Trust in long-distance relationships, 1000–1600 CE
December 2018
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Journal article
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Past and Present
Trustworthy Men
July 2018
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Book
The Thirteenth-Century Visitation Records of the Diocese of Hereford
August 2016
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Journal article
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The English Historical Review
Trust and doubt: the late medieval bishop and local knowledge
July 2016
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Chapter
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Doubting Christianity
The Church and Doubt
Trust and Doubt: The Late Medieval Bishop and Local Knowledge
June 2016
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Journal article
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Studies in Church History
Power and the People in Thirteenth-Century England
October 2015
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Chapter
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Thirteenth Century England XV: Authority and Resistance in the Age of Magna Carta: Proceedings of the Aberystwyth and Lampeter Conference, 2013
The twin themes of authority and resistance are the focus of this volume, explored through topics such as landholding and secular politics, the church and religious orders and contemporary imagery and its reception. Together, the papers combine to illustrate the variety of ways in which historians of the "long" thirteenth century are able to examine the practices and norms through which individuals and institutions sought to establish their authority, and the ways in which these were open to challenge.
History
The masses
April 2015
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Chapter
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Government and Political Life in England and France, c.1300–c.1500
The Summoner
December 2014
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Chapter
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Historians on Chaucer The 'General Prologue' to the Canterbury Tales
While the Summoner is obviously a morally corrupt and physically repellent character, his characterization in the ‘General Prologue’ also relies upon a wide range of contemporary gossip, complaint, proverbs, and literary satire. In particular, when read in its historical context, Chaucer’s portrayal of the Summoner can be seen as not simply a satire of a corrupt individual but also as part of a widespread debate about the proper functioning of institutions and their role in society. With his idealization of the Parson, and his affection for the framing device of the pilgrimage, Chaucer clearly did not want to endorse Wycliffite attitudes towards the church and so had to be careful when he using the Summoner to prompt readers into thinking sceptically about church justice. But in raising this issue, Chaucer went beyond the moralizing conventions of estates satire to offer an institutional critique of the ecclesiastical courts.
History
Continuity and change in the institutional church
August 2014
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Chapter
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The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Christianity
In thinking about the Church as an institution, this chapter argues that there is a need for a more imaginative approach. Previous approaches to ‘institutions’ are critiqued for the various ways in which they fall short of understanding a phenomenon like the medieval Church, and instead this chapter is inspired by Avner Greif’s argument that an institution can only be understood if one considers how it is used and the ‘transactions’ that take place within it. Looking particularly at visitations and synods, the chapter argues that the expectations surrounding institutions were the product of a symbiotic relationship between those inside organizations and those outside; that in thinking of the medieval Church as ‘an institution’ we need to think about the interaction of lay, clerical and episcopal desire and agency, rather than one top-down monolith.
English Provincial Constitutions and Inquisition into Lollardy
March 2013
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Chapter
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The Culture of Inquisition in Medieval England
Groundbreaking essays show the variety and complexity of the roles played by inquisition in medieval England
History
The Transformation of Visitation in Thirteen-Century England
January 2013
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Journal article
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Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies
Three things about which most historians of thirteenth-century England would agree are that it was an increasingly governed society, an increasingly Christianized society, and a society undergoing massive social change owing to demographic and economic growth.1 Despite some fertile and persuasive connections made by Richard Britnell between commercialization, institutional growth and literacy, the relationships between such familiar interpretative frameworks have not been much reflected upon, and this has meant that all sorts of questions that might prove fruitful for understanding processes of social and cultural change have not been opened up to research.2 What, for example, did social differentiation — a subject examined almost wholly from a demographic and economic perspective — owe to changes in the institutions of governance, or to local religious culture? This article seeks to open up one such area by offering a new interpretation of social regulation, local elite formation and the intensification of governance through a study of the ecclesiastical visitation of parishes, one of the key institutions of later medieval society....
Lollardy and Late Medieval History
January 2012
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Chapter
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Wycliffite Controversies
This volume brings together the very latest scholarship on Wyclif and Wycliffism, with its contributors exploring in interdisciplinary fashion the historical, literary, and theological resonances of the Wycliffite controversies.
The Unorthodox Imagination in Late Medieval Britain
January 2012
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Journal article
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ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW
The archive of the official of Stow and the 'machinery' of church government in the late thirteenth century
February 2011
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Journal article
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Historical Research
The government and administration of the late medieval church is often said to have relied upon bureaucratic ‘machinery’. Using unpublished documents from the archive of Benedict of Ferriby, official of the archdeacon of Stow in the later thirteenth century, the author argues that bureaucracy was not simply mechanical and that ecclesiastical administration depended on personal relations and local knowledge. The operation of pastoral care and ecclesiastical justice in the localities is illuminated, the use of documents is discussed, and the role of the laity in these operations is explored.
Wycliffite Controversies
January 2011
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Chapter
The Politics of Burial in Late Medieval Hereford
October 2010
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Journal article
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The English Historical Review
BURIAL has long been seen by historians and archaeologists as a telling indicator of personal and collective identity.1 How individuals in the late Middle Ages saw death in relation to a personal life story, a family and affinity network, the local community, organised religion and God, has been investigated primarily through last wills and testaments, with additional insight gained from the material evidence of some high-class burial monuments: effigies, grave slabs, brasses and chantry chapels.2 Collective ideas about the afterlife and more worldly concerns for commemoration and ‘memorialisation’ have also been investigated by aggregating this material...
Defamation, Heresy and Late Medieval Social Life
October 2009
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Chapter
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Image, Text and Church, 1380-1600
Philosophy
William Swinderby and the Wycliffite Attitude to Excommunication
April 2009
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Journal article
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Journal of Ecclesiastical History
The early Wycliffite William Swinderby expressed some strong criticisms of excommunication. He was alarmed that churchman thought that it was their power, rather than God's power, that consigned a soul to hell. The rhetoric of sentences of excommunication in this period was indeed intended to frighten offenders into compliance with ecclesiastical judgements, but the theory and practice of excommunication was in fact far less simple that the Wycliffite criticism of it allowed. This article examines Swinderby's attitude towards ecclesiastical sanctions in light of Wyclif's own ideas, and the theory and practice of excommunication in the late medieval Church. Swinderby's links with early Wycliffism are elucidated and the relationship between Wycliffism and the Church is looked at in a new light.
The Dangers of Diversity: Heresy and Authority in the 1405 Case of John Edward
January 2007
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Chapter
5005 Theology, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies
The Detection of Heresy in Late Medieval England
October 2005
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Book
Heresy was the most feared crime in the medieval moral universe. It was seen as a social disease capable of poisoning the body politic and shattering the unity of the church. The study of heresy in late medieval England has, to date, focused largely on the heretics. In consequence, we know very little about how this crime was defined by the churchmen who passed authoritative judgement on it.
History
Anti-Lollard Polemic and Practice in Late Medieval England
July 2003
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Chapter
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The Fifteenth Century III: Authority and Subversion
The essays in this volume explore themes long seen as central to the history of late medieval England and Europe. They examine the strength of opposition to Henry IV's usurpation, the nature and extent of the lollards' resistance to orthodox religion, and the contrasting causes of violence and disorder in the remote border regions at opposite ends of the country, in Cornwall and in the north-west. Subversion of its authority might be counteracted by a regime which recognized the importance of pageantry to bolster its public profile, while a complex weave of patronage, private interest and dedicated service enabled the Exchequer to function through periods of financial crisis. Relations between the Crown and urban centres, potentially a cause of tension, were eased by an emerging body of professional urban law-officers prepared to act as intermediaries.
