The Parish and the Chapel in Medieval Britain and Norway, by Sarah E. Thomas

Abstract

Making waves across several fields of historical study which have been previously tackled in isolation, Sarah E. Thomas's book analyses '[f]or the first time, chapels in … three northern European countries … as an important key component of the medieval European Christian landscape'. Considering with clarity and authority capelle established within larger churches as well as those which were free-standing and independent, and public sites of worship deprived of parochial autonomy, Thomas commences her analysis with the simple observation that the ecclesiastical landscape was populated throughout medieval Norway, Scotland and England by this additional group of structures, just as indispensable to the population as were cathedrals, monasteries and parish churches.