Nicholas Orme is emeritus professor of History at Exeter University. He has written more than thirty books on the religious and social history of England, including Medieval Children, Medieval Schools, Medieval Pilgrimage, and The History of England’s Cathedrals.
“Christmas is the time of year when people are most likely to
attend divine service, and Going to Church in Medieval England . .
. tells us how they did it 800 years ago. . . . Orme also describes
how the churches that punctuate our landscape came about, and who
ran them.”—Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph, “2021’s Best
Histories”
“Nicholas Orme writes with an engaging lightness of touch while
clearly laying out the functions, use and management of medieval
parish churches. The result is so skilfully, successfully and
thoroughly executed that it belies the complexity and scope of the
task.”—John Jenkins, Times Literary Supplement
“Orme’s book, a vast intricate mosaic resting atop a mountain of
research, is often funny, often moving, and always fascinating. You
finish it with a real feeling for the lives of normal people (so
often absent from history books) in a world of great contrasts . .
. a world of humour, and of sadness; a world not entirely unlike
our own.”—Duncan Morrison, Daily Telegraph
“Eye-opening. . . . Orme deftly shows how church language became
part of everyday English.”—Harry Mount, Spectator
“Prof Orme’s beady eye for lively human interest makes him very
good company.”—Ysenda Maxtone Graham, Country Life
“Orme explains in impressive detail what churches (and
church-going) were like in the Middle Ages.”—The Week
“A distinguished and highly accessible contribution to the
unfolding scholarly landscape of this subject. . . . Orme is known
for his scholarship on medieval children. Despite the fact that he
concludes that they are an elusive presence, he provides some
fascinating details.”—Kitty Turley, The Tablet
“It is perhaps the particular virtue of this book that its author
is every bit as interested in the everyday life of the church as he
is in the sacred highpoints of sacred theatre and the beauties of
medieval architecture. . . . This is, in other words, a complete
picture of a whole world.”—William Whyte, History Today
“Orme is an authoritative and accessible guide, and this exhaustive
and lavishly illustrated study is a must-read.”—Katherine Harvey,
Church Times
“Professor Orme’s detailed, but very readable (and affordable)
book, brings together recent scholarship to provide an accessible
account of how people worshipped and practised religion in their
local church. . . . It is definitely a ‘must have’ addition to any
medievalist’s bookshelf.”—Richard Halsey, Friends of Friendless
Churches
“The book provides an accessible account of what happened in the
daily and weekly services and how churches marked the seasons of
Christmas, Lent, Easter and summer.”—Methodist Recorder
“Nicholas Orme provides a vivid and detailed look at what it was
actually like to attend church in medieval times—the sights, sounds
and smells. He includes delightful details about seating
arrangements, how the interior of the church would have looked,
what happened to those who didn’t attend church, and much more. . .
. An engaging read that will stay with you long after you finish
the last page.”—Rachel Bellerby, Family Tree Magazine
“Yale has served Orme especially well, with superb colour
illustrations integrated straight into this text. . . . His subject
is inherently visual in all its aspects, from the architecture of
church buildings to the teeming daily activity that went on inside
and around them.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch, London Review of Books
“Orme’s mastery of the subject shines through soon enough; given
his long and distinguished career, this is hardly a surprise. With
a light and accessible touch he leads his readers through the
give-and-take of churchgoing from the origins of the parish among
the newly converted Anglo-Saxons to the role it inevitably played
in the implementation of the Reformation at local level. . . . The
depth and detail of his work lies in his characters, both saints
and sinners with all their wants, needs, foibles, hopes, and
fears.”—Serenhedd James, The Critic
“The book seems to be the distillation of a life’s observations and
of Orme’s extraordinarily wide range of reading and thought. Anyone
interested in the lived experience of their medieval forebears will
be much the richer intellectually and certainly better informed as
to the experience of the ordinary sort, as a result of reading this
book.”—Clive Burgess, Journal of British Studies
“This is a wonderful book; I recommend it to everyone who wants to
know what actually happened in a medieval church.”—Heather Falvey,
Local Historian
“Nicholas Orme’s latest book on the buildings, staffing,
congregations, and uses of the medieval church offers instead a
broad work that is rich in detail, as it draws together
geographical, social and religious complexities into a
comprehensive and engaging whole.”—British Catholic History,
British Catholic History
“This truly fascinating book, packed with extraordinary details,
was a joy to read and often a revelation.”—Marc Lloyd, Global
Anglican
“As well as being highly instructive, this is an enjoyable volume
to read, and should be on every church archaeologist’s
bookshelves.”—Warwick Rodwell, Medieval Settlement Research
“The great strength of the book lies in the fact that the author
never confines himself to the prescriptive but constantly strives
to uncover what actually happened in medieval English parish
churches . . . it will surely become essential reading for anyone
seriously interested in religion in England in the Middle
Ages.”—Clare Cross, Ecclesiology Today
“Alert throughout to change across time, the complexities of
sources, and the variety of past experience, Nicholas Orme has
written a wonderful book. With great clarity and insight, he
captures the human and material reality of quotidian Christian
worship across the middle Ages.”—John H. Arnold, author of Belief
and Unbelief in the Middle Ages
“Drawing on both surviving churches and contemporary literature and
attentive to gender, status, and geography, Orme explores what
ordinary men and women saw, heard, and experienced when they
attended church.”—Katherine L. French, University of Michigan
“What actually happened in a medieval church? What was medieval
worship like? Turn to this book, and you’ll find answers to all the
questions you’ll ever ask.”—Nigel Saul, author of Richard II
“For many years Nicholas Orme has been enlightening readers with
incisive appreciations of the religious and social institutions of
medieval England. Beautifully illustrated throughout, this study
brings home to readers the reality of formal Christian witness as
experienced by England’s medieval parishioners.”—Roger Bowers,
University of Cambridge
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