The People of the Parish: Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese

Introduction

I N T R O D U C T I O N In 1379,the king's court called upon nine parishioners of the Lancashire parish of Walton to remember the baptism of John, the son and heir of Robert de Walton. Their memories served to verify John's age and whether he was old enough to receive his inheritance. John de Sotheworth, forty and more, was at the church for a loveday betweenWilliam Robynson and [tear] of Kirkdale when John was baptized. John delTwys,forty and more, was at the church to hear mass beforegoingto buyfish at Boode, and was present at the baptism. Robert de Eld,forty and more, wasat the church to hear news from Ireland of the Earl Edmund of March. Henry de Penketh, forty and more, was at the church to buy corn from Robert Wilkynson. Henry de Twys, forty and more, was at the church to hear mass before going to Kirkdale to buy two oxen from Robert Wilkynson of Kirkdale. William Laghok, forty and more, was at the church to hear mass before going to Litherland to see a corpse and wreck on the seashore. John de Hey, forty and more, was at the church to seeJohn del Hethe. John de Andern, forty and more, was at the church for a cockfight between John de Silkes and Robert del Heth. John de Bugard, forty and more, was at the church to see a man from Liverpool.1 In this picturesque proof-of-age, jurors offer a variety of reasons why they were at the local parish church and, therefore, able to witnessJohn's baptism.2 Only three claimed they had come to the church to hear mass; the rest had other—nonreligious—reasons for being there. Their recollections, however, testify to the centrality of the parish church in their lives. Business, legal settlements, sociability, and entertainment, in addition to worship, brought them to the church. This book examines the role of the laity in parish life and organization in one medieval diocese, Bath and Wells. Focusing on the parishes in one diocese emphasizes the range and diversity of late medieval English parish life. In the post-plague period, the laity had broad responsibility for administering their local parishes, and this task, as it was mediated through local needs, priorities, and layorganizations, shaped their perception and practice of orthodox Christianity. The interplay of local parish administration and ecclesiastical expectations made the parish a dynamic and vibrant association around which the laity could create a community identity. Understanding how the parish operated refines our understanding of laypiety and Christian orthodoxy in the two centuries before the Reformation. Parish dynamics also provide valuable insights into everyday lives, local social and gender hierarchies, and the communal decision-making process. The world of the late medieval parish united secular and sacred concerns. The parish was one of the basic units of public worship and was the shared responsibility of the laity and the clergy. By design and definition, it was a geographic unit of regulation and coercion. It provided much of the focus for spiritual and moral instruction and ecclesiastical authority. As a benefice, it provided a living for the incumbent through tithes; as the primary forum for public worship, it offered its members religious instruction and the sacraments ; as a jurisdiction, it administered moral correction and extracted goods and money from parishioners to support the clergy.Membership was mandatory and determined by where one lived.3 Generally, the parish church held both baptismal and burial rights. Even when the laity lived far from the parish church and attended weeklyservices at adependent chapel, they typicallywent to their parish church for major holy days, for burials, and for baptisms. Some chapels had partial parochial rights, such as a cemetery but no baptismal font or viceversa.Although one could hear massin a cathedral, chapel, or monastic church, most received baptism, went to confession, and were buried in their own parish church or churchyard. From the Norman Conquest to the thirteenth century, the number of parishes grew throughout England. Norman landlords, in an effort to provide their peasants with access to worship and themselves with lucrative tithes, set up churches on their lands or created parishes out of local chapels. By the thirteenth century, England had about 9500 parishes, although no one ever made a complete survey.4 After the plague in the fourteenth century, this trend reversed; ecclesiastical officials still occasionally granted parochial status to existing chapels within a parish...