OF the two main divisions within Anglo-Saxon society, ecclesiastical and lay, the latter made up the vast majority of the population. However, because of the purpose and bias of the surviving written sources relating to the tenth-century monastic reform, lay people were only very selectively mentioned in them, mainly as either benefactors or despoilers of the endowment. We should not think from this that the rest of the lay population were unaware of, or impervious to, the events and consequences of the reform and there are clear indications that some individuals, families, and groups were greatly affected in one way or another.

The reform could not have succeeded without the power and authority of the king and his officials. There is documentary evidence that other members of the laity gave support of a physical as well as a financial nature to the process of re-establishing the monastic life. Some of these may have been merely obeying orders from their superiors, but others may have been genuinely moved by religious sentiment to help the monks and nuns in their pursuit of a form of monastic life closer to the Regula S. Benedicti.