Conflict, Community and Custom: the material remains of post-medieval religion.

Abstract

The post-medieval centuries witnessed dramatic transformations in both the physical and mental landscapes within which life was lived. These were landscapes in which, by any standard, religion played a vital role. Religious beliefs and identities were both unifying and divisive as marks of political allegiance and community membership and as deeply profound and meaningful elements of collective and individual mentalities. This period saw the fragmentation of the world of medieval Christendom as distinctive and vibrant Protestant and Catholic religious cultures were forged in the wake of the European Refor-mation. Across the continent new denominations, sects and religious groups emerged to challenge religious and political hegemony within European states. As a dramatic cultural transformation the Reformation was in many ways a conflict over the use and meaning of religious spaces and objects; accordingly, the physical religious landscape was transformed along with the cultural and ideological landscape with which it was intimately bound.