Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Documentary Evidence
- Part II Edgar before 549
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- 10 The Chronology of the Benedictine ‘Reform’
- 11 The Frontispiece to the New Minster Charter and the King's Two Bodies
- 12 The Laity and the Monastic Reform in the Reign of Edgar
- 13 The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Index
12 - The Laity and the Monastic Reform in the Reign of Edgar
from Part IV - Edgar and the Monastic Revival
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Contributors
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Part I Documentary Evidence
- Part II Edgar before 549
- Part III Edgar, 959–975
- Part IV Edgar and the Monastic Revival
- 10 The Chronology of the Benedictine ‘Reform’
- 11 The Frontispiece to the New Minster Charter and the King's Two Bodies
- 12 The Laity and the Monastic Reform in the Reign of Edgar
- 13 The Edgar Panegyrics in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Index
Summary
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.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Edgar, King of the English 959–975New Interpretations, pp. 242 - 251Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008