The Carmelite Order arrived in England when a small group of hermits from an obscure community on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land settled in lands given to them at extreme ends of the country, Northumberland and Kent. After a difficult beginning, the new Order expanded rapidly and by the latter half of the 14th century it numbered 39 communities and a total of nearly 1,000 friars.

Writing in 1536, at the start of the English Reformation, the former Carmelite friar John Bale spoke admiringly of the early members of that religious order: ‘The sons of Elijah were poor hermits, of small repute among men, humble, retiring … They were endowed with the Holy Spirit, of fervent devotion, occupied in contemplation of God … from among them came many who were wise and learned men.’ Bale went on to accuse his contemporary Carmelites of declining zeal: ‘They came to the notice of princes, put on airs and graces … rewarded with honours and titles, enriched with gifts … ambitious, proud, acquisitive.’

The highs and lows of the Carmelite Order in medieval England and Wales have been captured in this biographical register by eminent historian Richard Copsey. The fruit of four decades of scholarly research, the register compiles the known details of nearly 5,000 Carmelite men (and a handful of women) from the Order’s arrival in England until its suppression at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. By scouring hundreds of historical sources, Copsey’s register casts light on medieval Carmelite friars who were saints, bishops, confessors to royalty, academics, men of prayer, scientists, diplomats, musicians, preachers, poets, and even a handful of thieves, heretics, and murderers.

Each entry in this major work of prosopography contains, as far as possible, all biographical information known for an individual, as well as a last of all works known to have been written by each friar, together with any surviving manuscripts and printed editions. For each of the better-known friars there is also a comprehensive bibliography.