A Church History Of Cornwall And Of The Diocese Of Truro

Cornwall's place-names and churches are unique. They commemorate an enormous number of local and little-known saints - such as St Austell, St Ives, and St Just. This book explains how this came about, how Cornwall came to be Christian after the end of the Roman Empire, and how its religious history developed through the Middle Ages and into the Reformation. Every aspect of Christian life is covered: the early Church, the effects of the English and Norman Conquests, the foundation of monasteries and friaries, and the history of the parish. There is a full account of the Reformation in Cornawall, showing what was swept away and what survived. The book is about people. It probes the identity of the early Cornish saints and explains the daily life of monks, friars, and parish clergy, also highlighting their substantial contribution to the Church outside Cornwall. The author emphasizes the positive role played by lay people. Far from being passive onlookers in pews, they were involved in appointing clergy, building and running parish churches, founding chapels, forming guilds, going on pilgrimages, and staging religious plays. Celtic or Catholic?This book explores Cornwall's religious history as a whole, and shows how the Cornish developed distinctive traditions while fully sharing in the Christianity of western Europe. 'The Christian faith in Cornwall is more than fifteen hundred years yound and it could not have a more dedicated, learned and attractive writer to help us all to be aware of the heritage which is ours' - The Rt Revd William Ind, Bishop of Truro.

This book provides the first account of an important but neglected aspect of the history of the nineteenth-century Church of England: the reform of its diocesan structures. It illustrates how one of the most important institutions of Victorian England responded at a regional level to the pastoral challenge of a rapidly changing society. Providing a new perspective on the impact of both the Oxford Movement and the Ecclesiastical Commission on the Church, The Diocesan Revival in the Church of England shows that an appreciation of the dynamics of diocesan reform has implications for our understanding of secular as well as ecclesiastical reform in the early nineteenth century.

Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity explores how the mythical and mystical past informs national imaginations. Building on notions of invented tradition and myths of the nation, it looks at the power of narrative and fiction to shape identity, with particular reference to the British and Celtic contexts. The authors consider how aspects of the past are reinterpreted or reimagined in a variety of ways to give coherence to desired national groupings, or groups aspiring to nationhood and its ‘defence’. The coverage is unusually broad in its historical sweep, dealing with work from prehistory to the contemporary, with a particular emphasis on the period from the eighteenth century to the present. The subject matter includes notions of ancient deities, Druids, Celticity, the archaeological remains of pagan religions, traditional folk tales, racial and religious myths and ethnic politics, and the different types of returns and hauntings that can recycle these ideas in culture. Innovative and interdisciplinary, the scholarship in Mysticism, Myth and Celtic Identity is mainly literary but also geographical and historical and draws on religious studies, politics and the social sciences. Thus the collection offers a stimulatingly broad number of new viewpoints on a matter of great topical relevance: national identity and the politicization of its myths.

The life of Mamerto Gueritz, an Anglo-Catholic priest in the West Country during the ritualist controversy of the late nineteenth century.

People assume that parish church dedications are ancient, but many of those in use today are inventions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the original dedications were entirely different. This startling discovery reveals fresh information about the history of English parish churches and throws light on religion in England in all periods of history. Part One of English Church Dedications is a general history of Church dedications in England from Roman times to the present day. Part Two provides a gazetteer of dedications in Cornwall and Devon, with dates and references, showing how far each one can be traced back and what changes and misunderstandings have occurred. It offers totally new evidence about the Cornish saints and provides a guide and model for similar research in other counties.