Introduction -- Birth: Childbed mysteries -- The management of childbirth -- Childbed attendants -- Mother and child -- Baptism: Baptism as sacrament and drama -- Crosses in baptism -- The people with the children -- Changes and challenges -- Churching: Purification, thanksgiving, and the churching of women -- Courtship: Courtship and the making of marriage -- Espousals, betrothals, and contracts -- Marriage: Holy matrimony -- Prohibitions and impediments -- Clandestine and irregular marriages -- Nuptial vows -- Wedding celebrations -- Death: Death comes to all -- Ritual and reformation -- Funerals and burials -- The geography of interment -- Conclusion
Summary
This vivid picture of the classic rites of passage in Tudor and Stuart England shows how the important rituals of people's lives changed in response to the Reformation, the Revolution and the Restoration
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 587-624) and index
