The Cambridge Old English Reader

Between about 990 and 995, at Cerne Abbas (see p. 40), Ælfric wrote two series of Sermones catholicae (usually called his Catholic Homilies today) which, to judge from the many surviving copies, were immensely popular not only during his lifetime but well into the thirteenth century. Each volume contains forty items, including both homilies and sermons (see section headnote), and also a few saints’ lives. Within each volume the various items are arranged chronologically, according to the use assigned to them at specific times during the church year, though there are a few sermons labelled to be read at any time.

In the preface to the first volume, Ælfric explains that he has put the homilies into plain speech, both for reading and for hearing, in order to edify ordinary people and thus, he hopes, to effect the salvation of their souls. He claims that he has seen much error in English books, a reference probably to compilations like the anonymous ‘Blickling Homilies’ and ‘Vercelli Homilies’, many of whose texts contain unorthodox material. For his own homilies, Ælfric drew on the work of the established fathers of the church, above all Jerome, Augustine, Gregory the Great and Bede, along with Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel and Haymo of Auxerre. The two volumes were designed to form the basis of a comprehensive programme of orthodox teaching for Christians. Although the prefatory comments noted above suggest that Ælfric's primary audience was the laity, in which case the sermons and homilies would have been preached in parish churches, they nevertheless contain many passages which appear to be directed specifically at monks or at the secular clergy (see line 69 in the text below). There is evidence also that Ælfric expected private readers for his homilies, as well as auditors in monastic or church settings.

The fifteenth item in the first series of homilies, headed Dominica Pascae (Easter Sunday), has the typical homiletic structure of gospel extract, specific to the day in question, followed by an interpretation. In a church setting, we may imagine that the gospel reading for Easter Day has already been read from the Latin Vulgate, relating the visit of ‘the three Marys’ to Christ's tomb following his crucifixion and the angel's report of his resurrection (Mk 16.1–7).