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The Legacy of King Edgar in the Laws of Archbishop Wulfstan 21

Chapter 1 The Legacy of King Edgar in the Laws of Archbishop Wulfstan

Nicole Marafioti

Edgar, king of the English from 959 through 975, was by far the most celebrated royal patron of the nation’s monastic reform movement. From the mid-tenth century, a prominent circle of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics—led by Sts Dunstan of Canterbury, Oswald of Worcester, and Æthelwold of Winchester—strove to enhance the purity and rigor of the Church through a wide-scale implementa- tion of Benedictine monasticism.1 These efforts relied on the support of influential laymen, and a number of England’s kings were remembered as sponsors of reform.2 However, Edgar’s portrayal in the historical record far outstripped his predecessors’. He was memorialized as a champion of the English Church, praised for his collaboration with reforming bishops and his pious endorse- ment of their initiatives.3 Much of the king’s support can be measured in practical terms: he chartered religious foundations, granted lands to monastic communities, and funded the construction of churches.4 Yet accounts of his

1 For England’s monastic reform movement, see esp.: Julia Barrow, “The Ideology of the Tenth- century English Benedictine ‘Reform’,” Challenging the Boundaries of Medieval History: The Legacy of Timothy Reuter, ed. P. Skinner (Turnhout, 2009), 141–54; Julia Barrow, “The Chronology of the Benedictine ‘Reform’,” Edgar: King of the English, ed. Donald Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), 211–23; Catherine Cubitt, “Review Article: The Tenth-century Benedictine Reform in England,” EME 6 (1997): 77–94; Nicholas Brooks and Catherine Cubitt, eds., St Oswald of Worcester: Life and Influence (London, 1996); Nigel Ramsay, Margaret Sparks, and Tim Tatton-Brown, eds., St Dunstan: His Life, Times, and Cult (Woodbridge, 1992); Barbara Yorke, ed., Bishop Æthelwold: His Career and Influence (Woodbridge, 1988); David Parsons, ed., Tenth-Century Studies (London, 1975). Although the term “reform” has come under increasing scrutiny, I use it here as a catch-all for tenth-century initiatives to improve England’s religious life. 2 Kings Edmund (r. 939–946) and Eadred (r. 946–955) were supporters of St Dunstan and en- dorsed early Benedictine foundations. See also Alexander R. Rumble, “The Laity and the Monastic Reform in the Age of Edgar,” Edgar: King of the English, ed. D. Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), 242–51. 3 An overview of Edgar’s role is provided by Simon Keynes, “Edgar, Rex Admirabilis,” Edgar: King of the English, ed. Donald Scragg (Woodbridge, 2008), 3–59, at 40–48. 4 An overview of these activities, issued in the king’s own name (though likely penned by Æthelwold), is provided in chaps. 6–8 of Edgar’s refoundation charter for New Minster, Winchester (S 745), dated 966. Text, translation, and commentary are in Alexander R. Rumble,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004408333_003 22 Marafioti patronage, produced predominantly by ecclesiastical authors committed to reform, indicate a level of involvement beyond material generosity. Edgar may have deemed it politically expedient to ally himself with influential bishops and a movement with continental connections, but the histories and hagiogra- phies produced at reformed communities consistently depicted a ruler in- spired by God and committed to a better Church.5 Moreover, while the rhetoric of reform generally called for greater distance between ecclesiastical and secular life, religious regulations produced during Edgar’s reign largely exempted the king from the restrictions placed on other laymen.6 Such policies were de- signed to endure beyond the lifetime of any one ruler, but Edgar’s working relationship with reforming bishops must have fostered an expectation, in the later tenth century, that kings should participate actively in both spiritual and secular affairs.7 Although Anglo-Saxon rulers had been closely involved with the Church since the earliest days of Christianity, reform-era writings codified the king’s unique status in England’s religious life. Because so many texts of the later tenth century were monastic productions which focused on reform, Edgar’s legacy was defined largely by his role in religious affairs. However, the ideology of kingship promulgated by reform-era authors also had important implications for England’s governance, notably in

Property and Piety in Early Medieval Winchester, Winchester Studies 4.iii (Oxford, 2002), no. 4, 65–97, at 65–73; the text is also edited with commentary by Sean Miller, Charters of the New Minster, Winchester, Anglo-Saxon Charters 9 (Oxford, 2001), no. 23, 95–111. For Æthelwold’s authorship and corpus, see Mechthild Gretsch, The Intellectual Foundations of the English Benedictine Reform (Cambridge, 1999); Michael Lapidge, “Æthelwold as Scholar and Teacher,” Bishop Æthelwold: His Career and Influence, ed. B. Yorke (Woodbridge, 1988), 89–117, at 95–96; Michael Lapidge and Michael Winterbottom, eds., Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St Æthelwold (Oxford, 1991), lxxxix–xc. 5 Continental influence is reviewed by Cubitt, “Tenth-Century Benedictine Reform,” 78–82. 6 See for example chap. 10 of the prologue to the Regularis concordia and chaps. 14–18 of New Minster’s refoundation charter: Dom Thomas Symons, ed., The Monastic Agreement of the Monks and Nuns of the English Nation (London, 1953), 7; Rumble, Property and Piety, 88–90; Miller, Charters of the New Minster, 101. The ideal of collaboration between king and clergy in the Regularis concordia—as well as the evolution of that relationship in the generation after Edgar’s death—is discussed by Christopher A. Jones, Ælfric’s Letter to the Monks of Eynsham (Cambridge, 1999), 43–49. However, for a discussion of the limits of Benedictine seclusion, see Francesca Tinti, “Benedictine Reform and Pastoral Care in Late Anglo-Saxon England,” EME 23 (2015): 229–51; Christopher A. Jones, “Ælfric and the Limits of ‘Benedictine Reform’,” A Companion to Ælfric, ed. H. Magennis and M. Swan (Leiden, 2009), 67–108, at 91–95. 7 This expectation is articulated in Edgar’s instructions to “reges [...] quicumque nostri fuerint successores” [whichever kings shall be our successors] in chap. 14 of the New Minster’s refoundation charter: Rumble, Property and Piety, 88.