'Don't Try This at Home': The Nature of, and Attitudes Towards, Early Medieval English Domestic Religion (c.650-1150 CE)

'This project examines the practice and place of English household religion c.650-1150 CE. It seeks to illuminate the nature of lay piety and the tension over its control by exploring what religious rituals occurred in domestic complexes, and the co-existence, convergence, and competition of different practices. It also asks what were clerical attitudes towards household religion, and how, and why, did practices change.

Late antique and late medieval scholars have demonstrated domestic devotion can uncover various aspects of everyday life, including secular piety, the institutional and ideological expansion of the Church, and the extent of female agency. However, despite much evidence attesting to early medieval domestic religion, early medieval England has not garnered such scholarship. Only archaeologists Hamerow (2006) and Sofield (2012) have undertaken sustained study, examining symbolically-charged placed deposits within the hall, yet their study focuses on the sixth to late eighth century, and does not explore how these practices coincided with 'orthodox' devotion, such as prayer, relic-worship, or reading. This dearth of research is surprising, since many scholars have highlighted the considerable influence lay individuals had over religious practice, often syncretising idiosyncratic practices with devout faith. Domestic complexes, replete with symbolic connotations, can offer a uniquely intimate insight into lay devotion. Furthermore, Anglo-Saxon England experienced numerous competitions over controlling sacred places, with recent excavations finding a prevalent encroachment of secular ownership of sacred space (Blair 2018). Religious activity in domestic complexes could cause ecclesiastical anxiety, and comparative studies on Frankish material have found that clerical writers increasingly decried domestic religion in order to assert the spiritual primacy of ecclesiastical space. Building on these works, a study of Anglo-Saxon household religion and the...