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If this chapter had been written a mere quarter-century ago, it would have contained an almost entirely different account both of gentry religion and of the Church which ministered to the late medieval English laity. For in the mid-1970s the reaction against the longstanding ‘Protestant’ account of the Church and lay piety was only just beginning. The late medieval English
Men and women of the nobility and gentry living in the world were encouraged to practise their religion through attendance at Mass, private prayer on behalf of themselves and the dead, works of charity, pilgrimage, and material support of the Church. Alternatively, they could enter a monastery or nunnery to take up a life of religion. These two forms of life have parallels with each
Politics and religion were two sides of the same coin. Wesleyan missionaries went to Upper Burma for many and complex reasons but their main purpose was to convert Burmans to Christianity. One scholar described it as a ‘corrupting’ task. 1 Another suggested that giving ‘pagan souls the same cast as our own’ was to personalise imperialism. 2 Few missions achieved the conversion targets set for them by their societies. As a result mission histories are often histories of failure. 3 Conversion rates
Civic religion is a term much used, though also debated, in the context of late-medieval Italy. Though it is obvious that not all religion in towns was ‘civic’ and that the impact of ‘civic religion’ over the countryside could be marginal, the term is still useful for a group of religious practices that gave prominence to the role of the laity and that asserted or
nevertheless remains within the sphere of private religion. Generally speaking, there was no official need to record the extent of individual commitment to a spiritual life which remained within the world. The wide variety of religious commitments which were available generally required an individual to set him or herself aside from ‘normality’, either through
In ancient Greece and Rome magical and religious healing continued to be practised at the same time as a burgeoning of research and learning in the natural sciences was promoting a seemingly more rational and scientific approach to medicine. Was there, then, a dichotomy in medical treatment or was the situation more complex? This paper draws on historical textual sources as well as archaeological research in examining the question in more detail. Some early texts, such as the Egyptian papyri from about 2,600 bc and the Hippocratic Corpus from the third and fourth centuries bc, contain an intriguing mixture of scientific and religious material. Archaeological evidence from, for example, sites of healing sanctuaries from ancient times, show medical prescriptions used as part of votive offerings and religious inscriptions on surgical instruments, while physicians were prominent among donators to shrines. Other archaeological finds such as the contents of rubbish tips, buried hoards, sepulchral deposits and stray artefacts from occupation levels, have also added to the archive of medical material available for discussion. The paper concludes that such intertwinings of religion and science were not only common in Roman medicine but, in fact, continue into the present time.
Chapter 7 Prophets, religions and history: some conclusions T his book has not set out to demonstrate a broad-ranging theory or to test a set of hypotheses on the early history of religions. It has not addressed the broad questions of why religion has played such an important part in social and individual life. It focusses on the context in which individual religious movements first developed. It has not sought to prove a point, beyond the unexceptional observation that history written from the conventions of critical scholarship will differ from that written
Chapter 4 . Religion, politics, and conscience I n the last chapter we saw how Lilburne’s writings created a new conception of citizenship, in the form of the ‘free-born Englishman’. Lilburne’s writings appealed powerfully to individual readers to consider themselves as free-born Englishmen and to act as such: to stand up for their franchises, liberties, immunities, and privileges as Englishmen, and if necessary to suffer for them as Lilburne himself did. This nexus of ideas was developed through Lilburne’s dense, iterative, passionate series of self
, when the speed of secularisation increased, Belgium was a profoundly Catholic country. For most Belgians, the experience of illness and medical care was closely connected to their (Catholic) faith. For many doctors and caregivers as well, religion occupied an important position in the way they conducted their professional lives. Recent historical analyses have gradually come to acknowledge this relation
jealously complained of the evident appeal of the friars. 6 Fraternities, too, added to the texture of urban religious life, and further accentuated the scope for the agency and variety of lay religion. 7 Urban wills are eloquent of a creative range of both devotional and fraternal ties, forged over a lifetime as so many means to address the challenges of life in the late medieval town [ 105 ]. The collective memberships of