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The People of the Parish : Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese / Katherine L. French.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: The Middle Ages SeriesPublisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2012]Copyright date: ©2001Description: 1 online resource (320 p.) : 9 illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780812235814
  • 9780812201956
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 274.23905
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Defining the Parish -- 2. "The book and Writings of the Parish church" -- 3 "A Servant of the Parish" -- 4. " Received by the Good Devotion of the Town and Country" -- 5. "Curious Windows and Great Bells" -- 6 "The Worthiest Thing" -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
Summary: The parish, the lowest level of hierarchy in the medieval church, was the shared responsibility of the laity and the clergy. Most Christians were baptized, went to confession, were married, and were buried in the parish church or churchyard; in addition, business, legal settlements, sociability, and entertainment brought people to the church, uniting secular and sacred concerns. In The People of the Parish, Katherine L. French contends that late medieval religion was participatory and flexible, promoting different kinds of spiritual and material involvement. The rich parish records of the small diocese of Bath and Wells include wills, court records, and detailed accounts by lay churchwardens of everyday parish activities. They reveal the differences between parishes within a single diocese that cannot be attributed to regional variation. By using these records show to the range and diversity of late medieval parish life, and a Christianity vibrant enough to accommodate differences in status, wealth, gender, and local priorities, French refines our understanding of lay attitudes toward Christianity in the two centuries before the Reformation.

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Defining the Parish -- 2. "The book and Writings of the Parish church" -- 3 "A Servant of the Parish" -- 4. " Received by the Good Devotion of the Town and Country" -- 5. "Curious Windows and Great Bells" -- 6 "The Worthiest Thing" -- Conclusion -- Appendix -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

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The parish, the lowest level of hierarchy in the medieval church, was the shared responsibility of the laity and the clergy. Most Christians were baptized, went to confession, were married, and were buried in the parish church or churchyard; in addition, business, legal settlements, sociability, and entertainment brought people to the church, uniting secular and sacred concerns. In The People of the Parish, Katherine L. French contends that late medieval religion was participatory and flexible, promoting different kinds of spiritual and material involvement. The rich parish records of the small diocese of Bath and Wells include wills, court records, and detailed accounts by lay churchwardens of everyday parish activities. They reveal the differences between parishes within a single diocese that cannot be attributed to regional variation. By using these records show to the range and diversity of late medieval parish life, and a Christianity vibrant enough to accommodate differences in status, wealth, gender, and local priorities, French refines our understanding of lay attitudes toward Christianity in the two centuries before the Reformation.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 24. Apr 2022)