page_title: English Benedictine Reform
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: English Benedictine Reform / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: &#39;The Cædmon Manuscript&#39;: parts of Genesis, Exodus and Daniel in Old English verse, illustrated with Anglo-Saxon drawings, c. A.D. 1000.; 59
context_page_description: 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.
  In seventh- and eighth-century England, most monasteries were Benedictine, but in the ninth century learning and monasticism declined severely. Alfred the Great deplored the decline and started to reverse it. The court of Æthelstan, the first king of the whole of England, was cosmopolitan, and future reformers such as Dunstan and Æthelwold learned from Continental exponents of Benedictine monasticism. The English movement became dominant under King Edgar, who supported the expulsion of secular clergy from monasteries and cathedral chapters, and their replacement by monks.
context_section_description: Helmut Gneuss observes that although the reformed monasteries were confined to the south and midlands, "here a new golden age of monastic life in England dawned and brought in its train a renaissance of culture, literature and art". In the view of Mechthild Gretsch: "No school in Anglo-Saxon England has been praised more warmly by its pupils than the school established by Æthelwold at the Old Minster". He established high standards of learning, with skilled exponents of the elaborate and obscure hermeneutic style of Latin which was the house style of the Benedictine Reform. He sent monks to Fleury and Corbie Abbeys to learn about liturgical chant, and surviving Winchester tropers (books of liturgical music) include music by Continental and English composers, many written in hermeneutic Latin.
  Visual art combined new influences from continental monastic styles with development of earlier English features, and is often described as the "Winchester style" or "school" although this was only one of the centres involved. Although the foundation of new communities declined in the early eleventh century, art continued to flourish as the existing monasteries grew richer. The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold (Winchester, probably 970s, now British Library) is recognised as the most important of a group of surviving illuminated manuscripts, lavishly illustrated with extravagant acanthus leaf borders. According to the dedicatory poem, Æthelwold "commanded ... many frames well adorned and filled with various figures decorated with numerous beautiful colours and with gold", and he got what he asked for. It is described by Andrew Prescott as the "outstanding work of art to have survived from this period". According to Barbara Yorke, "The artistic workshops established at Æthelwold's foundations during his lifetime were to continue as influential schools of craftsmen after his death, and had a widespread influence both in England and on the Continent."
  As well as lavish illumination, the period saw the development of a distinct English tradition of line drawing in manuscripts, sometimes with the addition of light colour in ink or wash (watercolour), often to reinforce ink in highlighting outlines. This is often divided into two rather different sub-styles. These also developed from continental styles – one of which, sometimes referred to as the "Utrecht style", was influenced strongly by the presence in Canterbury from around 1000 of the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter, where each psalm is illustrated with a panoramic ink drawing full of tiny figures. The Harley Psalter from Canterbury (probably 1020s) is a copy, with differences in style such as the addition of coloured washes. Dunstan was himself an artist, as were many monks who rose to senior positions, and the earliest datable outline drawing is probably by him, and includes a portrait of him prostrating himself before Christ. This was added to a blank page in an older book, probably before his exile in 956. The other "Winchester" style of drawing can be characterised by detailed and agitated drapery, an effect sometimes taken to excess, but giving animation to figures. The skilled use of line drawing continued to be a feature of English art for centuries, for example in the Eadwine Psalter (Canterbury, probably 1150s) and the work of Matthew Paris, monk of St Albans (c. 1200 – 1259) and his followers.
  The very few remains of monastic architecture in the period are supplemented by brief documentary mentions. St Laurence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon appears to represent a unique near-complete monastic church of the period, and the angels in relief were probably part of a large rood cross group. Generally the contemporary sources give much more detail on the valuable treasures in precious metal, rich embroidered cloth, and other materials which the monasteries were able to accumulate, largely from gifts by the elite. The few pieces to survive mostly did so outside England, and include the silver Brussels Cross and a walrus ivory figure from a Crucifixion.
  Susan Irvine describes five historic
caption: One of many line illustrations in the Junius manuscript
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