SOURCE: Hollis, Stephanie. “The Thematic Structure of the Sermo Lupi.” Anglo-Saxon England 6 (1977): 175-95.

[In the following essay, Hollis analyzes the complex thematic pattern of Wulfstan's eschatological homily Sermo Lupi ad Anglos as it follows the moral decline of England to its culmination in disaster.]

Sermo Lupi ad Anglos has attracted far more attention by its subject matter than have other Wulfstan sermons, because its apparent topicality is of interest to students of the Old English period. Like all Wulfstan's sermons, though, it has been chiefly esteemed for its forceful oratory—it is this sermon, indeed, which is responsible for his reputation as a fiery orator in the Old Testament vein. Most readers have praised it more enthusiastically than Sir Frank Stenton did, when he stated that it ‘makes its effect by sheer monotony of commination’.¹ But even its admirers have regarded it as little more than a stringing together of the nation's sins and tribulations which impresses by the horrific accumulation of detail.² Such a view, it will be argued, is a drastic oversimplification. The Sermo Lupi presents a number of closely related themes, and the catalogues are but one aspect of the development of these themes. Certainly the seemingly inexhaustible fashion in which Wulfstan heaps up specific instances of the nation's iniquities and misfortunes contributes much to the force of his indictment, but the sermon is neither formless nor repetitive. On the contrary, it is the most skilfully and tightly constructed of all his sermons.

The intellectual coherence and thematic complexity of the Sermo Lupi have been obscured not only by a too exclusive concentration on its oratorical force but also by the currently accepted analyses of the process of its composition. Professor Whitelock has described the sermon largely in terms of a haphazard compilation and adaptation of earlier material:

To a fair amount of material from Ethelred's codes Wulfstan added an introductory passage made up of phrases from his eschatological sermons, especially XIII [Napier], and this homily supplied also his passage on the decay of kinship and some isolated phrases elsewhere. There is also a general similarity between the list of calamities in the Sermo ad Anglos and that in XXVIII [Napier], a free translation and expansion of Leviticus xxvi. For his other additions, Wulfstan seems to have drawn on his experience of conditions in England … Finally, he has added a normal homiletic conclusion.³

Professor Bethurum regards the EI version⁴ as the end product of a series of revisions incorporating Wulfstan's afterthoughts (like Professor Whitelock, she considers BH, the shortest version, to be the earliest):

The revised homily as represented in C was again revised by the addition of EI 65-7, 85-91, 145-6, 160-73, and 176-90. The first passage contains an echo of “VII” and, like the second, is a strong rebuke to lust. Both of these additions may have been occasioned by a particular event which came to Wulfstan's attention … The long list of sinners in 160-73 is reworked from earlier homilies, and Wulfstan may have seen its appropriateness after he had written the first draft of his sermon. The last passage is on the responsibility of the English for their plight … and was suggested by a passage in one of Alcuin's letters … It is possible that Wulfstan discovered this letter of Alcuin's late, or discovered it in his notes … and thought it an apt addition.⁵

In my view the EI version is the most satisfactory exposition of the sermon's themes. This superiority might appear to favour the theory that this version represents the final stage of a process of gradual expansion. But EI differs principally from BH in the inclusion of two passages referring to the Danish attacks (EI 100-28 and 176-90), and, as I understand the sermon, both passages are crucial to the development of its themes. Their absence from BH also destroys the structural pattern discernible in EI. Further, a consideration of the verbal linking in the sermon suggests that these two passages, as well as certain others in EI but not in BH, are original (particularly EI 65-7 and 160-73). It is my belief, then, that an examination of the themes and structure of the EI version calls into question the theory that it represents the latest of the three versions written by Wulfstan. Other arguments in support of the view that BH and C are abridgements of EI I have set out elsewhere.⁶

The following discussion is based on MS I,⁷ which is much earlier than E and contains corrections in Wulfstan's handwriting.⁸ But while I regard MS I as substantially representative of the earliest version, I do not consider that it reproduces exactly the sermon as it was first composed. EI 79-83 and 85-91 appear to be additions, for not only are both out of keeping with their context, but also, immediately before beginning the sentence at 85-91, the scribe of MS I made a false start on the sentence which now follows this passage; and this suggests to me that he was copying a version which Wulfstan had revised at this point. Further evidence that Wulfstan reworked this particular section is the addition, in MS I only, of a phrase (79-80) in his handwriting.⁹ Also I accept that certain phrases which are peculiar to manuscripts other than I are original. All of these, with the exception of C 49-56, are short. They include ‘7 Æþelred man dræfde ut of his earde’, which is in BH (71) only and must be regarded as original.¹⁰ It should be stressed that these remarks on the textual variants are not exhaustive—in particular, I reserve judgement on the expansions at EI 145-6, BH 39-40 and C 75, 110, 112 and 160-1. I wish only to suggest that consideration of the sermon's themes and structure can help to establish the status of the variants.

The central theme of the sermon can be summarized as the nation's progression to disaster. It is outlined, as is usual in Wulfstan's work, in the opening sentence. This sentence describes a process of dual deterioration. It begins with a categorical statement that the world is rapidly moving to its end: ‘Leofan men, gecnawað þæt soð is: ðeos worold is on ofste, 7 hit nealæcð þam ende’ (7-8). The swift passage of time is immediately and inseparably linked to the deterioration of the world: ‘7 þy hit is on worolde aa swa leng swa wyrse’ (8-9). Wyrse can be applied either to sins or to afflictions. Hence the deterioration referred to could be either the increase in tribulations, described in the scriptures as signs of the last days, or the moral degeneration of man traditionally believed to accompany the deterioration of the macrocosm in the sixth age.¹¹ The clause which follows shows that the two types of deterioration are causally connected: ‘7 swa hit sceal nyde for folces synnan [fram dæge to dæge] ær Antecristes tocyme yfelian swyþe’ (9-10). It may be objected that, since wyrse is ambiguous, this clause is simply a description of the growth of sin. I interpret it, however, as meaning that the accumulation of afflictions gathers momentum from the nation's sins, since, according to the Bosworth-Toller dictionary, yfelian with an impersonal pronoun as subject applies only to the deterioration of ‘things or circumstances’. Further, the culmination of the process is described in the final clause as ‘7 huru hit wyrð þænne egeslic 7 grimlic wide on worolde’ (10-11). This must be a reference to the afflictions of Antichrist's reign, because ‘egeslic 7 grimlic’ is inappropriate to the description of sin.

