The Foundations of Medieval English Ecclesiastical History: Studies Presented to David Smith (review)

The economics of the publishing world make the publication of Festschriften much rarer than used to be the case; however, this volume shows a great combination of personal tribute to an eminent scholar and a pioneering archivist, on the occasion of his retirement from the directorship of the Borthwick Institute, University of York. It is a focused and interesting collection of essays, the subjects of which reflect the breath and scope of David Smith's work.

The first two contributions in the book, by Christopher Brooke and Christopher Webb respectively, present the scholarly work of David Smith as the editor of the British Academy's English Episcopal Acta series, general editor of the Lincoln Record Society, and editor of many volumes of other medieval ecclesiastical documents from the York diocese as well as director of the Borthwick Institute, which under his leadership became one of the most important repositories of documents related to the ecclesiastical and regional history of northern Britain as well as an active research center and training ground for new generations of archivists.

Julia Barrow's contribution, "Why Forge Episcopal Acta? Preliminary Observations on the Forged Charters in the English Episcopal Acta series" argues that forgeries were produced primarily by large Benedictine monasteries and cathedral priories and to a lesser degree by other ecclesiastical institutions in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The most active in this field were post-Conquest foundations at Gloucester, Rochester, Durham, and Norwich, and the charters were produced to assert the right to numerous parish churches or tithes granted in the late eleventh century, which was a low point in the production of private charters as well as an attempt to secure freedom from various demands of episcopal officials. This article contains also a useful list of forged episcopal acta and beneficiaries of these documents. The next essay, by Nicholas Bennett, "Pastors and Masters: The Beneficed Clergy of North-East Lincolnshire, 1290-1340," argues for a less gloomy picture of lower clergy in later medieval Britain, which has traditionally been seen as dominated by absenteeism and lack of care for parish duties. Using the example from the registers of the bishops of the dioceses of Lincoln, he finds many examples contradicting this view. Then, Janet Burton elucidates how another type of sources—so called "cause papers"—concerning payments of ecclesiastical dues, matrimonial cases, defamation, and testamentary wills can be used to explore complex relationships between religious houses in Yorkshire and their lay neighbors. Charles Fonge moves on to study the role and development of collegiate churches in the pre-Black Death period using the cartulary of St. Mary's collegiate church in Warwick. The next contribution, by Christopher Harper-Bill, moves away from the corporate to the individual to examine the career of Walter Suffield, Bishop of Norwich (1244-1257), who has been rather positively described by Matthew Paris's chronicle. The literary picture is analyzed here in conjunction with his acta to reveal a conscientious administrator and pastor who was particularly concerned with supplying charitable provisions for the poor. The theme of charity is taken up by R. H. Helmholz, who discussed legal bases of charitable giving in the canon law and evidence for practical application of these principles by the late medieval English ecclesiastical courts. Then, Philippa Hoskin returns to figures of bishops, offering a study of the composition of the episcopal household and shows a significant continuity in personnel under successive bishops of Durham in the thirteenth century. The next article, by Brian Kemp, brings together a selection of acta issued by English rural deans in the early stages of this office's existence between mid-twelfth century and c. 1220 to illustrate the range of activities performed by the deans. F. Donald Logan turns our attention to a range of matters dealt with by the Court...