The English Benedictine Reform or Monastic Reform of the English church in the late tenth century was a religious and intellectual movement. In the mid-tenth century almost all monasteries were staffed by secular clergy, who were often married. The reformers sought to replace them with celibate contemplative monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict. The English movement became dominant under King Edgar, who supported the expulsion of secular clergy and their replacement by monks.
About English Benedictine Reform in brief
The English Benedictine Reform or Monastic Reform of the English church in the late tenth century was a religious and intellectual movement in the later Anglo-Saxon period. In the mid-tenth century almost all monasteries were staffed by secular clergy, who were often married. The reformers sought to replace them with celibate contemplative monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict. The movement was inspired by Continental monastic reforms, and the leading figures were Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and Oswald. The English movement became dominant under King Edgar, who supported the expulsion of secular clergy and their replacement by monks. It was confined to southern England and the Midlands, as the Crown was not strong enough in northern England to confiscate property from local elites there to establish Benedictine foundations. The leaders of the movement were also influenced by the reforms of the Carolingian Holy Roman Emperor Louis the Pious at the Synods of Ahenachen in 810 and 910. The monks of Cluny, which was largely confined to Burgundy, were the closest to the Benedictine movement in England. The Benedictine reform movement on the continent started with the foundation of the Abbey of Saint Bertin in Saint-Omer along Benedectine lines in 944, and dissident monks found a refuge in England under King Edmund. There are cases of communities of monks established to provide pastoral care to the laity, and some clergy established to care for the monks, but the influence of the Clunine movement on England was limited to the monks of Fleury Abbey on the Loire, which had the great prestige of Saint Benedictine’s body.
The leader of the French Benedictine reforms was Saint Benedict of Nursia, who was the author of the monastic code in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Under this rule the lives of the monks were mainly devoted to prayer, together with reading sacred texts and manual work. By 800, few foundations could claim high spiritual and intellectual standards. The ninth century saw a sharp decline in learning and monasticism. Political and financial pressures, partly due to disruption caused by Viking attacks, led to an increasing preference for pastoral clergy. There was a progressive transfer of property from the minsters to the crown, which accelerated after 850. According to John Blair: At the end of the ninth century Alfred the Great started to revive learning andmonasticism, and this work was carried on by his grandson, King þthelstan. The artistic workshops established by þlfric reached a high standard of craftsmanship in manuscript illustration, sculpture and gold and silver, and were influential both in England and on the Continent. All surviving medieval accounts of the reform are by supporters of reform, who strongly condemned what they saw as the corruption and religious inadequacy of the secular clergy. The movement declined after the deaths of its leading exponents at theend of the tenth century.
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