London Churches Research Articles

The Market for Argument: Preaching the Puritan Counterpublic at Paul’s Cross

The Market for Argument: Preaching the Puritan Counterpublic at Paul’s Cross Simon du Toit (bio) Reverend John Stockwood delivered two sermons at Paul’s Cross, London, on August 24, 1578, and May 10, 1579. Stockwood’s sermons have been most widely known as antitheatrical pamphlets. Later antitheatrical pamphlets used the Paul’s Cross sermons of Stockwood and Thomas White as authority and precedent and the sermons circulated and re-circulated in print. I will suggest, however, that in spite of this legacy, Stockwood’s sermons can be read as resistant political action whose very embodied performance, delivered with the fire of passionate preaching, for which many puritans were notorious, produced his social status. I want to suggest that Stockwood’s preaching and the entire arc of his journey into London share a similar end: the bringing to market of what Michael Warner has called a counterpublic, and with it the circulation of a resistant order of both private interiority and public space.1 Consumption, digestion, and circulation of bodily order produced performances such as Stockwood’s, and contributed significantly to the market value of prophetic performative speech. By means of a distinctive cultural disposition to produce, market, and consume performance, puritan speech strove to reshape the civic order of early modern England. In this light, Paul’s Cross becomes a central space for mediating the struggle between public (sovereign) authority and the private realm. What interests me in this discussion is, first, the consequences and function of antitheatrical speech, which seem to offer a kind of limit case in discussing theories of performative authority. Antitheatricality has been resolved by some into a binary2 of opposed models of performance, and by others into a mutually constitutive exchange of ideologies and practices.3 In either view, questions of normativity and transgression are implied. Secondly, the evidence presented below suggests that the performative authority accorded to ritual speech placed ritual performance into circulation in distinctive ways in early modern London. Consumers sought it out because of its perceived efficacy. Although Warner never specifically discusses Austin, his examination of Habermas, which asserts that [End Page 75] publics are among the conditions of textuality, may provide a useful set of ideas for approaching performative uptake through a discussion of the conditions of circulation. 4 Since publics are “all local culture and contingent history,”5 they might offer a useful model for viewing the social role of performative speech in history. To attend to Stockwood’s deployment of performance strategies, this essay will first examine two important aspects of place in performance: the geographic and the textual. Paul’s Cross blended church, state, and discursive authority in early modern London as it was at once the seat of the Bishop of London, the pulpit from which official state policy was often announced, and the center of London’s bookselling trade. Next, I want to examine the crucial role of embodiment in Stockwood’s assertion of a proper social order, in both their public and their private aspects. The proper order of the affections in the humoral body emerges, in Stockwood’s view, as a crucial aspect of preaching efficacy. Finally, the essay will trace the patterns of circulation that enabled Stockwood to participate in the construction of the resistant power constituted in the puritan poetic world. A Counter-Cross on the City-Stage Although Stockwood did not record his journey, similar journeys through Elizabethan civic space were recorded. With the help of those records and some conjecture, it seems possible to suggest some features of Stockwood’s pedestrian performance as he approached London. Stockwood, who was headmaster of the Tonbridge School in Kent, would have set out from Tonbridge on a journey towards London, probably on Friday, May 8, 1579. A month or so earlier he would have received a notice from John Aylmer, Bishop of London, inviting him to preach a public sermon at Paul’s Cross on Sunday, May 10. He was promised the customary fee, which was then about 45 shillings, and was given an address at which he would be offered the usual four nights’ lodging at the Bishop’s expense. As he traveled he no doubt was turning his...

Multidisciplinary analysis of a mummified cranium claimed to be that of a medieval execution victim

This article presents a multidisciplinary analysis of a human skull with preserved soft tissue curated by a small museum in Boscastle, Cornwall, UK. The skull lacks a mandible and is coated in a black tar-like substance. Records left by a previous museum curator (now deceased) claimed the skull to be the head of a medieval execution victim. The skull was purportedly recovered from a London church that was destroyed during the Second World War where it had been kept in a carved oak box. If these details are correct, the skull would appear to have been venerated as a relic. The skull and box have been analysed using a range of techniques including computerised tomography, laser scanning, microscopy, infrared spectroscopy and radiocarbon dating. These analyses demonstrated the skull in fact to be that of an Egyptian mummy dating from the Ptolemaic period. Other instances have been noted of parts of Egyptian mummies being presented as European saintly relics, and the ‘Boscastle skull’ would appear to be an example of such. A wider point illustrated by the work presented here is that sufficient application of modern analytical techniques may reveal considerable information regarding human remains which otherwise have little or no provenance. This point strengthens arguments for the retention of such remains by curating institutions.

