{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\uc1 \deff0\deflang1033\deflangfe1033{\fonttbl{\f0\froman\fcharset0\fprq2{\*\panose 02020603050405020304}Times New Roman;}{\f2\fmodern\fcharset0\fprq1{\*\panose 02070309020205020404}Courier New;} {\f3\froman\fcharset2\fprq2{\*\panose 05050102010706020507}Symbol;}{\f14\fnil\fcharset2\fprq2{\*\panose 05000000000000000000}Wingdings;}{\f55\froman\fcharset238\fprq2 Times New Roman CE;}{\f56\froman\fcharset204\fprq2 Times New Roman Cyr;} {\f58\froman\fcharset161\fprq2 Times New Roman Greek;}{\f59\froman\fcharset162\fprq2 Times New Roman Tur;}{\f60\froman\fcharset177\fprq2 Times New Roman (Hebrew);}{\f61\froman\fcharset178\fprq2 Times New Roman (Arabic);} {\f62\froman\fcharset186\fprq2 Times New Roman Baltic;}{\f71\fmodern\fcharset238\fprq1 Courier New CE;}{\f72\fmodern\fcharset204\fprq1 Courier New Cyr;}{\f74\fmodern\fcharset161\fprq1 Courier New Greek;}{\f75\fmodern\fcharset162\fprq1 Courier New Tur;} {\f76\fmodern\fcharset177\fprq1 Courier New (Hebrew);}{\f77\fmodern\fcharset178\fprq1 Courier New (Arabic);}{\f78\fmodern\fcharset186\fprq1 Courier New Baltic;}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red0\green0\blue255;\red0\green255\blue255; \red0\green255\blue0;\red255\green0\blue255;\red255\green0\blue0;\red255\green255\blue0;\red255\green255\blue255;\red0\green0\blue128;\red0\green128\blue128;\red0\green128\blue0;\red128\green0\blue128;\red128\green0\blue0;\red128\green128\blue0; \red128\green128\blue128;\red192\green192\blue192;}{\stylesheet{\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \snext0 Normal;}{ \s1\qc \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs28\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext0 heading 1;}{\s2\qc \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \i\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext0 heading 2;}{\s3\ql \li0\ri0\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\ul\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext0 heading 3;}{\*\cs10 \additive Default Paragraph Font;}{\s15\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext15 footnote text;}{\*\cs16 \additive \super \sbasedon10 footnote reference;}{\s17\ql \fi-369\li369\ri0\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx369{\*\pn \pnlvlbody\ilvl0\ls4\pnrnot0\pndec }\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls4\adjustright\rin0\lin369\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext17 Aufz\'e4hlung;}{\*\cs18 \additive \ul\cf2 \sbasedon10 Hyperlink;}{\s19\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext19 Body Text 2;}{\s20\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar\tqc\tx4153\tqr\tx8306\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext20 header;}{\*\cs21 \additive \sbasedon10 page number;}{\*\cs22 \additive \ul\cf12 \sbasedon10 FollowedHyperlink;}{\s23\ql \li284\ri0\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin284\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 \sbasedon0 \snext23 Body Text Indent 2;}}{\*\listtable {\list\listtemplateid1832963808\listsimple{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat8\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'01-;}{\levelnumbers;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li360 \jclisttab\tx360 }{\listname ;}\listid276449639}{\list\listtemplateid-1974814470\listsimple{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'01\u9632 \'a6;}{\levelnumbers;} \b0\i0\f0\fs28\cf0\nosupersub\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li360\jclisttab\tx360 }{\listname ;}\listid379020750}{\list\listtemplateid-1340052882\listhybrid{\listlevel\levelnfc0\levelnfcn0\leveljc0\leveljcn0 \levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'02\'00.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li720\jclisttab\tx720 }{\listlevel\levelnfc4\levelnfcn4\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0 \levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'02\'01.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-360\li1440\jclisttab\tx1440 }{\listlevel\levelnfc2\levelnfcn2\leveljc2\leveljcn2\levelfollow0\levelstartat1 \levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'02\'02.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-180\li2160\jclisttab\tx2160 }{\listlevel\levelnfc0\levelnfcn0\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0 \levelindent0{\leveltext\'02\'03.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-360\li2880\jclisttab\tx2880 }{\listlevel\levelnfc4\levelnfcn4\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext \'02\'04.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-360\li3600\jclisttab\tx3600 }{\listlevel\levelnfc2\levelnfcn2\leveljc2\leveljcn2\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext \'02\'05.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-180\li4320\jclisttab\tx4320 }{\listlevel\levelnfc0\levelnfcn0\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext \'02\'06.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-360\li5040\jclisttab\tx5040 }{\listlevel\levelnfc4\levelnfcn4\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext \'02\'07.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-360\li5760\jclisttab\tx5760 }{\listlevel\levelnfc2\levelnfcn2\leveljc2\leveljcn2\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext \'02\'08.;}{\levelnumbers\'01;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1 \fi-180\li6480\jclisttab\tx6480 }{\listname ;}\listid999502568}{\list\listtemplateid2062065842\listhybrid{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0 \levelstartat13\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid-620214160\'01-;}{\levelnumbers;}\loch\af0\hich\af0\dbch\af0\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li720\jclisttab\tx720 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23 \leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698691\'01o;}{\levelnumbers;}\f2\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li1440\jclisttab\tx1440 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23 \levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698693\'01\u-3929 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\f14\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li2160\jclisttab\tx2160 } {\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698689\'01\u-3913 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\f3\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li2880 \jclisttab\tx2880 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698691\'01o;}{\levelnumbers;}\f2\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li3600\jclisttab\tx3600 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698693\'01\u-3929 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\f14\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li4320\jclisttab\tx4320 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698689\'01\u-3913 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\f3\chbrdr \brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li5040\jclisttab\tx5040 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698691\'01o;}{\levelnumbers;}\f2 \chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li5760\jclisttab\tx5760 }{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\leveltemplateid67698693 \'01\u-3929 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\f14\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li6480\jclisttab\tx6480 }{\listname ;}\listid1055785182}{\list\listtemplateid-145096504\listsimple{\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0 \levelfollow0\levelstartat0\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'01-;}{\levelnumbers;}\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \fi-360\li360\jclisttab\tx360 }{\listname ;}\listid1294750831}{\list\listtemplateid-1184348484\listsimple {\listlevel\levelnfc23\levelnfcn23\leveljc0\leveljcn0\levelfollow0\levelstartat1\levelspace0\levelindent0{\leveltext\'01\u-3986 ?;}{\levelnumbers;}\b0\i0\f14\fs24\ulnone\chbrdr\brdrnone\brdrcf1 \chshdng0\chcfpat1\chcbpat1\fbias0 \s17\fi-369\li369 \jclisttab\tx369 }{\listname ;}\listid2051104516}}{\*\listoverridetable{\listoverride\listid379020750\listoverridecount0\ls1}{\listoverride\listid276449639\listoverridecount0\ls2}{\listoverride\listid1294750831\listoverridecount0\ls3} {\listoverride\listid2051104516\listoverridecount0\ls4}{\listoverride\listid1055785182\listoverridecount0\ls5}{\listoverride\listid999502568\listoverridecount0\ls6}}{\info{\title Harlaxton Symposium}{\author IT Services}{\operator hyscd} {\creatim\yr2003\mo5\dy31\hr14\min43}{\revtim\yr2003\mo5\dy31\hr14\min43}{\printim\yr2003\mo5\dy31\hr14\min31}{\version2}{\edmins0}{\nofpages21}{\nofwords5324}{\nofchars29286}{\*\company University of ÌÇÐÄTV}{\nofcharsws37273}{\vern8247}} \paperw11906\paperh16838\margl1701\margr1701\margt1701\margb1701 \widowctrl\ftnbj\aenddoc\noxlattoyen\expshrtn\noultrlspc\dntblnsbdb\nospaceforul\formshade\horzdoc\dghspace180\dgvspace180\dghorigin1701\dgvorigin1984\dghshow0\dgvshow0 \jexpand\viewkind4\viewscale169\viewzk2\pgbrdrhead\pgbrdrfoot\nolnhtadjtbl \fet0\sectd \linex0\endnhere\titlepg\sectdefaultcl {\header \pard\plain \s20\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar \tqc\tx4153\tqr\tx8306\pvpara\phmrg\posxc\posy0\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\field{\*\fldinst {\cs21 PAGE }}{\fldrslt {\cs21\lang1024\langfe1024\noproof 21}}}{\cs21 \par }\pard \s20\ql \li0\ri0\widctlpar\tqc\tx4153\tqr\tx8306\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { \par }}{\*\pnseclvl1\pnucrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl2\pnucltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl3\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta .