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Money, power and morality in late Anglo-Saxon England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

M. R. Godden
M. R. Godden
Affiliation:
Exeter College, Oxford
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Extract

England was a wealthy country at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period, as P. H. Sawyer has reminded us; wealthy enough to tempt the Vikings to repeated raids and to pay them enormous sums in tribute while still maintaining a prosperous economy. It was also, increasingly, a country whose wealth was expressed in terms of money rather than other kinds of assets. There was an enormous volume of silver coinage in circulation, continually renewed and replaced by a veritable army of moneyers. Rents, taxes and fines were defined in monetary terms and apparently paid in that form, even by the peasantry. In land charters the traditional rhetoric asserting that grants are being made from affection, loyalty, reward for service or piety remains, but increasingly frequent references to sums of money suggest that a market in the buying and selling of land was developing. Archaeological evidence points to a steady shift away from such traditional manifestations of wealth as rings and ornamented swords and towards the expression of wealth in coinage. The growth of an urban society of artisans and traders within the largely defensive structures of the burhs initiated by King Alfred presumably played its part in these developments. All this was a stage in the gradual movement from a society in which wealth had been manifested in land and military equipment, granted to individuals in recognition of service and often held for one lifetime only, to one in which wealth was expressed in terms of money and acquired as a permanent possession through commercial activities; but the effect seems to have been particularly marked in the tenth and eleventh centuries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 19 , December 1990 , pp. 41 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 Sawyer, P.H., ‘The Wealth of England in the Eleventh Century’, TRHS 15 (1965), 145–64.Google Scholar

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9 ‘They went then from the council as the rice queen, bold in cities, had commanded them.’

10 ‘A certain man was rich in possessions, of noble family, a rice senator.’

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24 Bede in fact seems to mean property in general by pecunia, not money as Colgrave and Mynors render it; there was of course no money in the sense of coinage in the Northumbria of Aidan's time.

25 The Old English Version of Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. Miller, T., 2 vols., EETS os 95 and 96 (London, 1890–1) 1Google Scholar, 160–2. The significant words are italicized.

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35 ‘A priest who is a merchant and through that rises from a poor man to a wealthy one, and from a man of low status to a man of high status, is to be shunned like a disease.’

36 References to Ælfric's work are to The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church: the First Part, containing the Sermones Catholici or Homilies of Ælfric, ed. Thorpe, B., 2 vols. (London, 1844–1846) 1Google Scholar, for the first series of Catholic Homilies, identified as CH I followed by homily number and pages in Thorpe's edition; to Ælfric's Catholic Homilies: the Second Series, Text, ed. Godden, M., EETS ss 5 (London, 1979)Google Scholar, for the second series, identified as CH II followed by homily number and line number; Ælfric's Lives of Saints ed. Skeat, W. W., EETS os 76,82,94 and 114 (London, 1881–1900, rptd as two vols. 1966)Google Scholar, identified as LS followed by item number and line number; and Homilies of Ælfric: A Supplementary Collection, ed. Pope, J. C., 2 vols., EETS os 259–60 (London, 1967–1968)Google Scholar, for the later homilies, identified as Pope followed by homily number and line number.

37 CH I xxiii, 328–38; CH II xiv, 335; CH I xviii, 256; Pope xxvii, 86.

38 CH II vii, 52–112. For the Latin source see Becker, W., ‘The Latin Manuscript Sources of the Old English Translations of the Sermon Remedia Peccatorum’, MÆ 45 (1976), 145–52.Google Scholar

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40 CH I xxxiv, 578.

41 CH I viii, 176.

42 CH I xxxii, 478.

43 LS xxxii, 232.

44 Defensor's Liber Scintillarum, with an Interlinear Anglo-Saxon Version, ed. Rhodes, E. W., EETS os 93 (London, 1889), 181 line 21Google Scholar; Der Lambeth-Psalter: eine ae. Interlinearversion des Psalters in der HS 427 der erzbischöflichen Lambeth Palace Library, ed. Lindelöf, U., 2 vols. (Helsinki, 1909–1914), Ps. IX.29.Google Scholar

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48 Ibid. p. 364.

