Project description
Sacred space and social transformation in Medieval England
Between ca. 1250 and 1450, England and Europe experienced a transformational period that started after the fourth Lateran council and the Church’s adoption of a solid pastoral programme. This ended with the decline of spiritual authority after the fourteen century’s social transformations and disasters. The EU-funded SACREDSPACE project relies on the idea that medieval sacred places like churches, chapels, shrines, and processions acted as both worship and political debate spaces. The project will integrate diverse sources from archival and library research in England to explore how class, social status, and gender influenced acts that contested social hierarchies and political powers were legitimised through the sacred places.
Objective
This project challenges our understanding of medieval sacred spaces––churches, chapels, shrines, and processions between them––by arguing that they functioned not only as spaces of worship but as arenas of political conflict in England and Europe between ca. 1250 and 1450. This transformational period follows the fourth Lateran council and the Church’s inauguration of a powerful pastoral programme that sought to control and foster lay participation in the church, and ends with the decline of spiritual authority following the social transformations and calamities of the fourteenth century. I argue that the ritual symbols and practices that defined sacred spaces were harnessed in tactical and opportunistic acts that challenged the social hierarchies and power relations that sacred spaces reflected and legitimised. By considering sacred spaces as deeply intertwined with structures of power and authority, this project will transform scholarship that has thus far largely focused on ‘secular’ areas as the main sites of social conflict. I will integrate a wide variety of sources to examine how class, social status, and gender shaped acts of disruption that contested the social hierarchies and power relations that were expressed and legitimised through sacred spaces, thus refuting the projection of strict modern boundaries between sacred and profane onto the medieval past that is implicit in modern historiography.
During the fellowship, I will undertake archival and library research in England, building up a database of cases that I will draw on to produce a chapter for a volume I am co-editing and two long articles. I will also begin working on a monograph on during the fellowship that considers cases from a wider European context.
The project will demonstrate the wider resonance of religious culture and liturgy in political history, and, for a broader academic readership, the political potential of public space, long imbued with the habits of ritual Christianity.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- humanities history and archaeology history medieval history
- humanities philosophy, ethics and religion religions christianity
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
CB2 1TN CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.