Old English Pastoral Care

"The Pastoral Care is a work of moral instruction. The title Liber regulae pastoralis assigned to the Latin text from which the Old English Pastoral Care is translated, is apparently the one intended by its author, Pope Gregory I. It may be rendered Bookof Pastoral Rule, in reference to the duties of a "shepherd" or bishop. The book is also sometimes called Liber pastoralis curae (Book of Pastoral Care), or some variant thereof, apparently on the basis of its opening words. The work was completed at thestart of Gregory's pontificate, in 590 or 591, and it fulfilled an intention that Gregory had earlier expressed of composing for speakers of Latin a resource already available in Greek: an account of the qualities required of a bishop and of the best methods to be employed in dealing with the diverse sorts of people under a bishop's care. It may be deduced from the verse prologue to the Old English translation that Augustine of Canterbury took a copy of the work with him to England when Gregory sent him to begin the work of converting the English in 597. The letter to Wµrferth, composed sometime between 890 and 896, has attracted more scholarly comment than any other portion of the work. It is equally enlightening in its straightforward explanation that the translation is one of a projected series intended to be the cornerstone of an effort instigated by Alfred and his ecclesiastical advisers to restore to vitality the learning in which England had once flourished and which was now hampered by general illiteracy in Latin among the clergy, and even among bishops"--
The Old English Pastoral Care, a ninth-century translation from Latin of Pope Gregory the Great’s guide for aspiring bishops that advises on what sort of spiritual guidance bishops should provide, was aimed at revitalizing the English Church. This new edition and translation into modern English is the first to appear in a century and a half.
The Book of Pastoral Rule, or Liber regulae pastoralis, by Pope Gregory the Great—the pontiff responsible for the conversion of the English to Christianity beginning in 597—is a guide for aspiring bishops. Pope Gregory explains who ought and who ought not seek such a position and advises on what sort of spiritual guidance a bishop should provide to those under his direction.The Old English Pastoral Care, a translation of Gregory’s treatise completed between 890 and 896, is described in a prefatory letter by King Alfred the Great as his own work, composed with the assistance of his bishops and chaplains. It appears to be the first of the Alfredian translations into Old English of Latin texts deemed necessary for the revitalization of the English Church, which had been ravaged by the depredations of Scandinavian invaders during the ninth century and by the decline of clerical competence in Latin.This new edition and translation into modern English is the first to appear in a century and a half.