Early print and purgatory : the shaping of an Henrician ideology

Abstract

In this thesis the evidence of more than 1500 early printed religious books published between 1475-1559 is used to explore the way in which Purgatory was officially discredited by the English Church after its break with Rome. A survey of the books published before 1530 indicates that practices associated with Purgatory were so deeply embedded in society that its existence was taken for granted and authors felt little need to write about it. Most of the texts which did speak of Purgatory, however, suggested that good living in this world would help avoid its consequences. Since Purgatory was chiefly the subject of devotion and not catechesis, traditionalists did not have a simple and clearly defined doctrine to defend when beliefs about Purgatory were challenged by Protestants at the end of the 1520s. Furthermore, because Purgatory was associated with Papal authority which Henry VIII was determined to usurp, it was constantly subject to official systematic attack so its marginalisation was not the result of popular apathy or preference for Protestantism. One of the fundamental assumptions underpinning this thesis is that religious ideas must be "good to think" within their social context. Therefore, because beliefs about Purgatory were linked with ideas about the judgement and punishment of sin, I have argued that improvements in the secular judicial system along with changing attitudes to the nature of God and sustained efforts to educate parishioners as to their Christian duty, substantially reduced anxiety about penultimate judgement in the afterlife. Most significant was that parishioners were taught that to obey secular authority was to obey God. Despite the fact that death-bed and funerary customs remained largely unchanged, the political attack on Purgatory during the 1530s and 1540s in conjunction with growing expectations that sin would be punished initially in this world, meant that the importance of Purgatory as a cornerstone of catholic belief declined. Catholicism of the 1540s was distinctively different from that of the 1520s. Upheavals in England after the break with Rome had also exacerbated fears that the Last Judgement was imminent, further shifting the idea of Purgatory from centrestage in the Church's teaching on judgement in the afterlife. And finally the confiscation and destruction of Church property during Edward VI's reign, ensured that the Marian Church could not afford to re-instate the expensive devotional practices associated with Purgatory, even though segments of the Church community continued to adhere to their traditional beliefs.