Priests and their Books in Late Anglo-Saxon England

Fresh perspectives on the English clergy, their books, and the wider Anglo-Saxon church.

Priests were ubiquitous figures in the Anglo-Saxon world: they acted as educators, agents of royal authority, scribes, and dealers in real estate. But what set priests apart from the society in which they lived was the authority to provide pastoral care and their ability to use the written word. Early medieval bishops saw books as indispensable to a priest's duties and episcopal legislation frequently pr...