From childbirth and baptism through to courtship, weddings, and funerals, every stage in the life-cycle of Tudor and Stuart England was accompanied by ritual. Even under the protestantism of the reformed Church, the spiritual and social dramas of birth, marriage, and death were graced with elaborate ceremony. Powerful and controversial protocols were in operation, shaped and altered by the influences of the Reformation, the Revolution, and the Restoration. Each of the major rituals was potentially an arena for argument, ambiguity, and dissent. Ideally, as classic rites of passage, these ceremonies worked to bring people together. But they also set up traps into which people could stumble, and tests which not everybody could pass. In practice, ritual performance revealed frictions and fractures that everyday local discourse attempted to hide or to heal. Using fascinating first-hand evidence, David Cressy shows how the making and remaking of ritual formed part of a continuing debate, sometimes strained and occasionally acrimonious, which exposed the raw nerves of society in the midst of great historical events. In doing so, he vividly brings to life the common experiences of living and dying in Tudor and Stuart England.

Winner of the John Ben Snow Prize of the North American Conference on British Studies, for best book on British history published in 1997

About the Author
David Cressy is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach.

Reviews
the volume will remain the essential beginning point for all future study of life-cycle rituals. It is useful for undergraduates and fundamental for all serious students and scholars. * Michael J. Galgano, Religious Studies Review, Vol 27, No 2, April 2001 *
In this richly detailed and beautifully written study, Cressy examines the life-cycle religious rituals against the backdrop of the broader social and cultural tensions transforming England in early modern times ... The work soars in its thorough explanation of each ritual, unique cases, and changing practice over time. * Michael J. Galgano, Religious Studies Review, Vol 27, No 2, April 2001 *
an engaging and scholarly study ... although this book claims to be social history (of which it is a fine example), it is so much more besides. The political, religious, cultural, and intellectual historian will be able to take a great deal away from this book, almost as much as his social colleague. * Andrew Chibi, Reformation. *
By taking as his parameters the late-Tudorbethan Reformation period and the aftermath of the glorious revolution, Cressy has provided the context that a lot of social history lacks. And what action-packed context it is! * Andrew Chibi, Reformation. *
A good book? Certainly. An edifying read? Without doubt. To be recommended? Highly and enthusiastically. * Andrew Chibi, Reformation. *
the great service that Cressy has done us by collecting this material and mapping the ritual of early modern England in such fascinating detail. * John Spurr, Besprechungen. *
Well versed in and eloquent about the theological implications of rituals and the limitations of social theory, Cressy allows neither to distract him from his primary task of describing these rituals in all of their rich diversity. His book is a treasure trove of information about early modern practices ... He is resourceful in finding ways to take his readers into private spaces like the birth room; he is innovative in his chapter on churching ... he is lucid and authoritative on subjects such as 'clandestine marriage' or puritan objections to Prayer Book ritual. Cressy will recount an incident - whether a rowdy funeral or a secret marriage - and then offer several possible interpretations without imposing a single definitive view. * John Spurr, Besprechungen. *
Professor Cressy has woven his marvellous tapestry of the experience of birth, marriage and death in Tudor and Stuart England. * John Spurr, Besprechungen. *
This is a big book on a huge subject ... and all for GBP25. * Christopher Haigh and Alison Wall, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol.50, No.3. *
There is a fascination, in the detail - rich, raw, well-marshalled, sometimes funny, often poignant. * Christopher Haigh and Alison Wall, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol.50, No.3. *
Ritual will run and run. But David Cressy has brought us a long way already, and written a valuable book. * Christopher Haigh and Alison Wall, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol.50, No.3. *
an extremely valuable work, erudite and enthralling. * Skiles Howard, Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol.51.No.2. *
His portrayal of life-cycle customs is cinematic in scope and style, a vista of elite protocols, secular traditions, and the contraversies surrounding them illuminated with a profusion of closely focused and vivid anecdotes from everyday life. * Skiles Howard, Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol.51.No.2. *
an invaluable research companion to Shakespeare studies. * Skiles Howard, Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol.51.No.2. *
an encyclopedic yet captivating compendium of life-cycle customs ... and their social, cultural, and religious history. * Skiles Howard, Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol.51.No.2. *
An impressive study. * Skiles Howard, Shakespeare Quarterly. Vol.51.No.2. *
huge but highly readable volume ... Cressy's interpretations are highly judicious ... this book is a masterly survey and a vast fund of fascinating insight into the conventions governing the world we have lost. * Roy Porter, Medical History *
This is a most readable and highly detailed examination of family life in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Taking the life-cycle as its central theme it is essential reading for anyone studying the patterns and rituals of family life in the pre-industrial age. Combining a fascinating exploration of available source materials it is clearly destined to become a classic work on the subject. * Local Population Studies *
imaginative, perceptive, integrated, and beautifully produced ... Written with clarity, elegance and vivacity, it can stand confidently alongside Keith Thomas's equally innovative Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971). * I. Roots, Cromwelliana 1998 *
he has given us a blockbuster, which immediately becomes the staple work upon its subject ... a massive compendium of information .,.. It is a book with important ideas but not reliant on them, for its material is so extensive and often so novel in itself that it opens a door on a lost world of experience, dispelling popular myths and removing areas of scholarly ignorance. * Times Literary Supplement *
detailed and absorbing book ... Cressy finds the same intensity and messy variety in relationships that we know now. In a masterly summary of the ways in which these past people are the same as us and separated from us, he writes that grief 'was both a natural and a cultural phenomenon. It was something people felt, but also something they performed'. * Diarmid MacCulloch, The Observer *
detailed and absorbing book * Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Observer Review *
This is an important book that all English social historians will need to digest. Luckily, given its length, it is digestible. It is packed with fascinating anecdotes, and it is well written ... the results are fascinating and tantilizing ... a book to be read for pleasure and mined for evidence. Anyone working on early modern social history will have to read it and ask him- or herself whether Cressy's positivism had defeated the theorists. In Cressy's world, sweeping generalizations are less important than real life as he understands it. * Norman Jones, Journal of Modern History, Vol 71, no 3, September 1999 *
David Cressy's new book should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the religious rituals associated with birth, marriage and death have managed to survive in the secular climate of late 20th-century Britain, when the habit of regular churchgoing has largely disappeared. Cressy has taken pains to make his book accessible to the common reader. Cressy has a sharp eye for detail, but he also manages to assemble these details into a strong and coherent argument. * Arnold Hunt, Church Times *
a fascinating read in its own right and an invaluable reference aid * Derek Wilson, History Today *
should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the religious rituals associated with birth, marriage and death have managed to survive in the secular climate of late 20th-century Britain, when the habit of regular churchgoing has largely disappeared. Cressy has a sharp eye for detail, but he also manages to assemble these details into a strong and coherent argument. * Arnold Hunt, Church Times *
Cressy ... gives us in Birth, Marriage and Death another, even more thoroughly researched work, based upon an astounding number of sources, rich in detail but highly readable. * Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance *
patchy materials have been tackled by Cressy with impressive care and sensitivity, and without sentimentality. The arguments are put forward gently ... There is the fascination, in the detail - rich, raw, well-marshalled, sometimes funny, often poignant ... a valuable book. * Christopher Haigh and Alison Wall, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Vol 50, No 3, July 99 *


Awards
Winner of Winner of the John Ben Snow Prize of the North American Conference on British Studies, for best book on British history published in 1997.



Book Information
ISBN 9780198201687
Author David Cressy
Format Hardback
Page Count 658
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 1136g
Dimensions(mm) 244mm * 163mm * 40mm