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Ælfric of Abingdon (died 16 November 1005) was a late 10th-century Archbishop of Canterbury. He previously held the offices of abbot of St Albans Abbey and Bishop of Ramsbury, as well as likely being the abbot of Abingdon Abbey. After his election to Canterbury, he continued to hold the bishopric of Ramsbury along with the archbishopric of Canterbury until his death in 1005. Ælfric may have altered the composition of Canterbury's cathedral chapter by changing the clergy serving in the cathedral from secular clergy to monks. In his will he left a ship to King Æthelred II of England as well as more ships to other legatees.

Early life

Ælfric was the son of an earl of Kent and became a monk of Abingdon Abbey in Berkshire (now Oxfordshire). He was very likely Abbot of Abingdon before becoming Abbot of St Albans Abbey around 975, although some historians do not believe that he held the office of Abbot at Abingdon. Although the Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis, or History of the Church of Abingdon, names Ælfric as abbot, the abbatial lists do not record him as such. Indirect corroboration of his being abbot at Abingdon is a grant of land to Ælfric personally (instead of to the office he held) while he was archbishop that had previously been unjustly taken from Abingdon. This land was to revert to Abingdon after Ælfric's death.

Bishop and archbishop

Ælfric's brother, Leofric, succeeded him as Abbot of St Albans when he became bishop. Between 991 and 993, Ælfric rose to the Bishopric of Ramsbury, and possibly continued to hold office of abbot of St Albans while bishop. In 995 he was elevated to the see of Canterbury. He was translated, or moved with appropriate ecclesiastical ceremony, to Canterbury on 21 April 995 at a witenagemot held at Amesbury. Here he received the permission of "King Æthelred and all the witan" to be elevated to Canterbury. Ælfric continued to hold Ramsbury along with Canterbury until his death. The story that his brother was chosen first for Canterbury but refused, stems from confusion on the part of Matthew of Paris and historians generally hold the entire episode to be untrue.

Ælfric's appointment to Canterbury caused consternation with the clergy of the cathedral chapter. In reaction, the chapter sent two members to Rome ahead of Ælfric and tried to secure the archbishopric for either of the monks. Pope Gregory V, however, would not appoint a candidate without royal permission, which neither of the monks had. Instead, when Ælfric arrived in Rome in 997, he was appointed and received the pallium, a symbol of an archbishop's authority. He also witnessed some miracles at the gravesite of Edward the Martyr at Shaftesbury Abbey, helping to lead to Edward's sainthood.

A story was told that Ælfric introduced monks into the cathedral church of Christ Church, Canterbury, replacing the secular clerks that had taken over the foundation during the ninth century. Ælfric is said to have done this on the command of the pope. This story originally dates to soon after the Norman Conquest and originated with the monastic historians of Canterbury, and its veracity is unclear. He likely performed the marriage ceremony of King Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy in 1002. A later tradition held that he consecrated a Bishop of Llandaff and two Bishops of St. David's in Wales, which, if true, would have meant extending Canterbury's jurisdiction into new territory.

Either Ælfric or his predecessor Sigeric wrote a letter to Wulfsige, Bishop of Sherborne about the duties of bishops to make sure that the laity did not despoil churches. The letter also urged Wulfsige to exhort the laity to strive for justice in their dealings with others, help widows and orphans, not fight, as well as other moral precepts. Ælfric also ordered the composition of the first Life of Dunstan, a hagiography, or saint's life, of Dunstan, a predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury. He also acted as a royal judge, once being ordered by King Æthelred to adjudicate a case between thegns, or local noblemen.

Death and legacy

Ælfric died on 16 November 1005 and was buried in Abingdon Abbey, later being translated to Canterbury Cathedral. His will survives and in it he left ships to the people of Wiltshire and Kent, with his best one, equipped for sixty men, going to King Æthelred. The hagiography of Dunstan was dedicated to Ælfric at the end of the 10th century. After his death, he was considered a saint with a feast day of 16 November.

Notes

1. Old English: Ælfrīc and also known as Ælfric of Wessex.

Citations

1. ^ Walsh New Dictionary of Saints p. 12
2. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 125 footnote 3
3. ^ Mason "Ælfric" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
4. Knowles, et al. Heads of Religious Houses p. 65
5. Stafford Unification and Conquest p. 169
6. Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 220
7. ^ Fryde, et al. Handbook of British Chronology p. 214
8. Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 20
9. Quoted in Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 107 footnote 5
10. Williams Æthelred the Unready p. 36
11. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 103
12. Ortenberg "Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy" English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages p. 49
13. O'Brien Queen Emma and the Vikings pp. 52–53
14. Stenton Anglo-Saxon England p. 453
15. Knowles Monastic Order in England p. 50
16. O'Brien Queen Emma and the Vikings p. 31
17. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 232
18. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 64
19. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 62
20. Barlow English Church 1000–1066 p. 147 footnote 4
21. Williams Æthelred the Unready pp. 81–82
22. Darlington "Ecclesiastical Reform" English Historical Review p. 389
23. Patron Saints Online "Saint Aelfric of Canterbury"

References

• Barlow, Frank (1979). The English Church 1000–1066: A History of the Later Anglo-Saxon Church (Second ed.). New York: Longman. ISBN 0-582-49049-9.
• Darlington, R. R. (July 1936). "Ecclesiastical Reform in the Late Old English Period". The English Historical Review. 51 (203): 385–428. doi:10.1093/ehr/LI.CCIII.385. JSTOR 553127.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1996). Handbook of British Chronology (Third revised ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-56350-X.
• Knowles, David (1976). The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St. Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council, 940–1216 (Second reprint ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-05479-6.
• Knowles, David; London, Vera C. M.; Brooke, Christopher (2001). The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 940–1216 (Second ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-80452-3.
• Mason, Emma (2004). "Ælfric (d. 1005)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/185. Retrieved 7 November 2007.(subscription or UK public library membership required)
• O'Brien, Harriet (2005). Queen Emma and the Vikings: A History of Power, Love and Greed in Eleventh-Century England. New York: Bloomsbury USA. ISBN 1-58234-596-1.
• Ortenberg, Veronica (1999) . "The Anglo-Saxon Church and the Papacy". In Lawrence, C. H. (ed.). The English Church and the Papacy in the Middle Ages (Reprint ed.). Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. pp. 29–62. ISBN 0-7509-1947-7.
• Patron Saints Online. "Saint Aelfric of Canterbury". Saints.SQPN.com. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
• Stafford, Pauline (1989). Unification and Conquest: A Political and Social History of England in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries. London: Edward Arnold. ISBN 0-7131-6532-4.
• Stenton, F. M. (1971). Anglo-Saxon England (Third ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-280139-5.
• Walsh, Michael J. (2007). A New Dictionary of Saints: East and West. London: Burns & Oats. ISBN 978-0-86012-438-2.
• Williams, Ann (2003). Aethelred the Unready: The Ill-Counselled King. London: Hambledon & London. ISBN 1-85285-382-4.

External links

• Ælfric 46 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

• 10th-century births
• 1005 deaths
• 10th-century English archbishops
• Abbots of St Albans
• Archbishops of Canterbury
• Bishops of Ramsbury (ancient)
• 11th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops
• People from Abingdon-on-Thames
• Kentish saints
• 10th-century Christian saints
• 10th-century Christian abbots