The opening sentence echoes certain parts of other eschatological sermons by Wulfstan, but I would not describe it as ‘made up of phrases almost identical with some in the eschatological sermons’.¹² It is not only that none of the sentences cited by editors contains expressions comparable with the first and final clauses; the description is misleading because the opening sentence of the Sermo Lupi is the only single sentence in Wulfstan's work which gives a complete and dramatically realized account of the process of deterioration. Its series of similarly constructed clauses linked by ‘and’, each advancing the argument or the chronology by one stage, gives an impression of steady accumulation. The clause lamenting the terror of Antichrist's reign, the culmination of the process described, is felt to constitute a climax, because it is the last of a number of clauses having the same pattern. It is also marked as an oratorical climax by the exclamatory huru. The BH and C versions give an incomplete and stylistically less effective account of the process, because they omit the final clause lamenting the ultimate disaster which overtakes the world.

The complete and dramatic description of the process of deterioration in the opening sentence of the Sermo Lupi marks an advance in Wulfstan's conception of the last days. In his early eschatological sermons, particularly Bethurum III and V, he had asserted that the uprecedented tribulations of the last days are a punishment for immense sins. In the Sermo Lupi the retributive process is conceived dynamically. Antichrist's reign is presented not as the ultimate horror foreshadowed by manifold tribulations but as the climax of a progressive growth of afflictions which is proportionate to the increasing quantity of sin. That this was in Wulfstan's mind in his opening sentence is borne out by an analysis of the sermon as a whole.

It is also borne out by the phrase ‘fram dæge to dæge’ which the E version includes after synnan and which I accept as an authentic reading. The phrase echoes a sentence in Bethurum Ib:¹³ ‘And us þincð þæt hit sy þam timan swyðe gehende, forðam þeos woruld is fram dæge to dæge a swa leng swa wyrse’ (22-4). Here also it evidently does not mean only ‘daily’ but involves the idea of a progression, more particularly an increase. In the Sermo Lupi ‘fram dæge to dæge’ can be taken to refer either to the increase in afflictions or to the increase in sins. This ambiguity of reference, I believe, is intentional, in line with the ambiguity of reference, to which I have already drawn attention, in the word wyrse. Because the central emphasis of this sermon is on a cumulative process, when Wulfstan uses dæghwamlice in referring to the sins of the nation a few lines later, he immediately adds ‘ihte yfel æfter oðrum’ (15-16). The link between the two references to the cumulative process in the first few lines is enforced by the verbal repetition of both dæg and yfel (cf. ‘yfelian swyþe’ in the first sentence).

Ultimately, since it is an essential part of God's fixed plan for the universe, the deterioration of the world which ends in the reign of Antichrist and the last judgement is inevitable. Wulfstan's opening sentence states this categorically (‘ðeos worold is on ofste, 7 hit nealæcð þam ende … 7 swa hit sceal nyde … yfelian swyþe’). If, however, punishments accrue in proportion to the sins of man, the reign of Antichrist may also be postponed by a diminution of man's sins. It follows from this that the fulfilment of the prophecies of the last days is contingent upon the actions of mankind. There is therefore a remedy. This, however, is not immediately mentioned. The opening sentence is followed by a description which demonstrates the validity of the assertion that the world grows worse because of mankind's sins (11-18). It is the sins and tribulations of the past that receive attention here, the causal connection being emphasized by ‘And we eac forþam’ (17). Both the sins and the punishments are described in extreme terms (‘(to) fela’, ‘manege’ and ‘ealles to wide gynd ealle þas þeode’). By stressing the immensity of the sins already committed and asserting that these have accumulated over a long period, Wulfstan before keeps his audience the warning that the end of the world is close at hand, since the first sentence indicates that the proximity of Antichrist's reign is measurable in terms of both the amount of sin and the amount of affliction.

In the process of demonstrating the nation's progression to ultimate disaster, Wulfstan introduces the possibility of amelioration. The concept is first introduced in a negative form, ‘And næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote’ (14-15), the negative constituting one of the sins of the past. It then appears in a conditional clause attached to the statement that punishment has resulted from sin, the play on the meanings of gebidan (‘endured’ and ‘expected’) emphasizing the contrast between the afflictions of the past and the improvement which could eventuate: ‘And we eac forþam habbað fela byrsta 7 bysmara gebiden, 7 gif we ænige bote gebidan scylan, þonne mote we þæs to Gode earnian bet þonne we ær þysan dydan’ (17-20). In the following sentence the relation between sin and affliction is summarized in one clause, which is balanced by another dealing with repentance. A conditional clause referring to improvement completes the sentence: ‘Forþam mid miclan earnungan we geearnedan þa yrmða þe us onsittað, 7 mid swyþe micelan earnungan we þa bote motan æt Gode geræcan gif hit sceal heonanforð godiende weorðan’ (20-3). An entire sentence is then devoted to the concept of improvement: ‘La hwæt, we witan ful georne þæt to miclan bryce sceal micel bot nyde, 7 to miclan bryne wæter unlytel, gif man þæt fyr sceal to ahte acwencan’ (23-5). In this manner the emphasis of the opening lines gradually moves from the inevitability of a progression culminating in disaster to the conditional possibility of improvement (note the conditional clauses in 18, 22-3 and 25). The sentence at 23-5 forms the rhetorical climax of the introduction, the exclamatory La hwæt and the unusually figurative expression giving stylistic prominence to this didactically important point. The play on the meaning of bot is thematically significant, for it unifies the concept of repentance with the improvement repentance could effect in the nation's fortunes. It first meant ‘repentance’ in ‘næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote’ (14-15); then in the next two occurrences (18 and 22), as the context suggests, ‘remedy’ in the sense of ‘assistance’. In ‘to miclan bryce sceal micel bot nyde’ (23-4) bryce may mean either ‘fracture’ (since the following parallel clause is obviously figurative) or ‘violation’, so that bot in this instance may signify both ‘cure’ and ‘recompense’.

The opening lines present the relation between sin and repentance, as well as the relation between sin and punishment, in terms of progressive intensification. In his first reference to remedy Wulfstan indicates that efforts to obtain it must increase (‘þæs to Gode earnian bet þonne we ær þysan dydan’ (19-20)), and the point is then elaborated (20-3, quoted above). The exact balancing of the constituent elements of the two main clauses in this elaborating sentence, violated by the addition of swyþe in the second clause to emphasize that efforts to improve must exceed the nation's sins, suggests that repentance is capable of cancelling out the sins and bringing about the amelioration described in the final conditional clause. Whereas this sentence employs parallel main clauses to equate sin and repentance, parallel noun phrases within a noun clause are employed at 23-5 to repeat the equation (‘to miclan bryce sceal micel bot nyde, 7 to miclan bryne wæter unlytel’). The grammatical compression heightens the antithetical nature of the two concepts and the power which repentance has to cancel out sins, especially in ‘to miclan bryne wæter unlytel’, in which opposites are directly opposed by the reduction of the verb and adverb.

