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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Yes, Rosemary, fascinating material! It seems obvious from what you and Jon have said, that in today's terms, news would 'cascade' to the general public. The question is (as you ask): how long did this take?

Best wishes, George

On 12 Feb 2013, at 10:22, ANDREW MILLIGAN wrote:

I'm writing on train without reference tools but in England ecclesiastical news seems to have come from the archbishop of Canterbury (and, presumably, York). He wrote to the bishop of London (the dean of the province of Canterbury) who wrote to the other bishops of the province. Unless asking for convocation to be called (when above system prevailed), the king wrote directly to the bishops and so on. The Canterbury and York Society published a whole volume of Royal writs to Bishop Buckingham of Lincoln, which, I think, explains this process (very cheap copies available from me!)

I think news then passed through the archdeaconries and rural deaneries to the parishes. Does anyone have ny evidence of how long the process took?

Rosemary Hayes


From: Jon Cannon <[log in to unmask]>;
To: <[log in to unmask]>;
Subject: Re: [M-R] transmission of news in early 15th-century western Europe
Sent: Tue, Feb 12, 2013 9:57:34 AM

 
I've certainly come across bits and pieces of evidence for this kind of practise, and I too have thought how interestinhg the phenomenon is, and how one would love to explore its mechanics further. Writing from memory: when an early miracle was attributed to Thomas Cantilupe, bishop of Hereford, in the late C13, news of it was quickly copied into documents that were distributed throughout the parishes of the see for announcement at the pulpit. Numerous bits of English political news -- which battles the king had won or lost, etc -- were likewise spread from bishops to local pulpits in the c15. When Henry IV excommunicated Archbishop Scrope of York, Archbishop Arundel of Canterbury 'passed over' his obligation to have the announcement made from every pulpit in his Province. There are many such: clearly the clerkly wheels were well oiled, the distribution networks reasonably effective. Fascinating.
 
Jon 

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