Book chapter
The Wolf on Shepherds: Wulfstan, Bishops, and the Context of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
Old English Prose, pp.395-418
Routledge
2000
DOI: 10.4324/9781315862071-12
Abstract
Wulfstan was Bishop of London 996-1002, Archbishop of York 1002-23, and concurrently Bishop of Worcester 1002-16. Wulfstan drew on elements in the tract for key motifs throughout his subsequent writings on bishops. Wulfstan began the tract by drawing on Ezekiel to portray the pastor as a shepherd. Wulfstan varies the image of the bad cleric as a failing shepherd with that of the silent preacher as a muzzled dog, developed from Isaiah. The action of slaughterous wolf was emphasized through repeated parallel structures centering on rhyming stressed syllables. Wulfstan expressed his position on bishops more fully in his contribution to estates' literature, the Institutes of Polity. He presented the ideal ordering of a Christian society. The examination of one preoccupation through Wulfstan's writings has illustrated the unstable nature of Wulfstan's texts and the value of considering those works in manuscript context. This chapter has analyzed Wulfstan's rhythm, Angus McIntosh pointed to the oddity of Wulfstan rewriting Ælfric's prose style.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Wolf on Shepherds: Wulfstan, Bishops, and the Context of the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos
- Creators
- Jonathan Wilcox
- Contributors
- Paul E Szarmach (Editor)
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Old English Prose, pp.395-418
- Publisher
- Routledge
- DOI
- 10.4324/9781315862071-12
- Alternative title
- The Wolf on Shepherds
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2000
- Academic Unit
- English
- Record Identifier
- 9984363678302771
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