The parishes of Durham city were of course part of the universal church and it does not do to think of them as closed worlds uninfluenced by the wider church and the state. The discipline which governed the church institutions which I have described was administered by a series of ecclesiastical authorities putting into practice the canon law of the church. At its heart was the Roman curia with its courts and legal system and its power to grant graces and favours. In theory, appeal to this was possible even by the most humble parishioner. The hierarchical church with its canon law, however, placed many authorities between the ordinary parishioner and the pope. Very probably the clergy who impinged most upon the lives of the laity were the parochial priests serving under the vicar or rector. But they were in theory subject to their rectors and to the bishop of the diocese, who administered his authority over his clergy and laity largely through his archdeacons who visited and held courts to discipline both lay and clergy. The bishop of course could visit parishes but seldom did so in person. The bishop's consistory was the diocesan court for all laity and clergy who were not exempt. Appeal from it was possible either to the provincial court (the metropolitan or archdiocesan court), or even, if litigants could afford it and were sufficiently tenacious, to Rome itself, sometimes by-passing the local altogether.