The monastic patronage of King Henry II in England, 1154-1189

Martinson, Amanda M.

The subject of this study is Henry II’s monastic patronage in England 1154-1189. Past studies have examined aspects of Henry II’s patronage but an in-depth survey of Henry’s support of the religious houses throughout his realm has never been completed. This study was therefore undertaken to address modern notions that Henry’s monastic patronage lacked obvious patterns and medieval notions that the motivations behind his patronage were vague. The thesis seeks to illustrate that Henry’s motivations for patronage may not have been driven by piety but rather influenced by a sense of duty and tradition. This hypothesis is supported by examining and analyzing both the chronology and nature of Henry’s patronage. This thesis has integrated three important sources to assess Henry’s patronage: chronicles, charters, and Pipe Rolls. The charters and Pipe Rolls have been organized into two fully searchable databases. The charters form the core of the data and allow for analysis of the recipients of the king’s patronage as well as the extent of his favour. The Pipe Rolls provide extensive evidence of many neglected aspects of Henry’s patronage, enhancing, and sometimes surpassing, the charter data. The sources have allowed an examination of Henry’s patronage through gifts of land and money rents, privileges, pardons and non-payment of debt, confirmations and intervention in disputes. The value, geography and chronology of this patronage is discussed throughout the thesis as well as the different religious orders that benefited and the influences Henry’s predecessors and family had upon the king. Quantitative analysis has been included where possible. Henry II was a steady patron throughout his reign and remained cautious with his favour. He maintained many of the benefactions of his predecessors but was not an enthusiastic founder of new monasteries in England. There is no sign that neither the killing of Thomas Becket, nor the approach of Henry’s own death, had a marked effect on his patronage.

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‘Dyvers kyndes of religion in sondry partes of the Ilande’: the geography of pastoral care in thirteenth-century England

Campbell, William Hopkins

The Church was not the only progenitor and disseminator of ideas in medieval England, but it was the most pervasive. Relations between the ecclesiastical and lay realms are well documented at high social levels but become progressively obscure as one descends to the influence of the Church at large on society at large (and vice versa). The twelfth century was a time of great energy and renewal in the leadership and scholarship of the Church; comparable religious energy and renewal can be seen in late-medieval lay culture. The momentum was passed on in the thirteenth century, and pastoral care was the means of its transfer. The historical sources in this field tend to be either prescriptive, such as treatises on how to hear confessions, or descriptive, such as bishops’ registers. Prescription and description have generally been addressed separately. Likewise, the parish clergy and the friars are seldom studied together. These families of primary sources and secondary literature are brought together here to produce a more fully-rounded picture of pastoral care and church life. The Church was an inherently local institution, shaped by geography, personalities, social structures, and countless ad hoc solutions to local problems. Few studies of medieval English ecclesiastical history have fully accepted the considerable implications of this for pastoral care; close attention to local variation is a governing methodology of this thesis, which concludes with a series of local case studies of pastoral care in several dioceses, demonstrating not only the divergences between them but also the variations within them.

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