Gilbert Welton was an eminent ecclesiastical administrator who won papal favour when visiting the Curia at Avignon. He recruited qualified staff before settling in the impoverished, war-torn diocese of Carlisle, which had not been accustomed to a resident bishop or to a high standard of episcopal government. His professionalism is reflected in the professional quality of his register. Among its contents are a dozen records of matrimonial causes (one Carlisle woman was divorced twice in six weeks); of further social interest are the 59 wills of laymen and beneficed clergy, many of them victims...

This volume completes the Bateman register, the first of the Norwich registers to be published. Containing the later half of the calendar of institutions, it is unusual for the organisation, clarity and state of completeness of its records, which paint a dramatic picture of the impact of the Black Death on East Anglia. Scholars and students will also welcome the appendices dealing with diocesan administrators and the religious houses and hospitals of Norfolk and Suffolk, as well as indices for both volumes. PHYLLIS E. POBST is Assistant Professor of History at Arkansas State University.

This book is volume one of a calendar of the episcopal register of Bishop Walter Langton (1296-1321). Langton's register is important for two reasons: it is the earliest extant register for the medieval diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, and it has shed new light on the life of one of the period's key political figures.The register contains some folios from an earlier working register, only some entries of which have been duplicated in the definitive copy. These have been tabulated in the introduction, which discusses the arrangement of the whole register in detail. The register contains...

This volume contains the Capitula section, which covers the cathedral chapter and the chapters of the collegiate churches of Beverley, Howden, Ripon and Southwell, and the collegiate chapel of St Mary and Holy Angels beside York Minster. The growth of papal provisions features prominently; tense relations with the York chapter are also in evidence. Visits are recorded - and the installation of York's west window, Melton's lasting legacy.

Langton's register is important for two reasons: it is the earliest extant register for the medieval diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, and it has shed new light on the life of one of the period's key political figures (Langton was treasurer of Edward I and briefly of Edward II, suspended from episcopal office by Pope Boniface VIII and twice imprisoned). This volume completes the calendar of the register; it chiefly comprises ordination lists, but also contains charters confirming Langton's paternity. JILL HUGHES is a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews.

The appellate court of the archbishop of Canterbury as metropolitan of the province of Canterbury (covering all of England south of the Humber and all of Wales) was the most important ecclesiastical court in medieval England; it sat in the church of St Mary le Bow in London, from whose Latin name (de arcubus) it took its popular name, the Court of Arches. This volume offers the first full-length study of the Court. The introduction traces its history from its first appearance in the records of the mid- thirteenth century to 1533, when the Statute in Restraint of Appeals altered its...

Archdeacons were the most senior officers in the secular church after the archbishops and bishops, and played a crucial role in diocesan administration. This book brings together for the first time the 285 surviving acta of English archdeacons in the twelfth century, representing forty-five of the fifty-one medieval archdeaconries of the English church; also included are twenty-one acta of vice-archdeacons, the main deputies of archdeacons at this time. These documents reveal archdeacons at work in various aspects of their responsibilities, such as presiding in archdeacons' synods or rural...

William Bothe, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, was the first bishop from a family that was to become a virtual episcopal dynasty, and one of the most vilified bishops of the fifteenth century. His register spans a short episcopate of only six years, but is nevertheless of great importance to the history of the see. It provides information about Bothe's episcopal officers, their backgrounds and careers, and about the details of life in the diocese at this time. Moreover, it allows a reassessment of this bishop's administration, suggesting that his concern for his diocese and dedication to...

Founder of Lincoln College, Oxford, and staunch opponent of the teachings of John Wycliffe, Richard Fleming is best known for his academic interests and his concern to prevent the spread of heresy. He has, however, left little trace in the archives apart from his episcopal register, of which this volume forms the second part of an edition. It comprises a calendar of the institutions of clergy to benefices in the archdeaconries of Leicester, Huntingdon, Bedford, Buckingham and Oxford, the collations of dignities and prebends in Lincoln Cathedral, and the ordinations of clerks, whether...