‘What sort of love will not speak for a friend's good?’: pastoral care and rhetoric in early Anglo-Saxon letters to kings

Abstract

ABSTRACT The late-seventh/eighth-century Anglo-Saxon authors Aldhelm, Bede, Boniface and Alcuin all composed letters to contemporary kings. These authors used three main rhetorical strategies to direct their royal correspondents towards a more virtuous life. The first of these was advice, the (seemingly) straightforward offering of (ostensibly) judgement-free moral guidance. Secondly, there was admonition, where the author overtly and vigorously confronted specific sins. Finally, there were examples, exempla, drawn from both biblical and contemporary history, which the authors employed, with or without editorial comment, either to inspire or to deter. It is argued that these letters were principally motivated by moral or pastoral concern, rather than any desire to establish an abstract kingship ideology.