THEOLOGY

The part played by Aelfric and others in doctrinal instruction has already been alluded to more than once. Meritorious as was this work, it was in character evangelical rather than theological; the more learned monks of the revival aimed at handing on in a simplified form to their countrymen as much as they were capable of receiving of the doctrinal legacy of the ancient civilization; they made no attempt to develop or to discuss dogmas, and no controversies forced them into being apologists. Although on two points, the nature of the Real Presence in the Eucharist and the celibacy of the clergy, Aelfric put forward views which are still of interest to historians of dogma and discipline, in neither case did he intend to modify or to add to the traditional teaching as he found it in the sources before him, which were, in fact, the same few treatises of Augustine, Gregory and others which had for four centuries formed the principal food of all minds in western Europe. And in the event, the coming of the Normans with their new culture put an end to the influence of Aelfric's writings once and for all.

In like manner, though for very different reasons, the theological works of Lanfranc and Anselm need find no mention in a history of English thought.