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THE PEOPLE OF THE PARISH
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THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES
Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor
Edward Peters, Founding Editor
A complete list of books in the series
is available from the publisher.
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The People of the Parish
COMMUNITY LIFE IN A LATE MEDIEVAL
ENGLISH DIOCESE
Katherine L. French
PENN
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS Philadelphia
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Copyright © 2001 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
French, Katherine L.
The people of the parish : community life in a late medieval English diocese /
Katherine L. French.
p. cm. — (The Middle Ages Series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3581-9 (alk. paper)
i. Parishes—England—Ftistory—Middle Ages, 600— 15 oo. 2. England—Religious
life and customs. 3. England—Church history. I. Tide.
BRy44 .Fy4 2000
274'-23/9°5— dc2i 00-055181
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C O N T E N TS
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
I DEFINING THE PARISH 2O
2. "THE BOOK AND WRITINGS OF THE PARISH CHURCH"
Churchwardens' Accounts and Parish Record Keeping 44
3 "A SERVANT OF THE PARISH"
The Office of the Churchwarden and Parochial Leadership 68
4 "RECEIVED BY THE GOOD DEVOTION OF THE
TOWN AND COUNTRY"
Parish Fundraising 99
5 "CURIOUS WINDOWS AND GREAT BELLS"
The Architecture of Community 142
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6
"THE WORTHIEST THING"
Liturgical Celebrations and the Cult of the Saints in Place 17 5
Conclusion 208
Appendix 211
Notes 229
Bibliography 281
Index 303
vi CONTENTS
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A C K N O W L E D G M E N TS
Over the course of writing this book I have built up many debts and
garnered much encouragement. It is now my great pleasure to acknowledge
those debts and thank those who have helped and encouraged me. I have
worked on this project in many places. The History Department at the Univer-
sity of Minnesota was its first home. There I found a collegial group of
scholars who supported me both formally and informally. In particular I want
to thank Barbara Hanawalt, who helped nurture this book from its earliest
incarnations to its final form as a book. Throughout it all, she has remained
enthusiastic and supportive about the project. In England, I am grateful to all
the staff of all the archives I worked in, but especially those at the Somerset
Record Office where I did most of my research. At SUNY-New Paltz, the
History Department, and in particular Carole Levin, now of the University of
Nebraska, provided further encouragement for the often difficult process of
revising a manuscript while also learning how to be a professor. At the Har-
vard Divinity School, where I was a Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer
in the Women's Studies in Religion Program, Clarissa Atkinson, Deborah
Valenze, Susan Shapiro, Amina Wadud, Carol Karlsen, and Rebecca Krawiec
all listened patiently and asked thought-provoking questions as I talked about
my ideas about what it meant to belong to a medieval parish.
The long process of writing a book is also not possible without a great deal
of financial support. The History Department at the University of Minnesota
and an Eileen Power Fellowship from the London School of Economics
provided support for both travel and research, and a Charlotte W. Newcombe
Fellowship allowed me the luxury of writing full time. At SUNY-New Paltz,
the Dean of Liberal Arts, the Academic Vice President, and several Research
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and Creative Projects Awards provided further research funds for trips to
England and the Newberry Library in Chicago. Although I was officially
working on another project, my year at the Harvard Divinity School made
completing this book possible.
In dealing with the particulars of assembling this book, James Stokes and
Robert Alexander shared with me their in-depth knowledge of Somerset
sources, and Robert Palmer shared his as yet unpublished work with me to
help my discussion of legal jurisdictions. I also want to thank Jai Kasturi who
created much of my appendix, Stephen Hana who drew the maps, and the
Courtauld Institute of Art in London, Fred H. Crossley, Maurice H. Ridgway
F. S. A., Dr. Christopher Wilson, and the National Monuments Record Centre
for permission to use their photographs. I also want to thank Manchester
University Press for permission to reprint my article "Parochial Fund-Raising
in Late Medieval Somerset." The anonymous reader at the University of Penn-
sylvania Press and Robert Swanson saved me from many mistakes. Both took
great pains with my manuscript, and it is a much better book for their efforts.
Remaining errors are of course my own.
One of the joys of academic work is the intertwining of friendship and
intellectual exchange. In addition to those named above, I would also like to
thank the following people for their help on this book. Help comes in many
forms: Some read drafts, often at the last minute. They did so cheerfully and
willingly. Others talked to me endlessly about my ideas, helping me to explain
them better, and most at one time or another pulled me away from my com-
puter and reminded me that all work and no play is boring. My deep felt thanks
and appreciation to Sandy Bardsley, David Benson, Clive Burgess, Eric Carl-
son, Jay Carter, Sue and Russell Clarke, Gary Gibbs, Edmund Kern, Rebecca
Krugg, Beat Kumin, Caroline Litzenberger, Shannon McSheffrey, Maureen
Morrow, Stella Neiman, Oliver and Caroline Nicholson, Allyson Poska, Gary
Shaw, Tim Spurgin, and Dan Swartz.
Lastly, I owe my biggest debts, emotional, financial, and grammatical, to my
family, my parents David and Louise, and my brothers Andrew, Stephen, J. D.
and Jim Ciulik, and their wives, Lisa, Peg, Jane, and Kirsten. Although usually
mystified by why I am so interested in this time-period, they nevertheless share
my interest in wanting to know how things fit together. This book is for them.
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
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A man who was once asked why he did not weep at a sermon
when everyone else was shedding tears replied:
"I don't belong to the parish."
—Henri Bergson, Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, 1928
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