medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I admire Duffy's work and fully accept much of what he says. BUT - it needs
to be remembered that the official doctrine of the church established by
the Elizabethan settlement was markedly more protestant than that of the
modern anglican church. The 39 Articles, the official statement of belief,
are predestinarian in soteriology and sacramentarian in their eucharistic
theology. This theology is less clearly expressed in the Book of Common
Prayer, through which the ideas of the church were mediated to ordinary
people, but permeates prayers like the Collects:
Almighty God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help
ourselves ... (2nd Sunday in Lent);
... because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good
thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy
commandments we may please thee (1st Sunday after Trinity)
O God, forasmuch as without thee, we are not able to please thee;
Mercifully grant that thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule
our hearts. (19th Sunday after Trinity)
and so on. By the time when Shakespeare was writing, and in London and
south-east England, these ideas would have been commonplace.
Liturgical practice, too, though not completely protestantized, was some
way away from modern Anglican practice. The clergy wore distinguishing
clothes but no elaborate vestments. The eucharist was supposed to be
celebrated not at an altar but on a table moved into the nave for the
purpose. Pilgrimages, shrines and the veneration of images were all
supposed to have been completely abolished. They persisted in more remote
areas - but not in Shakespeare's own region. Instead, churches were
increasingly being decorated with written texts - the Lord's Prayer, the
Creed, the commandments - and the Bible was generally available in English
(and Welsh).
The question of where Shakespeare himself stood on these changes is a
different subject - and one on which I'd be interested to hear your views.
Maddy
Dr Madeleine Gray, in the foothills of God's golden county of Gwent
(Department of Humanities and Science
UWCN Caerleon Campus
PO Box 179
Newport NP18 3YG
Tel: +44 (0)1633.432675
http://humanities.newport.ac.uk/HIST.html)
Gwent County History Association web site:
http://gwent-county-history-association.newport.ac.uk
' "Education!" said Eyore bitterly. "What is Learning?" asked Eyore. "A
thing Rabbit knows! Ha!" '
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