The personnel and political activities of the English episcopate during the reign of Edward II

Abstract

The above two aspects of the history of the English episcopate under Edward II were selected for investigation as those about which least seems to be known. In dealing with the personnel (Book I of thesis) the social ranks from which the bishops were drawn have first been examined; their previous ecclesiastical experience is discussed next; and in the last two chapters the early careers of the bishops as university students and as royal clerks have been brought into relation with their work as bishops in the promotion of learning and in the royal administration. In Book II the attitude to politics of the bishops has first been discussed. This leads on to an examination of their connexions with the changing political parties of the reign, and of their Influence in the various political crises. The conclusions drawn are that many of the bishops were active in politics; that all political parties received support from different members of the episcopate; and that the political action of different groups of bishops was influential and occasionally perhaps decisive. Printed sources only have been used (with the exception of Simon of Ghent's Maditaclo de statu prelati studied by means of a rotograph facsimile). They include each bishops' registers as have been printed by the Canterbury and York and other societies, the calendars of chancery enrolments (patent, close, charter and fine rolls, and inquisitions post mortem); various printed collections of public records (e. g. Rymer's Foedera, Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs), or of ecclesiastical documents (e. g. Wilkin's Concilia, and some printed records of cathedral chapters); chronicles and other literary sources; printed collections of wills; and certain miscellaneous sources such as Snapp's Formulary, Medieval Archives of the University, of Oxford, published by the Oxford Historical Society.