Reading and Not Reading the Material Evidence in Parish Churches

Susan Orlik†

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Chapter 8 Reading and Not Reading the Material Evidence in Parish Churches

于Reading the Reformations

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Susan Orlik†

Susan Orlik†
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类型:: 章节

Page Range:: 202–232

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004521247_010

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Abstract

This chapter argues that by focusing on extant material evidence in English churches it is possible to ask new questions about how the ‘long reformation’ played out in the parishes. Questions, such as who was investing and why, generate fresh answers about the fittings and furniture in the eighty years after the accession of Elizabeth, and particularly before and during the turbulent decade of the 1630s. A more nuanced and more layered narrative emerges than the traditional story of Laudian monopoly of care and beautification of these sacred spaces. Indeed, this chapter shows that by leading with material evidence, which text-based historians traditionally have not read until recent decades, an understanding of the hitherto neglected evidence produces a more complicated, less neat narrative.

Although the so called Laudians were not an entirely homogenous group, their contemporaneous propaganda was successful in characterising themselves as the only group in the Church who promoted ‘the beauty of holiness’. Until relatively recently, historians have perpetuated this reading of the English Reformation as it developed parochially. Using examples from research in the West Country, this chapter argues that decorated investment in the churches before 1630 cannot in fact be ascribed to ‘pre-Laudians’, ‘avant-garde conformists’ or ‘proto-Laudians’ as they traditionally have been. Protestants of all stripes were enhancing their churches, and were driven by a variety of factors. Similarly, the previous assumptions that changes were made as a result of enforcement by the authorities, or by those who shared Laud’s enthusiasms, overlooked the complexities of multi-layered investments by diverse investors. In short, this chapter’s examination of the materiality of ecclesiastical buildings shows that the old metanarrative has concealed a more complex reality because its assumptions had precluded asking challenging questions.

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Reading the Reformations

Theologies, Cultures and Beliefs in an Age of Change

丛编： St Andrews Studies in Reformation History

ISBN:: 9789004521247

出版社:: Brill

印刷出版日期:: 15 Feb 2023

Subjects
- History
  - Early Modern History
  - Church History

Front Matter

Part 1 Reading the Instructive

Part 2 Reading the Communal

Part 3 Reading the Material

Part 4 Reading the Long Reformation

Back Matter

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Chapter 8 Reading and Not Reading the Material Evidence in Parish Churches

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Reading the Reformations

Theologies, Cultures and Beliefs in an Age of Change

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