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IELFRIC

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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IELFRIC , called the " Grammarian " (c. 955—1020?), See also:

English See also:abbot and author, was See also:born about 955. He was educated in the See also:Benedictine monastery at See also:Winchester under IEthelwold, who was See also:bishop there from 963 to 084. iEthelwold had carried on the tradition of See also:Dunstan in his See also:government of the See also:abbey of See also:Abingdon, and at Winchester he continued his strenuous efforts. He seems to have actually taken See also:part in the See also:work of teaching. Llfric no doubt gained some reputation as a See also:scholar at Winchester, for when, in 987, the abbey of Cernel (Cerne Abbas, See also:Dorsetshire) was finished, he was sent by Bishop ./Elfheah (See also:Alphege), .Ethelwold's successor, at the See also:request of the See also:chief benefactor of the abbey, the ealdorman IEthelmxr, to See also:teach the Benedictine monks there. He was then in See also:priest's orders. iEthelmxr and his See also:father IEthelweard were both enlightened patrons of learning, and became IElfric's faithful See also:friends. It was at Cernel, and partly at the See also:desire, it appears, of 'Ethelweard, that he planned the two See also:series of his English homilies (ed. See also:Benjamin See also:Thorpe, 1844-1846, for the IElfric Society), compiled from the See also:Christian fathers, and dedicated to Sigeric, See also:arch- bishop of See also:Canterbury (990-994). The Latin See also:preface to the first series enumerates some of lElfric's authorities, the chief of whom was See also:Gregory the See also:Great, but the See also:short See also:list there given by no means exhausts the authors whom he consulted. In the preface to the first See also:volume he regrets that except for See also:Alfred's See also:translations Englishmen had no means of learning the true See also:doctrine as ex-pounded by the Latin fathers. See also:Professor See also:Earle (A.S. Literature, 1884) thinks he aimed at correcting the apocryphal, and to See also:modern ideas superstitious, teaching of the earlier Blickling Homilies.

The first series of See also:

forty homilies is devoted to See also:plain and See also:direct exposition of the chief events of the Christian See also:year; the second deals more fully with See also:church doctrine and See also:history. lElfric denied the immaculate See also:birth of the Virgin (Homilies, ed. Thorpe, ii. 466), and his teaching on the See also:Eucharist in the Canons and in the Sermo de sacrificio in See also:die pascae (ibid. ii. 262 seq.) was appealed to by the See also:Reformation writers as a See also:proof that the See also:early English church did not hold the See also:Roman doctrine of See also:transubstantiation.' His Latin See also:Grammar and Glossary were written for his pupils after the two books of homilies. A third series of homilies, the Lives of the See also:Saints, See also:dates from 996 to 997. Some of the sermons in the second series had been written in a See also:kind of rhythmical, alliterative See also:prose, and in the Lives of the Saints (ed. W. W. See also:Skeat, 1881-1900, for the Early English See also:Text Society) the practice is so See also:regular that most of them are arranged as See also:verse by Professor Skeat. By the wish of 2Ethelweard he also began a See also:paraphrase 3 of parts of the Old Testament, but under protest, for the stories related in it were not, he thought, suitable for See also:simple minds. There is no certain proof that he remained at Cernel. It has been suggested that this part of his See also:life was 1 See A Testimonie of Antiquitie, See also:shewing the auncient fayth in the Church of See also:England touching the See also:sacrament of the See also:body and bloude of the See also:Lord here publikely preached, printed by See also:John See also:Day (1567).

It was quoted in John Foxes Actes and Monuments (ed. 161o). 2 Ed. J. Zupitza in Sammlung englischer Denkmdler (vol. i., See also:

Berlin, 188o). 1 Edited by See also:Edward Thwaites as Heptateuchus (See also:Oxford, 1698) ; modern edition in Grein's Bibliethek der A. S. Prosa (vol. i. See also:Cassel and See also:Gottingen, 1872). See also B. Assmann, See also:Abt IElfric's . . See also:Esther (See also:Halle, 1885), and Abt zElfric's See also:Judith (in Anglia, vol. x.).chiefly spent at Winchester; but his writings for the patrons of Cernel, and the fact that he wrote in 998 his Canons 4 as a See also:pastoral See also:letter for Wulfsige, the bishop of See also:Sherborne, the See also:diocese in which the abbey was situated, afford presumption of continued See also:residence there.

