Evidence of a sixteenth-century Anglo-Saxon scholar: His work and sources

Anglo-Saxon studies commenced in England in the late sixteenth century when a group of Anglican reformers edited and published portions of the few surviving Old English manuscripts. The circumstances surrounding this effort are matters of interest to modern historians of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, particularly the methods and motivations of the early scholars themselves. This study is the investigation of a previously unknown sixteenth-century Anglo-Saxon scholar whose papers indicate that he was not only a competent editor of Old English Gospel manuscripts but also a textual critic of the Old English and Latin Bible. Furthermore, the evidence allows me to make a cautious identification of him as a prominent Reformation figure in the Anglican Establishment of Queen Elizabeth. The confirmation of this scholar as part of the small fraternity of sixteenth-century antiquarians associated with Archbishop Matthew Parker makes a significant contribution to the current understanding of the genesis of Anglo-Saxon studies and the methodology of those credited with it.