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

Rank and state, church and clergy, marriage, Jane Austen's own convictions: a historian explores. "Can he be a sensible man, sir?" "No, my dear; I think not..." Thus Christopher Brooke prefaces his study of Jane Austen, whose sharp intelligence and wit have been the companions of his leisure for many years.In answer to the question as to whether there can be anything left to be said, Brooke returns rewardingly to her own writing, the novels and the letters, and with a historian's precision reveals new detail and fresh insights. What is the world Jane Austen describes, and how is it related to the world in which she lived? A close reading of each of the major novels leads into a detailed examination of a sheaf of themes - church and clergy, rank and status,marriage - to see how they are handled in their social and historical setting, what is revealed about Jane Austen's deepest convictions, and how these might be validly deduced from the text of her novels. The wisdom and insight hehas brought to historical research are now rewardingly brought to bear on a novelist of endless fascination. The late CHRISTOPHER BROOKE enjoyed a wide reputation as a historian, primarily of the medieval church and other institutions (he is the author of The Medieval Idea of Marriage), and of the 18th-century church portrayed so frequently, and so variously, in Jane Austen's novels.

These four major studies, thoroughly revised for this book, reflect this distinguished historian's continuing interest in relations between England and Wales in the tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. An introduction places the conclusions offered in these studies within the current framework of historical thinking about Wales in this period. The first chapter, a survey of Anglo-Welsh ecclesiastical life in the tenth and eleventh centuries, is followed by The Archbishops of St Davids, Llandaff and Caerleon-on-Usk', in which the twelfth-century claims of certain major Welsh churches to extensive jurisdiction and the methods by which they promoted their claims are subjected to a searching analysis. In St Peter of Gloucester and St Cadog of Llancarfan' a detailed examination is made of the complicated links which bound together the churches of Gloucester and Llancarfan from about 1100 and of the sources which reveal these ties. Finally in Geoffrey of Monmouth as a historian' the motivation and methods of one of the most controversial personalities of the Anglo-Welsh Church are considered.

Since this book was first published in 1931 the English church in the eleventh and twelfth centuries has been studied in depth, yet Z. N. Brooke's The English Church and the Papacy, now reissued with a new introduction by C. N. L. Brooke, remains the indispensable point from which all expeditions over this territory begin. The author set out first to determine what the law of the English Church was, and to seek the books on which it was based; then to draw out the consequences of what he had discovered in a general survey of the relations of England and Rome. The crisp, clear judgements on themes and characters in the second half are still worth pondering, for all the nuances that have been added since.

Christopher Brooke's account describes the working and development of the college, with much to illuminate the greater world outside its walls. Christopher Brooke's account of the history of Gonville and Caius, founded in 1348, describes the workings and development of the institution, the home of men such as William Lyndwood, Jeremy Taylor, Charles Sherrington and sevenother Nobel laureates - and of Titus Oates. For the more recent centuries, his rapidly moving narrative provides sketches and anecdotes of its central characters set in the wider context of the history of education, religion, learning and research. The Epilogue to this new edition describes the major events in the history of the College in the late twentieth century. Reissue; first published in 1985. The late CHRISTOPHER BROOKE was Fellow of Gonville and Caius and Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical history, University of Cambridge.

The University of Cambridge has been a federation of colleges for centuries; in the past hundred years it has also become a center of international fame in many disciplines, with numerous faculties and departments. Volume IV of A History of the University of Cambridge covers the years 1870-1990, and explores the fascinating labyrinth of the federation and the nature of this extraordinary academic growth; it also sketches the society of the University and its place in the world; the role of religion and learning; the entry of women; and the leading characters in the story--Henry Sidgwick, F. W. Maitland, Gowland Hopkins, Ernest Rutherford, and many others.

This wide-ranging book offers fascinating insights into the nature of marriage in the Middle Ages, both in its social, political, legal, and religious aspects, and its treatment in contemporary art and literature. From such major topics as the role of the Church fathers and the Bible, and the practice and law of marriage, to the cult of celibacy and the relationship between marriage and architecture, Professor Brooke's illuminating study offers the most complete account of medieval marriage ever published. He draws on a remarkable group of case studies and sources, including the letters of Heloise and Abelard, the epics of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the poetry of Chaucer, and concludes with a penetrating look at the Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck.

`What is marriage and what sets it apart from other human relationships'? These are the key questions which Professor Brooke addresses in this important study of marriage in the medieval world. He draws on many disciplines - history, art, theology, and literature - in order to penetrate the special character of marriage. He covers the entire period from 1000 to 15000, with special emphasis on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Among the themes treated in this wide-ranging study are the cult of celibacy and the relationship between marriage and architecture. Professor Brooke draws on a remarkable group of case-studies and sources, including the letters of Heloise and Abelard, the epics of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the poetry of Chaucer. He concludes with a chapter on the theology of marraige, and a penetrating look at The Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck.