Frontcover; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction; I Clients and Lawyers; 1 Cloistered Spirituality and English Nuns; 2 Legal Professionalism and English Lawyers; 3 Letters of Appointment and Routine Business; II Select Cases; 4 Proceedings at Common Law; 5 Chancery Suits; 6 Episcopal Arbitration; 7 Papal Appeals; Conclusion; Appendix; Select Bibliography; Index; Backcover.

In late medieval England, cloistered nuns, like all substantial property owners, engaged in nearly constant litigation to defend their holdings. They did so using attorneys (proctors), advocates and other ""men of law"" who actually conducted that litigation in the courts of Church and Crown, following the increased professionalism of legal practitioners during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. However, although lawyers were as crucial to the economic vitality of the nunneries as the patrons who endowed them, their role in protecting, augmenting or depleting monastic assets has never been.

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Includes bibliographical references.

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