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William Cecil and Episcopacy, 1559–1577 . By Usher Brett. St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, 2003. xx + 246 pp. $84.95 cloth.

This book offers a good deal more than a circumscribed study of William Cecil in relation to the bishops of the Church of England during the first half of the reign of Elizabeth I. Rather, it is the first part of what the author proposes to be "a full study" (177) of the Elizabethan episcopate, with a second volume to follow. Counting deans and other relevant clergy alongside of the bishops, the author's investigation includes about two hundred members of the clerical estate during that reign. Focusing on the finances and administration of the English church, and based mainly on archival material, especially exchequer records, Usher teases out the complicated relationship of Principal Secretary and then Lord Treasurer William Cecil (Lord Burghley) and Queen Elizabeth as they chose bishops and defined the episcopal office for the Protestant Church of England. These exchequer records provide the "backbone" of Usher's study as he examines "the bishops' relationship with the exchequer 'at their first entrance' and their status as some of the Crown's principal taxpayers thereafter" (153). Much of the narrative has to do with negotiations over complex financial arrangements between miter and crown, and the implications that this had for the nature of the episcopal office—was the incumbent to be chief pastor or lordly prelate?