In order to perform this task, wider social context regarding the impact of
the changes within the Anglo-Norman religious community should be noted. The
Church has been described as an ‘agent of colonisation’ for the Norman invaders. 119 Their investment in England through marriage and reorganisation of religious hierarchies aided their integration into the culture of their new land. 120 This is significant when considering the lives of women during the period as we cannot view them separately from wider social and political context. 121 The new aristocracy were inclined to donate their newly acquired wealth to the church, both in penance for the bloodshed and celebration of their glory. 122 The pre-
dominant Benedictine houses of both sexes, strongly associated with the West
Saxons that fought against them, were not necessarily in favour for these donations. 123 It is important to acknowledge the changes conquest brought to the religious landscape and how both men and women needed to accept the new Norman over-lordship inside and outside of church contexts. 124 Just as Norman abbots came to identify with the churches they now oversaw so too did hagiography of both cultures allow the two identities to meld. 125 Furthermore, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian eremitical figures became intercessors and mediators. 126 The spiritual value they had in bridging the gap between the new ecclesiastical masters and the native populace can attest to an essential continuity amongst these seemingly significant changes. 127 The conquest did not alter the basics of life and people’s obligations. 128 Religious curricula may have 119 A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World , p. 171. 120 Marjorie Chibnall, Anglo-Norman England, 1066-1166 (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1987), p. 209. See also A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World , p. 171-2. 121 Stafford, p. 245. 122 Judith A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 392. 123 Ward, p. 148. See also, Green, p. 391. See also p. 395-6. 124 Green, p. 428.
125 Chibnall, Anglo-Norman England, 1066-1166 , p. 210. 126 A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World , p. 172. 127 A Companion to the Anglo-Norman World , p. 172. 128 Ward, p. 5.
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