Aethelwold (Æthelwold, Ethelwold) (ca. 909–984). Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature

Aethelwold was bishop of Winchester during the
reign of the Anglo-Saxon king Edgar and his successors, and with the Archbishops Dunstan and
Oswald was one of the chief architects of the widespread ecclesiastical and monastic reform that
swept England in the 10th century. For students of
literature, Aethelwold is most important as the reputed author of the
Regularis Concordia (The
agreement concerning the rule), a Latin prose document intended to standardize monastic practices
in England; and of an O
LD ENGLISH prose translation of the Rule of Saint Benedict, intended for
novices whose Latin was weak.
Aethelwold is reputed to have been born in Winchester around 909, and to have been a member of
the household of King Aethelstan. He was ordained
a priest in 938, but when Aethelstan died, Aethelwold decided to enter the monastery of Glastonbury, where Dunstan was abbot. Though inspired
by Dunstan and eager to visit the continent to study
monastic reforms that were taking place at Cluny
and other monastic centers, Aethelwold was asked
by King Edred to reestablish the monastic house at
Abingdon in 954. He went there as abbot and set
about rebuilding and rededicating the buildings.
He also sent one of his monks to the reformed continental house of Fleury-sur-Loire to study the new
rule and to bring it back to England. Soon he began
introducing the reforms at Abingdon. He also established an abbey school at Abingdon, where one
of his students was Edgar, the future English king.
Upon Edgar’s ascension to the throne, Dunstan
was made archbishop of Canterbury and Aethelwold was appointed bishop of Winchester (963).
Among his first acts was the dismissal of all the secular clergy attached to Winchester (whom he saw as
lax in their discipline), and their replacement with
monks. He rebuilt the cathedral at Winchester to
make it the greatest church in Europe at the time.
He also founded a school that became a center of
learning. Among his students were Wulfstan the
precentor (not the homilist), who wrote a Latin
prose
SAINTS LIFE of Aethelwold, and AELFRIC, the
greatest prose writer of the Old English period—
who wrote his own life of his master in 1006.
King Edgar’s emulation of C
HARLEMAGNE may
have inspired him to encourage his own monastic
reform, as Charlemagne had. Therefore the number of monasteries in England increased rapidly

during the early years of Edgar’s reign, and as a result there was great diversity in disciplinary practices. To remedy this, the king called a synodical
council in 973 at Winchester. With representatives
of the reformed houses at Fleury and Ghent in attendance, the council issued a Latin prose supplement to the Benedictine Rule based on the
continental model, which became known as the
Regularis Concordia. It is generally assumed that
Aethelwold drafted the Latin text of the document,
which regulated monastic life in England. Of interest to literary scholars is the inclusion in the
Regularis Concordia of the earliest recorded “dramatic” text in English—a trope in the mass performed at Easter matins similar to the famous
QUEM QUAERITAS TROPE on the continent.
Apparently at the behest of King Edgar, Aethelwold also translated the Benedictine Rule into Old
English prose. This translation, extant in two
forms (one for monks and one for nuns), was
made apparently for the benefit of postulants and
novices in the religious orders, whose facility in
language was not yet sufficient for them to read
and understand the Latin text of the Rule. He also
wrote a description of King Edgar’s work in
reestablishing the English monasteries, of which
only a fragment survives. Aethelwold is also famous for having owned the most richly illuminated manuscript known to have been produced
in late Anglo-Saxon England: his
Benedictional,
which contains the text of blessings given during
the mass illustrated by pairs of illuminations that
imply allegorical links between events of Christ’s
life and Old Testament events on one hand and
with eschatological images on the other.
Aethelwold died in 984 after 21 years of visionary administration over the see of Winchester. In
996, his remains were “translated” or moved from
their original resting place, and a number of miracles were ascribed to them. Ultimately he was installed as patron saint of Winchester.
Bibliography
The Benedictional of Saint Aethelwold: A Masterpiece
of Anglo-Saxon Art: A Facsimile.
Introduction
by Andrew Prescott. London: British Library,
2002.
Godden, Malcolm. “Biblical Literature: The Old Testament.” In
The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature, edited by Malcolm Godden and
Michael Lapidge, 206–226. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Greenfield, Stanley B., and Daniel G. Calder.
A New
Critical History of Old English Literature.
New
York: New York University Press, 1986.
Wulfstan of Winchester.
Life of St. Aethelwold. Edited
and translated by Michael Lapidge and Michael
Winterbottom. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
Yorke, Barbara, ed.
Bishop Aethelwold: His Career and
Influence.
Woodbridge, Suffolk, U.K.: Boydell and
Brewer, 1988.

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