Church and Society in the Medieval North of England

R. B. Dobson

• Publisher: Hambledon Continuum
• Year: 1996
• Print ISBN: 9781852851200
• eBook ISBN: 9781441159120
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

English history has usually been written from the perspective of the south, from the viewpoint of London or Canterbury, Oxford or Cambridge. Yet throughout the middle ages life in the north of England differed in many ways from that south of the Humber. In ecclesiastical terms, the province of York, comprising the dioceses of Carlisle, Durham and York, maintained its own identity, jealously guarding its prerogatives from southern encroachment. In their turn, the bishops and cathedral chapters of Carlisle and Durham did much to prevent any increase in the powers of York itself. Barrie Dobson is the leading authority on the history of religion in the north of England during the later middle ages. In this collection of essays he discusses aspects of church life in each of the three dioceses, identifying the main features of religion in the north and placing contemporary religious attitudes in both a social and a local context. He also examines, among other issues, the careers of individual prelates, including Alexander Neville, archbishop of York and Richard Bell, bishop of Carlisle (1478-95); the foundation of chantries in York; and the writing of history at York and Durham in the later middle ages.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• 1 Cathedral Chapters and Cathedral Cities: York, Durham and Carlisle in the Fifteenth Century
• 2 The First Norman Abbey in Northern England: The Origins of Selby
• 3 'Mynistres of Saynt Cuthbert': The Monks of Durham in the Fifteenth Century
• 4 The Church of Durham and the Scottish Borders, 1378-88
• 5 The Last English Monks on Scottish Soil: The Severance of Coldingham Priory from the Monastery of Durham, 1461-78
• 6 Richard Bell, Prior of Durham (1464-78) and Bishop of Carlisle (1478-95)
• 7 The Political Role of the Archbishops of York during the Reign of Edward I
• 8 The Authority of the Bishop in Late Medieval England: The Case of Archbishop Alexander Neville of York, 1374-88
• 9 The Residentiary Canons of York in the Fifteenth Century
• 10 Richard III and the Church of York
• 11 The Foundation of Perpetual Chantries by the Citizens of Medieval York
• 12 Citizens and Chantries in Late Medieval York
• 13 Contrasting Chronicles: Historical Writing at York and Durham at the Close of the Later Middle Ages
• Index