2004/10/01 by Peter Sherlock · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Early Modern Women Writers #Reformation and Early Modern Christianity #Historical Art and Culture Studies #Bishops #Gentry #History #Identity (music) #Ancient history #Classics #Art #Archaeology #Law #Political science #Aesthetics
paper · doi:10.1017/s0022046904001502
openalex publication_date 2004/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/02
The Reformation simultaneously transformed the identity and role of bishops in the Church of England, and the function of monuments to the dead. This article considers the extent to which tombs of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century bishops represented a set of episcopal ideals distinct from those conveyed by the monuments of earlier bishops on the one hand and contemporary laity and clergy on the other. It argues that in death bishops were increasingly undifferentiated from other groups such as the gentry in the dress, posture, location and inscriptions of their monuments. As a result of the inherent tension between tradition and reform which surrounded both bishops and tombs, episcopal monuments were unsuccessful as a means of enhancing the status or preserving the memory and teachings of their subjects in the wake of the Reformation.