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work their will, and no wonder, for they are blinded by the darkness of their sins. "But divine Providence understandeth it all most rightly, though we in our folly think it goes awry, being unable to discern what is right. He, however, judgeth all aright, though at times it seems to us otherwise."

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE

Selections

(Translated by J. A. GILES)

A. 443. This year the Britons sent over sea to Rome, and begged for help against the Picts; 15 but they had none, because they were themselves warring against Attila, king of the Huns. And then they sent to the Angles, and entreated the like of the ethelings1 of the Angles. A. 444. This year St. Martin died.

stars showed themselves full-nigh half an hour after nine in the forenoon.

A. 596. This year Pope Gregory sent Augus5 tine to Britain, with a great many monks, who preached the word of God to the nation of the Angles.

Aelfric

c. 955-c. 1020

THE DAILY MIRACLE

(From the Homilies, 990-994, translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

Many wonders hath God wrought, and daily doth work; but these wonders are much weakened in the sight of men because they are very common. That each day Almighty God feeds all the earth and directs the good, is a greater 20 miracle than was that of feeding five thousand men with five loaves; yet men marvelled at that, not because it was a greater miracle, but because it was uncommon. Who grants fruit to our fields, and increases the harvest from a

loaves? The might was in Christ's hands, and the five loaves were seed, as it were not sown in the earth, but multiplied by Him who wrought the earth.

This miracle is very great and deep in its tokens. Often one sees fair letters written, and praises the writer and the letters, and knows not what they mean. He who has knowledge of letters, praises their fairness, and reads the letters, and understands what they mean. In one way do we view a painting, but in other wise, letters. In the case of the painting, one needs only to see it and praise it; but it is not enough that you look at letters without also

A. 449. This year Martianus and Valentinus succeeded to the empire, and reigned seven years. And in their days Hengist and Horsa, 2 invited by Vortigern, king of the Britons, 25 few grains, but He who multiplied the five landed in Britain on the shore which is called Wippidsfleet;3 at first in aid of the Britons, but afterwards they fought against them. King Vortigern gave them land in the southeast of this country, on condition that they 30 should fight against the Picts. Then they fought against the Picts, and had the victory wheresoever they came. They then sent to the Angles; desired a larger force to be sent, and caused them to be told the worthlessness of the 35 Britons, and the excellencies of the land. Then they soon sent thither a larger force in aid of the others. At that time there came men from three tribes in Germany; from the Old-Saxons, from the Angles, from the Jutes. From the 40 reading them and understanding the sense. Jutes came the Kentish-men and the Wightwarians, that is, the tribe which now dwells in Wight, and that race among the West-Saxons which is still called the race of Jutes. From the Old-Saxons came the men of Essex and 45 Sussex and Wessex. From Anglia which has ever since remained waste betwixt the Jutes and the Saxons, came the men of East Anglia, Middle Anglia, Mercia, and all North-humbria. Their leaders were two brothers, Hengist and 50 Horsa: they were the sons of Wihtgils; Wihtgils son of Witta, Witta of Wecta, Wecta of Woden; from this Woden sprang all our Royal families, and those of the South-humbrians also.

So is it with the wonder that God wrought with the five loaves; it is not enough that we marvel at the token or praise God for it, unless we also understand its meaning.

Wulfstan

SERMON TO THE ENGLISH

AT THE TIME OF THEIR GREAT SUFFERINGS
FROM THE DANES, THAT IS, IN THE
DAYS OF KING AETHELRED.1
(Translated by P. V. D. SHELLY)

Beloved men, know it for sooth, that this world is in haste and neareth the end. Hence

A. 540. This year the sun was eclipsed on the 55 in the world is it ever the longer the worse, and twelfth before the Kalends of July, and the

1 Princes.

Leaders of the Jutes.

* Now, Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet, on the east coast of Kent.

so it must needs grow very evil from day to day before the coming of Antichrist, because

This was apparently written in either 999 or 1014. The writer may have been Wulfstan, Archbishop of York, c. 1003-1023.

of the folk's sins; and indeed it will then be fearful and terrible far and wide in the world.

ished. Freemen cannot command their own persons, nor go where they will, nor do with their own as they wish; nor can thralls have what they possess, though they toiled for it 5 in the time that was theirs, nor that which by God's grace good men have given them as an almsgift for the love of God; but each almsright which each one in God's grace ought right gladly to perform, he decreaseth or withholdeth, since injustice and love of un-law are too common among men. In a word, God's laws are loathed, and learning is despised; and for this we all often suffer insults through God's anger, as he may understand who can; and the loss will be common to all this people, though men think not so, unless God save.

