Piety and Politics in Britain, 14th–15th Centuries: The Essays of John A.F. Thomson (Variorum Collected Studies)

This volume explores a range of topics during a turbulent period in British history, with particular emphasis on political change and popular piety. On the eve of the Reformation, religious beliefs were shaped by a church which was falling under the growing control of the state, and by responses to England's one and only heretical movement, Lollardy. In political life, gradual disengagement from a cross-Channel political world was followed by civil war and the eventual rise of a strong Tudor monarchy. As this volume demonstrates in a number of ways, the impact of many of these macro changes was felt across the British Isles, not just in England. But the studies presented here frequently explore major change through the experience of the middling sort: the gentry active in local government, the English merchants and Scottish immigrants making important life choices in major cities, or the industrious clerics charged with the routine administration of the church. By looking at the case studies of these men in more detail, we begin to appreciate that even in this age of great change, there were profound continuities which carried through into the sixteenth century. Along the way, too, new light is thrown on the authorship, date and redaction of texts which continue to shape our understanding of late medieval British history. Cover Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents A Note of Thanks Preface Acknowledgements 1: Popular Piety and Heresy in the British Isles I: St Eiluned of Brecon and Her Cult II: Wealth, Poverty and Mercantile Ethics in Late Medieval London III: Piety and Charity in Late Medieval London IV: Tithe Disputes in Later Medieval London V: Orthodox Religion and the Origins of Lollardy VI: A Lollard Rising in Kent: 1431 or 1438? VII: John Foxe and Some Sources for Lollard History: Notes for a Critical Appraisal VIII: Knightly Piety and the Margins of Lollardy 2: The Church and the British Isles in the Late Middle Ages IX: Papalism and Conciliarism in Antonio Roselli's Monarchia X: 'The Well of Grace': Englishmen and Rome in the Fifteenth Century XI: Innocent Vlll and the Scottish Church XII: Two Exeter Decanal Elections, 1509 XIII: Richard Tollet and Thomas Cornish: Two West Country Early Tudor Churchmen XIV: Some New Light on the Elevation of Patrick Graham XV: Bishop Lionel Woodville and Richard III 3: Lords and Laymen in Fifteenth Century England XVI: The Courtenay Family in the Yorkist Period XVII: Richard III and Lord Hastings - A Problematical Case Reviewed XVIII: John De Ia Pole, Duke of Suffolk XIX: Scots in England in the Fifteenth Century 4: Sources and Problems in Late Medieval English History XX: 'Warkworth's Chronicle' Reconsidered XXI: 'The Arrival of Edward IV'- The Development of the Text XXII: The Continuation of 'Gregory's Chronicle' - A Possible Author? XXIII: The Death of Edward V: Dr Richmond's Dating Reconsidered Index On the eve of the Reformation, religious beliefs were shaped by a church which was falling under the growing control of the state, and by responses to England's one and only heretical movement, Lollardy. The studies presented in this book frequently explore major change through the experience of the middling sort.