Send us Fan Mail Understanding the Medieval Church: Parish Life and Historical Insight Description: Based on a detailed early 20th-century historical work, this episode unpacks the complexities of medieval church structure, parish communities, and the evolving tensions that led toward the Reformation. A must-listen for anyone interested in medieval history, church organisation, and the craft of historical research. Alex Hamilton Thompson studied classics at Cambridge University, He joined Leeds University in 1922, where he became the head of the department, became a professor, and was the leading light in the study of mediaeval history of his time. So it's quite a treat when we're given a 1926 pamphlet by him because not only is it the height of his career, but he is talking to an educated audience, a specialist audience even, but in a slightly less formal tone. And that's what makes this paper such a delight. It is something of a misnomer to call this a pamphlet, certainly in soft covers, but it's about 20,000 words long, so it's no one’s light homework. He begins by outlining the history of communities in pre-conquest England. He then talks about the coming of the church in a very detailed way so that we learn not only why bishops, archbishops, deacons, archdeacons, rural deans, and incumbents are important, but we understand the hierarchy, and we understand their function, or as he will put it, their mission. So that's an important structure if we're going to follow Thompson's line of research. I'm then going to lead to the last chapter of his pamphlet because I think he discussed the architecture of the church last in order to round off his talk. Actually, in terms of structure, that architecture needs to come in next, and it makes an important point that we need to research the incumbents because we need to know what the parishioners were being told. Most incumbents at the time just wanted to do what they were told. So they followed the party line and were quite happy to, and most people sat and listened to it. The difference is that as we approach the Reformation and a little bit before that, about 100 years before that, the people who did not want to follow the party line became a lot more vociferous. He encourages not to get involved in the mythology of the particular church. Every church has its stories and its legends. I would say yes, accept those myths as stories of the time, try to bottom them out, try to get to the truth of it. Always look out for a scandal. Always look out for people taking sanctuary, looking out for forced marriages, and look out for presentments and penitence. They give a very good highlight. The other thing I would say, really, I guess this should be an episode on its own, is do look at the carvings. He then goes into the actual breadth of resources that are available to the parish historian, not just the stuff in the parish chest, but also the maps, especially giving some time to that. From 1937 until his death in 1952, he was the president of the Listershire Archaeology Society. He died way down in Exmouth at the age of 78. He wrote several works, as you would expect. He produced the ground plan of the English Parish Church in 1911, a copy of which I'm still looking for, the growth of the English Church that was in 1911, 1912, military architecture in England during the Middle Ages, and in 1913, English monasteries. What a nice little clutch of books they would make on the bookcase. He gave us three volumes of visitations of religious houses in the Diocese of Lincoln. What a pity I'm not researching Lincolnshire. To the popular audience, I guess he has pretty much disappeared, but he certainly has a place amongst those of us who want to follow hi Check out A Practical Introduction to Medieval Genealogy by Malcolm Noble
