Bishop Æthelwold and the Shaping of the Old English Exeter Maxims

Bishop Æthelwold and the Shaping ofthe Old English Exeter MaximsBrian O’Camb

The Old English Exeter Maxims (also known as Maxims I) is a tripartite versecatalogue of maxims, gnomic statements, and verbal vignettes inscribed on folios

88v–92v of the manuscript Exeter, Cathedral Library 3501, the famed Exeter Book ofOld English poetry. Modern readers find it hard to understand why the poem’s

apparently obtuse statements, including ‘‘Forst sceal freosan, fyr wudu meltan’’(Frost freezes, fire burns up wood, l. 71) and ‘‘Cyning biþ anwealdes georn’’ (A king

is eager for power, l. 58b), were committed to parchment during an era whenbookmaking was expensive and time-consuming.1 Modern readings of the poem

have stratified it into different historical layers rather than coming to terms with whya poem of this sort was written down in the tenth century.2 Readers often havedifficulty discerning coherent patterns or organising principles in the poem, and thus

feel justified in isolating and excerpting individual gnomic statements from theirpoetic and manuscript contexts.3

Recognising that Exeter Maxims contains a mixture of secular and spiritualconcerns, recent critics have discarded the notion that the Maxims are a repository of

pagan lore,4 only to replace the search for Anglo-Saxon paganism with a search forAnglo-Saxon secularism or what historian Frank Stenton calls ‘‘the authentic voice of

the Anglo-Saxon ceorl’’.5 One example is Paul Cavill, who explicitly builds on

Brian O’Camb is a PhD Candidate affiliated with the English Department, University of Winsconsin, USA.1Unless otherwise indicated, all translations of Old English and Latin texts are my own. Where emphasis is

added, it too is my own. All Old English poetic references in this essay are cited by line number from the editions

by George Philip Krapp and Elliott van Kirk Dobbie (eds.). In the body of this essay, I refer to the poem as Exeter

Maxims rather than Krapp and Dobbie’s title Maxims I in order to distinguish it more clearly from Maxims II,

also known as Cotton Maxims, a gnomic catalogue poem found in the manuscript Cotton Tiberius B.i. I also

prefer the title Exeter Maxims because it partially alleviates any possible confusion caused by the scribe who

wrote out the poem as three discrete sections. Donald Scragg (70–1) makes a similar point in his discussion of

editorial titles.2Robert DiNapoli correctly observes that ‘‘much modern study of the gnomic poems [including Exeter Maxims]

has centred on attempts to distinguish their pre-Christian substrata’’ (in Lapidge et al., eds., s.v. ‘‘gnomic

poetry’’).3Several modern scholars have argued that the poem is a collection of ancient pagan lore into which a monkish

redactor has inserted his own verses. For examples, see Williams, 110–13; Malone; and Gruber, ‘‘Agnostic.’’4For the most recent and compelling argument on this topic, see Cavill, 132–55.5Stenton, 168. On the phrase ‘‘Anglo-Saxon paganism,’’ see Stanley. James W. Earl takes an interest in the poem

that is ‘‘partly historical, partly literary’’ because he feels that the world represented in the poem ‘‘seems to be the

English StudiesVol. 90, No. 3, June 2009, 253–273

ISSN 0013-838X (print)/ISSN 1744-4217 (online) � 2009 Taylor & FrancisDOI: 10.1080/00138380902796714

Stenton’s observations in the introduction to his book-length study of maxims in OldEnglish poetry. Although Cavill generates a valuable theoretical model for

interpreting Exeter Maxims based on modern ideas about the sociology of knowledge,his explanation of how maxims work ‘‘irrespective of what class of person might have

used them’’ continues to privilege what he identifies as the ‘‘popular tradition’’ in theOld English gnomic poems,6 essentially de-emphasising the poem’s Christian

sentiments. Although Cavill does an excellent job dismantling the old idea that thegnomic poems contain pagan substrata, his work on the poem’s Christian elements,

like much of the work on this subject, identifies scriptural sources and analogues forsome of the poem’s statements without discussing the thematic importance of thesesources for interpreting the poem’s social function.7 That topic will be treated more

fully here.Critics stratify the contents of Exeter Maxims in order to shape arguments about

the poem’s origins and age. It is possible that the Exeter Book’s contents werecomposed at a date before the manuscript was copied in the late tenth century; this is

certainly the impression one receives from surveying the critical literature on thepoem.8 Yet rather than stratifying the poem’s contents in a quest for its origins, one

may more profitably ask why the poem was preserved and how it functioned in itsmanuscript context and its cultural context more generally. Gnomic poetry strives for

compactness and memorability through aural qualities such as alliteration, rhymeand other sound-play, and syntactic parallelism. Modern readers often assume thatExeter Maxims derives from an oral traditional context because such formal devices as

these regularly occur in the poem and because its opening verses take the form of animperative spoken by an anonymous speaker (‘‘Frige mec frodum wordum!’’;

Question me with wise words! [l. 1a]). Thus, many critics assume that Exeter Maximswould not have been of interest to the bookish culture of Christian monasticism with

real world of the poet’’ (277–8). Wim Tigges describes the contents of the Maxims as ‘‘possibly a coded account

of contemporary events,’’ specifically the 715 battle of Wodnesbeorg between Ine of Wessex and Ceolred of

Mercia or other ‘‘catastrophic contemporary events such as internecine strifes and the destruction of whole

cities’’ (116).6Cavill, 3–4. Paul Cavill reiterates his interest in the poem’s popular elements in the study’s concluding chapter:

‘‘[the Exeter and Cotton Maxims] reflect the world view of the ordinary Anglo-Saxon, they are the common store

of everyday knowledge which the Anglo-Saxon would take for granted’’ (185; my emphases). Cavill accepts that

Christianity was part of the ‘‘ordinary’’ Anglo-Saxon world view, though he is not always explicit on this point.

My chief criticism of Cavill’s study is that it does not clearly distinguish between the practice of Christianity

among ‘‘ordinary’’ Anglo-Saxons and the institutional practice of Christian monasticism in Anglo-Saxon

England (especially in the late tenth century when Exeter Maxims and most other Old English poetic

manuscripts were produced and preserved). Thus, many of Cavill’s conclusions regarding the purpose and

function of Old English gnomic poetry tend to be general and ahistorical.7Cavill, 159–65. For additional source and analogue studies relating to Exeter Maxims, see Hill; Wright, ‘‘Insulae

Gentium’’; and Wright, ‘‘Blood of Abel.’’8One of the poem’s first modern editors, Blanche Colton Williams (101–2), argues that the poem was put

together in the eighth or ninth century, and suggests that a Christian reviser inserted newer sentiments into a

poem filled with Germanic lore. Lynn L. Remly claims that the Anglo-Saxon gnomic poems ‘‘spring, first of all,

out of an ancient and universal experience which conditions their form as well as content in the earliest stages’’

(158).

254 B. O’Camb

its ‘‘pervasive and intricate textuality’’ which provided a ‘‘textual itinerary [that]practically guarantees the heavily intertextual dimension of any monastic

document’’.9 Yet it is unlikely that a monastic scribe would have committed toparchment a poem like Exeter Maxims unless it served a useful function for a given

textual community.10 Indeed as I will show in this essay, Exeter Maxims contains anumber of lexical items best described as ‘‘Æthelwoldian’’ because of their regular

occurrence in texts belonging to a textual community associated with BishopÆthelwold of Winchester, one of the major sponsors of the late tenth-century

monastic reform in England. This ‘‘Æthelwoldian vocabulary’’, I argue, helps explainthe poem’s social function, which is in part to confirm the best way to care for monksof too young an age to be governed by the strict discipline that was found suitable for

adults.Relatively recent studies by literary scholars have explored the relationship between

anonymous Old English poetic texts (such as Exeter Maxims) and their possibletextual communities by placing them in their manuscript contexts.11 As is well

known, the contents of manuscript Exeter, Cathedral Library 3501 range widely froma series of elegant Advent lyrics to a collection of riddles, some of them bawdy. A

single scribe wrote the book in a beautiful Anglo-Saxon square minuscule of thesecond half of the tenth century. More specifically, scholars propose a range of dates

for this hand ranging from 950 to 990, with the most likely window between 960 and990.12 The distinctive hand of the Exeter Book is the one responsible for writing outtwo Latin manuscripts: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley MS 319 and London,

Lambeth Palace MS 149.13 In contrast to the Exeter Book’s vernacular poetic texts,these two manuscripts contain Latin prose texts. Bodley 319 contains Isidore of

Seville’s De fide catholica contra Iudæos and Lambeth 149 consists of two exegeticworks, Bede’s Explanatio Apocalypsis and Augustine’s De adulteriis coniugiis. Like the

Exeter Book, the provenance of these two Latin manuscripts remains in dispute.Nonetheless, their contents provide evidence about the cultural context that

produced the Exeter Book. The fact that the hand that wrote Exeter 3501 alsocopied two Latin manuscripts containing Latin patristic texts suggests that the ExeterBook was produced in a scholarly monastic environment, probably a reformed

monastic institution.14 While scholars generally agree that the Exeter Book was

9Conner, ‘‘Source Studies,’’ 383–4.10I borrow the phrase ‘‘textual community’’ from Brian Stock’s influential writings on the interplay of orality

and literacy in the Middle Ages to refer to persons interacting in face-to-face settings who share an intimate

knowledge of texts and hold meaningful discussions about those texts. See Stock, 88–92, et seq.11Here I am referring to studies by Patrick W. Conner (Anglo-Saxon Exeter), and Gunhild Zimmermann.12N. R. Ker (no. 116) and Helmut Gneuss (Handlist, no. 257) date the script to s.x2. Robin Flowers (Chambers,

Forster, and Flowers, 89) dates it to 970 x 990. Conner, Anglo-Saxon Exeter, 76–7, dates the script to 950 x 970.

