Ecclesiastical History/Religion

Now translated for the first time, it is readable, well annotated and well indexed. We owe a debt of gratitude to Preest. The value of this book to historians, for whom the Latin version is inaccessible, is patent. I approached it as a general reader and I found it delightful. CATHOLIC HERALD Preest's admirable work therefore fills a lacuna in the history of the Church of England from its inception to the early 12th century... Lucid and elegant, and presents William's narrative in an elegant and readable manner. CHURCH TIMES William was born c.1095 not far from Malmesbury in Wiltshire; heentered the monastery at Malmesbury as a boy, and stayed there as a monk for the rest of his life, writing works which were to win him lasting fame as a historian. His Deeds of the Bishops of England chronicles the activities of the bishops in all the dioceses of England from Augustine's arrival in Canterbury in 597 down to the 1120s when the work was being written; in addition to bishops and cathedrals, William also includes saints who were not bishops, and religious houses other than cathedrals. For the period after Bede's death in 730, it is the most important single source for English church history, and indeed, together with William's other great achievement, the Deeds of the Kings of England, for the history of England.Much of the material William retells in his own style, and with considerable narrative skill, from earlier sources available to him in the monastic library. But he also travelled widely in England, and the organisation of the Deeds reflects a clear chronological and topographical order, from Canterbury and Rochester to London, East Anglia and Wessex, north to York, Lindisfarne and Durham, thence to Mercia, and finally, 'returning home after a long journey', to his own abbey of Malmesbury and St Aldhelm.