ABSTRACT
Alarge number of bishops came from the secular cathedrals, particularly from Salisbury, from Lincoln, and from York. It is important to remember the importance of the secular cathedral chapters at this time. They were living and active communities which bishops were concerned to reform and develop, sometimes as an offset to the power of monastic chapters in the same diocese, or, at a later stage of their growth, as communities by whose advice and consent the bishops were obliged to effect many of their episcopal acts.
