Much of this territory is familiar : the royal supremacy gave monarchs power to make episcopal office dependent on the king's pleasure.
The diocesan revival was introduced by more frequent episcopal and archidiaconal visitations and more ambitious charges, as means of promoting reforms and countering criticisms.
He saw that as his episcopal right and duty.
What mattered to him was the establishment of his episcopal authority at the expense of that of the martyrs.
Here the supposed episcopal history could explain why this church ought to be one nullius diocesis.
This approach throws light on actual experience in a way that the episcopal capitularies cannot.
Above all, however, the diffusion of historiae casts light on the networks which sprang up between schools, episcopal centres and monasteries.
Throughout the 1640s, negotiations for peace centred on religious issues and especially the episcopal government of the church.
