Interesting extracts from
The Canons of Elfric
(c. 1000 A.D.)
"There is no English name before the Conquest, nor for some ages after, that has more books, especially translations, ascribed to it, than Elfric. It is generally agreed that they are the work of one man ... who advanced to the see of Canterbury in the year 995 and who died 1005. [Alternatively he] was Archbishop of York from the year 1023 to 1053."(N)
These extracts give an interesting insight into Anglo-Saxon Christianity before the Conquest. Not everybody will agree with the views expressed here such as the theory(i) but obvious neglect of Priestly Celibacy(ii), the disfavour of second marriages(iii) which are not to be blessed even if the first wife has died(iv). That the Priest and Bishop are differing degrees within one order(v)(vi) with the bishop apparently having no authority over the priest apart from that of fatherly advice(vii). Perhaps most interesting is the doctrine of the Real Presence(viii) which clearly is incompatible with transubstantiation.
From his Canons:
"Elfric, an humble brother to the venerable Bishop Wulfins, health in the Lord. We have readily obeyed your command; but have not presumed to write any thing concerning the episcopal office; because it is your part to know how to be an example to all by an excellent behaviour, and by your continual admonitions 'to persuade your subjects to be saved: which things I speak in Christ Jesus, because ye ought often to confer with your clergy, and to reprove their negligence; for through their perverseness the canonical decrees and the doctrine of the Church are in effect abolished: therefore deliver your own soul, and inform them what they are to observe, as they are priests and ministers of Christ, lest you perish with them if you become a dumb dog. We write the following part of the epistle in English, and in such a manner as if you yourself dictated it with your own mouth, and said to your subjects of the clergy."(1)
"1. I tell you, priests, that I will not bear your neglects of your ministry. And I tell you in good sooth how the matter stands with priests: Christ established Christianity and chastity; and all that went with Him in His way forsook every worldly thing, and the company of their wives; therefore He Himself said in His Gospel, 'He that hateth not his wife is not a minister worthy of Me'."(2)
"2. After Christ's ascending up again to the kingdom of heaven, and death of the venerable Apostles, there was such, a persecution raised throughout the world, that no synod of God's servants could be assembled by reason of the heathen murderers, who earnestly sought their death, till Constantine the emperor, who had all the world under his government, submitted to Christianity."(3)
"3. Then he assembled a synod at the city of Nice, of three hundred and eighteen bishops of all nations, for the settling of the faith: there were may famous bishops that wrought many mighty wonders at the synod: and they excommunicated Arius the mass-priest, because he would not believe that the Son of the living God was so mighty as His great Father is; therefore they all condemned this man of the devil, but he would not desist till he saw all his entrails [gush] out together, when he went to the house of office."(4)
"4. By this synod the liturgy of the Church was established, and the mass-creed, and many other things concerning the worship and the servants of God."(5)
[Back](i)"5. They all decreed, with an unanimous resolve, that neither mass-priest, deacon, nor canon-regular should retain any woman in his house, except mother, sister, or aunt, by father or mother; and that he who did otherwise should forfeit his order."(6)
[Back](ii)"6. This seems strange to you to hear: 'for ye have so brought your wretched doings into fashion, as if there were no danger in a priest's living like a married man. Now ye say, ye cannot be without the attendance of a woman: how then could those holy men dwell without a woman? And they have now the reward of their purity of heart in life eternal without end. The priests now reply that Peter had a wife: they say what is very true; for so he might under the old law, before he submitted to Christ; but he left his wife, and every worldly thing, after he had submitted to Christ, who instituted chastity."(7).
[Back](iii) "8. It was also decreed in the same synod, that he who marries a widow or divorced wife; or he that [married] a second time be never admitted afterwards to any order, nor hallowed to priest: but that he be chosen to holy order that has but one wife, and her uncorrupted, as the Apostle Paul wrote in his epistle."(8)
[Back](iv)"9. Nor may any priest be at a wedding, where either the man or woman is married a second time, nor bless their conjunction: let such an one be so marked as that it had been better for him to have continued in chastity: yet the layman may, by the Apostle's permission, marry a second time, if his wife fail him. But the canons forbid a blessing to it, and appoint a satisfaction [to be made] by such men."(9).
