Introduction

Abstract

Abstract This chapter introduces some of the previous discussions and debates surrounding the relationship between secular and monastic households in early medieval England. In contrast with previous scholarship, which tends to explore monastic and secular households separately, and to focus on either the earlier period (600–800) or the later period (800–1100), the author argues that some of the key mutations in the shape and size of monastic and secular households that become visible in the tenth and eleventh centuries should be traced back to the introduction of ‘new and unknown forms of life’ in the seventh century. These new forms of life include the practice of lifelong virginity and the creation of households which reproduced through social rather than biological means.