Download or read book Anglo Saxon Church Councils C 650 c 850 written by Catherine Cubitt and published by Burns & Oates. This book was released on 1995 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of major importance to the Anglo-Saxon church in the period c.650-c.850, church councils played a vital role in the organisation of church life, as well as functioning as a forum for the meetings of kings and bishops. This study investigates fundamental issues of organisation: How frequently did Anglo-Saxon church councils meet? Who attended? Where did they meet? By answering such questions, Cubitt reveals the prominent role of church councils within Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical and political developments. Individual case studies of councils and their canons focus on their contribution to the reform and development of the Church, while continental comparisons provide a much wider contemporary framework. The significant political and ecclesiastical changes of the time are reflected and illuminated by this fascinating history of Anglo-Saxon church councils, which illustrates the reforming initiatives of Anglo-Saxon bishops in response to contemporary pressures, and reveals tensions between the sacred and civil power.

Download or read book Kingship Society and the Church in Anglo Saxon Yorkshire written by Thomas Pickles and published by Medieval History and Archaeolo. This book was released on 2018-06-21 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inspired by studies of Carolingian Europe, Kingship, Society and the Church in Anglo-Saxon Yorkshire argues that the social strategies of local kin-groups drove conversion to Christianity and church building in Yorkshire from 400-1066 AD. It challenges the emphasis that has been placed on the role and agency of Anglo-Saxon kings in conversion and church building. It moves forward the debate surrounding the 'minster hypothesis' through aninter-disciplinary case study.The kingdom of the Deirans stretched from the Humber to the Tees and the North Sea to the Pennines between 600 and 867. The Scandinavian kings at York probably established anadministration for much of this area between 867 and 954. The West Saxon kings incorporated it into an English kingdom between 954 and 1066 and established the 'shire' from which the name Yorkshire derives.Members of Deiran kin-groups faced uncertainties that predisposed them to consider conversion as a social strategy. Their decision to convert produced a new social fraction - the 'ecclesiastical aristocracy' - with a distinctive but fragile identity. The 'ecclesiasticalaristocracy' transformed kingship, established a network of religious communities, and engaged in the conversion of the laity. The social and political instabilities produced by conversion along withthe fragility of ecclesiastical identity resulted in the expropriation and re-organization of many religious communities. Nevertheless, the Scandinavian and West Saxon kings and their nobles allied with wealthy and influential archbishops of York, and there is evidence for the survival, revival, or foundation of religious communities as well as the establishment of local churches.

Download or read book Heaven and Earth in Anglo Saxon England written by Helen Foxhall Forbes and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-22 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christian theology and religious belief were crucially important to Anglo-Saxon society, and are manifest in the surviving textual, visual and material evidence. This is the first full-length study investigating how Christian theology and religious beliefs permeated society and underpinned social values in early medieval England. The influence of the early medieval Church as an institution is widely acknowledged, but Christian theology itself is generally considered to have been accessible only to a small educated elite. This book shows that theology had a much greater and more significant impact than has been recognised. An examination of theology in its social context, and how it was bound up with local authorities and powers, reveals a much more subtle interpretation of secular processes, and shows how theological debate affected the ways that religious and lay individuals lived and died. This was not a one-way flow, however: this book also examines how social and cultural practices and interests affected the development of theology in Anglo-Saxon England, and how ’popular’ belief interacted with literary and academic traditions. Through case-studies, this book explores how theological debate and discussion affected the personal perspectives of Christian Anglo-Saxons, including where possible those who could not read. In all of these, it is clear that theology was not detached from society or from the experiences of lay people, but formed an essential constituent part.