}}{\*\pnseclvl4\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxta )}} {\*\pnseclvl5\pndec\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl6\pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl7\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl8 \pnlcltr\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}{\*\pnseclvl9\pnlcrm\pnstart1\pnindent720\pnhang{\pntxtb (}{\pntxta )}}\pard\plain \s1\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel0\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \b\fs28\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\b0\fs24 The secular legacy of the late medieval English parish \par }\pard\plain \s20\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par }\pard\plain \s2\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel1\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \i\fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {Beat K\'fcmin \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par Church houses are prime examples for interactions between the sacred and the profane in late medieval communities.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ P. Cowley, }{\i The Church Houses: Their Religious and Social Significance}{ (London, 1970).}}}{ As facilities for masons embellishing ecclesiastical buildings or worshi ppers in need of physical restoration, church houses supported the religious life of their parishes. As socio-cultural centres and communal assets, however, they demanded supervision and managerial expertise. At Holne in Devon, where the church house was erected in 1329 as a resting place for the clergy, both aspects are equally prominent (see Figure 1 }{\b\ul [please insert near here]}{ ). Legal documents allocate all income from the building to the repair and upkeep of the parish church of St Mary the Virgin \lquote and the maintenance of the services therein\rquote , yet consultation of an annual account yields a more sobering picture. The church house, leased to an innkeeper, produced high debts, partly as a result of a need for re-roofing, but mainly due to \lquote legal costs resulti ng from seemingly endless litigation\rquote initiated by the tenants and contested \endash on the trustees\rquote behalf \endash by a \lquote managing agent\rquote . Parish property, administrative chores and frequent litigation: no doubt a common late medieval scenario, except for the fact that this particular evidence derives from the early twenty-first century.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Information and quotes taken from records kindly supplied by the Charity Commissioners for England and Wales, namely the }{\i Scheme: Holne Church Charity}{ (Holne, 1987) and the \lquote Annual Report\rquote of the same charity for the year 2001. }}}{ At nearby Rattery, where the church house allegedly dates from 1028, an inquiry into communal lands held in 1911 found that the parish owns: \par \par }\pard\plain \s23\ql \li284\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin284\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {a messuage called the Church House \'85 in trust, to permit the churchwardens and sidesmen of the said parish, to receive rents and profits of the said premises, and, yearly, to render an account, to the use of the parish and parishioners, to the intent that the same should be wholly converted and justly employed, towards the reparation of the said church, the better maintaining and setting forth God\rquote s divine service within the said church, the relief of the poor and needy people of the said parish, and all other necessary uses most convenient and m eet to be employed at the will and discretion of them, and the greatest number of the sufficientest of the said parishioners, as in time past had been used and accustomed. \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par The wardens\rquote accounts of 1906 duly record \'a312 rent received from this particular property, an inn since transferred into private ownership.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ The People of the Parish (Comp.), }{\i The Book of Rattery}{ (Tiverton, 2001), pp. 22-23.}}}{ Devon\rquote s church houses, therefore, provide a first tangible indication of the secular legacy of the medieval parish. The modern heritage industry offers another. Few English towns and villages fail to highlight perpendicular parish churches as principal sites of interest and outstanding symbols of their cultural past. Guides to notable churches abound and a fascination with late medieval religion diverts tourists to otherwise rather inconspicuous lo cations, as the visitors\rquote book at Morebath will testify.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ \lquote Medieval Norwich had 57 churches within the city walls, and 31 still exist. Most are Perpendicular in style and are skilfully built of local flint\rquote : \lquote City of Norwich \endash Tourism: Churches in Norwich \rquote (}{\field\flddirty{\*\fldinst { HYPERLINK "http://www.norwich.gov.uk/norwichcc/tourism.nsf/pages/churches.html" }{{\*\datafield 00d0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b02000000170000004400000068007400740070003a002f002f007700770077002e006e006f00720077006900630068002e0067006f0076002e0075006b002f006e006f0072007700690063006800630063002f0074006f0075007200690073006d002e006e00730066002f007000 61006700650073002f00630068007500720063006800650073002e00680074006d006c000000e0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b8800000068007400740070003a002f002f007700770077002e006e006f00720077006900630068002e0067006f0076002e0075006b002f006e006f0072007700690063006800630063 002f0074006f0075007200690073006d002e006e00730066002f00700061006700650073002f00630068007500720063006800650073002e00680074006d006c000000}}}{\fldrslt {\cs18\ul\cf2 http://www.norwich.gov.uk/norwichcc/tourism.nsf/pages/churches.html}}}{ ; consulted 24 May 2003); S. Jenkins, }{\i England\rquote s Thousand Best Churches}{ (London, 1999). For the local impact of E. Duffy, }{\i The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village}{ (New Haven, 2001) cf. \lquote The Media at Morebath\rquote , }{\i Devon Record Office: Newsletter}{ 29 (2002). }}}{ There are still legal repercussions, too: it took a recent landmark ruling by the Court of Appeal to release present-day owners of erstwhile glebe farms from their age-old liability to pay for chancel repairs of the respective churches.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Case reported in }{\i The Independent}{ (18 May 2001), 11.}}}{ \par }\pard \ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { Over the last few decades, however, the long shadow of the Reformation has focused late medieval parish studies very strongly on religion. After great excitement over who wanted reform when and for what reasons, a \lquote post-revisionist\rquote consensus \endash that late medieval piety may have been flourishing well into the reign of Henry VIII, but that it was eroded in the ecclesio-political negotiations sparked by successive royal U-turns \endash is steadily gaining ground.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ The \lquote first genuinely post-revisionist account \rquote in E. Shagan, }{\i Popular Politics and the English Reformation}{ (Cambridge, 2003), i; but see earlier reassessments in C. Marsh, }{\i Popular Religion in Sixteenth-Century England: Holding their Peace}{ (New York, 1998), esp. ch. 5; D. MacCulloch, }{\i The Later Reformation in England 1547-1603}{, 2}{\super nd}{ ed. (Basingstoke, 2001), pp. 105-19. }}}{ This may be a n appropriate moment to re-emphasise that late medieval English parishes were about more than religion. They reflected and in turn nurtured a number of general socio-political and cultural processes, which have at best made selective appearances in recent research.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ One example is the debate on the extent of gentry involvement in the late medieval parish (see the contribution of Nigel Saul in this volume). }}}{ The following survey is a retrospective account, looking at pre-Reformation parishes with the benefit of hindsight. By adopting a longer-term perspective, it hopes to link up with early modern scholarship on the English parish, which might in tu rn benefit from greater chronological depth and more intensive engagement with medieval precedent.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ The observation of a gradual move towards a religious organization based on ties of conscience (rather than territorial proximity) in D. Beaver, }{\i Parish Communities and Religious Conflict in the Vale of Gloucester, 1590-1690}{ (Cambridge, Mass., 1998), might be expected to point to the tradition of individualised movements like the }{\i devotio moderna}{ or networks of interrelated households like the Lollard movement in the pre-Reformation period.}}}{ Common concerns in post-Reformation studies are social organisation, local politics and conflicts over resources, i.e. precisely the sort of issues a fixation on the religious sphere tends to obscure.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ K. Wrightson, \lquote The Politics of the Parish in Early Modern England\rquote , in: }{\i The Experience of Authority in Early Modern England}{, ed. P. Griffiths, A. Fox and S. Hindle (Basingstoke, 1996), pp. 10-46; S. Hindle, \lquote A Sense of Place? Becoming and Belonging in the Rural Parish, 1550-1650\rquote , in: }{\i Com munities in Early Modern England: Networks, Place, Rhetoric}{, ed. A}{. Shepard and P. Withington (Manchester, 2000), pp. 96-114.