Fresh perspectives on the English clergy, their books, and the wider Anglo-Saxon church.

In tenth- and eleventh-century England, Anglo-Saxon Christians retained an old folk belief in elves as extremely dangerous creatures capable of harming unwary humans. To ward off the afflictions caused by these invisible beings, Christian priests modified traditional elf charms by adding liturgical chants to herbal remedies. In Popular Religion in Late Saxon England, Karen Jolly traces this cultural intermingling of Christian liturgy and indigenous Germanic customs and argues that elf charms and similar practices represent the successful Christianization of native folklore. Jolly describes a dual process of conversion in which Anglo-Saxon culture became Christianized but at the same time left its own distinct imprint on Christianity. Illuminating the creative aspects of this dynamic relationship, she identifies liturgical folk medicine as a middle ground between popular and elite, pagan and Christian, magic and miracle. Her analysis, drawing on the model of popular religion to redefine folklore and magic, reveals the richness and diversity of late Saxon Christianity.

The role of pastoral care reconsidered in the context of major changes within the Anglo-Saxon church. The tenth and eleventh centuries saw a number of very significant developments in the history of the English Church, perhaps the most important being the proliferation of local churches, which were to be the basis of the modern parochial system. Using evidence from homilies, canon law, saints' lives, and liturgical and penitential sources, the articles collected in this volume focus on the ways in which such developments were reflected in pastoral care, considering what it consisted of at this time, how it was provided and by whom. Starting with an investigation of the secular clergy, their recruitment and patronage, the papers move on to examine a variety of aspects of late Anglo-Saxon pastoral care, including church due payments, preaching, baptism, penance, confession, visitation of the sick and archaeological evidence of burial practice. Special attention is paid to the few surviving manuscripts which are likely to have been used in the field and the evidence they provide for the context, the actions and the verbal exchanges which characterised pastoral provisions.

Anglo-Saxon authorities often punished lawbreakers with harsh corporal penalties, such as execution, mutilation and imprisonment. Despite their severity, however, these penalties were not arbitrary exercises of power. Rather, they were informed by nuanced philosophies of punishment which sought to resolve conflict, keep the peace and enforce Christian morality. The ten essays in this volume engage legal, literary, historical, and archaeological evidence to investigate the role of punishment in Anglo-Saxon society. Three dominant themes emerge in the collection. First is the shift from a culture of retributive feud to a system of top-down punishment, in which penalties were imposed by an authority figure responsible for keeping the peace. Second is the use of spectacular punishment to enhance royal standing, as Anglo-Saxon kings sought to centralize and legitimize their power. Third is the intersection of secular punishment and penitential practice, as Christian authorities tempered penalties for material crime with concern for the souls of the condemned. Together, these studies demonstrate that in Anglo-Saxon England, capital and corporal punishments were considered necessary, legitimate, and righteous methods of social control. Jay Paul Gates is Assistant Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in The City University of New York; Nicole Marafioti is Assistant Professor of History and co-director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Contributors: Valerie Allen, Jo Buckberry, Daniela Fruscione, Jay Paul Gates, Stefan Jurasinski, Nicole Marafioti, Daniel O'Gorman, Lisi Oliver, Andrew Rabin, Daniel Thomas.

The Blickling Homilies date from the end of the tenth century and form one of the earliest extant collections of English vernacular homiletic writings. The homiletic texts survive in a composite codex consisting of Municipal Entries for the Council of Lincoln (14th - 17th century), a Calendar (mid 15th century), Gospel Oaths (early 14th century), and the eighteen homiletic texts that are based on the yearly liturgical cycle. The Blickling Homilies are an important literary milestone in the early evolution of the English prose. The manuscript, in the collection of William H. Scheide housed in Princeton University Library (MS. 71, s.x/xi), was published in facsimile by Rudolph Willard in 1960 as Volume 10 of Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, Copenhagen. It is the only Anglo-Saxon MS still in private ownership, and together with The Blickling Psalter are the only two Anglo-Saxon MSS in the Americas. The only previous edition of The Blickling Homilies is by Richard Morris, published in three volumes in 1874, 1876, & 1880 (reprinted as one volume in 1967). This new edition makes a number of corrections where Morris's manuscript reading is in error. The English translations are modernized and made more accurate. The original text and facing-page translation have been formatted into paragraphs, which are hoped to further and aid comprehension. Finally, the text and translation are accompanied by a general introduction, textual notes on each homiletic text, tables and charts, and a select bibliography.

An exploration of Anglo-Saxon charters, bringing out their complexity and highlighting a range of broad implications.