A newly published book by Nicholas Orme – Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale, 2021) – has received widespread coverage in the media for what several reviewers have described as an ‘eye-opening’ account of the less-than-godly behaviour of churchgoers and clergy in medieval England. MailOnline, in particular, took delight in picking out all the juiciest plums of scandal in the book, under a banner that promised ‘sex in cemeteries, a brawl over a hunting hawk, and clergymen groped at the altar’. It all sounded reminiscent of the notorious (but actually very good) Ken Russell film The Devils (1971), based on Aldous Huxley’s 1952 work, The Devils of Loudun, about Cardinal Richelieu’s ruthless suppression of religious dissent in 17th-century France.
Among the heinous crimes attributed to medieval churchgoers was their habit of walking around the church during Mass to show off their fashionable clothes. Gossiping was commonplace, making the service difficult to hear, as was quarrelling, especially over who was entitled to sit in ‘the best’ pews. Clergy complained about being assaulted: one Kentish aristocrat took his hawk to church in 1514 and punched the vicar in the face when chastised for doing so. Worse still, thieves molested the vicar of Winchelsea, East Sussex, during Mass, before stealing the Bible and the proceeds of that day’s collection plate.
Clerical sinners
The clergy were not always as saintly as they should be. Thirty-nine priests were reported for adultery or for fornication with unmarried women between 1391 and 1394 in Berkshire, Dorset, and Wiltshire; while 54 were named in Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Shropshire as involved in illicit relationships.
