| Description | These professions are made by heads of religious houses. They make use of a variety of formulae.
A number of these professions are mentioned by Gervase of Canterbury and those who continued his chronicle after his death. References to Gervase's Chronicle which follow are taken from the Rolls Series edition, edited by William Stubbs, 2 vols (London, 1879 and 1880).
When establishing dates for documents, use has been made of D Knowles, C N L Brooke and V C M London, The heads of religious houses, England and Wales 940-1216 (Cambridge, 1972) and of D M Smith and V C M London, The heads of religious houses, England and Wales II, 1216-1377 (Cambridge, 2001). In a number of cases, information from these professions supplements details given in the first volume of Heads of Religious Houses.
Dates given by Woodruff (as cited below) for undated professions are not all reliable. If the name of an archbishop is not given in a document, he assumed that the see was then vacant. This assumption seems to be incorrect.
The documents bear stitching holes at the head and the foot and were presumably once sewn together to form a roll.
Professions by heads of religious houses are transcribed in DCc/Register/A, ff252r-253v and 260v-266r. (The foliation of this volume is confused.) Some are also are enrolled in DCc-ChAnt/C/117. Originals of these registered and enrolled professions survive in DCc-SVSB/I as 69/2, 70/2-4 and 71/2, and as DCc-ChAnt/C/115/153. The register and roll also include some professions of which the originals do not survive.
The majority of the professions in DCc/Register/A and in DCc-ChAnt/C/117 are professions of obedience made by bishops. For the originals of these episcopal professions, see DCc-ChAnt/C/115. These episcopal professions have been collated, transcribed and discussed in M Richter, Canterbury Professions (Canterbury and York Society, 1973). |