Conquest, Colonization and the Church: Ecclesiastical Organization in the Danelaw

Abstract

Abstract This article reconsiders the fate of the Church in the Danelaw in the period following the Viking invasions and settlement of the region. It is generally accepted that the peculiarities of ecclesiastical organization found in the Danelaw can be attributed to the impact of the Vikings, but although they undoubtedly inflicted terrible damage on the Church there may be other explanations for the idiosyncracies of the region. Pre-existing regional differences and the impact of the West Saxon conquest of the region must also be considered. The existing model for the development of the parochial system in Anglo-Saxon England-the so-called ‘minster model’-increases the sense that the Danelaw had experienced a great calamity. Yet this model is open to criticism, and its applicability to the Danelaw is brought into question. Elements of continuity can be identified as can evidence for change, and this article concludes that the period of Scandinavian settlement was but one factor that shaped ecclesiastical organization in the later Anglo-Saxon centuries.

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