Archdeacons were the most senior officers in the secular church after the archbishops and bishops, and played a crucial role in diocesan administration. This book brings together for the first time the 285 surviving acta of English archdeacons in the twelfth century, representing forty-five of the fifty-one medieval archdeaconries of the English church; also included are twenty-one acta of vice-archdeacons, the main deputies of archdeacons at this time. These documents reveal archdeacons at work in various aspects of their responsibilities, such as presiding in archdeacons' synods or rural chapters, settling disputes, holding inquiries, and dealing with appointments to parish churches; they shed new light on the business and diplomatic of archdeacons' acta, the personnel of their households and staff, and the part archdeacons and their deputies played in the ecclesiastical and temporal affairs of the twelfth century.

Papers in Anglo-Norman history including new research on music, the Bayeux Tapestry and Domesday studies. Papers on a very wide range of subjects include, for the first time, one on music, on changes in English chant repertories in the eleventh century; book migrations are examined over the same period, and one of the two papers on the Bayeaux Tapestry looks at changing representations of the "burgheat". There are important papers on law and church administration and the relations of Normandy and England with other regions. The development of Rouen is comparedwith that of Paris; William the Conqueror's relations with Blois and Champagne are discussed; papers on the frontier with the Scots and on Rhys ap Teudur, king of Deheubarth are included. Domesday studies, chronicles and poetry are also represented with new research. Contributors W.M. AIRD, ROBERT BABCOCK, PAUL BRAND, SHIRLEY ANN BROWN, MICHAEL HERREN, EDOARDO D'ANGELO, DAVID DUMVILLE, JEAN DUNBABIN, BERNARD GAUTHIEZ, DAVID HILEY, B.R. KEMP, DEREK RENN, MARY FRANCES SMITH, BENJAMIN THOMPSON, SALLY VAUGHN, JOHN BRYAN WILLIAMS. 16. 1993: St Cuthbert, the Scots and the Normans; Rhys ap Tewdwr; 13c Litigation; Bayeaux Tapestry; Falco of Benevento's Chronicle; Anglo-Saxon Books on Norman Hands; Geoffrey of Chaumont, Thibaud of Blois and William the Conqueror; Paris, un Rouen capetien? 11c English Chant Repertories; Appointment of Parochial Incumbents in 12c England; Burgheat and Gonfanon; ArchbishopStigand; Free Alms Tenure in 12c; Anselm in Italy 1097-1100; Judhael of Totnes.

Essays on English medieval ecclesiastical history, focusing particularly on administration. Dorothy Owen has made a major contribution over half a century to our knowledge of the history of the English church, especially but not exclusively in the middle ages. While her published work has focused largely on eastern England, she has never lost sight of the wider universal context, and is one of the leading scholars of medieval canon law. This volume of essays on English medieval ecclesiastical history is presented to her as a tribute from friends,colleagues and former pupils; their contents range from the pre-Conquest period to the eve of the Reformation, but are all concerned with the practicalities of ecclesiastical administration and jurisdiction. Contributors: JOAN VARLEY, DAVID CHAMBERS, C.N.L. BROOKE, MARK BAILEY, MARTIN BRETT, M.J. FRANKLIN, CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL, ROSALIND HILL, RALPH HOULBROOKE, BRIAN KEMP, F. DONALD LOGAN, A.K. McHARDY, SANDRA RABAN, DAVID M. SMITH, R.L. STOREY, R.N. SWANSON, PAMELA TAYLOR, P.N.R. ZUTSHI, ARTHUR OWEN