The Temple Church in London. History, architecture, art. Edited by Robin Griffith-Jones and David Park. Pp. xx+286 incl. 6 figs+12 colour plates and 109 black-and-white plates. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010. £40. 978 1 84383 498 4

The Temple Church in London. History, architecture, art. Edited by Robin Griffith-Jones and David Park. Pp. xx+286 incl. 6 figs+12 colour plates and 109 black-and-white plates. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2010. £40. 978 1 84383 498 4 - Volume 62 Issue 4

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London. By Hermione Harris

The Heythrop JournalVolume 52, Issue 5 p. 906-906 Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London. By Hermione Harris Chikere Ugwuani, Chikere Ugwuani Arrupe College, Harare, ZimbabweSearch for more papers by this author Chikere Ugwuani, Chikere Ugwuani Arrupe College, Harare, ZimbabweSearch for more papers by this author First published: 26 July 2011 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2265.2011.00682_74.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume52, Issue5September 2011Pages 906-906 RelatedInformation

Robin Griffith-Jones and David Park, eds., The Temple Church in London: History, Architecture, Art. Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2010. Pp. xx, 286 plus 12 color plates; 109 black-and-white plates, 6 black-and-white figures, and 1 table. $80.

Robin Griffith-Jones and David Park, eds., <i>The Temple Church in London: History, Architecture, Art</i>. Woodbridge, Eng., and Rochester, N.Y.: Boydell and Brewer, 2010. Pp. xx, 286 plus 12 color plates; 109 black-and-white plates, 6 black-and-white figures, and 1 table. $80.

Constituting religious publics: The tale of two non-conformist churches in London

This article explores the constitution of religious spaces and publics in the city through case studies of two non-conformist protestant churches in London: City Temple and the Metropolitan Tabernacle. This approach allows us to unpack broad arguments about changing religious cultures in the modern city by highlighting the specificities of everyday religious cultures. Despite similar histories, from Victorian prominence to wartime destruction and post-war decline and revival, there are considerable differences between these communities. One presents itself as an inclusive site for multicultural interaction, while the other foregrounds their traditional doctrinal principles. The more traditional approach has been far more successful, offering a sense of stability, tradition and belonging, which is clearly attractive to many churchgoers. This is simultaneously a multi-ethnic gathering and a ‘mixophobic’ place, in which a clearly bounded identity community is established, and where there is little encounter with those of different views.

Without remainder: ruins and tombs in Shakespeare's Sonnets

In the sixteenth century, observes Margaret Aston, ‘England acquired a whole suite of ruins’.1 The widespread destruction of monastery buildings and church fabric – the sheer ubiquity of the destru...

Gothic Sign, Protestant Realia: Templars, Ecclesiologists and the Round Churches at Cambridge and London

The Gothic Revival moved forward in step with advances in medieval archaeology and history, the one feeding off the other and back again. As this process unfolded, historical understanding enabled the association of forms with ideas. For example, some Victorian architects favoured the Decorated style because a connection could be drawn between it and the power of the English state in its early maturity. Reasoning by analogy, this style could thus be seen as the model for a modern Gothic architecture appropriate to a new, dynamic age. However, the meaning of forms was rarely fixed. That this was the case is illustrated by the restoration at exactly the same time, the early 1840s, of two medieval churches, both typological copies of the same building, the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Though similar in their round plans, the intentions of those promoting each project were very different. The first, the Temple Church in London, was an essentially secular project; by contrast, the Round Church in Cambridge was restored for theological reasons. In different ways, these two projects also reflected contemporary ideas about Palestine and its archaeology.

