Notes to Introduction
[1] See also H. Whartoni Anglia Sacra, t. i. p. 125.
[2] He was abbot of Eynsham. See Biogr. Brit. Lit. p. 482, n. ‡
[3] Among his sources he mentions Smaragdus and Haymo: of these the former was abbot of St. Mihiel, a monastery in the diocese of Verdun, in the eighth century. He wrote commentaries on the Scriptures, Sermons, etc. Haymo was bishop of Halberstadt, about the middle of the ninth century: he compiled, from the works of the fathers, commentaries on almost every part of the Scriptures. There was also a Haymo of Canterbury, who wrote commentaries on the Pentateuch, Isaiah, etc., of whom see Biogr. Britan. Lit. vol. i. p. 510. The other sources mentioned by Ælfric are too well known to need further notice.
[4] It is right to observe, that in the MS. the texts taken from the Gospels are frequently of very great length; these I have ventured to abridge, presuming that all readers of the Homilies have a copy of the N. T. either in Anglo-Saxon or English.
[5] Ælfrici Abbatis Grammatica Latino-Saxonica, cum Glossario suo ejusdem generis. Folio. Oxon. 1659. That the author of the Grammar, the compiler of the Homilies and the translator of the Heptateuch was the same individual, is evident from the prefaces to those works.
[6] Published at the expense of the Historical Society of Science, in a volume entitled 'Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages,' edited by Thomas Wright, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., etc. etc. 8vo. 1841. That this work is by our Ælfric is evident from his own words immediately following his last homily: Her æfter fyligð án lytel cwyde be gearlicum tidum, þæt nis to spelle geteald, ac elles to rædenne þam ðe hit licað.—Hereafter follows a little discourse concerning yearly tides, which is not reckoned as a sermon, but is else to be read by those whom it pleases. MS. Cantab. p. 492.
[7] Heptateuchus, Liber Job, et Evangelium Nicodemi; Anglo-Saxonice. Historiæ Judith Fragmentum; Dano-Saxonice. Edidit, etc. Edwardus Thwaites. Oxon. 8vo. 1699.
[8] A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament, written about the time of king Edgar by Ælfricus Abbas, etc., by William L'Isle of Wilburgham, Esquier for the King's bodie, etc. 4to. Lond. 1623.
[9] An edition of the Anglo-Saxon text of this work, with a translation by W. E. Buckley, Esq., Fellow of Brasenose Coll. and Prof. of A.-S. in the Univ. of Oxf., is announced for early publication by the Ælfric Society. The ealdorman Æthelweard, son of Æthelmær, mentioned in the preface to the Homilies and other works of Ælfric, is without doubt the chronicler of that name, concerning whom see Literary Introd. to Lappenberg's 'History of England under the Anglo-Saxon Kings,' p. xlv.
[10] According to the Oxford MS. of this Colloquium, it was originally composed by Ælfric (of Canterbury or York?) and enlarged by his pupil Ælfric Bata. It is printed in the 'Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.' For more ample information concerning the Ælfrics the reader is referred to Mr. Wright's interesting and useful publication, 'Biographia Britannica Literaria; Anglo-Saxon Period,' edited for the Royal Society of Literature.
[11] The three last-mentioned works are printed, with a translation, in the 'Ancient Laws and Institutes of England.' It appears from a note at the end of Matthew in the C.C.C.C. MS. of the Saxon Gospels, that an Ælfric was either the translator or copier of the Gospel of St. Matthew, if not of the four Gospels. See Notes to my edition of the Anglo-Saxon Gospels.
[12] Elfrici Homiliæ, edit. El. Elstob. (fol. Oxon. 1715.) Of this first attempt only thirty-six pages were printed. Her second attempt was under the title, "The English-Saxon Homilies of Ælfric, Archb. of Cant., who flourished in the latter end of the tenth century and the beginning of the eleventh. Being a course of Sermons collected out of the writings of the ancient Latin Fathers, containing the Doctrines, etc. of the Church of England before the Norman Conquest, etc. etc. Now first printed, and translated into the language of the present times by Eliz. Elstob. fol. Oxon. 1715." Of this only two leaves were printed. A copy of both is in the Brit. Mus. See Biogr. Brit. Lit. p. 493. Mrs. Elstob also published Ælfric's Homily on the birth-day of St. Gregory, with a translation. 8vo. 1709. Reprinted with some account of Mrs. Elstob in 1839.
[13] De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum, lib. iii.
[14] Fl. Wigorn. Chron. ad a. 1040.
[15] Ad ann. 1046.
[16] R. Wendover, t. i. p. 478.
[17] The handwriting, though very nearly alike, is not the same in the two parts of the MS.; they also occasionally differ in orthography, 'middangeard,' for instance, in the first part being in the second constantly written 'middaneard.'
[18] MS. Reg. 7. c. xii.
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