At 09:31 AM 4/4/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>I have just read with students William Fitz Stephen's account of
>12th-century London in the Italica Press volume, _Norman London_. One of
>the maps provided shows more than 100 parish churches. I guess I had
>already known that London had an unusually large number of parishes--more
>than 100 for a population around 40,000 in 1200--but what is the reason for
>or origin of this?
>
>Or am I wrong that this is an usually large number of parishes? I'm basing
>my assumption on comparison with Italian cities.
> --F. Thomas Luongo
In some areas the Italians may actually have had more churches. Pierre
Toubert suggested (unfortunately I do not have the reference at hand) that
Italian rural churches in central Italy in the central Middle Ages would
minister to ca. 60 households, below the ca. 100 households that one would
find in the north. His northern average is not far off from what you are
observing in London.
--John Howe, Texas Tech
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