First-generation Ghanaian migrants in the UK; dietary intake, anthropometric indices and nutrition education through the Black churches

Background: Black Africans in developed countries have a higher prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases. However, dietary and anthropometry data is limited, particularly on sub-groups such as Ghanaians in the UK. Objectives: To determine the habitual diet and body composition of first generation Ghanaian migrants, to validate a food frequency questionnaire specific for Ghanaians, find the ideal body image of Ghanaians and the body size most attractive to Ghanaian males and to conduct a nutrition intervention programme using the Black Churches as a setting. Methodology: Cross-sectional survey. Participants were volunteers and first generation Ghanaian migrant who were congregants of Black Churches in London (n=288). Information on dietary intake was obtained from multiple repeated 24-hour recalls in a sub-sample (n=68) of the survey participants. The food frequency questionnaire was developed using the most commonly reported foods and portion sizes, field tested, shortened and then validated with multiple 24hr recalls (n=68). Information was also collected on height, weight, waist circumference, waist to hip ratio and percentage body fat which was measured using a portable bioelectric impedance analyzer (n=212). Participants from London (n=45) and Ghana (n=79) completed questionnaires to collect information on their ideal size and other body-shape related questions using the Figure Rating Scale (FRS). The nutrition intervention programme (n=76) was developed with input from participants through focus groups and the Obesity Clinic at the London Metropolitan University. Participants were assigned to either the intervention or control group and information on socio-demography, dietary intake and anthropometric measurements were taken at baseline, 6 weeks and at 3 months to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention programme. Results: Energy and the percentage energy from fat intake of Ghanaian migrants (1987 kcal, fat 35.3%) was similar to that of the host population (1972kcal, fat 35.4%) but carbohydrate and fibre intake was different (carbohydrate 50.1%, fibre 16.4g vs 48.1%, 13.9g) for migrant Ghanaians and host population respectively. Energy under-reporting was 31% for this survey and was associated with gender and body mass index. The food frequency questionnaire performed well relative to 7 multiple 24-hour recalls with correlations increasing after adjusting for energy (protein r= 0.71, fat r=0.69, carbohydrate r=0.54, fibre r=0.69). Participants were correctly classified in the same (34%) or adjacent quartile (54%) for most nutrients with only 3% to 9% of participants mis-classified into opposite quartiles. Bland-Altman plots were within limits of agreement for all the macro-nutrients. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was higher in female migrant Ghanaians using body mass index (67%) compared to the host population (58%) but prevalence was lower when percentage body fat was used (female 40%). There was a cultural shift in acceptability of overweight and obese body sizes and shapes among Ghanaians with 60% of Ghanaian males preferring Ghanaian females with a normal body size. The nutrition intervention programme was conducted over 6 weeks and changes were observed in energy (intervention - 250kcal vs -135kcal (NS)) and fat intake (intervention -3.8g (p=0.04) vs control -2.1g (NS). Waist circumference decreased by 2.2cm (p=0.05) for the intervention group after 6 weeks. After 3 months fat intake decreased by 7.3g (p=0.000) for the intervention group and 10.4g (p=0.04) for the control group. Changes in anthropometry still persisted after 3 months for body weight (-2.3kg, p=0.001), body mass index (-1.4kg/m², p=0.001) waist circumference (-3.3cm, p=0.04) and % body fat (-2.0%, p=0.01) for the intervention group. Changes in anthropometry were also observed in the control group for weight (-0.9kg, p=0.05), waist circumference (-1.9cm, p=0.006) and waist-hip ratio (-0.1, p=0.03). Conclusion: The dietary intake of Ghanaian migrants in the UK is similar to the host population. The food frequency questionnaire developed specifically for this population is an adequate dietary assessment tool. Ghanaian males preferred females with normal body sizes. The prevalence of overweight and obesity is higher in female migrant Ghanaians compared to the host population and the Black Churches are an effective setting for the delivery of nutrition intervention programmes.

Transformation and Migration Among Members of a Pentecostal Church in Ghana and London

AbstractWhile an ideology of rupture is central to understanding Pentecostal Christianity in Ghana, not enough attention has been given to the moral relationships and ritual practices that help sustain a Pentecostal transformation and its situational application in different contexts. By comparing the experiences of members of the Church of Pentecost (CoP) in Ghana and London, I show how Pentecostal transformation provides church members with an ethical framework, that helps them cope with unhealthy relationships, witchcraft attacks, and migration, albeit differently. I argue that while promoting discontinuity, individuality, and positive change, Pentecostal transformation also raises concerns regarding continuity, communality, and negativity.

