Artful Prose and the Words of Law: Inscribing Obedience in Sawyer 478 (a.d. 941)

The Latin diploma known as Sawyer 478 (S 478), dated to 941 and surviving as a late (though reliable) copy, presents a decidedly curious case of Anglo-Saxon diplomatic.¹ As its most recent editor has noted, the draftsman of the charter “does not appear to have been familiar with the mainstream of contemporary diplomatic, or else did not feel constrained to produce a conventional text.”² This nonconventional air is most pronounced in the diploma’s long proem, unique to this document, and its remarkable excursus on law, obedience, and social hierarchy. Preliminary to its functional purpose—that being King Edmund’s (r. 939–46) granting of two hides of land in Wiltshire to Eadric³—the document mounts a sustained argument that outlines the divine origin and precedent of human legal systems. The proem begins with sacred history, several stages of which are identified by different kinds of law, and then concludes with an explanation and defense of the Anglo-Saxon social contract. Although all things, including mankind, begin from equal origins, the proem argues, they justly proceed to unequal conditions under human and divine law. Moreover, both the high and the low, kings and subordinates, exist within a social system of mutual obligation, one that is underwritten by divine law. Rulers provide for their subjects, who in turn answer with obedience and service. In this sense, S 478 acts both as a title deed to a particular piece of property (a practical function) and as a general statement about Anglo-Saxon governance (an ideological function).

While artful or lengthy proems are not uncommon in tenth-century Anglo-Saxon charters, no other surviving diploma carries such an extensive and ambitious discussion of law and social obligations. This article first analyzes some noteworthy aspects of the charter’s contents and style and then considers some specific historical conditions that might explain the genesis of these exceptional elements.

The proem to S 478 is not unique in its attention to creation and sacred history. The theme appears earlier in the charters of King Edward the Elder (r. 899–924), for example, while several of Edmund’s charters dated to 940 also contain similar content, including a reference to angelic and material creation that is comparable to what we see in S 478.⁴ The proem in S 478, however, is unique in its remarkable length and its prominent attention to earthly government. The Latin requires some minor emendation, which is noted in brackets.

Omnipotens supernar[um] temporaliumque uerus arbiter rerum, ante omnia tempora et ante omnia sidera duas originales de nichillo creaturas fieri disposuit, angelicam uidelicet lucem et informem materiam. Ex qua siquidem informi materia omnia que uidetur et que temporalia sunt secundum temporis discreccionem producens, insuper formauit hominem, qui spiritu uite inflatus et ad ymaginem et similitudinem Dei factus diuina dispensacione potestatem super alia cuncta elimenta dominandi habuit, quique paradisi cum omnibus sede perhenniter si uellet locatus diuinis imperiis humiliter obedire nollens, sed prona uoluntate et serpentina suasione inobedienter contra Deum superbire mallens, de superiori statu in inferiorem sortem cum omni sua progenie subsequente in labore et erumpna proiectus est, cumque nature sub lege per multa tempora innumerabili prole nacioneque erat solutus, tandem misericors auctor ne sua factura periret, misericordiam non iudicium pensans, legem littere prophetasque et mundo uesperascente per unigenitum filium suum incarnatum legem gracie super homines [dedit], et pro multiplici hominum multitudine, humanum genus per multas gentes linguasque diuidens secundum eiusdem legis iudicium, quamuis equali origine, tamen diuina consciencia et humana sollercia pro lege seruanda alios in superiori gradu consistuit, imperatores reges qui spiritu sancto gubernante subditorum causam modo disciplinaliter modo misericorditer procurarent et, diuinis legibus adherentes, militum curam munera dando, humilumque inopiam consolacia prestando sustinerent; alios in inferiori humiles subditos qui aliis gubernantibus obsequium subiectionis ministrarent. Igitur quoniam omn[e]s qui presunt propter do[n]orum largicionem et diuiciarum imper[t]icionem ab hominibus amabilem laudem et a Deo gloriam remuneracionem habent.⁵

(The all-powerful true Arbiter of celestial and temporal things ordained two original creations to be made from...