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Parochial Ministry in Early Anglo-Saxon England: The Role of Monastic Communities

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Sarah Foot
Sarah Foot*
Affiliation:
Newnham College, Cambridge
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Extract

It was the example of some visiting parochial clergy that first inspired the young Wynfrith, later the missionary Boniface, to adopt the religious life. According to his hagiographer Willibald

when priests or clerics, travelling abroad, as is the custom in those parts, to preach to the people, came to the town and the house where his father dwelt the child would converse with them on spiritual matters.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 26: The Ministry: Clerical and Lay , 1989 , pp. 43 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1989

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References

1 Willibald, , Vita Sancli Bonifatii, c. 1, ed. Levison, MGH SRG, p. 5 Google Scholar; transl. Talbot, C. H., The Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany (London, 1954), p. 27 Google Scholar.

2 The distinctions between different types of communal religious establishment are discussed at length in my Cambridge University doctoral thesis, ‘Anglo-Saxon Minsters AD 597–950: the Religious Life in England before the Benedictine Reform’ (in preparation).

3 Bede, HE iii 26, ed. and transl. Colgrave, B. and Mynors, R. A. B. (Oxford, 1969), p. 310 Google Scholar.

4 Ibid., iv 27, p. 432.

5 Alcuin, , Vita Sancti Willibrordi, c. 1, MGHSRM VII, pp. 81–141 Google Scholar, at 116.

6 For the role of the church in general, and the minsters in particular, in the development of local centres of population see Campbell, J., ‘The Church in Anglo-Saxon Towns’, SCH 16 (1979). PP. 119–35 Google Scholar.

7 The distribution of ecclesiastical sites in the period up to c.850 is well-illustrated by Patrick Wormald’s map in Campbell, J., ed., The Anglo-Saxons (Oxford, 1982), p. 71 Google Scholar.

8 Hill, R., ‘Christianity and Geography in Early Northumbria’, SCH 3 (1966), pp. 126–39 Google Scholar.

9 Notable among such studies is the work of Hase, P. H., ‘The Development of the Parish in Hampshire’ (unpublished PhD. thesis. University of Cambridge, 1975 Google Scholar), and Franklin, M.J., ‘Minsters and Parishes: Northamptonshire Studies’ (unpublished PhD. thesis, University of Cambridge, 1982 Google Scholar). See also Blair, J., ed., Minsters and Parish Churches. The Local Church in Transition 950–1200 (Oxford, 1988 Google Scholar), and Brooke, C. N. L., ‘Rural Ecclesiastical Institutions in England: the Search for their Origins’, Settimane, 28 (Spoleto, 1982), pp. 685–711 Google Scholar.

10 There is also some evidence that parochial workers had to contend with persisting pagan practices throughout the eighth century. See for example the Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 3, ed. Haddan, A. W. and Stubbs, W., Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols (Oxford, 1869-73), 3, PP. 362–76 Google Scholar, at 364, and the report of the 786 Legatine Synods, cc. 3 and 19, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, pp. 447–62, at 449, 458.

11 Payment of these dues was recommended in early texts, for example tithe is mentioned in Theodore’s Penitential, II xiv 9–10, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, pp. 176–204, at 203, and by the Legatine Synods of 786, c. 17, ibid., pp. 456–7. Church scot, a fixed render of grain due at Martinmas, was enjoined in the laws of King Ine, cc. 4,61, ed. Attenborough, F. L, The Laws of the Earliest English Kings (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 36–61 Google Scholar, at 36, 56.

12 The earliest text to insist on the payment of tithe, church-scot, soul-scot, and plough-alms is King Aethelstan’s ordinance of AD 926 × c.930, prologue, c. 4, ed. Whitelock, D., Brett, M. and Brooke, C. N. L., Councils an J Synods with other Documents relating to the English Church, AD 871–1204, 2 vols (Oxford, 1981), 1, pp. 43–7 Google Scholar, at 44, 46.

13 Blair, J., ‘Minster Churches in the Landscape’, in Hooke, D., ed., Anglo-Saxon Settlements (Oxford, 1988), pp. 35–58 Google Scholar, at 57.

14 Blair, J., Minsters and Parish Churches, p. 1 Google Scholar.

15 This argument, which is based on the careful study of ecclesiastical and secular texts written in England before c.950, is developed more fully in my thesis.

16 Franklin, M. J., ‘The Identification of Minsters in the Midlands’, Anglo-Norman Studies, 7 (1985), pp. 60–88 Google Scholar, at p. 69.

17 Bede, , HE v 24, eds. Colgrave, and Mynors, , p. 566 Google Scholar. The nature of the regime followed at Wearmouth and Jarrow is evident from Bede’s Historia Abbatum, ed. Plummer, C., Bedae Opera Historica, 2 vols (Oxford, 1806), 1, pp. 363–87 Google Scholar.

18 Although abbots were present at church councils (for example at Chelsea in 816), the influence of the bishops, and particularly the presiding archbishop, in the drafting of legislation appears to have been paramount A study of Anglo-Saxon Church councils is being under taken by C. R. E. Cubitt for a Cambridge University doctoral thesis.

19 Carroll, M. T. A, The Venerable Bede: his Spiritual Teachings (Washington, 1946), p. 251 Google Scholar.

20 Bede, , Homelia, i 9, ed. Hurst, D., CC 122, p. 65 Google Scholar.

21 Thacker, A., ‘Bede’s Ideal of Reform’, in Wormald, P., ed., Ideal and Reality. Studies in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society presented to J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (Oxford, 1983), pp. 130–53, at 132 Google Scholar.

