From the time of the Reformation in England Anglo-vatican relations have typically been seen as a long history of unending antagonism. It is not common knowledge that in the period between 1846 and 1851 there was a notable, if temporary, lull in this animosity and even talk of establishing full diplomatic relations. This thesis aims to account for this thaw in tensions and to analyse the British response to the early 'liberal' years of Pope Pius IX, not only looking at government policy but also the attitude of the British public towards the new Pope. In addition, this study sets out not only to look at individual issues, such as the Risorgimento, the history of the Roman Catholic Church in England and the Irish question, but seeks to explain the interplay between them in order to come to a fuller understanding of British policy. This thesis reveals that British policy was based on the need to achieve a number of goals, such as a peaceful solution to the political crisis in the Italian peninsula and the curbing of the Irish agitation, and that it was held that an enlightened Pope could help in the fulfilment of these aims. The effort to improve relations in the end failed as it was undermined by an overoptimistic assessment of the Pope's liberalism and failure of the British government to appreciate the depth of anti-Catholic opinion among the British public and their representatives in Parliament. The result was that this short thaw in relations came to an abrupt end.

The evidence for this thesis includes several hundred pew disputes heard before the church courts in the period c.1550-1700. The jurisdictions examined here include the dioceses of York, of Chester, of Coventry and Lichfield, and of London. These have been supplemented by churchwardens' accounts, parish registers and vestry minutes. These sources also often contained pew lists and plans that are analysed alongside rate assessments and other taxation records. This thesis investigates the relationship between church seating arrangements and the social hierarchy of local communities in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. It firstly, therefore, explores both legal and official views regarding church seating and status. Secondly, it examines the nature and chronology of conflict over pews, and the social profile of disputants. Thirdly, it explores popular perceptions of the social order through the analysis of the depositional evidence generated by pew disputes. Fourthly, the chronology of pew litigation is explored in the light of ecclesiastical policy and the reaction to these policies in the localities, particularly during the 1630s. Fifthly, the thesis considers the possibility that dispute was a function of the function implication of changing methods of pew allocation. Finally, through the consideration of the meaning of conflict over church seating as it erupted in the context of three parishes over a number of years, the role each of these themes played in helping to construct the local social order is analysed. The analysis of the records of pew disputes and of the politics of space in church here enables us to perceive more clearly how contemporaries attempted to negotiate their social roles across a complex web of intersecting and overlapping hierarchies and thereby become agents in the recreation of the local social order. Moreover, depositional evidence in particular suggests that status itself was a compound phenomenon that incorporated a number of factors including wealth, age, gender, reputation and officeholding.

This thesis investigates religious life among the clergy and laity in the diocese of Lichfield, 1603-1642, including the role of Puritans, Catholics and Church Papists. Nicholas Tyacke has maintained that the implementation of Laudianism in Charles I's reign proved contentious, an interpretation criticised by some historians who aver that the Church continued to maintain a 'middle way'. This study finds that the evidence from the diocese largely supports Tyacke's interpretation. Proto-Laudian reforms were implemented in the see some years before the Laudian ascendancy through the episcopates of Neile and Overall. Every bishop in the period who undertook a programme of reform met local hostility and indifference, and sometimes the opposition of his ecclesiastical and lay superiors. Every religious group underwent change and development. Puritans and Catholics pursued strategies for survival, supported by their respective religious networks. Official opposition often had the effect of strengthening their resolve and confirming them in their beliefs. Local conformists' commitment to the established Church deepened during this period. They respected the Church's role as the official purveyor of religion, morality and the ecclesiastical rites of passage, without evidencing much theological understanding. In the 1630s Bishop Wright oversaw the Laudian programme of sacramental, sacerdotal and liturgical reform, but his lack of organisation, zeal and commitment frustrated Charles, Laud and some local diocesan officials. The changes met resistance, which gathered strength with the collapse of the Personal Rule and manifested itself either in a desire to return to the pre-Laudian Church, or in its root and branch reform. The strength of an individual's anti-Catholicism indicated which religious solution s/he supported. When war came, for the most part Puritans predictably supported Parliament, but a number of moderate Puritans supported the King. Even among the 'godly' fraternity allegiance could sometimes be determined by a variety of considerations.

