2 - Basil the Great in Anglo-Saxon England

Summary

Evidence from the texts

Basil's name appears for the first time in Anglo-Saxon England in Theodore's Penitentials, a collection of canons compiled around the end of the seventh century. With Theodore's arrival in England (669), not only did knowledge of Basil (and of many other Greek Fathers) reach the country for the first time, but also a number of Greek books were imported and started to circulate.

When in 672 or 673 Theodore called a council at Hertford, he presented the congregation of bishops with a collection of statutes aimed at establishing consensus among English churches on matters of marriage, divorce and penance. These statutes began to circulate shortly afterwards as a collection of penitentials and canons. The author of the Penitentials drew primarily on the Greek Fathers, with five direct quotations from the works of Saint Basil and twenty-six possible echoes. Two of Theodore's canonical statutes from book II, 7.3 and 12.6 come from Basil's letters to Amphilochius of Iconium (CPG 2900) and found their way into two Old English canon law collections from the tenth century. Both injunctions are for women.

The first citation appears in the Old English translation of Theodore's Penitentials and forbids women to leave their husbands, unless it is to join a monastery: ‘[n]is þam wife na alyfed, þæt heo forlæte hire wær butan leafe, þeah heo forlegen beo, buton Basilius demde, þæt heo moste gan on mynster, gif heo wolde’. The second injunction attributed to Saint Basil appears in the Confessional of Pseudo-Egbert in the chapter on the celebration of the Mass (22): ‘[w]if motan under brunum hrægle to husle gan, swa swa Basilius demde’. Like the preceding reference, this statute can ultimately be traced back to Basil's canonical letters. It also bears particular significance for the present study because it echoes an episode found both in the Greek hagiography and in the Latin translation by Euphemius interpres (but not in Ælfric's translation). The episode which echoes this canon tells the story of a young deacon punished for making eye-contact with a woman during the service (c. 8), for this transgression he receives a penance of fasts and vigils.