The Parish in English Life, 1400-1600 ed. by Katherine L. French, Gary G. Gibbs and Beat Kümin (review)

302book reviews cant Debate and Antifraternal Critiques," summarizes the rich tradition of late medieval antifraternalism; Chapter 2, "Langland's Friars," examines the many ways in which Langland represents friars in his poem; and Chapter 3, "Langland 's Exemplarism," argues strongly for the influence of Bonaventure on the ways in which Langland organizes his poem and even on his poetic style, the alliterative long line. The remaining five chapters, which display sharp critical acumen, address more literary issues, but the discussion of Langland's politics in Chapter 4—especially his unique notion of the traditional "three estates"— and the many insights of Chapter 7, "Renewal and the Friars' Role in History," will be especially welcomed by historians. In an afterword Clopper poses the question,"Was Langland a Franciscan?" He thinks "it probable that Langland at some point was a member of the Franciscan order," but he appropriately delayed this question to the conclusion because he didn't want debates regarding biographical questions to divert attention "from the more important matter, the presence of Franciscan materials in the poem" (p. 325). This commonsensical strategy typifies "Songes of Rechelesnessse" which, argued strongly and forthrighdy, is nevertheless considerate of a variety of critical stances. Clopper, furthermore, treats scholars with whom he disagrees with respect, as when he challenges those critics who have rather simplistically equated the poet's historical scheme to that of Joachim of Fiore. Clopper also repeatedly acknowledges the difficulties his thesis faces, as when he asks, "How does Langland signal that his accusations differ from external ones?" (p. 91), a crucial question that is sure to arise for most readers familiar with the poem. By raising and confronting such questions directly, Clopper has written a model of nuanced argument and an exemplary work of scholarship that should influence scholars studying the complexities of late medieval religious history and perhaps even revolutionize the interpretation of Piers Plowman , the most challenging of medieval poems. Richard K. Emmerson Western Washington University The Parish in English Life, 1400-1600. Edited by Katherine L. French, Gary G. Gibbs, and Beat Kümin. (Manchester and NewYork: Manchester University Press. Distributed by St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division. 1997. Pp. Xu, 276. $69.95.) The editors set themselves die goal of producing a work which would place the English parish in an historical and geographical framework, which would compare the English experience with the continental, which would examine the nature of parish records and their limits, which would examine the range and form of community actions and expectation, and finally which would look at particular groups within the parish, e.g., gender, status, and ethnicity. They have succeeded in the task they set themselves and have produced a volume book reviews303 which should be read by anyone interested in late medieval and Tudor and early Stuart England. Unfortunately, it is impossible to deal with all of the articles in this anthology in a review of this length. The editors remind us in the Introduction that "religious and secular reform was not simply imposed, but negotiated and modified in accordance with local concerns. Resistance could take the form of outright rebellion, but more often it involved subtler strategies of adaptation, evasion, or concealment" (p. 13). Most of the articles deal with some aspect of that adaptation. Part I of the book consists of the introduction and Beat Kümin's "The English Parish in a European Perspective." Part II, "Parochial Sources," is extremely good because it discusses not only the sources which exist for parish history, e.g., churchwardens' accounts and parish registers, but what one can learn from such sources and the dangers one encounters in using them. This review, however, will consider four of the articles from Part III, "CommunityAction and Expectation," and Part IV, "Groups Within the Parish." Caroline Litzenberger examines the conformity (and its cost) of St. Michael's in Gloucester in the years 1540-1580. She presents a parish which adapted its worship space to each change of religion and notes that conformity was "... a strategy employed by a close-knit, coherent parish elite to retain their church's prominent position in the city and to preserve it from further disruption and...