Understand also that the devil hath now for many years led this people too far astray, that there has been little faith among men, though they have spoken fair. Wrong hath reigned too much in the land, and of many men never hath one thought of the remedy as eagerly as he ought; but daily have we heaped evil upon evil, and reared injustice and un-law far too widely 10 throughout the nation. And for this we have also endured many losses and insults, and if we are to expect any mending, then must we merit of God better than we have done ere this, for with great deserving have we earned 15 the miseries that sit upon us, and with very great deserving must we obtain the remedy at God's hands, if things henceforth are to be better. We know full well that a mickle breach needs much mending, and a great fire, much 20 hath had many set-backs. This long time water, if that fire is at all to be quenched. And great also is the need to every man that he willingly keep God's law henceforth better than he did before, and carry out His justice with uprightness.

Certainly it is clear and manifest to us all that hitherto we have more often broken [the law] than bettered it, and hence this nation

naught hath availed at home or abroad; there have been harrying and hunger, burning and bloodshed, on every hand often and often; stealing and slaughter, sedition and pestilence, 25 cattle-plague and disease, slander and hate, and rapine of robbers have harmed us greatly; unjust taxes have afflicted us sorely, and often foul weather has spoiled our harvests; because, as it may seem, now for many years in this land

unstable faith among men everywhere. Often hath a kinsman protected his kinsman no more than a foreigner, nor the father his son, nor at times the son his own father, nor one

Among heathen people no man durst hold back little or much of that which by law is due to the worship of idols; but everywhere we withhold God's rights, all too often. Neither among the heathen durst man injure, within or 30 there have been much unrighteousness and without, any of those things that are brought to the idols and are appointed for sacrifice; but we have clean despoiled God's house within and without. Also, God's servants are everywhere deprived of honor and protection; and 35 brother the other. Nor hath any of us ordered some men say that among heathen peoples no man durst in any wise ill treat the servants of idols, as men now too generally do the servants of God, in places where Christians should hold to God's law and protect God's 40 servants.

his life as he should,--neither those in orders, according to their rule, nor laymen, according to the law; but the lust of crime is all too often a law to us, and we hold not to the learning or law of God or of men as we should. No one hath thought toward the other faithfully as he should, but for the most part each is deceitful and injures others by word and by deed; unrighteously and from behind, each striketh

Sooth is it that I say we have need of mending, for God's laws have been waning too long within this land on every side, and the folk-laws have become worse, all too much 45 at his fellow with shameful calumnies and

since Edgar died.2 Sanctuaries are too generally unprotected, and God's houses are too clean bereft of their old rights, and are stripped within of all things befitting. Men of religion

accusations; let him do more if he can.

Here in our land is much treachery toward God and the world, and likewise in divers ways traitors too many. Of all treasons in the world

have now this long time been greatly despised; 50 the greatest is that a man betray his lord's

soul; and a full great treason is that also, that a man betray his lord's life or drive him living from the land; and both have been present in this realm. Edwards was betrayed, then

widows unlawfully are forced to marry, and too many are made poor and are greatly ill used. Poor men are sore deceived and miserably ensnared, and, though innocent, are sold out of the land into the power of foreigners; 55 murdered, and after that burned, and Aethel

through cruel un-law children are enslaved for petty theft; free-right is taken away, and thrall-right curtailed, and alms-right dimin2 Edgar, King of Wessex, died 975.

red' was driven from the land. Gossips and

3 Edward the Martyr, murdered in 978.

4 Aethelred the Un-redy, or "ill advised," was obliged to flee to Normandy in 1014.

5

Sponsors.

god-children too many have been slain throughout this people, besides others all too many, who, without fault, have been destroyed. Too many holy places, far and wide, have perished, because certain men were lodged there, as they would not have been, if we had wished to know reverence for God's peace. Christian folk too many have been sold all the while out of this land. All this is loathsome to God, let him believe it who will. . . . Also 10 off to the ships; and lo, what else in these we know full well whence hath come the evil that a father sell his son for a price, and the son his mother, and one brother the other, into the power of strangers outside this nation. All

crowd of Christian men from sea to sea through the nations, huddled together, to the shame of us all in the sight of the world,—if in earnest we knew any shame or even would rightly 5 understand. And all the misery that we continually suffer we repay with honor to them that shame us. We pay gelds to them continually, and they abuse us daily. They harry, they burn, they spoil and plunder, and carry

troubles is clear and manifest but God's wrath towards this people?

No wonder misfortune is upon us, for we know full well that now for many years men

these are mickle and terrible deeds, as he may 15 have seldom recked what they wrought in word understand who will; and there are yet greater and more manifold that afflict this people. Many are forsworn and greatly purjured; pledges are broken again and again; and it is

or deed; but this nation hath become, as it may appear, very sinful, through manifold sins and misdeeds, through murder and evil, through greed and covetousness, rapine and robbery,

clear in this land that God's wrath sits heavily 20 treachery and heathen vices, through treason upon us,-let him who can, understand.

