The Perception of Holiness: Spiritual Idealism in Late Medieval & Reformation England, 1350-1539

Abstract

This dissertation examines the formation of spiritual idealism in England during the late medieval era and into the early Reformation period. It highlights how English observers and writers discerned holiness among monastics. Tracing four archetypes of spiritual idealism, personal piety, idyllic poverty, austerity, and eschewing religious corporatism from 1350-1539, it shows these categories defined the essence of Christian holiness. Moreover, monastic adherence to these archetypes earned certain orders praise and garnered reverence from the laity. While a long historiography of monastic decline in England has dominated scholarly work, this dissertation suggests that certain, ascetic orders, such as the Carthusians did not fall into disrepute, but remained at the apogee of spiritual idealism and personified holiness in the perceptions of many observers. Nevertheless, Reformation ideology employed these categories, though shifting their interpretation, which coupled with the divorce crisis of Henry VIII encouraged the acceptance of the dissolution of the monasteries between 1536-1539. Widespread popular rebellions against the dissolution nor the unyielding orthodoxy exemplified by the English Carthusians failed to halt the suppression of the religious houses. Yet this dissertation demonstrates that the employment and manipulation of spiritual idealism played an integral role in shaping the events of the English Reformation and ultimately the Henrician religious settlement.