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The introduction in the edition examines the foundation of the college, its acquisition of property, and its constitutional development and character."--BOOK JACKET.

John Trevisa (ca.1342-1402), perhaps the greatest of Middle English prose translators of Latin texts into English, was almost an exact contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. Trevisa was born in Cornwall, studies at Oxford, and was instituted vicar of Berkeley, a position he held until his death. Over a period of thirty-five years eminent medievalist David Fowler has pieced together an account of Trevisa’s life and times by diligently seeking out documents bearing on his activities and translations. This has resulted in a cultural history of fourtheenth-century England that ranges from the administrative, geographical, and linguistic status of Cornwall to the curriculum of medieval university education, and from religious and secular conflicts to the administration of a substantial provincial household and the role of its aristocratic keepers in the Hundred Years War. Fowler provides an analysis of Trevis’s known translations the “Gospel of Nicodemus”, “Dialogus inter Militem et Clericum”, FitzRalph’s “Defensio Curatorum”, the “Polychronicon”, “De Regimine Principum” and “De Proprietatibus Rerum.” He also advances the hypothesis that Trevisa was one of the scholars responsible for the first complete translation of the scriptures into English: the Wycliffite Bible. An appendix contains a collection of biographical and historical references designed to illustrate Fowler’s contention that Trevisa may have been responsible for the revisions of “Piers the Plowman” now known as the B and C texts.

Cornwall is unique among English counties, though similar to other Celtic lands, in its religious history. Its churches, chapels, and place-names commemorated not only the major saints of Christendom, but also many minor 'Celtic' ones, unique to single churches. This book breaks new ground by considering them all, comprehensively and in detail. The introduction explains how the cults came into existence, and how they shed light on early Christianity in the county. It follows their history up to the Reformation, and shows how popular devotion to the saints lingered even in the eighteenth century. The main part of the book provides a history of every known religious cult in Cornwall from the sixth century AD to the Reformation, with relevant information about its later history down to the present day. Every known site is identified (church, chapel, altar, image, holy well, or other outdoor feature), and every written source is discussed (saint's Life, liturgical commemoration, and calendar festival). This is the first time that a complete inventory of cults has been produced for an area as large as an English county. The work also includes many saints venerated in Brittany, Wales and England, and makes copious references to all three countries. It provides a major resource in the fields of medieval Church history, Reformation studies, folklore, and Celtic studies, as well as the history of Cornwall.

Contributions on fundamental aspects of medieval ecclesiastical history, demonstrating the importance of primary documents. The work of historians in providing new editions of primary documents, and other aids to research, has tended to go largely unsung, yet is crucial to scholarship, as providing the very foundations on which further enquiry can be based. The essays in this volume, conversely, celebrate the achievements in this field by a whole generation of medievalists, of whom the honoree, David Smith, is one of the most distinguished. They demonstrate the importance of such editions to a proper understanding and elucidation of a number of problems in medieval ecclesiastical history, ranging from thirteenth-century forgery to diocesan administration, from the church courts to the cloisters, and from the English parish clergy to the papacy. Contributors: CHRISTOPHER BROOKE, C.C. WEBB, JULIA BARROW, NICHOLAS BENNETT, JANET BURTON, CHARLES FONGE, CHRISTOPHER HARPER-BILL, R.H. HELMHOLZ, PHILIPPA HOSKIN, BRIAN KEMP, F. DONALD LOGAN, ALISON MCHARDY

This admirable survey...compact, smoothly written, easy to read and digest, yet indicative throughout of profound scholarship and an obvious mastery of the field, Cornish Literatureprovides an enduring guide to this small but significant genre. The three Middle Cornish plays -- in English titles, The Creation of the World, Life of St Meriasekand the tripartite Ordinalia -- accompany a long Pascon agan Arluth, a verse Passion of our Lord' and the odd fragment... His last chapter, Survivals and Revivals', is a fair but detached account covering a long (1611 to 1992) phase that will also interest sociologists. The chief strength of his book is the textual analysis of the main plays, placing them alongside medieval English drama as well as the larger European manifestation of religious drama and the complex question of all their biblical and quasi-biblical sources. There is a useful bibliography. Modestly priced, Brian Murdoch's scholarly and attractive guide should appeal to many beyond medievalist circles; it will not be superseded for a long time.' THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT BRIAN MURDOCHis head of the Department of German at Stirling University.