Wulfstan at London: Episcopal Politics in the Reign of Æthelred. Issue 2 (17th February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rabin, Andrew
• Is Part Of: English studies. Volume 97:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 186
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2016-02-17
• Subjects: English philology -- Periodicals; English literature -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Philologie anglaise -- Périodiques; Littérature anglaise -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; 420
• DOI: 10.1080/0013838X.2015.1125129
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-838X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Over the past seventy-five years, scholarship on the writings of Archbishop Wulfstan of York has evolved into one of the most active sub-fields of Anglo-Saxon studies. Yet for all the attention paid to Wulfstan's accomplishments as homilist, lawmaker and statesman, the earliest phase of his career, his tenure as bishop of London from 996 to 1002, has yet to be the subject of any sustained scholarly consideration. This article re-examines the record of Wulfstan's London years in order to better understand the circumstances and significance of his first episcopate. In doing so, it considers both what this period reveals about Wulfstan's career as a Church administrator and how it influenced the development of the social vision articulated in his later writings.