Rhetoric and Politics in Archbishop Wulfstan's Old English Homilies

Abstract

Most accounts of Wulfstan's bombastic homiletic style ground the archbishop's motivations in his pastoral duties, but it is also clear that his political and social thought had a great influence on the forms of his homilies. In order to understand better the methods and motivations of Wulfstan's homiletic style, this article explores a single, yet very important, element of that style: nominal compounds. Wulfstan's use of compounds comes in two varieties: first, compounds often tend to cluster in the long lists of sins in the ‘exhortatory’ homilies, and, second, rare or unique compounds occur singly in various homilies. In both cases, the compounds call attention to and promote Wulfstan's concern for social stability. The great instability in England in the early eleventh century, according to Wulfstan, required special addressing by the church, and, in response to this perceived need, he crafted his rhetoric and use of nominal compounds around the cause to engage his audience and advance his social vision.