Aelfric and the Early Medieval Homiliary

Abstract

‘… hit stod gefyrn awriten on Ledenbocumpeah pe pa laewdan men paet nyston.’Aelfric,Lives of the SaintsThe suggestion of a possible dependence of Aelfric'sCatholic Homilieson a medieval collection of patristic sermons is neither new nor startling. John Earle, writing in 1884, remarked that Aelfric had most probably used ‘some standard collection of homilies now lost’. Max Förster, commenting on Earle's suggestion that Aelfric's source may have been similar to the homiliary of Eusebius of Emesa, pointed out that theCatholic Homilieshave more in common with the Homiliary of Paul the Deacon as printed in Migne PL 95. Förster readily admitted that Aelfric may have used such a collection, but he contended that theCatholic Homiliesrepresented a translation from a number of sources. His own study of Aelfric's sources is based on this assumption. It is the purpose of this paper to show that while Aelfric may not have used the medieval homiliary as his sole source, the two volumes of hisCatholic Homiliesgive evidence of a very real dependence on the homiliary, and that almost all of his patristic sources can be traced to one or other version of a collection of homilies generally known as the Homiliary of Paul the Deacon.