Digital Parish Sources

This page features:

• Archival and written resources in digital format
• Audio resources
• Visual and material resources

Archival and written resources

(in digital format; for printed materials see ‘Printed Primary SourcesLink opens in a new window‘)

• 'Akten zur Kirchenvisitation im Markgraftum Brandenburg-AnsbachLink opens in a new window' [Documents relating to the visitation of parishes in Brandenburg-Ansbach] (1528/29; Staatsarchiv Nürnberg, Fsm. Ansbach, Religionsakten 8)
• Archbishops’ Registers of the Diocese of York 1225-1646Link opens in a new window: pilot project providing digitized versions of a sample of eight registers, together with technical reports (full data capture planned)
• Ardchattan Parish ArchiveLink opens in a new window: an online guide to the parish sources of Ardchattan in west Scotland.
• 'Berichte der herzoglich-bayerischen Pfleger über die Pfarreien im Rentamt LandshutLink opens in a new window' [Reports on the parishes of the district of Landshut by officials of the Bavarian duchy] (1524; Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, GR Fasz. 622 Nr. 285)
• Bischofszell (Thurgovia / Switzerland): Quellen zu Kirche und Gesellschaft in der Diözese Konstanz, vornehmlich aus dem einstigen Bestand des Niederstifts St. Pelagius in Bischofszell, 1400–1530 (2022) [= online source edition by Dorothee Rippmann complementing her print monograph Frömmigkeit in der Kleinstadt: Jenseitsfürsorge, Kirche und städtische Gesellschaft in der Diözese Konstanz 1400-1530, Zürich; Chronos, 2022, featuring anniversary books, liturgical texts, statutes and charters]
• Borromeo, Charles, Instructions fabricae et suppellectilis ecclesiasticaeLink opens in a new window (2 books, 1577), transcribed and translated by Evelyn Voelker: the Archbishop of Milan’s guide to the arrangement and liturgical furnishings of churches for visitations of his diocese
• Braşov [Kronstadt] in Transylvania / Central Romania: digitization of the archival records kept in the Honterus parish building of the Lutheran Church [Archiv und Bibliothek der Honterusgemeinde], including images of documents like charters, parish registers, books, mandates etc from the 14-17thC; made available online as part of the British Library's 'Endangered Archives Programme'
• Cause Papers DatabaseLink opens in a new window: a searchable catalogue of more than 14,000 cause papers relating to cases heard between 1300 and 1858 in the Church Courts of the diocese of York. The original records – the most extensive records of their type in the United Kingdom – are held in the Borthwick Institute for Archives at the University of York. The catalogue contains basic information (people, places, type, keywords) about each case, allowing searches for e.g. “parish”, “churchwarden” in specific places and periods etc.
• Church Book of St Ewen's, Bristol: digital version of Masters, Betty R. & Ralph, Elizabeth (eds), The Church Book of St Ewen’s Bristol, 1454-1584 (Bristol & Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Records Section, Vol. VI, 1967) [contains churchwardens' accounts, inventories, list of benefactors, various memoranda and a calendar of deeds: part 1, part 2, part 3]
• Church Court Depositions in the Consistory Court for the Archdeaconry of Chichester: The Sussex Records Society's publication of material from the Deposition Books of the Archdeaconry of Chichester (Ep. I/11) for the period 1557-1694 (some 22 volumes), together with associated material for the peculiars of Chichester (Ep. III/5 - 3 volumes covering 1607-77), and Pagham and Tarring (Ep. IV/3 -2 volumes covering 1611-1661), to be supplemented by stray depositions to be found in Ep. I/15 and elsewhere is nearing completion. The project was initiated by Peter Wilkinson, Vice-President of the Society and former Deputy County Archivist of West Sussex, and continued by Kim Fleming and Linda Robertson.
• Church Court Records OnlineLink opens in a new window: 'In partnership with several local authority and university archives in Scotland, National Records of Scotland (NRS) look after the records of Scotland's presbyterian church courts.The records consist of the minutes and accounts of kirk sessions, presbyteries, synods and the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. They also contain a wide variety of other documents, providing a picture of everyday life in Scotland from the sixteeenth century onwards and amount to more than 25,000 volumes, about 5 million pages of information. We plan to begin making church court records available online in 2017, following the re-launch of the ScotlandsPeople website in 2016. We anticipate that it will take a significant time to upload the full range of kirk session, presbytery, synod and General Assembly records for the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, which amount to more than 20,000 volumes. Researchers will have the choice of accessing the records free of charge in various Scottish archives, or using the subscription service.'
