ABSTRACT

M onastic reform has rightly been given precedence because it is there in the monasteries that the dynamic for the age can be discerned in ecclesi­ astical and cultural affairs. In the generation that ran from the reforms at Glastonbury in the 940s to the accession o f K ing Ethelred in 978 political advance was m ade that led to a creation o f a true m onarchy o f England under King Edgar and at the same time ecclesiastical life was revitalised, principally through the impetus provided by the sheer size and success of the monastic revival. T he fruits of the activity becam e apparent in the succeeding generation. Political turm oil ending in Danish C onquest has obscured understandably the extraordinary achievements o f administrators and scholars during the reign o f K ing Ethelred (978-1016). The AngloSaxon Chronicle, in itself a fine vernacular composition, tells a sorry story of mismanagement, treachery, waste and final disaster. N ot even the bravery o f Ethelred’s son and immediate short-lived successor, Edm und Ironside, can tem per the sense o f ineffectiveness and decline. Yet the substructure is surprisingly strong. In law-giving and in the means of implementing law through public courts in shires, wapentakes and hundreds, England was without equal in W estern Europe. T he tax system and the coinage was sophisticated. T he revived monastic order provided the m anpow er and to some extent the ethos in consolidating these achievements.