The Altars in York Minster in the Early Sixteenth Century
W. J. Sheils
Good God! what a pomp of silk vestments was there, golden candlesticks.’ The dismissive satire Erasmus’s pilgrim on looking down Canterbury Cathedral not only brought traditional piety into disrepute among significant sectors the educated, both clerical and lay, in early sixteenth-century England, but has also helped to colour views historians later medieval Church until recently. work parochial, diocesan, cathedral archives since 1960s, undertaken inspired by publication A. G. Dickens’ English Reformation , refined that view, which saw as something confidence trick designed impoverish credulous laity, recovered reputation Church. most recent, eloquent, account strength people is Eamon Duffy. His concentrated parochial context, where he shown how intercessory prayer, through gilds, obits, chantries, remained at centre liturgical tradition commanded great loyalty from laity up and, some cases, beyond dissolution those institutional expressions devotion 1547. place such within context largely been ignored, despite recently published histories, this paper sets out fill gap little minor altars York Minster clergy served them.
Studies in Church History