• Church Records: compilation of medieval ecclesiastical sources from ‘Medieval English Genealogy’
• Churchwardens’ AccountsLink opens in a new window: a guide leaflet compiled by the Borthwick Institute for Archives, York.
• Churchwardens' Accounts of Butleigh (Somerset) 1675-1766: with information on names mentioned in the sources
• Churchwardens' Accounts of Cratfield (Suffolk), 1490-1642: transcript by William Holland ed. by J. J. Raven (London: Jarrold & Sons, 1895)
• Churchwardens’ Accounts of St Mary’s, Gries, a rural parish near Bozen/Bolzano (South Tyrol, Northern Italy):Start of Parish Income 1422Link opens in a new window
  Start of Parish Expenses 1436Link opens in a new window;

The original documents – previously in the possession of the Drechsel-Mayr family – are now held in theSüdtiroler Landesarchiv / Archivio Provinciale di Bolzano. TranscriptLink opens in a new window of the two passages. Excerpts kindly submitted and transcribed by Hannes Obermair of the Stadtarchiv Bozen / Archivio Storico Cittá di Bolzano.

• Churchwardens' Accounts of Hythe (Kent), 1412-13: transcript by W. A. Scott Robertson for Kent Archaeological Society)
• Churchwardens' Accounts of St Peter's, Ipswich, 1563-1664: transcript of BL Add.MS. 25344 compiled by A. S. & R. D. Wolfe for the Suffolk History Society and held by the “History Data Service”
• Churchwardens’ Accounts of St Mary at Hill, London, 1477-79, in: Henry Littlehales (ed.), The Medieval Records of aLondon City Church (St. Mary at Hill) A.D. 1420-1559, Early English Text Society, original series 125 (1904), 76-92 [excerpts featured on ‘Florilegium Urbanum’Link opens in a new window; full transcription together with copious other records from the parish on British History OnlineLink opens in a new window]
• Churchwardens’ Accounts of Loughborough 1585-1658Link opens in a new window: compiled by David Postles, Northampton University

 

• Churchwardens' Accounts of St Mary, Reading: Garry, Francis N.A. & G. A. (eds), The church-wardens ̕accounts of the parish of St. Marys̕, Reading, Berks, 1550-1662Link opens in a new window (Reading, 1893)
• Churchwardens' Accounts of Tintinhull (Devon), 1433-1672: site includes an introduction and extracts from 1433-1538 translated by Katherine French
• Churchwardens' Accounts of Wandsworth, 1620-30: edited by Cecil T. Davis
• Churchwardens Accounts of St Michael Spurriergate, YorkLink opens in a new window, extract for the year 1546, transcribed and introducedby Christopher Webb, Borthwick Institute for Archives, York. For the printed edition of this set of accounts for the period 1518-48 see the ‘Parish Bibliography’.
• ‘Clergy of the Church of England DatabaseLink opens in a new window‘: a collaborative project funded by the AHRC and bringing together scholars from King’s College London, the University of Kent at Canterbury and the University of Reading. Its objective is to create a relational database documenting the careers of all Church of England clergymen between 1540 and 1835
• Consistory DatabaseLink opens in a new window: featuring testimony offered in the main church court of the diocese of London, an ecclesiastical jurisdiction that included the medieval city of London itself and its rural hinterland of Essex, Middlesex, and parts of Hertfordshire; projected over the next several years to present all the surviving medieval (pre-1500) records of litigation in this court (about 1100 depositions and examinations altogether), both in transcription of the original Latin of the documents and in modern English translation..
• Cornwall Online Parish ClerksLink opens in a new window: geneaological society with information on parish records from Cornwall
• Court Depositions of South-West England 1500-1700: a digital edition of 80 fully transcribed depositions relating to 20 cases heard in the church courts and Quarter Sessions between 1556 and 1694 across Devon, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. These depositions or witness statements, collated by the 'Women's Work in Rural England' project, relate to a range of crimes and offences tried in these two types of courts, from defamation to theft and are rich in detail of social, economic, political and religious life in early modern England.