Download or read book The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo Saxon England written by Michael Lapidge and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 760 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Widely acknowledged as the essential reference work for this period, this volume brings together more than 700 articles written by 150 top scholars that cover the people, places, activities, and creations of the Anglo-Saxons. The only reference work to cover the history, archaeology, arts, architecture, literatures, and languages of England from the Roman withdrawal to the Norman Conquest (c.450 – 1066 AD) Includes over 700 alphabetical entries written by 150 top scholars covering the people, places, activities, and creations of the Anglo-Saxons Updated and expanded with 40 brand-new entries and a new appendix detailing "English Archbishops and Bishops, c.450-1066" Accompanied by maps, line drawings, photos, a table of "English Rulers, c.450-1066," and a headword index to facilitate searching An essential reference tool, both for specialists in the field, and for students looking for a thorough grounding in key topics of the period

Download or read book The Church in Anglo Saxon Society written by John Blair and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-20 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the impact of the first monasteries in the seventh century, to the emergence of the local parochial system five hundred years later, the Church was a force for change in Anglo-Saxon society. It shaped culture and ideas, social and economic behaviour, and the organization of landscape and settlement. This book traces how the widespread foundation of monastic sites ('minsters') during c.670-730 gave the recently pagan English new ways of living, of exploiting their resources, andof absorbing European culture, as well as opening new spiritual and intellectual horizons. Through the era of Viking wars, and the tenth-century reconstruction of political and economic life, the minsters gradually lost their wealth, their independence, and their role as sites of high culture, butgrew in stature as foci of local society and eventually towns. After 950, with the increasing prominence of manors, manor-houses, and village communities, a new and much larger category of small churches were founded, endowed, and rebuilt: the parish churches of the emergent eleventh- and twelfth-century local parochial system. In this innovative study, John Blair brings together written, topographical, and archaeological evidence to build a multi-dimensional picture of what local churches andlocal communities meant to each other in early England.

Download or read book The Anglo Saxon World written by Nicholas J. Higham and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents the Anglo-Saxon period of English history from the fifth century up to the late eleventh century, covering such events as the spread of Christianity, the invasions of the Vikings, the composition of Beowulf, and the Battle of Hastings.

Download or read book Mercia written by Michelle P. Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2005-03-01 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The kingdom best remembered for Offa and his famous dyke was not only a dominant power on the island of Britain in the eighth century, but also a significant player in early medieval European politics and culture. Although the volume focuses on the eighth and ninth centuries when Mercian power was at its height, it also looks back to the origins of the kingdom and forward to the period of Viking settlement and West Saxon reconquest. With state-of-the-art contributions from experts in palaeography, art history, archaeology, numismatics and landscape - as well as from historians - this book establishes a new baseline for Mercian scholarship, by covering the rise and fall of the kingdom, its major institutions, relations with other political entities as well as its visual and material culture.

Download or read book Leaders of the Anglo Saxon Church written by Alexander R. Rumble and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays bring out the important and complex roles played by Anglo-Saxon churchmen, including Bede and lesser-known figures. Both episcopal and abbatial authority were of fundamental importance to the development of the Christian church in Anglo-Saxon England. Bishops and heads of monastic houses were invested with a variety of types of power and influence. Their actions, decisions, and writings could change not only their own institutions, but also the national church, while their interaction with the king and his court affected wider contemporary society. Theories of ecclesiastical leadership were expounded in contemporary texts and documents. But how far did image or ideal reflect reality? How much room was there for individuals to use their office to promote new ideas? The papers in this volumeillustrate the important roles played by individual leading ecclesiastics in England, both within the church and in the wider political sphere, from the late seventh to the mid eleventh century. The undeniable authority of Bede and Bishop Æthelwold is demonstrated but also the influence of less-familiar figures such as Bishop Wulfsige of Sherborne, Archbishop Ecgberht of York and St Leoba. The book draws on both textual and material evidence to show the influence (by both deed and reputation) of powerful personalities not only on the developing institutions of the English church but also on the secular politics of their time. Contributors: Alexander R. Rumble, Nicholas J.Higham, Martyn J. Ryan, Cassandra Rhodes, Allan Scott McKinley, Dominik Wassenhoven, Gale R. Owen-Crocker, Debby Banham, Joyce Hill.

