AELFRIC. - English theologian and scholar, b. c. 955, d. c. 1020. Abbot of Eynsham, the foremost promoter of Anglo-Saxon literature of his age, he knew how to spread and make penetrate into the humblest strata of the population the truth of Christian religion and morality, employing the clear and limpid vernacular of the time in many of his works, whether doctrinal, narrative, or devotional in character.
The *Homélia Catholicae* (1895-95), in fact, which the author drew and compiled especially from the *Homilies* of St. Gregory and the works of the early Fathers of the Church, were written in Anglo-Saxon with Latin prefaces. Though not original in content, they substantially reflect Western theological thought. Some, such as the sermon on the Eucharist, provoked during the Reformation fierce controversies, essentially ahistorical, because based on the anachronistic tendency to attribute to the spirit of Christian edification of the 10th century the polemical intentions of the Protestant age. In reality, A. did not intend to combat the doctrine of real presence or the dogma of transubstantiation. Also remaining from A. are the *Passiones Sanctorum* (996-97), a series of Lives of the Saints (notable among them those of SS. Oswald, Swithun, Edmund) composed in alliterative rhythms, rich in poetic cadences very popular among the common people, to whom A. particularly wished to address himself.
Among his other works should be noted a paraphrase in Anglo-Saxon of the first seven books of the Bible (not entirely by A.); and a treatise *De Vetere et de Novo Testamento*, based on Augustine’s *De doctrina christiana*. From a linguistic standpoint, A.’s example demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon prose was acquiring a certain degree of refinement when its evolution was interrupted by the Norman conquest.