Introduction

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1 Introduction

1 Inclitus pastor populique rector, Cuius insignem colimus triumphum, Nunc Adeluuoldus sine ®ne letus Regnat in astris. 2 Qui pater noster fuit et magister Exhibens sacre documenta uite, Et Deo semper satagens placere Corde benigno. ... (1) áthelwold, the excellent shepherd and ruler of the people, whose glorious triumph we celebrate, now rules joyous in heaven without end. (2) He was our father and teacher, showing us the pattern of the holy life, and always concerned to please God in his kindly heart.1 On 10 September, one thousand years ago, this hymn was chanted, perhaps for the ®rst time, at the celebration of Vespers in the Old Minster at Winchester. It had been composed, probably, by Wulfstan the precentor of the Old Minster and one of Bishop áthelwold's most distinguished pupils, perhaps on the occasion of the ®rst liturgical commemoration of áthelwold's translation which had taken place on 10 September 996, twelve years after the bishop's death on 1 August 984, and while he will still have been vividly remembered by many of the minster's familia.2

1 Analecta Hymnica Medii Aevi, ed. G. M. Dreves and C. Blume, 55 vols. (Leipzig, 1886±1922) XXIII, 126 (no. 209) and XLIII, 68 (no. 107). The hymn is also printed and translated by Lapidge, Wulfstan: Life, ed. Lapidge and Winterbottom, pp. cxiii± cxiv (the above translation is as given there). 2 On the cult of St áthelwold, the liturgical pieces pertaining thereto which are still

The intellectual foundations of the English Benedictine reform

Wulfstan's hymn is not a unique testimony to Bishop áthelwold's role as a teacher. No school in Anglo-Saxon England has been praised more warmly by its pupils than the school established by áthelwold at the Old Minster (his cathedral church) after 963.3 The distinction of áthelwold's school emerges from the fact (proudly reported by Wulfstan) that many of his students `®erent sacerdotes atque abbates et honorabiles episcopi, quidam etiam archiepiscopi, in gente Anglorum.'4 The exacting standard of tuition provided by the Old Minster school is further revealed in Wulfstan himself, as well as in álfric, abbot of Eynsham, two of the foremost scholars and authors in late Anglo-Saxon England. In their writings, Wulfstan and álfric represent the two pillars on which áthelwold's school rested: instruction in Latin and Old English. Instruc- tion in Latin apparently comprised grammar, metrics and the careful study of a wide range of Latin authors, including even Horace, as well as late classical and patristic writers and Aldhelm. Instruction in English seems to have encompassed the translation of Latin texts and attempts to standardize the terminology within certain semantic ®elds in the vernacular, inasmuch as a number of translation equivalents were taught for certain Latin terms. (Many of these Latin terms stand for key concepts of Christianity, such as ecclesia or superbia.) Such Old English words were employed with great consistency and to the exclusion of any native synonyms in the works of álfric and in some other anonymous works which (on grounds other than vocabulary) can be linked with Winchester.5 áthelwold's own writings which hitherto have been identi®ed also

extant, and the role played by Wulfstan in the promotion of áthelwold's cult, see Lapidge, Wulfstan: Life, pp. xxiii±xxvii, xcix-ci and cxii±cxliii. For a table of biographical events in áthelwold's life as they are related in Wulfstan's Vita S. áthelwoldi, see below, Appendix I. 3 See below, pp. 262±3 for further testimonies from áthelwold's pupils, revealing their love for their master and praising the high standard of his tuition. 4 Wulfstan: Life, ch. 31 (p. 48): `[Many of his pupils] became priests, abbots, and notable bishops, some even archbishops, in England' (ibid., p. 49; all translations from Wulfstan's Vita are taken from this edition). 5 Wulfstan's Vita, ch. 31 (ed. Lapidge and Winterbottom pp. 47±8), is our primary (unfortunately not very speci®c) witness for the curriculum in áthelwold's school. On the subjects and authors presumably taught at áthelwold's school (and the dif®culties involved in establishing that school's curriculum), see Lapidge, ibid., pp. xcii±xcix, and idem, `áthelwold as Scholar and Teacher', pp. 201±6. On the so-called `Winchester

