SOURCE: Jurovics, Raachel. “Sermo Lupi and the Moral Purpose of Rhetoric.” In The Old English Homily and Its Backgrounds, edited by Paul E. Szarmach and Bernard F. Huppé, pp. 203-20. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1978.

In the following essay, Jurovics explicates the Sermo Lupi ad Anglos, arguing that Wulfstan's most well-known homily—an impassioned call for repentance and a return to Christian morality—is entirely consistent in tone and style with his remaining works.

Because of its style and subject Dorothy Bethurum argues that the Sermo ad Anglos, though the best known of Wulfstan's works, is in some respects the “least characteristic” of him.¹ But when the Sermo is considered in the light of Wulfstan's lifework as churchman and lawmaker, the Sermo stands, I believe, as his most characteristic work.² Wulfstan was, above all, a man of practical morality. All of his activities reflected the dominant...