He became in 1005 the first abbot of Eynsham or Ensham, near Oxford, another See also:

foundation of IEthelmmr's. After his See also:elevation he wrote an abridgment for his monks of "Ethelwold's De consuetudine monachorum,5 adapted to their rudimentary ideas of monastic life; a letter to Wulfgeat of Ylmandun6; an introduction to the study of the Old and New Testaments (about roo8, edited by See also:William L'Isle in 1623); a Latin life of his See also:master IEthelwold7; a pastoral letter for See also:Wulfstan, See also:archbishop of See also:York and bishop of See also:Worcester, in Latin and English; and an English version of See also:Bede's De Temporibus.9 The Colloquium,9 a Latin See also:dialogue designed to serve his scholars as a See also:manual of Latin conversation, may date from his life at Cernel. It is safe to assume that the See also:original draft of this, afterwards enlarged by his See also:pupil, IElfric Bata, was by IElfric, and represents what his own scholar days were like. The last mention of fElfric Abbot, probably the grammarian, is in a will dating from about 1020. There have been three suppositions about lElfric. (1) He was identified with FElfric (995—1005), archbishop of Canterbury. This view was upheld by John See also:Bale (III. Maj. Brit. Scriptorum . . . 2nd ed., See also:Basel, 1557—1559; vol. i. p.

149, S.V. Alfric); by See also:

Humphrey Wanley (Catalogus librorum septentrionalium, &c., Oxford, 1705, forming vol. ii. of See also:George See also:Hickes's Antiquae literaturae septentrionalis) ; by See also:Elizabeth Elatob, The English-Saxon See also:Homily on the Birthday of St Gregory (1709; new edition, 1839); and by Edward Rowe Mores, eElfrico, Dorobernensi, archiepiscopo, Commentarius (ed. G. J. Thorkelin, 1789), in which the conclusions of earlier writers on /Ethic are reviewed: Mores made him abbot of St See also:Augustine's at See also:Dover, and finally archbishop of Canterbury. (2) See also:Sir See also:Henry See also:Spelman, in his Concilia . . . (1639, vol. i. p. 583), printed the Canones ad Wulsinum episcopum, and suggested IElfric Putta or Putto, archbishop of York, as the author, adding some See also:note of others bearing the name. The identity of IElfric the grammarian with Alfric archbishop of York was also discussed by Henry See also:Wharton, in Anglia Sacra (1691, vol. i. pp. 125-134), in a dissertation reprinted in J. P.

See also:

Migne's Patrologia (vol. 139, pp. 1459-70, See also:Paris, 1853). (3) William of See also:Malmesbury (De gestis pontificum anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. See also:Hamilton, Rolls Series, 1870, p. 406) suggested that he was abbot of Malmesbury and bishop of See also:Crediton. The See also:main facts of his career were finally elucidated by Eduard See also:Dietrich in a series of articles contributed to C. W.

Niedner's Zeitschrift See also:

fur historische Theologie (vols. for 1855 and 1856, See also:Gotha), which have formed the basis of all subsequent writings on the subject. Sketches of IElfric's career are in B. Ten Brink's Early English Literature (to Wiclif) (trans. H. M. See also:Kennedy, New York, 1883, pp. 105-112), and by J. S. Westlake in The See also:Cambridge History of English Literature (vol. i., 1907, pp. 116-129). An excellent bibliography and See also:account of the See also:critical apparatus is given in Dr R. See also:Walker's Grundriss zur Geschichte der angelsachsischen Litteratur (See also:Leipzig, 1885, pp.

452-480). See also the account by Professor Skeat in Pt. iv. pp. 8-61 of his edition of the Lives of the Saints, already cited, which gives a full account of the See also:

MSS., and a discussion of /Elfric's See also:sources, with further See also:bibliographical references; and 1Elfric, a New Study of his Life and Writings, by See also:Miss C. L. See also:White (See also:Boston, New York and See also:London, 1898) in the " Yale Studies in English." Alcuini Interrogationes Sigewulfi Presbyteri in Genesin (ed. G. E. McLean, Halle, 1883) is attributed to IElfric by its editor. There are other isolated sermons and See also:treatises by iElfric, printed in vol. iii. of Grein's Bibl. v. AS. Prosa. 4 Printed by Benjamin Thorpe in See also:Ancient See also:Laws and Institutes of England (184o), with the later pastoral for Wulfstan.

See E. Breck, A Fragment of IElfric; See also:

translation of . thelwold's De Consuetudine Monachorum and its relation to other MSS. (Leipzig, 1887). 6 Ilmington, on the See also:borders of See also:Warwickshire and See also:Gloucestershire. ' Included by J. See also:Stevenson in the Citron. Monast. de Abingdon (vol. ii. pp. 253-266, Rolls Series, 1858). ' 8 See See also:Oswald Cockayne, Leechdonis, Wortcunning and Starcraft (vol. iii., 1866, pp. xiv.-xix. and pp. 233 et seq.) in the Rolls Series. 9 See an See also:article by J. Zupitza in the Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum (vol. xix., new series, 1887).

End of Article: IELFRIC

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