A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details The Ghost in Early Modern Protestant Culture: Shifting perceptions of the afterlife, 1450-1700. Amanda Jane McKeever University of Sussex Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Amanda Jane McKeever, 27/09/2010 Abstract University of Sussex, Amanda McKeever The Ghost in Early Modern Protestant Culture: Shifting perceptions of the afterlife, 1450-1700 My thesis seeks to address the continuity, change and the syncreticism of ideas regarding post-mortem existence in the wake of the Reformation. Prior to reform, the late Medieval world view of the afterlife was very straightforward. One either went to Heaven via Purgatory, or straight to Hell. In the exempla literature of the period, ghosts were seen to provide evidence of the purgatorial system. However, this doctrine was dismantled by reformers who rejected Purgatory wholesale. Reformers then put forth a multiplicity of eschatologies which included various strands of mortalism, none of which allowed for the possibility that the dead could return to the living. In theory therefore, the ghost should have disappeared from the mental landscape, yet it not only survived, but it thrived in Protestant culture. This raises three key questions which are absolutely central to this thesis. Firstly: by what mechanisms did commitment to ghosts continue in lay and elite discourses in early modern England, when religious authority denied the possibility of their existence? Secondly: what opportunities were there to incorporate ghosts into Anglican or wider Protestant belief? Finally: Why would many Protestant elites want to elide the doctrinal problem of their existence and assert that ghosts existed? The ghost must have served a purpose in a way that nothing else could. It is therefore the purpose of the thesis to examine the shifting role of the ghost in early modern Protestant England. Acknowledgements Firstly I wish to thank the AHRC for their generous funding, without which this thesis would not have been possible. Not only did they fund my MA and my DPhil, but they also awarded me a five month fellowship to the Kluge Centre, in the Library of Congress in Washington DC. I extend my thanks to all those in Washington, who made me very welcome. My time in the library there was invaluable and my findings form the central backbone of this work. I would also like to thank the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, who were also very helpful. I would like to acknowledge the Centre for Early Modern Studies at the University of Sussex, who welcomed a lone historian into the ranks. Their friendship and intellectual stimulation allowed me to feel part of something worthwhile, for which I thank them. Abi Shinn your generosity of heart, spirit and intellectual brilliance have been a joy. Onwards and upwards my friend. During my time at the University of Sussex, I have found the history faculty to be without fail, warm in welcome. Their patience and good humour have seen me through some of the tougher times of my academic life. Lucy Robinson has always provided good counsel and cheer. Sincere thanks go to Richard Whatmore for always having faith in me and encouraging me with endless patience and goodwill. A special mention must go to Claire Langhamer who gave me the chance to study history in the first place. Without Claire I most certainly would not have had to opportunity to pursue my love of history at any level. As you can see, I took that opportunity and ran with it. Huge gratitude goes of course to Rob Iliffe, my supervisor, who pushed me and then pushed me some more. Rob has been unfailingly generous with his time and his patience, even when I must have sorely tested the latter. Everything I want to say merely sounds trite, so I shall simply say a heartfelt „thank you‟. My family and friends have been brilliant. There‟s no room to mention you all, so I‟ll just say thank you all for having endless patience with my „nerdy‟ conversations, and my absence, particularly in the last difficult year. A special mention must go to Sammy and Freddy, who make me laugh daily and boss me about shamelessly. Finally Tony, your support, encouragement, patience and stoicism in the face of my academic absorption has been nothing short of amazing. You‟ve been a rock, a fortress and a place of silence in a chaotic storm. Thank you. I would like to dedicate this work with love to my grandparents Charles and Florence Rhodes, the best people you could ever meet. Table of Contents List of Figures piv Introduction: The Trials and Tribulations of the Early Modern 1 Protestant Ghost I: Historical approaches to the dead: the question of purpose in lay culture 6 II: The question of purpose in elite culture 23 III: Ghostly revelations 29 IV: The ghost story; from fact to fiction 36 Chapter 1: Purgatory, Pilgrimage and Penance: Pre-Reformation 39 relations with the dead 1100-1520 I: „Allas! Merci, Merci! Merci God almight!