In sum, the sermon's opening sentence asserts that disasters multiply in time and culminate in the reign of Antichrist as a result of the daily growth in sins. The fixity of this pattern of events is illustrated by reference to past experience, but the possibility of improving the situation gradually achieves prominence (7-25). Repentance is therefore shown to be urgently necessary, for it assumes the aspect of the sole factor capable of modifying the rapid progression to ultimate disaster. It is on the need for repentance that the remainder of the first section turns (25-52).

In Wulfstan's view, repentance must take the form of the restoration of lagu and riht. The swift onward movement to destruction can be turned back only by a reversal of the course of action which, he states early in the sermon the nation is currently pursuing: ‘And næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote swa georne swa man scolde, ac dæghwamlice man ihte yfel æfter oðrum 7 unriht rærde 7 unlaga manege ealles to wide gynd ealle þas þeode’ (14-17). At 25-7 he asserts the need for repentance, echoing lagu and riht, the words which he had used earlier with negative affixes: ‘And micel is nydþearf manna gehwilcum þæt he Godes lage gyme heonanforð georne [bet þonne he ær dyde] 7 Godes gerihta mid rihte gelæste.’ The phrase ‘bet þonne he ær dyde’, only in E, is in line with the continuing insistence on the need for a renewal of righteousness. The need for repentance is also asserted in ‘Ac soð is þæt ic secge, þearf is þære bote’ (37-8), which repeats the þearf of nydþearf in the earlier assertion (26), which itself picks up nyde from the preceding exclamatory sentence equating sin and repentance (23-5). The need for repentance is evident because of the apocalyptic nature of the corruption. Christians have become worse than heathens (27-37). The emphasis of the Old Testament prophets on the oppression of the poor, widows and orphans¹⁴ is echoed here to signalize the definitive nature of the nation's corruption (42-7). Instead of righteousness and the rule of law (both secular and divine) Wulfstan finds in his people the rule of unriht and unlagu—the words riht and lagu, on their own or in compound words or with negative prefixes, are repeated constantly throughout this indictment of the nation's sins. God's judgement, perhaps God's ultimate judgement of the people, is inevitable. This Wulfstan states in a sentence which, in its reference to bysmor and byrst, echoes his earlier insistence on the causal connection of sin and punishment (17-18): ‘And þæs we habbað ealle þurh Godes yrre bysmor gelome, gecnawe se ðe cunne; 7 se byrst wyrð gemæne, þeh man swa ne wene, eallre þysse þeode, butan God beorge’ (49-52). The last words, however, emphasize God's grace (‘butan God beorge’). God has established not only the pattern, with which the sermon is concerned, of an inevitable deterioration of the world and an inevitable disastrous end, but also a pattern of redemption and atonement for sin.¹⁵ It may well be that ‘Uton creopan to Criste 7 bifigendre heortan clipian gelome 7 geearnian his mildse’, apparently so unlike Wulfstan and recorded only in the peroration of the C version (167-8) is authentic.

In 7-52, then, we have a sustained exposition of the sermon's themes, linked by verbal repetition, of which the thematically significant instances have been noted. The section could be subdivided after the sentence at 23-5, because there is a shift of emphasis at this point. This exclamatory sentence marks the climax of Wulfstan's remarks on the possibility of improvement and is followed by a consideration of the need for repentance. But the division is blurred by the sentence initiator ‘and’, which enforces the continuity of sense, and by the repetition of micel and nyd. The section could be further subdivided before ‘Ac soð is þæt ic secge, þearf is þære bote’ (37-8), which marks the end of the series of comparisons (27-37) supporting the assertion that there is need for every man ‘þæt he Godes large gyme heonanforð georne [bet þonne he ær dyde] 7 Godes gerihta mid rihte gelæste’ (25-7) and introduces the catalogue of various transgressions against riht and lagu. But the repetition of riht and lagu which is prominent throughout 37-49 begins in the sentence at 25-7, which is itself an echo of ‘unriht rærde 7 unlaga manege’ (16). It is the repetition of riht and lagu in combination which suggests that the passage in C at 49-56 formed part of the original sermon, for without it the introductory indictment concludes with a reference to lagu only (‘7, hrædest is to cweþenne, Godes laga laðe 7 lara forsawene’ (EI 48-9)). If, however, the C passage is admitted, the summing up phrase is immediately preceded by a reference to both lagu and riht: ‘forðam unriht is to wide mannum gemæne 7 unlaga leofe’ (C 56). These words provide not only a satisfactory completion of the verbal patterning begun in ‘unriht rærde 7 unlaga manege’ (EI 16) but also a clear statement of one of the sermon's themes, namely the nation's perverse preference for evil instead of good, which is hinted at in ‘And næs a fela manna þe smeade ymbe þa bote swa georne swa man scolde, ac dæghwamlice man ihte yfel æfter oðrum 7 unriht rærde 7 unlaga manege ealles to wide gynd ealle þas þeode’ (14-17).

I take the sentence at 49-52 to conclude the introductory section not merely because it is a rhetorically effective climax but because it completes the exposition, returning the argument to the point reached at 17-18 (‘And we eac forþam habbað fela byrsta 7 bysmara gebiden’), taking up once more the words byrst and bysmor and coming to rest in the reference to God and his grace. At the same time, however, it serves as a bridge, because, as is evident from Forþam (53), it is the inception of the account of the nation's sins which follows. A bridge of this sort is characteristic of this particular sermon. Normally units of sense in Wulfstan's sermons, each unified by a particular verbal or syntactic patterning and internally linked by sentence initiators such as ‘and’, are isolated from one another.¹⁶ Here, however, the boundaries of the rhetorical units are blurred because of the forward carrying nature of the theme.

The introductory section is a paradigm of the sermon as a whole. In very general terms, the sermon consists of passages describing the sins of the nation alternated with accounts of tribulation, the two being linked by statements which draw attention to the cause and effect relationship. Towards the end of the sermon the possibility of improvement is gradually reintroduced and an exhortation to repent forms its conclusion. The dynamic historical pattern described is reflected in the sermon's dynamic structure. The same pattern structures both historical time and the time it takes to deliver the sermon. Punishment follows sin inexorably, and the catalogues of the nation's sins grow longer and the accumulation grows more rapid as the afflictions described grow more terrible. The passages dealing with the nation's afflictions are at 53-9, 100-28 and 174-89. The sentence at 189-90 links the last of these to the exhortatory peroration. The passages dealing with the nation's sins, after the introductory section, are at 59-99 and 129-73. I shall examine first the accounts of afflictions.

