ABSTRACT
In many respects, the reign of Elizabeth marks an interpretative crossroads in the history of the parish, and its government, between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It is in the later sixteenth century that four contrasting historiographical themes intersect and bear on the nature, purposes and significance of parochial government. Two tell the stories of decline. The first of these is the ‘Reformation’ narrative epitomised by Eamon Duffy’s Voices of Morebath, in which the vitality of late-medieval parochial piety (and organisation) is extinguished by Reformation edicts. The second is the parallel (but unrelated) interpretation in which the jurisdiction of the manor is superseded by that of the parish in Elizabeth’s reign, a process charted in most depth by Marjory McIntosh. The other two depictions of the Elizabethan parish are stories of growth and development. The first is the most familiar of all these accounts – the story of the eventual creation of what have become known as the Elizabethan poor laws, brought into being in 1597 and 1601, whose longevity projects the historical significance of Elizabeth’s reign on into the early nineteenth century at least, which has been charted in most depth by Paul Slack and Steve Hindle. The second is built upon this development and interprets the implementation of the parochial poor-law system as a pivotal moment in the projection of the power of the ‘state’ into the life of the parish and the integration of the life of the parish into the concerns of that ‘state’. This interpretation has been advanced most eloquently by Hindle and Michael Braddick. Some dimensions of these debates stretch beyond the concerns of this
chapter, but all emphasise the continuing historical significance of apparently obscure issues about the nature of parochial government, and its personnel, in Elizabeth’s reign.
