Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion, and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England

by David Cressy

Overview

From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the lifecycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the Protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration.

Each of the major rituals was potentially an arena for argument, ambiguity, and dissent. Ideally, as classic rites of passage, these ceremonies worked to bring people together. But they also set up traps into which people could stumble, and tests which not everybody could pass. In practice, ritual performance revealed frictions and fractures that everyday local discourse attempted to hide or to heal.
Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and remaking of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly brings to life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198201687
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/19/1997
Pages:	658
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.49(h) x 1.63(d)
Lexile:	1590L (what's this?)

About the Author

David Cressy is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach. His recent books include Religion and Society in Early Modern England and Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England.

Table of Contents

BIRTH1. Childbed Mysteries: God's Babies: The Spiritual Construction of Childbirth; Comforts for Childbearing Women; Suffering and Death; The Archers: A Family History2. The Management of Childbirth: Books for the Birth of Mankind; Signs of Conception; Care of the Expectant Mother; Abortion; Preparations for the Birth Room3. Childbed Attendants: Reputable Midwives; Midwives and Ministers; Midwives in Action; Bastard Births4. Mother and Child: The Woman in the Straw; Childbed Gossips; The Blessings of the Breast; The Wetnurse and the MartyrBAPTISM5. Baptism as Sacrament and Drama: Questions of Contention; Timing, Refusal and Neglect; Liturgy; Theology; Lost Souls; Baptism by Women6. Crosses in Baptism: The Sign of the Cross; Elements and Substances; Dipping and Sprinkling; Fonts and Basins7. The People with the Children: Parents and Godparents; Naming the Child; Chrisom Cloths and Christening Sheets; Christening Cheer8. Changes and Challenges: Baptism in Times of Distraction, 1642-1660; Baptism after the Restoration; The Rise of Private BaptismCHURCHING9. Purification, Thanksgiving, and the Churching of Women: Viewpoints; Gossippings; Green Women; Blessing and Cleansing; Complaints and Objections; Rates and Fees; Cases and Collisions; Decent Veils; "Julia's Churching"; Churching continued, 1645-1700; Multiple MeaningsCOURTSHIP10. Courtship and the Making of Marriage: Courtship Narratives; Making a Match; Choice and Consent; Mutual Love and Good Liking; Gifts and Tokens11. Espousals, Betrothals and Contracts: Cementing an Engagement; Carnal KnowledgeMARRIAGE12. Holy Matrimony: Transformations; Problems and Questions; God's Weddings13. Prohibitions and Impediments: Forbidden Seasons; Banns and Licences; Impediments; Prohibited Degrees; Religious Restrictions14. Clandestine and Irregular Marriages: Canonical Hours; Clandestine Weddings; "Living together as man and wife"; After the Restoration15. Nuptial Vows: The Solemnization of Matrimony; Giving the Bride; The Ring in Marriage; The Accustomed Duty16. Wedding Celebrations: Festive Excess; Hymen's Revels; Wedding Gear; Bridal Flowers; Giving and Bidding; Bridal Processions; Acts of Piety and Mirth; Possets and StockingsDEATH17. Death Comes for All: Body and Soul; Ars Moriendi; Grief18. Ritual and Reformation: The Order for Burial of the Dead; Persistent Tradition; Puritan Criticism; Ceremonial Discipline; The War on Pomp; Revolution and Restoration19. Funerals and Burials: For Whom the Bell Tolls; Winding and Watching; Furnishings and Equipment; Funeral Processions; Mourning Black; Doles and Dinners; The Triumph of Pomp20. The Geography of Interment: Fees and Dues; Places of Honour; The Dormitory of Christians; Markers and MemorialsConclusion: Centres and Peripheries; Public and Private; Social and Spiritual; Stories within Stories; Men and women; Problems and changes; Reformation, Revolution and RestorationIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Provide[s] current scholarly insights into early modern England....Cressy's study of the life style in Tudor-Stuart England should be read by all serious students of the period interested in history from the bottom up. This work remains entertaining while depicting the pace of social change in the ordinary activities of real people and the divisive social issues that caused conflict among the 16th- and 17th-century English. Cressy provides solid evidence of the key importance ritual played as society coped with implementing the Reformation, and he demonstrates his scholarly depth by a judicious recognition of the diversity of experiences and viewpoints found in early modern England."—Library Journal

"[A] remarkable book....Highly recommended."—CHOICE

"A masterly summary of the ways in which these past people are the same as us and separated from us..."—The Observer Review

"David Cressy has given us a blockbuster, which immediately becomes the staple work upon its subject. Birth, Marriage, and Death is a massive compendium of information, showing what persisted and what altered in the rites associated with the life cycle and their social setting between 1540 and 1700...[I]ts material is so extensive and often so novel in itself that it opens a door on a lost world of experience, dispelling popular myths and removing areas of scholarly ignorance."—History

"In this richly detailed and beautifully written study, Cressy examines the life-cycle religious rituals against the backdrop of the broader social and cultural tensions transforming England in early modern times....The work soars in its thorough explanation of each ritual, unique cases, and changing practice over time....The volume will remain the essential beginning point for all future study of life-cycle rituals. It is useful for undergraduates and fundamental for all serious students and scholars."—Religious Studies Review

"David Cressy's latest publication is characteristically well researched and beautifully written....Like all major historical works, this book in the full sense opens up a vast subject and deliberately engenders further discussion."—The Historian

"Great book...[U]seful across the field...[A] real masterpiece."—Dr. Susan Wabuda, Fordham University

"His book, at once scholarly and accessible, will be the essential point of departure for all subsequent scholars."—Albion

"[A] well-organized and readable presentation of prodigious amounts of material....The author also brings to his work thoughtful analysis of the evidence and a refreshing skepticism about historical orthodoxies. Cressy has much to teach historians and others interested not only in death but in all the life-cycle rituals of early modern England."—Death Studies

"Cressy...gives us in Birth, Marriage, and Death another, even more thoroughly researched work, based upon an astounding number of sources, rich in detail but highly readable."—Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance

"Cressy's book should long serve the specialist as a basic source for the history of ritual, and of popular belief, in early modern England. Its remarkably reasonable pricing, on which the publisher should be congratualated, will surely facilitate that prospect."—Sixteenth Century Journal

"Cressy brings together a great deal of useful information about the rites and rituals surrounding birth, marriage, and death...It is a treasure trove of anecdotes and examples..."—The Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Cressy has produced a most ambitious textbook, based on a huge mass of original material and covering an equally huge field...David Cressy has put us all in his debt by this massive accumulation of data."—William and Mary Quarterly

"[T]his is a rich and stimulating book which marks an important step forward in our understanding of the cultural and social impact of the English Reformation."—Renaissance Quarterly

"This superb book has been well over a decade in the making....David Cressy's latest publication is characteristically well researched and beautifully written....[A] scholarly, wide-ranging, and deeply humane book."—The Historian

From the Publisher