ABSTRACT
The corpus and text of the late Old English homilies of lfric and Wulfstan have become established with ever greater certainty. Since no manuscript containing Old English homilies has survived from before the end of the tenth century, the knowledge of the early development of the homily in English is limited. This chapter discusses the procedure to survey, manuscript by manuscript, all homiletic prose in Old English that has not been attributed to a named writer, establishes all textual parallels to conclude with an assessment of the present state of knowledge of the early tradition. Included are homilies, sermons, lives of saints, exhortatory pieces of a homiletic nature, and calls to confession addressed either to a congregation or to an individual. Translations of apocrypha are also similar to anonymous homilies and saints' lives in tone or content are also noted.
