An Analysis of Investment in Parish Church Interiors in Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire
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THE ‘BEAUTY OF HOLINESS’ REVISITED: AN ANALYSIS OF INVESTMENT IN PARISH CHURCH INTERIORS IN DORSET, SOMERSET, AND WILTSHIRE, 1560-1640. by SUSAN MARY ORLIK A thesis submitted to the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of History School of History and Cultures College of Arts and Law University of Birmingham June 2018. University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract This analysis of the extant material evidence of the interiors of parish churches in Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, 1560 -1640, challenges traditional assumptions about who decorated them, and what motivated them. Local studies show that what might appear as compliance to externally imposed requirements could also be a more complex story of parochial priorities and of local catalysts; some radical changes could appear traditional. Whilst donors’ religious and secular motives were often interwoven, this study will show that there was no clear alignment between confessional positions and decoration, and that Protestantism continued to embrace the visual in parish churches. It will be argued that the enhancing of churches predated the 1630s, and anything that could be called Laudian. It is a central argument that Laudian should not be used as the reference point for church decoration, when Protestants of many hues, and some of no evidenced confessional position, were materialising ‘the beauty of holiness’. In displaying layered identities, it will be shown that investors used similar images in domestic and public spaces. It will bring a new analysis of the furniture, fittings and fabric of parish churches which develops an understanding of the changed worshipping experience in those eighty years. Acknowledgements In the course of this study, many debts have been incurred which I can never redeem. It is not just a duty, but a pleasure to acknowledge those debts, however inadequately. My first and overriding debt is to my two supervisors, Dr Tara Hamling, and Dr Jonathan Willis. They have proved to be just how other academics and fellow doctoral researchers described them to me, ‘the dream ticket’. Their stimulating, challenging rigour has been matched by their expertise and their scholarship. Their support and generosity of spirit have been exceptional. They have been unfailingly inspiring teachers and researchers throughout the six years. They have done their best with me. I take responsibility for all else. The wider academic community in the History Department at the University of Birmingham has proved a stimulating environment, through for example the regular CREMS seminars. I am grateful in particular to fellow doctoral students Dr Rosemary Keep and Sophie Cope who have talked to me about areas of intersection between their work and mine. Dr Sylvia Gill has generously shared her expertise. Dr Stephanie Appleton generously gave her time to teach me palaeography, as well as offering me encouragement over many years. Through the Warwick Parish Symposia, I met Dr John Reeks, whose study of Somerset Churchwardens’ accounts has proved fascinating. His patience in discussing his thesis with me has been consistently supportive. There I also met Dr Margaret Bullett, and subsequently discussed her significant work on Pennine churches. The staff at my own libraries at the University of Birmingham have proved throughout my MA and this study to be as helpful and painstaking as anyone could hope for. At the British Library, the Dorset History Centre, the Somerset Heritage Centre and the Swindon and Wiltshire History Centre, the archivists and library staff have been consistently helpful and forbearing as I navigated through my archival novitiate. Through the Ecclesiological Society I met Trevor Cooper, the President, and Dr Valerie Hitchman, the former Secretary. Trevor’s shared passion for churches, a joint field day in Sussex, and his scholarly generosity and encouragement have been such a great blessing throughout. Valerie has equally generously shared her extensive knowledge and expertise on churchwardens’ accounts, and she has encouraged me through her example and her friendship. Through the Iconophobia Conference at The Shakespeare Institute, I met Professor Ian Green, who generously offered to share a common interest in Dorset churches, and invited me to spend a day discussing his photographs of them. Julie Woolridge has enabled her husband, Jerry Woolridge, to meet and work with me on improving my amateur photographs; Jerry’s magical skills as a photographer have proved an exceptional gift in editing. Robert Knaggs and Rod Hall have kept the digital hardware world going for me, surely one of their dinosaurian