}}}{ The heavy emphasis on masses, Purgatory and pious works makes the late medieval parish look like a foreign land, with little or no relevance to students of the late Tudor or Stuart periods. \par Such an approach does not have to start from scratch.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 Notable contributions include D. Palliser, \lquote Introduction: the Parish in Perspective\rquote , in: }{\i\fs20 Parish, Church & People: Local Studies in Lay Religion 1350-1750}{\fs20 , ed. S. Wright (London, 1988), pp. 5-28; E. Carlson, \lquote The origins, function, and status of the office of churchwarden\rquote , in: }{\i\fs20 The World of Rural Dissenters 1520-1725}{\fs20 , ed. M. Spufford (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 164-207; and N. Pounds, }{\i\fs20 A History of the English Parish: the Culture of Religion from Augustine to Victoria}{\fs20 (Cambridge, 2000).}}}{ To pursue it, furthermore, does not demand an artificial separation between the religious and secular spheres, as vainly attempted in the piety/charity debate of the late twentieth century.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Cf. W. K. Jordan, }{\i Philanthropy in England 1480-1660: a Study of the Changing Pattern of English Social Aspirations}{ (London, 1959) and J. A. F. Thomson, \lquote Piety and Charity in Late Medieval London\rquote , }{\i Journal of Ecclesiastical History }{16 (1965), 178-95.} }}{ It would be futile to deny t he significance of penitential motive and spiritual yearning, the multi-sensual feasts of colour, scents and music characterising churches up and down the country. And yet, on their own they fail to represent the totality of parish experience. Roger Marty n\rquote s oft-cited reminiscences of religious life in pre-Reformation Long Melford, for instance, tell us as much about the sociology of ritual space and gentry paternalism as about devotional practice.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ C. Haigh, }{\i English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors }{ (Oxford, 1993), \lquote Prologue\rquote .}}}{ The body of parishioners was always a physical as well as a metaphysical unit, a heterogeneous blend of age, wealth and gender groups, each in turn composed of a wide range of personal backgrounds, occupations and individual priorities. Given multiple tensions, John Bossy\rquote s \lquote social miracle\rquote could not be taken for granted. \par While Christian teaching had an undisputed impact on medieval society, for some the church mattered above all as a community centre and a place of business.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ P. Schofield, }{\i Peasant and Community in Medieval England 1200-1500}{ (Basingstoke, 2003), p. 211.}}}{ At any one time, members of the congregation bore grudges against particular neighbours or resented the economic privileges of their priests. In senior parochial officers, everybody recognized the powerful merchants from the High Street and / or the aldermen from the town council. For some, the leasing of chantry lands constituted a financi a l investment rather than an act of commemoration, and the contents of the parish chest mattered to the less well-off mainly as a source of cheap credit. Generous benefaction and funeral monuments augmented social capital as well as spiritual merit, while p ious resolve faced mundane challenges such as cold winter mornings, statues of bare-breasted saints or terrible toothache. A sizeable proportion of the congregation moved across to the alehouse straight after a service, cherishing convivial fellowship as much as communal devotion.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ P. Clark, }{ \i The English Alehouse: A Social History 1200-1830}{ (London, 1983), ch. 2.}}}{ Most importantly of all, parishioners gradually realised that collective institutions bestowed more power, resources and influence on local communities than most individuals could mobilise on their own. From this perspective, rec ent parish studies look distinctly one-sided.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ The bias in recent parish historiography may be one reason why Tudor textbooks remain rather top-heavy in their social and political coverage: S. Brigden, }{\i New Worlds, Lost Worlds: The Rule of the Tudors 1485-1603}{ (London, 2001).}}}{ \par In what follows, therefore, let us strip the altars prematurely, extinguish the candles and erect some temporary scaffolding around the beautiful images. What, then, remains of note about the late medieval English parish? In what ways might it }{\i also}{ be relevant to historians of today? Three aspects are at the centre of attention: first, the way in which the parish facilitated the transition from a feudal to a late or post-feudal society; second, the manner in wh ich it boosted cultural provision and helped to rebalance religious and secular concerns; third, how it served as a political micro-laboratory for the country at large. \par }\pard\plain \s19\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par Feudalism still serves to conceptualise medieval social relations. In spite of much recent debate, there is no doubt about the ubiquity of noble and clerical privilege in a fundamentally unequal society.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 S. Reynolds, }{\i\fs20 Fiefs and Vassals: the Medieval Evidence Reinterpreted }{\fs20 (Oxford, 1994).}}}{ In comparison with other European cultures, furthermore, England is seen as \lquote special\rquote in terms of strong central institutions (esp. the rule of common law) and \endash more controversially \endash as an \lquote advanced\rquote society with substantial traces of early individualism.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 A. Macfarlane, }{\i\fs20 The Origins of English Individualism: the Family, Property and Social Transition}{\fs20 (Oxford, 1978).}}}{ Yet, as early as the late nineteenth century, Pollock and Maitland\rquote s classic account of early English law found it \lquote high time\rquote to move beyond individuals and sovereigns to obtain a better understanding of medieval society.}{ \cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 Sir F. Pollock and F. W. Maitland, }{\i\fs20 The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I}{\fs20 , reprint of 2}{\fs20\super nd}{\fs20 ed. (Cambridge, 1923), vol. I, pp. 687-88; see also F. W. Maitland, \lquote The Survival of Archaic Communities\rquote , in his }{\i\fs20 Collected Papers}{\fs20 (3 vols, London, 1911), vol. II, pp. 313-65, esp. 339.}}}{ The key new and \lquote other\rquote principle emerging in the period was that of communal bonds. Pollock and Maitland rightly warned against seeing this factor at large in each a nd every development, but there is now plentiful evidence for the relevance of communal units such as towns, vills and hundreds throughout English history.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ S. Reynolds}{\i , An Introduction to the History of English Medieval Towns}{ (Oxford, 1979); R. M. Smith, \lquote \'93Modernization\'94 and the Corporate Village Community in England: Some Sceptical Reflections\rquote , in: }{\i Explorations in Historical Geography}{, ed. A. Baker and D. Gregory (Cambridge, 1984), pp. 140-79, esp. 177; C. Dyer, \lquote The English Medieval Village Community and its Decline\rquote , }{\i Journal of British Studies}{ 33 (1994), 407-29; Schofield, }{\i Peasant and Community}{; L. Hollen Lees, }{\i The Solidarities of Strangers: The English Poor Laws and the People 1700-1948}{ (Cambridge, 1998).}}}{ In their rising of 1381, according to the chronicler Thomas Walsingham, the peasant rebels cherished no other concept more highly than that of }{\i communitas}{, which they identified with the established rights and privileges of their villages.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 Walsingham is cited and contextualised in S. Justice, }{\i\fs20 Writing and Rebellion: England in 1381}{\fs20 (Berkeley, 1994), p. 172. }}}{ More to the point and mirroring a wider European phenomenon, parishes emerge as \lquote an important, probably the most important factor in the birth or maturation of the rural community\rquote ; not just in the distant medieval past, but still, say, in France at the end of the Ancien Regime.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ L. Genicot, }{\i Rural Communities in the Medieval West}{ (Baltimore, 1990), p. 105; P. Jones, \lquote Parish, }{\i seigneurie}{ and the Community of Inhabitants in Southern Central France during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries\rquote , }{\i Past and Present}{ 91 (1981), 74-108.}}}{ Even a cursory look into parochial archives will confirm the prominence of communal langua ge, e.g. in motivating attempts to enhance sacramental provision (the chapel of Goodshaw in Lancashire being edified in 1540 \lquote for the Easement of the [founders] and of their neighbours\rquote ) or legitimising local decisions through the consent of \lquote all the whole body of the parish\rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ }{\i A History of the Forest of Rossendale}{, ed. T. Newbigging (Rawtenstall, 1893), p. 177; London, Guildhall Library, MS 1454: Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of St Botolph Aldersgate, 1494-95.