SOURCE: “Reinventing the Gospel: Ælfric and the Liturgy,” in Medium Ævum, Vol. 68, No. 1, 1999, pp. 13-31.

In the following essay, Bedingfield traces ways in which Ælfric strayed from strict interpretation of biblical texts in order to clarify and sharpen the message of his writings.

Tenth-century Anglo-Saxon England boasts what for many is regarded as the cornerstone of medieval dramatic ritual, the Regularis concordia's Visitatio sepulchri, often dubbed by critics of liturgical drama the first ‘quasi-play’. Because of the dearth of corollary evidence and the scattered nature of liturgical books pertinent to Anglo-Saxon observance, however, the Visitatio, with its ‘Quem quaeritis’ dialogue between the angel and the women at the tomb, is generally treated as singular, and the highly dramatic nature of the liturgy for the other major festivals has been largely dismissed. However, the vernacular preaching that accompanied these rituals, in particular that of Ælfric, reveals the remarkably...