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The daily life of the vast majority of England’s population in the late Anglo-Saxon period was closely bound to the local parish church, which by the end of the 10th century was the focal point of a community. Everyone within a church's sphere of influence would gather within it to worship together, and they were led through the mysteries of the sacrament by the local priest.
'The role of the parish church went further than a simple place of worship.'
As with cathedrals, the local parish church was essentially a machine for worship, albeit on a smaller scale. Its architecture performed much the same function as that of the cathedral, and embodied Christ on Earth.
The interiors were intended to contribute to the mystery of the sacrament, and were full of symbolism and devotional aids that helped an uncomprehending congregation appreciate the moment the sacrament occurred.
The role of the parish church went further than that of a simple place of worship. Patronage and private piety were all reflected in the development of new architecture, in private chapels, chantries, tombs and monumental inscriptions within the church itself. Some of these clues still exist in those early churches that survived the Reformation of the 16th century.
They also, however, allowed priests to venture into the local communities to preach, baptise and say mass. The success in converting people to Christianity led to a demand for more monasteries (or minsters), and there was soon an entire network of religious houses stretching across England.
'In the late Anglo-Saxon period, local chapels became more independent ...'
In addition, small chapels, staffed by clergy from the minsters, were built in local communities to help cater for this demand. People attended their local chapel for mass, but they still went to the minster for special occasions such as feast days [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] , and for baptisms and burials.
In the late Anglo-Saxon period, local chapels became more independent, and they were converted into separate parish churches with their own priest, supported by the communities they served by the payment of tithes [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] . The new parish churches were provided with fonts so they could conduct baptisms, and cemeteries were consecrated within their grounds so that parishioners could be buried in holy ground. .
Churches such as Heath, in Shropshire, built around this time, were very simple buildings, usually with no more than a nave [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] and chancel [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] , which reflects the limited liturgy [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] that took place within.
'... a strong manorial system was largely absent in East Anglia, and many peasants owned land.'
The development of the parochial network throughout England, and the role played by the local community in this process, is unclear, but there is often a close correlation between the boundary of a parish and the boundary of the local manor. Similarly the local lord often controlled the 'advowson' (the right to influence local ecclesiastical appointments) of a parish church.
This suggests that secular pressure was an important factor, and that in areas of strong lordship the local lord played the leading role. In comparison, a strong manorial system was largely absent in East Anglia, and many peasants owned land. Given that East Anglia has one of the largest concentrations in England of early parish churches - like Hales or Haddiscoe in Norfolk - it is possible to speculate that the peasantry were responsible for the construction or foundation of these churches.
To accommodate these new functions, churches were extended and enlarged. Chancels - separated from the nave by a heavily decorated chancel arch - were lengthened and sometimes widened, as the liturgy grew more complex and thus required more space in which the priest could operate. New liturgical fittings like piscinas [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] and sedilia [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] were installed.
'... weddings in the Middle Ages were celebrated outside, in front of the church door ...'
The first addition to the nave was often a tower at its west end. Although some towers were round, especially in East Anglia, most were square, of which a good example is the late Saxon tower at St Benet's, Cambridge. Although there was no set order for enlarging a parish church, the next addition was often an aisle [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] alongside the nave, often in response to a specific new demand on the space inside the church.
One reason was the need for new altars, which could be added at the side without intruding on the nave. Another factor was the need to provide additional standing or sitting room for the growing congregations, especially prior to the arrival of the Black Death between 1347-48.
External features were also added over time, such as a porch over the main south door to the nave. Porches served a variety of purposes, the most practical of which was to provide cover. For example, weddings in the Middle Ages were celebrated outside, in front of the church door, and a porch would protect the proceedings from the elements.
'... in the later Middle Ages, English parish churches developed their own form ...'
As demands on space continued to grow, some late medieval porches became more elaborate two-storeyed affairs; the upper storey was used as a chapel, as a room for the priest, or as a meeting room or place to educate children.
Some architectural distinctions between minsters and the new parish churches remained. Minsters were bigger and more likely to be cruciform than ordinary parish churches. But in the later Middle Ages, English parish churches developed their own form, especially in areas made rich by the wool trade.
Aisles were extended east alongside the chancel and west around the tower to form a rectangular plan. Clerestories [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml2] were added, and windows enlarged to make these churches into something resembling a huge glass box, mirroring the architectural designs and styles seen in larger cathedrals.
