English Benedictine Reform
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, Archbishop of York.
Portrait of King Edgar in the charter of the New Minster, Winchester
King Edgar seated between Bishop Æthelwold and Archbishop Dunstan, from an eleventh-century manuscript of the Regularis Concordia
Initial letter "B" in the Ramsey Psalter, which was probably designed for the use of Archbishop Oswald
Folio 25r from the Benedictional of St Æthelwold, a miniature of the Baptism of Christ
Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England
In the seventh century the pagan Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity mainly by missionaries sent from Rome. Irish missionaries from Iona, who were proponents of Celtic Christianity, were influential in the conversion of
Northumbria, but after the Synod of Whitby in 664, the Anglo-Saxon church gave its allegiance to the Pope.
Typical Saxon altar as seen in Escomb Church.
Whitby Abbey 1