Indulgences in Late Medieval England
Subtitle: Passports to Paradise?
Edition: 1 edition
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: January 14, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 594
ISBN-13: 9780521881203
Subjects: British & Irish history: c 1000 to c 1500; History; History - General History; History: World; Europe - Great Britain - General; History / Great Britain; 1066-1485; Church history; England; Great Britain; Indulgences; Religious life and customs; To 1500
Description: "Indulgences played a major role in medieval 'strategies for eternity', easing the journey through Purgatory to Heaven after death. However, theological attacks during the Reformation and the subsequent Protestant rejection of indulgences have given them a poor reputation, compounding the effect of the fourteenth-century satires by Chaucer and Langland of the pardoners who ensured their widespread distribution. This book is the first study of indulgences in late medieval England and it offers a re-evaluation of their role in England's religious, social, and economic life between 1300 and the Reformation. R.N. Swanson traces their importance to devotional life, their contribution to charitable and economic structures and the complex tale of their disappearance under Henry VIII."--Jacket.