Parish life in mediæval England

by Francis Aidan Gasquet

Any account of parish life in mediæval England must include much more than might at first sight be supposed. To imagine that the story of the parson and his church could adequately represent the story of the parish, even with all that the one had to do for his people and all that in the other was contained and done, is somewhat like thinking that the biographies of kings and nobles and the chronicle of their battles and achievements would tell properly the story of a people or a country. The fact is, that in those far-off days the parish church was the centre of popular life all the country over, and that the priest and other parochial officials were the recognised managers of many interests beyond those of a strictly ecclesiastical nature. Religion and religious observances then formed an integral part of the English people’s very existence in a way somewhat difficult for us to grasp in these days, when the undoubted tendency is to set God and the things of God outside the pale of ordinary worldly affairs, and to keep them out as far as possible. It is unnecessary here, of course, to determine which method is right and which is wrong; but it is useful, to say the least, that the fact of this change of attitude should be borne in mind in any examination into the parish life of mediæval England. To fail to appreciate the intimate connection between the Church and the people throughout that period of our national life will cause the observer to misread many of the facts, upon which a correct judgment of that time must depend. A writer in the National Review does not overstate the truth when he says—

“In the Middle Ages the conscious sharing in a world-wide tradition bound the local to the universal life, and through art and ritual the minds of the poor were familiarised with facts of the Christian faith. By our own poor I fear these facts are very dimly realised to-day.”

THE PARISH

At the outset it will be well to determine the exact meaning of the word “parish,” and to establish as far as is possible the origin of the English parochial system. As an institution, although occupying so important a position from the early Middle Ages, the division of the country into parishes does not appear to have come down from great antiquity. The word “parish”—the English equivalent for the Latin parocia—is derived from the Christian use of the Greek word παροικία in the sense of a district or diocese under the rule and jurisdiction of a bishop. In a recent paper on “The Rise of the Parochial System,” printed in the Transactions of the Exeter Architectural and Archæological Society, the author, the Rev. Oswald Reichel, has treated this question fully and in a most satisfactory manner. What has been so well done need not be done over again. I consequently make no apology for here following very closely his line of argument and presenting his conclusions.

In Rome, Carthage, and other large cities, “for the sake of the people,” as Pope Innocent I. says in a letter written in A.D. 416, there were district clergy appointed to preside at the services on the Sundays. Even then, however, in order that they might not consider themselves “separated from his communion,” he sent to them by his acolytes what he calls the “fermentum,” made by himself, which has been variously interpreted to mean the Holy Eucharist consecrated by him as bishop, or bread he had blessed, as a symbol of the communion of all the district churches with the central one; but which is almost certainly the former.

These district clergy, however, were not parish priests as we understand them. For (1) they belonged to the church of the bishop, though from time to time detailed for duty in the various churches, which existed according to need in each region or division of the city. Over each of these regions a deacon presided as the bishop’s delegate. (2) The direct government of the church and the cure of souls belonged to the bishop in all places within his jurisdiction, and services were performed by him, assisted by the city clergy, on fixed days in various churches in rotation. (3) Although it is possible to trace separate revenues for separate churches as early as the end of the fifth century, the offerings of the churches of a district were not kept apart, but were administered by the deacon of the region to which they all belonged as contributions to a common fund.

It is obvious, therefore, that the district clergy, thus described, cannot be claimed as the origin of our parochial system. The English parish priest was established to meet the needs of the country rather than of the city; and, beginning in the first instance to act as chaplains of landowners, who required the services of religion for themselves or their tenants, they gradually acquired the position of ecclesiastical freeholders. Appointed by the patron, they received their office and their spiritual faculties from the bishop of the see; and, whilst subordinated to him according to law, were yet irremoveable except by the strict process of canonical law and for serious offences.

Whatever may have been the early dependence of the priest on the patron, by the fourth Council of Orleans, A.D. 541, the bishop was directed to control and protect these clergy and in A.D. 813 the Council of Mainz forbade laymen to deprive presbyters of churches which they served or to appoint them without episcopal sanction. It was not, however, till the twelfth century, according to Mr. Reichel, that the country parson had acquired full recognition as the permanent and official ruler of a portion of the Lord’s vineyard presided over by the bishop of the diocese.

The sphere of work of the local clergy was the parish, which was by no means the same as the town, hamlet, or manor. According to an authority, in the thirteenth century the distinction was fully recognised. “For in one town there may be several parishes,” he says, “and in one parish several manors, and several hamlets may belong to one manor.” The parochial system, then, in the Middle Ages, had come to occupy three separate functions. It had acquired, in the first place, the notion of a well-defined group of families organised for the purposes of social order and the relief of needy brethren. Secondly, the word “parish,” applied to the same group, was regarded as a sub-unit of ecclesiastical administration, directly under the parish priest, indirectly under the bishop. Thirdly, it was the name of the foundation property or estate.

From the earliest times in the Christian Church the duty of all to assist according to their means in the support of their poorer brethren was fully recognised. The peculiar method, however, of enforcing this duty by the regular payment of tithes was apparently insisted on in the West by the second Council of Macon in A.D. 585, and in the Council of Rouen in A.D. 650. In England, to speak only of it, by the middle of the tenth century the religious duty of paying tithe was enforceable at law, and this tax was commonly called “God’s portion,” “God’s consecrated property,” “the Lord’s Bread,” “the patrimony of Christ,” “the tribute of needy souls.” This was undoubtedly the view taken in pre-Reformation days of the duty of all to pay the tenth portion of their goods for the use of the Church. What that use was has frequently been entirely misrepresented and misunderstood. In the words of the author of the tract on the Rise of the Parochial System in England—