}}}{ For both late medieval and early modern English society, the parish has thus been identified as \lquote the locale in which community was constructed and reproduced, perhaps even consecrated\rquote .}{ \cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Hindle, \lquote Becoming and belonging \rquote , 96; B. K\'fcmin, }{\i The Shaping of a Community: The Rise & Reformation of the English Parish c. 1400-1560 }{(Aldershot, 1996); K. Farnhill,}{\i Guilds and the Parish Community in Late Medieval East Anglia, c. 1470-1550}{ (Woodbridge, 2001).}} }{ But is all of this merely an optical illusion, the result of vain attempts to plaster over the cracks and faults of internal disharmony? The main conclusion to be drawn from an extensive debate on the merits of the concept of \lquote community\rquote for our purposes is not so much the need to abandon the term alt ogether, but the necessity to acknowledge the complexity of any social group in any configuration, the simultaneous relevance of multiple types of community to particular individuals, and the constant redefinition of what community meant in a given local environment, not least through processes of inclusion and exclusion.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ C. Carpenter, \lquote Gentry and Community in Medieval England\rquote , }{\i Journal of British Studies}{ 33 (1994), 340-80, esp. 340; Wrightson, \lquote Politics of the Parish \rquote , p. 12. For a general introduction to terminological and historiographical issues cf. A. Shepard and P. Withington, \lquote Introduction\rquote , in: }{\i Communities in Early Modern England}{, pp. 1-15, esp. 5 (calling on historians \lquote to reinvigorate the concept of \'93community\'94 in order to examine the many different types of association and modes of communication in which people participated\rquote ).}}}{ \par }\pard \s19\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { Origin and development of the parish as a focus for lay devotion and organisation are now well established. After the parochial network had crystallised by the thirteenth century, lay in fluence grew from about 1300 through a combination of voluntary activity, legal ingenuity and institutional innovation, in particular the soon universal office of churchwarden.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ J. Blair, \lquote Introduction: from Minster to Parish Church\rquote , in: }{\i Minsters and Parish Churches}{ , ed. idem (Oxford, 1988), pp. 1-19; C. Drew, }{\i Early Parochial Organisation in England: The Origins of the Office of Churchwarden}{ (London, 1954). \lquote From the mid-fourteenth century onwards, it is the emergence of the churchwarden that dominates [the] story of lay involvement\rquote : Schofield, }{\i Peasant}{, p. 200.}}}{ By the fifteenth century, and in spite of common law reservations, parishes ro utinely demonstrated their quasi-corporate status by means of elected officers, communal funds, recourse to various law courts and levying rates on their members. Some even used their own seal!}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ K\'fcmin, }{\i Shaping of a Community}{, ch. 2; E. Cannan, }{\i History of Local Rates in England}{ (London, 1912), pp. 15-16; for parish seals see the essay by Elizabeth New in this volume.}}}{ Community-formation, however, was not merely a topographical or constitutional phenomenon, but a process with wider material and symbolic repercussions. The church as a physical framework was constantly adapted through rearrangement, embellishment and - particularly in the \lquote great age of parish church rebuilding\rquote on the eve of the Reformation \endash whole-scale reconstruction. The latter was the most emphatic statement of communal pride and achievement, regardless of who exactly took the initiative or bore the costs, although the socio-economic context was instrumental in determining whether and in what form such an undertaking could be contemplated.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Schofield, }{\i Peasant}{, pp. 193, 195-96.}}}{ Imposing structures like St Andrew\rquote s, Ashburton, a church entirely rebuilt in the early fifteenth century, transmit the message of a prosperous and vibrant late medieval parish community right down to the present day (see Fig. 2 }{\b [please insert near here]}{).}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ L. Brown, }{\i A Guide and Short History of St Andrew\rquote s Parish Church, Ashburton}{, 4}{\super th}{ ed. (Ashburton, 1999), p. 5. This impression is borne out by unusually rich and comprehensive parish accounts: }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Ashburton 1479-1580}{, ed. A. Hanham (Torquay, 1970).}}}{ Parish extent and identity were further defined and redefined through perambulation, i.e. the \lquote beating of the bounds\rquote in an annual procession.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ E. Duffy, }{\i The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400-c. 1580}{ (New Haven, 1992), pp. 136-39.}}}{ Church and yard hosted numero us liturgical rites and other rituals, which followed official guidelines, but acquired a distinctly local flavour in actual performance. Religious worship in general constituted ever-changing congregations, depending on attendance, occasion and spiritual message, but equally physical setting (e.g. the seating order or spatial differentiation through chantry chapels and the like), so that \lquote social identities were necessarily constructed within that framework and as a result \'85 the church building must be seen to represent a domain of secular action within the field defined by Christian liturgy.\rquote }{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ C. P. Graves, \lquote Social Space in the English Medieval Parish Church\rquote , }{\i Economy and Society}{ 18 (1989), 297-322, esp. 297; see also M. Aston, \lquote Segregation in Church\rquote , in: }{\i Women in the Church}{, ed. W. Sheils and D. Wood (Oxford, 1990), pp. 524-52.}}}{ \par The dynamics of religious experience thus owed a great deal to secular variables.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ For an urban case study see C. Phythian-Adams, \lquote Ceremony and the Citizen: the Communal Year at Coventry 1450-1550\rquote , in: }{\i Crisis and Order in English Towns 1500-1700}{, ed. P. Clark and P. Slack (London, 1972), pp. 57-85.}}}{ Even mundane administrative records shaped parish identities. Churchwardens accoun ts, deeds, inventories and other documents commanded authority as reminders of a shared past, repositories of legal rights and statements of corporate aspirations. Throughout the country, parish chests served as archives and safes preserving the most cher i shed objects of communal heritage. Commissioned for substantial sums and protected by multiple locks to be opened only by the highest dignitaries, they were among the most important secular objects market towns or villages possessed. As if to prove this p oint, quite a few survive, e.g. at Cratfield in Suffolk or Tavistock in Devon (see Fig. 3 }{\b [please insert near here]}{ ). The latter, prominently displayed near the entrance to the church of St Eustachius, was re-discovered in 1827 and found to contain late fourteenth-century churchwardens\rquote accounts!}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ J. Wans, }{\i The Parish Church of St Eustachius, Tavistock Devon }{ (Tavistock, 1990), p. 9.}}}{ Drawing on models derived from linguists and literary theory, Katherine French conceptualised late medieval parishes as \lquote textual communities\rquote , in which members participated through a complex combination of written and oral communication. In order to preserve and defend their textual history, parishioners fought rival claims to their ownership \endash such as those by priests or patrons \endash by recourse to the courts. The }{\lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 creation of churchwardens\rquote accounts in particular can be interpreted as \lquote a community-defining exercise that acknowledged the importance and uniqueness of a parish\rquote s own space, history and ritual\rquote , e.g. through the interactions between written reckonings and their public rehearsal.}{ \cs16\lang2057\langfe1031\super\cgrid0\langfenp1031 \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ K. L. French, }{\i The People of the Parish: Community Life in a Late Medieval English Diocese}{ (Philadelphia, 2001), ch. 2 and esp. p. 49.}}}{\lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 \par But what were the wider soc ial implications of these processes? In terms of lay-clerical relations, lay people throughout Europe obtained a greater say by sheer weight of numbers and resources. Emphatic testimony to this development can be found in a late fifteenth-century }{ \i\lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 Epistola}{\lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 (allegedly written in 1475), in which an anonymous author reflects on the dire conditions for parochial clergy in the German lands. No less than nine devils are shown to beset the everyday life of a rector or vicar. Apart from the patron, ecclesiastical s uperiors, other clerics and stubborn peasants we also find the local churchwarden as a prominent little Satan.}{\cs16\lang2057\langfe1031\super\cgrid0\langfenp1031 \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Elaborated and contextualised in E. B\'fcnz, \lquote \'93Die Kirche im Dorf lassen \'85\'94 : Formen der Kommunikation im sp\'e4tmittelalterlichen Niederkirchenwesen\rquote , in: }{\i Kommunikation in der l\'e4ndlichen Gesellschaft vom Mittelalter bis zur Moderne}{, ed. W}{. R\'f6sener (G\'f6ttingen, 2000), pp. 77-167, esp. 144.