Wulfstan (d. 1023)

Encyclopædia Orbis Latini

Latin pseudonym: Lupus wolf.

Wulfstan was bishop of London, 996-1002, archbishop of York, 1002-23, and bishop of Worcester, 1002-16, the author of many Old English homilies, treatises, and law codes. He was a product of the Benedictine revival and probably had some early connection with one of the Fenland abbeys, but nothing is known of him with certainty before he became a bishop.

Wulfstan wrote in a distinctive style, which has enabled the canon of his work to be established. From 1008 he was adviser to the kings Aethelred and Canute and drafted their laws; it was probably he who inspired the latter to reign as a Christian king and thus prevented the Danish conquest from being a disaster to Anglo-Saxon civilization. He was interested in problems of government and the arrangement of society, as is shown by the work known as Institutes of Polity, which describes the responsibilities of all classes, from the king down, and defines the relative powers of church and state. He was also deeply concerned with the reform of the church. He studied canonical literature, asked Aelfric to write two pastoral letters for him, and was himself the author of the text known as The Canons of Edgar. His most famous work, the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos ("Sermon of Wolf to the English"), is an impassioned call to his countrymen to repentance and reform in 1014, after Aethelred had been driven out by the Danish invasions of King Sweyn.