Evidence for Hiberno-Latin Thought in the Prologue to the Laws of Alfred

Abstract

Evidence for Hiberno-Latin Thought in the Prologue to the Laws of Alfred Bryan Carella I. Introduction When Alfred acceded to the throne in 871, he inherited a kingdom devastated by Viking invaders no longer satisfied with easy plunder but increasingly set on conquest and permanent settlement. Scandinavian armies overran every one of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms except Wessex and eventually penetrated even its borders, shattering—at least temporarily—what institutions of governance remained in existence. This prolonged period of warfare, antedating Alfred’s reign and continuing well after it, resulted in the nearly complete decay of learning that had thrived in Anglo-Saxon England less than a century earlier. To address this crisis, Alfred laid out an ambitious reform agenda involving not only an aggressive military offensive against the Vikings but also the restoration of England’s intellectual culture. Most significantly, he established a program to translate from Latin into Old English a series of works that, for reasons often explained in personally written prologues,1 he considered of particular importance. [End Page 1] Though possibly the first work in Alfred’s program,2 the prologue to his law code has received relatively modest attention. While the structure and content of the laws themselves are for the most part consistent with English legal tradition, the prologue introducing them is an innovative, ideologically sophisticated treatise without parallel in Anglo-Saxon law. The text begins abruptly with an extended translation from Exodus chapters 20:1 through 23:13 (El. 1–48), followed immediately by what I will refer to as an “explanatory bridge” (El. 49–49.10) linking Alfred’s translation of the Mosaic law with the largely secular collection of statutes that comprise the main body of his law code.3 In this explanatory bridge, Alfred spells out his understanding of the relationship between Mosaic law (as expressed in Exodus) and all subsequent ecclesiastical legislation. More specifically, he outlines how, in his view, Anglo-Saxon native jurisprudence fits within the broader framework of Christian legal history. For the past century or so, a number of theories have been proposed about what sources Alfred used for this prologue. Regarding this question, both the Mosaic introduction and the explanatory bridge that follows it have come under scrutiny. Writing in 1909, Fournier identified a Hiberno-Latin text known as the Liber ex lege Moysi as Alfred’s likely source for the partial translation of Exodus.4 More recently, Patrick Wormald and Michael Treschow have separately championed the case for Frankish influence—principally the writings of Hincmar of Rheims—as Alfred’s likely inspiration, especially for the explanatory bridge following the Mosaic portion of the prologue. Ultimately, [End Page 2] both scholars take their lead from J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, who considers Alfred to have been inspired by the “full force of Frankish example.”5 Certainly, the presence of the scholar Grimbald, sent to Alfred’s court by Hincmar’s successor, Archbishop Fulk—and a letter from Fulk himself, which Alfred appears to quote—both lend strong circumstantial evidence in support of their separate arguments. Nonetheless, there remains sufficient cause for skepticism concerning Hincmar’s influence. While the Liber ex lege Moysi is well established as the source for Alfred’s translation of Exodus, what sources underlie the explanatory bridge immediately following it are less clear: Fournier’s original claim addresses only Alfred’s translation of the Mosaic law, remaining silent about possible sources for the rest of the text. So far, all attempts to identify the inspiration for Alfred’s explanatory bridge—notably those of Patrick Wormald and Michael Treschow—have pointed to Hincmar’s writings. However, given recent evidence upholding Alfred’s reliance on sources other than Hincmar for the Mosaic portion of his prologue,6 the question concerning what materials may underlie the rest of the document warrants re-examination. Is it possible that Alfred’s inspiration for the explanatory bridge lies outside Francia as well?7 An alternative possibility is that Alfred borrowed ideas from the Hiberno-Latin tradition when he composed the explanatory bridge, looking specifically to Irish canon law, just as he did for the Mosaic portion of the prologue. As Allen Frantzen pointed out, Hiberno-Latin texts...

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