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In the late eleventh century, the episcopal Church of St Cuthbert at Durham was one of the most powerful institutions in the North of England. Its power was derived from its possession of extensive landed estates which had been acquired since the late seventh century. Whereas the other ecclesiastical corporations of early Northumbria had succumbed to the successive waves of Scandinavian invasions, the Church of St Cuthbert had established a significant franchise and had augmented its landholding. The leaders of the Church were willing to lend their support to any secular ruler who would guarantee the safety of its possessions. The first Norman appointee to the bishopric, Walcher, was in a precarious position relying heavily upon the local Northumbrian aristocracy for his administration. Factionalism within Walcher's regime brought about the Bishop's murder at Gateshead in 1080. This incident forced William I to reconsider his policy in the North-East of England and he appointed William of St Calais to the bishopric and Robert de Mowbray to the earldom of Northumbria. Bishop William launched an attack on the position of the members of the pre-Conquest Congregatio sancti Cuthberti by introducing a Convent of Benedictine monks to Durham in 1083. A re-examination of the early twelfth-century chronicle of Symeon, who was precentor at Durham, challenges the widely held view that there was a complete change in the personnel serving St Cuthbert's shrine in 1083. It is argued that a significant number of the Congregation entered the Convent thus maintaining a strong local presence at the shrine. The Benedictine Convent served as the cathedral chapter and its relationship with its nominal Abbot, the Bishop, is surveyed for the period, 1083 to 1153. During the pontificate of William of St Calais, the Convent enjoyed a privileged status within the see. However, the elevation of Rannulf Flambard to the bishopric marked the beginning of conflict between the two institutions. The monks sought a definition. of their franchise and this prompted them to confect a series of forged foundation charters which multiplied during the pontificate of Hugh du Puiset. The establishment of a French baronage within the Patrimony of St Cuthbert strengthened the Norman presence in the region, although a number of native families maintained their position. The surviving evidence suggests that the feudal structure of Durham was largely the work of Bishop Rannulf. Finally, the relationship between the Church of St Cuthbert and Scotland has been considered and it is argued that, in this period, the Bishop of Durham did not take an active role in the defence of the North of England. The Convent received grants of land from the Scots kings, most notably the church of Coldingham. As it had done between its foundation and the late eleventh century, the Church of St Cuthbert survived weathering the Norman Conquest and thereby ensuring that the cult of St Cuthbert at Durham prospered. By the end of the twelfth century it was rivalled only by that of Thomas Becket.

William Warham, Lord Chancellor of England (1504--1515) and Archbishop of Canterbury (1503--1532), was Desiderius Erasmus's most generous and consistent patron; in Erasmus's words a "sacred anchor" for him. The relationship between the two men connected with and contributed to a complex process of historical change. First of all, Warham and Erasmus were both associated with the paradigm shift which we now call the Northern Renaissance. Warham's academic background and his travels on the continent motivated him to support the study of Greek, new research in theology and the revival of classical learning. His money and political support acted as a force enabling Erasmus to get his New Testament work completed and published. Erasmus's New Testament research in turn facilitated the biblical scholarship of the Reformation and definitely motivated William Tyndale, among others. The reform which the collaboration of Warham and Erasmus helped to unleash was hence more radical than either had ever anticipated. Once religious reform started, neither man could control its pace although each made an effort to do so. The aim of this thesis is to show the significance of their relationship to the two individuals themselves, and also, more importantly, to analyze the dynamics of their collaboration and to demonstrate how and why it acted as a catalyst for religious change in England. Books have been written about More and Erasmus and Colet and Erasmus; the absence of a book about Warham and Erasmus has meant that the nature and significance of their relationship have not, as yet, been fully understood.

This thesis addresses a significant, though largely unexplored, part of the Marian Counter-Reformation. Queen Mary and her ministers expected the University of Oxford's contribution to the success of their plans for the English Church to be decisive. From her letter to the University in August 1553, only weeks after her accession, in which she announced her intention of laying the foundations of her ecclesiastical policy in Oxford, the academy underwent a transformation. After decades of trauma which had left the University poor, empty and (literally, in some parts) crumbling, Mary's reign gave the University a purpose, something which had been difficult to discern since the Dissolution of the Monasteries had deprived it of a large proportion of its students and lecturers. Mary and, after November 1554, Reginald Cardinal Pole undertook an extensive programme designed to reform and restore the University, a programme which was willingly and tirelessly taken up by those sympathetic to it in the University. This had its theological, ecclesiastical, liturgical and architectural elements, each of which will be considered in this thesis. Its central claim is not just that the existing picture of Mary Tudor's Church is incomplete without the inclusion within it of the restoration of Catholicism in Oxford, but that it is in Oxford, and perhaps only there, that all the different elements of her religious policy can be seen for what they are: a consistent whole, conceived and executed with one purpose: the reintegration of the English Church into the universal Catholic body.

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This work examines particular attributes of the purgatorial phenomena from pre-Christian history of the Indo-European world to the Early Modern Period of England. An attempt has been made to identify and concentrate attention upon examples which provide the most significant and penetrating look into this evolution. For example, a portion of this paper attempts to determine just how widespread purgatorial customs were throughout England and the various types of community that supported these beliefs pre and post Reformation. By comparing life before and after the reigns of Henry and Edward a conclusion is reached that reveals the Protestant Reformation in England stripped the laity of a fundamental instrument they needed to support their religiosity and custom. This becomes evident in further years as some of those same customs and rituals that had been considered anathema by Protestants, slowly crept back into the liturgy of the new religion. Strong evidence of this is provided, with a strong emphasis placed upon late seventeenth and early eighteenth century death eulogies, with a section of this paper being devoted to the phenomena of the Sin-Eater.

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No description available.