THE EXEGESIS OF HISTORY IN THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY

William of Malmesbury is best known for his historical works. However, he also wrote a substantial body of exegetical and theological works that have received less attention. These include his Abbreviatio Amalarii—a liturgical commentary based on Amalarius of Metz’s Liber officialis. Another is his commentary on Lamentations, based on Paschasius Radbertus’s Expositio in Lamentationes Jeremiae. Though William bills both as abbreviations, they are in fact highly creative works that reveal much about him and his historical method. His Lamentations commentary, for example, makes frequent reference to his own personal knowledge of contemporary England, in which bishops, priests, and nobles took advantage of the poor and where fear of Jews and heretics was growing. So too, William’s Abbreviatio Amalarii reorganizes material culled from Amalarius in accordance with the liturgical calendar and contains many of William’s own scholarly contributions. His mind and method are on display in these relatively neglected sources, and this dissertation uncovers what they contribute to our understanding of one of twelfth-century England’s most prolific historians.