Death & PurgatoryReligion and Religious Change in England c.1470-1558

Sir Roger Townsend, 1492

‘besechyng him for the merytes of his bitter and gloriouse passion to have mercy oon me and take me into his mercy which is above all workes, unto whom it is approposed to have mercy….of the whych numbre of contrite synners I mekely and humbly besechith him that I may be oon and one of the predestinate to be found and the rather thorow the meanes of our most blessed lady modre and mayde and of all the aungells of hevyn and patriarchs prophets apostels maters confessours virgyns and all the hooly company of hevyn and in special of them that I have moost in remembraunce. Now I hertly pray theme of their succour and help that may be partyner of the sacramentes and merites of all hooly church and to end my lyff in the same to Passover and so finally to be oon of the Numbre at the dredfull day of dome that shall stand and be oon of his right hand’.

John Terry

‘Devote Crysene Peple desirouse to knowe

Whose Body restyth under thys stone so lowe,

Of John Terry merchant, the tyme hys lyfe ledde,

Mayr et Alderman of this cyte in ded,Vertuose in lyvynge, to the

Comonwelthe profytable,And to Ryght and Conscyence ever

conformableThe same to preserve and also to

ayde,And eyke to be mayntened, cc 1 have

payed:Among the Cytizens, in love for ey to

remayne,Therewyth for a Tyme to earne ther

Nede and Payne

And over that cc 1 to purchase Land or Fee,

To comfort and releve por Fowks at necessyte.

When herafter yt chancyth the Kyngs Tasks to be layde,

The Rentts of the same for them to be payde,

For the wyche Dedid, Gode thatys but one,

Extend His Pety upon the same JohnWyche thys World departyde in

Januray the fyrste Day,And hys Sowle in Marcy to have that

beste may,The Yere of owre Lorde God Mccccc xx

and foure,The Trynyte his sowle kepe from all

Dolour.’

The Development of Purgatory

Hope:◦ Salve in Christianity’s brutal simplicity:

◦ Heaven for those purified of their sins.◦ Hell for the impenitent or unbelievers.

Purgatory: Those who were neither rampant sinners of exemplary pious. Those who died with sins un-confessed or

with penances unperformed Providing:

A) the sins which they had committed were not too grave.

B) they were repentant. i.e. those who were in a state of charity loved God for His own sake not because

of His benefits rejected sins because loved God not

because feared Hell.

Purgatory was a place of purgation and torment – cleansed before passing to heaven.

Endure the pains of hell for a temporary amount of time (short in the measure of eternity).

Not a negative – rather, a step from avoiding Hell and towards the Bliss of heaven.

A fate which all Christians expected to endure.

Scripture

Root of Protestant attacks:◦ Sola Scriptura – by Scripture alone.

Expansive theological reasoning:◦ Alexandria (early Church), God give those

whom he loved a chance to perfect the pursuit of holiness.

Purification of the soul after death:◦ Matthew 12:32: "And whosoever shall

speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come."

◦ St. Augustine argues "that some sinners are not forgiven either in this world or in the next would not be truly said unless there were other [sinners] who, though not forgiven in this world, are forgiven in the world to come" (City of God XXI.24).

◦ Similar interpretations by Gregory the Great (Dial., IV, xxxix); St. Bede (commentary on this text); St. Bernard (Sermo lxvi in Cantic., n. 11).

1 Corinthians 3:11-15:◦ "For other foundation no man can lay, but

that which is laid; which is Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay stubble: Every man's work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."

Interpreted by:◦ Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, Jerome.◦ Protestants use to show that actually speak

against many of the devotions associated with purgatory

Length of interpretative struggles suggests that Purgatory was a very human reaction to a human need.◦ Fear only?

Prayers for the Dead:

Doctrine that prayers for the dead efficacious found in the early Church:◦Tertullian De corona militis, De Monogamia (chapter 10)◦Ambrose, De obitu Theodosii◦St Cyprian, Clement of Alexandria◦C4th liturgies of the Church:

St. Cyril of Jerusalem: "Then we pray for the Holy Fathers and Bishops that are dead; and in short for all those who have departed this life in our communion; believing that the souls of those for whom prayers are offered receive very great relief, while this holy and tremendous victim lies upon the altar."

C9th Church buildings show evidence of expansion of the Mass. ◦Side altars to allow provision for the industry of Masses for the dead.

The Development of Purgatory

Key: Notion of trial by fire present since the earliest rumblings of Christianity.

