The abbots and priors of late medieval and Reformation England /

Heale (Liverpool) has produced an excellent, broad survey of the critical roles of abbots and priors in monastic houses during this era of profound change. Chapters cover the selection, election, internal administrative functions and public service roles, living standards and modes of display, external relations and reputations, and lives of abbots and priors after the dissolution of their monasteries under Henry VIII. A key theme is the late medieval transformation of abbots and priors into prelates, who had centralized financial power akin to bishops. The chapters on the Dissolution decade provide convincing explanations for the overwhelming docility of superiors at the closing of their religious communities. Both narrative and analytical sections evince a close knowledge of a vast array of source materials concerning several thousand abbots and priors from this period, a natural extension of Heals's earlier works: Dependent Priories of Medieval English Monasteries (2004), Monasticism in Late Medieval England (2009), and The Prelate in England and Europe, 1300-1560 (2014). Heale covers only male religious superiors here, however, so for a parallel study of abbesses and prioresses, still see Valerie Spear's Leadership in Medieval English Nunneries (2005). Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. --Joseph P. Huffman, Messiah College