Archbishop Wulfstan's Commonplace Book

Abstract

MSS CCCC 190 and 265, Bodley 718 (2632), Junius 121 (5232), Nero A 1, and Bibl. Paris MS Fonds Latin 3182, all from the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century, contain a great many common entries relating to the affairs of a bishop and have been studied with some care by several scholars. Miss Mary Bateson nearly fifty years ago made it clear that the theological and legal material in these MSS really constituted a sort of bishop's commonplace book, and she identified a number of the random excerpts found here in such bewildering confusion. It is my purpose to present some evidence that Archbishop Wulfstan early in his episcopacy at Worcester made extensive use of the material collected here and perhaps directed its assembling as a part of his attempt to regulate the practices of both bishops and lesser clergy under his supervision. To the list given above must be added two other MSS which contain the same excerpts in somewhat the same order—Copenhagen Royal Library Gl. Kgl. 1595, and Bodleian Barlow 37. It is extremely difficult, if not now impossible, to fix the relationship among these MSS, but it is generally agreed that they represent a collection made at Worcester early in the eleventh century, and in the following discussion I shall deal with what must have been the original collection rather than with the contents of any particular MS.