[Back](v) "10. There are seven orders appointed in the Church: the first is ostiary, the second lector, the third exorcist, the fourth acolyth, the fifth sub-deacon, th sixth deacon the seventh presbyter"(10).
[Back](vi)"17. The Presbyter is the mass-priest, or elder, not that he is old otherwise than in wisdom. He halloweth God's housel as our Saviour commanded: he ought by preaching to instruct the people in their belief, and to give an example to Christians by the purity of his manners. There is no more between a bishop and a priest, but that the bishop is appointed to ordain and to bishop children, and to hallow churches, and to take care of God's rights: for they would be abundantly too many if every priest did this, he hath the same order, but the other is more honourable."(11).
"23. The mass-priest, on Sundays and mass-days, shall speak the sense of the Gospel to the people in English, and of the Pater noster, and the creed, as often as he can, for the inciting of the people to know their belief, and retaining their Christianity. Let the teacher take heed of what the prophet says, 'they are dumb dogs and cannot bark.' We ought to bark and preach to laymen, lest they should be lost through ignorance. Christ in His Gospel saith of the unlearned teachers 'if the blind lead the blind they both fall into the ditch.' The teacher is blind that hath no book-learning, and he misleads the laity through his ignorance. Thus are you to be aware of this, as your own duty [requires]."(12).
"26. And if an unbaptized child be of a sudden brought to the mass-priest, that he baptize it with all possible expedition, lest it die a heathen."(13)
"27. That no priest sell his ministrations for money, nor make demand of any thing for baptism, or any other ministration: and let him not be like them whom Christ drove with a scourge out of the temple, because they wickedly trafficked in it. Let none of the servants of God now perform their ministrations for money, but to the end that they may merit eternal glory thereby."(14).
"33. There have been four synods in behalf of the true faith in opposition to the heretics, who spake absurdly of the Holy Trinity, and the incarnation of Christ: the first was at Nice, as we said some time before; the second was afterwards at Constantinople [consisting of] one hundred and fifty bishops, holy men of God; the third was at Ephesus [consisting of] two hundred bishops; and the fourth at Chalcedon [consisting of] many hundred bishops; and all these were unanimous as to what was decreed at Nice, and they repaired all the breaches that had been made therein. And these four synods are to be regarded as the four books of Christ in the Church. Many synods have been holden since; but yet these are of the greatest authority. For they extinguished the heretical doctrines which were absurdly invented against God by those heretics; and they established the service of God."(15).
"37. I charge you that ye take care of yourselves (as your books direct you) and how ye ought to act on the days now coming. Housel ought not to be hallowed on Long Friday: because Christ suffered for us on this day. But yet what concerns the day must be done, for two lessons are to be read with tracts, and two collects, and Christ's passion, and afterwards the prayers, and let them pay their adoration to the rood, then let all greet God's rood with a kiss. Afterwards let the priest go to God's altar with the remains of the housel which he consecrated on Thursday, and with unhallowed wine mingled with water, and cover them with a corporal, and then presently say, Oremus, praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et pater noster, to the end, and then let him say with a low voice, Liber nos quaesumus, Domine, ab omnibus malis, and aloud, per omnia secula seculorum. Then let him put a particle of the housel into the chalice, as it is customary but with silence. Then let him go to housel, and whoever else pleases. On the Thursday we sing our tide-songs together, and all the prayers with a low voice, et miserere mei Dominie and collect; on the Friday we sing all the tide-songs singly by ourselves with a low voice (except the uht-song only, which we sing together) and also on Saturday till noon-song be sung. Let no oil be put in the font, except a child be there baptized. Let not the offertory be sung at the mass on Easter-eve, nor Agnus Dei, nor Communia; but while they are a going to housel, let the chanter