Richard Gameson (166) argues for a date in the 960s or 970s. Bernard J. Muir (ed., I.1), dates the manuscript to

around 965–75.13Ker, nos. 308 and 275, respectively.14This is the underlying assumption of Zimmermann’s historicist approach. Zimmermann (6–25, 91–182, 278–

88, and 289–93) provides a broad overview of the manuscript’s historical underpinnings, including a discussion

of the religious and social orders of late Anglo-Saxon England and the monastic Reform movement.

Shaping of the Old English Exeter Maxims 255

produced in a well-equipped institution in the south of England (likely thesouthwest), they disagree about the manuscript’s specific provenance.15

Michael D. C. Drout analyses Exeter Maxims along with three other wisdom poemsfrom the Exeter Book that ‘‘demonstrate affinities in vocabulary, style, and

intellectual preoccupations with the tenth-century Benedictine Reform’’.16 In hisdiscussion of Maxims, Drout argues that the poem is related to The Fortunes of Men,

the poem immediately preceding it in the manuscript, on both thematic andphilological grounds.17 Drout sees a thematic link between the description of how a

child should be raised in verses 45b–9 of Exeter Maxims, and verses 1–6 and 85–92 ofThe Fortunes of Men, which describe the rearing of children and the taming of a hawk,respectively. All three of these passages, Drout argues, share a single vocabulary item.

The passage from Exeter Maxims contains the adjective atemedne, derived from anintensified form of the verb temian (atemian, ‘‘to tame, train’’ or ‘‘to discipline’’).18

Likewise, the verb atemian occurs in verse 85b of The Fortunes of Men where itdescribes the taming of a hawk, a theme that Drout interprets as a metaphor for the

disciplining of children as described in verses 1–6.19 Drout’s argument may implythat The Fortunes of Men was copied by the scribe from an exemplar written in

pointed minuscule at a date close to the Exeter Book’s tenth-century production.20

(In Mercedes Salvador’s analysis of the Exeter Book Advent lyrics, it is suggested that

those poems were ‘‘expressly designed as a reform-oriented work’’,21 thus supportingthe notion that some of the Exeter Book’s contents may have been produced oradapted at a date close to the manuscript’s production.) Even if one does not accept

Drout’s paleographic argument linking The Fortunes of Men and Exeter Maxims, one

Furthermore, although it is likely that the Exeter Book was produced in a reformed house, it does not necessarily

follow that the manuscript’s contents also originated in a reformed house, as is emphasised by Conner (Anglo-

Saxon Exeter). Focusing on its codicology and paleography, Conner argues that the Exeter Book was copied out

as three ‘‘Booklets’’ over a span of years by a single scribe, and that the poems (including Exeter Maxims) in what

he identifies as Booklet II ‘‘may represent a collection derived from Continental models and composed within a

monastic environment before the Benedictine revolution’’ (148).15Conner (Anglo-Saxon Exeter, 27–32, 94, et seq.) argues for Exeter itself following the refoundation of the

cathedral in 968. Gameson (179) argues against Conner, suggesting either Glastonbury or Crediton. Although

the manuscript’s exact provenance is not immediately important to my argument, this essay supports either

option.16Drout, How Tradition Works, 222. Michael D. C. Drout’s analysis of Maxims is found in Drout, How Tradition

Works, 264–86. Drout assigns The Gifts of Men, Precepts, The Fortunes of Men, and Maxims I to the wisdom

poem genre. These are the same four poems that Conner (Anglo-Saxon Exeter, 154) assigns to the catalogue

poem genre. While they disagree on the generic category that best describes these poems, both Drout and

Conner see stylistic features shared between these poems, suggesting that a mediaeval reader or scribe would also

have perceived resemblances among them.17Drout, How Tradition Works, 271–86.18Dictionary of Old English: A to G online, s.v. ‘‘a-temian’’ (hereafter cited as DOE).19Drout’s lexical and thematic argument requires an editorial emendation because verse 4a of The Fortunes of

Men contains two hapax legomena (‘‘tennaþ’’ and ‘‘tætaþ’’). Drout, ‘‘The Fortunes of Men,’’ assuming a minim

error in the former word and a scribe’s mistaking of c for t in the latter one, reads this verse as temiaþ ond tæcaþ

(they tame and teach). See also Drout, How Tradition Works, 269, n. 105, for a concise summary of this

argument and its possible significance.20Drout, ‘‘The Fortunes of Men,’’ 186 n. 15.21Salvador, 171–2.

256 B. O’Camb

must still reckon with the stylistic evidence provided by the repeated occurrence oftemian in monastic texts, most notably Ælfric’s Colloquy and his Grammar.22 Drout

argues that the depictions of child-rearing in The Fortunes of Men and Exeter Maximsare best interpreted as injunctions to a monastic audience because both of these

Exeter Book wisdom poems contain a number of relatively rare words regularly usedin the anonymous Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang, a widely circulated rule for canons

known to the Anglo-Saxons,23 which he argues was translated by a member of BishopÆthelwold’s circle.24

What I will argue here is that the influence of a reformed monastic vocabularyon verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims can be demonstrated more confidently thanhas been done before if one compares lexical evidence from the passage not with

the anonymous Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang,25 but instead with Æthelwold’stranslation of the Rule of St. Benedict. Although Drout has usefully demonstrated

that the Exeter Book wisdom poems (including Exeter Maxims) use monasticvocabulary to convey themes and intellectual concerns of importance to reformed

monastic life, his argument overlooks a few key lexical items that may be moreprecisely assigned to a textual community associated with Bishop Æthelwold. My

argument builds upon Drout’s work by identifying the presence of an‘‘Æthelwoldian vocabulary’’ that connects Exeter Maxims to Æthelwold’s Old

English translation of the Rule of St. Benedict. As I will show, these connectionsallow us to date parts of Exeter Maxims to the late tenth century. Furthermore,these connections help us limit the range of possible texts available to Exeter

Maxims’ poet, allowing us to identify the particular type of monastic textualcommunity that we should see as the context for the poem’s production. As I will

demonstrate, portions of the poem’s contents overlap with the intellectual interestscultivated in reformed monastic circles.

22The verb temian (to tame, discipline) occurs ten times in the Old English corpus, with half of those

occurrences found in monastic classroom texts composed by Ælfric. By my count, temian is used twice in

Ælfric’s Grammar and three times in his Colloquy, and in all instances, it glosses the Latin verb domitare (to

train, break in). Unless otherwise noted, all data on the frequency of Old English lexical items in this essay come

from the Dictionary of Old English Corpus in Electronic Form.23Bishop Chrodegang of Metz compiled the Regula Canonicorum in either 755 or 756. In the second quarter of

the ninth century, it was augmented with supplementary material from other texts, most notably the Institutio

canonicorum, which Louis the Pious prescribed for the Frankish kingdom in 816–17. This combined text, known

as The Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang, circulated widely in Francia, Spain, Italy, and Anglo-Saxon England

(Langefeld, 8–20). A nearly complete bilingual copy of The Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang is found in the Anglo-

Saxon manuscript Cambridge, Corpus Christi College (CCCC) 191, which was copied in the third quarter of the

eleventh century at Exeter, and most likely corresponds to the ‘‘regula canonicorum’’ found in Leofric’s

donation list to Exeter Cathedral (Ker, no. 46).24Drout, How Tradition Works, 287–92. On the authorship of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang, see Drout, ‘‘Re-

Dating the Old English Chrodegang,’’ 367–8.25Although Drout compares the themes of the passages in Exeter Maxims and The Fortunes of Men with the Rule

of St. Benedict, his lexical analysis of these poems relies entirely on evidence found in the anonymous Enlarged

Rule of Chrodegang. Drout (How Tradition Works, 287–92) connects the following words from Exeter Maxims to

the vocabulary of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang: trymman (l. 46a), þristhycgende (l. 49b), and fremde (l. 102a).


Verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims occur in section A of that work.26 Verse 45contains an image of spiritual blindness that has generated a fair amount of critical

commentary. James W. Earl first drew attention to the images of spiritual blindnessand of a teacher as a physician contained in verses 39–45 of Maxims, observing that

the latter image is the ‘‘keynote image of the Pastoral Care’’.27 Building on Earl’scomments, Frederick Biggs and Sandra McEntire have demonstrated that verses 44b

and 45a of Exeter Maxims derive from Matthew 5:8 and 9:12, respectively, and haveshown that this emphasis on spiritual blindness helps elucidate verses 39–44.28 Yet

Biggs and McEntire read the allusion to Matthew 9:12 (‘‘non est opus valentibusmedico sed male habentibus’’; a doctor is not necessary for healthy people, but ratherfor sick ones) in verse 45a (‘‘Lef mon læces behofað’’; A sick person needs a doctor)

as a commentary on the immediately preceding lines despite Earl’s observation that it‘‘may refer to the healing of the blind sinner which precedes it, or metaphorically

introduce the following discussion of educating the young’’.29 Similarly, Drout’sanalysis of 45b–9 does not address the potential significance of the scriptural allusion

in verse 45a of Exeter Maxims for reading the verses that follow. In order to explainthe thematic significance of these sources to the poem, one needs to consider how the

allusion in verse 45a functions in its poetic context and shapes the audience’sinterpretation of the lines that immediately follow it. The passage that I wish to single

out for discussion reads as follows:

Lef mon læces behofað. Læran sceal mon geongne monnan,trymman ond tyhtan þæt he teala cunne, oþþæt hine mon atemedne hæbbe,sylle him wist ond wædo, oþþæt hine mon on gewitte alæde.Ne sceal hine mon cildgeongne forcweþan, ær he hine acyþan mote;þy sceal on þeode geþeon, þæt he wese þristhycgende.Styran sceal mon strongum mode. (ll. 45–50a)

Many translators of this passage evoke a scene of child-rearing in a secular context.

One example of this secularising impulse is found in T. A. Shippey’s Poems of Wisdomand Learning:30

26Although I find these section labels awkward, I use them here in order to situate my work in the critical

literature on Exeter Maxims. Using the letters A, B, and C instead of numerals helps prevent readers from

confusing the discrete sections of Exeter Maxims with the titles assigned to Exeter Maxims (Maxims I) and Cotton

Maxims (Maxims II) by Krapp and Dobbie (see note 1).27Earl, 279–80.28Biggs and McEntire, 11.29Earl, 280.30Loren C. Gruber offers another secular interpretation of this passage, arguing that ‘‘since oþþæt and þæt appear

within the context describing how an older man should instruct a younger, both conjunctions seem to signify a

qualitative transformation of perception: the process of learning, of becoming self-aware . . . involves a

‘movement’ from ignorance to understanding’’ (‘‘Of Holly,’’ 14). I agree with Gruber’s (and Shippey’s)

interpretation of the meaning of oþþæt, but I disagree with Gruber’s suggestion that the passage ‘‘implies . . . that

the older man must adopt an heroic role’’ (‘‘Of Holly,’’ 14). In context, the word conveys a change in perception

brought about by instruction, but as I will show, the change involves a shift from the secular worldview to the

spiritual worldview of the monastic community.

258 B. O’Camb

A sick man needs a doctor. A young man is to be taught, to be encouraged andprompted to know things well, until you have made him manageable; give himfood and clothes, until he is led to be sensible. He is not to be abused while he isstill a boy, before he has had a chance to prove himself; in this way it will beachieved among people that he becomes firm and confident. A strong mind is to bechecked.31

The secular thrust of this translated passage is clear: provide for the child, but do notspoil it. Teach the child to use common sense and correct its mistakes. Yet make

allowances for childish folly, lest you injure the child’s self-esteem. At the end of thisessay, I will offer my own translation of this passage, one that is slightly different withrespect to my interpretation of the ecclesiastical context informing these lines. In

order to develop that context, however, I turn first to the sophisticated degree ofrhetorical shaping of Exeter Maxims 45–50a.

Verses 45–50a exhibit several signs of rhythmic and syntactic shaping that form adiscrete poetic movement.32 The most obvious sign of shaping is the use of two

intertextual allusions in the passage. Verse 45a (‘‘Lef mon læces behofað’’) is a partialtranslation of Matthew 9:12 (‘‘non est opus valentibus medico sed male

habentibus’’). And as several editors and critics have observed, verse 50a (‘‘styransceal mon strongum mode’’; One must discipline an impetuous mind), is a near-

verbatim equivalent of The Seafarer, verse 109a (‘‘stieran mon sceal strongummode’’).33 Between the two allusions, the poet develops the theme of child-rearingwith rhetorical repetitions. The adjective geongne in verse 45b introduces this theme

and the poet reinforces it with the seemingly tautological compound adjectivecildgeongne in verse 48a. The poet’s repeated use of alliterative doublets in verse 46a

(‘‘trymman ond tyhtan’’) and in verse 47a (‘‘wist ond wædo’’) defines the goal ofchild-rearing and describes some of the items needed for completing that goal. The

use of oþþæt in verses 46b and 47b provides rhetorical balance to the alliterativedoublets and amplifies the theme of child-rearing by introducing parallel subordinate

clauses of result. The high frequency of rhetorical repetitions in this passage, which isbook-ended by textual allusions to the Gospel of Matthew and The Seafarer, points toa well-read and sophisticated poet and suggests that the passage deserves scrutiny

beyond the initial identification of plausible analogues.The same scriptural passage that informs verse 45a of Exeter Maxims also occurs in

chapter twenty-seven of the Rule of St. Benedict, the foundational text of the Reform.

31Shippey, ed. and trans., 67.32I borrow the term ‘‘movement’’ from C. B. Pasternack who uses this term in a musical sense ‘‘to refer . . . to

any structural unit that has a distant formal and semantic structure, whether its content is narrative or

expository’’ (11).33I should note that the manuscript reading of The Seafarer 109a as found on folio 83r of the Exeter Book is in

dispute. Although the manuscript reading of this verse is clear and free of erasures, most editors, including

Krapp and Dobbie, emend the second word in the statement (mod) to mon for the sake of improved sense (mod

is both subject and object of the statement inscribed in the manuscript) on the basis of the statement’s similarity

to verse 50a of Exeter Maxims (inscribed on folio 89v). The issue has no immediate bearing on my present

argument.


Chapter twenty-seven concerns ‘‘the care that the abbot should take for theexcommunicated’’ (Qualiter debeat abbas sollicitus esse circa excommunicatos),34

and in that context, Benedict cites Matthew 9:12 to generate a metaphor of the abbotas doctor who must care for the spiritual health of wayward brothers, just as the

Good Shepherd cares for his wayward sheep in Luke 15:4–5 (‘‘Et pastoris boni piumimitetur exemplum’’; And [the abbot] is to imitate the dutiful example of the good

shepherd). In addition to the scriptural allusion shared between Exeter Maxims andthe Rule, there is a thematic link between the texts in Benedict’s insistence that the

abbot should often send elder counsellors to advise these wayward brothers inprivate: ‘‘Et ideo uti debet omni modo ut sapiens medicus inmittere quasi occultosconsolatores senpectas, id est seniores sapientes fratres’’ (And as it is necessary in all

ways that a wise doctor be sent in, so let him [the abbot] send elder counsellors in asecret manner, that is, older, wise brothers). Thus, Benedict explicitly defines the

relationship between adviser and offender in terms of age, a relationship that seemsto be echoed by the references to geongne monnan (45b) and cildgeongne (48a) in

Exeter Maxims. In the context of chapters twenty-seven through twenty-nine of theBenedictine Rule, however, it is clear that the elder advisors are sent to advise

wayward adults that can be excommunicated, leave the monastery, and petition toreturn. Chapter thirty of the Rule makes clear that boys and adolescents (pueri uel

adolescentiores) are not mature enough to understand the severity of excommunica-tion (minus intellegere possunt quanta pena sit excommunicationis), and thus, arenot subject to it. Instead of excommunication, Benedict prescribes corporal

punishment in the form of harsh fasts (ieiuniis nimiis) and stinging lashes (acrisuerberibus) for the correction of delinquent boys because, as subsequent chapters of

the Rule suggest, children’s bodies are not fully developed, and so, are moresusceptible to these methods of discipline than excommunication.35

The shared allusion to Matthew 9:12 in verse 45 of Exeter Maxims and chaptertwenty-seven of the Benedictine Rule provides sufficient justification for a detailed

thematic and lexical comparison of the two texts’ treatment of children. Althoughverse 47a of Exeter Maxims (‘‘sylle him wist and wædo’’; let them be given food andprovisions) appears to directly contradict Benedict’s injunction in chapter thirty to

punish unruly boys by means of fasts, the explicit reference to the cultivation of achild’s intellectual faculties in verse 47b (‘‘oþþæt hine mon on gewitte alæde’’) seems

to correspond to the same chapter’s distinction between the intellectual faculties ofyoung people and adults. Furthermore, verse 47 of Exeter Maxims thematically

overlaps with Benedict’s repeated interest in the relationship of food and a child’sphysical well-being (addressed in chapters thirty and thirty-seven). In short,

the Maxims poet appears to have adapted several of the themes found in chapters

34All references in this essay to the text of the Latin Rule are from Chamberlin, ed.35In chapter thirty-one, Benedict insists that the monastery’s cellarer must take the greatest care of the sick and

of children (as well as guests and the poor). He also connects boys with the sick and the elderly in chapters

thirty-six and thirty-seven of the Rule, both times in contexts discussing the necessity of food for maintaining a

child’s physical health.