Introduction

attest to his preoccupation with both languages: works in Latin and English are attributable to his pen. áthelwold's corpus of Latin works is not large: a couple of charters (including the renowned document commemorating the introduction of Benedictines to the New Minster, Winchester, in 964), a letter to a continental duke, perhaps a few prayers, and (most voluminous) the Regularis concordia, a monastic consuetudinary produced to regulate daily routine and liturgical observation in the English reformed monasteries.6 As a Latin author, áthelwold reveals a pronounced penchant for the hermeneutic style. Thus far, only one work in Old English has been ascribed to áthelwold: a translation into Old English prose of the Regula S. Benedicti. The translation is attributed to áthelwold in a late-tenth-century source; that it must have circulated widely, is clear from the number of surviving manuscripts (nine in total, several of these presenting later revisions).7 The translation is accompanied by a lengthy preface in Old English (preserved in one manuscript), which relates the history of the conversion of the English and the origin and progress of the English Benedictine reform. This text (commonly referred to as `Edgar's Establishment of Monasteries') closely agrees in vocabulary and wording with the Old English Rule; from this, and from a number of points in its narrative, it is clear that áthelwold is also the author of this piece of original Old English prose.8 The translation of the Regula S. Benedicti and its English preface reveal áthelwold as a pro®cient Latinist as well as a powerful author of Old English prose. The Regula S. Benedicti is not merely a monastic consuetudinary (such as the Regularis concordia), meticulously regulating the daily routine in a monastery: it is one of the great texts of western spirituality. Throughout its pages, instructions for organizing the daily life and spiritual guidance are inextricably intertwined; nearly every chapter makes its readers aware that, in following their monastic vocation, they have chosen a distinctive if austere way of life, and at every turn St Benedict stresses that he composed his Regula as an elementary daily and spiritual guide for his dominici scola seruitii (RSB, prol. 45), to help his followers to attain

vocabulary', see Hofstetter, Winchester und Sprachgebrauch, and idem, `Winchester and the Standardization of Old English Vocabulary'; and see below, pp. 93±113. 6 On these works, see below, pp. 125±7. 7 For a list of these manuscripts, see below, p. 227. 8 On the Rule and its preface, see below, pp. 121±4 and 230±3.

The intellectual foundations of the English Benedictine reform

perfection in their pursuit of a life devoted to God. Apart from áthelwold's translation, no prose version of the Regula S. Benedicti in any European vernacular has survived from the early Middle Ages. The Old English Rule is therefore a testimony to áthelwold's deep spirituality, as it is to the con®dence he placed in the resourcefulness of the English language and its potential for being forged into an instrument for conveying complex ideas. In the light of modern research it is possible that more surviving writings can be attributed to áthelwold. In the following chapters, we shall examine two massive Old English gloss corpora (of paramount importance for late Old English glossography), and explore how these corpora can be related to áthelwold and his circle. The glosses in question are the continuous interlinear version of the psalter, preserved in London, BL, Royal 2. B. V, and the interlinear and marginal glosses to Aldhelm's principal work, the prose De uirginitate, preserved in Brussels, BibliotheÁque Royale, 1650. The Old English gloss in the Royal Psalter is a fresh interlinear translation of the entire psalter, the ®rst to be undertaken in English since the Vespasian psalter gloss (in London, BL, Cotton Vespasian A. i) in the early ninth century. The subsequent in¯uence of the Royal Psalter gloss was very considerable: it was to become the exemplar for one of the two Old English families of psalter glosses, the so-called D-type glosses. The Royal Psalter gloss is of striking quality, revealing the glossator's pro®ciency in Latin as well as his remarkable competence and resourcefulness in choosing and coining his Old English interpretamenta. By the same token, many of the Aldhelm glosses in Brussels 1650 are distinguished by their aptness and their rechercheÂ or learned character. However, although vast, the Brussels gloss corpus does not amount to a continuous interlinear version, and as it is transmitted, it is clearly composite, having attracted accretions in the course of its transmission (to what extent is no longer de®nable) before being copied into Brussels 1650 in the ®rst half of the eleventh century. In spite of this complex state of transmission, lexical evidence suggests that the core of these Aldhelm glosses originated in the same circle as the Royal Psalter gloss, and, on grounds of lexical evidence again, the psalter and the Aldhelm glosses appear to be linked to the Old English Rule, composed by áthelwold. Acceptance of a common origin of the three works would dramatically

