the seat of the archbishop and the head of the english church was at canterbury.
the seat of the archbishop and the head of the english church was at canterbury.
the seat of the archbishop and the head of the english church was at?
canterbury
[b]oth the dissemination of canon law collections within the anglo-saxon church and the study of canon law collections by anglo-saxon clergy were considerable indeed; even if they were not as popular as in some continental churches, canon law collections served the anglo-saxon church as indispensable disciplinary, educational and administrative tools. beginning in the seventh and eighth centuries, and fuelled by the early anglo-saxon church’s strong ties to roman models, one sees in england the considerable influence of italian canon law collections, most notably the "collectiones dionysiana", "sanblasiana" and "quesnelliana". it was particularly at york and especially at canterbury under the guidance of archbishop theodore that instruction in and study of these collections appears to have been carried out with the most fervour. in the eighth century, imbued with the legal teachings of these collections, reform-minded anglo-saxon personnel descended on the low countries and the lands east of the rhine, bringing with them the institutional framework and disciplinary models they had inherited from their roman and celtic mentors. these included the collections already mentioned and also copies of the collectio hibernensis and several different types of penitential handbooks. it was also during this time that an important redaction of the collectio vetus gallica was disseminated on the continent, due in part to the activities of anglo-saxon personnel. this acme of anglo-saxon canonical scholarship―exemplified from the seventh to late eighth century by such figures as wilfrid, ecgberht, boniface, and alcuin―seems to have ended sometime in the ninth century, probably as a result of the devastation of the viking raids, which inflicted heavy losses upon england’s material and intellectual culture. in england, interest in and the manuscript resources necessary to carry out the study of continental canonical sources would never again under the anglo-saxons reach the level they had attained in the first two hundred years of the english church's existence. following the eighth century, the anglo-saxon church seems to have developed an increasingly strong tradition of operating juridically within the pre-existing secular legal framework. in this tradition―which lasted from at least the end of the ninth century until the conquest and beyond―the legal and disciplinary spirit of the english church stood close to and drew support from the emerging strength of west saxon kingship. consequently, for the duration of the anglo-saxon period continental canon law collections played a correspondingly smaller role in influencing the law and discipline of the church and its members. but they never became obsolete, and indeed an upsurge of interest in these collections can be seen taking place in the tenth and early eleventh centuries. new genres of canonical literature had been gaining in popularity on the continent since the early ninth century. most important among these, as far as anglo-saxon history is concerned, were the large penitential and canonico-penitential collections of the carolingian period. a number of these collections crossed the channel into england during the tenth century and were well received by the anglo-saxon episcopacy. by the beginning of the eleventh century, especially with the activities of abbot ælfric and archbishop wulfstan, study of canon law collections had once again attained a degree of sophistication in england. nevertheless, despite england’s increasingly tight connections to the ecclesiastical traditions of the continent―where the study of canon law thrived in the eleventh century―there are few signs that ælfric’s and wulfstan’s achievements in canonical scholarship were continued by their anglo-saxon successors in any significant way. following the conquest england saw the introduction of norman libraries and personnel into england, a development that marks a very real terminus to the history of the anglo-saxon canonical tradition. the new ecclesiastical reforms and drastically different canonical preoccupations of archbishop lanfranc put the study of canon law in england upon entirely new foundations. with the accumulation of new texts and collections, and with the development of new scientific principles for their interpretation, ground was laid for anglo-norman england’s contribution to the monumental canonical reforms of the twelfth century―reforms in which the by now long outmoded anglo-saxon canonical tradition played (almost) no part.
collections of ancient canons
"i have now, then, i think, sufficiently demonstrated what i undertook to prove. i have proved that the last revision and settlement in 1662 of the formularies of the english church, by which the bishops and clergy are bound, both by their ordination promises and by act of parliament, was distinctly catholic. i have proved, therefore, that the catholic-minded clergy of the english church alone are in the right, that the charge of “romanizing” and unfaithfulness to their church, so persistently brought against them because of their faithful adherence to catholic truth and practice, is a grievous slander, and that the only consistent course for their opponents to adopt—in order, if they can, to put themselves in the right—is to endeavour to get the formularies of the church altered in a “protestant” direction, and so to alter the basis on which we now stand. until this be accomplished, which god forbid! catholic-minded churchmen, and they only, truly represent the mind of the english church. all others are simply, more or less, conspirators against “the principles of the” english “reformation” in its latest, and therefore most carefully considered, development. consequently, it is obvious that the efforts so strenuously made in the present day by nominal churchmen of puritan sentiments to persecute and, if possible, put down the catholic-minded clergy of the english church, under a pretended zeal for the principles of the english reformation, wear an appearance of gross hypocrisy. puritans, ever since the first dawn of “the reformation,” have been in the church of england only on sufferance. if any are to be restrained, it must not be those clergy who loyally carry out the principles of the church which the revisers of 1662 so strenuously maintained against all attacks, but any who (although many of them holding position and preferment within the church) use their position and influence, contrary to their ordination promises, to carry out the work of the nonconformists of 1662, and undermine the reformation principles for which the revisers of 1662 contended, and which they have preserved in the formularies of the church."
richard enraght