This work studies religious change through the archaeology of death and burial. In the period after the fall of Rome and before the Vikings, Scotland became a Christian society, but there are few historical documents to help understand how this happened. The process of conversion to Christianity in Scotland has long been a contentious issue, but until recent years, there was simply not enough reliable archaeological evidence to test the accepted narrative of conversion by missionaries from Ireland and Gaul. A number of key excavations over the last two decades have created the opportunity to reassess the evidence and test existing models. The earliest inhumation cemeteries in Scotland emerge in the period c. AD 400-650, and a large number of radiocarbon dates from these sites now provide a sturdy chronological framework for studying the effects of the conversion to Christianity. This is the first full-length study of the early medieval burial evidence from Scotland, and the first comprehensive revision of the archaeological evidence for early Christianity since the work of Charles Thomas in 1971. A review of the latest historical research suggests that Christianity arrived in Scotland from at least the 5th century AD, which coincides with the emergence of inhumation cemeteries. In order to contextualise this material, a database of all burial evidence from Scotland in the first millennium AD was constructed to trace changes in ritual practice over the long term. A multiscalar analysis of this data – from individual graves, to ‘family plots’, to entire cemeteries – revealed new insights into funerary rituals and significant corrections of previous studies. Covering all of Scotland but keeping this in its wider northwestern European context, the theoretical framework adopted here follows the latest research on Anglo-Saxon England and early medieval Ireland, and analyses the material for what it can tell us about people’s memories, hopes and fears rather than the usual political and economic narratives. The Scottish burial evidence takes on a wide variety of forms, from long cists and log coffins to square barrows and cairns, generally placed away from settlement. New radiocarbon dates show conclusively that these burial rites predate Christianity in Scotland, and this study includes a crucial new review of pre-Christian funerary practices. Sequences of radiocarbon-dated burials from early Christian sites of the 5-7th centuries provide new evidence for what can and cannot be construed as a ‘Christian’ burial. Throughout the radical changes taking place in this period, including the origins of the Picts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons, funerary rituals helped create new social relationships, and mediated the tensions these could create, during times of upheaval. Rather than reflecting the arrival of Christianity, this complex network of social practices reveals the way Christianity was accommodated within Iron Age societies, and the way it was continually reinvented throughout the early medieval period into the Viking Age. In adapting the new religion to existing lifeways, Christianity itself was ‘converted’, and this is the key to understanding changes in the archaeological record in Scotland and beyond. The Scottish evidence should now be seen as a crucial dataset for the study of the wider transformations of the post-Roman world. Recommendations for further research were proposed, including the need to expand research beyond the modern Scottish border. To promote continuing research, the burial database will be made available online.

The bishops of the 11th-14th centuries were key figures both within the church hierarchy and within state organisation across Europe. In addition to being the primary religious authorities within their dioceses they were also local or national potentates in their own right, judges, feudal lords, warriors and advisers to kings and other rulers. And yet their nature and extent of their local power is often elusive. Moreover the nature of their power changed over time making their role and their authority extremely fluid. One can hardly study the history of the medieval church without understanding how their control was exercised in the diocese, and in the city. This thesis will assess the differences, the shift and the changes in the power of the bishop in the city and the diocese of Lincoln and Cremona from mid 11th century to mid 14th century. Understanding how their power and their role changed in time is important to understand the role of the church and medieval society as a whole. Lincoln, with the biggest medieval diocese in England and with its unique series of bishops such as Hugh of Wells, Hugh of Avalon, Robert Grosseteste and Oliver Sutton, represents a substantial example to study in order to understand why and how the power of the bishop changed. On the other hand Cremona, with its unique political role during the central medieval centuries and with bishops of the calibre of Oberto and Sicardo, epitomizes the struggle for power and authority the bishops had to face in a communal Italian city. The comparison between the bishop’s powers offers us similarities and the differences between the roles and functions of the prelates in the two cities, as indicated by the available evidence and by the questions asked by historians. This study allows me to suggest a broader and more satisfying picture. The thesis uses a series of sources ranging from the bishops’ records, registers, and Episcopal Acta, manuscript and parchment sources, the Latin chronicles of the period, as well as architectural evidence.

No description available.

A number of research projects on migration flows between Scotland and Ireland during the Plantation era have been conducted by social and religious historians. By providing an examination of the diffusion of Presbyterianism across the Irish Sea, this thesis addresses some of the dearth of work on cultural diffusion during the Plantation by geographers. To accomplish this goal, the thesis asked seven questions. In answering these questions, a dissenting Irish Sea culture area is described. The economic and political contexts in which the Plantation occurred are also delineated. The thesis then provides empirical analyses on the social and institutional networking patterns of the ministers who served in Irish Presbyterian churches. The last two empirical chapters concentrate on questions about deposition patterns and the trans-Channel nature of seventeenth-century Scottish geotheology. The final chapter provides a summary of the findings.

