The People of the Parish

by Katherine L. French

"The parish was the lowest level of hierarchy in the medieval church and it was the shared responsibility of the laity and the clergy. Most Christians were baptized, went to confession, were married, and were buried in the parish church or churchyard; in addition, business, legal settlements, sociability, and entertainment brought people to the church, uniting secular and sacred concerns. In The People of the Parish, Katherine L. French contends that late medieval religion was participatory and flexible, promoting different kinds of spiritual and material involvement, and that the variety of ways the laity interacted with their parishes refines our understanding of lay attitudes toward Christianity in the two centuries before the Reformation.". "The parish records of the small diocese of Bath and Wells include wills, court records, and detailed accounts by lay churchwardens of everyday parish activities. They reveal the differences between parishes within a single diocese that cannot b