The Old English Penitentials and Anglo-Saxon Law

Stefan Jurasinski is Associate Professor of English at the College at Brockport, State University of New York. His work has appeared in Law and History Review, the Journal of Legal History, the Review of English Studies, and other periodicals. He is the co-editor of The Old English Canons of Theodore (with R. D. Fulk, 2012), which won the Publication Prize of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists for the best edition of the 2012–13 biennium. He was an American Council of Learned Societies fellow for the 2014–15 academic year.

• 1. The Old English penitentials and their reception; 2. Legal change, vernacular penitentials, and the chronology of Old English prose; 3. The law of the estate: bishops, masters, and slaves; 4. The law of the household: marriage and sexuality; 5. Caring for the body: law, penitentials, and English 'sick-maintenance'; 6. Caring for the mind: pollution and mental liability; Conclusion: vernacular penitentials and secular lawmaking.

'This stimulating and original book makes use of the Old English Penitentials to examine important aspects of Anglo-Saxon legal, social, and religious culture. The Old English Penitentials diverge significantly from their Latin sources, and the specific divergences may indicate ecclesiastical attitudes in Anglo-Saxon England. Particularly interesting are the book's discussions of the laws of marriage and of slavery. The volume is a very welcome extension to the range of reading available to Anglo-Saxonists.' John Hudson, University of St Andrews