260 B. O’Camb

twenty-seven through thirty-seven of the Benedictine Rule for the proper spiritualand physical treatment of youth in reformed monasteries.36

The question needs to be addressed whether the poet had access to a Latin versionof the Rule, available from the sixth century onward, or whether he knew the English

translation of the Rule produced by Bishop Æthelwold at Glastonbury sometimeduring the 940s and 950s. Mechthild Gretsch’s recent re-dating of Æthelwold’s

translation of the Rule to this mid-tenth-century period means that it is possible thata copy of the text could have been available to the poet at even the earliest time when

the Exeter Book manuscript could have been written out (ca. 960).37

Close lexical study of Exeter Maxims shows that the vocabulary of verses 45–50a ofthat poem was directly adapted from Æthelwold’s translation of the Benedictine

Rule.38 The words cildgeongne and acyþað in verse 48 of Exeter Maxims are bothrelatively rare in Old English. The verb acyþan occurs only eleven times in the extant

Old English corpus, with most occurrences found in the Paris Psalter.39 Æthelwold

36Conner (‘‘Source Studies,’’ 404–13) detects a similar concern for the treatment of youth in reformed houses in

verses 412–20 of the Old English poem known as Guthlac A, also inscribed in the Exeter Book.37Mechthild Gretsch (Intellectual Foundations, 233–4) discusses the evidence for Æthelwold’s authorship of the

Old English Benedictine Rule. This attribution was first made in book two, chapter thirty-seven, of the twelfth-

century Liber Eliensis, where it is written that King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth gave Sudbourne, Suffolk, to

Æthelwold in exchange for a translation into English of the Rule of St. Benedict, which he then prepared. Before

Gretsch’s re-dating of Æthelwold’s Rule on the basis of stylistic and historical evidence, specialists (including

Gretsch herself) assumed that Æthelwold completed his translation sometime between Edgar’s marriage to

Ælfthryth in 964 or 965 and Æthelwold’s death in 984. For examples of this later dating, see Gneuss, ‘‘Die

Benediktinerregel,’’ 272–3; Lapidge and Winterbottom, eds. and trans., liv; Gretsch, ‘‘The Benedictine Rule,’’

150; and Dumville, 13–14.38Another possible source for a poet working in a monastic milieu is a vernacular gloss to a Latin text of the Rule.

The only nearly complete vernacular gloss to the Rule exists in the manuscript British Library, Cotton Tiberius

A.iii. Both the gloss and the main text in Tiberius A.iii have been dated paleographically to the early eleventh

century, several decades later than the Exeter Book’s compilation. One cannot immediately conclude on the basis

of the hand’s date that the passage in Exeter Maxims does not derive from a glossing tradition, however, because

there is evidence to suggest that the scribe was working from an interlinear translation found in earlier glossed

copies of the Rule that have now been lost. Furthermore, it is possible that the gloss was influenced by Æthelwold’s

translation. (On the relationships of the gloss to both the main text and to Æthelwold’s translation, see Logemann,

ed., xxxiv–xxxv.)

Differences in vocabulary between the two texts, however, indicate that Æthelwold’s translation was not the

original source for the Tiberius glosses. For example, Gretsch (Intellectual Foundations, 398) observes that the

Tiberius gloss always translates the Latin nouns infans and puer using the Old English nouns cild or cniht whereas

Æthelwold prefers the substantial adjective cildgeong to translate the same Latin nouns. These lexical differences are

also apparent in each text’s translation of Matthew 9:12 in chapter twenty-seven of the Rule. In Cotton Tiberius

A.iii, the Latin text non est opus valentibus medico sed male habentibus is glossed by forþam þe nis neode þam halum

læce ah þam untruman oððe yfel habbendum. Æthelwold renders the Vulgate text as forðy þa halan læces ne lacnunge

ne behofiað, ac þa untruman. While both translations of the scriptural passage use the same nouns and adjectives,

they use different verbs. Non est becomes nis in the Tiberius gloss; in Æthelwold’s translation, non est is translated

using the verb behofiað. The fact that behofað occurs in verse 45a of Exeter Maxims suggests that the poem

paraphrases Æthelwold’s translation of the Rule and not some other vernacular gloss like the one found in Tiberius

A.iii. (I would also note that the gloss to Matthew 9:12 in the Rushworth Gospels corresponds to the Tiberius gloss

in its use of nis for the Latin non est.)

All citations of Æthelwold’s Old English Rule are taken from the standard edition by Arnold Schroer.39Gretsch persuasively argues that the Latin psalms of the Royal Psalter (British Library, Royal MS 2.B.v) were

probably glossed by either Æthelwold or a member of his closest circle, and that the glossator adopted glosses


uses acyþan twice, however, in his translation of the Benedictine Rule where the verbmeans ‘‘to show or manifest an emotion to (someone)’’.40 Leaving aside (for now) the

specific uses of acyþan in the context of the Old English Rule, we may also observe thatcildgeong occurs twelve times in Old English texts. Three of these twelve occurrences are

found in the three Old English poems known as Andreas, Christ III, and Exeter Maxims.At least seven of the remaining nine occurrences of the word occur in two prose works

composed by Æthelwold.41 Æthelwold twice uses cildgeong to describe King Edgar’syouth in the document known as ‘‘Edgar’s Establishment of Monasteries’’, which he

composed as a preface to his translation of the Benedictine Rule.42 Æthelwold also usescildgeong regularly in his translation of the Rule where that word refers specifically ‘‘toboys in an ecclesiastical context’’.43 The close proximity of the words cildgeong and

acyþan in chapter thirty-seven of Æthelwold’s text, which addresses the care of elderlymonks and young ones (Be ealdum munecum and cildgeongum), provides a clear

lexical and thematic connection to verse 48 of Exeter Maxims (‘‘Ne sceal hine moncildgeongne forcweþan, ær he hine acyþan mote’’). Chapter thirty-seven of the Old

English translation of the Rule reads as follows:

Þeah hit gecyndelic sy on menniscum gewunan, þæt man mildheortnesse cyðe þamoferealdum and þam cildgeongum, þeahhweþere ne scylen hy beon butan regole,þæt is lifes rihtinge. Sy simle gesceawod on hy heora untrumnys and natoðæshwonregoles stræc gehealden on heora bileouan; and sy mildheortnes on hy acyþed, andmid heora þygene forhradian þa regolican tida.

[Even though it may be a natural custom among humankind that a person showcompassion for exceedingly old persons and the young, nevertheless, they shouldnot be without the Rule, which is the guidance of life. Let their lack of strength becontinually taken into account; by no means shall they be held to the strictness ofthe Rule with respect to their food. Let compassion be manifested on them, and letthem have food before the regular times.]

Stylistic evidence in verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims also supplements the lexicaland thematic claims of literary borrowing from the Old English Rule: Æthelwold

from the Paris Psalter: ‘‘It may . . . not be fanciful to assume that a scholar who . . . had lived for many years at the

court of Alfred’s grandson, King Æthelstan, could have had access to a copy of Alfred’s translation of the psalms

and that he would have known about their author. In view of King Æthelstan’s (amply attested) personal piety,

we may be permitted to imagine that for him the Old English psalms were among the most treasured of his

grandfather’s translations and hence available to scholars in his entourage’’ (Intellectual Foundations, 83).

Gretsch’s point, should it be accepted, supports my argument that Exeter Maxims derived its Æthelwoldian

vocabulary (in this case acyþan) from the Old English Rule, which was lexically influenced by Alfredian texts.

Below, I discuss a significant example of lexical borrowing into Exeter Maxims from another Alfredian text.40DOE, s.v. ‘‘a-cyþan,’’ sense 2.a.1.41I reached this conclusion independently of Gretsch, Intellectual Foundations, 398. Gretsch notes that two of

these nine occurrences ‘‘have no independent value since they come from the Wells and Winteney versions of

the Rule’’ (ibid., 398 n. 37).42On the authorship and function of ‘‘Edgar’s Establishment of Monasteries,’’ see Whitelock. The document is

preserved in a unique twelfth-century copy in the manuscript British Library, Cotton Faustina A.x.43DOE, s.v. ‘‘cild-geong,’’ sense 1a.

262 B. O’Camb

frequently uses doublets in his translation of the Rule to clearly convey the meaningof the Latin text to his readers.44 This stylistic trait of Æthelwold’s prose translation

would have been easily adapted to Old English verse with its frequent use ofvariation, and may explain the presence of the alliterative doublets trymman ond

tyhtan in verse 46a and wist and wædo in verse 47a.45

Identification of the lexical source for verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims may explain

the ambiguous meaning of verse 50a (‘‘Styran sceal mon strongum mode’’), whichmay be interpreted in one of two ways as scholars have long recognised. Most

scholars agree that the verb styran here is best interpreted as a transitive verb taking adative object,46 and thus translate the verse ‘‘One must guide (or discipline) a strong(or stubborn) mind’’. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the verb is intransitive:

‘‘One must guide by means of a strong mind’’.47 Reference to Æthelwold’s translationpartially elucidates the meaning of verse 50a. Æthelwold translates the title of chapter

thirty of the Rule (De pueris minoribus aetate qualiter corripiantur) as ‘‘Be geongramanna steore’’ (Concerning the correction of the young) and he uses steore twice in

the body of that chapter,48 thus providing yet another lexical link between ExeterMaxims and Æthelwold’s Old English Rule.49 Given the lexical influence of

