The Secular Clergy in England, 1066–1216
Hugh M. Thomas
Abstract
The secular clergy (priests and other clerics outside of monastic orders) were among the most influential and powerful groups in European society during the central Middle Ages, but have hitherto been neglected in the scholarship. This book aims to partially rectify that neglect by providing a major case study of the secular clergy below the level of bishop in England from 1066 to 1216. The first part of the book introduces the subject, describes the contemporary model of the ideal priest, and outlines a less formal contemporary model of the most powerful clerics as aristocratic figures compar ... More
The secular clergy (priests and other clerics outside of monastic orders) were among the most influential and powerful groups in European society during the central Middle Ages, but have hitherto been neglected in the scholarship. This book aims to partially rectify that neglect by providing a major case study of the secular clergy below the level of bishop in England from 1066 to 1216. The first part of the book introduces the subject, describes the contemporary model of the ideal priest, and outlines a less formal contemporary model of the most powerful clerics as aristocratic figures comparable to knights. The second part covers various aspects of clerical life, including clerical incomes (many of them quite high), patronage networks, clerical kin groups, households, and friendship. This section also explores the extremely important contributions of clerics to royal government, and the heated issues of clerical celibacy and clerical violence. The third section deals with the intellectual and cultural influence of the clergy as intellectuals, authors, owners and donors of books, musicians, and cultural patrons. The last section concerns the religious duties of clerics, their personal piety, and their fierce rivalry with the monastic order. Overall, the book argues that the secular clergy contributed more than any other group to the twelfth-century renaissance.
Keywords:
secular clergy,
Christianity,
church,
religion,
renaissance,
social history
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198702566 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2014 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198702566.001.0001 |