THE BUSINESS OF THE COURT OF ELY

The diocese of Ely was the second smallest in geographical area in England, covering only the county of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. From August of 1373 to June of 1388, its bishop was Thomas Arundel, a well-connected prelate who was later translated to York and who ultimately became archbishop of Canterbury. Close to the beginning of Arundel's tenure, Robert Foxton, a notary public and registrar of the court, began what he called “a register of causes of the consistory of Ely.” This is a chronological record of all the business that came before the court of the bishop's official between the years 1374 and 1381. The period in question covers the tenure of three different officials and a number of commissaries. There are 3,215 entries of judicial business in the book (excluding the entries that indicate the court session and its adjournment). The quality and care with which Foxton composed the 142 folios of this book make it one the most informative of the surviving English medieval church court act books. It is also one of the earliest.

The first question we must ask when we are confronted with such a huge amount of data is how to organize it. Much of what we see in the Ely act book is easily translatable into modern legal categories, and there is some evidence that Foxton was thinking in these categories.