The Secular Clergy in England, 1066-1216

The Secular Clergy in England, 1066-1216
ISBN-10
0198702566
ISBN-13
9780198702566
Category
History
Pages
422
Language
English
Published
2014
Publisher
Oxford University Press, USA
Author
Hugh M. Thomas

Description

Secular clerics - priests and other clerics outside of monastic orders - have been neglected in the modern scholarship, yet the secular clergy were among the most influential and powerful groups in European society during the central Middle Ages. As ecclesiastical administrators and as parish priests, they kept the Church functioning. Many were as wealthy as knights or barons and they provided much of the personnel for the growing royal administration. Many of theleading intellectuals of the period were secular clerics, and they were central to the creation of universities and the development of the book trade. Arguably, they were more important than any othergroup in creating the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. This volume aims to reveal their importance through a major study of the secular clergy below the level of bishop in England from 1066 to 1216.

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