Die mittelalterliche Pfarrei

The parish was one of the Middle Ages' most successful institutions. The Christianisation of Europe and ecclesiastical support of the population would have been unthinkable without the numerous town and country parish churches. They shaped people's everyday lives in all their highs and lows, and were the hub where the church met the world. Exploring them therefore directs focus onto important areas of constitutional and social history as well as the educational, cultural and art histories of the time. Enno Bünz's twenty-one chapter-strong study examines central aspects of medieval parishes in the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries. Besides thematically overarching and comparative investigations, the author also provides several regional case studies. Eighteen of the studies, which appeared between 1995 and 2012, have been updated and expanded. Three chapters were written specially for this volume.