Defaming the Dead: A Contested Ghost Story from Fifteenth-Century Yorkshire

Abstract

The doctrine of Purgatory made ghosts a credible phenomenon in pre-Reformation England, with Yorkshire providing a notable clutch of ghost stories from the early fifteenth century. A case brought in the consistory court at York in 1424 nevertheless shows that ghost stories were not always believed, and might be challenged and rebutted through disciplinary processes. However, whether such processes are actually evidence for blanket denial of the existence of ghosts remains an open question.