Inward Purity and Outward Splendour: Death and Remembrance in the Deanery of Dunwich, Suffolk, 1370-1547

By Judith Middleton-Stewart

In the late-medieval churches of the former deanery of Dunwich there are many features which were provided by testamentary gifts, and this study of Suffolk wills written between 1370 and 1547 provides a broad background against which the 'Dead Men's Tributes and Gifts' of the title may be seen. The wills from fifty-two parishes are the most personal records of three thousand parishioners who wished to be remembered through their material and spiritual bequests. Many purchased prayer (the prayers of the poor being particularly sought) for prayer was vital to ensure the swift passage of the soul through Purgatory; but testators also left instructions for the acquisition of liturgical books, church plate and embroidered vestments. These have been destroyed, but gifts and outright donations also provided stained glass, seven-sacrament fonts and rood-screens which have survived long after the prayers were silenced. The wills give no hint of the destruction that was to come - a medieval chancel with vacant niches and whitewashed walls say more than the wills are prepared to tell - but the pennies and shillings which had helped towards building expenses in this coastal district of East Anglia produced at least two of the finest parish churches in the country within a few decades of the Reformation. Thirty-four photographs link the religious sensibilities and testamentary bequests of the past with the churches of today.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 085115820X
• ISBN13: 9780851158204
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Boydell Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.4" x 9.4"