5 - THE DIVINE OFFICE AND THE TENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH BENEDICTINE REFORM

Summary

The history of the Divine Office in England from the Augustinian mission to the first decades of the tenth century, which has been reconstructed in the preceding chapters, may be briefly summarized as follows. A Roman form of the Office was introduced to England in the early seventh century, perhaps by the Roman missionaries, and by the middle of the eighth it had effectively supplanted the forms of the Office derived from British, Irish, or Gallican traditions that must previously have had some currency in England but which have left no trace and whose forms cannot be reconstructed with any certainty. This seventh-century Roman Office was enriched with material from various traditions while maintaining its structural integrity. Outside England, the Roman Office was subjected to various modifications, both in Rome itself, where the Office continued to evolve, and in Frankish Gaul, where the Roman Office was adapted and standardized in distinctive ways. The little evidence that survives suggests that some English churches kept pace with these developments while others conservatively maintained the earlier tradition. Either approach could legitimately be claimed as ‘Roman’. There is no evidence that separate forms of the Office were used by secular and monastic churches – and these labels are in any case problematic when speaking of the early centuries. In particular, there is no evidence that the form of the Office described in the Regula S. Benedicti was used anywhere in England, despite the importance of the Rule in English monastic life.