The English Church 1000-1066

Description

The strength and greatness of the late Anglo-Saxon kingdom were largely due to the fruitful co-operation between royal and ecclesiastical government. The king encouraged and enforced the church’s ministry and the church supported and facilitated royal administration. The churclaj was a national church under a king who was usually inspired by Christian purposes! A view of the organization and working of the church within the Kingdom gives therefore a new look at the English state and society. In this book, after an introductory view of the Western Church, England’s cultural relations, and the interpretation of English conditions, first the persons and then the institutions are examined. In Chapter II the part played by the church in the government of the kingdom is discussed. Chapter III is devoted to thfe geographical organization and economy of the church—the dioceses and parishes and the individual churches. The later chapters deal with more purely ecclesiastical matters: the church’s own government, its jurisdiction, and the education and heritage of the clergy. In the last chapter, England’s relations I with the papacy are considered. The period the author has chosen for intensive study — roughly the reigns of Cnut and Edward the Confessor: the age which extends from Wulfstan the Homilist to St Wulfstan of Worcester - follows the tenth-century reformation and precedes the Norman and ‘Gregorian’ reforms of the English church. It was maligned by the Normans and monastic writers and then neglected by historians. But its correct interpretation is vital for assessing both the Old English ecclesiastical achievement and the Norman contribution to the insular church.