Parish Life in Mediaeval England

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

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