The Register of Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, 1258-1280, Volume One, ed. and trans. by O. F. Robinson (review)

BOOK REVIEWS317 Augustinians like theU confreres in Saxony quickly disbanded; the Dominicans became staunch opponents; whereas the Franciscans were divided in their loyalties .The dissolution of the individual houses took approximately thirty years because the regnant princes, the brothers Henry V and Albrecht VII, were ambivalent in their attitude toward the new teaching. Ribnitz survived longest because its last two abbesses who remained CathoUcs were the sister and daughter of Henry V. Ulpts has written an extremely detaUed study, and most readers who are not students of Mecklenburg history are advised just to read the introduction, the summaries of the individual sections, and the conclusion. Logemann's monograph about the Franciscans is less satisfactory, in part because there is Uttle documentary evidence. She tries to make sense of the latemedieval legend that Duke Otto ofBrunswick founded the house in 1235, but I faU to see how the friary,whose foundation she places around 1250, could have already been the site of a provincial chapter in 1230 (p. 17). More useful is her discussion of the friars' Ubrary, much ofwhich survives, and the introduction of the Observant reform in 1489 by the Rat, with the backing of the duke and the bishop. Most of the Franciscans left Lüneburg in 1530 after the Rat ordered them to adhere to Luther, though three natives of the city remained in the convent buUding untU 1555. John B. Freed Illinois State University The Register of Walter Bronescombe, Bishop of Exeter, 1258- 1280, Volume One. Edited and translated by O. F. Robinson. [The Canterbury andYork Society ,Volume LXXXII.] (Rochester, New York:The BoydeU Press. 1995. Pp. xlv, 161. $45.00;£25.00.) Walter Bronescombe's episcopal register is the first in a remarkably complete series of medieval bishops' registers from Exeter. As one of the earUest in England , it deserves special scrutiny not only for what it teUs of a diocese in the mid-thirteenth century but for what it represents Ui the formative stages ofepiscopal registers. Late in the last century, the Exeter antiquarian, F. C. HingestonRandolph , edited this register, along with every subsequent Exeter register to 1419.As impressive an archival task as that was, the editions were often imprecise and, accordingly, less valuable to the researcher.To say that O. F. Robinson has provided a corrective to Hingeston-Randolph's work is to grant only partial credit.This is as fine an edition of a medieval register as one can hope to see. Each entry is meticulously transcribed with appropriate notes and crossreferences ;there is the added advantage offacing-page translations, opening the register to a larger reading audience. Although this present volume is but the first in a three-volume edition.Volume III promises transcriptions of documents pertinent to Bronescombe's administration of Exeter which, though not registered ,were sewn into the manuscript at a later time.This latter volume also con- 318BOOK REVIEWS tains three appendices and an index. In sum, the whole ofthe project is a complete presentation of the Bronescombe register and pertinent documents.The register runs chronologicaUy rather than topicaUy, the commonplace business of disposing ecclesiastical benefices standing alongside various other recorded activities such as letters and memoranda, the appointment of commissions and church dedications.WhUe there is a tendency in the earUer forms ofregistration to lose some records (here, dispensations, ordinations, and visitations), the advantage ofthe chronological form is an appreciation of the daUy press and variety of business involved in diocesan administration. This volume begins with Bronescombe's election and ends in 1263, barely a third ofthe way through his pontificate, but aUeady we gain considerable insight into the bishop's administrative and pastoral priorities, the events which occurred in his early years as ordinary , and something of the style with which he governed his diocese. This volume also contains a thorough introduction which places Bronescombe and his register in the larger historical context of thirteenth-century Exeter. Dr. Robinson's work is impressive and the result of many years' labor; it is a significant contribution to the ecclesiastical history of Exeter and the English thirteenth century. William J. Dohar, C.S.C. University ofNotre Dame The Evangelical Rhetoric of Ramon Llull. Lay Learning and...