Disappearing the Dead

The Cambridge academic Eamon Duffy first published The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 in 1992. The book’s premise is that the Medieval religion of England, including all of the bells, incense, candles, veneration of saints and pageantry of a highly liturgical religion, was still practiced day in and day out throughout England with vigor and belief when a top-down cultural revolution dissolved this essence of English life over a couple of generations. Duffy ex...