Urban Society and Monastic Lordship in Reading, 1350-1600

Interrogates the standard view of turbulent and violent town-abbey relations through a combination of traditional and new research techniques. The power of the medieval Church stretched far beyond the religious sphere. Bishops and monasteries held lordship over vast areas of the realm, often wielding political and judicial powers beyond those of secular lords. Early twentieth-century scholarship tended to view towns with monastic lords as highly distinctive, characterised by robust lordship and