1st Edition

Religion, Politics and Society in Britain 1066-1272

By Henry Mayr-Harting Copyright 2011
    378 Pages
    by Routledge

    378 Pages
    by Routledge

    The period from 1066 to 1272, from the Norman Conquest to the death of Henry III, was one of enormous political change in England and of innovation in the Church as a whole. Religion, Politics and Society 1066-1272 charts the many ways in which a constantly changing religious culture impacted on a social and political system which was itself dominated by clerics, from the parish to the kingdom.

    Examining the various ways in which churchmen saw their relation to secular power, Henry Mayr-Harting introduces many of the great personalities of the time, such as Thomas Becket and Robert Grosseteste. At the same time he shows how religion itself changed over the course of two centuries, in response to changing social conditions – how rising population fuelled the economic activities of the monasteries, and how parish reform demanded a more educated clergy and by this increased the social prestige of the Church.

    Written by an acknowledged master in the field, this magisterial account will be an unmissable read for all students of Norman and Plantagenet England and of the history of the medieval Church as a political, social and spiritual force.

    Introduction. 1 Church and Economy in the Long Twelfth Century 2    The Church and the Norman Conquest 3.     Henry I and His Religion. 4 The Conflict Between Henry II and Thomas Becket. 5 Parishes and Parish Priests 6    The Monastic Century 1066–1216 7 Archbishop Hubert Walter and St Hugh of Lincoln: Church and King in the late Twelfth Century 8 Intellectual Life and Culture and How Related to Politics in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries 9 The Early English Franciscans 10 Changes and Continuities under Henry III

    Biography

    Henry Mayr-Hartingis a Fellow Emeritus in Medieval History at St Peter's College, Oxford, and was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History from 1997 until his retirement in 2003. He is the author of a number of works on Medieval history, including most recently Church and Cosmos in Early Ottonian Germany (2007).