THE CONCEPT OF PURGATORY IN ENGLAND Chase E. Machen, M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2010 APPROVED: Laura I. Stern, Major Professor Richard M. Golden, Committee Member Christopher Fuhrmann, Committee Member Randolph B. Campbell, Committee Member Robert K. Upchurch, Committee Member Richard B. McCaslin, Chair, Department of History James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Machen, Chase E. The Concept of Purgatory in England. Doctor of Philosophy (History), August 2010, 248 pp., appendices, bibliography, 216 titles. It is not the purpose of this dissertation to present a history of Purgatory; rather, it is to show through the history the influence of purgatorial doctrine on the English lay community and the need of that community for this doctrine. Having established the importance this doctrine held for so many in England, with an examination of the chantry institution in England, this study then examines how this doctrine was stripped away from the laity by political and religious reformers during the sixteenth century. Purgatorial belief was adversely affected when chantries were closed in execution of the chantry acts under Henry VIII and Edward VI. These chantries were vital to the laity and not moribund institutions. Purgatorial doctrine greatly influenced the development and concept of the medieval English community. Always seen to be tightly knit, this community had a transgenerational quality, a spiritual and congregational quality, and a quality extending beyond the grave. The Catholic church was central to this definition of community, distributing apotropaic powers, enhancing the congregational aspects, and brokering the relationship with the dead. The elements of the Roman liturgy were essential to community cohesiveness, as were the material and ritual supports for this liturgy. The need of the community for purgatorial doctrine shaped and popularized this doctrine Next, an analysis of surviving and resurging elements of expiatory rites is explored; ritual, especially that surrounding death, as well as the relationship with the dead, were sorely missed when stripped away through political actions linked to Protestant belief. This deficiency of ritual aspects within the emerging Protestant religion became evident in further years as some of the same customs and rituals that were considered anathema by Protestants slowly crept back into the Protestant liturgy in an attempt to restore the relationship between the living and the dead. Strong evidence of this is provided through sixteenth to nineteenth century death eulogies, surviving rites of expiation, as well as lay essays and popular literature discussing the phenomenon called the Sin-Eater. Copyright 2010 by Chase E. Machen ii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................1 II. INTERACTION OF RITUAL AND MYTH WITHIN SOCIETY…….……….....6 III. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND PURGATORY……………………………..26 IV. EARLY DISCUSSIONS TO THE LATE EIGHTH CENTURY……..………..43 V. ANGLO-SAXON PENITENTIALS……………………………………………...73 VI. ENGLISH CHANTRY AND CULTURE……………………………………….111 VII. ENGLISH DISSOLUTION: THE TRAGIC CHARACTER OF THE HENRICIAN AND EDWARDIAN CHANTRY DISSOLUTIONS………..….134 VIII. ESCHATOLOGICAL DISPUTATION……………………….………………..156 IX. THE SIN-EATER…………………………………………………………….…194 X. CONCLUSION………………………………………………….………………209 APPENDICES…………………………………………………………………….…..223 BIBLIOGRAPHY…….…………………..……………………………………………231 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The notion of purgatory or a third place had great and direct impact on the way people thought because this third place was the immediate destination of the soul after death in the minds of most Christians. People imagined at death that this would be the next form of being. They also imagined the dead to be held in this state until last judgment, some sort of transitory state in which the dead could be aided. Their direct relationship with purgatory and those held in purgatory was an important element of religious and community life. The vitality of traditional religious life in medieval England was linked with the doctrine of purgatory. The history of Purgatorial doctrine has been examined by theological and secular historians alike. These discussions have been ongoing since well before the Reformation and continue to attract the attention of modern Reformation scholars. It is not the purpose of this dissertation to present a history of purgatory; rather, it is to show through the history the influence of purgatorial doctrine on the English lay community and the need of that community for this doctrine. Purgatorial doctrine greatly influenced the development and concept of the medieval English community. Always seen to be tightly knit, this community had 1 a transgenerational quality, a spiritual and congregational quality, and a quality extending beyond the grave. The Catholic church was central to this definition of community, distributing apotropaic powers, enhancing the congregational aspects, and brokering the relationship with the dead. The elements of the Roman liturgy were essential to community cohesiveness, as were the material and ritual supports for this liturgy. The need of the community for purgatorial doctrine shaped and popularized this doctrine. The doctrine of purgatory is a Roman liturgical practice but did not find its origins in this liturgy. Instead, this doctrine emerged out of cultural traditions of the Indo-European world well before the advent of Christianity. Therefore, an examination into the roots of the purgatorial concept via pagan influences and theological discussions by early church fathers provides a clear understanding of the early church’s acceptance of this belief. The idea of a third place started mainly from the ancient Greeks concepts of the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. This doctrine of the immortality of the soul was linked with correct moral behavior and the shunning of material needs, and thus the need for purification. The nascent Catholic church imbibed and developed these concepts of the afterlife, which fit so well with descriptions of the apocalypse. Concepts of an afterlife in which the supplications of those living might assist those dead were long held by the early Christian church. Prayers for the dead are evident in the many of the earliest writings of the early church. While no state or condition of purgatory was ever mentioned by the early Church Fathers, the practice of 2 praying for the dead leads one to ask what were they praying for if not for their God to have mercy on those souls already dead. These concepts of the afterlife were introduced into England during its first conversion between the third and fourth centuries C.E. 1 They remained a fixture of the Christian communities in England throughout its evolving inculturation process. The penitential and sacramental systems that developed during the Anglo- Saxon period of England mirrored and reinforced the Anglo-Saxon Dooms,2 were basic to this society, and revolved around penance for this world and for the next. This penitential system was Germanized, dummied down and inserted into an even more decayed Carolingian church, where a very low form of ledger book Christianity was popularized. The sacramental and penitential systems spread through Cluniac monasteries that offered perpetual prayers for the dead to those who contributed to the well being of the monasteries. The taking of sacraments came to be seen as a way to help the dead, a ‘works’ that shortened the time of purgatory, boosting the sacramental system. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries purgatory formed a central doctrine of the church and one that reinforced and was reinforced by the sacramental system. The English community seems to have had a special place in its heart for purgatory. Private chapels, or chantries, to carry on purgatorial practices, were popular everywhere, but particularly in England. When Henry VIII and Edward VI 1 Adrian Fortescue, The Mass: A study of the Roman Liturgy, eds. Bernard Ward and Herbert Thurston (New York: Preserving Christian Publications, 2007). 2 Customary law set forth by the Anglo-Saxon kings prior to the Norman invasion (ca. 560 BCE to 975 BCE). 3 dissolved the chantries, they attempted to extinguish a system that was vital to the community but dependent on Rome. They made a special mission of collecting and disposing of relics and ending the material culture that surrounded and supported the doctrine of purgatory. However, the concern for the dead was vital to the English community; purgatory began to reassert itself in other forms almost as soon as it was extinguished. It is not the intention of this study to prove or disprove the “truth” of any purgatorial doctrine, but rather to examine why the early church believed in this phenomenon and how such a belief came to be accepted by so many in England. Having established the importance this doctrine held for so many in England, with an examination of the chantry institution in England, this study then examines how this doctrine was stripped away from the laity by political and religious reformers during the sixteenth century. Purgatorial belief was adversely affected when chantries were closed in execution of the chantry acts under Henry VIII and Edward VI. These chantries were vital to the laity and not moribund institutions. Next, an analysis of surviving and resurging elements