Lār and Doctrina: Pastoral Care in Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman England, c. 990-c. 1140
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Pastoral figures' care of their people, particularly through preaching or other communication with those under their authority, shifted in language, focus, and scope through the late Anglo-Saxon and early Anglo-Norman periods in three main stages, which this thesis analyzes through translation and study of four sermons and homilies by Aelfric of Eynsham and Wulfstan of York, a series of letters by Lanfranc of Bec, and a letter and a sermon by Osbert of Clare, as well as secondary research. It especially explores pastoral figures' treatment of "right learning," or "doctrine," through the decades, which is particularly salient as it intersects with questions of language and audience, source and priority, and view of previous generations. It finds that the replacement of bishops after the Norman Conquest marked a turning point in leading figures' vision of pastoral care, away from such reverence for vernacular exegetical and catechetical sermons and homilies with universal applicability and toward Latin writings on liturgical and ecclesiastic, or even political, concerns; yet a concern that their audience abide in "right learning" endured.