A History of the English Parish: The Culture of Religion from Augustine to Victoria

Front Cover
Cambridge University Press, 2000 - History - 593 pages
Most writings on church history have been concerned mainly with church hierarchy, and with theology, liturgy and canon law. This book looks at the church 'from below', from the lowest stratum of its organisation - the parish - in which the church building is seen as the parishioners' handiwork and as a reflection of local popular culture. The book discusses in turn the origin and development of the system of precisely-defined parishes, their function - in terms of economics and personnel - and the church fabric which embodied the aspirations of parishioners, who saw the church more as an expression of their cultural and social hopes than as the embodiment of their faith. The book ends with the failure of the parish to meet all of its obligations - social, governmental and religious - from the late eighteenth century onwards.
 

Contents

Church and parish
3
Rectors and vicars Gratian to the Reformation
41
The parish its bounds and its division
67
The urban parish
113
THE FUNCTIONS OF THE PARISH
153
The parish and its servants
155
The economics of the parish
200
The parish and the community
250
The parish church popular culture and the Reformation
325
THE PARISH AND ITS CHURCH
369
The parish its church and churchyard
371
The fabric of the church the priests church
430
The peoples church the nave and the laity
464
Notes
511
Index
579
Copyright

The parish and the church courts a mirror of society
291

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