Abstract
Rob Lutton, ‘Parochial religion, heterodoxy and Nonconformity in two
Wealden parishes, c. 1450–1640’
This paper seeks to explore lay piety in the parishes of Cranbrook and Tenterden
on the Weald of Kent from the middle of the fifteenth to the early seventeenth
century. These large and important parishes lay ten miles apart and served as
market towns to extensive hinterlands and had significant wider trade
connections.
Before the Reformation both parishes were known for sustaining networks of
Lollard heretics, first in the early fifteenth century and then, again, in the early
sixteenth. At the same time they substantially augmented their parish churches
and saw the ongoing development of reasonably vibrant orthodox religious
cultures. From the late 1530s Tenterden appears to have entertained radical
Evangelical preaching and by Mary’s reign had largely embraced the dismantling
of traditional parochial religion. Cranbrook, on the other hand, has been identified
as a conservative stronghold in the early 1540s and was much slower to accept
change under the Edwardian regime. Nevertheless, like other parts of the Weald,
both parishes supplied Marian martyrs and both had significant Puritan minorities
by the 1570s and Nonconformist conventicling which intensified around 1600. By
the 1630s both were home to Baptist and Quaker separatism and Cranbrook
also developed a significant Congregationalist presence. There was no clear–cut
relationship between parochial incumbents and religious radicalism in either
parish.
The paper attempts to shed light on these somewhat perplexing trajectories of
religious change throughout the years of reformation by comparing pious giving
in last wills and testaments, and to a lesser extent churchwardens’ accounts, in
the two parishes across the whole period. This enables comparison of their preReformation orthodox religious cultures, the ways in which some aspects of lay
piety changed post–Reformation and begs the question as to what extent pieties
prior to the 1530s may have influenced subsequent reactions to reform.
Comparison with other centres and regions allows for differences between the
two parishes to be set in perspective and tentative judgments to be made about
regional and local dynamics of piety.
In addition to using the parish itself as a unit of analysis the paper explores
differences between the pieties of multi–generational resident families across the
period. This facilitates comparison of the relative homogeneity or heterogeneity
of parochial religious cultures and raises questions as to the most appropriate
units of analysis for the study of late medieval and early modern popular religion.
How important was the parish as an organizing principle or moral and religious
community on the Weald, compared to the family, household, kinship network or
locality?
Finally the paper makes some tentative judgments concerning the possible roots
of diversity and difference in lay pieties in these two parishes and suggests some
potential ways forward for further research.