Church dedications and landed units of lordship and administration in the pre-Reformation diocese of Worcester
One of the few quantifiable measures available for any study of society in the medieval period, other than economic and fiscal data, is the evidence of shared beliefs and values as expressed through the cult of saints. The chronology and geography of this phenomenon, of which one aspect is the dedication of churches, forms a vital, but often mishandled class of evidence for tackling a range of fiscal and historical issues relative to patterns of settlement, community, lordship and patronage, trans-national as well as insular. This thesis concentrates on a single region, the pre-Reformation diocese of Worcester, which is generally agreed to have been coterminous with the early Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce, because it is both rich in medieval documentary evidence, and provides a sufficiently large corpus of evidence to provide reasonable amounts of data for statistical interrogation and/or intuitive judgement. This study therefore exploited medieval documentary evidence, chiefly wills, of which more than 600 were examined, but also including episcopal, legal and other records in transcript and in printed editions, in addition to evidence already published in the Victoria County Histories. The results were
Jones, Graham Roderick
Church dedications and landed units of lordship and administration in the pre-Reformation diocese of Worcester. One of the few quantifiable measures available for any study of society in the medieval period, other than economic and fiscal data, is the evidence of shared beliefs and values as expressed through the cult of saints. The chronology and geography of this phenomenon, of which one aspect is the dedication of churches, forms a vital, but often mishandled class of evidence for tackling a range of fiscal and historical issues relative to patterns of settlement, community, lordship and patronage, trans-national as well as insular. This thesis concentrates on a single region, the pre-Reformation diocese of Worcester, which is generally agreed to have been coterminous with the early Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce, because it is both rich in medieval documentary evidence, and provides a sufficiently large corpus of evidence to provide reasonable amounts of data for statistical interrogation and/or intuitive judgement. This study therefore exploited medieval documentary evidence, chiefly wills, of which more than 600 were examined, but also including episcopal, legal and other records in transcript and in printed editions, in addition to evidence already published in the Victoria County Histories. The results were
church dedication land unit lordship administration pre_reformation diocese worcester quantifiable measure available study society medieval_period economic fiscal data evidence share belief_value express cult saint chronology geography phenomenon one_aspect dedication church form vital often class evidence tackle range fiscal historical issue relative pattern_settlement community lordship patronage trans national well insular concentrate single region pre_reformation diocese worcester generally_agree coterminous early_anglo_saxon kingdom rich medieval documentary_evidence provide sufficiently large_corpus evidence_provide reasonable amount_data statistical interrogation and intuitive judgement study_therefore exploit medieval documentary_evidence chiefly will examine also_include episcopal legal record transcript print edition addition evidence already publish county histories