How to write the history of a parish

by J. Charles Cox

Catalogues of all the English Bishops are to be found in Canon Stubbs’s “Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum;” and similar lists of Deans, Prebendaries, and minor dignitaries, in Hardy’s edition of Le Neve’s “Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.” Both of these works may probably be useful when drawing up the list of parish priests.

Lists of priests appointed to the more important chantries can usually also be extracted from the diocesan registers, for, except in peculiar circumstances, they required episcopal institution.

Any facts of interest or importance that can be ascertained respecting the successive incumbents should be chronicled. For the time of the Commonwealth, Walker’s “Sufferings of the Clergy” on the one hand, and Calamy’s “Ejected Ministers” on the other, should be consulted. They both make mention of a very great number of the clergy.

Dedication. The dedication of the church should never be taken for granted from county gazetteers or directories. Dedications to All Saints, and to the Blessed Virgin, should be viewed with some suspicion until firmly established, for in the time of Henry VIII. the dedication festivals, or “wakes,” were often transferred to All Saints’ Day, or Lady Day, in order to avoid a multiplicity of holidays, and hence by degrees the real dedication became forgotten. Ecton’s “Thesaurus Rerum Ecclesiasticarum” (1742), and Bacon’s “Liber Regis” (1786), should be consulted for dedications. Occasionally the patron saints of the different churches are mentioned in the institutions in the episcopal registers, and more often in monastic chartularies; but the surest of all references, in the case of a doubtful dedication, is to look up the pre-Reformation wills of the lords of the manor or other chief people of the parish. These wills almost invariably contain an early clause to this effect:—“I leave my body to be buried within the church of St. ——.” The time of the wakes or village feast is a good guide to the dedication, but one which, from the reason stated above, as well as from other causes, must not be implicitly relied upon.

Another point worth remembering with regard to dedications, is that re-consecration was not of unfrequent occurrence. Murder and some other crimes within the church, as well as special violations of the altar, rendered re-consecration imperative; and it was also often resorted to when the fabric was altogether or considerably rebuilt, or even when a new chancel was added. At the time of these re-consecrations, it occasionally happened that the name of the patron saint was changed, not from mere caprice or love of novelty, but because relics of that particular saint were obtained for inclosure in the chief or high altar. This should be borne in mind when a discrepancy is found in the name of the patron saint of the same church at different epochs.

The chapter of Parker’s “Calendar of the Anglican Church,” entitled “A few remarks on the dedication of English Churches,” is worth reading. This book is also valuable for the brief account of the saints most frequently met with in England, both in dedications and otherwise. The first half of the book has been re-published once or twice, under the title of “Calendar of the Prayer Book,” but it leaves out the chapters here mentioned, and is comparatively valueless as compared with the edition of 1851. Harington “On the Consecration of Churches,” published by Rivington in 1844, should also be read.

Description of the Church.

Having finished the history of the Church, it will be best to follow it up by a description of the fabric of the Church, and of all its details.

Styles of Architecture. In deciding as to the different “periods” under which to classify the various styles into which almost every parish church is more or less divided, it is perhaps wisest to confine oneself to the simple and generally accepted divisions of English architecture, originally adopted by Mr. Rickman, viz. (1) the Saxon, from 800 to 1066; (2) the Norman, from 1066 to 1145; (3) the Early English, from 1145 to 1272; (4) the Decorated, from 1272 to 1377; and (5) the Perpendicular, from 1377 to 1509. Some competent writers always speak of three periods of Transition, covering the reigns of Henry II., Edward I., and Richard II.; whilst others, and this may be well adopted, speak of only one regular “Transition,” meaning by that term the period between the Early English and Decorated, or the reign of Edward I. (1272-1307).