• Crabbe, George: ‘The Parish Register’ (poem, 1807, scanned by the Project Gutenberg eBook)
• CURSUS – An Online Resource of Medieval Liturgical TextsLink opens in a new window (project based at the University of East Anglia)
• Demographic Database of Swedish Parish RecordsLink opens in a new window (this project based at Umeå University provides access to 18th and 19thC Swedish parish records)
• Demographic History of a Group of Nine Parishes in the Tendrig Hundred, Essex, 16-19thC
• Deutsche Inschriften OnlineLink opens in a new window: web database of Latin and German inscriptions in German German-speaking Europe up to 1650 (with illustrations, transcriptions and commentary). To retrieve hundreds of inscriptions from churches enter “kirche” under “Suchworte” on the search pageLink opens in a new window. The findings of this large-scale research project are also available in a series of volumes dedicated to specific regions and towns.
• The Devon and Exeter Oath Rolls of 1723Link opens in a new window: compiled in the aftermath of the Jacobite Atterbury plot and containing some 25,000 names (with a parish index and general introduction to the document; prepared by the Friends of Devon’s Archives)
• DigiRef - Reformationsportal Mitteldeutschland: joint website (in German) of a number of projects featuring an exhibition module (a series of documents relating to key reformers / themes / events), digital versions of pamphlets (deriving from Eisenach/Thuringian collections), various printings of the Saxon visitation handbook of 1528 (together with manuscripts informing its compilation 1525-27) and a large online collection of visitation records from the Reformation era (accessible in digital copies)
• Digital Image Archive of Medieval MusicLink opens in a new window (portal to worldwide collections of medieval polyphonic music manuscripts from c. 800 to 1500, with selected colour images. Project directed by Margaret Bent, Julia Craig-McFeeley and Andrew Wathay)
• Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation: an online 'resource for historians, theologians, political scientists, and sociologists studying the religious and social upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Digital Library of the Catholic Reformation gives researchers immediate, Web-based access to an extensive range of seminal works from the Reformation and post-Reformation eras', featuring 845 titles by 277 authors.
• William Dowsing: The Journal (iconoclasm in 1640s Cambs and Suffolk) : website / online editionLink opens in a new window; book versionLink opens in a new window
• Earls Colne, Essex: Records of an English Village 1375-1854
• 'Endangered Archives Programme': project hosted by the British Library dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage and making it available to as wide an audience as possible. Collection includes parish documents from Africa, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Transylvania (Romania) and other regions
• Enforcement of the Statutes of 1529Link opens in a new window: following legislation to reform the English parish clery (esp. to restrict absenteeism and economic activities like holding leases), anyone who chose to inform on/prosecute offending clerics could gain the penalties imposed on them by the royal courts. Collection of photographs of relevant cases compiled by Robert C. Palmer at the University of Houston (for context and explanation see his Selling the Church).
• English Monastic ArchivesLink opens in a new window: databases of religious houses, properties and archives compiled by a research team led by Maureen Jurkowski and Nigel Ramsay at UCL. This guide to one of the largest sets of medieval documents includes extensive evidence on parishes appropriated by religious houses.
• English Petitions: searchable transcriptions of hundreds of petitions submitted to a range of regional and national authorities in England from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including many requests for poor relief, suppression of alehouses etc.
• EpidatLink opens in a new window: a database of Jewish epigraphy - provides the inventory, documentation, editions and presentation of epigraphical collections. Currently online are available 188 digital editions with 34536 epitaphs (65970 image files).
• FamilySearch.org: free database of genealogical information, drawn from parish registers and other local sources, provided by ‘The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’
• 'Gateway to Early Modern Manuscript Sermons': 'a SSHRC-funded project to create an open-access, group-sourced, comprehensive, fully searchable, online bibliographic database of early modern (1530-1715) sermon manuscripts from the British Isles and North America. The database is a finding aid for all types of manuscripts related to sermons, including complete sermons, sermon notes and reports of sermons, held in numerous repositories in the UK, Ireland, the USA and Canada. GEMMS endeavours to make manuscript sermons more accessible for a wide variety of researchers, to encourage research on manuscript sermons and to provide a forum for the development of an online community of sermon scholars'.