The opening section of the sermon, as I have intimated, refers to the nation's afflictions simply as ‘fela byrsta 7 bysmara’ (18) and as ‘bysmor gelome’ in a passage (49-52) which also threatens that ‘se byrst wyrð gemæne’. The first account of afflictions (53-9) provides a detailed catalogue of the tribulations which the nation has suffered. Wulfstan begins by reiterating the point that these afflictions are the result of the nation's sins: ‘Forþam hit is on us eallum swutol 7 gesene þæt we ær þysan oftor bræcan þonne we bettan, 7 þy is þysse þeode fela onsæge’ (53-4). The reference to the nation's sins, which is reminiscent of the metaphor ‘to miclan bryce sceal micel bot nyde’, calls attention to the fact that the nation has accelerated, instead of slowing down, its course to destruction (‘we ær þysan oftor bræcan þonne we bettan’). Consistent with this is the statement at 55-9 that the nation has not prospered, but has suffered many afflictions. As editors have noted, the passage is similar to one in Bethurum XIX describing the punishment which befalls the disobedient nation and one in Bethurum V listing the calamities of the last days.¹⁷ Though a number of the details transform the description into a more specific reflection of contemporary ills, its significance for Wulfstan, and possibly for his audience, may have resided in the intimation it gives of the approaching end of the world, for strife among nations is a sign of the second coming, and disease and unfruitfulness are a symptom of the earth's decline in its last age.¹⁸ In the light of the sermon's themes the reference to the duration and extent of the afflictions (‘nu lange inne ne ute’ and ‘on gewelhwylcan ende’) and the insistence on their intensity and frequency (‘oft 7 gelome’, ‘swyþe þearle’, ‘swyþe’ and ‘foroft’) are also intimations of the proximity of Antichrist's reign.

The second account of afflictions (100-28) is concerned with one particular kind. Wulfstan depicts the degraded state to which the English people as a whole and their leaders in particular have been reduced by their enemies. He begins with a rhetorical question calling attention to the extent of the humiliations suffered by the English: ‘And la, hu mæg mare scamu þurh Godes yrre mannum gelimpan þonne us deð gelome for agenum gewyrhtum?’ (100-1). The extent of the humiliations, so excessive that nothing beyond it could be conceived, is suggestive of the impending conquest and possible destruction of the nation. The magnitude of degradation is manifested in various ways. The Vikings' exaction of wergeld for a thrall by unjust application of the law and the powerlessness of an English thane's kinsmen to avenge injuries received from a thrall (101-6) reveal the unnatural supremacy of thrall over thane. This injury at the personal level is linked, both in substance and by verbal repetition, with the reference to the Vikings' exaction of tribute at the national level (106-8). Similarly the description of the thrall who ‘his hlaford cnyt swyþe fæste 7 wyrcð him to þræle’ (117-18) is parallel to the description of the Vikings leading the English into captivity, particularly if we take gewelede togædere to refer not to þas þeode but to þa drafe cristenra manna, so that the Christians, like the captured thane, are bound (120-2). The powerlessness of the English thane is equally manifest when he has to witness the humiliation of his women without interfering (113-17). The culminating sentences (123-8) draw attention to the fact that the continual insult, instead of being avenged on the offender, is compounded by the payment of tribute.

The third passage referring to afflictions (174-89) consists of an historical parallel with the English conquest of the Britons which is meant to make the audience see that the present perilous state of the nation is unprecedented. After citing Gildas's explanation for the destruction of the Britons Wulfstan states: ‘Ac utan don swa us þearf is, warnian us be swilcan; 7 soþ is þæt ic secge, wyrsan dæda we witan mid Englum þonne we mid Bryttan ahwar gehyrdan’ (186-9). If, for the magnitude of their sins, the Britons were exterminated, the fate of the English nation, whose sins, Wulfstan insists, are immeasurably greater than any reported of the Britons, must also be immeasurably worse. What he has in mind must be the imminent reign of Antichrist, a fate far worse than national extermination. The drawing of this historical parallel becomes possible because of the principle, pervasive in the sermon, that punishment is proportionate to sin. The imminent historical event is the conquest of England by the Vikings, which for Wulfstan coalesces with the eschatological event. The coming of the Vikings is the coming of the reign of Antichrist, predicted in the opening sentence (7-11). Wulfstan's presentation of the Vikings as antichrists whose victory establishes the reign of the arch-enemy appears to be without parallel in Old English homiletic literature, but to him the equation of Viking rule with the reign of Antichrist would have been a logical inference. He asserts frequently in his work that heathenism is the worship of the devil,¹⁹ and the similarities between the reign of a heathen king and that of Antichrist would have been obvious to him.²⁰ The equation of Viking victory with the rule of Antichrist is prefigured earlier in the sermon. In the account of the humiliations they inflict on the English (100-28) the Vikings are depicted not simply as the enemies of the English nation but as the opponents of cristendom and the oppressors cristenra manna (102 and 121). Their supremacy is presented as an inversion of order, for, as I have noted, instances of the humiliations suffered by the English Christians at the hands of the heathen Vikings are juxtaposed with instances of the reversal of social rôles. This association of the rule of Antichrist with an inversion of order is characteristic of Wulfstan, for Antichrist is depicted elsewhere in his sermons (particularly in Bethurum IX) as the inverter of all that is true and right. The theme of inverted order can be traced even further back in the sermon, for the employment of parallelism at 102-6, 110-12 and 125-6 to demonstrate the superiority of the Vikings recalls the series of antithetical sentences near the beginning (27-37), which contrast the heathens' scrupulous observance of religious duties with the sacrilegiousness of the English Christians. The inversion of expected order in the early passage is brought out particularly clearly in the use of Godes þeowas to refer to Christian clergy and gedwolgoda þenan to describe heathen priests, for the terms emphasize the unnatural pre-eminence of those who adhere to falsehood.²¹

It is the passages not in the BH version, then, EI 100-28 and 176-90, which provide an indication of accumulating disaster. Without them the body of the sermon contains no intimation of the coming reign of Antichrist which is referred to in the opening sentence as the culmination of the process of deterioration. Close links with the surrounding text also support the view that these passages are original. The passage at 100-28 is linked to the preceding unit by the repetition of Godes yrre (the phrase first occurs at 98-9) and to the following unit by the repetition of the root word limp- (gelimpum (127) and mislimpe (129)). The end of the passage at 176-90 is linked to the exhortatory peroration by the repetition of þearf. The beginning of the passage has no close verbal links with the preceding sentence, but this sentence's exhortation to guard against complete destruction (‘Ac la, on Godes naman utan don swa us neod is, beorgan us sylfum swa we geornost magan þe læs we ætgædere ealle forweorðan’ (174-6)) is supported only if we admit the threat of conquest contained in 176-90.