Introduction

broaden our textual base for evaluating the reputation which áthelwold's scholarship and teaching enjoyed in the later tenth and in the eleventh century. Various evidence such as the mid-tenth-century date of Royal 2. B. V (which is itself a copy of the original psalter gloss) points to an origin of all three works not much later than (say) 950; in other words, it points to the period of prolonged study which áthelwold spent (together with Dunstan) at Glastonbury c. 939±c. 954, and on which we are informed, again, by áthelwold's biographer Wulfstan.9 In the Royal Psalter, the Aldhelm glosses and the Rule we would therefore have tangible and precious evidence that the seeds of the intellectual renais- sance in late Anglo-Saxon England, which is marked by the Benedictine reform, were being sown many years before the actual ecclesiastical reforms got under way, and many years before close contacts with continental reformed monasteries such as Fleury or Corbie were established. Furthermore, the Royal Psalter, the Aldhelm glosses and the Rule attest that the literary culture nurtured by the Benedictine reform, even in its nascent stage, based itself decisively on the pivotal role of the vernacular and on a fervent enthusiasm for the hermeneutic style in Latin. In the ®rst ®ve of the following chapters we shall focus our attention on the place taken by the Royal Psalter and the Brussels glosses to the prose De uirginitate in the textual history of Old English psalter glosses and Aldhelm glosses respectively; we shall further try to form some notion of how the glossator, or glossators, did their work, what their aims were and how they strove to achieve these aims; and we shall scrutinize the lexical evidence which can be found to point to a common origin of the Old English Rule and the glosses. We shall then turn our attention to the question of what evidence, other than philological, can be adduced to substantiate the claim that the three texts originated in the same circle, evidence, that is, of a historical, art historical, palaeographical and liturgical nature. In the concluding chapter we shall aim to trace possible re¯exes of the social and intellectual world in which the three texts had their origin by analysing some of the loanwords or loan formations employed in these texts.

9 See Vita, ch. 9 (ed. Lapidge and Winterbottom, pp. 14±16).

2 Psalters and psalter glosses in Anglo-Saxon England

Owing to its paramount importance in the liturgy of the Christian Church, the transmission of the psalter has always been distinct from the transmission of other books of the Old Testament (OT). Such a distinction is most evident in the number of surviving manuscripts. In his study of the transmission of the OT (apart from the psalter) in Anglo-Saxon England, Richard Marsden has listed thirteen Bibles or part-Bibles containing OT books, written or owned in pre-Conquest England, nine of these being fragments, often no more than single folios (which leaves us without a means of estimating the amount of text originally contained in the manuscripts in question). In addition, individual OT books (or extracts from them) have been preserved in three more non-biblical manuscripts.1 By contrast, we still have thirty-seven psalter manuscripts from Anglo- Saxon England. Of these, eight are minor fragments, twenty-nine complete (or almost complete ) psalters; twenty-seven of the twenty-nine complete psalters were arguably used for liturgical purposes. A liturgical use is traditionally assumed if a manuscript, in addition to the psalter, contains the ten canticles from the Old and the New Testament (to be sung at Lauds, Vespers and Compline in the monastic and secular Of®ce), and (from the tenth century onwards) the Gloria in excelsis, the Credo in Deum patrem (or `Apostles' Creed') and the Quicumque uult (or `Athanasian Creed'), texts also chanted in the liturgy. The employment of large or

1 See Marsden, Text of the Old Testament, pp. 2±3 and 40±8; cf. also idem, `The Old Testament in Late Anglo-Saxon England', pp. 101±6 and 123±4, and Gneuss, `Liturgical Books', p. 122.

Psalters and psalter glosses in Anglo-Saxon England

decorated initials for subdividing the 150 psalms is a further pointer to the liturgical use of a manuscript.2

the books of the old testament The books of the OT were carefully read (as was the psalter) in private study and classroom instruction. In the case of the Pentateuch we are now in a position to assess the astonishing heights which such instruction achieved in one particular classroom, namely that of Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian at Canterbury from 669 onwards (see below). In the liturgy, however, the OT books ®gure much less prominently than the psalter. On certain days, lessons from the OT were (and are) prescribed for the ®rst reading, or `epistle', in the mass, but on most days, these lessons are taken from the epistles of the NT (whence their name).3 In the Divine Of®ce, readings from OT books have their place in Nocturns where they were instituted by St Benedict himself: Codices autem legantur in uigiliis diuinae auctoritatis tam ueteris testamenti quam noui; sed et expositiones earum, quae a nominatis et orthodoxis catholicis patribus factae sunt.4 Concerning private reading or reading aloud to the monastic community

