How the Reformation Ended Medieval Church Life
The medieval Catholic ritual calendar was not simply gradually abandoned – it was actively dismantled, with a speed and determination that the authorities only managed to display during the initial phase of Edward VI’s reign. This is astonishing because the Catholic traditions had been integral to the country’s culture long before the arrival of the new rulers.
The process of separation began already in 1538, when candles burned before images of saints in churches were officially banned, followed by the dissolution of the associated guilds in 1547. Images themselves, including the stained glass, were ordered to be removed within weeks of Edward’s coronation. The rituals surrounding Easter Sepulchres and the Paschal Candle, Creeping to the Cross, Ashes and Ash Wednesday, and Palm Sunday’s Branches were all discontinued by 1548. Corpus Christi was subsequently removed from the calendar when the 1549 Prayer Book ceased mentioning it, while the festivities around St George’s Day collapsed soon after his guilds were disbanded and his biblical absence officially condemned. Even more interesting is the fact that the number of testators in the Salisbury diocese who left bequests for the maintenance of “lights” was over 50% in the eight years leading to 1539, but not a single person did so in the following twelve months.
It is notable that some of these expedients were pursued out of theological conviction, not merely as a means of enforcing social order. Observers were quick to realize that many of the purges pursued were driven by popular support for a break with Rome and not directly by royal edicts. For example, the Hocktide festivities, which involved kissing and ransom, mumming, and Lord of Misrule were all quietly abandoned due to their association with public disorder and drunkenness rather than any direct link to theology. Nevertheless, by the end of Edward’s short reign, most of these festivals had already disappeared, dismantling an entire ritual framework that had once defined England’s social life for centuries.
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