From the impact of the first monasteries in the seventh century, to the emergence of the local parochial system five hundred years later, the Church was a force for change in Anglo-Saxon society. It shaped culture and ideas, social and economic behaviour, and the organization of landscape and settlement. This book traces how the widespread foundation of monastic sites ('minsters') during c.670-730 gave the recently pagan English new ways of living, of exploiting their resources, and of absorbing European culture, as well as opening new spiritual and intellectual horizons. Through the era of Viking wars, and the tenth-century reconstruction of political and economic life, the minsters gradually lost their wealth, their independence, and their role as sites of high culture, but grew in stature as foci of local society and eventually towns. After 950, with the increasing prominence of manors, manor-houses, and village communities, a new and much larger category of small churches were founded, endowed, and rebuilt: the parish churches of the emergent eleventh- and twelfth-century local parochial system. In this innovative study, John Blair brings together written, topographical, and archaeological evidence to build a multi-dimensional picture of what local churches and local communities meant to each other in early England.

The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society

Prince Henry, of Hoheneck, lying sick in body and mind at his Castle of Vautsberg, on the Rhine, has consulted physicians of Salerno, and learned that he can be cured only by the blood of a maiden who shall, of her own free will, consent to die for his sake. Regarding the remedy as impossible, the Prince gives way to despair, when he is visited by Lucifer, disguised as a travelling physician. The Fiend tempts him with alcohol, to the fascination of which he ultimately yields in such measure as to be deprived of place and power, and driven forth as an outcast. Prince Henry finds shelter in the cottage of one of his vassals, whose daughter, Elsie, moved by great compassion for his fate, resolves to sacrifice her life that he may be restored. The prayers of her mother, Ursula, are of no avail to turn her from this purpose, and, in due time, Prince Henry, Elsie, and their attendants set out for Salerno. On their way, they encounter a band of pilgrims, with whom is Lucifer, in the garb of a friar. He too is journeying to Salerno. On reaching their destination, Prince Henry and Elsie are received by Lucifer, who has assumed the form of Friar Angelo, a doctor of the medical school. Elsie persists in her resolve to die, despite the opposition of the Prince, who now declares that he intended to do no more than test her constancy. Lucifer draws Elsie into an inner chamber, but the Prince and attendants, breaking down the door, rescue her at the last moment. Miraculously healed, Prince Henry marries the devoted maiden, and is restored to his rightful place. The six scenes of the cantata illustrate passages in the foregoing story. In the Prologue, the defeat of Lucifer is foreshadowed by an impotent attempt to wreck the Cathedral of Strasburg. In the Epilogue, the beneficent devotion of Elsie is compared to the course of a mountain brook, which cools and fertilizes the arid plain.

The Golden Legend

Putting science in its place: Geographies of scientific knowledge

Scholarship has long considered the style of stone sculpture produced in Mercia during the late eighth and early ninth centuries to reflect the direct influence of artistic activities on the Carolingian continent. Written sources point to the dialogue that existed between the Anglo-Saxon kingdom and the Carolingian courts in the years after Offa’s rise to the Mercian throne. This dialogue has been understood to signal Offa’s desire to raise his profile and that of his kingdom in the eyes of Charlemagne and the papacy.
Mercian sculpture, unparalleled in its range of form and ornament, has thus been thought to owe its unique character to borrowed contemporary continental styles and motifs.
By means of multi-disciplinary research combining art historical, archaeological and historical approaches, this thesis establishes the nature of the relationship between
Mercian sculpture and continental artistic production. Examination of the development of Carolingian sculptural styles against the backdrop of the enduring legacy of late
Antiquity reveals the variety of artistic models available to Mercian sculptors. Through close analysis of the stylistic parallels between Mercian sculpture and late Antique, eastern Christian, Lombard and Carolingian monumental art, this research reveals the motivations and mechanisms behind the adoption and adaptation of continental motifs.
Exploration of the means by which Mercian patrons and artists accessed continental motifs demonstrates the links between the forms and ornament of Mercian sculpture and the types of sites at which sculpture survives. These associations are argued to be reflective of the hierarchy of exchange networks that linked sites in the kingdom with centres of importance on the Continent and further afield. The development of
Carolingian and papal monumental art highlights the shared interest in and importance of late Antique imperialism. Despite a parallel agenda, Mercian sculptors are shown to
have accessed late Antique artistic sources largely independent of Carolingian intermediaries.

The Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture of Mercia as evidence for continental influence and cultural exchange

Ten centuries of book production in the medieval west

provided a welcome opportunity for a new analysis of the cathedral’s architecture, sculpture and artistic production, and a reassessment of the relationship between the former abbey, the city and its institutions, and the Soke over which it held sway. This ambitious volume casts new light on the Roman occupation of the Nene Valley, and the rich Anglo-Saxon sculptural and manuscript context that preceded the construction of the present cathedral, as well as exploring the vital Romanesque tradition of the Soke and the essential contribution of the Barnack quarries. But inevitably the most exciting new disclosures concern the church: its highquality building campaigns during the 12th to 16th centuries, its abbots’ tombs, and the reconstruction of the lost 14th-century high altar screen from descriptions and loose fragments. Peterborough has attracted the attention of antiquarian scholars since its sacking by Cromwell’s men during the Civil War, and as its secrets are gradually revealed it continues to stimulate the historical imagination.

Claudia Marx

Papers

Peterborough and the Soke : Art, Architecture and Archaeology