The fourth-century decrees of Pope Gelasius had required the use of tithes - a tax at the rate of one tenth of all goods and produce on land - to fund church maintenance, pay salaries to the clergy and provide relief for the poor of the parish. This system was adopted in England in the late tenth century, but fairly quickly it evolved along completely different lines from those originally intended.
'The monks were able to "appropriate" churches by paying a vicar to perform all church services ...'
After the Conquest many of the new Norman lords wished to found monasteries, in keeping with established tradition in their homeland across the Channel. In order to provide the monks with an income on which to live, the secular lords donated entire manors, and the advowson of the churches on the manors, to the newly established monasteries - the abbot of the monastery then collected rents from his tenants in the manner of a secular lord.
The monks were able to ‘appropriate’ the churches on their newly acquired properties by paying a vicar to perform the necessary church services. This was a cost to them, but they would keep the salary low, and the monasteries still made a healthy profit. In addition, the monks used the tithes to maintain their own buildings, but said this excused them from contributing their full share towards the maintenance of the church.
Consequently, to prevent many parish churches from falling into disrepair, 13th-century bishops issued orders, known as statutes [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] , to rectify the problem. These episcopal statutes introduced the concept that parishioners had to pay for the maintenance of the nave, whilst the rector bore the cost for the upkeep of the chancel.
'... churchwardens were elected by the parish to look after the church and its ornaments.'
Parishioners had to find extra funds to pay for liturgical fittings such as candles, bells and the font. To meet these demands on the local community, churchwardens were elected by the parish to look after the church and its ornaments. In later years, churchwardens (and their modern equivalent, the vestry [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] ) not only maintained the parish church, but also looked after other secular aspects of parochial administration, such as repairs to, and upkeep of, roads and bridges.
For the most part, when repairs or rebuilding became due, the relationship between parishioners and clergy seems to have remained cordial. A church like Northleach in Gloucestershire, rebuilt in the Perpendicular [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] style in the late 15th century, suggests that parishioners and clergy often co-operated on large-scale projects.
However, life may not have been so amicable at Cley-next-the-Sea in Norfolk, where the elaborate 14th- and 15th-century nave, transepts [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] and tower are in marked contrast to the much smaller, simpler chancel.
'a delicate linen corporal for the bread ... suitable flasks for the wine and the water, the thurrible, the candlesticks, and the lantern and bell to precede the priest when he visits the sick with a lighted procession ... [and also] two processional candles.'
In addition to maintaining the fabric of the church to the west of the chancel arch, the parishioners had to find:
'the bells and the bell cords, the crucifix, crosses, and images, and a silver chalice, a missal, and a silk chasuble, sufficient books, and all vestments ... banners [to be carried in processions], altar drapes for feast days, a font with a cover, a bell to be carried at funerals, a litter for burials ... the paschal candle, and all the candles in the chancel, and sufficient lights for the entire year, both for matins and vespers, and for mass. And ... the blessed bread with the taper which is provided each Sunday of the year in all of the churches of the Christian world.'
It is clear that even at this date, parish churches were full of images, crosses, candles and other devotional ornaments. Sadly, virtually all church ornaments from this period were looted in the 16th century during the Reformation, when most items made from precious material were melted down or taken apart in a great frenzy of iconoclastic greed.
A pair of Limoges enamel candlesticks that survived from St Thomas the Martyr church in Bristol provides a sense of the kind of rich ornaments that must have filled medieval churches.
Screens in general were an important part of the late medieval parish church and were in common usage throughout England, as they were used to partition sections of the church for a particular use, and separate the clergy from the laity. Most screens were lost during the destruction of the Reformation, and some of the best surviving examples come from East Anglia and the West Country.
'The celebration of mass was a ceremony that the congregation participated in rather than sought to comprehend.'
There are one or two 13th-century screens still existing, such as that at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire, but it is only in the later 14th century that widespread usage appears to have become popular. Two elaborate examples, dating from the late 15th or early 16th centuries, can be seen at Trull, in Somerset, or Attleborough, in Norfolk. Although the screen did separate the laity in the nave from the clergy taking the mass in the chancel, it was meant to enhance, not hinder, people's appreciation of the holy mystery of the mass.
