Full text of ' This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. Google' books elwold the tonsure and ordained him priest. 1.dElfric wrote a life of his master, and father in Christ, “ patris nostril as he says, and addressed it to bishop Kenulf, who occupied the see but a very short time, his accession and death being put both in the same year, 1006, by Florence of Worcester, confirmed by the Chronicle. In many books it will be found set down for a fact, that iElfric, our subject, the vernacular translator, was the same as the archbishop of Canterbury; but this is impossible, for as he wrote that life in 1006, and calls himself in the first words of it 2 “ jElfricus abbas,” he could not be the man who was archbishop of Canterbury from 995 to 1005. There never was any passable authority for the misstatement. 1 See page 407.
2 HAB. Digitized by L^ooQLe PREFACE. XVII In the second volume of his homilies, as yet unpub- jElfric tells a lished, JSlfric tells another story off his own pen, and ^yi^hester &t from the date assignable to it, it may have come to his knowledge while at Winchester. Sum unjepab man paep mib aelpptane bipceope on piltun pcipe on hipebe. pe man nolbe 5 an ro 6 am axum on pone pobnep baej. fpa fpa o 8 pe men by bon pe )?a maeppan ^epohron. pa baebon hip jepepan p he eobe ro pam mseppe ppeopfce.
Apr 29, 2011 - Existing/PIa nned. Adjacent land Use.!: Cl:. ERM E R E CRES. BRANSTONE DR.
unbeppaenejse pa jepynu pe hi unbeppenjon. He cpaeS ic nelle. Hi baebon pa jir. he cpse 6 p he nolbe.j pealobe mib popbum.j paebe p he polbe hip pipep bpucan on pam unalypebum timan. Hi lecon pa ppa. hir jelamp p pe jebpola p£b on 6 aepe pucan ymbe pum aepenbe.
pa jeprobon hine hunbap. lietelice fpy 8 e.j he hine pepobe op p hip pceapr aetpcob aetpopan him. p hop.
hine baep pop‘5 ppa p p ppepe him eobe pupil Hr.j he peoll cpelenbe. He peap 6 6 a bebypjeb. y him laeg on uppan pela bypbena eop 8 an binnon peopon nihcon. paep 8 e he poppoc pa peapa axan. On Palm Sunday branches of olives or other trees are burnt to ashes in the usual ecclesiastical service; and on the Ash Wednesday of the year following, a small portion is placed with benediction upon the forehead of each kneeling worshipper. An illconditioned man was one of the retinue of bishop JElfstan in Wiltshire, at Ramsbury; this man would not go 07i Ash Wednesday to receive the ashes, as others did who went to mass. His companions urged him to go to the priest and receive the mysteries as they did.
He said, I will not They still urged him; he said he would not, and travelled beyond the subject, saying that he would enjoy his wife at the times not permitted. So they left it; and it happened that the heretic rode that week on some errand.
So dogs made at him very savagely, and he defended himself till his staff stuck in the ground before him, and the ho7'se earned him for- ward, so that the spear went right through him, and he fell adying. So he got buried, and many loads of earth Digitized by L^ooQLe xvm PREFACE.
JElfrics age: first approxi- mation. IElfrics Ho- milies, a a pub- lished.®lfricgoes to Ceme.
Lay atop of him within seven days because he refused a few ashes. If with Professor Stubbs we suppose jElfetan to have been bishop at Bamsbury from 974 to 981, we have here a story iElfric perhaps heard at Winchester. Before we fetch away iElfric from Winchester we must observe that taking the words “ Often said to u s,” in the widest sense, as if the relater were only in the position to be remotely a hearer, and drawing the dates to the strictest point, 984, we may at least suppose that iElfrie was fourteen at that date, and bom pot later than 970. The first of his works known to us are the publishe4 homilies.
The first volume was finished in the archi- episcopate of Sigeric, 990 to 994, and dedicated to him. Now if iElfric were bom so late as 970, he shews a knowledge of the Lectin language, a force of judgment, and a discretion beyond his years; we are induced now to put his birth back beyond 965.
About the date and the dedication hangs no doubt whatever; here are his own words, “ Ego ^Elfricus alumnus Adelwoldi beneuoli “ et uenerabilis praesulis salutem exopto domno archi- el- wold, and bishop of Winchester, 984 to 1005, after that archbishop of Canterbury, and slain by the Danes; that he was then a priest and had taken the monastic vows, and that he was selectee! And induced to leave by the ealdorman J5j?elmser, Amongst these words occurs the expression on iEBelpebep baege in the time of hing Jffielred; whence Mr. Thorpe has concluded that “ he “ speaks of king iEj?elred’s days as past,” that is, that the homilies were published after 1016. But what is then to become of “ salutem Sigerico?” In jElfrics words nothing about past is to be found, and it is clear that he entered the new foundation at Cerne between 984 and 994. Ic aelfpic munuc.j maeppeppeopc fpa J?eah pacepe Digitized by Google PPEFAPP. XIX KQne ppilcum habum jebyjuje peapS apenb on aejrel- pebep baeje cynmjep ppain selpeaje bipcope.
aSelpolbep ieptepjenjan to pimum mynptpe pe ip Cepnel jehaten. Jroph ae'Selmaepep bene 8aep )?ejenep. hip jebyjib «j joobpyp pmb jehpaep cuj?e. At the end of this preface ^EJ?elweard is mentioned, as having wished for forty four, instead of forty, sermons in his copy. Wanley 1 has copied for us the following words on the commemoration sermon for One Confessor: “ Hunc ser- “ monenf nuper rogatu venerandi Episcopi Athelwoldi, “ scilicet iunioris, Anglice transtulimus, quern huius “ libelli calci inscribi fecimus, ne nobis desit, cum ipse “ habeat.” iE)elwold, the younger, so called to dis- Requested by tinguish him from the saint, was bishop of Winchester after Kenulf, from 1006 till 1015. The proximity of translate one in Cerae to Winchester reminds us that the homilies were P^ 0111 ^.
put forth while iElfric was in Dorset, and as he says nuper, we may understand at least that this expression does not draw the composition of them down below 1006; but allows a considerable space in earlier years. The homily is at the end of the second book 2 of the printed edition. Appended to this first volume or set of homilies we Author of the find the treatise on years and days, and the relation y^g 1 ^. generally of the heavens to the earth, in one copy 8 only; and the eyidence that the work is iElfrics arises from thi$ circumstance only, and a general probability from the method of handling the translation from the Latin, with the difficulty of assigning such a work to any other writer.
The two first books of homilies were immediately fol- lowed by another collection, a third and fourth book: “ Hunc quoque codicem,” says he, “ transtulimus de Lati- “ nitate ad usitatam Anglicam sermocinationem., These are yet unpublished. In the Tatin preface he truly 1 Page 125 a. 3 MS. See Wanley, - Vol. 548 of the published I p.
I Digitized by L^ooQLe XX PREFACE. Date of the third and fourth books of homilies. JEJ.lweard his friend. States that an English version did not admit, as it is the language of common sense, of the flourishes which were then the fashion among Latinizers.