Eternal light and earthly concerns : belief and the shaping of medieval society
Paul Fouracre (Author)
"In early Christianity it was established that every church should have a light burning on the alter at all times. This unique study investigates the material and social consequences of maintaining such 'eternal lights' in the belief that burning them reduced the time spent in Purgatory. Never before has the subject been treated as important to the political economy or explored over the whole of the medieval period. The cost of maintaining the lights meant that only the elite could afford to do so, with peasants being organised to provide funds. Later, as society became wealthier, a wider range of people became providers and organised themselves into guilds or confraternities in support of the church and with the particular aim of commemorating their members. Power over the lights, and over individual churches, shifted to these organisations, and when belief in the efficacy of burning lights was challenged in the Reformation, it was such people who were capable of bringing the practice of burning eternal lights to a sudden and sometimes violent end. Examining the relationship between belief and materiality at every turn, Eternal light and earthly concerns serves as a guide to how Western Europe developed from the decline of the Roman Empire to the advent of the Protestant state." -- Back cover
Print Book, English, 2021
Manchester University Press, Manchester, United Kingdom, 2021