The years between the early fourteenth and the mid sixteenth century are of considerable interest in the history of the prelate. In some respects, this era might be regarded as a golden age of prelacy, culminating in the appearance of great ecclesiastical dignitaries across much of Europe, such as Wolsey, d'Amboise, Cisneros, Lang and Jagiellon. In terms of their political weight, their grandeur and their wide-ranging cultural patronage, these early sixteenth-century ‘cardinal-ministers’ arguably represented a high point in prelatical influence. Nor should they be regarded as wholly distinct from their clerical contemporaries: recent studies of Renaissance cardinals and the early Tudor episcopate indicate that the next rank of senior churchmen were no less concerned to express the importance and dignity of their office. However, the period c. 1300–c. 1560 also witnessed a developing critique of prelacy – not unconnected with these eye-catching assertions of ecclesiastical status and power – with complaints about senior members of the Church hierarchy a commonplace in the literature and preaching of the day. To these criticisms were added attacks on the very concept of the prelate, which was rejected as unscriptural by John Wyclif and his followers: a critique which would be taken up enthusiastically by sixteenth-century reformers in England and Europe.

The cardinals present in the court of Francis I (1515–47) can be categorized in three different ways. First the courtiers, in other words the cardinals from the most powerful court families who gravitated around the sovereign without occupying any political or administrative function. These were Cardinals Adrien Gouffier, Claude de Givry, Odet de Châtillon and Jacques d'Annebault. Then there were the cardinals who took advantage of the captive market of curial ecclesiastical missions, especially as chaplain (Cardinals Jean Le Veneur and Antoine Sanguin) or almoner. These missions were sometimes, though not always, a stepping stone to political service. Finally there were the cardinals who occupied a role in royal power and administration. The latter hailed from the ranks of State prelates whose presence in government was quite decisive. These were the Cardinals Antoine Duprat, François de Tournon, Jean Du Bellay and Charles Hémard de Denonville. It is important to situate these cardinals in their right place, between the court where they resided and the council around which they gravitated.

French cardinals and Renaissance cardinals

An important development in the history of the cardinals was the rise in their number, starting with Sixtus IV (1471–84). Although during the Middle Ages, they rarely exceeded a maximum of thirty or so, the count exploded from the end of the fifteenth century.

This volume has grown out of a conference on ‘The Prelate in Late Medieval and Reformation England’, held at the University of Liverpool in September 2011. All the papers delivered at that conference are published below, apart from those given by Natalia Nowakowska and Brigitte Resl. The volume also includes a chapter by Cédric Michon, offered subsequent to the Liverpool conference. I would like to thank the contributors to both the conference and to the volume, all of whom have been stimulating and good-humoured collaborators throughout this project.

I would also like to acknowledge gratefully the work and expert guidance of all those at Boydell & Brewer and York Medieval Press who have been involved with this volume and especially Caroline Palmer, Rohais Haughton and Professor Peter Biller. The Liverpool conference was funded partly by a British Academy Research Development Award, and partly by financial contributions from the department of History of the University of Liverpool and the Liverpool Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, without all of whose generous support the event could not have taken place. This publication has also been made possible by a grant from the Scouloudi Foundation in association with the Institute of Historical Research, acknowledged here with gratitude.