This book focuses on the period from the seventh to eleventh
centuries that witnessed the rise and fall of Mercia, the great
Midland kingdom, and, later, the formation of England.
Specifically, it explores the relationship between the bishops of
Lichfield and the multiple communities of their diocese. Andrew
Sargent tackles the challenge posed by the evidential 'hole' at the
heart of Mercia by synthesising different kinds of evidence -
archaeological, textual, topographical and toponymical - to
reconstruct the landscapes inhabited by these communities, which
intersected at cathedrals and minsters and other less formal
meeting-places. Most such communities were engaged in the
construction of hierarchies, and Sargent assigns spiritual lordship
a dominant role in this. Tracing the interconnections of these
communities, he focuses on the development of the Church of
Lichfield, an extensive episcopal community situated within a
dynamic mesh of institutions and groups within and beyond the
diocese, from the royal court to the smallest township. The
regional elite combined spiritual and secular forms of lordship to
advance and entrench their mutual interests, and the entanglement
of royal and episcopal governance is one of the key focuses of
Andrew Sargent's outstanding new research. How the bishops shaped
and promoted spiritual discourse to establish their own authority
within society is key. This is traced through the meagre textual
sources, which hint at the bishops' involvement in the wider flow
of ecclesiastical politics in Britain, and through the
archaeological and landscape evidence for churches and minsters
held not only by bishops, but also by kings and aristocrats within
the diocese. Saints' cults offer a particularly effective medium
through which to study these developments: St Chad, the Mercian
bishop who established the see at Lichfield, became an influential
spiritual patron for subsequent bishops of the diocese, but other
lesser known saints also focused claims to spiritual authority on
behalf of their own communities. Ultimately, Sargent takes issue
with the dominance of the 'minster narrative' in much recent
scholarship, proposing that episcopal communities be recognised as
far more pro-active than is often credited, and that the notion of
spiritual lordship offers a more effective way of framing the
developments of the period, both ecclesiastical and lay.
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