But, slow to develop into a system.

C12th pivotal:◦ Notion of purging by fire given a

name: purgatory.◦ Evolving – only 3 centuries old in

fully-fledged form by 1500.◦ Limbus infantium – children who had

been born but not baptised.◦ Limbus partum – those Old

Testament persons who had existed before Christ but who could be saved.

Catalyst – The Black Death:◦ Nightmarish struggle to

keep up with the cycle of burials.

◦ Elaborate & brutal demonstration of the power of death.

Dante, The Divine Comedy (1308-21) – The Gluttonous

‘I see new torments, new tormented shadesRising around me as I move around, Wherever

I turn myself, wherever I gaze.I’ve come to the third circle, that of heavyRain which goes on for ever, coldly cursed,Whose nature and whose volume never vary. Huge hail, with water of a filthy texture And snow, comes pouring down through mirky

air – The earth is stinking that receives this mixture. And Cerberus, a strange and cruel beast, Is growling like a dog through all three gullets Over the people who lie here immersed. He has red eyes, a black and greasy beard, A swollen belly, and great claws for hands, By which the shades are rent apart and flayed.

The spirits howl like hounds under the rain: They have to shelter one flank with the other, And so the sinners turn and turn again…….my

leader spreads his hands out, tearsUp earth until his fists are overflowing,And thrusts it in those gaping apertures.Then like a dog that, barking for a bone,Calms down immediately it gnaws its food,Solely intent on gobbling it all down,Just do did the three filthy faces there Of Cerberus, the demon dog who stuns The Spirits till they wish they could not hear. We walked across those shades the constant

floodGoes beating down upon, placing our feet On nothingness which seems like flesh and

blood’.

‘A cult of the living in the service of the dead’?

Galpern:

Disagreement:◦ Did the preoccupation with

purgatory disturbed the balance of late medieval religion? A form of nihilistic wallowing. Morbid, denial of influence of

Christianity in this life.

Sources:◦ rich bodies of information – wills,

chantries, monuments – allows to us to gain a clearer understanding of the wishes of the dying rather than those of the living.

Two things to consider:

◦ 1) the nature of humanity: Fallen Fundamentally sinful, flawed

and irredeemable.

◦ 2) visibility of death: Life expectancy Child death Famine

Pre-ocupied or pragmatic?

Recognition of the fact that the living and the dead were part of the community to much greater extent than in the modern world.

Chantries – support the living: Network of Masses and devotions reaffirmed

kinship bonds between the living and the recently departed.

Practical – surest way to limit time in purgatory was to avoid sin in life◦ Literature use torment as a grim reminder, a

prompt to piety.

Dead impact upon the community:◦ Beggar expected to pray for the soul of patron.◦ Inmates of hospitals expected to pray for their

benefactors (long dead)◦ Those who crossed a bridge expected to pray

for its fonder – inscription asking them to do so.

Capable of determining own responses to death and problem of salvation.

Responses to death and to purgatory not uniform across Europe.◦ Northern Europe most intensive:

Books of penitential sermons most prevalent. Germany – upsurge of Masses c.1450.

◦ Southern Europe less so: Practices associated with Purgatory increase

at the Counter Reformation.

Variation in England: York, Salisbury, parts of Suffolk show evidence

of declining activities in confraternities/will donations/ Masses for the dead on the eve of the Reformation

Whilst other areas like Norfolk rapid increase.

Social Impact:

Systems of devotion to speed through purgatory.

Works of mercy: Humble imitations of the

mercy of God in good works.◦Feed the hungry◦Drink to the thirsty◦Cloth the naked◦Visit the sick◦Relieve the prisoner◦House the stranger◦Bury the dead

Financial and social investment – striking:◦ Inflated numbers of priests.◦ Belief in Good Works passed into

building of chapels/ works of charity.

Masses for the dead:◦ The dead part of the body of

Christ.◦ Each Mass contained general

prayers for the departed◦ Bede roll – parish memory.◦ Maintain candles before statues.

Social Impact:

Chantries:◦ From Latin ‘Cantaria’ – place for singing

(Masses are sung).◦ Chapel endowed to say Masses

perpetually.◦ Henry VII – 10,000 Masses.◦ Backlog – some Priests spend their entire

working lives at Mass. Monasteries:

Land endowments for monks to say Masses.

Exist in the landscape to help souls to heaven had become their primary purpose.

Guilds:◦ Tombs of former members beseeched

people to pray.◦ Unite living and the dead – image made

near.

