Ralph Houlbrooke. Death, Religion and the Family in England, 1480-1750. (Oxford Studies in Social History.) New York: Oxford University Press. 1998. Pp. xiv, 435. $99.00. ISBN 0-19-821761-7.

Abstract

The interest and importance of the social history of death have been increasingly recognized during the last thirty years. Ralph Houlbrooke examines the effects of religious change on the English 'way of death' between 1480 and 1750. He discusses relatively neglected aspects of the subject, such as the death-bed, will making, and the last rites. He also examines the rich variety of commemorative media and practices and is the first to describe the development of the English funeral sermon between the late Middle Ages and the eighteenth century. Dr Houlbrooke shows how the need of the living to remember the dead remained important throughout the later medieval and early modern periods, even though its justification and means of expression changed.