Æthelwold’s translation on verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims, it seems best to interpretstrongum mode as the dative object of the verb styran. One then obtains an injunction

to the instructor about how to direct a young monk’s stubborn mind (strongummode) towards resolute thinking (þristhycgende): as the Rule informs us, theinstructor must discipline (styran) young monks by means of beatings and harsh

fasts. Although the verb styran provides a lexical connection between verse 50a ofExeter Maxims and chapter thirty of the Old English Rule, it also presents us with an

44Just one example among many is provided by Æthelwold’s translation of Matthew 9:12 in chapter twenty-

seven of the Rule, where the bishop translates the Latin noun medico using alliterating synonyms (‘‘læces’’ and

‘‘lacnunge’’). For a discussion of this specific translation technique in Æthelwold’s Rule, see Gretsch,

‘‘Æthelwold’s Translation,’’ 146.45Drout (How Tradition Works, 192–6) discusses the use of alliterative doublets in the Old English Rule of

Chrodegang, a text that was probably translated by Bishop Æthelwold or a member of his closest circle. It may

also be worth noting that the alliterative doublet trymman ond tyhtan with the ge- prefix (getyhted ond

getrymed) occurs in the Paris Psalter’s metrical translation of Psalm 111 (see note 39 above).46Bosworth and Toller, s.v. ‘‘steoran,’’ sense II.47Charles Dahlberg discusses this translation and explicitly connects the near-verbatim statement in verse 109a

of The Seafarer to a Benedictine milieu on the basis of its poetic context.48Gretsch (Intellectual Foundations, 222) discusses steor in Æthelwold’s translations, and that word’s relationship

to the Latin word disciplina (in the sense of the ability to control one’s own behaviour or punishment for

disobeying rules).49Æthelwold uses steore in the title of chapter thirty to translate the passive form of the Latin verb corripere (to

reproach), once in the body of chapter thirty to translate the passive form of the Latin verb coercere (to restrain,

check, control), and a second time in the chapter’s body in the phrase on steore which has been added to the

translation (there is no equivalent Latin phrase for these words). In Cotton Tiberius A.iii, corripiantur remains

unglossed and coerceantur is glossed with the Old English verbal phrase beon geþreade (may they be rebuked).

Here again we see vocabulary differences between the two translations of the Rule. Æthelwold’s repeated use of

the verb steore to translate two distinct verbs and his insertion of on steore into his vernacular text emphasises the

chapter’s theme of discipline while effectively streamlining the text’s vocabulary for readers not fully proficient

in Latin.


interpretive problem: verses 47–8 seem to directly contradict chapter thirty’sprescription for disciplining young boys living in monasteries. As mentioned above,

although verse 47b (‘‘oþþæt hine mon on gewitte alæde’’) seems to allude toBenedict’s distinction between the intellectual faculties of young people and adults in

chapter thirty of the Rule, the statement in verse 47a that a child should be given foodand provisions seems to contradict his injunction in the same chapter to punish

unruly boys who are not of an age to comprehend excommunication by withholdingfood from them (him man styre . . . mid swiðlicum fæstenum). Furthermore, verse

48 seems to state that a child should not be rebuked before he is able to prove himself,but surely harsh fasts and stinging strokes are a form of rebuke. How can we reconcilethese apparent contradictions?

When compared with chapter thirty of the Old English Rule, verse 47 (‘‘sylle himwist ond wædo, oþþæt hine mon on gewitte alæde’’) presents a relatively modest

interpretive problem. As I have already stressed, verse 47b preserves Benedict’s notionthat children constitute a separate category of monastic offenders from adults because

they are too young to comprehend the severity of excommunication. This leadsBenedict to insist that children should be disciplined with corporal punishment. The

Rule provides options for the abbot to punish unruly boys: Benedict recommendsthat he use either harsh fasts or sharp strokes—whichever one the abbot desires, but

not both—for disciplining children (‘‘him man styre oðþe mid swiðlicum fæstenum,oðþe mid teartum swingellum hy wylde’’; let them be disciplined either with harshfasts or with sharp strokes, whichever [the abbot] desires). While styran in verse 50a of

Exeter Maxims may provide a lexical and thematic allusion to chapter thirty of theRule, its use in this poetic context does not necessarily contradict that chapter’s

contents. If verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims contain vocabulary drawn from the OldEnglish Rule—as I believe I have adequately shown that they do—one must keep in

mind that the verses are a poetic paraphrase of the Rule and not a direct translationof it. Although the poet’s reference to the feeding of children in verse 47 and his

lexical-thematic allusion in verse 50a to chapter thirty of the Rule accounts for bothpunitive options prescribed there, recognition of the allusion is not necessary forunderstanding the passage (though the allusion may have enriched the passage’s

meaning for members of the textual community able to recognise it). Indeed one mayreasonably conclude that the poet, for whatever reason, makes explicit mention of

feeding children in order to express his own preference for how to punish children.This would suggest that the poet was intimately familiar with the Rule and was

probably a monk.The seeming interpretive crux presented by the poet’s statement in verse 48 that ‘‘a

child should not be rebuked before he is able to prove himself’’ (Ne sceal hine moncildgeongne forcweþan, ær he hine acyþan mote) may be resolved through a

thorough contextual analysis of the Æthelwoldian lexical items cildgeongne andacyþan in the Rule. I have argued that these words were likely adapted from chapterthirty-seven of the Rule, where acyþan refers to the act of demonstrating compassion

towards the physical infirmities of ‘‘young people’’ (cildgeongum) and the elderly.

264 B. O’Camb

Yet one should also consider the other occurrence of acyþan in chapter twenty-sevenof the Rule, where it develops the abbot-as-doctor metaphor initiated by an allusion

to Matthew 9:12, which is the probable lexical source for verse 45a of Exeter Maxims.In the context of chapter twenty-seven, acyþan refers specifically to an expression of

spiritual love for a wayward monk: ‘‘sy on þone synnigan broðor seo soðe lufu acydand gefæstnod, and ealle gebroðru for hine gebiddan’’ (let true and secure love be

manifested towards the sinful brother, and [let] all the brethren pray for him). Hereacyþan resonates in a spiritual sense because it refers to the power of compassionate

love to heal the spiritual infirmity of a wayward adult. Likewise, the verb isthematically associated with the compassion necessary for the care of the physicallyimmature or infirm such as the young and the elderly in chapter thirty-seven.

Although acyþan occurs in a passage from Exeter Maxims addressing the theme ofillness, one must entertain the possibility that the verb may also resonate in a spiritual

sense in verse 48. This possibility finds support in Gretsch’s suggestion that BishopÆthelwold borrowed the compound adjective cildgeong into Old English from the

Old Saxon compound kindjung in order to ‘‘establish a specific Old Englishequivalent for the Latin term for the first of the four ages of man: pueritia’’.50

Accepting Gretsch’s suggestion that Æthelwold deliberately coined cildgeong as avernacular term denoting an ecclesiastical category of youthful individuals unable as

yet to intellectually comprehend the severity of excommunication, I interpret the useof acyþan in verse 48 not only as a reference to the physical care of children inmonasteries, but also as a monastic prescription for a child’s spiritual well-being.

If one accepts my argument for the lexical-thematic influence of chapters twenty-seven through thirty-seven of Æthelwold’s Old English Rule on verse 48 of Exeter

Maxims, then I may be permitted to extend my interpretation of that verse beyondwhat is currently accepted by modern translators. Specifically, I want to suggest that

in this context the verb forcweþan may have been thematically important formembers of the poem’s textual community familiar with monastic texts such as the

Benedictine Rule. Having shown that the poet of Exeter Maxims adapts Æthelwoldianvocabulary from the Old English Benedictine Rule to thematically enrich verses 45–50a

50Gretsch, Intellectual Foundations, 398. The common Latin noun pueritia (boyhood) does not inherently denote

a specific ecclesiastical meaning. However, Gretsch (Intellectual Foundations, 397–9) explains that the term

pueritia was used in ecclesiastical contexts for the purpose of identifying members of a monastic community

according to their need for guidance, this need naturally attending their age. Specifically, she observes that the

phrase cildgeongum mannum in chapter seventy of the Old English Rule seems to derive from Isidore of Seville’s

definition of the second age of man (pueritia) in his Etymologiae. According to Isidore: ‘‘Secunda aetas pueritia, id

est pura et necdum ad generandum apta, tendens usque ad quartumdecimum annum’’ (The second age is

childhood, that is, a pure age and not yet fit for procreating, lasting all the way through the fourteenth year).

Chapter seventy of the Rule specifies that, ‘‘Cildgeongum mannum eal geferræden unþeawas styre, and hyra

mycele gymene hæbben oð þæt fifteoþe ger hyra ylde’’ (The entire community shall correct bad habits among

‘‘child young’’ men, and shall be especially mindful of them until they have attained their fifteenth year of age).