22 Bede, , Epistola ad Ecgbertum Episcopum, c. 2, ed. Plummer, 1, pp. 405–23, at 406 Google Scholar.

23 Bede, , In Cantica Canticorum, IV vi 9, ed. Hurst, D., CC 119B, p. 312 Google Scholar. Tide, Carroll, Venerable Bede, p. 229 Google Scholar.

24 Bede, , Homelia, i 7, ed. Hurst, D., CC 122, p. 49 Google Scholar. Thacker, , ‘Bede’s Ideal’, p. 131 Google Scholar.

25 Bede, , De Tabernaculo, 1, ed. Hurst, D., CC 119A, p. 27 Google Scholar.

26 Bede, , In Marcum, II viii 6, ed. Hurst, D., CC 120, p. 528 Google Scholar. Carroll, , The Venerable Bede, p. 139 Google Scholar.

27 Bede, , Super Parabolas Salomonis, II xi, PL 91, col. 973 Google Scholar.

28 Bede, , Epistola ad Ecgbertum, c. 5, ed. Plummer, 1, p. 408 Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., c. 15, p. 418.

30 Ibid., c. 7, p. 410.

31 Thacker, , ‘Bede’s Ideal’, p. 131 Google Scholar.

32 Bede, , Epistola ad Ecgbertum, c. 10, ed. Plummcr, 1, p. 413 Google Scholar.

33 John, E., ‘“Saecularium prioratus” and the Rule of St Benedict’, Revue Bénédictine, 75 (1065), pp. 212–39 Google Scholar; Mayr-Harring, H., The Venerable Bede, the Rule of St Benedict and Social Class, Jarrow Lecture 1976 (Jarrow, 1977 Google Scholar).

34 Rule of Saint Benedict, cc. 58, 60-1, ed. McCann, J. (London, 1952), pp. 130, 136–8 Google Scholar.

35 For example, in addition to the ordained abbots, there were several priests among the inmates of the cell of Lindisfarne described in Aethelwulf’s poem, De Abbatibus, ed. A. Campbell (Oxford, 1967). This was not of course likely to be the case in the pseudo-minsters established by laymen; for such houses bishops might have to provide priests, see Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 5, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, p. 364 Google Scholar.

36 Bede, , HE, iv 5 Google Scholar, c. 4, eds. Colgrave, and Mynors, , p. 350 Google Scholar.

37 Ibid., c.5.

38 Ibid.

39 Laws of Wihtred, c. 7, cd. Attcnborough, , The Laws, pp. 24–31 Google Scholar, at 26.

40 Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 29, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, pp. 374–5 Google Scholar.

41 Synods, Legatine, AD 786 Google Scholar, c. 6, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils;, 3, p. 451 Google Scholar.

42 Council of Chelsea, AD 816, c. 5, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, pp. 579–85 Google Scholar, at 581.

43 Bede, Epistola ad Ecgberlum, c. 5, ed. Plummer, 1, p. 408.

44 Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 9, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councik, 3, p. 365 Google Scholar.

45 Haddan, and Scubbs, , Councils, c, 14, p. 367 Google Scholar.

46 Bede, , Epistola ad Ecgbertum, c. 5, ed. Plummet, 1, p. 409 Google Scholar.

47 Ecgbert, , Dialogus, c. 15 Google Scholar, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, pp. 403–13 Google Scholar, at 410.

48 Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 6, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, p. 364 Google Scholar.

49 Legatine Synods, AD 786, c. 6, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, p. 451 Google Scholar.

50 Ecgbert, , Dialogus, c. 9 Google Scholar, ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, p. 407 Google Scholar. Compare Council of Chelsea, AD 816, c. 5, ibid., p. 581.

51 See above, n. 44.

52 Legatine Synods, AD 786, c. 6, Hadden, and Stubbs, , Councib, 3, p. 451 Google Scholar.

53 Cange, Du, Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis, 10 vols (Niort 1884-7), 8, P. 114 Google Scholar.

54 Bede, HE iii 22, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 282.

55 Council of Hertford, AD 672/3, c. 6, Bede, HE, iv 5, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 352.

56 Council of Chelsea, AD 816, c. 5, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, p. 581.

57 Ecgbert, Dialogus, c. 4, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, p. 40s.

58 Laws of Wihtred, c. 6, ed. Attenborough, The Laws, p. 26.

59 Council of Chelsea, AD 816, c. 11, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, p. 584.

60 Bede, HE, iv 23, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 408.

61 For example Tatwine, who was a priest at Breedon before he was made archbishop of Canterbury in 731, Bede, HE v 23, ed. Colgrave and Mynors, p. 558.

62 Council of Clofesho, AD 747, c. 7, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, p. 365.

63 See above.

64 Council of Clofesho 747, cc. 7,20, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, pp. 365, 369.

65 Bede, Epistola ad Ecghertum, c. 5, ed. Plummer, I, p. 408.

66 Ecgbert, Dialogus, c. 16, ed. Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, 3, p. 413.

67 See Hase, P. H., ‘The Mother Churches of Hampshire’, in Blair, , ed., Minsters and Parish Churches, pp. 45–66 Google Scholar, and Croom, J., ‘The Fragmentation of the Minster Parochiae of South-East Shropshire’, ibid., pp. 67–81 Google Scholar.

68 Theodore, , Penitential, II vi 7 Google Scholar, ed. Haddan, and Srubbs, , Councils, 3, p. 195 Google Scholar.

69 The fourth canon of the council of Chelsea in AD 816 (ed. Haddan, and Stubbs, , Councils, 3, pp. 580–1 Google Scholar) gives bishops the right to choose new abbots for minsters. See Brooks, N., The Early History of the Church of Canterbury. Christ Church from 597 to 1066 (Leicester, 1984), pp. 175–6 Google Scholar.

70 I am grateful to John Blair, Rosamond McKitterick, and Patrick Sims-Williams for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.