Four Coats for Our Lady: Gender, Space, and Marian Devotion in the Parish of St. Stephen, Coleman Street, London 1466-1542

Abstract

One entry in a parish inventory from a London church in 1542, and another line from an inventory dated 1547 are all that remain of a late medieval devotional practice that obviously meant a great deal to the members of St. Stephen, Coleman Street. With no further direct information concerning "Our Lady's coats," a methodology centering on interdisciplinary contextualization helps to unlock the meaning of these ritual objects. While some other parishes possessed similar ritual objects, historians of the Reformation era have largely neglected such evidence. First, there is not much to go on. Second, for members of the Protestant culture which defined the English-speaking world for centuries, clothing the Virgin has not seemed that important. Yet understanding the expression of pre-Reformation piety is central to refining our knowledge of the Reformation as a movement. Currently, historians of popular religion, popular culture, and women's history frequently find themselves faced with scare documentation and have created methodologies to address such scarcity of resources. This paper combines methodologies from all three fields, along with that of historical anthropology and art history, as it attempts to postulate the meaning or "our Lady's" four coats at the parish of St. Stephen, Coleman Street in London, 1466-1542. In the end, the essay argues (a) that the coats helped to define liturgical themes for feast days, (b) were probably made by the women of the parish, and (c) were used at a side altar that appears to have been a devotional site for the women of the parish.