The earliest of the Exeter episcopal registers to survive, Bronescombe's is a general register with a single chronological sequence of letters and memoranda on many aspects of diocesan administration. The second volume of this edition (which supersedes the unsatisfactory one of 1889) is especially notable for its accounts of the bishop's jurisdictional clashes with the earl of Cornwall, material not normally found in such a register.Praise for volume I: Useful discussions of Bronescombe's life and household, the administration of the diocese, and the bishop's dealings with religious houses,...

This fourth volume of Melton's register is partly Latin text, partly calendar, of its section for the archdeaconry of Nottingham. Melton continues to be a dedicated diocesan, probably the last archbishop to undertake four visitations of its deaneries; he also visited its religious houses, ordering reforms of finances and morals. The register shows his prison at Nottingham crowded with criminous clerks, some connected to the notorious Coterell and Folville gangs; in contrast, ordinances for seven new chantries reflect the piety of other inhabitants of the shire. REGINALD BROCKLESBY was until...

This volume, which completes the edition of Cardinal Morton's register, deals exclusively with the administration of the diocese of Norwich during the vacancy of 1499, and represents one of the most complete records of the governance of any English diocese over a short period. The original Latin text is here presented in the form of a full English calendar; the contents include a detailed financial account, 140 wills presented for probate, judgements in the consistory court at Norwich and the record of a visitation of the parishes of Suffolk. The wills provide valuable insights into the...

This volume contains a calendar of the register, together with an introduction. John Kirkby's episcopate was an eventful one. It coincided with a period of Anglo-Scottish warfare in which the bishop participated with gusto, but even domestically his tenure of the see of Carlisle was stormy, for the bishop was involved in feuding among the local gentry, and quarrelled with his archdeacon and with the dean and chapter of York during the vacancy of 1340-42. This volume contains a wide range of adminstrative material, for example, ordination lists and exchanges of benefices (with the reasons...

Morton's register is remarkable for the proportion of sede vacante material, and although the records are far from complete, for those dioceses where the Official's sede vacanteregister was bound up at Lambeth there is a wealth of fascinating detail.