Originally published in 1945, this book presents a comprehensive study of Reginald Pecock, the fifteenth-century Bishop of Chichester.

Reginald Pecock (ca. 1390-1459) was the cause of a great scandal for the late medieval Church. In the autumn of 1457, the bishop of Chichester confessed, among other things, that the Church itself could err in matters of faith. On the eve of the Protestant Reformation, however, a high-ranking cleric making such a claim was both embarrassing and a big liability. The Book of Faith, finished just months before Pecock's disgrace, is the only record of this claim. Whether Pecock wrote portions of the treatise in anticipation of an assault that he already saw being set in motion against him, or whether it unintentionally foreshadowed what the highest levels of clerical dissent could look like, this book nonetheless represents a unique attempt to reconcile a critical laity with a conservative Church.In the only modern English translation of Pecock's work, the impassioned, earnest, and often exasperated bishop comes to life-and along with him the drama of religious dissent in the pre-Reformation English Church.

How power was distributed and exercised is a key issue in understanding attitudes and assumptions in late medieval England. The essays in this volume all deal with those who had the power to make political decisions, whether kings, nobles or gentry, courtiers or clergy. While ultimately power rested on force, it was enshrined in the law and more usually exercised by influence and by the dangling of reward. Most disputes were settled without violence, if often with recourse to prolonged struggles in the courts, but those who offended against established interests could be punished severely, as the cases of Sir John Mortimer and of Bishop Reginald Pecock show. These essays, presented to Gerald Harriss, who has done so much to illuminate the history of the period, show not only how power was exercised but also how men of the time thought about it. Contributors: Rowena E. Archer, Christine Carpenter, Jeremy Catto, Rosemary Horrox, R.W. Hoyle, Maurice Keen, Dominic Luckett, Philippa Maddern, S.J. Payling, Edward Powell, Anthony Smith, Simon Walker, Christopher Woolgar, Edmund Wright.

Incorporating several kinds of scholarship on medieval authorship, the essays examine interrelated questions raised by the relationship between an author and a reader, the relationships between authors and their antecedents, and the ways in which authorship interacts with the physical presentation of texts in books.

Originally published in 1937, this book contains a biography of Bartholomew of Exeter, one of the few bishops who supported Thomas Becket in his quarrel with Henry II. Some of his letters from the Pope, who used him as a judge delegate, are included in the volume, as is the Latin text of Bartholomew's Penetential, which deals with breaches of canon law and the penalties prescribed. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in English church history and the relations between the English monarchy and the Catholic Church.

Rejection of idolatry during the Reformation had dramatic and far-reaching effects on English society: the removal of color and ornament from churches, the alteration of divine and secular laws, and the destruction of an enormous amount of religious art. This study looks at the changes in sixteenth-century theology that brought about iconoclasm and offers new insight into a central aspect of the Reformation.

An exploration of the relations between medical and religious discourse and practice in medieval culture, focussing on how they are affected by gender.