2 SeeGneuss,`LiturgicalBooks',pp. 114±16,forsuchindicationsofliturgicaluseinapsalter manuscript, and for a list of the psalter manuscripts with canticles, as well as references to thosemanuscriptsandfragmentsforwhichaliturgicalusecannotbeestablished.Foralistof psalters from Anglo-Saxon England and description of their contents, see also Pulsiano, `Psalters', pp. 61±84. For the subdivision of psalms for use in monastic and secular Of®ce, see also Sisam, Salisbury Psalter, pp. 4±5, and see below, pp. 226±7and 272;for the tenth- century liturgical pieces, see below, pp. 89, 273±4 and 276. 3 See Harper, Forms and Orders, pp. 116±17, Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Of®ce, p. 85, and Gneuss, `Liturgical Books', pp. 105±6 and 110. 4 RSB 9.8. All quotations from RSB are (by ch. and verse number) from Benedicti Regula, ed. Hanslik. English translations are from RB 1980, ed. Fry et al.: `Besides the inspired books of the Old and New Testaments, the works read at Vigils should include explanations of Scripture by reputable and orthodox catholic Fathers.' (p. 205). Note that uigiliae (`Vigils') is Benedict's term for the Night Of®ce, called `Nocturns' or `Matins' in the medieval liturgy. At various other points Benedict refers to OT lessons at Nocturns; cf., for example, RSB 10.2, 11.2, 11.5 and 11.7. For the readings (in general) pertaining to the secular and monastic Night Of®ce and the books needed for such purposes, see Gneuss, `Liturgical Books', pp. 120±7, and Hughes, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Of®ce, pp. 60±2.

The intellectual foundations of the English Benedictine reform

during meals or at other times,5 it is noteworthy that Benedict twice expressly encourages the private study of psalms,6 but that he straightfor- wardly forbids reading passages from the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings after Vespers or the evening meal. It is worthwhile quoting St Benedict's verdict on these OT books in full, together with Bishop áthelwold's translation made approximately 400 years later, since a comparison of both passages highlights áthelwold's penchant for interpretative translation by adding brief explanatory remarks to the original text. By the same token, áthelwold's translation may serve to highlight the change in the intellectual climate from a Canterbury classroom in the 670s to a Winchester classroom in the 960s. The text of the Regula is as follows: [legat] non autem eptaticum aut regum, quia in®rmis intellectibus non erit utile illa hora hanc scripturam audire; aliis uero horis legantur.7 This is translated by áthelwold as follows: Ne rñde him mon nau er ne Moyses boc, ne Regum, for ñm ñm unandgyt- fullum ñt gastlice an[d]gyt is earfoe to understanden[n]e butan haligra manna trahtnunge; rñde hy mon eah orum tidum on cirican, onne hit togebyrige.8 In other words, Bishop áthelwold has Benedict say that certain books of the OT should only be read during Nocturns, where (according to RSB 9.8) such dangerous lessons are to be followed by readings from orthodox catholic Fathers, expounding the allegorical sense of the OT

5 RSB provides for extensive periods of study and private reading (for those capable of such an undertaking), as well as enjoining the reading of sacred or edifying texts to the community by a lector during meals or at other times; cf., for instance, chs. 38, 48.13±18, or 73.2±6. 6 Cf. RSB 8.3 and 48.13. 7 RSB 42.4; `but not the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings, because it will not be good for those of weak understanding to hear these writings at that hour; they should be read at other times'. (RB 1980, p. 243). 8 BR 66.18±67.2; quotations from the Old English Rule are (by page and line) from Benediktinerregel, ed. SchroÈer. In a few instances where (in my view) the reading printed by SchroÈer is erroneous I have provided an emendation, indicated by square brackets. Modern English translations are my own. `One shall not read to them [scil. the brethren] either the book of Moses or the Books of Kings, because for the simple-minded [or: ignorant] the spiritual sense is dif®cult to understand without an exposition by holy men. These books shall be read, however, at other times, in divine service, where they pertain.'

Psalters and psalter glosses in Anglo-Saxon England

passages.9 In fact, Benedict says nothing of the sort; on the contrary, it is even possible that, at one point in his Regula, he expressly encourages private reading of the OT. In the passage in question, he prescribes that, during Lent, the monks should receive singulos codices de bibliotheca which they should diligently peruse (cf. RSB 48.15). It is possible ± but not certain ± that by bibliotheca he refers to the complete Bible, its books (or groups of books such as the Pentateuch) bound in separate volumes (singuli codices).10 If, for his interpretative translation of RSB 42.4, áthelwold consulted the commentary on the Regula by Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel (as he occasionally did for his Old English version),11 he chose to ignore important points in Smaragdus's lengthy exposition of this passage.12 In Smaragdus, he would have found a remark to the effect that OT books required allegorical interpretations. But he would have found there as well that Smaragdus regarded the ban on the Heptateuch or the Books of Kings as valid only for in®rmis intellectibus, and that, in his view, Benedict had not forbidden the serious, sober-minded and intelligent monks (who were in a position to discern the allegorical meanings and pre®gurations hidden away in the OT narrative) to read those books, or indeed any other book of the Bible at any time they wished to read them:

