Sermo Lupi Ad Anglos - Argument

Argument

• The world nears its end, and worsens every day as the time of Antichrist approaches. The Devil has led the English nation astray. Evil and injustice fill the land and none seeks a remedy. We have suffered much, yet we have deserved much. Even in heathen lands offerings are made to gods, but here we have stripped the Church and her servants of honour and of wealth. Since King Edgar's death, the laws of England have greatly deteriorated. Sanctuaries are violated, widows are forced to marry unjustly, and many are made poor and taken advantage of and sold into slavery abroad. Children are enslaved for stealing, and the rights of citizens and slaves are taken away. God's own laws and teachings are hated. We are disgraced through God's anger, and it will become worse for us unless we seek His protection.

• Much afflicts the nation, and no one prospers. Violence, hunger, pestilence, hate, and theft are rampant. Heavy taxation afflicts everyone. Storms ruin crops. The ties of kinship are no longer meaningful. We have made our own desires into law, and have ignored true law. Everyone seeks to betray and insult his neighbour. A lord is betrayed by his own men. The worst crime is to betray one's lord to death or to drive him from the land. Both have occurred here recently: King Edward was murdered and burned, and King Æthelred was driven from his own kingdom. Innocent people have been slaughtered too often. Rich men frequently neglect to upkeep religious houses.

• It is terrible to know that men often jointly purchase a woman, ravage her like dogs, and then sell her again to their enemies. Fathers sell their sons for profit, and sons their mothers. Too many perjure themselves and break oaths. A slave will flee his master to become Viking, and gains more honour thereby than his previous master keeps. We disgracefully pay off our enemies, and the English are continually defeated. Pirates are made strong, and one of them can drive away ten of our own, so afflicted are we with sin. Our lot is misery and public shame for we honour those who injure us and pay who humiliate us.

• The nation is corrupted through vice. Crimes of every sort are perpetrated. Men are more ashamed now of good deeds than of evil ones. On account of pride no one repents of their sins, though books tell us to. We must seek remedy through repentance if we are to protect ourselves from God's anger, lest we suffer the fate of the Britons. The Britons were also afflicted with too many sins, and did not call out against evil when they saw it. Through their pride they angered God and he made foreigners (then the Anglo-Saxons) invade this island and take it from them.

• Thus let us turn to what is right and abandon wickedness. Let us follow God's laws and the king's, and atone for our wrongdoings. Let us behave as we promised we would at baptism. Let us keep oaths and be loyal to each other, and think about the Final Judgement and save ourselves from the torments of eternal fire; let us gain for ourselves instead the eternal rewards of Heaven.