Pilgrimages:◦ Travel to shrines to gain an indulgence.◦ Famous site:

St Patrick’s Purgatory at Lugh Derg. Visions of the sufferings of the souls being

purged

Spiritual calculus:◦ Each Mass a unit of merit.◦ Those said soon after death most

efficacious. ◦ Exploitative?

Generally invested back into the Church.◦ Protestants – ridiculous and offensive to

Christ. Lay activity, not a clerical one:

◦ Needs shaped by lay demands/uses.◦ Staggering level of popular engagement.◦ Not understand the Mass (in Latin), or the

paternoster/ Ave Maria But keen to use.

Exploited, or part of the numinous world?

Belief & Practice:

Practical means of faith:◦ Duffy: mortality inspired morality.◦ Search soul – self examination.

Spur to activity/piety:◦ -ve: to avoid sin.◦ +ve: to do works of charity.◦ Purgatory as a social force.

Didactic: not about articulating woe, but teaching.◦ Urge to morality.◦ Urge to live properly in Christ.

Transience of life:◦ Short in the scheme of eternity.◦ Spirit and world in opposition:

Life should be spent rejecting the world.

Ascetic of human weakness:◦ Adam’s legacy to man:

‘forto be borne yn sykenes, forto lyven yn travayle, and forto dye yn drede’ .

◦ Transi tombs – tactile reality/ pity.

Transi Tomb: John Fitzalan, Earl Of Arundel (d.1435)

John Baret, Bury St. Edmunds:

‘He that wil sadly beholde one with his ie/ May se hys owne merowr and lerne for to die/ Wrappid in a selure as a ful rewli wrecche/ No more of al myn good to me ward wil strecche/ From erthe I kam and on to erth I am browht/ This is my natur, for of erthe I was wrowht;/ Thus erthe on to erthe to gedir now is net/ So endeth each creature Q/d John Baret/ Qwerfor ye pepil in weye of charitie/ W’t yor god prayeris I prey yu help me/ For lych as I am right so schal ye all be/ Now God on my sowle have mercy & pite. Amen’

Dance of Death

Croatian Dance of Death 1474

Hans Holbein, Dance of Death (dagger handle, c.1530).

Memento Mori:

Universal power of death,Books, wall paintings,

church decoration.Early C16th memorial

brass:◦ ‘Man behold so as I am now, so

shalt thou be/ Gold and silver shall make no plea/ This daunce to defend, but follow me’.

John Fisher (Bishop of Rochester) & the ever-present skull.

Ars Moriendi:

The Art of Dying:◦ How to prepare for death.◦ Struggles with Satan –

deathbed and epic struggle of Christianity and its other.

◦ Fear of dying unrepentent.

Council of Florence – C15th.

Classic example: Jean Gerson, Speculum artis bene moriendi (1414-18).

An exacting form of Christianity. Picture-series for the dying to

meditate on:◦ Key moments of Christian

torment/tribulation:◦ St Paul cast from his

horse and converted.◦ The Good Thief on the

cross besides Christ.◦ Final scene –

battlefield and the devil’s retreat.

Essentially being ‘walked through’ death.

Thomas More, De Quatuor Novissimis (1522)

‘lying in thy bedde, thy hed shooting, thy back akyng, thy vaynes beating, thine heart panting, thy throat ratelyng, thy fleshe trembling, thy mouth gaping, thy nose sharping, thy legges coling, thy fingers fumbling, thy breath shorting, all thy strength fainting, thy lyfe vanishing, and they death drawing on’.

Still prepare – stress suffering, stress the struggle.

Priest to guide you:◦ Receive the Mass◦ Reject heresy & confirm

fundamentals of faith.◦ Mediate on the comfort of the

Cross & Christ’s mercy.◦ Intense scrutiny – because the

Priest’s job was to bring the dying Christian to the knowledge of contrition.

The Goat & The Sheep – Matthew 25: 31-46.

When the Son of man shall come in his glory,...... And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them

one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my

Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.....For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me

drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and

ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an

hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed

thee?........And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you,

Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire......

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying.........Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Individual/Collective:◦ Death deeply personal, yes; but

also embodies the story of the Church.

◦ Transience of our life; and all life. Symbolizes the whole system:

◦ Permeable nature of this world.◦ Microcosm of the struggle

between God and Satan.

What is sin?◦ Pride/greed/lust – about putting

yourself before others.

Purgatory & the social form of religion:◦ More than a ghoulish fantasy.