9 In this connection it is probably signi®cant that the passage concerning the lessons from the OT at Nocturns (RSB 9.8, quoted above) is translated verbatim by áthelwold: `át am uhtsange rñde man ñre godcundan lare bec, ñg er ge of ñre ealdan cy nesse ge of ñre niwan, and eac swa a haligan trahtas [e] fram namcuum fñderum and rihtgelyfedum geworhte synt.' (BR 33.17±21). Here, only the authority of Benedict's expositiones is emphasized by an added adjective: a haligan trahtas. 10 See A. MundoÂ, `Bibliotheca, Bible et lecture de careÃme d'apreÁs S. BenoÃit', Revue BeÂneÂdictine 60 (1950), 65±92. But the wording is ambiguous. Benedict may well have referred to individual books (codices) held in the monastery's library (bibliotheca); see the remarks (with further references) by de VoguÈeÂ, ReÁgle de Saint BenoÃit, ed. VoguÈeÂ and Neufville II, 602±3, n. 15. It may be noteworthy in respect of áthelwold's understanding of the passage in question that the loanword biblio eca (rarely attested in Old English) once refers unambiguously to the Bible; cf. Gneuss, `Liturgical Books', p. 122. It may further be noteworthy that when translating the passage, áthelwold chose to retain the ambiguous bibliotheca (sume boc of ñre bibliothecan, BR 74.12±13). 11 See Gretsch, Regula, pp. 257±62, and idem, `áthelwold's Translation', pp. 144±6; and see below, pp. 255±9. 12 Cf. Smaragdi Abbatis Expositio in Regulam S. Benedicti, ed. Spannagel and Engelbert, pp. 262±3.

The intellectual foundations of the English Benedictine reform

Sinceris autem, sanis et acutis intellectibus nullo tempore uetatur Eptaticum aut Regum uel quamcumque historiam diuinarum legere scripturarum, quia possunt in eis ®guras et sensus dinoscere et exemplum salutis ab illis legendo recipere.13 Similarly, áthelwold's statement that those OT books were to be read at their proper time in divine service (on cirican, onne hit togebyrige) could have been lifted from Smaragdus's commentary; but if so, áthelwold saw no occasion to refer in his translation to Smaragdus's ensuing remark, that those books should not only be read in ecclesia, but that they should be studied by every monk at school (`aut unusquisque pro legendi doctrina debet eos legere in scola').14 áthelwold saw ®t on a second occasion to stress the importance of allegorical exegesis of the Bible: in the tract which goes by the name `Edgar's Establishment of Monasteries', and which was manifestly composed by áthelwold to serve as a preface to his translation of the Regula, he, somewhat unexpectedly in the context, draws attention to the various levels of biblical exegesis: eah a scearpanclan witan e one twydñledan wisdom hlutorlice tocnawa ± ñt is andweardra inga 7 gastlicre wisdom ± 7 ara ñger eft on rim todalum gelyfedlice wuna ± isse engliscan geeodnesse ne beho®en . . .15 Bishop áthelwold's verdict on the OT books and his emphasis on the necessity of allegorical exegesis will recall álfric's verbose description of the embarrassment he felt when translating the book of Genesis, and of the dif®culties he saw involved in such an undertaking. Here, the pupil has manifestly and thoroughly been imbued with the master's teaching. The master's reason for banning certain OT books from extra-liturgical reading, succinctly couched in terms of paronomasia (for ñm ñm unand- gytfullan ñt gastlice andgyt is earfoe to understandenne), recurs as a sort of leitmotif in the pupil's `Preface to Genesis', as will become clear from the following (sample) quotations:

13 Ibid., p. 262. 14 Ibid., p. 263. 15 `Although keen-witted scholars who understand clearly the two-fold wisdom ± that is, the wisdom of things actual and spiritual ± and each of those again admittedly consists of three divisions ± do not require this English translation . . .'; printed CS, p. 151. Translations from the Preface are as given there. For the Preface itself, see below, pp. 121±4 and 230±3.