• Germania Sacra: provides access to and publishes the written records concerned with the Church of the Holy Roman Empire; also features a digital index of persons and a database of monasteries
• Hartland Digital Archive (Devon): compiled inventories and digital versions of documents relating to the borough and St Nectan’s church of Hartland (North Devon) from 1400 to the present day, including parish registers (from 1558), churchwardens’ accounts (from 1597), lay subsidy / hearth tax evidence, the Protestation Roll of 1643, tithe / poor relieve materials, manorial and family archives etc. This introduction by Stephen Hobbs describes the holdings, their historical context and the various bodies supporting the project [information updated August 2011]
• Helvetia Sacra: reference work for the (Catholic) church institutions of Switzerland - dioceses, monasteries and chapters (in German / French / Italian)
• Herbert George, A priest to the temple: or the country parson’s character, and rule of holy life, (4th edn, London, 1701) [online at ECCO]
• Historic Environment Records: are an important starting point for anyone interested in the archaeology, built heritage, and history of an area in England. They can provide information on a wide variety of buildings and sites, from finds of prehistoric flint tools to medieval castles and Second World War pillboxes. HERs contain details on local archaeological sites and finds, historic buildings and historic landscapes and are regularly updated, with information held in a database with a digital mapping system.
• Historic Parishes of England and Wales – An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850Link opens in a new window with a Gazetteer and Metadata: produced by R.J.P. Kain and held by the “UK Data Service” (cf. also the related GIS of the Ancient Parishes of England and WalesLink opens in a new window)
• Inventories of parish archives in the Diocese of Como (Italy): with information on holdings, parish history and relevant secondary sources.
• Leicester Archdeaconry Court Proceedings: adultery case Winter vs Petcher 1597-8 transcribed by Alan Roberts
• Leicestershire Wills & Testaments: currently being transcribed by Dave Postles up to 1520.
• LeichenpredigtenLink opens in a new window (Germany): the “Gesamtkatalog deutscher Leichenpredigten GESA” provides a searchable catalogue of over 200,000 German funeral sermons compiled at the University of Marburg.
• LeichenpredigtenLink opens in a new window (Wolfenbüttel): catalogue of nearly 10,000 funeral sermons preserved at the Herzog August Bibliothek at Wolfenbüttel.
• Letting the People Speak: a British History Online digitization project of 2526 early modern petitions (1573-1799) forming part of The Power of Petitioning in Seventeenth-Century England, run by historians from Birkbeck and University College London.
• Loughborough Materials 1540-160Link opens in a new window: transcriptions and extracts of sources like churchwardens’ accounts, court rolls, bridgemasters’ accounts and parish registers (compiled by David Postles, Leicester University)
• The Lydiard Archives: an on-line collection of objects, portraits, records, manuscripts, photographs, memories, and ephemera related to Lydiard Park in Wiltshire. Working with local residents, archives and authorities, as well as global institutions, the project is creating a digitized collection of Lydiard Park’s precious legacy. From early medieval times to its 17th and 18th century prosperity, and from dereliction in the forties, to its rescue and dedication to the people of Swindon, The Lydiard Archives tell of a rare heritage built on survival and tenacity. The website includes materials relating to the architecture and furnishings of St Mary's church and the parish records.
