Everything about Lfric Of Eynsham totally explained
Ælfric of Eynsham (the
Grammarian) (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 Grammaticus,
Ælfric of Cerne and
Ælfric the Homilist. He mainly thought of himself as a humble teacher, responsible for the souls in his care.
Life and works
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 work of teaching.
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 Æthelmaer, to teach the Benedictine monks there. This date (987) is one of only two certain dates we've 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 (ed.
Benjamin Thorpe, 1844-1846, for the
Ælfric Society and more recently by
Malcolm Godden and
Peter Clemoes for EETS), 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. Professor Earle (A.S. 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 denied the immaculate birth of the
Virgin (
Homilies, ed. Thorpe, ii.466), and his 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 didn't hold the Roman doctrine of
transubstantiation.
His
Latin Grammar and Glossary were written for his pupils after the two books of homilies. 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.
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've 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 an abridgment for his 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; a pastoral letter for Wulfstan,
archbishop of York and bishop of Worcester, in Latin and English; and an English version of
Bede's
De Temporibus.
The
Colloquium, a Latin dialogue designed to serve his scholars as a manual of Latin conversation, may date from his life at Cerne. It is safe to assume that the original draft of this, afterwards enlarged by his pupil,
Ælfric Bata, was by Ælfric, and represents what his own scholar days were like. 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 didn't 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 isn't idle. Instead, it's 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 can't permit those working under them to know kindness during this life of labor should never themselves enjoy lives of luxury because they could easily be kind to their workers every day. And then they'd 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.
Identification
The true identification of Ælfric has been problematic, primarily because Ælfric is often confused with
Ælfric, the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Though Ælfric was initially 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 contributed to
C. W. Niedner's
Zeitschrift für historische Theologie, which have formed the basis of all subsequent writings on the subject.
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