clients. On another practical level, Lisa Fisher has preserved my energy by valiantly helping me to keep my study in good order. In visiting over 170 parish churches, I have incurred many debts. The kindness of the clergy, the keyholders, and the churchwardens has been evident in arranging access to the many churches which now sadly have to be locked. Today’s churchwardens have taken up the baton of their sixteenth and seventeenth century predecessors, and share similar challenges to them: the heavy burden of constant maintenance of the fabric of these buildings, and the balancing of their accounts. These are the unsung heroes of our churches. Many friends and neighbours have listened patiently while I described this study. My women’s group, ‘Monstrous Regiment’, and my Book Club have learnt more about parish churches than they may have wanted to. I owe my friend, Martina Wright, a special debt, for her encouragement to start this study after my MA, and her sustained and constant support during it. To Miranda Baretto, I owe a large debt as she has kept me going in so many different ways over six years. My oldest friend, Sarah Hayward, who, with me, was inspired by our early modern History tutor, Conrad Russell, at Bedford College, University of London, visited some churches with me before her tragic death. My extended family here in England, in Canada, and in Germany, have also shown a great interest in this study, and their generous encouragement has sustained me through it. Alice and Isabel Orlik have not only travelled along their own learning journey in secondary school, parallel to my learning journey, but with their patient father, Anthony, have been able, at the knowing flick of a button, to end hours of frustration by a digital novice. I can never repay the debts that I owe to all of these generous people. Michael Orlik, whose interests as a historian are more catholic than mine, deserves the final acknowledgement. He has proved to be not just a field trip companion. He has made this literal and metaphorical journey possible, not just by carrying an unequal share of the domestic daily round, but also by his constant support and interest. Like many of the investors in the parish churches studied, he has exceeded compliance with requirements, in his case with the Book of Common Prayer’s required promise ‘for better, for worse’. In exceeding compliance, he has made the ‘worse’ so much better; and made this thesis possible. I hope by dedicating it to Michael, that he will accept it as a small display of my gratitude for the generous investment that he has made into the study of these wonderful churches, these treasure houses of England. Abstract Acknowledgements Table of contents List of diagrams and tables List of abbreviations and notes Chapter 1 Introduction: Approaching the Early Modern Parish Church Page 1 Aims 2 Chronology and Geography 5 Context 8 Historiography i Parish churches 14 ii Material Culture 16 iii Conformity and orthodoxy 26 iv Laudians and Puritans 30 v ‘Religious’ and ‘secular’ identities 42 vi Local contexts 45 Methodology and Sources 48 Thesis Structure 56 Chapter 2 Seating and the Use of Space 60 Introduction 60 Memory and Space 64 Radical Change in the Use of Space for Seating 76 Decoration and Networks 91 Taking Seating and the Use of Space to a New Level 99 Conclusion 113 Chapter 3 Pulpits and lines of sight 115 Introduction 115 Beyond Compliance with the Canonical Requirements 121 Decoration and Confessional Alignment 143 Inscriptions as Expressions of Identity and as Agents in Identity Formation 161 Conclusion 171 Chapter 4 Thresholds and Access 173 Introduction 173 Doors: ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ 174 Windows: ‘the brightness of the Gospell’. 183 Ceilings: ‘Glory to God in the highest.’ 188 Screens: ‘Feare God. Honour the King’. 206 Conclusion 225 Chapter 5 Fonts, Communion Rails, and Communion Tables: Sacramental Furniture and Fittings. 227 Introduction 227 Fonts: ‘ancient usual places. 229 Communion Rails: ‘repaire unto the rayless’. 239 Communion Tables: Orientation Location and Symbolism 257 Conclusion 287 Chapter 6 Walls: ‘edification’, ‘comely ornament and demonstration’ 289 Introduction 289 ‘Whitelyning’ the Church: practical expediency? 291 Royal Arms: ‘Let every soule be subject unto higher power’. 294 The Decalogue: ‘For there is no power but of God’. 300 Other Wall Texts and Images: ‘the beauty of holiness’. 321 Conclusion 346 Chapter 7 Conclusion: Leaving the Early Modern Parish Church 348 Appendix 1 List of surveyed churches 365 Bibliography 370 In separate volume Appendix 2 List of figures Figures List of Diagrams and Tables Diagram 1. a Diagrammatic map showing the churches surveyed in Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire. Page 50 Diagram 2. a Diagram of a T-shape kirk in Scotland after the Reformation.