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Readings on Westminster I, cc.1-3 -- Readings on Magna Carta, c. 1 -- Other texts on the common law and the church

Ranulf Higden (d.1364) was a monk at the abbey of St Werburgh in Chester. His most important literary work is this universal chronicle, which survives in over a hundred Latin manuscripts, testifying to its popularity. The earliest version of it dates from 1327, but Higden continued writing until his death, expanding and updating the text. It was also continued in other monastic houses, most importantly by John Malvern of Worcester. The English translation made by John Trevisa in the 1380s was also widely circulated and is included in this work, published in nine volumes for the Rolls Series between 1865 and 1886. The chronicle shows how fourteenth-century scholars understood world history and geography. Volume 2 contains the remainder of Book 1, on the description of Britain, and twenty-eight chapters of Book 2, on the early history of the world to the reign of Saul in Israel

Lisbeth S. Fried's insightful study investigates the impact of Achaemenid rule on the political power of local priesthoods during the 6th-4th centuries B.C.E. Scholars typically assume that, as long as tribute was sent to Susa, the capital of the Achaemenid Empire, subject peoples remained autonomous. Fried's work challenges this assumption. She examines the inscriptions, coins, temple archives, and literary texts from Babylon, Egypt, Asia Minor, and Judah and concludes that there was no local autonomy. The only people with power in the Empire were Persians and their appointees, and this was true for Judah as well. The Judean priesthood achieved its longed-for independence only much later, under the Maccabees