The transformation of the Western Church in the thirteenth century saw the establishment and reinforcement of means of exercising ecclesiastical authority and pastoral care into impose norms and discipline on the laity. This was, however, not universally met with acceptance by a passive laity, but frequently opposed through peaceful and violent means throughout the late Middle Ages. This contribution considers the resistance by lay people, sometimes in collaboration with local clergy, to ecclesiastical authority in the late Middle Ages. Acts of resistance could take many different forms: occupying the church, chasing and beating the bishop's men when they sought to execute a mandate, snatching and hiding—or even forcing them to eat—the bishop's letter. Other forms of resistance made subversive use of the repertoire of symbols associated with the church, e.g., mock processions, the ringing of bells¬¬, or refusal to ring bells in recognition of a bishop approaching. One of the key instruments in the exercise of ecclesiastical authority and pastoral care was episcopal visitations. I will consider how laity and clergy at times sought to resist such exercises of authority, e.g., by absenteeism. Drawing on and comparing cases from England and France, as well as theorizations of practices of resistance by James C. Scott and Michel de Certeau, this contribution seeks to complicate our perceptions of the medieval church, lay belief and acceptance of ecclesiastical norms and discipline. Local bonds of loyalty and power relations, as well as resentment against elites, I argue, were some of the factors that complicated the church's ability to impose discipline and police the behaviour of the laity.