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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture As part of my undergrad dissertation on the Winchester Troper, I outlined a little of the Fleury-England influences. Here's an excerpt if people are interested (bear in mind this was undergrad! - full text here: http://www.rob-rah.com/Downloads/BA.pdf): "...Monasticism reached its height in Anglo-Saxon England during the eighth century. However, the Danish invasions of the ninth century destroyed most of these communities: Similarly, in the continent the Viking raids and the dissolution of the Carolingian empire made the second half of the ninth century a period of growing darkness and disorder. Political and monastic institutions suffered a decline. The turning point in the continent came in 910 with the founding of Cluny.6 The Cluniacs' influence spread as far as Fleury in 930, and gave rise to other Benedictine communities on the continent. In England, King Edmund appointed Dunstan as abbot of Glastonbury in about 940. A hagiographer reports that the abbey housed a Benedictine community under him. King Edmund was apparently not in favour of continental-styled reform here, but the increased communication between England and Europe made change inevitable. Dunstan reformed Glastonbury under the enthusiastic King Edred (946-955), at which time Æthelwold (later bishop of Winchester) was attracted there. The latter seems to have been supportive of the new continental monasticism, and was only prevented from going to Fleury to learn from the Cluniac Benedictines there by his appointment to Abingdon in 954. When King Edred died, and was replaced by a less 5 Planchart (1977), 5-6 --------- zealous reformer, Dunstan was forced into exile in Ghent where he must have encountered other forms of reformed monasticism. Indeed, on his return to England in 957 and his appointments as Bishop of Worcester (957), London (c.958) and Canterbury (c.960), the reform of English monasteries continued apace. In about 963, Dunstan's disciple Æthelwold was appointed bishop of Winchester. Planchart reminds us that Oswald also returned from Fleury to become bishop of Worcester in 961.7 Thus principles of continental monasticism were adopted throughout much of England and monks from Fleury were often consulted on the matter of reform, although the precise nature of the liturgical reforms was basically still insular. Winchester cathedral was rededicated in 980, and Ælfheah, Æthelwold's successor (984-1005) installed an organ.8 7 Ibid., 9 8 Wulfstan, a disciple of Æthelwold, and cantor at the cathedral, chronicled many events at the cathedral throughout this period. " --------- Best wishes, Rob. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Christopher Crockett" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, February 29, 2004 6:48 PM Subject: [M-R] St. Oswald & Fleury [<saints of the day 28. February] medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Phyllis Jestice <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Oswald of Worcester (d. 992) Oswald was a noble of Danish descent, educated at Canterbury and then dean of Winchester. He wanted to be a monk during a very dry spell for monasticism in England, so went to Fleury for monastic training.... Oswald played an important role in the monastic and more general ecclesiastical reform movement in tenth-century England. i've been poking around A-S England <=> Fleury <=> Chartres [artistic] connections of circa 1000 for the last few months and have been very impressed with the amount of *cross* fertilisation which was apparently going on --in both directions. as i see it --vaguely-- Fleury was largely "responsible" for the A-S reform which began (??) with Oswald, then, in the 990s or so, it received some of the brilliant fruits of that reform's sucess in the form of a very advanced style of manuscript illumination http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/mss/fleurymss/orleans175p149.jpg http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/mss/fleurymss/orleans175p149-d3.jpg which seems to have gotten a toe-hold (more or less) in the Fleury scriptorium http://centrechartraine.freeservers.com/mss/fleurymss/orleans175p175.jpg from which it may have spread to other sites in France having solid connections with Fleury (which places were legion, apparently). one of the things which i find particularly intriguing is the two-way flow of the various aspects of monastic culture which were being exchanged. the key figure in this seems to have been Abbo, monk of Fleury, who spent several years at Ramsey, before going back home to become abbot there in 988, and, presumably, brought his sudies of grammar, astronomy, mathematics, and philosophy to English shores. comments would be welcome from anyone who actually knows something about this subject. best from here, christopher Gib$son'$ Folly: http://images.ucomics.com/comics/jd/2004/jd040224.gif ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html