The devil gets into the belfry under the parson's skirts: vox populi and early modern religion

Paper


Colclough, Gillian. 2010. "The devil gets into the belfry under the parson's skirts: vox populi and early modern religion." Harmes, Marcus, Henderson, Lindsay J. and Colclough, Gillian (ed.) From Augustine to Anglicanism: The Anglican Church in Australia and Beyond (2010). Brisbane, Australia 12 - 14 Feb 2010 Toowoomba, Australia.
Paper/Presentation Title

The devil gets into the belfry under the parson's skirts: vox populi and early modern religion

Presentation TypePaper
Authors
AuthorColclough, Gillian
EditorsHarmes, Marcus, Henderson, Lindsay J. and Colclough, Gillian
Journal or Proceedings TitleFrom Augustine to Anglicanism: the Anglican Church in Australia and beyond: Proceedings of the Conference
Number of Pages16
Year2010
Place of PublicationToowoomba, Australia
ISBN9780646528113
Web Address (URL) of Paperhttp://www.anglicans-in-australia-and-beyond.org
Conference/EventFrom Augustine to Anglicanism: The Anglican Church in Australia and Beyond (2010)
Event Details
From Augustine to Anglicanism: The Anglican Church in Australia and Beyond (2010)
Event Date
12 to end of 14 Feb 2010
Event Location
Brisbane, Australia
Abstract

Popular wisdom in the form of proverbs and adages is a feature of most societies. In European and American contexts, proverbs have been both respected and ridiculed as vox populi, the 'voice of the people'. However, from about the fifteenth to mid-eighteenth centuries, proverbs were viewed and employed at all social levels as containing simple truths because they emanated from the unspoiled peasantry. Consequently, as an oral cultural form transmitted upwards through society, proverbs can show socio-political or religious ideas and developments at many levels of everyday life, often cynically, sometimes with anger, and generally without the risk of litigation. Using Maurice Palmer Tilley's collection of sixteenth and seventeenth century English proverbs, this paper examines attitudes to the Church of England, the Catholic Church and the clergy. Bearing in mind the historiographical problems of potentially abstract oral sources recorded and often edited by external elites, the paper argues nonetheless that proverbs provide valuable insights into popular opinion, in this case, in the challenges and changes of Early Modern Christianity.

KeywordsChurch of England; clergy; early modern christianity
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020500207. History of ideas
430304. British history
500405. Religion, society and culture
470299. Cultural studies not elsewhere classified
Public Notes

Copyright, Contributors 2010
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

Byline AffiliationsLearning and Teaching Support Unit
University of Queensland
Faculty of Arts
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
Book TitleFrom Augustine to Anglicanism: The Anglican Church in Australia and Beyond
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