This book is a study of the reformation in ecclesiastical politics in twelfth-century England whereby the cathedral chapter, by gradually gaining control of more of its own wealth and resources, increased its power and emerged as a community largely independent of the bishop. The story illuminates an important period in the internal life of the Church, when the obligations and rights of individuals and institutions were being given ever more precise definition, and when new views on Church doctrine and canon law, as well as on royal and papal interests, became the concern of many of the leading ecclesiastics of the day.