Sally Crawford (45) correctly observes in her valuable social history of Anglo-Saxon childhood that the Anglo-

Saxons developed an extensive vocabulary relating to childhood. Nonetheless, I am unable to locate any reference

in that study to the compound cildgeong or its semantic meaning, especially in Crawford’s discussion of child

oblation (135–8), monastic education (147–9), or the age thresholds of boys (49–51) in Anglo-Saxon England.


of his poem, I want to suggest that forcweþan does not, as most modern translatorsassume, mean ‘‘to revile, reprove, reproach, rebuke’’ or even ‘‘to reject’’.51 Rather,

forcweþan is best interpreted in this context as denoting a spiritual rejection,specifically the act of excommunication. The lexical influence of the Old English Rule

recommends such an interpretation of the passage, but we must ask whether or notthis is a tenable translation. Here I offer two pieces of evidence to support my

suggested interpretation. First, out of the twenty-two occurrences of forcweþan in theOld English literary corpus (both its finite and infinitive forms), Exeter Maxims verse

48 contains the only attested example of the verb in Old English poetry. This factalone may indicate that the Maxims poet used the verb forcweþan in a morespecialised poetic sense than its occurrences in prose and glosses necessarily implies.52

One cannot assume that a word necessarily means the same thing in both prose andpoetic registers; this seems especially true of the Maxims poet’s adaptation of prose

lexical items such as acyþan and cildgeongne for the enrichment of his poetic theme,namely how best to raise children in monastic communities.

A second piece of thematic evidence that may support my interpretation offorcweþan as meaning ‘‘to reject (spiritually), to excommunicate’’ comes from

chapter five of the Old English translation of Gregory’s Pastoral Care: ‘‘Gif ðonne siofeding ðara sceapa bið þære lufan tacen, hwy forcwið ðonne se þe him God swelce

cræftas gifð þæt he ne fede his heorde, buton he cweðan wille þæt he ne lufige ðoneHlaford & ðone hean Hirde ealra gesceafta?’’53 (If the feeding of the sheep is the signof love, why then does he, to whom God has given such abilities, refuse to feed his

herd, unless he wishes to declare that he does not love the Lord and High Shepherd ofall creation?) The finite use of forcweþan in this passage is striking in the degree of its

overlap with the related themes of pastoral care, feeding, and loving compassionimplied by the Æthelwoldian vocabulary of verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims. As its

title indicates, the fifth chapter of Gregory’s text ‘‘Concerns those who may be usefulas instructors through their examples and abilities, but who flee from it [that is, from

such service] for their own ease’’ (Bi ðæm ðe magon on ealdordome nytte beon onbisnum & on cræftum, & ðonne for hira agenre ieðnesse ðæt fleoð); this isthematically analogous to the reference to education in verse 45b (‘‘Læran sceal mon

geongne monnan’’; A young man must be instructed). The use of forcwið in the abovepassage to refer to the feeding of a flock as a metaphor for spiritual instruction may

51DOE, s.v. ‘‘for-cweþan,’’ senses 1 and 2.a., respectively.52By my count, eight of the remaining twenty-one occurrences of the verb attested elsewhere in the Old English

corpus occur in prose texts. (The remaining occurrences are found as vernacular glosses to Latin texts.) All eight

of the prose occurrences are found in texts usually associated with King Alfred and his circle of scholars,

including the Old English Orosius (one occurrence), Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (two occurrences) and

Gregory’s Pastoral Care (five occurrences). Both Drout (How Tradition Works, 213–14) and Gretsch (Intellectual

Foundations, 341–4) have independently suggested that the leaders of the Benedictine Reform movement

adapted vocabulary items from texts associated with an Alfredian milieu. There is reasonable justification, then,

to assume that ‘‘forcweþan,’’ a verb regularly occurring in Alfredian texts, may have been deliberately borrowed

from Alfredian writings by the reform-minded poet. For a summary of the prose texts usually associated with

King Alfred and his circle of scholars, see Lapidge et al., s.v. ‘‘Alfredian texts.’’53Sweet, ed., 42, ll. 5–9.

266 B. O’Camb

also elucidate the meaning of the unique poetic occurrence of forcweþan, especiallygiven that verb’s close proximity to the Æthelwoldian verb acyþan in Exeter Maxims.

In the context of chapter thirty-seven of the Rule, acyþan and cildgeong refer to thecompassion that must be shown towards those who are physically infirm because of

their advanced or immature state of life. The verb acyþan is also used in chaptertwenty-seven to refer to the loving compassion that must be shown towards wayward

adults in danger of excommunication. Recall that this theme is introduced in thatchapter by an allusion to Matthew 9:12, the same allusion informing the lexical

content of verse 45a of Exeter Maxims. Based on the close proximity of forcweþan toboth acyþan and the reference to Matthew 9:12 in a passage from Exeter Maximscontaining Æthelwoldian vocabulary, it is tempting to interpret the unique poetic use

of forcweþan as denoting a spiritual rejection of God’s love that is thematicallyanalogous to the lazy instructor’s rejection of God’s love in the fifth chapter of

Gregory’s Pastoral Care.54

That verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims refer to a monastic education of the sort

prescribed by chapters twenty-seven through thirty-seven of the Benedictine Rule is, Ibelieve, confirmed by Exeter Maxims verse 49 (‘‘þy sceal on þeode geþeon, þæt he

wese þristhycgende’’). Although compounds beginning with þrist- are commonenough in Old English, the adjective þristhycgende, with its second simplex derived

from the present participial form of the verb hycgan (to think) is rare, occurring onlytwice in the Old English corpus. In addition to its occurrence in Exeter Maxims, theadjective occurs elsewhere only in verse 288b of Christ I (also known as the Advent

lyrics), where it describes the Virgin Mary:

Forþon þu þæt ana ealra monnageþohtest þrymlice, þristhycgende,þæt þu þinne mægðhad meotude brohtes,sealdes butan synnum. (ll. 287–90a)

[Therefore you of all people, being resolute in thought, considered gloriously, thatyou would bring your virginity to the Lord and would give it to him without sin.]

54Benedict combines the abbot-as-doctor and abbot-as-shepherd metaphors in chapter twenty-eight of the Rule

by comparing the spiritually wayward brother to a diseased sheep that must be culled from the flock in order to

prevent the spread of disease: ‘‘Gif he furðon þurh þa gebedu gehæled ne bið, notige þonne se abbod cyrfes, and

mid isene þone uncoðan aceorfe and fram þam halum ascyrige, þurh þæs apostoles mungunge, þe ðus cwæð:

‘Affyrrað þone yfelan fram eow’; and eft he cwyð: ‘Gif se getreowleasa gewite, he gewite’, þylæs þe an adlig sceap

ealle heorde besmite.’’ (Therefore, if [the wayward brother] is not healed through prayers, then let the abbot

employ the act of cutting, and let him amputate the diseased one with a knife and let him separate him from the

healthy ones, as it was made known through the warning of the apostle, who spoke thus: ‘‘Expel the evil one

from among you’’ and again, he says, ‘‘If the faithless one goes away, let him go’’, lest a single diseased sheep

infect the entire flock.) According to A Thesaurus of Old English, the verbs aceorfan (when used with fram) and

forcweþan are synonymous in denoting acts of casting out or rejecting (Roberts and Kay, vol. 1, s.v. ‘‘12.05.07:

casting out, rejection’’). Given that the verb aceorfe (with fram) refers to excommunication in chapter twenty-

eight of the Benedictine Rule, my interpretation of forcweþan as denoting excommunication in a poetic passage

that paraphrases the same chapters of the Rule seems reasonable.


In the context of its uses, the word þristhycgend serves as both mode and model for anÆthelwoldian education. In both the Advent lyrics and Exeter Maxims, the rare

compound þristhycgend occurs in poetic passages that expand upon and paraphraseLatin monastic texts.55 In the Advent lyrics, þristhycgende describes Christ’s mother

Mary in a passage that emphatically praises the virtue of her virginity. In ExeterMaxims, þristhycgende seems to describe the final product of a proper monastic

education: a young person who thrives in the monastic community. The fact that thesame rare word occurs in both the Advent lyrics and Exeter Maxims creates an

intertextual network of associations between the two passages within the samemanuscript.56 On the basis of the word’s use in the Advent lyrics to extol the virtuesof Mary’s virginity taken together with its close proximity to three words in Exeter

Maxims drawn from Æthelwold’s translation of the Benedictine Rule (acyþan,cildgeong, and styran), I would suggest that þristhycgend(e) carries an implicit

thematic reference to virginity in Exeter Maxims, just as it does in the Advent lyrics.The theme of virginity was a topic of considerable pedagogical and political

importance for the leaders of the English monastic reform.57 During the 940s and950s, Æthelwold and Dunstan spent a great deal of time at Glastonbury studying the

Regula S. Benedicti and the writings of Aldhelm, especially his prose Laude deVirginitate.58 Both Æthelwold and Dunstan actively promoted the study of Aldhelm’s

De virginitate as part of the monastic educational curriculum in late Anglo-SaxonEngland, and the hermeneutic style of Aldhelm’s text thoroughly influencedÆthelwold’s literary style and intellectual life.59 As a poetic coinage used in two

Exeter Book poems that paraphrase Latin monastic texts, the compound þristhycgend

55Verses 275–347 of Krapp and Dobbie’s poem Christ I is a loose verse paraphrase of the Monastic Antiphon

beginning ‘‘O mundi domina’’ (Oh, queen of the world). This monastic antiphon occurs as the ninth lyric in the

Exeter Book’s Advent sequence. For a discussion of the Monastic Antiphons, see Campbell, ed., 6–8. On the

source and structure of the ninth lyric, see ibid., 27–8.56The close connection between these two passages is further suggested by the phrase on þeode geþeon in verse

49a of Exeter Maxims. The phrase is a near-verbatim echo of verse 377a of the Advent lyrics (geþeon on þeode). In

the context of the Advent lyric sequence, the word þristhycgende occurs in the ninth lyric of the sequence, and

the phrase geþeon on þeode occurs in the final verse of the sequence’s tenth lyric. The fact that verse 49 of Exeter

Maxims contains a rare compound and a near-verbatim phrase found in two consecutive lyrics inscribed earlier

in the same manuscript seems to me to be more than a coincidence. For a discussion of a similar phrase in the

Cotton Maxims (and its possible relationship to sexual mores), see Dane.57On the basis of charters and other historical documents written by Æthelwold, Eric John has argued

persuasively that for Æthelwold, the main reason for the decline of monasticism in England was ‘‘the behaviour

of the English magnates who had used their power to get control over ecclesiastical endowments’’ (155). Many

clerks in the tenth century were noble-born, married, and often held ecclesiastical property that they could

bequeath to their heirs. Documentary and historical evidence suggests that the monastic reformers began

enforcing strict observance of the Benedictine Rule in communities containing married clerks, especially the

Rule’s insistence that monks remain celibate and that property belong collectively to the monastic community.

