“Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth”: Early Modern English Pilgrimage, 1536-1684

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract: After centuries of a vibrant English pilgrimage culture, in 1538, Henry VIII outlawed pilgrimage. The prohibition of the practice did not, however, reduce English religious and literary interest in the concept of pilgrimage. Almost a century and a half later, John Bunyan published The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegorical representation of the life of a Christian soul as a physical pilgrimage to heaven. How did the prohibition of pilgrimage allow for Bunyan's concept of pilgrimage to develop? This honors thesis explores how the concept of pilgrimage changed during this period through the writings of English separatists and in popular English literature; it also posits that early modern treatment of this prohibited practice allowed for the return of pilgrimage to modern Anglicanism.

Type of resource	text
Publication date	July 5, 2023; May 2023

Author	Selden, Lauren
Thesis advisor	Stokes, Laura
Thesis advisor	Treharne, Elaine
Thesis advisor	Como, David
Department	History Department
Degree granting institution	Stanford University

Subject	Pilgrims and pilgrimages
Subject	Pilgrimage of Grace (1536-1537)
Subject	England
Subject	Pilgrim's progress (Bunyan, John)
Subject	Christian pilgrims and pilgrimages in literature
Subject	Pilgrims (New Plymouth Colony)
Subject	English literature > Early modern
Subject	English poetry > Early modern
Genre	Text
Genre	Thesis

DOI	https://doi.org/10.25740/wd599zj7735
Location	https://purl.stanford.edu/wd599zj7735

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License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY).

Preferred citation: Selden, L. (2023). “Strangers and Pilgrims on the Earth”: Early Modern English Pilgrimage, 1536-1684. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at https://purl.stanford.edu/wd599zj7735. https://doi.org/10.25740/wd599zj7735.

Undergraduate Honors Theses, Department of History, Stanford University

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