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A Truth Universally Acknowledged

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Emma Mason
Emma Mason*
Affiliation:
University of London Birkbeck College
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Extract

‘It is a truth universally acknowledged that the practice of religion will be influenced by the social conditions prevailing in any given locality.’ The debate on this statement is largely concentrated for present purposes into a consideration of activities between c1100 and c1250 in two distinctive societies: Westminster abbey and its environs and, in contrast, the city and diocese of Worcester. The essential function of Westminster abbey was, of course, intercessory, and while this role was shared with Worcester cathedral, the latter church had also a wide-ranging pastoral responsibility. In this sense, no exact equation can be made, yet the richness of the records which both churches accumulated presents adequate material for a valid comparison in other respects. It is not intended, and is, indeed, impossible to make an arbitrary definition of Westminster as town and Worcester as countryside. Elements of both were contained in Westminster and Worcester alike.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 16: The Church in Town and Countryside , 1979 , pp. 171 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1979

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References

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51 See my ‘The [role of the] English parishioner, [1100-1500]’, JEH, 27 (1976) p 22.

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53 Ibid no 168.

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65 Ibid pp 39-40.

66 Ibid pp 388-92.

67 See my ‘The Mauduits and their chamberlainship’, appendices 8-9, pp 21-3.

68 Ibid appendix 10, p 23.

69 Brooke and Keir p 297.

70 Harvey, Westminster abbey, p 43.

71 Le Neve 2, p 99.

72 Giffard 2, p 8.

73 Ibid p 75.

74 Worcester p xxiv.

75 Anderson, pp 150-1. Writers in the twelfth century occasionally put into the mouths of their more cynical characters the opinion that where no cult existed, it must be created, by fair means or foul, and for what cities such as Winchester or Norwich received, they should be truly thankful - The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the time of King Richard the First, ed Appleby, J.T. (London 1963) p 64 Google Scholar; Anderson p 89.

76 Worcester, nos 328, 330. The monks certainly held king John in esteem as a valued if unwitting benefactor. His tomb was lavishly endowed with candles, and the chapter enjoyed a pittance on his anniversary (Ibid no 332).

77 Ibid nos 370, 372, 375.

78 Ibid p xxxix.

79 Brooke and Keir p 336.

80 Ibid p 315.

81 Brett p 122.

82 Richardson, ‘William of Ely’, p 60.

83 In the twelfth century, the knightly class was stratified into a rich minority, whose members might each hold several manors, and a much poorer majority. Members of the latter group were scarcely better off than the more affluent peasants, and their status was gradually declining - Sally, Harvey, ‘The Knight and the Knight’s Fee in England’, PP 49 (1970) pp 3–43 Google Scholar. The former group would clearly not have a residence on every one of their manors, while the latter would not be able to afford a house any more imposing than that of their rustic neighbours.

84 Joan, Evans, Art in Medieval France (Oxford 1948) pp 20-2Google Scholar. In England, survival of such cults is shown by carvings of the Green Man, found on the exterior wall of Ottery St Mary (Devon), for instance.

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89 ASC, transl and ed Dorothy, Whitelock, Douglas, D. C. and Tucker, Susie I. (London 1961) p 200 Google Scholar.

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