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170 Reviews cathedrals, and on a grander scale as a result. Because many new churches and cathedrals were erected as a result of the Norman Conquest, Crook concentrates on translations of saints' relics. Many of these repositionings of the relics moved them closer to the altars, and the general trend of abandoning crypts continued. Chapter Seven, 'Relic Cults in England in the Twelfth Century', concerns itself with the cults especially of local saints, and thefinalchapter 'The Development of Shrines' culminates with the construction of tomb shrines which take the 'tomb of Christ' as their model. Reliquaries raised on pillars, such as that of Thomas Becket at Canterbury, offer a different model. Many tomb shrines were destroyed during the English Reformation, but Crook assembles an impressive array of surviving examples. In thisfinalchapter the earlier uniformity of architectural practices surrounding relic cults gives way to 'an initially bewildering array of shrine-types' (p. 281). Crook's clear discussion helps bring order out ofthis chaos. In conclusion, this is a detailed and very scholarly work, which is occasionally dry to read, but which is essential to any scholar or student with an interest in either the development of medieval ecclesiastical architecture, or the cult of the saints. Carole M. Cusack Studies in Religion University ofSydney Crouch, David J. F., Piety, Fraternity and Power: Religious Gilds in Late Medieval Yorkshire, 1389-1547, Woodbridge, York Medieval Press, 2000; cloth; pp. xi, 331; 3 maps, 35 figures, 5 appendices; R.R.P. £55.00, US$75.00; ISBN 0952973448. The extent to which the laity were active participants in religious formatio religious culture both before and after the Reformation has long been the subject of academic debate. The importance of gilds as a conduit for lay religious action was for a long time underestimated. In the last decade, they have now been identified as a key element in the laity's religious life. The number and variety of institutions called gilds - some licensed by the king, some associated with ecclesiastical institutions like the friaries, some well endowed and some poor and transient - makes their study difficult. Their purposes were varied. Some existed simply to fund lights before a statue or altar; others to run hospitals, to support chaplains or chantries, to manage funerals, maintain obits, conduct Reviews 171 processions or present plays. S o m e confusion over their function remains as the distinction between craft organisations and religious associations is hard to draw and many were both. Speculation about their religious role has been easier than historical documentation since only a few, very scattered records have survived their dissolution in Edward VI's reign. Recently, several painstaking studies have provided a better basis for understanding the number and varying role of the gilds in different counties of England. Dr Crouch's present work, the refinement ofa thesis completed in later life as a labour of love, is a worthy addition to this corpus. H e has used three principal sources to identify the myriad of obscure gilds in the rural and urban parishes of Yorkshire - the 1389 returns to the parliamentary writs, bequests in surviving wills and testaments, and the dissolution certificates. H e has used these to examine the changing geographical distribution of the gilds in Yorkshire and the chronological distribution of membership and bequests, which were low in times of instability and chaos. Crouch shows a secular growth ofenthusiasm for gilds which was maintained until 1530, although there was a growth in rural areas and a comparative decline in urban bequests. H e establishes that the 'services' recorded in some parishes were the equivalent of gilds. The evidence is meticulously tabulated and correlated with the numbers of people recorded for the different areas in the 1377 poll tax returns. The processes by which the sheriff and other local officials carried out the instructions ofthe central government are also elucidated. Identifying the gilds, however, has not enabled Crouch to determine with certainty whether the belief that in the late fourteenth century the gilds were a focus for heresy and sedition had any real foundation, nor whether, to the contrary, they were public maintainers of traditional beliefs. It seems clearer that they later became a...

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