}}}{ \lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 There can be little doubt that English parsons would have agreed. From the Middle Ages, local religion was no longer a matter of imposition, but of protracted adaptation and negotiation with the middling and upper levels of parish society.}{\cs16\lang2057\langfe1031\super\cgrid0\langfenp1031 \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ P. Collinson and J. Craig, \lquote Introduction\rquote , in: }{\i The Reformation in English Towns 1500-1640}{ , ed. idem (Basingstoke, 1998), pp. 1-19, esp. 16: \lquote it is only by exploring \'85 popular politics \'85 that we can begin to understand the English Reformation\rquote : Shagan, }{\i Reformation}{, p. 310.}}}{\lang2057\langfe1031\cgrid0\langfenp1031 The centrepiece of the Henrician Reformation, the Act making the monarch \lquote supreme head in earth\rquote of the Church of England, merely carried the principle of lay control to its ultimate conclusion. \par }{In terms of internal social structure, the parish redefined the role of key subgroups. For example, it enhanced the visibility of women in the public sphere. Not so much through greater power in a constitutional sense, as they remained largely excluded from corporate decisions, but still significantly through regular attendance at services, the veneration of a wide range of female saints, the possibility to join most religious guilds \endash even to obtain office in a few of them \endash and gender-specific roles in parochial fundraising and the provision of services.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ K. French, \lquote \'93To free them from binding\'94: Women in the Late Medieval English Parish\rquote , }{\i Journal of Interdisciplinary History}{ 27 (1997), 387-412; C. S. Schen, \lquote Women and the London Parishes 1500-1620\rquote , in: }{\i The Parish in English Life 1400-1600}{, ed. K. French, G. Gibbs and B. K\'fcmin (Manchester, 1997), pp. 250-68.}}}{ Situated yet more explicitly on the margins, the poor underwent a reappraisal from the fifteenth-century as well. By differentiating between worthy and unworthy recipien ts of alms and by asking for ever more scrupulous intercessory activities in return, late medieval parishioners anticipated key developments in early modern public welfare.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ M. McIntosh, \lquote Local Responses to the Poor in Late Medieval and Tudor England\rquote , }{\i Continuity and Change }{3 (1988), 209-45.}}}{ \par From a social perspective, therefore, English parishes reflected the late medieval phenomenon of \lquote communalisation\rquote . Reinforcing horizontal ties already in place in towns, vills and hundreds, they precipitated the corrosion of feudalism. Compared to Central Europe, the communal principle was stronger in the ecclesiastical than the secula r sphere and local autonomy remained more limited, even in boroughs. Pollock and Maitland put it very strongly: \lquote men are drilled and regimented into communities in order that the state may be strong and the land may be at peace.\rquote }{ \cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Pollock and Maitland, }{\i History of Law} {, i. 688.}}}{ The English parish cannot be compared to a mighty imperial free city in the Holy Roman Empire, but it evolved into a significant \lquote secular\rquote unit nevertheless.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ K\'fcmin, }{\i Shaping of a Community}{, \lquote Epilogue\rquote .}}}{ \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par Moving to the second theme, late medieval parishes played a crucial part in the elaboration of the cultural life of the realm. Ronald Hutton\rquote s attempt to date the emergence of individual practices from their first appearance in churchwardens \rquote accounts has met with some legitimate scepticism,}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 }{\fs20\lang9\langfe1033\langnp9 K. L. French, \lquote Review [of: The Rise and Fall of Merry England]\rquote , }{\i\fs20\lang9\langfe1033\langnp9 Sixteenth Century Journal}{\fs20\lang9\langfe1033\langnp9 26 (1995), 247-48.}}}{ but the gist of the argument seems perfectly sound. Increasing lay resources and i nitiative associated with some 9000 parishes, most of which instrumentalised conviviality and entertainment for fundraising purposes, surely boosted both the range of potential sponsors as well as the size of audiences for cultural activities. There is no shortage of evidence to substantiate this point.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ For an examination of the cultural importance of parishes in another territorial context cf. }{\i Kirche im Dorf: Ihre Bedeutung f\'fcr die kulturelle Entwicklung der l\'e4ndlichen Gesellschaft im \'93Preussenland\'94, 13.-18. Jahrhundert}{ (Be rlin, 2002).}}}{ \par }\pard \ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { One telling indication is the late medieval multiplication of church houses, particularly (but not only) in the West Country, as social centres where parishioners brewed, baked and staged corporate functions such as church ales (cf. Fig. 1).}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ An artist\rquote s attempt at a reconstruction at } {\field\flddirty{\*\fldinst { HYPERLINK "http://www.building-history.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Buildings/Churchhouses.htm" }{{\*\datafield 00d0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b02000000170000004c00000068007400740070003a002f002f007700770077002e006200750069006c00640069006e0067002d0068006900730074006f00720079002e007000770070002e0062006c007500650079006f006e006400650072002e0063006f002e0075006b002f00 4200750069006c00640069006e00670073002f0043006800750072006300680068006f0075007300650073002e00680074006d000000e0c9ea79f9bace118c8200aa004ba90b9800000068007400740070003a002f002f007700770077002e006200750069006c00640069006e0067002d0068006900730074006f00720079 002e007000770070002e0062006c007500650079006f006e006400650072002e0063006f002e0075006b002f004200750069006c00640069006e00670073002f0043006800750072006300680068006f0075007300650073002e00680074006d000000}}}{\fldrslt {\cs18\ul\cf2 http://www.building-history.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Buildings/Churchhouses.htm}}}{ (consulted 28 May 2003).}}}{ Any one volume of the \lquote Records of Early English Drama\rquote , furthermore, testifies to the parishes\rquote pivotal role in the elaboration of theatrical and mimetic activities. Parochial records are prime sources of information for seasonal rituals, costumes, instruments and the costs of major performances, even in cities with as rich an archival heritage as Oxford.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 }{\fs20 Cf. e.g. }{\i\fs20 Records of Early English Drama: Oxford}{\fs20 , ed. J. R. Elliott Jr, A. F. Johnston and D. Watt (Toronto, forthcoming), a volume for which parishes \lquote provided so much relevant material\rquote : \lquote Introduction\rquote , note 64. }}}{ At Boxford in Suffolk, the financial requirements for a new tower may have been behind the staging of a major play in 1535. Rewards were paid to actors \lquote which came out of strange places\rquote and helped to generate a handsome profit of \'a3 19, doubtlessly aided by contributions from unspecified \lquote drinkers in the booth\rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 }{\i\fs20 Boxford Churchwardens\rquote Accounts 1530-1561}{\fs20 , ed. P. Northeast (Woodbridge, 1982), pp. xiii, 19. Another example of a profitable communal effort, documented in a separate play account, comes from Bethersden in 1521: }{\i\fs20 The Churchwardens\rquote Accounts at Betrysden [Bethersden] 1515-73}{ \fs20 , ed. F. M. Mercer (Ashford, 1928), pp. x-xi, 3-5.}}}{ With regard to music, pre-Reformation churchwardens supp orted both spiritual and secular varieties, ranging from sophisticated polyphony to folkloric morris dancing, by means of payments for instruments, musical literature and individual artists. Famous composers like Taverner had associations with specific pa r ishes and city waits graced urban churches with their services. The Reformation brought an end to activities related to intercessory institutions, but allowed parishioners to move from sponsorship to active participation through the vastly popular singing of psalms. New trends in musical provision reached the \lquote people\rquote primarily through their local churches, where patronage was often communal rather than clerical or noble. Parishes could thus be seen as the most \lquote democratic\rquote and socially comprehensive patrons of music in the period.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \cs16\super \chftn }{ B. K\'fcmin, \lquote Masses, Morris and Metrical Psalms: Music in the English Parish c. 1400-1600\rquote , in: }{\i Music and Musicians in Renaissance Cities and Towns}{, ed. F. Kisby (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 70-81, esp. 80.}}}{ Is it unreasonable to link late medieval ceremonial tradition to the emergence of a socially inclusive Renaissance audience, most notably for Shakespearean plays? \par In addition to boosting the }{\i volume}{ of cultural activities, parishioners also contributed to a marked change in }{\i emphasis}{ . The parish was set up as an exclusively ecclesiastical unit, administering purely ecclesiastical funds under strong ecclesiastical supervision.