Tom,
The number of London parishes was unusually high, at least by continental
standards. I just looked in the British Atlas of Historic Towns volume on
medieval London (The City of London from Prehistoric Times to c. 1520, ed.
Mary D. Lobel), which I have by my desk: Christopher Brooke, who wrote the
relevant chapter on Anglo-Saxon and Norman London, says that "the
proliferation of tiny parishes ...[was] characteristic of some of the larger
English towns of this period - though hardly to be paralleled on the
continent," and that it "reflects the religious sentiment of the eleventh
century." As for origins, he says that there are two possibilities: some may
have been proprietary churches, perhaps private chapels of rich men; others
may have been neighbourhood churches "built by a group of like-minded
citizens, like the 'merchants' churches' observed on parts of the
continent." They then became what we know as the parish system when that was
regularized in the 12th century. Brooke refers to an article by himself in
Studies in Church History 6 (1970), 59-83. This also makes me think of the
classic comparison between English and Italian churches in Brentano's Two
Churches, which I haven't looked at for years. Maybe it has something on it
too.
Shannon McSheffrey
Department of History, LB-601
Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Montreal, Quebec CANADA H3G 1M8
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http://alcor.concordia.ca/~shannon
-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of F. Thomas
Luongo
Sent: April 4, 2000 10:32 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: London parishes
Here's a question to which I bet there's a well-known answer--but it's not
well known to me!
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. For example, Florence in
1300, with more than twice the population of London in 1200, had about half
the number of parishes (I think--I don't have the statistics to hand).
Many thanks,
Tom Luongo
-----------------------------------
F. Thomas Luongo
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Tulane University
New Orleans, LA 70118
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