Acknowledgements
I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the Conant Fund of the Episcopal Church, who has given me generous research support over the course of the last three years. I would like to thank the Board of Trustees at Virginia Theological Seminary, likewise, for their support of my teaching and research through their grant of a semester’s sabbatical, in which I completed this book. I would like to thank those of my colleagues who participated in several faculty seminars in which we read draft chapters, particularly Melody Knowles, Justin Lewis-Anthony, and Bob Prichard. I am extremely grateful to Mitzi Budde, head librarian extraordinaire of the Bishop Payne Library, and to her team of library staff: for endlessly re-shelving orange piles of the Corpus Christianorum, for letting me pounce early on new acquisitions, and for helping me to acquire books outside the ordinary remit of a small theological library. I would also like to thank my students at Virginia Theological Seminary; for a historian of clerical identity, it is a great privilege to watch the process happening in the moment and on the ground.
This book began its life in the community of scholars at the Medieval Institute at the University of Notre Dame. I owe a great debt to Tom Noble, my supervisor, for direction, support, and wry advice. I would also like to thank John Van Engen, Brad Gregory, John Cavadini, and Ann Astell for valuable input. Beyond Notre Dame, I would like to thank John Contreni, Karl Shuve, Tom Hall, David Ganz, and Clare Stancliffe. I would also like to thank Jon and Hollie Adamson, Sarah Baechle, Roberta Baranowski, Elizabeth Bentrup, Margaret Cinninger, Zack Giuliano, Mthr. Elizabeth Hadaway, Mthr. Susan Haynes, Mae Kilker, Evan Lamb, Anna Larsen, Hailey LaVoy, Paul Moberly, Jenny McAuley, Cara Rockhill, Julia Schneider, Megan Welton, Lauren Whitnah, and Stacy Williams-Duncan. My family listened patiently to disquisitions on the Carolingian clergy, and then dragged me outside and put me on a horse, for which, always, and for everything, my love. For the maintenance of general sanity, I am grateful to the work of Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo—hello to Jason Isaacs!—David Attenborough, Georgette Heyer, and Terry Pratchett—hello to Sam Vimes! At Brill, I am indebted to Robert Bast and Ivo Romein; what mistakes remain are entirely my own.