Church and Society in the Medieval North of England

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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 cathredral chapters of Carlisle and Durham did much to prevent any increase in the powers of York itself. This collection of essays 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. The author also examines, among other issues, the careers of individual prelates, including Alexander Neville, Archbishop of York (1374-88) 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.