts, law codes, social prescriptions, a commonplace book, and paraliturgical