Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-5lx2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-01T09:15:32.891Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - Cleanliness and godliness in early modern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 December 2009

Anthony Fletcher
Affiliation:
University of Durham
Peter Roberts
Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury
Get access

Summary

Wee can suffer no uncleannesse in our bodies, but incontinent we wash it away, neither can abide it in our garments, but without delay, we remedie it: yea, the smallest uncleannesse in the vessells that serve us for meate and drinke makes our very food loathsome unto us.

The Workes of Mr. William Cowper (1529), 732.

Dear Johnny, … Keep thy hands and clothes clean; think of what I have sometimes said to thee, All cleanly people are not good, but there are few good people but are cleanly … Our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Ghost, therefore due honour is to be given to them … I would have thee always wear gloves, but [i.e. except] when it is not convenient.

Elizabeth Walker, wife of the rector of Fyfield, Essex, to her grandson, 1689; [Anthony Walker], The Holy Life of Mrs Elizabeth Walker (1690), 291–2.

This world is all over dirty. Everywhere it is covered with that which tends to defile the feet of the traveller. Our streets are dirty and muddy, intimating that the world is full of that which tends to defile the soul, that worldly objects and worldly concerns and worldly company tend to pollute us … We can't go about the world but our feet will grow dirty. So in whatever sort of worldly business men do with their hands, their hands will grow dirty and will need washing from time to time, which is to represent the fulness of the world of pollution.

Jonathan Edwards, Images or Shadows of Divine Things, ed. Perry Miller (New Haven, 1948), 94, 128–9.
Type
Chapter
Information
Religion, Culture and Society in Early Modern Britain
Essays in Honour of Patrick Collinson
, pp. 56 - 83
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×