Although the passages that are concerned with the nation's sins (59-99 and 129-73) are recognizably different from one another in subject matter, their progressive accumulation of sins is indicated predominantly by stylistic devices. What is stressed is the magnitude of evil, both qualitatively and quantitatively, and the length of time during which it has prevailed. This emphasis conforms with the sermon's introduction which establishes that the approach of the end of the world can be measured by the passage of time and the increase in man's sins. The sermon refers constantly to the sins of the past as well as to those of the present, and the frequency of words such as oft, foroft and gelome makes it clear that the process of deterioration is already far advanced. On numerous occasions Wulfstan describes sins as having been committed by all, or almost all, members of the nation, and a number of phrases such as ‘gynd ealle þæs þeode’, ‘innan þysse þeode’, ‘on æghwylcan ende’, ‘æghwær mid mannum’ and ‘ealles to wide’ draw attention to the extent to which unrighteousness has spread throughout the nation. The employment of a hyperbolic style throughout the sermon is an index of the extremity of the nation's sins; the treachery in the land, for instance, is described as ‘ealra mæst hlafordswice se bið on worolde’ (73). The extremity of the nation's sins is also underlined when Wulfstan asserts at the end of his preliminary indictment of the nation's treachery ‘do mare gif he mæge’ (70) and when he states towards the end of a long recital of sins (61-99) ‘And git hit is mare 7 eac mænigfealdre þæt dereð þysse þeode’ (95-6).

The abundant intensifying words and phrases in the accounts of the nation's sins (and afflictions) can be seen not as mannerisms but as one of the stylistic devices employed to give expression to Wulfstan's conception of the approach of Antichrist. Intensifiers such as swyþe, ealles to gelome, georne and to fela occur, of course, in sermons which are dissimilar to the Sermo Lupi in theme. It is noticeable, however, that they occur only sporadically in purely expository sermons like Bethurum XII. They are a prominent stylistic feature only in sermons which, like Wulfstan's early eschatological ones and the Sermo Lupi, deal with extreme situations.

The first account of the nation's sins (59-99) deals with treachery. More precisely it could be described as an indictment of faithlessness, since it is informed by Wulfstan's consciousness that men have broken faith with God as well as with their fellow men. The second account (129-73) reveals the total perversity of the nation's values. In both passages Wulstan employs cumulative and repetitive grammatical structures to suggest the rapid proliferation of the nation's sins. In the first account word pairs, one of the features of Wulfstan's style most frequently remarked on, occur as infrequently as they do in the introductory section.²² Here, as well as in the introduction, it is primarily sentence and clause structures which are repeated and compounded, and normally each sentence or clause is limited to the description of only one particular sin. For instance, Wulfstan begins his account of treachery with a sentence describing the decay of kinship. It opens with a full clause, followed by another three, which, with the exception of the second which adds hwilum, are each reduced to conjunction, subject and object: ‘Ne bearh nu foroft gesib gesibban þe ma þe fremdan, ne fæder his bearne, ne hwilum bearn his agenum fæder, ne broþor oþrum’ (61-3). The next sin is also described in a full clause followed by reduced clauses containing further instances: ‘ne ure ænig his lif ne fadode swa swa he scolde, ne gehadode regollice, ne læwede lahlice’ (64-5). The second account (129-73), unlike the first, contains main clauses which consist almost entirely of lists of the names of sins and sinners, mostly linked in pairs (or occasionally larger groups) by alliteration and rhyme of various kinds and joined by conjunctions. Three consecutive main clauses near the beginning introduce long catalogues of this kind (131-46). Thus ‘And eac syndan wide’ (138) and ‘And eac her syn on earde’ (141-2), each introducing a new main clause (or sentence), do not mark, as one might expect, respites from the relentless catalogues of sins, but mark further advances in the accumulation of the nation's evil-doing. The more expository style of 147-59 provides a welcome relief, but in the EI version the lull serves only to enhance the force of the climactic indictment (160-6). In this passage, the last detailed indictment, various kinds of repetition and compounding occur. The five main clauses following the introductory sentence (‘Her syndan þurh synleawa …’) each begin with the words Her syndan. The five clauses have the same syntactic structure and the repeated conjunction ‘and’ links them. They form successive catalogues, for the subject of each clause consists of a list of nouns denoting sinners. In these catalogues too there is repetition of sound, the verbal groups being linked by verbal repetition and rhyme of various kinds.

In the sermon as a whole, then, the growth of sin is indicated by stylistic variation. The theme of ‘aa swa leng swa wyrse’ is embodied in the development of the sermon, because it progresses from a gradual accumulation of sins to the rapid enumeration of a multitude. In crudely didactic terms the development of the sermon is highly effective, for an emotionally stirring climax is reached in the account of the nation's sins shortly before the culminating threat of destruction and the concluding call for repentance. The series of catalogues of sinners which is peculiar to the EI version (160-6) is essential to the sermon's effectiveness, for it constitutes a climactic ‘lift’ after the description in 147-59. It is similar to the list of those condemned to hell in other Wulfstan sermons, particularly Bethurum XIII, and its associations for those who were familiar with Wulfstan's work would be entirely appropriate to this sermon's concern with the apocalyptic nature of the nation's sins. The passage (160-73) which includes these catalogues is one of those held to have been added after Wulfstan first wrote the sermon, because it is not in BH. Stylistic considerations can be adduced on both sides of the argument. On the one hand, the repeated her syndan echoes sentence openings earlier in the section (‘And eac syndan wide’ and ‘And eac her syn on earde’), and the words synleawa and gelewede in the first sentence provide a verbal link with the immediately preceding sentence (‘lewe nellað beorgan’ (159)), in which the figure of speech is introduced. On the other hand, the fact that the absence of the passage results in two adjacent sentences each containing beorgan (BH 115 and 117) could be thought to support the view that the passage has been skilfully grafted on. I am of the opinion that it is original because of the thematic importance of 160-6 and, as I shall explain below, of 166-73 too.²³

Both passages dealing with sins demonstrate the devil's influence on the nation, which appropriately foreshadows his imminent reign as Antichrist. The accounts of the nation's sins, then, reveal the devil's corruption of the land from within, just as the accounts of tribulations reveal that it is besieged from without by the powers of darkness. The account of the nation's ‘tealte getrywða’ (59-99) elaborates the assertion in the second sentence of the sermon that the devil has deluded the nation for many years and that the absence of getreowþa is widespread: ‘Understandað eac georne þæt deofol þas þeode nu fela geara dwelode to swyþe, 7 þæt lytle getreowþa wæran mid mannum, þeah hy wel spæcan, 7 unrihta to fela ricsode on lande’ (11-14). Faithlessness and untruthfulness are stated to be tenets of Antichrist in Bethurum IX (130-3) and the concealment of evil under fair appearances is particularly associated with the influence of the arch-deceiver (IX, 107-28). It is the pretence and deception which attend treachery that Wulfstan emphasizes in his indictment of the nation's ‘tealte getrywða’ (especially 67-70). As Professor Whitelock remarks, ‘The frequency of references to treachery is one of the most striking features of the records of this period’,²⁴ but Wulfstan's allusions to the prevalence of treachery are not simply a reflection of the contemporary situation. They are a significant aspect of the presentation of his eschatological theme, for they reveal that the influence of Antichrist is already clearly discernible.