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ See e.g. Statutes of the Synod of Exeter (1287), c. 12: }{\i Councils and Synods with Other Documents Relating to the English Church}{, ed. F. Powicke and C. Cheney (Oxford, 1964), pt. II, p. 1008.}}}{ By the early modern period, however, the notion of a \lquote religious monopoly\rquote had evaporated. Christopher Hill dated the secularisation of the English parish to the century before the revolution, when he saw statutory local government duties and sectarian pressures undermining the pre-eminence of spiritual concerns . John Sommerville, in turn, identified the growth of the state, the impact of new technology like the printing press and above all the new religious climate nurtured by Protestant doctrine as instrumental for the same process. The reformers\rquote emphasis on scripture challenged the pervasiveness of ritual and sacral space in everyday life and effected a change from a religiously saturated culture to a more individual, objectified \lquote religious faith\rquote in England as a whole.}{ \cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ C. Hill, }{\i Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England}{ (London, 1964), pp. 420-42; C. J. Sommerville, }{\i The Secularization of Early Modern England: From Religious Culture to Religious Faith}{ (Oxford, 1992).}}}{ Looking more closely at the late mediev al parish, however, we find evidence for the growth of secular concerns much further back in time. \par In important respects, English state formation merely elaborated and formalised late medieval parish practice. Pre-Reformation local communities experimented with local rates, road and bridge repairs, various forms of poor relief and new local offices long before Tudor legislation transformed them into statutory pillars of local government. As early as the late fourteenth century, the Exchequer had used the l ocal ecclesiastical unit in a successful taxation experiment.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \cs16\super \chftn }{ W. M. Ormrod, \lquote An Experiment in Taxation: the English Parish Subsidy of 1371\rquote , }{\i Speculum}{ 63 (1988), 58-82. Parishes also served as bas es for subsequent tax levies, e.g. in Devon for the subsidy granted in 1543, but apparently only when they were coterminous with the secular unit of the tithing (I am grateful to Mark Forrest for this information).}}}{ In this country, significantly, there were to be no centrally paid }{\i intendants}{ or other kinds of embryonic bureaucracies \endash much rather a form of self-government drawing on the services of \lquote amateurs\rquote recruited from among parochial elites.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ J. Kent, \lquote The Centre and the Localities: State Formation and Parish Government in England }{\i c}{. 1640-1740\rquote , }{\i Historical Journal}{ 38 (1995), 363-404; S. Hindle, }{\i The State and Social Change in Early Modern England 1550-1640}{ (Basingstoke, 2000), esp. ch. 8 (\lquote The Governance of the Parish\rquote ).}}}{ An analysis of late medieval parish finance is highly suggestive: some regimes based on contributions by the \lquote living\rquote raised up to eighty-five per cent of their revenue through \lquote secular\rquote fundraising devices like church ales.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Taunton, Somerset Record Office, D/P/yat/4/1/3: Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Yatton, 1540-45.}}}{ In terms of expenditure, the most conspicuous growth area in a sample of ten churchwardens\rquote accounts was neither \lquote fabric\rquote maintenance nor religious \lquote worship\rquote , but \lquote administration\rquote (see Fig. 4 }{\b [please insert near here]}{). The latter includes money spent on matters as varied as record keeping, property management, public works and legal proceedings.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ The graph charts the aggregated expenditure on the three main categories (in per cent of total recorded spending) from the metropolitan parishes of St Andrew Hubbard and St Botolph Aldersgate in London and St Ewen\rquote s and All Saints in Bristol; the market towns of Ashburton, Halesowen, Peterborough and Prescot; and the rural communities of Boxford and Yatton (adapted from K\'fcmin, }{\i Shaping of a Community}{, p. 142; for methodical i nformation cf. ibid, appendix 2).}}}{ At St Michael\rquote s Spurriergate in York, to adduce yet another case study, the Henrician wardens\rquote accounts read more like an estate agent\rquote s notebook th an a reckoning of ecclesiastical officials. The lion\rquote s share of the income consisted of lists of revenues from real estate; churchwardens routinely turned to property deeds and professional counsel to fight legal proceedings and they made sure to be proactive when it came to the parish\rquote s livelihood: in 1544, for example, the wardens tackled the problem of a declining number of feoffees for the parish estate by calling a meeting \lquote in the churche to se all the evydens and to make new feoffers of the landes generall all in on deid \rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 }{\i\fs20 The Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of St Michael, Spurriergate, York 1518-1548}{\fs20 , ed. C. C. Webb (2 vols, York, 1997), vol. I, p. 5; vol. II, p. 277 and passim. In York, incidentally, parishes also served as administrative units for municipal purposes: D. Palliser, }{\i\fs20 Tudor York}{\fs20 (Oxford, 1979), p. 77.}}}{ \par At the same time, churchwardens emerged as major local employers, not only of clergy hired for a variety of services, but also of artisans and labourers for routine maintenance projects as well as further embellishment.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Michael Spurriergate}{ , pp. 9-10. Much detail regarding parish patronage of masons and other workmen in J. Middleton-Stewart, }{\i Inward Purity and Outward Splendour: Death and Remembrance in the Deanery of Dunwich, Suffolk, 1370-1547}{ (Woodbridge, 2001), e.g. p. 105 (contract between parish elders and masons for work on the church tower of Walberswick in 1426).}}}{ This raises the badly neglected issue of the parishes\rquote economic importance. One striking phenomenon is the fact that pre-Reformation rectors \lquote typically\rquote leased the material revenues of their benefices. By transferring control over mortuaries, fees and above all agri cultural tithes over to (often lay) investors in return for a specific rent, incumbents effectively boosted the market in foodstuffs and helped to satisfy urban demand.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ R. C. Palmer, }{\i Selling the Church: The English Parish in Law, Commerce, and Religion, 1350-1550}{ (Chapel Hill, 2002), esp. pp. 99, 248.}}}{ In parishes like Cirencester, meanwhile, there was clearly a need for more working spa ce to cope with the sheer volume of socio-economic preoccupations. In 1490, the local abbey added a south porch to the parish church of St John\rquote s \lquote to appease or at least accommodate\rquote the townspeople. Such porches \lquote were of great local importance, for here the conduct of both church and secular business took place\rquote . As if to reflect the dynamic of parish society, \lquote the exterior is in the most elaborate Perpendicular Gothic; restless tracery pushes up through panels and oriel windows towards the parapet. Nothing is still\rquote . It continues to be used for parish meetings today (see Fig. 5 }{\b [please insert near here]}{).}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Quotes from Jenkins, }{\i Churches}{, p. 210.}}}{ \par }\pard\plain \s19\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { Is it mere speculation to suggest that the further enhancement of secular parish authority, as informally evolved over the course of the late Middle Age s, proved an attractive and mitigating feature of the English Reformation? Government propaganda, after all, extolled the principle of lay control and the need to reallocate Church resources for the benefit of the commonwealth. Far from breaking down, as C hristopher Hill claimed (and might have been expected), the parish retained its ecclesiastical, social and political importance throughout the doctrinal changes, as recent early modern scholarship is at pains to emphasize. It was not the same community an y more, more \lquote officially\rquote secular, subject to heavier external pressures and growing social polarisation, but it clearly survived.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ N. Alldridge, \lquote Loyalty and Identity in Chester parishes 1540-1640\rquote , in: }{\i Parish, Church & People }{, pp. 85-124; I. Archer, }{\i The Pursuit of Stability: Social Relations in Elizabethan London}{ (Cambridge, 1991); J. Morrill, \lquote The Church in England 1642-49\rquote , in }{\i Reactions to the English Civil War 1642-49}{, ed. idem}{ (London, 1982), pp. 89-114.