‟: Visiting the dead in Purgatory 45 II: „bi the dedes and be tha messe sall his penaunce be made lesse‟: 62 visitors from Purgatory. III: Monsters of Satan: Revenants in the local community 69 IV: Closing the Door on the Dead 74 Chapter Two: Purgatory, Mortalism and Psychopannychia; 77 The destination of the soul in reformed eschatology. I: Abolition: The Damning of Purgatory 84 II: Resolution? The Problem of Post-Mortem Destination 90 Chapter Three: Witches, Demons and Poltergeists: the influence of Protestant Eschatologies on the Ghost 1580-1650 110 I: The Demonisation of the Ghost: Catholic and Protestant Discourses 117 II: Appropriating the Ghost into the Witchcraft Narrative 136 III: The Separation of the Witch and the Ghost 147 Chapter 4: Mortalism, Sadducism and the Dead: 158 The resurgence of mortalist arguments 1641-1659 I: Mortalism, Sadducism and the Dead : 163 the resurgence of mortalist arguments in the 1640‟s II: Hobbes and Milton in the 1650‟s: Thnetopsychism Reasserted 172 III: The Counter-Attack on the Mortalist Heresy in the1650‟s: 177 The Resurrection of the Ghost by Henry More Chapter 5: “Matters of fact well proved, ought not to be denied”: 186 New Discourse on the Protestant ghost, 1660-1700 I: Palpable Experience: Joseph Glanvill and the New Empiricism 193 II: The Collating of Evidence: The New exempla of Thomas Bromhall, 203 Nathaniel Crouch and George Sinclair III: “Abominable cheats and impostures”: The Problems of Evidence 218 IV: The Resurrection and the Recycling of the Protestant Dead 228 Chapter 6: From Fact to Fiction: The Rise of the Ghost Story 238 I: “Is‟t Thus You Squander Time?”: Liminalities of Time and Space 246 in the Ghost Story II: „Almighty vengeance slacks not its dread arme‟: Crime and 255 Punishment in the Ghost Story III: „It is a most strange and terrible, yet true Relation‟: 264 The Language of Truth and the Foundation of the Ghost Story Conclusion 273 Bibliography 277 List of Figures 1. P46: Thomas Carve, „St.Patrick‟s Purgatory, Lough Derg, Ireland‟, Lyra; sive Anacephalaeosis Hibernica (Sulzbach, 1666). 2. P52: „The Weighing of Souls‟, carving from a door frame, Mont St. Michel, France, 14thC. 3. P53: „The Battle for the Soul‟, carving from a door frame, Mont St. Michel, France, 14thC. 4. P54: „The General Resurrection‟, wall paining from Bayeaux Cathedral, 14thc (restored). 5. P58: „Purgatory‟, from Lancing, Richard. The Dante Encyclopaedia. London: Garland, 2000. Illustration by Robert Turner. 6. P59: „The Last Five Temptations‟, woodcut from a german xylographic block. Book edition of Ars Moriendi (Augsburg, 1465). 7. P60: Hieronymus Bosch, Seven Deadly Sins. c.1480. 8. P61: „The punishment for the sin of pride in Purgatory‟, a French woodcut published by Antoine Vérard for André Bocard (Paris, 1453). 9. P68: „Orchestra of the Dead‟, woodcut by Michael Wolmegut, from Hartmann Schedel. Liber Chronicum. (Nuremburg, 1493). 10. P102: „Lazarus and Dives in Abraham‟s Bosom‟, Folio 78, Codex Aureus of Echternach, 11thc. (Nuremburg National Museum, Hs.156142). 11. P103: Detail from „Lazarus and Dives in Abraham‟s Bosom‟, Folio 78, Codex Aureus of Echternach, 11thC. (Nuremburg National Museum, Hs.156142. 12. P107: „Lazarus in Abraham‟s Bosom‟, window from Bourges Cathedral, c.13thC. 13. P108: „Abraham‟s Bosom‟, window detail from St.Neots Church, Cornwall, c.16th C. 14. P154: Anon, News from puddle-dock in London (London, 1674). The cross on the pamphlet was supposed to act as a talisman for the reader. 15. P166: Frontispiece, Richard Overton, Mans Mortalitie (Amsterdam, 1644). 16. P195: Frontispiece, Joseph Glanvill, A Blow at Modern Sadducism (London, 1668). 17. P205:Frontispiece, Thomas Bromhall, An History of Apparitions (London, 1658). 18. P215: Frontispiece, Nathaniel Crouch, The Kingdom of Darkness (London, 1688). 19. P216: Woodcut of Ann Bodenham, Crouch, The Kingdom of Darkness, p11. 20. P219: Frontispiece, Richard Bovet, Pandæmonium, or the Devil’s Cloyster (London, 1684). 21. P227: „Geometrical configuration of the elements of the soul‟, Thomas Wadsworth, Antipsychothanasia (London, 1670).