Search results for ""Author Simon Roffey""

An archaeological investigation into the structure of the medieval chantry chapel, with many implications for religious practice at the time. The chantry -- a special, often private, chapel within a church dedicated to a particular benefactor or benefactor's family, where prayers for the benefactor's soul were said -- was probably the most common, and also one of the most distinctive, of all late medieval religious foundations. These structures, although much altered with time, are still a very noticeable feature of many late medieval parish churches. However, no systematic, thorough or comparative examination has been undertaken to discover what they may reveal about contemporary devotion, aspiration and planning. This is a void which this book seeks to fill. It shows how the use of archaeological approaches can illuminate aspects of medieval religious practice only hinted at in many historical documents; it also demonstrates how the structural and spatial analysis of former chantry chapels can shed light on the level of private and communal piety and reveal a wider, more universal, context to chantry foundation in the medieval parish church. In addition, it discusses how various personal strategies for intercession shaped both chapel space and fabric, and the ultimate effects of the Reformation on such structures. Includes a selected gazetteer of chantry chapels. Dr SIMON ROFFEY teaches in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Winchester.

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Winchester’s identity as a royal centre became well established between the ninth and twelfth centuries, closely tied to the significance of the religious communities who lived within and without the city walls. The reach of power of Winchester was felt throughout England and into the Continent through the relationships of the bishops, the power fluctuations of the Norman period, the pursuit of arts and history writing, the reach of the city’s saints, and more. The essays contained in this volume present early medieval Winchester not as a city alone, but a city emmeshed in wider political, social, and cultural movements and, in many cases, providing examples of authority and power that are representative of early medieval England as a whole.

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