Going To Church in Medieval England - Introduction and Origins of the Parish

 

Nicholas Orme’s Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale University Press, 2021) does not prosecute any particular thesis but tries to describe church buildings and what went on in them (ministers and their functions and how lay people received them at church) from the time of St Augustine of Canterbury (about AD 597) to Elizabeth I (1559). A host a fascinating details are revealed.  

One of the most important things to realise about Going to Church in Medieval England is how little we know about it. For example, before 1400, we don't know what time services started or how long they lasted. Women are much less visible than men and apart from baptisms and some boys serving at the altar etc. children are largely invisible.

We should beware arguments from silence. We sometimes read about what some people thought ought to have happened rather than what was actually going on. Some practices varied considerably. But Orme’s way of telling the story tends to reveal significant continuities. Much that we recognise today is very ancient.

The earliest English churches were monasteries and minsters (the words share the same origin). (p7ff) Clergy and people would sometimes have to travel considerable distances. The parish system evolved naturally and was consolidated and regulated. Ideas still familiar today such as glebe land emerge early. The rights of owners of churches and patrons began to be limited, bishops having to approve appointments of clergy, for example. After 1200, parishes tended to be combined into viable economic units which could support a priest, a practice which continues today. (Some places were extra-parochial or could be held in common between two parishes). 

Even if most people were within five miles of a parish church, a journey of a couple of miles could be tiresome on a rainy or snowy Sunday or for a baptism or with a body for burial. Some parish churches were in isolated locations. Many chapels developed. Although we associate the word “chapel” with non-conformity today, the word comes from a famous relic, the capella or cloak of St Martin (p35). Some chapels were private, some were chapels of ease and some were devoted to a particular saint. At Guy’s Cliff near Warwick, the romantic chapel formed part of a kind of theme park to the legendary hero (p42). In the 1380s, Lollards showed their contempt for the disused chapel of St Katherine by burning her image to cook their cabbage soup (p39). Bishops might have chapels are places for retired retreat, reading and prayer with the clergy. Chapels might develop on prominent roads or on bridges and offerings might be used for their upkeep. Chapels could offer some independence from the parish priest and its authorities, but the parish was often jealous of its finances and rights. Chapels would sometimes campaign for parish status or rights. It was alleged that in Templeton in Devon graves of fake antiquity had been created to promote burials.

Rivalries between parishes were common. Buildings might compete. When parishioners gathered behind their banners at the cathedral at Pentecost, violence and disorder might ensue.  

Wells, springs, hills, caves, trees and woods were sometimes Christianised and cleansed from their pagan and demonic associations by prayer and fasting by a monk who took up residence for a while.

Crosses were built to proclaim the faith and as a prompt to prayer.

Churchgoing in Britain could be envisaged at least by AD 313 (p5)

Wine sometimes seems to have been hard to come by. The use of water and ale at Communion had to be forbidden. Communion seems often to have been received outside the church building (p25) and taken to the sick. Children were not necessarily excluded from Communion.

Clergy would originally be singing the seven daily services announced by a bell, later consolidated into three groups (p27)

People should avoid eating, drinking and talking during church services (p28)

Sabbath observance sometimes extended from midday on Saturday to dawn on Monday (p28)

It was customary for a man’s second-best animal to be given to the church on his death. (p32)

Tithes were a matter of much dispute and regulation. Until the late 12^th C, it was possible to divert tithes from one’s local church to another institution one wated to support. See p34 for a list of crops and animals that could be tithed. People sometimes paid additional “secret tithes” and wills often made provision for “forgotten tithes”. Some tithes continued to be paid in crops and animals until 1836. Penalties for failing to pay tithes could be severe. King Edgar specified that the unpaid tithe should be collected, the defaulter should be left with one tenth and the remaining eight-tenths should be confiscated. (p33)

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The book is enhanced by fifty-nine illustrations and a useful list of the technical terms that abound in church life.