begin Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, and further the psalm, Laudate Dominus omnes Gentes; after the anthem. At vespers, Magtnificat; then let the priest say, Dominus Vobiscum, Oremus, and the collect after the Communion: and thus let him end the mass and the even-song with one collect after the Communion. Some priests reserve the housel that was hallowed on Easter-day over year for sick men. But they do very greatly amiss, who cause the holy housel to putrefy, and are unwilling to understand how great satisfaction the penitential directeth in relation to them, if the housel be putrefied, or musty, or lost, or if a mouse eateth it, through carelessness. The holy housel ought to be kept with great diligence and not be permitted to be stale, but another be always hallowed anew for sick men in about a seven-night or fortnight, so as that it may not be musty at least. For the housel that was now hallowed to-day is altogether as holy as that which was hallowed Easter-day. [Back](viii)The housel is Christ's body, not corporally but spiritually; not the body in which he suffered, but that body of which He spake, when He blessed bread and wine for housel one night before His passion, and said of the bread blessed 'This is My Body;' and again of the wine blessed, 'This is My Blood, that is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins.' Know now that the Lord who was able to change the bread into His Body before His passion, and the wine into His Blood, in a spiritual manner, He Himself daily blesseth bread and wine by the hand of His priests into His spiritual body and blood. And the priest ought purely and carefully to perform the divine ministration with clean hands and clean heart; and let him beware that the oblation have not been too long baked, lest it be unsightly; and let him always mingle water with wine. For the wine betokeneth our redemption through Christ's blood; and the water betokeneth the people for whom He suffered. Great honour dost thou merit if thou ministrest to God with earnestness and reverence; and again it is written, that 'he is cursed that doth service to God with negligence.' By this we may know that the man who has not his sight ought not to presume to celebrate mass, when he does not see what he offereth to God, whether it be clean or foul. Mass ought not to be celebrated with any other vessel but the chalice that is blessed for this purpose. We charge you mass-priests that ye charge all the people that belong to you, and to whom ye are shrifts, that the four first days of Easter be kept free from all servile works. Because at this time all the whole world was set at liberty from the captivity of the devil: and let the feast of Sunday be kept from Saturday noon till Monday's light; and the feast of every mass-day that was appointed and enjoined as a new feast in the days of the predecessors of our lord the king, and of our ancestors. And further let as many days be fasted as are established for this purpose, and have a service appointed for them. Let every man fast every Friday in the twelvemonth, save from Easter to Pentecost, and again from Midwinter till a seven-night after Twelfth-day; or except it be a public feast, or a full service belong to it: otherwise let no man break the fast on this day. And we bishops decreed when we were together, that the whole nation fast before the mass-days of Saint Mary, and the mass-days of the Apostles: and that the mass contra paganos be sung every Wednesday in every minster, and every mass-priest do the same at his church. Now ye have heard what is unanimously to be done by you, what is to be left undone. [Back](vii)If ye act contrary to this, we have not the government [of you,] but we shall be clean at God's doom. God grant ye may so consider it, as it is your duty to do."(16).
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Notes.
[Back](N) A Collection of The Laws and
Canons of the Church of England by John Johnson, M.A., 1720, 1850
Edition, Vol. I, p. 383 [from the Oxford Library of
Anglo-Catholic Theology].
[Back](1) ibid. p. 388.
[Back](2) ibid. p. 388-9.
[Back](3) ibid. p. 389.
[Back](4) ibid. p. 389.
[Back](5) ibid. p. 389.
[Back](6) ibid. p. 389.
[Back](7) ibid. p. 390.
[Back](8) ibid. p. 391.
[Back](9) ibid. p. 391.
[Back](10) ibid. p. 391.
[Back](11) ibid. p. 392-3.
[Back](12) ibid. p. 397-8.
[Back](13) ibid. p. 398.
[Back](14) ibid. p. 399.
[Back](15) ibid. p. 401.
[Back](16) ibid. p. 403-406.