|
The English Benedictine Reform or Monastic Reform was a movement in the English church in the late tenth century. Minsters staffed by secular clergy, who provided pastoral services to their parishioners, and were often married, were converted to Benedictine monasteries of contemplative monks. The movement was inspired by European monastic reforms, and it commenced under the sponsorship of King Edgar (959-975). Simon Keynes describes it as "the particular aspect of his reign which has come to dominate all others". The leading figures were Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury, Æthelwold, Bishop of Winchester, and Oswald, Archbishop of York. In the view of Catherine Cubitt, the Reform "has rightly been regarded as one of the most significant episodes in Anglo-Saxon history", which "transformed English religious life, regenerated artistic and intellectual activities and forged a new relationship between church and king". The prosperity of later Anglo-Saxon England was important to its success, and it was underpinned by trade and diplomacy with continental Europe as well as by religious needs. In the middle of the tenth century, the conquest of the Danelaw by West Saxon kings for the first time united England in a single kingdom. Kings from Æthelstan (924-939) onwards saw themselves as heirs of the Carolingian emperors, and the regulation of monasteries by a uniform Benedictine rule was designed to unite the kingdom ideologically and enhance royal prestige. ==Background== The author of the Benedictine Rule, which was the principal monastic code in Europe in the early Middle Ages, was Saint Benedict (c.480-550). According to D. H. Farmer: :His outlook was characterised by prudence and moderation realised within a framework of authority, obedience, stability, and communal life. His achievement was to produce a monastic way of life which was complete, orderly and workable. The monks' primary occupation was liturgical prayer, complemented by sacred reading and manual work of various kinds. Religious and diplomatic contacts between England and the Continent intensified during the reign of King Æthelstan. Kings before Edgar (959-975) did not take the view, which was adopted by Bishop Æthelwold and his circle, that the only worthwhile religious life was Benedictine monasticism, and when Gérard of Brogne reformed the Abbey of Saint Bertin in Saint-Omer in 944, dissident monks found a refuge in England under King Edmund. In the view of A. E. Redgate: "Considered objectively, the Church on the eve of the Reform was not in desperate need of it. It was just very different from what the reformers wanted it to be." After 850 there was a progressive transfer of property from the minsters to the crown. According to John Blair: :To a significant extent, the royal administration had achieved territorial stability by battening onto minsters. Well might late tenth-century polemicists blame kings of Wessex and their magnates, even more than the Vikings, for despoiling the Church's resources. The scars of the Viking raids had healed, but the secularization of minsters continued on its slow, consistent course. The exception was the reformed minsters after 960, which were able to gain and keep large endowments. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「English Benedictine Reform」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|