Medieval Parishes

The typical medieval image of the local community, with defined territorial boundaries, social community bonds and a religious dimension as parish is pervasive in both the sources and the literature. Despite being generally admitted that such a model only became fully implemented as late as the eleventh century, this pattern often tends to be projected upon the earlier period, thus shaping our understanding of those less well-documented situations. This paper argues for consideration of a more complex early medieval pattern than is commonly admitted, and one in which the coexistence of multiple nested levels of territorial articulation provided the main framework for local sociability. Quite often, this can only be perceived by studying the traces of how larger territorial units became fragmented into the local territories that are typical of the later period. In doing so, the tenth centiry emerges as a critical period in which many of the earlier territorial and settlement structures began to change, although the outcome did not fully crystalize before the late eleventh century.