• Mapping the Scottish Reformation: A Database of Scottish Clergy, 1560-1689: a project directed by Michelle D. Brock (Washington and Lee University) and Chris Langley (Newman University), initially exploring published resources like Hew Scott’s Fasti Ecclesiae Scoticanae to trace clerics across early modern and modern Scotland and now increasingly also drawing on manuscript materials. [cf. this news / update notice from May 2020; check out their map of Scottish parishes]
• 'Matricula': provides free access to digital images of numerous historical parish registers (Kirchenbücher) of baptisms, marriages & deaths (Tauf-, Trauungs- & Sterbebücher) from Austria (esp. Catholic dioceses of Kärnten, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Styria, Tyrol, Upper Austria, Vorarlberg [see e.g. Bregenz, St. Gallus, from 1585] & Vienna) and Germany (esp. Catholic dioceses of Hildesheim, Magdeburg, München-Freising [see e.g. Dachau, St Jakob, 1675-], Münster, Osnabrück, Paderborn and Passau), with selected sets also from Bosnia-Herzegowina, Luxemburg and Serbia (with map and place search facility)
• monasterium.netLink opens in a new window: Europe's virtual charters archive, featuring some 500'000 medieval and early modern documents from 60 repositories in 10 countries
• Parish Register Aggregate Analyses, 1662-1811
• Parish Registers of former French coloniesLink opens in a new window: digitization resource provided by the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer
• ‘Parochial book collections of the Catholic church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Stanislaus era’: online inventory of parochial and parsons' books preserved for four Roman Catholic dioceses (Płock, Vilnius, Kraków and Chełm) and the Chełm Greek Catholic diocese from the late eighteenth century. It has been compiled by Stanisław Witecki at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków/Poland and allows searches by author and place. Additions & related collections of books are welcome.
• Penance c. 1250-1600: ecclesiastical court cases compiled by David Postles
• Pirton Local History Group: site includes transcriptions & studies of village records (manor court, wills, religious censuses, overseers accounts etc)
• Post-Reformation Digital LibraryLink opens in a new window: vast collection of primary resources/e-books relating to the development of theology (ca. 16th-18th c.), compiled by the Henry C. Meeter Center for Calvin Studies, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary. Features e-versions of works by theologians of all major denominations and additional resources (Bibles, correspondence, secondary materials).
• Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills 1384-1858Link opens in a new window
• Probate material from the diocese of Lichfield before and including 1546Link opens in a new window (searchable database compiled by David Postles, Leicester University)
• Probate Records: links to online resources compiled by ‘Medieval English Genealogy’
• 'Records of Early English Drama': online presence of an international research collaboration that is establishing for the first time the context from which the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries grew; with search facility and associated print publication series, collating evidence for dramatic activity (much of it from parish records) on a county-by-county basis
• Religious Change, 1450-1700Link opens in a new window: web platform of the Newberry Library at Chicago, exploring 'how religion and print challenged authority, upended society, and made the medieval world modern'; offers access to (especially 17thC Italian) broadsheets, a manuscript transcription crowdsourcing initiative, a gallery exhibition and project blog
• Researching Historic Buildings in the British IslesLink opens in a new window: includes information on sources for churches (compiled by Jean Manco)
• 'Scottish Clerical Handwriting c.1600-1700': collated by Chris Langley to aid identification of hands
• Scottish Record SocietyLink opens in a new window: 'is pleased to announce the publication of a number of its backlist volumes as searchable Ebooks through our online partner, TannerRitchie Publishing. This is an exciting area of publishing and one which is relatively unexplored for learned societies, and we hope that the project will improve access to our work for scholars and generate interest in the Society and its purpose. The Society intends to publish all backlist volumes in copyright in this way.' (publications include parish registers and kirk session / presbytery records)
• ‘Southwark St Saviour: 'Information about Parishioners, from Various Sources 1550 to 1650’ – this site directed by Alan H. Nelson & William Ingram provides access to transcriptions & commentary on a wide range of parish records (including overseers reports, token books, vestry minutes, wills and other documents)
• 'Stillstandsprotokolle' (1631-)Link opens in a new window: searchable edition of 17thC proceedings of the principal parish authorities (known as Stillstand) in the Canton of Zurich, consisting of pastors, wardens/elders plus secular village officials and dealing with a broad range of matters relating to church, schools, morals and poor relief.
