ABSTRACT
It is difficult to comprehend the extent of the influence of organised religion on the lives of people in medieval England. Nowadays the average man (apart from the 5 per cent who are regular church-goers) comes into contact with the church at perhaps three times in his life. He may be taken as a baby to the local church or chapel to be baptised or christened; he (or his wife) might choose to be married in a church; and, when he dies, it is likely that a clergyman will be involved in the funeral service. For the rest he will listen (or perhaps switch off) when community hymn singing is broadcast on a Sunday on the radio or TV; he will read from time to time the pronouncements of bishops and archbishops on political affairs; and he will be dimly aware from the empty and sometimes redundant churches which lie scattered over the landscape that there is, or has been, a world of religion which now has little impact on him.
