Wulfstan was an important scholar, statesman, and
prelate of the early 11th century. A Benedictine
monk, he was the product of the great Benedictine
Revival of learning that had been promulgated by
St. Dunstan, St. Athelstan, and especially Wulfstan’s
friend AELFRIC. Nothing is known of his early
life, but Wulfstan was made bishop of London
from 996 until 1002, when he became archbishop
of York and bishop of Worcester. The dual appointment
was probably granted because, with the
Danes ravaging the northern part of England, it
was only by having the see ofWorcester that Wulfstan
could have enough income to maintain his see
at York. He held the joint appointment until 1016,
when he dropped the Worcester Bishopric. From
1008 onward, he acted as an adviser to King
Ethelred II (often called “the Unready,” though the
OLD ENGLISH epithet unroed actually means “illadvised”
or “foolish”). Later he also advised the
Danish king Cnut. Embroiled in the affairs of state,
Wulfstan still had time to write a number of sermons
as well as legal codes. His Institutes of Polity
is admired as the first treatise on political theory in
English, but Wulfstan is best remembered for the
fiery sermon Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, produced, like
all his sermons, under the pseudonym Wulf (wolf).
Born sometime in the late 10th century,Wulfstan
lived during a period of instability and turmoil.
Beginning in the 990s, Viking raids
devastated the country. Some time after Christmas
1013, the hapless Saxon king Ethelred was
forced into exile in Normandy, allowing the Danish
king Svein Forkbeard to take the English
throne. Though Svein died the following year, allowing
Ethelred to regain the crown, Ethelred himself
died in 1016, upon which Svein’s son Cnut
became king of England.As adviser to Cnut,Wulfstan
is often credited with influencing the Dane to
reign as a Christian king and to maintain the
virtues of Anglo-Saxon civilization.Wulfstan continued
to play an important role in English politics
and jurisprudence during the reign of the Danish
king until his death in York on May 23, 1023.At his
request he was buried at the monastery at Ely.
Much of Wulfstan’s literary effort is related to
his work as a jurist under both Ethelred and Cnut.
He drew up the so-called Canons of Edgar (concerned
with ecclesiastical law and reform), and
drafted a legal code for Ethelred as well as laws for
King Cnut. The Institutes of Polity was not only the
most admired Anglo-Saxon legal tract, but also is a
document discussing the proper relationship between
church and state, making it the first text to
deal with political theory in Old English.
But Wulfstan’s most revered contributions to
Old English literature have been his sermons.
Dozens of sermons are attributed to Wulfstan in
manuscript, though scholars doubt the attribution
in most cases. At least five, perhaps 20, are
definitely from his hand. Of these, several deal
with the impending Judgment Day, a theme common
to sermons of his time (the close of the first
millennium of the Christian era).Wulfstan’s most
famous sermon, the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos (Sermon
of Wolf to the English), was delivered in the
dark year of 1014, when Ethelred had fled the
country and the Danes were taking over the kingdom,
a kingdom full of social disorder and anxiety.
In impassioned, sometimes alliterative
language,Wulfstan sees the Viking invasions as
chastisement for the sins of the English people,
and appeals to all classes of England to repent and
reform before the coming day of judgment, which
the Danish atrocities merely foreshadow. It is one
of the most powerful sermons of the Anglo-Saxon
period.
Bibliography
Berthurum, Dorothy, ed. The Homilies of Wulfstan.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.
Fowler, Roger, ed. Canons of Edgar. London: Oxford
University Press for the Early English Text Society,
1972.
Gatch,Milton McCormick. Preaching and Theology in
Anglo-Saxon England: Aelfric and Wulfstan.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1977.
Whitelock, Dorothy, ed. Sermo Lupi ad Anglos. 3rd ed.
New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1966.