}}}{ The medieval heritage, furthermore, literally enriched urban corporations and rural settlements through the creative reinterp retation and reallocation of penitential bequests in support of the wider community: revenues from lands and other assets no longer increased divine service, but local infrastructure, credit, poor relief and basic education. At Cratfield in Suffolk, the p arish notables \lquote skilfully obscured the extent to which the lands had been used to fund traditional religious activities and prevented their confiscation by the Crown. As a result of this lack of conformity Cratfield was able to redirect its landed income to the support of a school and an almshouse\rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 K. Farnhill, \lquote Religious Policy and Parish \'93Conformity\'94: Cratfield\rquote s Lands in the Sixteenth Century\rquote , in: }{\i\fs20 The Parish in English Life}{\fs20 , pp. 216-29, esp. 229; the material gains to be made at the Reformation could boost the fortunes of English towns: R. Tittler, \lquote Reformation, Resources and Authority in English Towns: an Overview\rquote , in: }{\i\fs20 The Reformation in English Towns}{\fs20 , pp. 190-201.}}}{ Less ingeniously, but no less emphatically, Long Melford\rquote s parishioners petitioned royal visitors in 1547-48 to spare at least parts of their endowment for the sake of the \lquote pore peple & hyghe wayes & churche goodes\rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk Record Office, FL 509/1/15: Black Book of Long Melford, f. 27v.}}}{ \par Whatever the success of specific manoeuvrings, churchwardens continued to spend ever more on \lquote administration\rquote in the wake of the Reformation.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Ashburton 1479-1580}{, p. x; }{\i Elizabethan}{ }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts}{, ed. J}{. Farmiloe and R. Nixseaman (Streatley, 1953), pp. xxix-xxx; J. Craig, \lquote Co-operation and Initiatives: Elizabethan Churchwardens and the Parish Accounts of Mildenhall\rquote , in: }{\i Social History}{ 18 (1993), 357-380. A colossal amount of detail can be found in S. and B. Webb, }{\i English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Reform Act. Vol. 1: The Parish and the County}{ (1906; reprint: London, 1963).}}}{ Yet the process of secularisation was not linear and never complete. Wine and bread now needed to be bought for communion, church building campaigns resurfaced after a dip during the mid-sixteenth century and new forms of \lquote voluntary religion \rquote such as lectureships emerged in early modern communities, albeit for different doctrinal motives and within a more fragmented confessional environment than before the Reformation.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ On the resumption of church building: A. Foster, \lquote Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Early Modern England and Wales: Some Problems to Note, but Much to be Gained\rquote , in: }{\i The Parish in English Life}{, pp. 74-93, esp. 85-93; B. K\'fcmin, \lquote Voluntary Religion and Reformation Change in Eight Urban Parishes\rquote , in: }{\i The Reformation in English Towns}{, pp. 175-89, esp. 189.}}}{ Continuity in terms of core pastoral responsibilities, of course, should also be emphasized.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\fs20\super \chftn }{\fs20 Post-Restoration evidence for extensive lay efforts to enhance pastoral quality in D. A. Spaeth, }{ \i\fs20 The Church in an Age of Danger: Parsons and Parishioners 1660-1740}{\fs20 (Cambridge, 2000).}}}{ }{\cs16\super }{ \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par Finally, let us turn to the parish\rquote s role in English political culture. There is much excitement about the emergence of Parliament in the late Middle Ages, but the simultaneous development of parochial institutions \endash affecting an infinitely larger number of people much more directly \endash has attracted rather less interest in recent times. While often anecdotal and nostalgic in tone, older historical work certainly pointed to the significance of this process: around 1900, for instance, Augustus Jessopp interpreted parochial activities as a \lquote means to lift people up\rquote from the yoke of feudal subordination; Bishop Hobhouse saw Somerset parishes operating under \lquote a constitution which recognized the rights of the whole and of every adult member to a voice in self-government\rquote , while Austrian legal historian Josef Redlich described English parish meetings as \lquote a very democratic type of local government. Presided over by the priest, they appear as assemblies \'85 in which each member had an equal share in discussion and decision-making\rquote .}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ A. Jessopp, \lquote Parish Life in England Before the Great Pillage\rquote , }{\i Nineteenth Century}{ 43 (1898), 47-60, 431-47, esp. 47; }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Croscombe [etc]}{, ed. E. Hobhouse (London, 1890), p. xi; J. Redlich, }{\i Englische Lokalverwaltung}{ (Leipzig, 1901), p. 35 [translation: BK].}}}{ No social historian would put it quite like that nowadays, but the fact remains t hat parish decision-making followed horizontal rather than vertical principles of political organization. Parish government (as its constitutional sibling in towns) knew neither universal suffrage nor gender equality, but compared to feudal rule it was a government by the relatively many rather than the select few. \par }\pard\plain \s19\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {The accounts of Bethersden in Kent for 1524 charged \lquote the sexton to give all the parish a warning that the whole parish should appear together the 8th day of January [1525] that they might have a communication of how many kene [=cattle] belonged to the church of Betrysden and also to have a perfect knowledge under what manner or form they were given to the church.\rquote }{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts at Betrysden}{, pp. 60-61.}}}{ The reality of such inclusive language is often questioned, but the sources routine ly insist on broad participation. Providing the holy bread for distribution after mass, contributing to parochial levies and attending audits emerge as duties shared among all independent householders, on whose shoulders, after all, much of premodern publ ic life rested.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Holy bread rota in }{\i Borough Customs}{, ed. M. Bateson (London, 1904), vol. I, p. 212; parochial dues levied on those with dwelling-houses in the parish: F. Fox (ed.), \lquote The Regulations of the Vestry of St Stephen [Bristol] 1524\rquote , }{\i Proceedings of the Clifton Antiquarian Club}{ 1 (1884-88), 200; St Botolph Aldersgate in London required \lquote persons being a parishioner and a householder in the same parish\rquote to attend its audit: Churchwardens\rquote accounts 1494-95. For a contemporary assessment cf. Richard Whitford, }{\i A Werke for Householders}{ (London, 1530).}}}{ The most striking case in point must be the dispute about the clerk\rquote s wages at Morebath in the 1530s. In a parish composed of thirty-three households, a vote conducted at the peak of communal division yielded a result of twenty-six against five \endash representing a turnout of ninety-four per cent!}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Duffy, }{\i Morebath}{ , pp. 2 (number of households) and 60 (counting of votes).}}}{ \par Another late medieval legacy, however, gradually undermined this broadly based system. From the later fifteenth century, there is increasing evidence for oligarchic parish regimes. Out of the \lquote frontbenchers\rquote of a congregation, i.e. the local elites worshipping in the most prestigious parts of the church, groups like the \lquote masters\rquote , the \lquote feoffees\rquote or the \lquote auditors\rquote gradually assumed a disproportionate role in parochial affairs. As ancestors of the notorious \lquote closed vestries\rquote of the post-Reformation period, they emerged particularly frequently in city-centre communities with a great deal of business associated with landed endowment, but also in certain rural environments.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ From a post-Reformation perspective, the parish vestry \endash whether \lquote open \rquote or \lquote closed\rquote \endash was the \lquote characteristic institutional forum in which popular political culture found expression\rquote : S. Hindle, \lquote The Political Culture of the Middling Sort in English Rural Communities, }{\i c} {. 1550-1700\rquote , in: }{\i The Politics of the Excluded, c.1500-1850}{, ed. T. Harris (Basingstoke, 2000), pp. 125-152, esp. 126.}}}{ At St Michael Spurriergate in the provincial capital of York, a memorandum of 1522-23 records \lquote that our masters with all the hoyle parishoners\rquote had agreed to waive the rent for a parish property, while a body of \lquote Five Men\rquote supervised communal affairs in the village of Morebath.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts of Michael Spurriergate}{, vol I, p. 91; Duffy, }{\i Morebath}{, pp. 30-31.}}}{ Yet, in b oth cases, the wider body of householders still had a say. Major decisions were to be made collectively, representatives to be elected and accounts to be yielded periodically. This is the late medieval parish constitution in a nutshell: at pre-Reformation Halberton in the West Country, the body of the six men was \lquote elect and chosen by all the parishioners\rquote , while at Bethersden\rquote s account-day of 1520 \lquote the whole parish and the wardens were agreed that from henceforth the wardens shall give accounts every year t he next Sunday after St Nicholas [day] and if so be [that] the churchwardens do not give accounts every year ... then the said wardens that so shall hap[pen] to fail ... shall lose to the church 6 }{\i s}{. 8 }{\i d}{.\rquote }{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ R. Whiting, }{\i The Blind Devotion of the People: Popular Religion and the English Reformation}{ (Cambridge, 1989), p. 91; }{\i Churchwardens\rquote Accounts at Betrysden}{, p. 81.