Re-Dating the Old English Translation of the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang: The Evidence of the Prose Style

Michael D. C. Drout, Wheaton College, Norton, MA

In either 755 or 756 bishop Chrodegang of Metz compiled a rule for canons, the Regula Canonicorum. Although it was not particularly original, Chrodegang's Rule gained immediate popularity, spreading throughout Francia and eventually being incorporated into the Institutio canonicorum that Louis the Pious prescribed for the Frankish kingdom in 816–17. At some point in the second quarter of the ninth century the Rule was augmented with additional material from the Institutio canonicorum and elsewhere. This combined text is known as the Enlarged Rule of Chrodegang; it circulated in Francia, Italy, Spain and Anglo-Saxon England.