Working from churchwardens’ accounts, wills and chantry records, the Benedictine historian Gasquet reconstructs the life of the English parish before the Reformation. He describes the church building and its furnishings, the parish priest and his duties, guilds and fraternities, festivals, pilgrimages and obits, and gifts such as cows left so that Masses and charity bread could be paid for from their increase.
A detailed, sympathetic picture of medieval English religion from the parishioner’s side. Download the free EPUB.