Project Details

The project uses the phenomenon of communal office-holding by men vowed to the religious life to investigate relations between secular and religious communities between c. 1250 and c.1450. The key questions to be tackled and their subsidiary elements are:

• How widespread was the employment of professional religious in secular office? Which offices were filled by religious and which were not? Why?
  
  
  
• To what extent did this practice differ across the centre and north of the peninsula from c.1250 to c.1450? What were its roots? How did it change? What were the mechanisms and criteria of selection? To what extent did cities copy each other, replicating statutes and practices?
  
  
  
• What was the attitude of religious leaders and secular elites? What evidence is there for approval or criticism? What problems were raised by the need for  oaths of office, payment of stipends, absence from the cloister? What do transitions from lay to religious officials or vice versa reveal about changing attitudes to lay and religious roles? How extensively did ideas about separation or collaboration between religious and seculars circulate and with what effect?
  
  
  
• How did the two elements, religious and secular, negotiate their relationship? What role did economic and financial issues, the need for trust or levels of expertise play? What were the benefits or disadvantages for each party?  What bearing did personal ties, patronage or membership of a particular order or religious house have on offices held or refused?