Aethelwold

(Æthelwold, Ethelwold)

(ca. 909–984)

   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 OLD 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 SAINT’S 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 CHARLEMAGNE 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.