An English Window on the Huguenot Struggle for Recognition: Nicolas Des Gallars and the Colloquy of Poissy

Abstract: The English had a unique window on the Colloquy of Poissy in 1561 through the Parisian pastor of the French-speaking congregation of the Stranger Church in London, Nicolas de Gallars, lately a pastor of Geneva and a delegate to the colloquy, which was a gathering, called by the French Crown, of Reformed pastors, meeting with Catholic prelates to try to reach agreement that would avoid wars of religion in France. It failed at that but was a step ahead in the Huguenot struggle for recognition in France. Des Gallars's letters to the English ambassador to France, Nicolas Throckmorton, provided the English with information on the closed meetings of the colloquy and copies of the major presentations. Besides his unedited letters, Des Gallars wrote an account of the proceedings, which was published in English by “J.D.”

Churches Built of Stones and Words: Semiotic Analysis of the Novel “Hawksmoor” by Peter Ackroyd

Churches possess symbolic meaning for people and hence, are of great importance. The article presents the interpretation of the images of churches in the novel Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd to find out how these images are created and what they stand for. The churches in London are described in the novel as embodiment of mystic knowledge.

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London, Hermione Harris

<i>Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London</i>, Hermione Harris

The Feminization of Fame, 1750–1830 (review)

Reviewed by: The Feminization of Fame, 1750–1830 Katherine Turner Claire Brock, The Feminization of Fame, 1750–1830 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Pp. ix, 242. $65.00 cloth. Although its title suggests a wide-ranging reconceptualization, this book is a series of detailed case studies held loosely together by the argument, powerfully advanced in the introduction but less convincingly demonstrated within individual chapters, that during this period “fame as a concept underwent a process of feminization, allowing women to embrace celebrity” (1), and that it became acceptable to desire fame in one’s own lifetime rather than to hope simply for posthumous renown. Brock observes that recent critical work on the “democratizing process,” by which fame in the “age of personality” became more accessible, has hitherto been explored “only in relation to men,” although in fact “women came increasingly to dominate a feminized literary culture” (1). Central to her argument is that classical concepts of masculine, military heroism gave way to more “feminine” ideals: the “silent virtues” of “common life” (5–6) became more highly prized, validating a growing interest in the private lives and subjectivities of famous people, especially writers. Brock builds upon recent scholarly work on gender, sensibility, and authorship in the Romantic era, but under-acknowledges her debt to other scholars, either by taking as read some important assumptions, or by oversimplifying recent investigations. Hence, there is no real discussion of the complex reorientation of gender roles during this period, beyond the labeling of this process as “feminization”; and “print culture” is frequently invoked without definition or discussion. The first of Brock’s case studies is Rousseau, on whose British critical reception she sheds interesting new light by examining letters and diaries written by acquaintances (including Hume and Boswell) as well as more distant admirers. Women and men alike were seduced by the amorous intensity of Rousseau’s writings, and they conflated author and text in their passionate responses to a “feminized” Rousseau. Brock’s equation (in this chapter and throughout) of “sentimental” with “feminine” begs various questions—about Rousseau, about sentimentalism, about gender. It also sits oddly with Rousseau’s self-characterization as seductive libertine. Brock cites the praise of the European Magazine—typical of many newspapers and magazines—for his “bewitching eloquence,” which “makes one forget, at least overlook, the immorality of many of his actions” (32). In 1783 this kind of moral appraisal hardly suggests that Rousseau or his fame is simply “feminized.” Succeeding chapters present case studies in the literary careers of Catherine Macaulay, Mary Robinson, Frances Burney, Germaine de Staël, and William Hazlitt. Brock nicely explains how Macaulay reconceptualized heroism in her History of England—downplaying military prowess and celebrating women who embodied the quieter virtues of steadfastness and morality—and also in the statue of herself [End Page 595] as “History,” erected by admirers in the London church St. Stephen Walbrook. The next chapter describes how Mary Robinson exploited “the increasingly sophisticated print culture of the late eighteenth century” (77) and actively “managed her fame in the newspapers and periodical press” (87). Brock here challenges “the current critical obsession with Mary Robinson’s inability to deal with excessive public attention” (82). Recent biographies by Paula Byrne, Hester Davenport, and Sarah Gristwood—their publication after the completion of Brock’s own study is acknowledged in a footnote—have in fact complicated this view of Robinson. In any case, “current critical obsession” is overstated and symptomatic of Brock’s tendency to critical one-upmanship, which degenerates into Scriblerian absurdity at times: “What I will label Hazlitt’s contemporaneity . . . will entail proposing an argument exactly opposite to that of previous Hazlitt scholars” (171); “The capitalization of ‘SECOND’ has never been commented on by Burney critics” (121). In the chapter on Burney, much is made of other critics’ overemphasis on her modesty, against which Brock argues forcefully for Burney as “self-obsessed, secure in her famous image and eager to enhance it at any opportunity” (111). Although Brock makes effective use of the letters and journals to challenge the view of Burney as colluder in her own nothingness, she overstates her case—not least in suggesting that the famous dedication of Evelina to...