49 Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, ed. Plummer, C. and Earle, J., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1892) 1, 222.Google Scholar

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51 See the discussion, with objections, by Schabram, H., ‘Ae Wlanc und Ableitungen’, Studien zur englischen und amerikanischen Sprache und Literatur. Festschrift für Helmut Papajewski, ed. Buchloh, P.G., I. Leimberg and H. Rauter (Neumünster, 1974), pp. 70–88.Google Scholar

52 Ris, R., Das Adjektiv ‘reich’ im mittelalterlichen Deutsch (Berlin, 1971).Google Scholar

53 Ris (ibid. p. 54) and Mincoff, (Die Bedeutungsentwicklung, p. 152)Google Scholar both touch on the possibilities of a connection with social change; Little, L.K., ‘Pride Goes Before Avarice: Social Change and the Vices in Latin Christendom’, AHK 76 (1971), 16–49, mentions (at 45, n. 95)Google Scholar the dual meaning in French and suggests a connection with economic and social developments.

54 See the lawcode known as Griô, §21, in Die Gesetze der Angelsächsen, ed. Liebermann, F., 3 vols. (Halle, 1903–1916) 1, 472.Google Scholar

55 King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius, pp. 40–1.Google Scholar

56 LS xxv, 812–32; Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics, ed. Fehr, B. (Hamburg, 1914), letter 2aGoogle Scholar; and The Old English Heptateuch, ed. Crawford, S. J., EETS os 160 (London, 1922), 71–2.Google Scholar

57 Duby, G., Les trois ordres ou l' imaginaire du féodalisme (Paris, 1980)Google Scholar, translated as The Three Orders, Feudal Society Imagined, by Goldhammer, A. (Chicago, 1980), p. 101.Google Scholar

58 I owe this point to Professor P.A.M. Clemoes, whose advice and comments on an earlier draft of this article are gratefully acknowledged.

59 CH II xix.

60 Cross, J.E., ‘The Literate Anglo-Saxon – on Sources and Disseminations’, PBA 58 (1972) and separately, esp. pp. 26–8 and 33–6.Google Scholar

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62 Blickling Homilies, ed. Morris, , p. 185.Google Scholar

63 CH I xxvi, 378. ‘I taught the rican that they should not exalt themselves nor set their hope on false riches, but only on God. I taught the middling people that they should be satisfied with their sustenance and clothing. I commanded the poor that they should rejoice in their destitution.’

64 CH II xix, 228–44. ‘Again, the teacher of nations taught the rich that they should not exalt themselves in lofty pride nor set their hope on the treacherous treasures, but trust in God, the giver of good things.… For merchants it is proper that they should maintain the truth and not sell their souls through false oaths, but praise their goods without terrible perjury. The same apostle exhorted also the middling people that they should be satisfied with their sustenance and clothing. He taught the poor that they should be patient in the poverty of their lives and always be cheerful.’

65 CH II vii, 67–70.

66 Sermo lxi.4 (PL 38, 410).

67 CH I xviii, 254.

68 Ælfric's Colloquy, ed. Garmonsway, G. N. (London, 1939), p. 33Google Scholar. A very similar point is made about the later commentator Honorius Augustodunensis by Webb, D. M., ‘A Saint and his Money: Perceptions of Urban Wealth in the Lives of Italian Saints’, The Church and Wealth, ed. Shells, W. J. and Wood, D., Stud, in Church Hist. 24 (Oxford, 1987), 61–73Google Scholar. She comments that ‘to Honorius the merchant and the rich man were not entirely the same. He addresses himself separately to the dives’, and goes on to suggest that the dives proper is for Honorius only ‘the possessor of what we might term traditional, landed, wealth’ (p. 62).

69 Leisi, E., ‘Gold und Manneswert im Beowulf’, Anglia 71 (1952–1953), 258–73Google Scholar; ‘es ist unmöglich, auf Altenglisch von jemandem zu sagen: “Er ist reich, aber ein schlechter und unglücklicher Mensch” weil im Begriffe “reich” Tugend oder Glück oder beide schon eingeschlossen ist’ (p. 260).

70 King Alfred's Old English Version of Boethius, ed. Sedgefield, , pp. 40–1Google Scholar. On King Alfred's wealth see Maddicott, J.R., ‘Trade, Industry and the Wealth of King Alfred’, Past and Present 123 (1989), 3–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I acknowledge gratefully Dr Maddicott's advice on matters of Anglo-Saxon history; his capacity for directing one to the crucial study of any topic one mentions never fails to impress.

71 See, for instance, McGurkin, J. A., ‘The Vine and the Elm-Tree: Patristic Interpretation of Jesus' Teachings on Wealth’, The Church and Wealth, ed. Sheils, and Wood, , pp. 1–14Google Scholar, and Hengel, M., Eigentum und Reichtum in der frühen Kirche, (Stuttgart, 1973)Google Scholar, translated by Bowden, J. as Property and Riches in the Early Church: Aspects of a Social History of Christianity (London, 1974)Google Scholar. (I owe the latter reference to Dr Joyce Hill of Leeds University.)