}}}{ \par Parish politics thus anticipated key features of later \lquote democratic\rquote regimes. The practices sketched here raise intriguing questions about the origin of modern constitutional thought. Where, for instance, did political radicals get their ideas from? One of the most advanced programmes ever devised in ear ly modern England, that of the Levellers in the late 1640s, may owe as much to the practical experience of communal regimes in cities and parishes as to abstract influences like common law tradition, natural law discourse and separatist religious doctrine . William Walwyn, a protagonist of the movement, demonstrably served his turn in parish administration at St James Garlickhithe in London a decade or so before helping to draft the Levellers\rquote famous }{\i Agreements}{ . As a member of the parish vestry and subsequently another elected committee of \lquote 12 men\rquote , he endeavoured to effect a \lquote reformation\rquote in a parish he found \lquote out of order\rquote , mainly because of financial irregularities. \par \par }\pard \s19\ql \li284\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin284\itap0 {And whereas divers parisheners desyred to bee acquainted how the estate of the parish [an d] the rents and Revenues of the Church & poores stocke now standeth, for their better sattisfaction therin it was now thought fitt by this vestry to chuse a comitte of 12 men of the vestre to Examen the bookes & accomptes of this parish and [\'85 ] to that purpose there was now chosen [12 names including] Mr Wallwine [\'85] which 12 men with the parson and churchwardens [\'85] shalbee a full meeting & all wrightinges & bookes to bee produced before them.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Walwyn\rquote s presence and role are documented in London, Guildhall Library, MS 4813/1: Vestry Minutes of St James Garlickhithe, f. 52-55 (quote on f. 54v), and ibid., MS 4813/2: St James Garlickhithe Vestry Book, f. 3v.}}}{ \par }\pard \s19\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { \par }\pard \s19\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {In his tract }{\i A whisper in the Eare of Mr Thomas Edwards}{ (1646), Walwyn explains how his zeal for the \lquote public good\rquote took him from this lowest level of St James to reform initiatives in his London ward, then on to petitions to the municipal council and finally, \lquote when the common enemy [i.e. Charles I\rquote s party] was at the highest\rquote to the lobbying of Parliament.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Text edited in }{\i Tracts on Liberty in the Puritan Revolution}{, ed. D. Haller (New York, 1934), vol. III, pp. 319-35, esp. 324-25.}}}{ The late medieval principles of broadly-based elections, officer accountability and periodical assemblies, manifestly at stake in this parochial dispute, all feature prominently in the Levellers\rquote proposals for p olitical reform in the country at large \endash a projection of local practices onto the national canvas that has not gone unnoticed among Leveller historians.}{\cs16\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ B. Manning, \lquote Introduction [to: \lquote The Levellers and Christianity\rquote ], in: idem, }{\i Politics, Religion and the English Civil War}{ (London, 1973), p. 225; K. Thomas, \lquote The Levellers and the Franchise\rquote , in: }{\i The Interregnum}{, ed. G. Aylmer, 2}{\super nd}{ ed. (London, 1979), pp. 57-78; B. K\'fcmin, \lquote Die kommunale Pr\'e4gung der englischen Levellers\rquote , in: }{\i Gemeinde und Staat im alten Europa}{, ed. P. Blickle (Munich, 1998), pp. 359-94, esp. 389-94.}}}{ \par }\pard\plain \ql \fi720\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 { \par }\pard\plain \s3\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel2\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\ul\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\ulnone In conclusion, therefore, late medieval parishes repay the pursuit of a plurality of approaches. Religious life, like all other spheres of individual experience, was \lquote integrated into complex, long-standing and broad social, cultural, political, economic and demographic systems\rquote .}{\cs16\ulnone\super \chftn {\footnote \pard\plain \s15\ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1 \widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs20\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\cs16\super \chftn }{ Schofield, }{\i Peasants}{, p. 215.}}}{\ulnone On top of a better understanding of the context of ecclesiastical history, engagement with secular aspects reveals long-term legacies in at least three different respects: }{\i\ulnone Socially}{\ulnone , parishes \lquote embedded\rquote individuals in a new horizontal framework emerging alongside kinship ties and vertical bonds of subordination, with access to offices and public responsibilities proving instrumental for the rise of the middling sort. }{\i\ulnone Culturally}{\ulnone , parishioners helped to elaborate the ritual and ceremonial life of the nation, while contributing to a gradual, if never comprehensive process of secularisation. }{\i\ulnone Politically}{\ulnone , parishes offered a universal micro-laboratory for contrasting models of constitutional organization: proto-\lquote democratic\rquote principles like election, accountability and periodical assemblies (inspiring radical political thought) on the one hand, and oligarchic tendencies like parish \lquote masters\rquote or vestries on the other. In areas such as education, public works and poor relief, furthermore, the parish set the agenda for centuries to come. \par }\pard \s3\ql \fi284\li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\keepn\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\outlinelevel2\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 {\ulnone From a historiographical perspective, more pronounced engagement with secular dimensions facilitates scholarly exchange with early modern parish research, particularly with regard to parochial input into English state formation. After all, both the institutions and fundraising mechanisms enshrined in Tudor l ocal government legislation were essentially late medieval parish creations and as such not the least intriguing aspect of the complex relationship between English monarchs and their Church. \par \par }\pard\plain \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 \fs24\lang2057\langfe1033\cgrid\langnp2057\langfenp1033 {\page \par }{\ul Captions for Figures \par }{ \par {\listtext\pard\plain\lang2057\langfe1033\langnp2057 \hich\af0\dbch\af0\loch\f0 1.\tab}}\pard \ql \fi-360\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx720\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls6\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 {The fourteenth-century \lquote Church House Inn\rquote at Holne in Devon, which continues to serve the religious and convivial needs of the villagers today. [Picture: BK] \par }\pard \ql \li360\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin360\itap0 { \par {\listtext\pard\plain\lang2057\langfe1033\langnp2057 \hich\af0\dbch\af0\loch\f0 2.\tab}}\pard \ql \fi-360\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx720\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls6\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 { Prospect of the early fifteenth-century church of St Andrew, Ashburton, in Devon \endash most tangible symbol of a vibrant parish life built on the socio-economic foundations of a prosperous wool and tin trade. [Picture: BK] \par }\pard \ql \li360\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin360\itap0 { \par {\listtext\pard\plain\lang2057\langfe1033\langnp2057 \hich\af0\dbch\af0\loch\f0 3.\tab}}\pard \ql \fi-360\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx720\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls6\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 { The parish chest of St Eustachius at Tavistock in Devon, once the communal archive and \lquote memory\rquote . [Picture: BK] \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { \par {\listtext\pard\plain\lang2057\langfe1033\langnp2057 \hich\af0\dbch\af0\loch\f0 4.\tab}}\pard \ql \fi-360\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx720\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls6\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 { Aggregate expenditure on fabric, worship and administration in the first surviving churchwardens\rquote accounts (\lquote First\rquote ) compared to the last pre-Reformation years (\lquote Last\rquote ) from a sample of ten parishes (in per cent of total recorded spending). \par }\pard \ql \li360\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin360\itap0 { \par {\listtext\pard\plain\lang2057\langfe1033\langnp2057 \hich\af0\dbch\af0\loch\f0 5.\tab}}\pard \ql \fi-360\li720\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\jclisttab\tx720\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\ls6\adjustright\rin0\lin720\itap0 { South porch of the parish church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester, \lquote the largest and most complex in England. It is exceptionally grand, three bays wide, three deep and three storeys tall \'85 . It might qualify as England\rquote s first office block\rquote . [Jenkins, }{\i Churches}{, p. 210; picture: BK] \par }\pard \ql \li0\ri0\sl360\slmult1\widctlpar\aspalpha\aspnum\faauto\adjustright\rin0\lin0\itap0 { \par }}