• Stoke-upon-Trent Parish Listing, 1701
• Stow's Survey of London (1598): draft online edition as part of the Map of Early Modern London projet
• Strype’s Survey of London (1720): online edition, which includes a list and description of parishes and see also the parish maps on 'Layers of London'
• Taxatio Database: contains the valuation, plus related details, of the English and Welsh parish churches and prebends listed in the ecclesiastical taxation assessment of 1291-2 (J. H. Denton, Humanities Research Centre, University of Sheffield)
• Thame (Oxfordshire) in the 17thC
• Tithe Apportionments DatabaseLink opens in a new window: contains information taken from the tithe apportionments covering Warwickshire created in the mid 19th century following the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836
• The Token Books of St Saviour Southwark: edition of the 'written records of the effort, by the officers of St Saviour parish, in the weeks preceding Easter each year, to require every head of household in the parish to purchase tokens for the Easter communion' (1571-1643)
• Trans-national Database and Atlas of Saints’ Cults, c.700-2000Link opens in a new window
• Village Records of Chelsworth, Suffolk, 1441-1904Link opens in a new window
• ‘Villanelle’: Medieval and early modern sources on French villages
• Visitation articles / acts from the Archdeaconry of Nottingham 1585- (e-resource provided by Nottinghamshire History)
• Vistitation articles and returns from the Diocese of Exeter 1744 and 1779Link opens in a new window: compiled – with a parish index – by the Friends of Devon’s Archives
• Visitations of parishes in the Diocese of Pavia (Italy) in 1460, 1561-67 and 1592
• Visitation records from the Diocese of Verona (Italy), covering the late fifteenth to nineteenth centuries (1454-1900)
• Wien, St. PeterLink opens in a new window: digitization of the entire archives of St Peter in Vienna, comprising manuscripts and (printed) books from the 18th century, in particular relating to the rebuilding of the church.
• Wills proved in the archdeaconry of Leicester between 1522 and 1546 inclusiveLink opens in a new window (searchable database compiled by David Postles, Leicester University)
• Wills - Medieval and Tudor Kent P.C.C. and C.C.C. WillsLink opens in a new window, transcribed L. L. Duncan (list of testators with name/place index and selected transcriptions, provided by the Kent Archaeological Society)

Audio resources:

• Danish church music from the fragmentary 15thC Missale Danicum 1, as featured on ‘Liturgical Fragments from Denmark’ [online audio samples]
• English pre-Reformation parish music: John Taverner (English composer c. 1490-1545; active e.g. as lay clerk at the collegiate parish church of Tattershall , Lincs., in the 1520s and as a singer at St Botolph, Boston, in the late 1530s), Missa ‘Western Wynde’, performed by Choir of New College, Oxford; Edward Higginbottom [online audio sample of ‘Gloria’Link opens in a new window]
• English post-Reformation parish music: examples of psalm-singing and organ accompaniments recreated by the Dufay Collective for Christopher Marsh’s Music and Society in Early Modern England Link opens in a new window(Cambridge, 2010), audio CD, tracks nos 43-46, and of bell-ringing performed by the ringers of St Bartholomew the Great, Smithfield, nos 47-48.
• German church music:
  • Martin Luther (1483-1546): 16thC Lutheran music [audio samplesLink opens in a new window]
  • Johann Sebastian Bach (German composer 1685-1750; cantor at the parish church of St Thomas, Leipzig, in the 1730s and 40s) [audio samples of organ works]
• Greek church music performed by the Byzantine choir at Athens [online audio samplesLink opens in a new window]
• 100 Ballads - top pop from seventeenth-century England: Broadside ballads were single-sheet songs that sold for a penny a piece. Find over 100 resoundingly successful examples that can be investigated through recordings, images and a wealth of other materials [website]
• Musicians and choirs specializing in late medieval and Renaissance church music:
  • recordings by ‘The Clerks’ Group [audio samples from their educational work]Link opens in a new window
  • recordings by ‘The Cardinall’s Musick’ [with online audio samplesLink opens in a new window]
• 'Village Music Project': a website dedicated to the traditional social dance music of England – where it came from, where it went to, who it travelled with and where it is now (with details on pre-1850 publishers and transcriptions).

Visual and material resources:

• Buckinghamshire Stained GlassLink opens in a new window: covering some 1600 windows and compiled by Cliff and Monica Robinson.
• 'Chaproniere Collection': contains mainly black and white photographs of English parish churches compiled since the early 1950s by Dr Donna Chaproniere & donated to the University of Leicester in 2008. Some of the photographs were used to publish English Parish Churches volume 1: East Anglia South by Phillip Lindley, Alex Moseley & Donna Chaproniere, published on CD-ROM by Brepols (2001).
• ‘Church Gallery’: images of English parish churches and cathedrals compiled by BBC History.
