An Anglo-Saxon bishop, his book and two battles: Leofric of Exeter and liturgical performance as pastoral care

Abstract

Abstract Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 190 (CCCC 190) contains an Ash Wednesday entry into public penance and a Maundy Thursday reconciliation of penitents as well as two Old English sermons translated from them. The sermons were added to the manuscript at Exeter during Bishop Leofric’s tenure (1050–72), and the rites were recopied into one of his pontificals, London, British Library, Cotton Vitellius A. vii, where the Ash Wednesday service was also revised into a unique, previously unrecognized, standalone rite. This article examines the manuscript evidence for Leofric’s interest in these unique rites and sermons, and suggests that they might have been useful to him in the wake of the Norman Conquest. Because of their uniqueness and proposed historical relevance to post-Conquest Exeter, the article concludes with editions of the rites from Vitellius A. vii and the sermons from CCCC 190, which are printed together for the first time.