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07.09.05, Register of Walter Langton

07.09.05, Register of Walter Langton


Walter Langton served as Edward I's treasurer, and his election as bishop of Coventry and Lichfield was very probably manipulated by the king and served as a reward to his adept servant. In addition, the king granted Langton broad secular jurisdiction within the diocesan lands, and the register frequently gives proof of that authority and its profits.

Langton is largely remembered for his very public trial and defamation. [1] Boniface VIII suspended Langton's episcopal authority, and the diocese was administered by papal appointees between March, 1302 and June, 1303. While most of the accusations levied against him were outrageous and unsubstantiated, Langton was indeed a skilled creditor and usurer who used his positions in the royal chancery and treasury to his fiscal advantage, and it was those activities that clearly prompted the original charges. What is most frequently forgotten is Edward I's unflagging support and the dismissal of the charges.

Jill B. Hughes's doctoral dissertation examined the episcopate of Bishop Walter Langton and provided a calendar of his register. [2] This volume continues and completes her earlier, first volume of Bishop Langton's register. [3] In that first volume, Hughes, the editor, provided a sensible English translation of the register in calendared form.

In volume one, Hughes provides an excellent introduction to the nature of the register, the administrative procedures of the diocese, and the bishop himself. The register reveals Langton as a scrupulous and attentive administrator of his diocese even while continuing his service to Edward I. The demands of that service and his royal administrative experience seem to have prompted his reliance on adept diocesan administrators. The well-articulated administration included: the sequestrator-general, the commissary-general, the "official" (who functioned as the episcopal deputy in the consistory court), the chancellor, five archdeacons, and rural deans. During Langton's absences on royal business, suffragan bishops assumed responsibility for his episcopal duties.

The register records both secular and ecclesiastical matters. The appointment and dismissal of clerics to their positions, licenses to study, charters and grants of land to secular individuals, the sequestration of secular and ecclesiastical properties and goods, letters patent affecting clerics and laymen, and the results of visitations. While this count is not exhaustive, it does give some sense of the wide-ranging nature of the register.

Volume two completes the labor of Prof. Hughes and is indispensable to making full use of volume one. Ordination lists comprise the bulk of the text and provide the names of the ordinands, locations (when recorded), as well as their status (acolyte, brother, subdeacon, deacon, priest, orders and patrons. While the lists dominant these later portions of the register, occasional folios contain charters, grants, and episcopal decrees.

Appendix A provides full Latin texts of selected entries in the register. These are particularly interesting since the full entries provide greater detail to disciplinary cases, licenses to study, and such matters as disputed appointments. Appendix B is a table of the years and terms of ordination services held in the diocese. This is followed by Appendix C giving the precise dates and locations of the ordination services as well as the celebrants. In most cases, Langton himself presided as celebrant.

Bishop Langton's itinerary is given in Appendix D. Langton frequently traveled outside the realm during the first years as he juggled his service to the crown and to the church. After 1301, almost all of his travel was within England and, in his last decade as bishop, almost exclusively within his diocese.

The two indices will be most useful to scholars. The index of persons and places is very thorough and extensive. The subject index will also prove helpful, although it is not exhaustive.

In these two volumes, Hughes has maintained high standards--her own and those of the Canterbury and York Society. The Register of Walter Langton is a worthy addition to the society's series and to libraries of scholars and universities.

1. A. Beardwood, "The Trial of Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 1307-1312," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new ser., 54 (1964), 5-45.

2. Jill B. Hughes, "The episcopate of Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, 1296-1321, with a calendar of his register" (3 vols.), University of Nottingham, Ph.D. thesis, 1992.

3. Jill B. Hughes, ed., The Register of Walter Langton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, vol. 1: 1296-1321, The Canterbury and York Society, vol. 91 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Canterbury and York Society and Boydell Press, 2001).