Some Future Directions

While a great deal has been written about the medieval church in England, a number of subjects remain to be explored. First, some areas of the country have been less well studied than others. The religious histories of the counties of East Anglia and the west country are now quite well known, but other parts of England, even including London, have yet to be examined quite so thoroughly. The historian of the medieval church in England is blessed with a large range of documentary source materials, such as wills, bishops’ registers, churchwardens’ accounts and guild records, many of which remain unexploited, and thus there is still plenty of scope for making further contrasts and comparisons in order, as it were, to sharpen the focus. Perhaps inevitably, the overall picture that is beginning to emerge from the many recent regional studies is one of complexity and diversity, that is, an impression of quite different and distinct local cultures and traditions of pious expression. Historians must therefore take into account not only regional distinctiveness but also how religion was shaped by, say, economic or social conditions, and in particular patterns of wealth distribution. Such an approach would allow us to understand more precisely, for example, how levels of literacy and patterns of book ownership shaped religious beliefs and motives, while urban and rural distinctions (as well as similarities) in piety need to be explored more fully. Second, it is evident that we need to examine more closely the grey area between the boundaries of heresy and orthodoxy. It may be the case that heresy was not widespread, but we should be wary of assuming that a lack of heresy means that society was unable to experiment widely with less orthodox or prescribed forms of religion. Thus, historians working in this field have much work to do in exploring the nature of orthodox and unorthodox strands of religion and so to come to a better appreciation of the relationship between the two. The student who wishes to understand the spiritual preoccupations that lay at the heart of late medieval society will find an exploration of these (as well as other) topics not only intellectually challenging but, more importantly, both rewarding and enjoyable.