This is a close examination of the communal life, especially the financial life, of late medieval and Tudor parishes. Predominantly a work of social history, it also sheds new light on the popular religious attitudes of the period.

Beat Kumin focuses his study on the role of the laity and, in particular, on the office of churchwarden. He assesses and evaluates the rising levels of parish income, the importance of the social context of the parish for fund-raising activities and the growing expenditure on priests, voluntary activities and administrative duties.

The final section of his study discusses the Reformation-related reduction in religious options and the accelerating trend towards oligarchical parish regimes and official local government responsibilities. Throughout, the English experience is put into sharper contrast by comparisons with local ecclesiastical life on the Continent, and appendices provide a detailed financial analysis for a large number of parishes.