Most of the instances of treachery Wulfstan cites in the first account of sins involve the betrayal of kinsmen, but his account of the nation's faithlessness does not merely contain instances of the violation of social order arising from the flagrant disregard of human loyalties; it includes deeds which are directly contrary to the will of God which is, ideally, reflected in the laws which govern social order.²⁵ There is, as he states, ‘ungetrywþa micle for Gode 7 for worolde’ (71-2), for kings, who represent Christ on earth, have been betrayed in various ways (71-8) and Christians are sold to the nation's enemies (83-4, 85-91 and 92-4). The passages which I regard as additions (79-83 and 85-91, including the marginal addition in Wulfstan's handwriting in MS I (79-80)) are tangential elaborations on the religious aspect of faithlessness. If they are omitted, there emerges a passage linked by verbal and syntactic repetition in the manner characteristic of the Sermo Lupi:

And godsibbas 7 godbearn to fela man forspilde wide gynd þas þeode … 7 cristenes folces to fela man gesealde ut of þysan earde nu ealle hwile. And eal þæt is Gode lað, gelyfe se þe wille … Eac we witan georne hwær seo yrmð gewearð þæt fæder gesealde bearn wið weorþe 7 bearn his modor, 7 broþor sealde oþerne fremdum to gewealde. 7 eal þæt syndan micle 7 egeslice dæda, understande se þe wille.

It might be easier to adduce a motive for the addition of 80-3 if one knew precisely what Wulfstan meant by alluding to the destruction of holy places ‘þurh þæt þe man sume men ær þam gelogode swa man na ne scolde’, but in the case of 85-91, the motive, I suggest, is evident. Because the theme of this passage is ‘tealte getreowða’, Wulfstan's reference to the sale of Englishmen to heathens presents the offence as a betrayal of family bonds. The fact that the sale of any Christian to the enemy is also contrary to God's will is only implied in the reference to the sale ‘cristenes folces’ (83-4), which in itself is a violation of the brotherhood of Christians. At 85-91 Wulfstan broadens his theme to draw attention to the sacrilegious aspect of the sale of Christians, though he links it with the indictment of the betrayal of kinsmen by alluding to the ties of blood which bind God and man in his reference to those who are ‘bought with Christ's blood’. This generalization is parallel to the marginal addition of ‘toeacan oðran ealles to manegan þe man unscyldige forfor ealles to wide’ (79-80) to ‘And godsibbas 7 godbearn to fela man forspilde wide gynd þas þeode.’

Because the indictment of the nation's faithlessness is a revelation of its opposition to the will of God, it is an indictment of a specific instance of the pervasive unriht in the land, which, in combination with the prevalence of unlagu, is described in the introductory section (25-49). The equation of treachery and unriht is made in the sentence which opens this account of the nation's sins: ‘forþam on þysan earde wæs, swa hit þincan mæg, nu fela geara unriht fela 7 tealte getrywða æghwær mid mannum’ (59-61). The nation's opposition to the will of God is established at the very beginning of the sermon as a manifestation of the workings of the arch-enemy, for the second sentence mentions unriht in connection with the influence of the devil: ‘Understandað eac georne þæt deofol þas þeode nu fela geara dwelode to swyþe, 7 þæt lytle getreowþa wæran mid mannum, þeah hy wel spæcan, 7 unrihta to fela ricsode on lande’ (11-14). Elsewhere in his sermons Wulfstan expresses the view that Antichrist turns men to his contrary law from the teachings of God.²⁶ Here, in the use of the verb ricsode, there is a suggestion that the nation has not simply abandoned riht but is already governed by evil. A suggestion of rule by unjust and wicked laws, an inversion of order comparable to the reign of Antichrist himself, is contained also in ‘unriht rærde 7 unlaga manege’, a little later (16). The suggested erection of a law contrary to the law of God is made apparent in the account of the nation's treachery only in the EI version, where Wulfstan states: ‘Ac worhtan lust us to lage ealles to gelome, 7 naþor ne heoldan ne lare ne lage Godes ne manna swa swa we scoldan’ (65-7). The phrase ‘worhtan lust us to lage’ identifies the contrary law to which the nation adheres as Antichrist's, for it is he who teaches, in opposition to Christ, ‘þæt gehwa his luste georne fulgange’.²⁷

The total perversion of the nation's values, depicted in the second account of sins (129-73), is the logical outcome of acceptance of the devil's teaching. This account opens with an assertion that considerations of morality have been abandoned in favour of the proliferation of sin, expressed in a clause with a negative verb followed by a main clause beginning with ac (129-38), a pattern which in both thought and expression recalls the opening of the first account of sins: in that passage (61-70) the same point is made in a series of negative clauses followed by a main clause beginning with ac; this sequence of clauses, in its turn, stylistically echoes the opening of the first account of tribulations (55-6), which is also constructed on the ne … ac … pattern, the ac clause containing an account of the proliferation of tribulations comparable with the list of sins in the opening of the second account of sins. But the opening of the second account of sins recalls too the first reference to repentance (14-17), a sentence, also constructed on the ne … ac … pattern, which shows the extent of the devil's success in deluding the nation, in that it has rejected the means of remedying its perilous situation and has instead accelerated the progression to disaster through sin.

With the allusion to the nation's disregard of morality in the second account of sin, a notion which figured in the introductory section, but gradually disappeared, being subsumed in the juxtapositioning of evil and its consequences. The notion of repentance slowly attains prominence throughout the description of the climactic character of the nation's sins. The first catalogues of sins (131-46) are followed by the assertion that men are more ashamed of good deeds than of evil ones (147-8) and by elaboration of this point (149-59). In the EI version Wulfstan returns to this thought (166-8) after a further recital of the nation's iniquities (160-6). In this version the rhetorical unit containing the indictment of the nation's sins is not followed, as are others in the sermon, by a detailed description of retribution. Before he deals with the imminence of the nation's defeat, Wulfstan exhorts the nation to consider its ways and guard against destruction, alluding only in passing to the great disasters which have been the consequence of sin (169-73). This is his first direct call for improvement. Having shown that the process of deterioration, of both man and his world, is already far advanced, he here emphasizes the shortness of time which remains and the magnitude of repentance which is required. After the concluding words of the reference to the destruction of the Britons (‘wyrsan dæda we witan mid Englum þonne we mid Bryttan ahwar gehyrdan’ (187-9) have implied that retribution is already long overdue and have thus given a last reminder of the need for haste, repentance finally becomes the subject of a lengthy passage consisting of imperatives instructing the audience in the form amendment must take (190-202).