By emphasising celibacy and the communalisation of property, the monastic reformers sought to restructure the

tenurial system by reducing the number of heirs with legal claims to monastic property. In short, the English

monastic Reform movement was essentially a tenurial reform movement. For a thoughtful discussion of the

complicated politics of the English monastic reform, see John, 154–80.58On Æthelwold as scholar, see Lapidge and Winterbottom, lxxxvi–xcii.59Gretsch, Intellectual Foundations, 425–7.

268 B. O’Camb

functions as an interpretative neologism similar to those found in texts that werecomposed or glossed by Æthelwold himself.

If Æthelwold’s translation of the Rule of St. Benedict is accepted as the lexicalsource for verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims, then that inference provides us with an

intellectual and cultural context for interpreting verses 45–50a of the poem byidentifying their probable relationship to the ecclesiastical milieu responsible for the

Rule’s production. The word cildgeongne is usually translated to mean ‘‘infant’’60 or‘‘youthful, child-like’’.61 A more appropriate option that captures the passage’s

relationship to a monastic milieu is the noun ‘‘oblate’’, denoting a ‘‘a child dedicatedby his or her parents to a religious house and placed there to be brought up’’.62

Likewise, þeod usually means ‘‘a nation, people’’,63 as Shippey’s translation indicates

above. Again, the source informing the passage suggests that the word is bestinterpreted in this context not as a general reference to a nation or people, but instead

to a monastic community as it does in verse 502 of the Exeter Book poem GuthlacA.64 Taking into account the probable monastic source for the vocabulary found in

verses 45–50a, here is my translation of the passage:65

An infirm person requires a doctor; a young man must be instructed,66 confirmedand exhorted so that he may become thoroughly knowledgeable, until he is tamed.

60Toller, s.v. ‘‘cild-geong.’’61DOE, s.v. ‘‘cild-geong,’’ sense 1.62This is the historical sense offered in the definition for the noun ‘‘oblate’’ in the Oxford English Dictionary, and

is the sense that most accurately conveys the practice of child oblation in the early Middle Ages. See Vauchez,

Dobson, and Lapidge, eds., s.v., ‘‘oblate.’’ Also see note 50 above.63Bosworth and Toller, s.v., ‘‘þeod,’’ sense I.64My interpretation of the dative plural form of þeod in Guthlac A, 502 as a reference to monastic communities

requires some justification. In the context of that poem, lines 502–4 (‘‘þeodum ywaþ / wisdom weras, wlencu

forleosað, / siððan geoguðe geað gæst aflihð’’; The men reveal their wisdom to the community, lose their pride

as soon as their spirit flees from the folly of youth) constitute part of St. Guthlac’s response to two demons that

have shown him how ‘‘young men’’ (geongra monna, l. 490) living ‘‘in monasteries’’ (in mynsterum, l. 416)

‘‘possess idle possessions and arrogance’’ (idlum æhtum and oferwlencum, l. 418). The context makes clear that

Guthlac’s reference to weras (men) who will ultimately proclaim their wisdom to þeodum in verse 502 alludes to

young monks who will outgrow their immaturity and prove worthy of monastic life. Jane Roberts discusses this

scene and its relevance to a monastic audience, observing that ‘‘No close analogue can be found for this

temptation of Guthlac or for his compassionate defence of geongra monna 490 who are censured by the devils’’

(145 n. 412). The phrase ‘‘geongra monna’’ in Guthlac A, 490 parallels the reference to geongne monnan in verse

45b of Exeter Maxims, and so may provide additional evidence for my interpretation of the latter passage.

Likewise, Conner has persuasively argued that the Rule of St. Benedict informs ‘‘Guthlac’s response to the

devils . . . [by] indict[ing] the young monks’ superiors for not behaving like proper Benedictine abbots in forming

those in their charge. As Guthlac points out to his tormentors, youths are quite an inappropriate example of

sophisticated monastic discipline worthy of critical examination because their formations are not complete’’

(‘‘Source Studies,’’ 406). This same issue informs the thematic content of verses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims.65See p. 6 above for the Old English text.66The indefinite pronoun mon (and the word monnan) can refer to a person of either sex, thus making it

possible that this passage was composed for an audience of mixed sexes. I translate mon (and monnan) using a

masculine pronoun because the grammatical pronouns in the passage seem to refer to a male audience

(he occurs in verses 46 and 49 and hine in verses 46 and 47). Nonetheless, it is possible that these pronouns are

grammatically masculine, and thus, may not accurately reflect the composition of the poem’s textual

community.


One should give him provisions and clothing until he be led into understanding.One must not excommunicate an oblate before he may prove himself; in this wayhe shall flourish among his people [that is, the monastic community] until hebecomes resolute in thought. A stubborn mind must be disciplined.

Accepting Æthelwold’s translation of the Benedictine Rule as the lexical source forverses 45–50a of Exeter Maxims also provides us with a terminus a quo for dating

Exeter Maxims (or at the very least, this particular passage) ca. AD 940–50.67

Moreover, the presence of Æthelwoldian vocabulary (cildgeong, acyþan, styran, and

þristhycgend)68 connects Exeter Maxims (and by extension, the Exeter Book) to atextual community associated with Æthelwold’s vision of reformed monasticism.

The degree and immediacy of Æthelwold’s influence on the shape and contents of

Exeter Maxims is impossible to determine with certainty. The elegant rhetorical shapeand thematic richness of verses 45–50a of Maxims suggest that whoever composed

the poem was intimately familiar with both Æthelwold’s English Rule and theprinciples of vernacular poetry. How the Maxims’ poet came to know the vernacular

Rule is difficult to tell. It is reasonable to assume that Æthelwold would not have beenin a position to disseminate the vernacular text of the Rule widely until after King

Edgar made him bishop of Winchester in 963, a date roughly coeval with even theearliest dates posited for the Exeter Book’s production. If the poet worked

immediately from a copy of Æthelwold’s text, it would most likely have been in areformed monastery within the ambit of Winchester. The passage’s emphasis on theeducation of oblates also suggests that Exeter Maxims was produced for use in a

monastic house containing a school. Yet it is also possible that the poet came intocontact with the Rule or its translator at an earlier date, possibly as a member of

Æthelwold’s community at Abingdon during his tenure as abbot there (ca. 954–63)or while studying alongside Dunstan and Æthelwold at Glastonbury in the 940s and

950s. Until a more specific place and date for the Exeter Book’s production can bedetermined, the best we can infer about the date and function of Exeter Maxims on

the basis of verses 45–50a is that the poem was produced in a textual communityconnected to the reformation of English monasticism during the late tenth century,and that the community shared with Æthelwold, and indeed with St. Benedict

himself, a deep concern for the proper treatment of oblates: young persons uponwhom, with time, the continuing well-being of monasteries would depend.

67One may object to my use of such a brief passage to date the entire poem on the basis of the scribe’s division of

the poem into three distinct sections in the manuscript. It is also possible that the contents of Exeter Maxims

were collected from various sources. For now, my argument must rest on the common critical assumption that

the three sections of Exeter Maxims are intended to be read together as a whole. However, Charles D. Wright

(‘‘Blood of Abel’’) persuasively argues that verses 192–9 of section C of Exeter Maxims borrow a metaphor from

Aldhelm’s Carmen de Virginitate. Because passages in sections A and C of the poem derive from texts important

to Æthelwold’s vision of a reformed monastic education (which he was developing during the 940s or 950s at

Glastonbury), one must entertain the strong possibility that the poem was composed at a late date.68Drout (How Tradition Works, 290) explicitly connects the compound þristhycgende from Exeter Maxims with

the Old English Rule of Chrodegang, a text that he persuasively argues was translated into the vernacular by a

member of Bishop Æthelwold’s closest circle (214). It is for this reason that I refer to the compound as

‘‘Æthelwoldian.’’ Also see notes 24 and 25 above.

270 B. O’Camb

Acknowledgements

Portions of this essay were presented at a session of the 2007 International Congressof Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo, Michigan. I wish to thank the participants in that

session for their useful comments and criticisms. I also want to thank John D. Niles,Charles Wright, Josh Goldman, Beth Capdevielle, and Jay Gates for helpfully

commenting on drafts of this essay.