Download or read book A Companion to the Early Middle Ages written by Pauline Stafford and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-03-26 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on 28 original essays, A Companion to the Early Middle Ages takes an inclusive approach to the history of Britain and Ireland from c.500 to c.1100 to overcome artificial distinctions of modern national boundaries. A collaborative history from leading scholars, covering the key debates and issues Surveys the building blocks of political society, and considers whether there were fundamental differences across Britain and Ireland Considers potential factors for change, including the economy, Christianisation, and the Vikings

Download or read book Kingship and Consent in Anglo Saxon England 871 978 written by Levi Roach and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-17 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This engaging study focuses on the role of assemblies in later Anglo-Saxon politics, challenging and nuancing existing models of the late Anglo-Saxon state. Its ten chapters investigate both traditional constitutional aspects of assemblies - who attended these events, where and when they met, and what business they conducted - and the symbolic and representational nature of these gatherings. Levi Roach takes into account important recent work on continental rulership, and argues that assemblies were not a check on kingship in these years, but rather an essential feature of it. In particular, the author highlights the role of symbolic communication at assemblies, arguing that ritual and demonstration were as important in English politics as they were elsewhere in Europe. Far from being exceptional, the methods of rulership employed by English kings look very much like those witnessed elsewhere on the continent, where assemblies and ritual formed an essential part of the political order.

Download or read book The Anglo Saxon Church of All Saints Brixworth Northamptonshire written by David Parsons and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2013-05-31 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: All Saints’ Church, Brixworth lies 7 miles north of Northampton. The core of the church is Anglo-Saxon and the research published here provides an unprecedented account of one of the most important buildings of its period surviving in England. The building of the main body of the church was towards the end of the 8th century, with a western tower, stair turret and polygonal apse added before the end of the 9th. Major modifications were made during the early and later medieval periods. From the early 19th century the church attracted much antiquarian interest, especially by topographical draughtsmen, whose drawings are crucial to its understanding before major restoration. Reverend Charles Frederick Watkins (Vicar, 1832–1871) made a particular study of the church fabric and identified both surviving and demolished Anglo-Saxon structures. Restoration under his direction reversed most of the medieval changes he recognised within the standing fabric, leaving the church with much the same appearance as it has today. The Brixworth Archaeological Research Committee, founded in 1972, embarked on an in-depth archaeological and historical study of All Saints’. Limited excavation revealed evidence for the former extent of the cemetery and examined remains of the early structures to the north of the church, including one whose foundations cut a ditch containing 8th-century material. The later 8th-century date for the foundation of the church was confirmed by radiocarbon dates from charcoal extracted from construction mortar in the church fabric. A complete stone-by-stone survey of the standing fabric, accompanied by petrological identifications, has led to a refined appraisal of the construction sequence and the identification of ‘exotic’ stone types and Roman bricks reused from earlier buildings up to 40 km distant. The archaeological, geological and laboratory findings presented here have been amplified by contextual studies placing the church against its archaeological, architectural, liturgical and historical background, with detailed comparisons with standing and excavated buildings of similar age in north Europe and Italy.

Download or read book Law Literature and Social Regulation in Early Medieval England written by Andrew Rabin and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2023-02-21 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society. Pre-Conquest English law was among the most sophisticated in early medieval Europe. Composed largely in the vernacular, it played a crucial role in the evolution of early English identity and exercised a formative influence on the development of the Common Law. However, recent scholarship has also revealed the significant influence of these legal documents and ideas on other cultural domains, both modern and pre-modern. This collection explores the richness of pre-Conquest legal writing by looking beyond its traditional codified form. Drawing on methodologies ranging from traditional philology to legal and literary theory, and from a diverse selection of contributors offering a broad spectrum of disciplines, specialities and perspectives, the essays examine the intersection between traditional juridical texts - from law codes and charters to treatises and religious regulation - and a wide range of literary genres, including hagiography and heroic poetry. In doing so, they demonstrate that the boundary that has traditionally separated "law" from other modes of thought and writing is far more porous than hitherto realized. Overall, the volume yields valuable new insights into the multi-layered and multi-directional relationship of law, literature, and social regulation in pre-Conquest English society.