The celebration of mass was a ceremony that the congregation participated in rather than sought to comprehend. At the heart of the process was the consecration of the host, which was conducted silently by the priest with his back to the people.
'Images carved onto the screen provided a devotional focus for the lay people in the nave ...'
At the point of transubstantiation - the holy moment when the bread and wine is said actually to turn into the body and blood of Christ - the priest elevates the consecrated host so that the congregation could see, and a sacring bell was rung to ensure that no-one missed the drama of the occasion. The combination of the ceremony, the imposing building and the filtered light meant that the architectural features of the building contributed to the intensity of the ceremony.
Images carved onto the screen provided a devotional focus for the lay people in the nave while the mass was going on in the chancel. Normally a rood [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] surmounted the screen, which was an image of the crucifixion flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist.
As well as providing a visual reminder of the mass, other images could be used to reinforce the dangers that faced sinners - at St Thomas's Church in Salisbury a doom [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] painted on the wall behind the Rood reminded worshippers of the torments they faced in hell if they were not good Christians.
An example of how this worked can be seen in the case of the Earl and Countess of Suffolk, who, in 1437, received a royal licence to found an almshouse for 13 poor men at their manor of Ewelme in Oxfordshire. In return for food and accommodation the poor men were to pray for the souls of the founders, their friends and relatives, the king, his relatives, and all the other faithful departed at masses [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] celebrated daily by two chaplains.
'Chantries ... were popular as acts of pious patronage throughout the later Middle Ages.'
These masses were to take place in the new chantry [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] chapel of St John, built against the south side of the parish church chancel. Immediately to the left of the chapel's altar, the tomb of the Countess, Alice de la Pole, was eventually placed. She had undoubtedly attended the masses said for her in this chapel whilst alive, and clearly wished to continue to receive the benefits of the prayers after her death.
Chantries, not all as elaborate as that at Ewelme, were popular as acts of pious patronage throughout the later Middle Ages. The Ewelme chantry was a perpetual, or permanent chantry with sufficient endowment to maintain it after the deaths of its founders.
However it was possible to found chantries for much shorter periods of time, and many ran for only a few years. Some, as at Ewelme, were in specially constructed chapels, others were at side altars enclosed by parclose screens [/history/trail/church_state/pre_reformation/early_church_people_fact_file.shtml] .
In consequence, many individuals joined religious guilds, which were a cross between a social club and a friendly society. Members paid a fee, and often gave gifts of property to the guild. Money was also raised through feasts held in the guildhall. In return, the guild paid a chantry priest to say masses for the souls of its members, and ensured that members had proper funerals.
'... the rise of guilds in late medieval England was a product of the growth of a new middle class.'
Guilds also took responsibility for providing other charitable services for their members and for people in the wider parish community. The Guild of the Holy Cross in Stratford-on-Avon, for instance, ran a school, a hospital and an almshouse.
Many guilds opened their membership to everyone. Some were more exclusive, charging higher entry fees. Others, such as for example maidens' guilds, restricted entry to certain groups. In general the rise of guilds in late medieval England was a product of the growth of a new middle class, which wanted the same spiritual benefits that aristocrats such as Alice de la Pole were enjoying.
The way in which they expressed this desire took shape in a variety of forms of local patronage. Some families paid to construct monuments to themselves and their relatives inside the church, with internment after death within the crypt or the nave. Others were more altruistic, providing alms for the poor within the parish or sponsoring education for a clerical life.
'By the 1520s, protests against the prevailing method of worship could be heard throughout the country.'
The dissemination of ideas through teaching based on scripture and biblical texts was an important way of enforcing a moral code within a local community, and the priest provided guidance on how to think, act and behave to the majority of his flock who regularly attended church.
The parish church became the central point of community life in Anglo-Saxon times, and this continued for centuries. The architecture changed and improved, but the role that the Church played remained essentially unchanged until the early 16th century. However, signs began to appear that sections of the population were unhappy about the way church architecture prevented congregational participation in the mass.
The Lollard movement, lead by John Wycliffe, championed the cause of an English prayer book in the late 14th century. By the 1520s, protests against the prevailing method of worship could be heard throughout the country. Whilst England’s king remained amongst the Brotherhood of Christian Princes, the Protestant doctrines being discussed in continental Europe were only a remote threat to the English parish church. But when the ‘break from Rome’ occurred, the floodgates for reform opened.
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