THE PREVIOUS chapter argued that Æthelwold's circle emphasized their special relationships to saints during times of conflict. The next chapters will examine, in more detail, how some of the conflicts with external groups shaped the circle's venerating practices, beginning with the group the circle most explicitly opposed: unreformed clerics. This chapter will argue that the circle's conflicts with unreformed clerics help explain why the circle's most extensive original miracle narratives focused on local saints, such as Swithun of Winchester and Æthelthryth of Ely. These saints were not obvious choices for the circle. Their lifestyles and careers had contradicted some of the circle's reforming tenets, as will be discussed below. Additionally, the circle's intra-communal veneration tended to prioritize universal saints, such as the Virgin Mary. This chapter will argue that the circle promoted and invested in the veneration of these local saints in order to defuse the threats posed by unreformed clerics.

In this chapter, clerics will refer to the group the circle delineated as ecclesiastics who did not follow the rule of St Benedict. Rebecca Stephenson has noted that the distinctions between clerics and monks may not have been as clearly drawn in practice as some reformers sought to suggest, and that they may have had many overlapping functions, particularly with regards to pastoral care. Nevertheless, given that Æthelwold and his associates explicitly defined themselves against anyone who did not follow the Rule of St Benedict and kicked clerics (almost literally) out of the houses they refounded – unlike Dunstan or Oswald – it is worth examining their interactions with members of this group.

I will use ‘clerics’ to refer to ecclesiastics who did not follow the Rule of St Benedict because this echoes the language used by members of Æthelwold's circle themselves. The circle seem to have avoided describing members of their own houses as clerici and presbyteri. Instead, members of the circle called themselves monachi, sanctimoniales, sacerdotes, levitae, and pueri.