MONASTIC LIFE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, C. 600-900 by Sarah Foot ( 9780521739085 )

Item Details

Title:

MONASTIC LIFE IN ANGLO-SAXON ENGLAND, C. 600-900

By:

Format:

Paperback

List price:	£37.99
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

052173908X

ISBN 13:

9780521739085

Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

1 March, 2009

Pages:

416

Description:

A major 2006 history of English monasticism between the sixth and tenth centuries.

Synopsis:

This major 2006 history of monasticism in early Anglo-Saxon England explores the history of the Church between the conversion to Christianity in the sixth century and a monastic revival in the tenth. It represents the first comprehensive revision of accepted views about monastic life in England before the Benedictine reform. Sarah Foot shows how early Anglo-Saxon religious houses were simultaneously active and contemplative, their members withdrawing from the preoccupations of contemporary aristocratic society, while still remaining part of that world. Focusing on the institution of the 'minster' (the communal religious community) and rejecting a simplistic binary division between active 'minsters' and enclosed 'monasteries', Foot argues that historians have been wrong to see minsters in the light of ideals of Benedictine monasticism. Instead, she demonstrates that Anglo-Saxon minsters reflected more of contemporary social attitudes; despite their aim for solitude, they retained close links to aristocratic German society.

Illustrations:

15 b/w illus.

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

AETHELSTAN (PB)

BEDE'S CHURCH (PB)

FRAGMENTS (HB)

FRAGMENTS (PB)