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| Collectio canonum Wigorniensis | |
|---|---|
.jpeg) Folio 127v from the London manuscript, showing the beginning of the B recension of theWigorniensis | |
| Also known as | Wigorniensis,Excerptiones Ecgberhti, "Wulfstan's canon law collection" |
| Language | medieval Latin |
| Date | ca. 1005 |
| Manuscript(s) | five |
| First printed edition | "Excerptiones d. Egberti Eboracensis Archiepiscopi e dictis et canonibus sanctorum patrum concinnatæ, et ad ecclesiastciæ politiæ institutionem conducentes", inConcilia, decreta, leges, constitvtiones in re ecclesiarum orbis Britannici ... ab initio christianæ ibidem religionis, ad nostram usque ætatem ... Tom. I: ... a primis Christi seculis usque ad introitum Normannorum .., ed. H. Spelman, with J. Stephens and J. Spelman (London, 1639).Spelman's edition comprises four works, the first of which is theWigorniensis |
| Genre | canon and penitential law collection |
| Subject | church law, administration and discipline; ecclesiastical and lay penance |
| Sources | Collectio canonum quadripartita,Collectio canonum vetus Gallica,Collectio canonum Hibernensis, the letters ofÆlfric of Eynsham, theCollectio capitularium ofAnsegisus, theIudicia Theodori, thePaenitentiale pseudo-Theodori, thePaenitentiale Ecgberhti, various other Frankishpenitentials, theScarapsus ofPirmin, severalCarolingiancapitula episcoporum, theDe pressuris ecclesiasticis ofAtto of Vercelli, theAachen Rule, the enlarged Rule ofChrodegang, theExcerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum, theLibellus responsionum ofGregory the Great, theSententiae andEtymologiae ofIsidore of Seville, the sermons ofAbbo of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, etc. |
TheCollectio canonum Wigorniensis (also known as theExcerptiones Ecgberhti or as "Wulfstan's canon law collection") is amedievalcanon law collection originating in southernEngland around the year 1005.
It exists in multiple recensions, the earliest of which — "Recension A" — consists of just over 100 canons drawn from a variety of sources, most predominantly the ninth-century Frankish collection of penitential and canon law known as theCollectio canonum quadripartita. The author of Recension A is currently unknown. Other recensions also exist, slightly later in date than the first. These later recensions are extensions and augmentations of Recension A, and are known collectively as "Recension B".
These later recensions all bear the unmistakable mark of having been created byWulfstan, bishop of Worcester and archbishop of York, possibly sometime around the year 1008, though some of them may have been compiled as late as 1023, the year of Wulfstan's death. The collection treats a range of ecclesiastical and lay subjects, such as clerical discipline, church administration, lay and clerical penance, public and private penance, as well as a variety of spiritual, doctrinal and catechistic matters. Several "canons" in the collection verge on the character of sermons or expository texts rather than churchcanons in the traditional sense; but nearly every element in the collection is prescriptive in nature, and concerns the proper ordering of society in a Christian polity.
