“An Exhortation to Christian Living”

Intégrité: A Faith and Learning Journal Vol. 21, No. 2 (Fall 2022): 20-23

An Exhortation to Christian Living

Translated from Old English by Matthew Bardowell

The Old English poem “An Exhortation to Christian Living” is found in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 201. The manuscript contains miscellaneous homilies, laws, and poems.1 The Old English text of the poem is taken from Elliott van Kirk Dobbie’s edition in volume 6 of The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records. L. Whitbread notes that the poem is not likely to be older than the 11th century manuscript in which it is contained and, as such, reflects “metrical decay,” which explains its atypical use of alliteration and “loose prosaic manner” (180). “An Exhortation to Christian Living” does, however, offer a characteristic example of the kind of paratactical style so common in Old English poetry. Readers unfamiliar with this syntax may notice phrases placed side-byside without coordinating conjunctions to explain their relationship. I have translated the poem here because I believe it will be of interest to On the Edge readers as an example of Old English religious thought and 11th -century views regarding what constitutes Christian behavior.

Now I will instruct you as I must those dear to me. If you desire to reach that flourishing kingdom, then be thou humble-minded and eager to give alms, wise with words, and love vigils be holy of thought in this transitory life, joyous in heart, and abundant in prayer. most often, continually, in that place where you are alone. Therefore, holy prayer and the clear love of God and of men and the giving of alms and the great hope of your Healer2 , that he will wash away your sins, and also of many other of good works will honor and bring forth the steadfast soul to peaceful rest in heavenly blessedness. Whatever work you undertake,3 whether speech or deeds, have the fear of God always in your mind; that is truly the beginning of wisdom, that you do not entirely abandon the eternal light. This world is at an end, and we are yet poor of heaven’s reign; that is a heavy burden. 5

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And even though you after your end fully give that which on earth you formerly gained possessions with which you wished to please God, you might not deliver the entirety of your soul 25

if the dwelling within has been with devils taken, deprived of comfort, wealth denied; but you the God of glory, the eternal Almighty, always ask that he does not forsake you into the hands of the wicked, 30 your enemies to console, but flee thou from thence, make a gift of alms often and continually in secret; that is the Lord’s teaching4 to each man who believes in God. Seek with wealth the eternal light, 35 lest you perish when you lack power over that wealth to give. It is great evil for any man that he possess much, if he himself does not fear God much more than his own will. 40 Beware you who yearn for a full stomach, because such desire assembles all evil practices which harm the soul most, that is drunkenness and adultery, uncontrolled desire for food and for sleep 45 that one may with fasting and self-denial drive away from oneself, and with church-going in cold weather humbly and assuredly ask the Lord of heaven that he give you health, 50 the gracious protector, as seems fitting for him. And fear thou the secret habits5 , narrow thoughts, which approach you at night very often exceedingly to greatly elicit sinful desires-with difficulty you must fearfully, 55 greatly mourn your sins afterward, old warrior; your sins will seem heavy to you. Therefore, you yourself understand that you must resign transitory states, land and country. Unbeknownst to you then will be 60 what your Lord will do with you when you must no longer take pleasure in this life, of the earth and your homeland, as you did before, with exultant joy. Now you must defend yourself against fiends who hold fast 65 your soul; they always strive to do that * * *6

day and night against a lord’s7 life. You have the power to make them flee if you will follow my teachings, as I instruct you 70

secretly that at daybreak you often deeply reflect on your soul’s direction, how you might ever obtain that eternal light, to seek that journey; you must gladly toil towards heaven, which is our home day and night, you must flee drunkenness and gluttony totally forsake. If you desire to choose heaven as a home, then you must reflect on it before on earth and you yourself greatly restrain and totally forsake those evil practices that you before took pleasure in and nourished in this life. 75

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Endnotes

1. For a fuller characterization of the manuscript and its composition, see Ker (82) and Zacher (83-84).

2. Hælende here means “healer” in the sense that Christ is the great physician, our savior.

3. Here I adopt Whitbread’s phrasing (181).

4. Whitbread suggests lar instead of the MS lac. The change is small but helps with the sense of the line—that to give alms to the poor is the Lord’s “teaching” rather than his “grace” (181).

5. Here I translate wisan, “manners,” as “habits” in the sense of the cultivated dispositions of the soul.

6. The asterisks here represent an emendation in Dobbie’s edition of the text. One can view the manuscript, very handily made available digitally through Stanford’s Parker Library website and see that there is no visible lacuna in the text: parker.stanford.edu/parker/catalog/cr485km1781. Dobbie acknowledges that previous editors have printed the line as continuous, but he elects not to do this because of a disagreement in the gender of a pronoun and its presumed referent (184). I translate it here without syntactic disruption, but I have retained Dobbie’s asterisks to preserve the line numbering. I am indebted to Zacher’s translation for the resolution of these lines (96).

7. For line 68, I adopt Zacher’s translation: “against the life of a lord” (103). The term drihten “lord” is very often a religious term denoting “God,” but this usage

is borrowed from its earlier, secular sense, “lord,” as in a noble, warrior, or, simply, a man.

Works Cited

Dobbie, Elliot van Kirk, ed. The Anglo-Saxon Minor Poems, ASPR, vol. 6. New York: Colombia University Press, 1942. Ker, N. R. Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957. Whitbread, L. “The Old English ‘Exhortation to Christian Living’: Some Textual Problems.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 44, no. 2, 1949, pp. 178183. Zacher, Samantha. “The Rewards of Poetry: ‘Homiletic’ Verse in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 201.” Selim, vol. 12, 2003-2004, pp. 83-108.