The Sunday Letter in its Anglo-Saxon context represents some of the earliest evidence for its widespread use in the West. Six copies survive, representing four distinct lines of transmission. If it is remarkable that we encounter the letter so often in Old English, it is even more striking that it appears to have been acceptable in a variety of environments. The most learned minds of the age may have rejected it, but its placement in manuscripts compiled at respected centres and the evidence of active use suggest that it was found to be a suitable vehicle for instruction in certain contexts.

Manuscripts

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 140 (Letter A)

Letter A was copied into CCCC 140, a West Saxon version of the Gospels written at Bath Abbey in the first half of the eleventh century. The Sunday Letter was added later (s. xi) at the end of the Gospel of Mark and is written in the same hand as some of the manumissions added at Bath in the blank spaces of the manuscript; all of these mention Abbot Ælfsige (1075–87), which provides a convenient way to assign a defined time period to the work of the scribe.

The text follows the end of Mark without a break and with an only slightly enlarged capital h. The scribe edited (perhaps for oral delivery) the first line, adding an introductory Men þa leofestan, halie before gewrit and soðlice to the beginning of the second sentence. The placement of this Sunday Letter is remarkable.

The addition of non-canonical text to books of scripture is not unique, but the Sunday Letter is a very unconventional text, raising the unanswerable question of whether the writer placed it in this context simply because the empty space was available, or because he in fact thought that the letter had near-canonical status, since it does, after all, claim to have been written by the Saviour's own hand (þurh þæs hehstan hælendes handa gewriten). In other Old English versions of the Sunday Letter, the text is called a godspell, though not in this particular one; however, as mentioned above, halie is supplied before gewrit, possibly in an effort to add some authority to the piece.