• ‘Church Heritage Record’: publicly accessible database due to be launched in spring 2015. Compiled by ChurchCareLink opens in a new window with the assistance of English Heritage, it will feature over 16,000 entries on church buildings in England (integrated with a Geographic Information System GIS), covering a wide variety of topics from architectural history and archaeology, to worship and the surrounding natural environment.
• 'Church Monuments Society': website featuring a monument of the month, events and resources associated with tombs, effigies, carvings and other commemorative features
• ‘Church Plans Online‘: this searchable database provides digital copies of over 12,000 church plans (and further details) submitted to the ‘Incorporated Church Building Society’ over the last 200 years (and kept at Lambeth Palace Library)
• 'Churches Conservation Trust': access to wallpaintings, art & architecture of buildings in their care, in partnership with Google Arts & Culture
• Cornish Parish ChurchesLink opens in a new window: offers photographs of all parish churches (as well as many fonts and stained glass windows) in Cornwall. An interactive DVD is also available.
• Cornish Stained GlassLink opens in a new window: information on Cornish windows compiled by Joanna Mattingly and Michael Swift.
• 'Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches': a project seeking to determine if more historic fabric at Scotland’s parish churches of medieval foundation – whether still in use or abandoned – has survived than might appear on first sight 
• ‘Denmark’s Medieval AltarpiecesLink opens in a new window‘: documents all surviving and known altarpieces within the present-day boundaries of the country; compiled by Sissel F. Plathe and Jens Bruun
• The Digital Atlas of EnglandLink opens in a new window: co-ordinated by C. B. Newham, this project aims to obtain photographs of all rural churches (and some associated buildings) in England. By late 2011, the archive included 330,000 pictures, representing 70 per cent of the envisaged total. This presentation provides an impression of the range of buildings, furnishings and motives.
• Early Modern British Painters c1500-1640: database and explanations relating to nearly 3000 individuals active in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland during the period; compiled by Robert Tittler at Concordia University.
• English Local History ImagesLink opens in a new window: compiled by David Postles (includes many pictures of parish churches and their interiors; old siteLink opens in a new window)
• ‘Ex voto’ pictures database from Sammarei nr Passau (Lower Bavaria, Germany)Link opens in a new window, supplied by the historical demographer A.E. Imhof (Berlin).
• 'Farbdiaarchiv zur Wand- und Deckenmalerei [Archive of colour slides of wall-/ceiling-paintings]Link opens in a new window': database containing 39.000 digitized images of frescos and other painted ornamentation from churches, monasteries, castles and other buildings in Germany, Austria, Poland and Russia (dating from the 10th to 19thC, searchable by places/artists and hosted by the 'Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte' in Munich)
• Heritage TechnologyLink opens in a new window: website of Heritage technology specialists developing virtual reconstructions for the interactive “Parish Church” DVD published by the Christianity and CultureLink opens in a new window initiative. Sample materials include York's Micklegate Priory RevealedLink opens in a new window and Stratford-upon-Avon guild chapelLink opens in a new window.
• Hesselager KirkeLink opens in a new window (Denmark): Video presentation by Axel Bolvig - the same page contains films on various aspects of Danish wall paintings and a paper on the relationship between words/imagesLink opens in a new window delivered at the Courthauld in 2009
• Hidden Florence: website / phone app allowing the rediscovery of Renaissance Florence through the eyes of a contemporary; among other attractions, users can take a a virtual walk through the lost church of San Pier Maggiore (into which the National Gallery's altarpiece of Jacobo di Cione has been inserted)
• Historic Parishes of England and Wales: an Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata
• Imaging the Bible in Wales DatabaseLink opens in a new window: online collection of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Biblical artwork (from churches as well as other sources) compiled at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
• The Medieval Mass: A Video Reconstruction, entitled 'Ecclesia Endre dominica XVIII post trinitatis' (4 October 1450), directed by Christer Bjõrkvall and introduced by Anders Piltz (1990)
• 'Medieval Portable Altars': documented between c. 600 and 1400 CE in the current geographic boundaries of Europe; website and database maintained by Sarah Luginbill at the University of Colorado Boulder
• 'Medieval Wall Painting in the English Parish Church', a site compiled by Anne Marshall (Open University)
• 'Medieval Wall Paintings': a site on related events, teaching activities and resources compiled by Ellie Pridgeon, who wrote her PhD (2010) on St Christopher wall paintings in England and Wales (c.1250-c.1525) at the University of Leicester. She has since been assisting Dr Miriam Gill with the Churches Conservation Trust Wall Painting project and worked as a consultant for various bodies, including English Heritage.
