Change and continuity in the rural church : Norfolk, 1760 - 1840
Abstract
Two historiographical traditions have influenced our understanding of
church and society in Georgian England: on the one hand the church has been subject
to a severe, judgemental treatment which has discouraged impartial scholarship, and
on the other the supposed decay of the rural community has provided material for a
polemical brand of historical writing. These two traditions are discussed, then tested
by a close scrutiny of the church and the community in Georgian Norfolk. A quantitative method
is adopted, correlating a large amount of detailed information from all the
rural parishes and assessing the influence of each factor over against the others.
Three categories from this detailed survey – enclosure, tithes, and the
growth of dissent - are then examined in more detail for the light they shed on the
concept of historical continuity and the strength of regional identity, which, it is
argued, are important counterbalances to the theme of change which has so dominated
the historiography of this period. An attempt is made to survey the complex intellectual history of
the church in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by tracing
the changing concept of charity in the religious and social theory of the period.
In conclusion it is suggested that, in this rural diocese at least, the
social and economic relations between church and society were less subject to stress
and change than has been supposed, and a plea is made for a less controversial, less consciously modern, historical perspective.
Type
Thesis, PhD Doctor of Philosophy
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