Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 20 - Gesture, Meaning and Memory in the English Reformation

  • from Part IV - Rituals and Bodies
  • Edited by Alexandra Walsham, University of Cambridge, Bronwyn Wallace, Ceri Law, University of Cambridge, Brian Cummings, University of York
  • Book:
    Memory and the English Reformation
    Published online:
    30 October 2020
    Print publication:
    12 November 2020, pp 371-387

  • Summary

    Richard Hooker wrote in 1594 that public worship was performed ‘not only with words, but also with certain sensible actions, the memory whereof is far more easy and durable than the memory of speech can be’. This chapter explores some of the ‘sensible actions’ which the post-Reformation Church of England inherited from the liturgy and worship of the medieval church, such as kneeling at communion, the sign of the cross in baptism and bowing at the name of Jesus. The significance of these gestures was widely acknowledged by Protestant reformers, who feared that they allowed elements of Catholic doctrine and worship to retain a foothold in popular memory. Some reformers argued that they should be abolished altogether, while others sought to harness their mnemonic power by giving them new meanings. The chapter argues that by looking at how the reformed Church remade its bodily regime, we can gain crucial insights into how it remembered and renegotiated its past.