Monastic Life in Anglo-Saxon England, c.600–900

A major 2006 history of English monasticism between the sixth and tenth centuries.

Sarah Foot (Author)

9780521739085, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 March 2009

416 pages, 15 b/w illus.
24.4 x 18.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.75 kg

'After setting out her aims and approaches with clarity, Foot begins by looking at 'the ideal minister' as imagined in sources from the period … The book makes a strong argument for diversity and variety in the monastic life of earlier Anglo-Saxon England and offers an authoritative yet accessible survey of this complex subject.' Medium Aevum

This major 2006 history of monasticism in early Anglo-Saxon England explores the history of the Church between the conversion to Christianity in the sixth century and a monastic revival in the tenth. It represents the first comprehensive revision of accepted views about monastic life in England before the Benedictine reform. Sarah Foot shows how early Anglo-Saxon religious houses were simultaneously active and contemplative, their members withdrawing from the preoccupations of contemporary aristocratic society, while still remaining part of that world. Focusing on the institution of the 'minster' (the communal religious community) and rejecting a simplistic binary division between active 'minsters' and enclosed 'monasteries', Foot argues that historians have been wrong to see minsters in the light of ideals of Benedictine monasticism. Instead, she demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon minsters reflected more of contemporary social attitudes; despite their aim for solitude, they retained close links to aristocratic German society.

1. Introduction: situating the problem
2. The ideal minster
Part I. Within the Walls: 3. The making of minsters
4. The minster community
5. Daily life within the minster
Part II. Without the Walls: 6. Dependencies, affinities, clusters
7. Minsters in the world
Coda
8. Horizons
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Christian communities & monasticism [HRCX8], History of religion [HRAX], Religion: general [HRA], Medieval European archaeology [HDDM], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]