First Tonsures in England in the First Half of the Fourteenth Century

Boys who were tonsured by their bishop acquired clerical status. Bishops might confer the tonsure at or near a general ordination but also on their progress around their diocese or when resident at one of their manor houses. Candidates had to be ‘literate’, possessing a certain level of Latin, free (or manumitted), legitimate (or dispensed) and ‘suitable’. There is evidence of local selection and candidates were examined before being tonsured. Tonsuring could be the first stage in progress to the priesthood, but many did not proceed beyond the first tonsure and others progressed only to ordination as acolyte

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• Registers of John Gynewell, Bishop of Lincoln, for the Years, 1347–1350

  A Hamilton Thompson•Archaeological Journal•1911

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• Rites of Passage

  Chris Given-Wilson•The English Historical Review•2005

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