References

Biggs, Frederick, and Sandra McEntire. ‘‘Spiritual Blindness in the Old English Maxims I, Part I.’’Notes and Queries 35 (1988): 11.

Bosworth, Joseph, and T. Northcote Toller. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press,1898.

Campbell, Jackson J., ed. The Advent Lyrics of the Exeter Book. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UniversityPress, 1959.

Cavill, Paul. Maxims in Old English Poetry. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999.Chamberlin, John, ed. The Rule of St. Benedict: The Abingdon Copy. Toronto: Pontifical Institute for

Mediaeval Studies, 1982.Chambers, R. W., Max Forster, and Robin Flowers. The Exeter Book of Old English. London: P.

Lund, Humphries & Co., 1933.Conner, Patrick W. Anglo-Saxon Exeter: A Tenth-Century Cultural History. Woodbridge, England:

Boydell Press, 1993.———. ‘‘Sources Studies, the Old English Guthlac A and the English Benedictine Reformation.’’

Revue Benedictine 103 (1993): 380–413.Crawford, Sally. Childhood in Anglo-Saxon England. Stroud, England: Sutton, 1999.Dahlberg, Charles. ‘‘The Seafarer: The Weir-Metaphor and Benedictine Silence.’’ Mediaevalia 6

(1982 for 1980): 11–35.Dane, Joseph A. ‘‘On folce geþeon: Note on the Old English Maxims II, lines 43–45.’’

Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 85 (1984): 61–4.Dictionary of Old English: A to G online, edited by Angus Cameron, Ashley Crandell Amos,

Antonette diPaolo Healey, et al. Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project, 2007.The Dictionary of Old English Corpus in Electronic Form, edited by Antonette diPaolo Healey,

5http://www.hti.umich.edu/english/oec4, 2000.Drout, Michael D. C. ‘‘The Fortunes of Men 4a: Reasons for Adopting a Very Old Emendation.’’

Modern Philology 96 (1998): 184–7.———. How Tradition Works: A Meme-Based Cultural Poetics of the Anglo-Saxon Tenth Century.

Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006.———. ‘‘Re-Dating the Old English Translation of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang: The Evidence

of the Prose Style.’’ Journal of English and Germanic Philology 103 (2004): 341–68.Dumville, David. English Caroline Script and Monastic History: Studies in Benedictinism A.D. 950–

1030. Woodbridge, England: Boydell, 1993.Earl, James W. ‘‘Maxims I, Part I.’’ Neophilologus 67 (1983): 277–83.Gameson, Richard. ‘‘The Origin of the Exeter Book of Old English Poetry.’’ Anglo-Saxon England

25 (1996): 135–85.Gneuss, Helmut. ‘‘Die Benediktinerregel in England und ihre altenglische Ubersetzung.’’ In Die

Angelsachsischen Prosabearbeitungen Der Benediktinerregel, edited by Arnold Schroer andrevised by Helmut Gneuss, 263–84. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1964.


———. Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts. Tempe, Ariz.: Arizona Center for Medieval andRenaissance Texts and Studies, 2001.

Gretsch, Mechthild. ‘‘Æthelwold’s Translation of the Regula Sancti Benedicti and its LatinExemplar.’’ Anglo-Saxon England 3 (1974): 125–51.

———. ‘‘The Benedictine Rule in Old English: A Document of Bishop Æthelwold’s ReformPolitics.’’ In Words, Texts and Manuscripts: Studies in Anglo-Saxon Culture Presented toHelmut Gneuss on the Occasion of his Sixty-Fifth Birthday, edited by Michael Korhammerwith the assistance of Karl Reichl and Hans Sauer, 131–58. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992.

———. The Intellectual Foundations of the English Benedictine Reform. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 1999.

Gruber, Loren C. ‘‘The Agnostic Anglo-Saxon Gnomes: Maxims I and II, Germania, and theBoundaries of Northern Wisdom.’’ Poetica (Tokyo) 6 (1976): 22–47.

———. ‘‘Of Holly, Vassalage, and oþþæt: Three Notes on Maxims I.’’ In Geardagum 2 (1977): 9–17.Hill, Thomas D. ‘‘Notes on the Old English ‘Maxims’ I and II.’’ Notes and Queries 215 (1970): 445–7.John, Eric. Orbis Britanniae and Other Studies. Bristol: Leicester University Press, 1966.Ker, N. R. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957.Krapp, George Philip, and Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, eds. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. 6 vols.

New York: Columbia University Press, 1931–53.Langefeld, Brigitte. The Old English Version of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang. Frankfurt am Main:

Peter Lang, 2003.Lapidge, Michael, and Michael Winterbottom, eds. and trans. Wulfstan of Winchester: The Life of St

Æthelwold. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.Lapidge, Michael, John Blair, Simon Keynes, and Donald Scragg, eds. The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of

Anglo-Saxon England. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1999.Logemann, Henri, ed. The Rule of St. Benet: Latin and Anglo-Saxon Interlinear Version. Early English

Text Society, o.s., vol. 90. London: N. Trubner and Co., 1888. Reprint, Millwood, N.Y.:Kraus Reprint, 1973.

Malone, Kemp. ‘‘Notes on Gnomic Poem B of the Exeter Book.’’ Medium Ævum 12 (1943): 65–7.Muir, Bernard J., ed. The Exeter Anthology of Old English Poetry: An Edition of Exeter Dean and

Chapter MS 3501. 2 vols. Exeter: University of Exeter Press, 1994.Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 5http://www.oup.co.uk.

ezproxy.library.wise.edu/4.Pasternack, C. B. The Textuality of Old English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1995.Remly, Lynn L. ‘‘The Anglo-Saxon Gnomes as Sacred Poetry.’’ Folklore 82 (1971): 147–58.Roberts, Jane, ed. The Guthlac Poems of the Exeter Book. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.Roberts, Jane, and Christian Kay with Lynn Grundy. A Thesaurus of Old English. 2 vols. Amsterdam:

Rodopi, 2000.Salvador, Mercedes. ‘‘Architectural Metaphors and Christological Imagery in the Advent Lyrics:

Benedictine Propaganda in the Exeter Book?’’ In Conversion and Colonization in Anglo-SaxonEngland, edited by Catherine E. Karkov and Nicholas Howe, 169–211. Tempe, Ariz.: ArizonaCenter for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006.

Schroer, Arnold. Die Angelsachsischen Prosabearbeitungen Der Benediktinerregel. 1885–88. Reprintedwith supplement and revisions by Helmut Gneuss, Darmstadt: WissenschaftlicheBuchgesellschaft, 1964. Page references are to the 1964 edition.

Scragg, Donald. ‘‘Towards a New Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records.’’ In New Approaches to Editing OldEnglish Verse, edited by Katherine O’Brien O’Keeffe and Sarah Larratt Keefer, 67–78.Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1998.

Shippey, T. A., ed. and trans. Poems of Wisdom and Learning in Old English. Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 1976.

272 B. O’Camb

Stanley, Eric G. The Search for Anglo Saxon Paganism. 1975. Reprinted with additional material asImagining the Anglo-Saxon Past: The Search for Anglo-Saxon Paganism and Anglo-Saxon Trialby Jury. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2000. Page references are to the 2000 edition.

Stenton, Frank M. Anglo-Saxon England. 3d ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971.Stock, Brian. The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the

Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1983.Sweet, Henry, ed. King Alfred’s West-Saxon Version of Gregory’s Pastoral Care. Early English Text

Society, o.s., vols. 45, 50. London: N. Trubner & Co., 1871–72.Tigges, Wim. ‘‘Snakes and Ladders: Ambiguity and Coherence in the Exeter Book Riddles and

Maxims.’’ In Companion to Old English Poetry, edited by Henk Aertsen and Rolf H. BremmerJr., 95–118. Amsterdam: VU University Press, 1994.

Toller, T. Northcote. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Supplement. Oxford: Oxford University Press,1955.

Vauchez, Andre, Barrie Dobson, and Michael Lapidge, eds. Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages,translated by Adrian Walford. 2 vols. Chicago, Ill.: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000.

Whitelock, Dorothy. ‘‘The Authorship of the Account of King Edgar’s Establishment ofMonasteries.’’ In Philological Essays: Studies in Old and Middle English Language andLiterature in Honour of Herbert Dean Meritt, edited by James L. Rosier, 125–36. The Hague:Mouton & Co., 1970.

Williams, Blanche Colton. Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon. New York: Columbia University Press,1914.

Wright, Charles D. ‘‘The Blood of Abel and the Branches of Sin: Genesis A, Maxims I and Aldhelm’sCarmen de uirginitate.’’ Anglo-Saxon England 25 (1996): 7–19.

———. ‘‘‘Insulae Gentium’: Biblical Influence on Old English Poetic Vocabulary.’’ In MagisterRegis: Studies in Honor of Robert Earl Kaske, edited by Arthur Groos with Emerson Brownet al., 9–21. New York: Fordham University Press, 1986.

Zimmermann, Gunhild. The Four Old English Poetic Manuscripts: Texts, Contexts, and HistoricalBackground. Heidelberg: Carl Winter Verlag, 1995.


Bishop Æthelwold and the Shaping of the Old English Exeter Maxims

Documents

Transcript of Bishop Æthelwold and the Shaping of the Old English Exeter Maxims