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Traditional Religion, Popular Piety, or Base Superstition? The Cause for the Beatification of Teresa Higginson

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

John Davies
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Extract

Eamon Duffy’s The Stripping of the Altars has reinvigorated the debate over the nature of late mediaeval religious practice and belief, examining the ‘richness and complexity of the religious system by which men and women structured their experiences of the world, and their hopes and aspirations within and beyond it.’ Duffy questions the assumption that there was in that period a wide gulf between ‘popular’ and ‘élite’ religion. In so doing he has not only illuminated the religious practices and beliefs of late mediaeval England but he has stimulated discussion about the relationship between ‘popular’ and ‘élite’ religion in other periods. Duffy eschews the use of the term ‘popular religion’, which he argues carries questionable assumptions about the nature of ‘non-popular’ religion and about the gap between the two. He prefers ‘traditional religion’, on the grounds that it does greater justice to ‘the shared and inherited character of the religious beliefs and practices of the people…’ ‘Traditional religion’ while being rooted in inherited and shared beliefs was, nevertheless, capable of great flexibility and variety.

Type
Research Article
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , May 1998 , pp. 123 - 144
Copyright
Copyright © Catholic Record Society 1973

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References

Notes

1 Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars. Traditional Religion in England. 1400–1580, New Haven and London, 1992. p. 1.Google Scholar

2 Ibidem, p. 2.

3 Ibidem, p. 3.

4 Hornsby-Smith has examined the changing social structure, the relationships between priests and parishioners, and ‘customary Catholicism’ since Vatican II. M.P. Hornsby-Smith, Roman Catholics in England, Studies in Social Structure since the Second World War, Cambridge 1987; The Changing Parish. A Study of Parishes, Priests and Parishioners after Vatican II, London 1989; Roman Catholic Beliefs in England. Customary Catholicism and Transformations for Religious Authority, Cambridge 1991.

5 Orsi, R.. The Madonna of 115 Street. Faith and Community in Italian Harlem, 1890–1950, New Haven and London, 1985, p. xiv.Google Scholar

6 Taves, A., The Household of the Faith. Roman Catholic Devotions in Mid-Nineteenth Century America, South Fatls 1986, pp. 90 seq. Google Scholar

7 Duffy, op. cit pp. 156 seq.

8 The Harvest, January 1927, p. 135.

9 The Harvest, The Cathedral Record, 1930–1936. passim.

10 The Mount Pleasant College Magazine, January 136, pp. 75 seq; Sear; Cathedral Record, January 1936, pp., 146 seq. Teresa Higginson had close connections with Mount Pleasant College from which she had received her license as a teacher. The first Principal of the College, Sister Mary of St. Philip, supported her in seeking teaching posts.

11 Kershaw, F. E., Teresa Helena Higginson. A Short Account of Her Life and Letters, Manchester. 1934.Google Scholar For a recent bibliography of Teresa, Higginson see North West Catholic History, xviii. 1991. pp. 40 seqGoogle Scholar.

12 Cathedral Record July 1932, pp.. 519 seq. Teresa of Lisieux was canonized in 1920.

13 Cathedral Record, August 1932, 550 seq.

14 Cathdral Record, June 1936, p. 1886.

15 Harvest, September 1934, p. 266.

16 Cathedral Record, March 1935, pp. 48 seq.

17 Cathedral Record, May 1936, pp. 113 seq.

18 The Harvest, May 1940, p. 132.

19 The Harvest, January 1927, p. 135.

20 Duffy, op.cit. p. 203.

21 Cathedral Record, March 1934, pp. 1158 seq.

22 Cathedral Record, January 1936, pp. 1865 seq.

23 Cathedral Record, June 1936, p. 148.

24 Cathedral Record, March 1934, p. 1162.

25 There were of course in other parts of the universal church other claimants to this position, e.g. Cassian, stabbed to death by his pagan Roman pupils, Julie BilIiart founder of the Congregation of Notre Dame or John Baptist De La Salle, founder of the De La Salle Brothers.

26 The Harvest, July 1930, p. 205.

27 The Harvest, October 1932, p. 339.

28 The Harvest, February 1934, p. 41.

29 The Harvest, September 1934, pp. 268 seq.

30 The Harvest, February 1836, p. 40.

31 The Harvest, March 1936, p. 74.

32 The Harvetst, December 1936, p. 10.

33 Duffy, op. cit. p. 191.

34 Cathedral Record, November 1934, p. 1421. Cathedral Record, June 1936, p. 147.

35 The Harvest, September 1934, p. 286.

36 The Harvest, April 1934, p. 108.

37 Cathedral Record, November 1934, pp. 1420 seq.

38 The Harvest, February 1934, p. 41.

39 lbidem.

40 The Tablet, 20 November 1937, p. 638.

41 The Tablet, 27 November 1937, p. 728.

42 The Tablet, 18 December 1937, 847.

43 The Tablet, 18 December 1937, p. 848.

44 The Tablet, 25 December 1937, p. 886.

45 The Tablet, 4 December 1937, p. 754.

46 The Tablet, 25 December 1937, p. 886.

47 The Tablet, 1 January 1938, p. 20.

48 The Month, January 1925, pp. 55 seq.; August 1925, pp. 105 seq.; September 1925, pp. 205. seq.; September, 1933, p. 206.

49 The Tablet, 11 December 1937, p. 803.

50 The Tablet, 27 November 1937, p. 728.

51 The Tablet, 18 December 1937, p. 847.

52 The Tablet, 25 December 1937, p. 886.

53 The Tablet, 1 January 1938, pp. 20 seq.

54 The Tablet, 1 January 1938, p. 21.

55 The Tablet, 8 January 1938, p. 54.

56 Ibidem.

57 The Tablet, 22 January 1938, p. 118.

58 The Tablet, 22 January 1938, p. 119.

59 The Tablet, 29 January 1938, p. 150.

60 The Tablet, 29 January 1938, p. 151.

61 The Tablet, 5 February 1938, p. 174.

62 The Tablet, 19 February 1938, p. 246; 19 March 1938, pp. 371 seq.

63 The Tablet, 26 February 1938, pp. 277 seq.

64 The Tablet, 12 March 1938, p. 342.

65 The Tablet, 25 December 1937, p. 886.

66 The Tablet, 15 January 1938, p. 84.

67 The Tablet, 8 January 1938, p. 54.

68 Ibidem.

69 The Tablet, 29 January 1938, p. 150.

70 The Tablet, 5 February 1938, p. 172.

71 The Tablet, 12 February 1938, pp. 213 seq.

72 The Tablet, 26 February 1938, p. 277.

73 The Tablet, 29 January 1938, p. 151.

74 The Tablet, 5 February 1938, p. 174.

75 The Tablet, 12 February 1938, p. 214.

76 The Tablet, 27 November 1937, p. 728.

77 The Tablet 29 January 1938, p. 151.

78 Ibidem.

79 The Tablet, 12 March 1938, p. 342.

80 The Tablet, 26 February 1938, p. 277.

81 The Harvest, April 1938, p. 113.

82 The Tablet, 19 February 1938, p. 247.