Pilgrimage: The English Experience from Becket to Bunyan

Pilgrimage was a central feature of medieval English life which affected history, politics, art and literature. The shrines were destroyed during the Reformation and pilgrimage stopped, yet the idea of pilgrimage continued--refashioned - in Protestant theology. By reaching beyond the Reformation to explore the transformation of the idea of the pilgrim, this book confronts the religious experience of the English laity over half a millennium. In a series of ground-breaking studies the contributors challenge many orthodox assumptions about English pilgrims and their history. Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW
"This impressive collection of essays...richly fulfills its promise to advance scholarship on English pilgrimage in ways which complement recent studies of pilgrimage on the Continent. This excellent volume will certainly take its place as an essential starting-point for future studies of English pilgrimage." Susan J. Ridyard, The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, Canadian Journal of History

"...the embodiment of several of the most important trends in recent historiography, most conspicuously, cultural history...useful and interesting." Renaissance Quarterly

"...an important and timely contribution..." Albion

"Gives a very full picture of the importance of pilgrimage. The collection as a whole offers yet another angle on the remarkable national transformation that is the English Reformation." Studies in English Literature

"[An] erudite and eminently readable collection." H-NET BOOK DESCRIPTION
A collection of essays on pilgrimage, a central feature of medieval and Renaissance English life. Read more Continue reading Read less