Lo, how can greater shame come upon men through God's wrath than cometh upon us, for our own deserts? Though a thrall escape from

and deceit, through law-breaking and sedition, through attacks on kinsmen, through manslaughter and violation of religious vows, through adultery and incest and divers forni

breaking and pledge-breaking, and through divers falsehoods, more than should be are ruined and forsworn. Breaches of the peace and of fasting are wrought again and again.

his lord and leave Christendom to become a 25 cations. Also, as we said before, through oathViking, and it come about afterward that thane and thrall come together in battle, if the thrall foully slay the thane, the thane for all his relations must lie without wer-geld, and if the thane foully kill the thrall whom he 30 Also here in the land are reprobate apostates

and hostile persecutors of the Church, and cruel tyrants, all too many; despisers of divine law and Christian customs; and everywhere in the nation foolish mockers, most often of those

formerly owned, he must pay the wer-geld of a thane. Full evil laws and shameful tribute are, through God's wrath, common to us, as he who can may understand; and many misfortunes beset this people. This long time 35 things commanded by God's ministers, and nothing hath prospered within or without, but harrying and hatred have been continual on every side. The English have now long been without victory, and too greatly dismayed, through God's anger; and the ship-men have 40 become so strong, with God's consent, that in battle one of them will often put to flight ten of us, sometimes less, sometimes more, all because of our sins. . . . Often a thrall bindeth fast the thane who was formerly his lord, and maketh of 45 him a thrall, through God's anger. Alas for the misery, alas for the shame in the eyes of the world, that Englishmen now suffer, all by God's wrath! Often two or three seamen will drive a

very often of those things that belong of right to God's law. Therefore hath now come about the wide-spread evil custom that men are more ashamed of good deeds than of misdeeds, for men too often deride good deeds, and all too much revile the pious, and blame and greet with contumely those who love right and have in any measure the fear of God. Because men despise all that they ought to praise and continually loathe what they should love, all too many are brought to evil thoughts and deeds, so that they are not ashamed though they sin greatly and work in all things against God himself; but because of idle calumnies they are 50 ashamed to better their misdeeds, as books teach,-like those fools who for their pride will not save themselves before that time when they cannot though they would. . .

The thane was of the higher rank, and the thrall of the lowest rank in old English society. Wer-geld, or Man-price, was the sum at which a man's life was valued according to law, the amount varying for the different ranks of society. If one murdered another, the murderer could atone for his crime by paying wer-geld to the kinsmen of the one slain. Wulfstan's complaint is that the law pertaining to wer-gelds was no longer ad- 55 ministered with justice, and that in the case described, the thane who should kill his escaped thrall, or slave, would have to pay the same wer-geld as if he had killed a thane, and this in spite of the fact that the thrall had joined the enemy.

7 The Danes, or Vikings,

An historian there was in the time of the Britons, Gildas by name, who wrote of their misdeeds, how by their sins they so greatly

8 Payments of money to buy off the Danes. A Romanized Briton who, about 547, wrote a history of Britain from Roman times to his own day.

angered God that He very soon let the army of the English win their land and entirely destroyed the flower of the Britons. This, he said, came about because the clergy broke their vows, and laymen the law, because of plundering by the rich, extortion, evil laws of princes, false judgments; because of the sloth and ignorance of bishops, and the wicked cowardice of God's ministers, who all too often were silent concerning the truth, and mumbled within 10 us. Let us rightly order words and works, and

us do as we have need to do, turn to the right and in some measure shun and forsake unrighteousness, and eagerly better what we have heretofore broken. Let us seek Christ on our 5 knees and often call upon Him with trembling heart and earn His mercy. Let us love God and fulfill God's laws, and perform eagerly what we promised when we received baptism, or those promised who at baptism spoke for

their jaws when they should have called out. Through foul wantonness of the folk, through gluttony and manifold sins, they ruined their land, and themselves perished.

willingly cleanse our inner thoughts, carefully keep oath and pledge, and without weakness have some faith amongst us. Let us often consider the great judgment we shall all come

But let us do, as is needful for us,-take 15 to, and eagerly save ourselves from the raging

warning by such. Sooth is it that I say, worse deeds we know have been among the English than we have heard of anywhere among the Britons, and therefore have we great need to reflect and to reconcile ourselves to God. Let 20

fire of hell's torment, and earn for us the glory and the gladness that God hath prepared for those who work His will in the world. May God help us. Amen.

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