THOMAS DE COBHAM : Bishop of Worcester, 1317-1327- By E.
H. Pearce, Litt.D. (S.P.C.K. 15s.)
This careful study of a fourteenth-century bishop, by the present occupant of his historical see, while a labour of love on the part of the writer, gives us a vivid picture of an English prelate of the later Middle Age. Thomas de Cobham, known as " The Good Clerk," after a life spent in the administrative service of the Crown, during which, in 1313, he seems narrowly to have missed promotion to the Metro- politan Chair of Canterbury, was Bishop of Worcester 1317- 1327, and the detailed diocesan records have enabled Bishop Pearce to follow his various activities during his tenure of the see. He seems to have been a typical mediaeval bishop —perhaps the episcopal type has changed little between then and now—decorous, business-like, conscientious, if neither particularly inspiring nor particularly inspired. The state of his diocese, while not free from scandals, cannot be described as scandalous—he died, it must be remembered, before the Black Death ; much.of his work was monotonous, and of routine character ; he was a good administrator, and in every way an excellent man. The memoir is a valuable example of the material of which history is made.
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