The People of the Parish. Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese (review)

Abstract

The People of the Parish. Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese. By Katherine L. French. [The Middle Ages Series.] (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2001. Pp. ix, 316. $59.95.) In one way or another, this book has been in the making for over a decade, but it was well worth waiting for. Building on her doctoral work, Katherine French offers a coherent, well-written, and stimulating survey of parish life in the diocese of Bath and Wells, covering the county of Somerset in England's West Country. Parochial activities, to summarize the main thesis, reflected distinct communal identities composed of a complex blend of secular and religious components. Far from being mere objects of clerical directives, parishes evolved varying types of liturgical, administrative, and convivial practices informed by particular topographical, economic, and social parameters. Substantiated from a variety of perspectives, French's contention is entirely convincing. The argument rests on a range of primary sources, most notably churchwardens' accounts, wills, and devotional literature. The lack of church court evidence is compensated by an original analysis of Chancery records. After an initial concern with definitions (the controversial term 'community' being understood as repeated interactions over time of a group of people with shared goals, interests, concerns and ideals, p. 24), subsequent chapters deal with record-keeping, parochial leadership, fundraising, church architecture, and liturgical practices. French draws on extensive familiarity with academic scholarship in various disciplines and a number of maps (admirably produced by Stephen Hana), graphs, tables, and photographs. Readers also benefit from a valuable appendix of pre-Reformation parish endowments throughout the diocese, a substantial bibliography, and a general index. Less convenient is the absence of a list of illustrations and the arrangement of references-many of which with additional information-as endnotes. Only the briefest impression of content can be provided here. Differences between urban and rural settings were important variables in the formation of communal identities. While country parishes encouraged broad participation through fundraising devices based on seasonal festivals and entertainments, town churches like St. Mary's, Bridgwater, developed a more hierarchical and less inclusive atmosphere. From the mid-fifteenth century, seating arrangements and processional order expressed the superiority of municipal office over parochial service, while the financial regime relied on individual benefaction rather than communal collections. …