The Secular Chronicle

There are several reasons why the chronicle is particularly suited as the topic of a yearbook. In the first place there is its ubiquity: all over Europe and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written, both in Latin and in the vernacular, and not only in Europe but also in the countries neighbouring on it, like those of the Arabic world. Secondly, all chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them. Finally, many chronicles have been beautifully illuminated, and the relation between text and image leads to a wholly different set of questions.The yearbook The Medieval Chronicle aims to provide a representative survey of the on-going research in the field of chronicle studies, illustrated by examples from specific chronicles from a wide variety of countries, periods and cultural backgrounds. The Medieval Chronicle is published in cooperation with the Medieval Chronicle Society.

The secular clergy - priests and other clerics outside of monastic orders - were among the most influential and powerful groups in European society during the central Middle Ages. The secular clergy got their title from the Latin word for world, saeculum, and secular clerics kept the Church running in the world beyond the cloister wall, with responsibility for the bulk of pastoral care and ecclesiastical administration. This gave them enormous religious influence, although they were considered too worldly by many contemporary moralists - trying, for instance, to oppose the elimination of clerical marriage and concubinage. Although their worldliness created many tensions, it also gave the secular clergy much worldly influence. Contemporaries treated elite secular clerics as equivalent to knights, and some were as wealthy as minor barons. Secular clerics had a huge role in the rise of royal bureaucracy, one of the key historical developments of the period. They were instrumental to the intellectual and cultural flowering of the twelfth century, the rise of the schools, the creation of the book trade, and the invention of universities. They performed music, produced literature in a variety of genres and languages, and patronized art and architecture. Indeed, this volume argues that they contributed more than any other group to the Twelfth-Century Renaissance. Yet the secular clergy as a group have received almost no attention from scholars, unlike monks, nuns, or secular nobles. In The Secular Clergy in England, 1066-1216, Hugh Thomas aims to correct this deficiency through a major study of the secular clergy below the level of bishop in England from 1066 to 1216.

Study of the opration of the monastic honor court affords new insights into the evolution of royal justice in Anglo-Norman and Angevin England. After William the Conqueror imposed upon English monastic houses an obligation to provide knights for the king's army, their new lay military and judicial responsibilities required them to organize honor courts. Because abbots were not merely leaders of religious houses but also honorial lords presiding over secular justice, a study of the monastic honor court affords new insights into the evolution of royal justice in Anglo-Norman and Angevin England. Tribunals of monastic houses answered questions on the knights' tenures and services, assessed and enforced military obligations, and resolved tenants' disputes. Under the Conqueror's sons, monastic lords in England regularly lookedto their king for support in preserving and protecting their jurisdiction, and the Anglo-Norman kings responded favorably. Under the Angevin kings, however, administrative reforms altered the nature of the honorial court and hastened the decline of the monastic honor court in the thirteenth century. KEVIN L. SHIRLEY teaches in the Department of History, LaGrange College. ContentsThe Monastic Honour Court; Monasteries and the County Courts; The Monasteries and the Curia Regis: The Anglo-Norman period, 1066-1154; The Monasteries and the Curia Regis: The reign of Henry II, 1154-1189; The Monasteries and the Curia Regis: The reigns of Richard I and John, 1189-1216; Conclusion.

All over Europe and in the Arabic world, and throughout the Middle Ages chronicles were written. These chronicles raise such questions as by whom, for whom, or for what purpose were they written, how do they reconstruct the past, what determined the choice of verse or prose, or what kind of literary influences are discernable in them.