Appendix: Manuscripts Containing Archbishop Wulfstan's Political Writings

Abstract

The following charts catalogue the contents of the manuscripts containing the texts translated in this volume. The manuscripts are organised according to the categories set out in the Introduction (see above, pp. 20-5). The charts are based on the manuscript catalogues found in Ker 1957, Sawyer 1957, Loyn 1971b, Wilcox 2000c, and Gneuss 2001. Texts translated in this volume are identified in bold. a. Manuscripts used or copied from those used by Wulfstan Cambridge, University Library, Additional 3206 s. XI 2 , probably Worcester Ker 11, Gneuss 30 A damaged fragment containing text corresponding to ff. 22 v-26 r of Junius 121: fragment of II Polity, cap. XVII, two short texts entitled On Priests, and the opening of the later version of the Canons of Edgar.

The Origins of Peter’s Pence

“…62 The Canons of Edgar may represent an ecclesiastical counterpart to the more secular matter covered in Edward and Guthrum, a hypothesis which would accord with the focus on fines characterizing the latter text as opposed to the ecclesiastical context of the former, probably a code for secular priests. 63 Fuller treatment of Romfeoh reappears in AEthelred II's later legislation, which, as is well known, was also largely written by Archbishop Wulfstan. References to the payment for Rome appear on three occasions.…”

Æthelstan, Wulfstan and a revised history of tithes in England

“…It consists in a Latin rendition and Old English translation of Mosaic law from Leviticus, and, as Andrew Rabin noted, the rendition is more like a 'reworking' designed 'to draw a direct parallel with the English of his own time'. 108 The final line of the homily reads: 'Ðis synd þa Godes word þe God sylf gedihte 7 Moyse befaeste 7 eal hit maeg to bysne aeghwylcere þeode, gyme se þe wille' ('These are God's words that God himself commanded and Moses set them down and may it all be an example to each people; heed it he who wishes to'). 109 This forms a natural transition to AEthelstan's legislation, concerned, as it is, with a point of Old Testament law.…”