72 CH I viii, 130.

73 CH I xiii, 204. ‘He sent the rican empty away: the rican are those who in their pride love the earthly riches more than the heavenly ones. Many rice men prosper with God, those who do as is written: the rice man's riches are his soul's redemption. His riches are his soul's redemption if he uses the transitory treasures to buy the eternal life and the heavenly riches with God.’

74 Venerabilis Bedae Homiliae, ed. Hurst, D., CCSL 122 (Turnhout, 1955), 265–7Google Scholar (Horn. i.4).

75 The main source is Augustine's, commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, ed. Mutzenbecher, A., CCSL 35 (Turnhout, 1968)Google Scholar; in developing an opposing idea, Ælfric takes some suggestions from Haymo of Auxerre (PL 118, 778).

76 CH I xxxvi, 548–50.

77 PL 184, 440–2.

78 CH II xxv, 72–83.

79 LS xvi, 326–32. I give the text as the scribe originally wrote it, without the interlinear additions, and with the punctuation modernized for the sake of clarity. ‘The third virtue is largitas, that is generosity in English; that one should spend wisely, not out of worldly vanity, the things which God lent one to enjoy in this life. God does not wish that we should be greedy misers, nor either that we should cast away our possessions out of worldly vanity, but distribute them with discretion, as it pleases our lord, and if we give alms do it without boasting.’

80 CH I xviii, 256. ‘It is one thing for someone to be rich if his ancestors have bequeathed possessions to him; it is another if someone becomes rich through greed. The latter's greed is accused before God, not the former's wealth, if his heart is not inflamed with greed.’

81 Sermo lxi (PL 38, 412).

82 Lebecq, S., ‘Ælfric et Alpert: Existe-t-il un discours clerical sur les marchands dans l'europe du Nord à l'aube du Xle siècle?’, CCM 27 (1984), 85–93CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Colledge, E., ‘An Allusion to Augustine in Ælfric's Colloquy’, RES ns 12 (1961), 180–1Google Scholar, suggests Augustine as an influence on Ælfric's defence of the merchant.

83 Matthew IX.10; Luke XV.l; Luke XVIII.9–14.

84 Homiliae, ed. Hurst, , 1.21.Google Scholar

85 PL 95, 1376.

86 See the relevant verses in The Gospel According to St Matthew in Anglo-Saxon, Northumbrian and Old Mercian Versions, ed. Skeat, W. W. (Cambridge, 1887)Google Scholar, and The Gospel According to St Luke in Anglo-Saxon and Northumbrian Versions, ed. Skeat, W. W. (Cambridge, 1874).Google Scholar

87 CH I xxiv, 338; CH II xxxii, 8.

88 CH II xxviii, 6–7.

89 ‘Zwei Homilien des Ælfric’, ed. Brotanek, R. in his Texte and Untersuchungen zur altenglischen Literatur und Kirchengeschichte (Halle, 1913)Google Scholar, Horn, i; ‘leader and chief of those worldly men who openly and wrongly robbed’.

90 CH II xxxii.

91 CH II xvi, 130–38. ‘Gregory expounded this Gospel-text and asked why Peter or any of the others took up again what he had before abandoned. Truly, Peter was a fisherman before his conversion and Matthew was a toll-collector. Peter returned to his fishing and Matthew never after his conversion sat at the toll-seat, for it is one thing to acquire a living through fishing and another to gather money through tolls. There are some occupations which can be followed without sins and some which can only with difficulty, or not at all, be pursued without sins. It is therefore necessary to one who resolutely turns to God that his heart does not renew the occupations which turn him from God. Peter had an unperilous occupation before his conversion and he also therefore without peril returned to his fishing.’

92 Lawson, M.K., ‘The Collection of Danegeld and Heregeld in the Reigns of Æthelred II and Cnut’, EHR 99 (1984), 721–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

93 Possibly the same kind of uncertainty about the whole area of taxes and duties explains why it was that when Ælfric, borrowed from the Latin legend St Paul's account of his social teaching he did not include St Paul's assurance to Nero that he had taught everyone to pay their taxes: ‘docui possidentes reddere tributum cum sollicitudine; docui negotiatores reddere vectigalia ministris reipublicae’ (‘I taught landowners to pay taxes diligently, and I taught men of business to pay duties to the servants of the state’).