One finds, then, that within the rigid structural pattern of the sermon, which alternates accounts of sins and punishments, a modification is suggested in the increasing prominence attained by the notion of repentance. The pattern is finally broken by the exhortations to repent. The sermon as a whole provides a conceptual framework which is intended to persuade its audience that repentance is urgently necessary and desirable, for the structure embodies the relentless progression of events to ultimate disaster and repentance emerges as the sole means of altering the course of events. Thus the exhortatory peroration, though an almost standard feature of Wulfstan's sermons, is an essential structural element of the Sermo Lupi as the culminating point of its themes.

It is the references to repentance in the second account of sins, however, which contain the clearest depiction of the nation's total perversity. Its perverted morality indicates the approaching triumph of Antichrist, for it has accepted evil as good. Wulfstan states twice that the nation repents of good deeds instead of evil ones (147-8 and 163-9). This perverse attitude, he explains (149-56), stems from the multitude's hatred and ridicule of God's followers. This explanation clearly reveals what is implicit in the introductory section: that evil men have power over the nation. The nation is beset within, as well as without, by the forerunners of Antichrist, those whom Wulfstan, in Bethurum Ib, calls ‘antichrists’, leading others into sin, and ‘limbs’ of Satan, in large numbers ushering in the reign of Antichrist by persecuting and seducing the righteous. This revelation that the nation is in the grip of antichrists makes it highly probable that the phrase ‘Godes wiðersacan’ in BH and C at the beginning of the third sentence in this section (‘And eac her synd on earde a Godes wiðersacan apostatan abroðene’ (C 140)) is original. This phrase, which clearly underlines the presence of God's opponents, is given as the translation of Antichrist in Bethurum Ib: ‘Anticristus is on Læden contrarius Cristo, þæt is on Englisc, Godes wiðersaca’ (7-8).

Wulfstan's presentation of the nation's attitude to repentance involves more than a demonstration of moral blindness, of the acceptance of good as evil. Repentance, as the introductory section establishes, particularly by the play on bot, is the means of remedying the nation's situation. By being ashamed to repent of evil deeds the nation rejects the available remedy and continues on its path to inevitable destruction. Such a wilful pursuit of destruction involves blindness to the full enormity of the consequences. The nation's foolish perversity is revealed by a comparison of those who shun penance with those who refuse to seek a cure for their injuries before it is too late: ‘ac for idelan onscytan hy scamað þæt hy betan heora misdæda, swa swa bec tæcan, gelice þam dwæsan þe for heora prytan lewe nellað beorgan ær hy na ne magan, þeah hy eal willan’ (157-9). The figurative equation of a state of sin with injury (or disease) is carried over into the next sentence, which indicates an urgent need for remedy: ‘Her syndan þurh synleawa, swa hit þincan mæg, sare gelewede to manege on earde’ (160-1).

This demonstration of the foolish perversity of the nation's position is a summing up, in religious terms, of the view of English policy which Wulfstan expresses in his account of the humiliations inflicted by the Danes: ‘Ac ealne þæne bysmor þe we oft þoliað we gyldað mid weorðscipe þam þe us scendað. We him gyldað singallice, 7 hy us hynað dæghwamlice. Hy hergiað 7 hy bærnað, rypaþ 7 reafiað 7 to scipe lædað’ (123-7). Here the exact parallelism of the second sentence, and the initial placing of the object in the first sentence, which thus divides naturally into two halves, enforce a recognition of the contrast between the insult received and the response made to it. The full absurdity of the nation's policy is evident in these sentences, for they show that it perversely follows a course of action which benefits only its enemies and contributes to the furthering of its own destruction. The passage is preceded by an explicit statement of the nation's moral blindness: ‘Oft twegen sæmen oððe þry hwilum drifað þa drafe cristenra manna fram sæ to sæ ut þurh þas þeode gewelede togædere, us eallum to woroldscame, gif we on eornost ænige cuþon [oððe a woldan] ariht understandan’ (120-3). The phrase added in C and E may well be authentic, for the imputation of wilful refusal to see the truth, added to the imputation of inability to distinguish good and evil, accords with Wulfstan's castigation of the moral perversity of the nation in his second account of sins.

Wulfstan's depiction of the nation as blind to the realities of its moral and political situation has similarities to the description of the last days in II Thessalonians II.9-12, in which the second coming is said to take place after ‘operationem Satanae, in omni virtute, et signis, et prodigiis mendacibus, et in omni seductione iniquitatis iis qui pereunt; eo quod charitatem veritatis non receperunt ut salvi fierent. Ideo mittet illis Deus operationem erroris, ut credant mendacio, ut judicentur omnes qui non crediderunt veritati, sed consenserunt iniquitati.’ Wulfstan's belief that the nation has been blinded to the truth by the influence of the devil accounts for expressions such as ‘gecnawe se ðe cunne’, ‘gelyfe se þe wille’ and ‘þeh man swa ne wene’²⁸ and for his insistence that what he speaks is the truth (‘gecnawað þæt soð is’ (7) and ‘soð is þæt ic secge’ (37 and 187)) and that what he recounts is plain to see (‘swutol 7 gesæne’).²⁹ Expressions such as these are customarily described as ‘set phrases’ characteristic of Wulfstan's style. Nowhere else, however, are they used as abundantly as in the Sermo Lupi, where they are particularly appropriate to the theme; and a belief in the moral obtuseness of mankind in the last days may underlie his use of them elsewhere.

For all its topicality, we may conclude, the Sermo Lupi is essentially an eschatological sermon in which Wulfstan presents his most fully developed view of the last days. The eschatological daily increase in sins which he elaborates has a scriptural basis and can be seen as relating to contemporary conceptions of the microcosm and macrocosm, but, by causally relating the increase in calamities to the increase in sins, Wulfstan achieves a highly schematized conception of a twofold deterioration. The reign of Antichrist becomes, not a prophecy fulfilled at a fixed time according to God's will, as it is in other sermons, but the culmination of a process for which mankind is responsible. For this reason Wulfstan warns his audience not merely to prepare for the last judgement but to repent in order to stave off the terror of Antichrist's reign. The incentive to repentance inherent in Wulfstan's presentation of the last days in the Sermo Lupi is a particularly powerful one, since the reign of Antichrist is identified with the conquest of the nation by its enemies.

The Sermo Lupi is unique not only in its conception of the nature of the last days but also because its structure embodies its theme so ingeniously. The sermon has an intellectual structure as well as a rhetorical one. It enforces recognition of the truth of Wulfstan's opening assertion that the world is progressing inexorably to disaster, for the accounts of retribution are so organized that there is a progression from a general catalogue of calamities to a threat that the conquest of the nation is imminent. The growth of sin is indicated by the hyperbolic style, by insistence on its spread throughout the nation and by a cumulative listing of sins whose pace accelerates towards the end of the sermon. Within this framework repentance is made to appear urgently necessary and desirable, for it can modify the process of deterioration, which the sermon shows is already far advanced. The call for repentance has particular force, because it follows the most emotionally stirring sections of the sermon, the threat of destruction by the nation's enemies and the highly rhetorical lists of sinners (133-47 and 160-6).