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

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.

Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547-c.1700 (review)

Reviewed by: Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547-c.1700 Marcus Harmes Fincham, Kenneth, and Nicholas Tyacke, Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547-c.1700, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008; cloth; pp. xviii, 396; 24 b/w illustrations; R.R.P. US$150.00; ISBN 9780198207009. Altars Restored examines altar policy in England over approximately one hundred and fifty years. Kenneth Fincham and Nicholas Tyacke offer a study of a highly specific topic, the chancel furnishings of English churches, cathedrals and college chapels, but one with a wide chronological scope, extending from the reign of Edward VI until the very end of the Stuart period. Fincham and Tyacke stress the primacy of the artistic and architectural evidence of English altar policies for their analysis. While focussing so sharply on altars and communion rails, they also examine a range of issues involving the beautification of churches, the celebration of communion and Eucharistic theology. In studying both the creation and the destruction of the liturgical furnishings of parish churches and the practices carried out in these churches, Fincham and Tyacke interpret the responses of English parishioners to the varying emphases given to art and worship in their churches. The precise starting date of this text is 1547, the year of Edward VI's accession, following which the furnishings of England's parish churches were rapidly dismantled and discarded. The survey extends from this point up until the very late Restoration, the period when the City of London's churches were being rebuilt by Sir Christopher Wren after the Great Fire of London. The authors establish that during this time official attitudes to altars and their attendant rituals and associated furnishings such as communion rails varied widely, with drastic and destructive implications for the religious art in English churches. By taking their analysis up to the turn of the eighteenth century, Fincham and Tyacke's work ends with the restoration of altars to London's churches, if not English churches in general. The scholarly inspiration provided by Eamon Duffy's text The Stripping of the Altars is here acknowledged as the earlier text gives its title to the first chapter. More generally, the title Altars Restored inevitably reads as a response to Duffy's work. In particular, Fincham and Tyacke ground much of their evidence at the parochial level and use evidence from the churches themselves to contradict Duffy's argument that reform was unpopularly imposed from above. They reconstruct the evidence taken by wardens, curates and parishioners during [End Page 211] Edward VI's reign and indicate local participation in the removal of altars. In their study of the Laudian period, they consolidate this impression of local participation and leadership in setting altar policy, as locals seized opportunities to beautify their churches. This text is underpinned by exceptionally rich archival sources, which is characteristic of Fincham's work in particular, as similar research in diocesan and county archives and among churchwardens' accounts informed his 1990 text Prelate as Pastor. This text is also richly illustrated, as the visual sources stand alongside the documentary and printed documents as forming a significant source base for their analysis. Among other items, Fincham and Tyacke draw conclusions from altars and communion tables, communion rails and plate, fonts and stained glass windows. The analysis of visual images is especially significant, as events in parish churches and local reactions to different means of celebrating communion are not well documented in literary sources. Within this time frame, Fincham and Tyacke chart in particular the controversy caused by orienting altars or holy tables north-south, rather than east-west, railing them in and the equally contentious issues of the position or posture in which communicants received communion, whether seated, kneeling or standing. These are well-plotted areas of Early Modern English history, although the text offers fresh insights to the causes and progression of these controversies. Their text is especially noteworthy for its original treatment of Archbishop William Laud and the altar policies of Laudianism for two reasons. Firstly they identify significant alternatives to Laud in inspiring and carrying out the beautification of church interiors. While they acknowledge Laud's close involvement...

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London – By Hermione Harris

Yoruba in Diaspora: An African Church in London – By Hermione Harris