• ‘MobilierLink opens in a new window‘: searchable database of French material culture (incl. objects, furnishings, religious images and other heritage items associated with parish churches) provided by the Ministry of Culture and Communicatrion (click on link “mobilier” and then “recherche experte” in the left-hand menu to start searches)
• Monumental Brasses: online images compiled by ‘Medieval English Genealogy’
• Mundon St Mary's: go on a 3D virtual tour of a church in Essex - featuring a timber-framed tower, 16thC north porch, 18thC box pews, wall painting fragments, Creed / Lord's Prayer inscriptions, graffiti etc - declared redundant in 1970, since restored by the Friends of Friendless Churches and digitized in conjunction with Lincoln Conservation.
• 'The National Wall Paintings Survey', hosted by the Courtauld Institute, provides a vast and internationally important archive, comprising records of all known British medieval wall paintings as well as extensive material on post-medieval schemes of painted decoration.
• ‘Parish Church and the Landscape Wiki’: online collection of church images from the dioceses of Cambrai, Le Mans and Schleswig produced in the course of a research project based at Oxford Brookes (searchable by parish and subject).
• Photo collectionLink opens in a new window started at the Medieval Research Centre at Leicester University, featuring parish churches (e.g. Beverley, Fotheringay, Lavenham, Warwick etc), cathedrals, vernacular architecture etc dating from medieval and early modern times (compiled by David Postles and freely downloadable for academic purposes)
• ‘Pilgrims and Pilgrimage’Link opens in a new window: illustrations and commentary, e.g. on the late Middle Ages and Reformation period, provided by the 'Christianity and Culture' project at the University of York. CD-version of the project includes a 3D-reconstruction of the parish church of St Mary, Thirsk, on the eve of the Reformation.
• Pitts Theology Library: Digital Image Archive
• Poor relief and charitable benefactions in Münster (Germany): materials from an exhibition
• Post-Reformation Wall Painting ProjectLink opens in a new window: launched in 2014 by C.B Newham and Dr Ellie Pridgeon to tackle the lack of comprehensive catalogues or academic literature on the painting corpus, which is extremely extensive. Focusing on murals in English churches between 1559 and 1836, the project aims to document, research and publish on these visual sources.
• Rare Reformation Relics: virtual exhibition (under the auspices of ArtRefo) presenting images and objects from the collections of museums across Europe that testify to the richness and variety of post-Reformation visual and material culture. Here portraits and visual satires from both Lutheran and Reformed contexts are juxtaposed with objects as diverse as enamel plates, liturgical textiles and communion vessels.
• Religion in late medieval ScotlandLink opens in a new window: 450 images illustrating religion and society in late medieval Scotland, taken from manuscripts, incunabula and early printed books in Edinburgh University Library
• ‘The Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Corporal Works of MercyLink opens in a new window‘: searchable church wall paintings database compiled by Miriam Gill
• Stained Glass in WalesLink opens in a new window: searchable online catalogue/database of work from the fourteenth century to the present day, compiled under the auspices of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies by Martin Crampin.

• Stratford-upon-Avon, Guild Chapel: information and teaching resources relating to the reconstruction of late medieval wall paintings (Doom, Dance of Death, Holy Cross legend) in a collaborative project of historians, archaeologists and Heritage Technology Limited.
• Swedish Medieval Art (Medeltidens bildvärld): provides access to some 19,000 pictures of artworks (sculptures, paintings, fonts etc) from Swedish churches, searchable by region/place, material, topic and museum (in Swedish).
• Teregua (Valtellina, Italy): 16th century wall paintings (by Vincenzo de Barberis) and wood sculptures of the Chiesa della Santissima Trinità [Holy Trinity Chapel] in the parish of S. Nicolò, Valfurva.
• Wallpaintings in Danish churches are featured in these two extensive online resources: Kalkmalerier.dk (where reproductions can be obtained for commercial and other purposes) and Kalkmalerier i danske kirker Link opens in a new window(under the auspices of the Danish National Museum), both with search functions