Thanks David! I´m familiar with the Icelandic material (and bits and pieces, though all to few, from mainland Scandinavia). What I´m really looking for is continental (including Scandinavian) or English parallels.
Meg
"Cormack, Margaret Jean" wrote:I ́m trying to track down parallels to an Icelandic phenomenon (as always!). In the present case, certain churches appear in 13th century sources as having rites to tithe, baptism, and burial for the farm and its residents only. Essentially, it is a one-farm parish, with a reduced number of masses compared to normal parish churches. Probably in most cases an eigenkirche, but this is one of the things I have to check before making generalizations! I will be looking at Susan Wood ́s 'The Proprietary Church in the Medieval west' but in the meantime wondered if anyone had any first-hand knowledge of such churches.
This is a situation that you can find in England at that date or a bit earlier. It is a hangover from the situation before the parish developed: the parish devoloped gradually over the period c.950 to c.1150 and ossified by about 1200, with the result that
forming a new parish was practically impossible - a real problem in 'new' towns such as King's [Bishop's] Lynn and Boston. Parishes have their origins in "manorial chapels" as well as Anglo-Saxon "minsters" [large churches with multiple clergy, serving an
area now covered by multiple parishes.] Northern England ended up with large parishes, containg many "townships" each with their own chapel, whereas in southern England each village tends to have its own parish church and chapels are rare. Some still survived
at the beginning of the 13th century, and their privileges (if any) needed to be carefully demarcated. I have found Susan Wood's 'The Proprietary Church in the Medieval West' remarkably unhelpful for the area I am interested in [England].
John Briggs