Bha Naomh Moire Òigh fìor chudromach ann an cràbhachd Eòrpach nam meadhan-aoisean anmoch. Tha e na amas aig an tràchdas seo faighinn a-mach a bheil an aon rud fìor airson Gàidhealtachd na h-Alba. Thathar a’ caoidh nach eil tùsan gu leòr ann a tha ceadachadh dhuinn mòran ionnsachadh mu chràbhachd nan Gàidheal aig an àm. Ach thèid cur air adhart an seo nach eil sin buileach ceart. Chithear gum faod sgrùdadh air ainmean, clachan-snaighte, clàraidhean eachdraidheil is eile a bhith torrach ma bhios sinn airson sealladh fhaighinn air cràbhachd do Mhoire. Ach thèid sealltainn cuideachd gur e sgrùdadh air litreachas an dòigh as fheàrr tuilleadh ionnsachadh mu chràbhachd do Mhoire. Chithear gum faod sgrùdadh mar sin ionnsachadh dhuinn mu chleachdaidhean cràbhaidh agus an dòigh a bhathar a’ tuigsinn àite na h-Òighe anns an diadhachd. ’S e a’ bhàrdachd chlasaigeach chràbhaidh a gheibhear anns an làmh-sgrìobhainn Leabhar Deadhan Lios Mòir (1512-1542) prìomh thùs an tràchdais seo. Thèid coimhead air nòsan na bàrdachd seo a bha ga dèanamh ann an Èirinn agus Alba agus thèid ceistean a thogail mu amasan, diadhachd agus tùsan nan dàn agus gu dè an ìre a tha iad a’ toirt dhuinn fianais airson creideamh a bha àraid do na Gàidheil. Gheibhear clàr agus sgrùdadh airson na bàrdachd chràbhaidh air fad a gheibhear ann an Leabhar an Deadhain. Tha còig dàin air Moire ann an Leabhar an Deadhain agus ’s iad sin: ‘Éistidh riomsa, a Mhuire mhór’, ‘Fuigheall beannacht brú Mhuire’, ‘Binn labhras leabhar Muire’, ‘Iomdha sgéal maith ar Mhuire’, agus ‘Ná léig mo mhealladh, a Mhuire’. Seallaidh sgrùdadh mionaideach air na còig dàin sin gun robh iomadh feart aig Moire do na Gàidheil, mar a bha air feadh na h-Eòrpa.

Victorian Anglican bishops' wives made a distinctive and important contribution to church and society, yet research into the subject remains fragmentary. This thesis is the first critical examination of the life and service of Lady Laura Ridding, wife of the Bishop of Southwell. It aims to show how she pioneered advances in extending the role and sphere of upper class women and forged new ground for social purity and the moral reformation of society. The study is largely based on unpublished primary material, including Laura's autobiography and her diary. Following the introduction, chapter two discusses Laura's formative years, an under-documented area of autobiography. It also illuminates her role as headmaster's wife, exploring the possibilities and restrictions attached to such a position. 'Women's mission to women' in chapter four investigates how far Laura was incorporated into her husband's public work at a time when women were lauded as 'the Angel in the House. ' It also examines Laura's social activism in the diocese and beyond, and how she conformed to certain ideological expectations, whilst transcending them in the public domain. I explore Laura's motivations in chapter five, in particular the extent to which she was driven by her faith. In chapter six, Laura's life is shattered by the unfolding events of 'God's visitation, ' referring to the First World War, and I examine her contribution to the war effort. Chapter seven summarises her impact on the world. Her commitment to the welfare of women and children in the diocese was outstanding and much of the work was sensitive in nature at a time when such work was still deemed inappropriate for a lady to undertake. Laura's example shatters the image of the frail, idle, upper class lady that so often confronts the reader of Victorian history and this study fills an important gap in Anglican ecclesiastical history.

Historians have recently taken a renewed interest in the role of the Roman Catholic community within the confessionally divided English post-Reformation state, but the nature of the surviving sources has meant that most work has been directed towards the study of the gentry and the communities around their households. For the Herefordshire area, however, there is evidence in the form of local listings and material, focussing particularly on the Whitsun Riots of 1605, which make it possible to investigate popular Catholicism in some detail. This thesis seeks to establish, for the period from c.1580 to the eve of the Civil War, the identities and roles of Catholics within their local communities in Herefordshire. It looks at the social profile of Catholics, leadership roles taken by non-gentry Catholics, the relationship of plebeian Catholics to Catholic gentry and the varied types of Catholic community in the county. It considers the influence of the ecclesiastical courts, of Jesuits and seminary priests, and of the Welsh legacy in parishes along the Monmouthshire border. The thesis also explores both the ways that religious divisions played out in local society and the evidence for Catholic ritual practice and what this reveals about mission in the area.