ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book considers the ritual and finance of election, focusing on practices that were customary within the context of thirteenth-century England, but developed outside the constraints of canon law. It considers practice of election during the reigns of Henry III and Edward I. The book focuses on the theoretical aspects of this transition, outlining the changes to the canon law which lay behind the rise of provision, and detailing the impact these changes had on the rights and responsibilities of the key quintet of participants. The chapter considers how far these changes altered the customs and costs of the appointment process. Nevertheless, by piecing together a range of texts produced over a century and a half, by dozens of authors, it is possible to produce a synthesis of the history of episcopal appointments in England between c.1214 and c.1344.
