Old Saxon Baptismal Vow

The Old Saxon Baptismal Vow, also called the Old Saxon Catechism, Utrecht Baptismal Vow and Abrenuntiatio Diaboli, is a

The text (with Latin italicised) runs as follows:[1]

Language dispute

While the manuscript of the vow is ninth-century, its language seems to be from the eighth. It is undoubtedly written in a mix of different

• Old English (probably specifically Northumbrian Old English). This would be consistent with production in Northumbria, or by a Northumbrian missionary active alongside Saint Boniface on the Continent.
• Old Low German or Old Dutch, which could be consistent with production at or transmission via a monastery at Utrecht
  (in the modern Netherlands).
• Old High German, which would be consistent with copying of the surviving manuscript by a speaker of this variety, perhaps at Hersfeld Abbey.

Comparison to present-day Dutch and Low German

In the glossary below, the spelling has been normalised:

• ⟨u⟩ is replaced with ⟨w⟩ when a consonant
• ⟨c⟩ is replaced with ⟨k⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ with ⟨kh⟩

Editions

German Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Sächsisches Taufgelöbnis

Media related to Sächsisches Taufgelöbnis at Wikimedia Commons

• Capitularia Regum Francorum I, ed. by A. Boretius, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum sectio 11 (Hanover, 1883), p. 22 (no. 107)
• 'Abrenuntiatio diaboli et prefessio fidei', ed. by E. Wadstein, Kleinere altsächsische Sprachdenkmäler, Niederdeutsche Denkmäler, 6 (Norden: Soltau, 1899), pp. 119–21
• Hodgkin, R. H., A History of the Anglo-Saxons, 3rd edn., 2 vols (Oxford, 1952), I, 302 [facsimile]

See also

• Indiculus superstitionum et paganiarum, a Latin collection of capitularies identifying and condemning superstitious and pagan beliefs found in the north of Gaul and among the Saxons during the time of their subjugation and conversion by Charlemagne
• Seaxnēat

References