It is not simply by verbal impressiveness and impassioned catalogues of the nation's sins and afflictions, then, that Wulfstan endeavours to persuade his audience to repent. The thematic framework in which the recital of the nation's iniquities and sufferings is placed and the manner in which the theme is developed and embodied in the sermon's structure constitute its didactic force and reveal Wulfstan's skill and originality as a sermon writer. The ‘horrific accumulation of vivid detail’,³⁰ it may be noted, although the most obvious feature of his commination, is by no means his only technique to describe the nation's woes and offences. Considering the limited nature of his immediate subject matter, the variety of styles and techniques in the sermon is not the least of Wulfstan's achievements. His indictment of the nation's sins ranges from the antithetical sentences contrasting Christian and heathen religious observances at 27-37 to the alliterative and rhyming word pairs at 133-47 and 160-6. In recounting the nation's afflictions he employs an exemplum as well as alliterative word pairs and describes the humiliations of the English in concrete detail (100-28).

Notes

1. F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, 3rd ed. (Oxford, 1971), p. 460.

2. Notable exceptions are Professor Clemoes's analyses of two passages in which he describes their style, especially their regular rhythm, as phases in the expression of a continuously developing, thematic sequence of thought. For references, see below, nn. 15 and 23.

3. Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, ed. Dorothy Whitelock, 1st ed. (London, 1939), p. 17; but cf. 3rd ed. (London, 1963), pp. 36-7. All subsequent references are to the 3rd edition.

4. On the three versions, BH, C and EI, see The Homilies of Wulfstan, ed. Dorothy Bethurum (Oxford, 1957), pp. 22-4; for their text, see pp. 255-75. All my citations of text refer to this edition by line number.

5. Ibid. pp. 22-3.

6. Stephanie Dien, ‘Sermo Lupi ad Anglos: The Order and Date of the Three Versions’, NM [Neuphilologische Mitteilungen] 64 (1975), 561-70. I am indebted to Professor Clemoes who, since the publication of the 1975 article, has drawn my attention to two articles (cited below, nn. 8 and 20) which bear on the arguments contained in it.

7. London, British Library, Cotton Nero A. i. For a facsimile of the whole manuscript see A Wulfstan Manuscript, ed. Henry R. Loyn, EEMF [Early English Manuscripts in facsimile] 17 (Copenhagen, 1971). I quote from the EI version (as printed by Bethurum), enclosing in square brackets readings peculiar to manuscripts other than I.

8. See Neil Ker, ‘The Handwriting of Archbishop Wulfstan’, England Before the Conquest: Studies in Primary Sources Presented to Dorothy Whitelock, ed. Peter Clemoes and Kathleen Hughes (Cambridge, 1971), pp. 315-31, esp. 321-4. I do not agree with Bethurum (Homilies, pp. 23-4) that this occurrence of Wulfstan's handwriting clinches the argument in favour of EI being the last of the three versions.

9. 112r. See Ker, ‘Handwriting’, p. 322, and Whitelock's textual notes, Sermo Lupi, p. 57.

10. See Bethurum, Homilies, p. 22, and Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, p. 5. As noted by J. C. Pope in his review of Bethurum, Homilies (MLN [Modern Language Notes] 74 (1959), 338-9), it is surprising that Wulfstan did not make good this defect in I.

11. See J. E. Cross, ‘Aspects of Microcosm and Macrocosm in Old English Literature’, Studies in Old English Literature in Honor of Arthur G. Brodeur, ed. Stanley B. Greenfield (Eugene, Oregon, 1963), pp. 1-22.

12. Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, p. 47 (n. to 4-8); see also Bethurum, Homilies, p. 356 (n. to 7-10).

13. For other parallels see Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, p. 47 (n. to 4-8).

14. The interpretation of cradolcild as a reference to the orphaned is perhaps slightly strained, but, since mention is made of the other two of the three categories of people which the prophetic books name as those needing special protection, it seems appropriate to recall that the child sold into slavery would probably be separated from one or both of its parents. Wulfstan's reworking of extracts from Isaiah in Bethurum XI reveals his familiarity with this aspect of the prophetic books.

15. On 37-52, cf. Peter Clemoes, Rhythm and Cosmic Order in Old English Christian Literature, an Inaugural Lecture (Cambridge, 1970), pp. 21-3.

16. The existence of rhetorical units in this sermon is pointed out by Roger Fowler, ‘Some Stylistic Features of the Sermo Lupi’, JEGP [Journal of English and Germanic Philology] 65 (1966), 14-17. He does not appear, however, to consider that the whole of a Wulfstan sermon can be divided into units each linked internally by lexical and syntactic repetition, and he does not relate the stylistically defined units to divisions in subject matter.

17. See Bethurum, Homilies, p. 360 (n. to 55-61) and Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, pp. 53-4 (n. to 56 ff.).

18. See Cross, ‘Microcosm and Macrocosm’, pp. 5-15.

19. See particularly Bethurum XII and VI.

20. On Wulfstan's views of the Christian king, see Dorothy Bethurum Loomis, ‘Regnum and Sacerdotium in the Early Eleventh Century’, England Before the Conquest, pp. 129-45, esp. 136-8. Strictly speaking, of course, Cnut was king of a heathen people rather than a heathen king: it would appear that the distinction was not one that interested Wulfstan at this point of his career.

21. Wulfstan's usual term for priests is Godes þenan, but Godes þeowas is a more inclusive term (see Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, p. 50 (n. to 32)). He would have been particularly conscious of the irony of the term gedwolgoda þenan, since he attempted to ‘improve the standing of the clergy by awarding thane's rank to celibate priests’ (Bethurum, Homilies, p. 357 (n. to 33-4)).

22. See 66, 69, 70-1, 95-6 and 99.

23. On 160-9 cf. Peter Clemoes, ‘Late Old English Literature’, Tenth-Century Studies. Essays in Commemoration of the Millenium of the Council of Winchester and ‘Regularis Concordia’, ed. David Parsons (London and Chichester, 1975), pp. 103-14 and 229-32, at 113-14.

24. Whitelock, Sermo Lupi, p. 55 (n. to 73).

25. The view that secular law should correspond to God's law is evident in the enumeration of the duties of the king in Polity as well as in Bethurum XXI.

26. See particularly Bethurum IX, 107-end.

27. Bethurum IX, 131-2.

28. See 50, 51, 84-5, 95, 99 and 107-8.

29. See 53, 98, 128 and 168.

30. C. L. Wrenn, A Study of Old English Literature (London, 1967), p. 241.