Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women
This article examines how the lived religious practices of early seventeenth-century English women were presented and memorialised, through an analysis of biographical writing and printed funeral sermons. Focusing on both Catholic and Protestant women who lived and died in London between 1600 and 16...
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2020-12-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/10486 |
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| author | Emily VINE |
| author_facet | Emily VINE |
| author_sort | Emily VINE |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article examines how the lived religious practices of early seventeenth-century English women were presented and memorialised, through an analysis of biographical writing and printed funeral sermons. Focusing on both Catholic and Protestant women who lived and died in London between 1600 and 1660, it suggests that women’s charity work, particularly that which involved active labours such as feeding the poor, tending the sick, and assisting with childbirth, was presented as a key aspect of their lived religion. In this chapter I take ‘lived religion’ to mean practices which individuals, in this case, women, deliberately implemented as a means of having agency over their religious practice. These sources depict charitable acts as being instigated by the individual women themselves, acts which were performed electively, in addition to routines of prayer and contemplation, and acts which were accordingly viewed as an expression of piety and ownership over their religious lives. These descriptions are also moulded to the unique attributes of these individual women; they emphasise the deployment of proficiency in medicine or skill in garment-making, they accentuate the hospitality of these women and occasions where the poor or hungry were invited into the home. These elective charitable works are consequently presented as important forms of ‘active piety’ – as central to and as an important means of acting out one’s faith. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-64fe82358ca4487ca7a8429bf1b564d0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2020-12-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj-art-64fe82358ca4487ca7a8429bf1b564d02025-01-09T12:54:49ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182020-12-0118110.4000/erea.10486Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century womenEmily VINEThis article examines how the lived religious practices of early seventeenth-century English women were presented and memorialised, through an analysis of biographical writing and printed funeral sermons. Focusing on both Catholic and Protestant women who lived and died in London between 1600 and 1660, it suggests that women’s charity work, particularly that which involved active labours such as feeding the poor, tending the sick, and assisting with childbirth, was presented as a key aspect of their lived religion. In this chapter I take ‘lived religion’ to mean practices which individuals, in this case, women, deliberately implemented as a means of having agency over their religious practice. These sources depict charitable acts as being instigated by the individual women themselves, acts which were performed electively, in addition to routines of prayer and contemplation, and acts which were accordingly viewed as an expression of piety and ownership over their religious lives. These descriptions are also moulded to the unique attributes of these individual women; they emphasise the deployment of proficiency in medicine or skill in garment-making, they accentuate the hospitality of these women and occasions where the poor or hungry were invited into the home. These elective charitable works are consequently presented as important forms of ‘active piety’ – as central to and as an important means of acting out one’s faith.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/10486seventeenth centuryLondonlived religioncharityfuneral sermonswomen’s piety |
| spellingShingle | Emily VINE Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women E-REA seventeenth century London lived religion charity funeral sermons women’s piety |
| title | Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women |
| title_full | Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women |
| title_fullStr | Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women |
| title_full_unstemmed | Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women |
| title_short | Charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth-century women |
| title_sort | charitable acts and lived religion in the funeral sermons of early seventeenth century women |
| topic | seventeenth century London lived religion charity funeral sermons women’s piety |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/erea/10486 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT emilyvine charitableactsandlivedreligioninthefuneralsermonsofearlyseventeenthcenturywomen |