Church and Society in the Medieval North of England by R. B. Dobson (review)

328BOOK REVIEWS throughout. Future students of the Dialogus wiU find much helpful guidance in these "fragments of hermeneutics." Brian Tierney Cornell University Church and Society in the Medieval North ofEngland. By R. B. Dobson. (Rio Grande, Ohio: Hambledon Press. 1996. Pp. xvi, 323. $60.00.) This volume contains thirteen articles previously appearing from 1965 to 1992 and aU concerned with the history ofthe Church in northern England; the focus of all but two articles is the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In his introduction Dobson observes that the records of the northern church are uneven, Uttle surviving from the diocese of CarUsle, a rich repository from the prior and chapter at Durham, and a complete set of archiépiscopal registers fromYork. In the first article he appropriately compares the cathedral cities and their chapters (secular canons in New York, Benedictines at Durham, and Augustinian canons at Carlisle). Dobson notes that it is often dUficult to discover in medieval documents the individual monk or bishop; nevertheless, he is able to shed considerable Ught on the life of Richard Bell, prior of Durham and later bishop of Carlisle, and he presents an incisive analysis of the reasons for the failure ofArchbishop Alexander NeviUe of York (removed in 1388). In discussing the c. 1070 origins of Selby, the first Norman abbey in northern England, Dobson also shows his ability to sift fact from legend. The articles complement and intersect weU with one another. Two adjacent articles study the church of Durham's relations with Scotland—the faUure of Bishop Fordham to appear at the English defeat at Otterburn in 1 388 and the monks' loss of Coldingham in 1478, the last English monastery on Scottish soil, despite their expensively-gained papal support. Next Dobson studies the career of Prior Bell, who tried in vain to save Coldingham. Then follows a study of the political role of Edward I's archbishops ofYork whom the king depended on because of his Scottish policy and his poor relations with the archbishops of Canterbury. A later archbishop of York, Alexander NevUle, Dobson notes in the next article, faUed in his attack against the elite residentiary canons of York Minster. Dobson then provides a detailed study of the thirty-four fifteenthcentury residentiary canons, whose wiUs display some of the criteria proposed as indicative of heterodoxy—but these men were "highly orthodox and conventionaUy pious" (p. 220). Then foUows a study of Richard Ill's relations with the church of York in which the York residentiary canons played a key role. Richard hoped to set up a chantry atYork. Two articles deal withYork chantries, first the perpetual type and then York citizens' interest in chantries. Dobson's last chapter discusses the low level of historical writing in Durham andYork at the end of the Middle Ages. BOOK REVIEWS329 The book has a well-constructed index, and in a few places the author has added notes to update articles. Despite the nature ofthe book,there is Uttle repetition . The two articles on York chantries are the lone exception although much ofhis study of the social origins and monastic lives ofDurham monks has since appeared in chapter two of his Durham Priory 1400-1450. A young scholar might note the numerous occasions when Dobson points out an area deserving of further study; for example, the success of the archdiocese of York in fuLfiUing its obügations and roles"must await an intensive exploration of the voluminous and almost entirely unpubUshed records of the late medieval chapter and diocese of York" (p. 196). This is a valuable collection of articles if for no other reason than that the province of Canterbury overshadows its northern counterpart. Hambledon Press should be congratulated for printing this kind of book which makes avaUable a substantial body ofwork from a single scholar which would otherwise be difficult to access. John W Dahmus Stephen F.Austin State University Nacogdoches, Texas Early Modern European Donna, disciplina, creanza cristiana dal XV al XVlI secólo. Studi e testi a stampa. Edited by Gabriella Zarri. [Terni e Testi, Nuova Serie, 36.] (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura. 1996. Pp. 800. Lire 150.000.) This massive volume is divided into two almost equal...