Download or read book Charters of Malmesbury Abbey written by S. E. Kelly and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malmesbury Abbey was one of the few English minsters which had a continuous existence from the seventh to the sixteenth century, and the Malmesbury archive is a particularly important witness to the history of Wessex and the West Saxon church in the pre-Viking period. More than half of the surviving charters purport to date from the seventh and eighth centuries, many of them directly associated with Malmesbury's most celebrated abbot, the scholar and poet Aldhelm. This volume is the first scholarly edition of Malmesbury's pre-Conquest charters. The Malmesbury archive poses a particularly difficult editorial challenge, since the manuscripts are generally late and the abbey's scribes were prone to forgery and the 'improvement' of their muniments. Although the abbey had its own celebrated post-Conquest historian in William of Malmesbury, regrettably little detailed information has survived about the early history of the monastery. Nevertheless, analysis of the charters has made it possible to build up a fairly coherent picture of Malmesbury's development in the first four centuries of its existence. This volume provides an important background to William of Malmesbury's De gestis pontificorum Anglorum, and includes significant new material for the study of William's use of historical documents. Charters of Malmesbury Abbey is comprised of editions of thirty-five charters and also a small group of separate boundary surveys, with expert detailed commentaries on their historical and topographical importance. The charters are prefaced by a lengthy introduction which presents a new synthesis of the history of the abbey and an extensive bibliography.

Download or read book Reconstructing the Development of Somerset s Early Medieval Church written by Carole Lomas and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-05-09 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book uses Somerset as a case study to contribute to a broader understanding of how the Church developed across the British Isles during the transition from the post-Roman Church to the 11th century. It collates and cross-references all earlier research and offers the most up-to-date study of Somerset’s post-Roman churches.

Download or read book Church And Society In England 1000 1500 written by Andrew Brown and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-14 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What impact did the Church have on society? How did social change affect religious practice? Within the context of these wide-ranging questions, this study offers a fresh interpretation of the relationship between Church, society and religion in England across five centuries of change. Andrew Brown examines how the teachings of an increasingly 'universal' Church decisively affected the religious life of the laity in medieval England. However, by exploring a broad range of religious phenomena, both orthodox and heretical (including corporate religion and the devotional practices surrounding cults and saints) Brown shows how far lay people continued to shape the Church at a local level. In the hands of the laity, religious practices proved malleable. Their expression was affected by social context, status and gender, and even influenced by those in authority. Yet, as Brown argues, religion did not function simply as an expression of social power - hierarchy, patriarchy and authority could be both served and undermined by religion. In an age in which social mobility and upheaval, particularly in the wake of the Black Death, had profound effects on religious attitudes and practices, Brown demonstrates that our understanding of late medieval religion should be firmly placed within this context of social change.

Download or read book Medieval Art Architecture Archaeology at Canterbury written by Alixe Bovey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "From the time of the foundation of its cathedral in 597, Canterbury has been the epicentre of Britain's ecclesiastical history, and an exceptionally important centre for architectural and visual innovation. Focusing especially but not exclusively on Christ Church cathedral, this legacy is explored in seventeen essays concerned with Canterbury's art, architecture and archaeology between the early Anglo-Saxon period and the close of the middle ages. Papers consider the relationship between between architectural setting and liturgical practice, and between stationary and movable fittings, while fresh insights are offered into the aesthetic, spiritual, and pragmatic considerations that shaped the fabric of Christ Church and St Augustine's abbey, alongside critical reflections on Canterbury's historiography and relationship to the wider world. Taken together, these studies demonstrate the richness of the surviving material, and its enduring ability to raise new questions.

Download or read book The Foundations of Medieval Papal Legation written by K. Rennie and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-11-15 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kriston R. Rennie examines the origins and development of medieval papal representation by exploring the legate's wider historical, legal, diplomatic, and administrative impact on medieval European law and society. This critical study is key to understanding the growth and power of the medieval Church and papacy in the early Middle Ages.