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Oxford Brookes University – Research RADA R Oxford Brookes University – Research Archive and Digital Asset Repository (RADAR) Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy may be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. No quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. You must obtain permission for any other use of this thesis. Copies of this thesis may not be sold or offered to anyone in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright owner(s). When referring to this work, the full bibliographic details must be given as follows: Mayhew, J. (2007). English Godly Art of Dying Manuals, c. 1590-1625. PhD thesis. Oxford Brookes University. www.brookes.ac.uk/go/radar Directorate of Learning Resources English Godly Art of Dying Manuals, c. 1590-1625 Submitted by Jenny Mayhew for the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy Oxford Brookes University, July 2007 'English Godly Art of Dying Manuals, c. 1590-16251 Jenny Mayhew, Oxford Brookes University, 2007 ABSTRACT Five examplesof English Art of Dying literature from the period 1590-1625are examinedin this thesis. The rhetorical strategiesof thesetexts are explored in detail, to demonstratethe meansby which an activity, of deathpreparation, and a concept,of 'good' or 'godly' dying, are invented and made compelling to readers. An introductory chapter discussesthe problems of classifying works in the Art of Dying genre,and the limitations of a strictly historical mode of analysis. Reasonsare given for the decision to use rhetorical theory as a central analytical framework. The first chapterexamines an exemplary deathbednarrative. Stubbes'portrayal of his dying in Christal Glasse(159 1) helps to Protestantdiscipline wife -4 establisha of 'godly' dying, which combineselements of exemplary martyrdom with an older tradition of diabolic deathbeddrama. The mirror image of Stubbes' title indicatesthat godly Art of Dying literature is intendedto be used for self-reflection and imitation. In the central three chapters,the Art of Dying is consideredas a godly regimen, createdand conductedthrough printed manuals.Godly divines William Perkins, Nicholas Byfield and SamuelCrooke use various rhetorical methodsto incite, regulate and suppressreaders' emotions regarding the prospectof death. A final chapterreturns to the use of personal examplesin deathpreparation literature. Ward's Faith in Death (1622) collates the dying words of martyrs from Foxe's Acts and Monumentsto invite readers' active contemplation of their own deaths.With 'lively' rhetoric, this text narrows the gap betweencelebrated and ordinary believers. It presentsgodly dying as an energetic,vocal, demonstrativeact of testimony. In conclusion, the thesis finds that godly Art of Dying literature directs the way readersimagine death and so prompts active, emotional and behaviouralresponses. Introduction (a) The Art Dying Genre 2 of ............................................................... (b) Theoretical Perspectives 15 ................................................................. (c) The Art Dying Art Rhetoric 38 of and the of ............................................ 1. Philip Stubbes'A Christal Glasse(1591): An Exemplary Death 44 ......................... (a) Exemplifying the Art Dying 46 of ......................................................... (b) Final Struggle 52 ............................................................................ (c) Fellowship Deathbed 58 at the ............................................................. 2. William Perkins'A Salvefor Sicke Man (1595): Godly Rhetoric 70 a .............................. (a) Prescribing to Godly 71 the ................................................................. (b) Teaching Readersto Judge 75 ............................................................. (c) Good Bad Deaths 87 and ......................................................................... 3. Nicholas Byfield's The Curefor Feare (1618): Regulating Fear 99 the ofDeath .......... (a) The Diagnosis Fear 101 of ................................................... ............ (b) A Curative Method 105 ........................... ......................................... 4. Samuel Crooke's Death Subdued (1619): The Art Dying Mental Combat 125 of as .... (a) A Printed MementoMori 125 ........................................................... (b) The Exercise Daily Dying 137 of ...................................................... 5. Samuel Ward's The Life Faith in Death (1622): Ordinary Martyrdom 147 of ........... (a) Martyrs Models for Imitation 149 as ...................................................... (b) The Drama Dying 155 of .................................................................... (c) Last Words Actions 160 and ................................................................ Conclusion 182 ........................................................................................... References 188 ............................................................................................. I introduction (a) The Art of Dying Genre This thesis examinesa stagein the literary developmentof a Christian tradition known from its medieval inscription onwards asArs Moriendi or the Art of Dying. To use a definite article in this phraserisks according 'the' Art a unique statusthat must be qualified at the outset. Christianity provides one of many possible 'arts' of death preparation,and has no exclusive claim on the effort to prescribe,or impart moral value to, the behaviour of the dying. ' With this proviso, Art of Dying literature may be conveniently, and broadly, defined as a genre of prescriptive writing popular in Christian Europe whose explicit purposewas to urge the living to preparefor death.The genre is named after an anonymousLatin text of the fifteenth century, the Speculum,or Tractatus ards bene moriendi.2 This tract circulated in abridged form as a seriesof printed woodcuts and accompanyingmottos, and becamefamiliar in England with Caxton's translation of 1490, TheArte and Crafte to Knowe Well to Dye, known alternatively as The Boke of the crafte ofdyenge. Earlier roots have been identified in the Catholic Church's "Office for the Visitation of the Sick", which gave rise in the early fifteenth century to Jeande Gerson's De arte morlendi, a section of that author's Opus Tripartitum (c. 1408). Following the practice of other scholars,I use the capitalisedLatin term Ars Moriendi to refer to editions, abridgementsand translationsof the anonymous fifteenth century Latin tract; and the collective term arles moriendi to refer more broadly to any written works of Christian instruction on deathpreparation. Even this brief outline of literary origins demonstratesthat the Art of Dying genre has no single, authoritative primogenitor, but is rather a particular idea with various kinds and instancesof written expression.To acknowledgeits formal and modal variation, I will at times describethe Art as a practice and tradition, as well as a 'genre'. My central intention, however, is to show that Art of Dying books are products of deliberate,calculated rhetorical effort: they are not inevitable elementsof cultural tradition that emergeof their own accord from historical circumstances.Each of the works that comprise the Art has been crafted and 'Non-Western arts of dying are explored in StanislavGrof, Books ofthe Dead. Manualsfor Living and Dying (London: Thamesand Hudston, 1994),p. 339. 2 Carlos Eire, "Ars Moriendi, " in The WestminsterDictionary of Christian Spirituality, ed. Gordon S. Wakefield (Philadelphia: WestminsterPress, 1983), 21-2. Histories of the genre are also provided in Nancy Lee Beaty, The Craft ofLying. A Study in the Literary Tradition ofthe Ars Moriendi in England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970); Betty Ann Doebler, "RootedSorrow ".- Dying in Early Modern England (London and Cranbury N. J.: AssociatedUniversity Press, 1994); Sister Mary O'Connor, TheArt ofDying Well (New York: Columbia University Press,1942). 2 promoted by an individual author to servehis ideological aims and his readers' interests.The Art of Dying is not merely customary in a Christian society, but is custornisedby its creators and proponentsfor specific audiences.It is only by understandingthe meansand motives of its rhetorical construction that we can fully evaluatethe significance of changesin the genre. My selecteddates (c. 1590-1625)reflect an increasein English Art of Dying publications at a time of intensified religious book publishing. The five works I have selected experimentwith rhetorical tools and print forms found in other types of moral conduct literature of the period.3 With an emphasison literary craft, this study takes a particular interest in the persuasivestrategies and affective mechanicsused in Art of Dying publications during a productive literary era. Theserhetorical mechanicsmerit attention for their own sake, I contend: they do not necessarilyneed to be treated as evidenceof broader intellectual developmentssuch as the consequencesof the Reformation or the changing nature of early modem subjectivity. My focus on persuasivetactics is prompted by the question of how a peculiarly Christian idea, that to die 'well' requires a personto hold certain unshakeable beliefs regarding the need for 'salvation', could be made so attractive to readersthat several books on the sametheme were published in severaleditions in the late sixteenth and early
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