Burial Rituals and the Reformations in Early Modern Europe. A comparative study
Summary
This thesis concerns itself with burial rituals during the sixteenth and seventeenth century in Western-Europe. At that time different Reformations swept across Europe, redefining theology and doctrine in a great many cities and countries. For a long time, it has been assumed by numerous historians that these Reformations also changed the practice of rituals, such as burial rituals, in addition to theology. On the other hand, there are those historians who argued that burial rituals remained very much the same in this era. It is my objective to bring to light whether the first or second group of historians is right; whether burial rituals continued or not and why this was the case.