A Companion To The English Parish Church

The Companion is a comprehensive, fully illustrated A-Z guide to all aspects of the English parish church - of which there are 18,000 dating from the post-Roman period to the present day. Subjects include architecture, fittings and furnishings, decorative and allegorical features, stained glass, monuments, brasses and effigies, traditions and folklore, parochial and vestry administration and records, and the role of the parish church in the history of a community. Entries vary in length from one-line definitions of terms to several pages in which subjects are considered in depth. The Companion is arranged alphabetically and consists of a number of primary entries from which cross-references lead on to a larger number of secondary entries. Many of the terms encountered when visiting or researching a parish church are also included, either as short individual entries or by cross-referencing. The book is illustrated with over two hundred line drawings, maps and photographs and includes suggestions for further reading, an index of churches and a list of useful addresses.

In the sixteenth century, the people of England witnessed the physical transformation of their most valued buildings: their parish churches. This is the first ever full-scale investigation of the dramatic changes experienced by the English parish church during the English Reformation. By drawing on a wealth of documentary evidence, including court records, wills and church wardens' accounts, and by examining the material remains themselves - such as screens, fonts, paintings, monuments, windows and other artefacts - found in churches today, Robert Whiting reveals how, why and by whom these ancient buildings were transformed. He explores the reasons why Catholics revered the artefacts found in churches as well as why these objects became the subject of Protestant suspicion and hatred in subsequent years. This richly illustrated account sheds new light on the acts of destruction as well as the acts of creation that accompanied religious change over the course of the 'long' Reformation.

Companion volume (v. 2) contains examples of the music, sources and critical notes.

The Sutton Companion to churches

Excerpt from The Historical Growth of the English Parish Church His small book is intended to be a companion and complement to the writer's book in the same series on The Ground Plan of the English Parish Church. In that book the growth of the ground plan is treated with necessarily scanty reference to the circumstances to which, directly or indirectly, that growth is due. Some attempt is made in the present volume to supply an account of the historical conditions amid which our parish churches were built, to say something of the builders, and to remove the popular idea, still current even among educated people, that our architecture is mainly due to the profuse benefactions of the religious orders. A special chapter on chantry foundations, which played so large a part in the life of the later middle ages, follows the general historical chapter. The western tower, the porch, and the chancel are then described with more fulness than was possible in the description of the ground plan; and the decoration and furniture of the various parts of the church are treated in the closing chapter. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This 1911 volume presents an account of the key features of parish churches and the historical conditions surrounding their building.

The first systematic study of the financing and management of parish church construction in England in the Middle Ages.

Thinking about church architecture has come to an impasse. Reformers and traditionalists are talking past each other. Statements from both sides are often strident and dogmatic. In Theology in Stone, Richard Kieckhefer seeks to help both sides move beyond the standoff toward a fruitful conversation about houses of worship. Drawing on a wide range of historical examples with an eye to their contemporary relevance, he offers new ideas about the meanings and uses of church architecture.