Church Space for Learned Occupations

Abstract

Abstract This chapter makes a case for the use of church space for learned occupations, from parish formation to the Protestant Reformation. Learned men in the capacities of airchinnigh and comharbai, and as secular proprietors of church land, had access to ecclesiastical buildings. A key proposal about the relationship between literati and parish churches and sinecure chapels is that they were involved in building and modifying them as signatures of seats of learning. This is argued in relation to the presence of Romanesque-style doorways in churches where literati are recorded in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, and by the involvement of comharbai in the construction and refurbishment of parish churches in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The needs of literati for space in which to work and dwell may have predicated adaptations to church buildings. This perspective is supported by the layout and architectural details of some churches associated with literati, and by the recovery of materials of learning at others. It is argued that with the increased control of the learned over churches in the late medieval period, the impetus for west-end quarters may have been driven by their needs. Conversion and appointment to the role of minister of some members of learned kindreds who had traditionally dominated the positions of comharba and airchinneach of church sites, reveals how they negotiated the changes brought by the Protestant Reformation and recognized a new opportunity to retain their church buildings and lands.