Remembrance in a Gentry Family, ca. 1534-92.

Despite the growing acceptance of the notion of a "long" Reformation, studies of the cult of remembrance continue to use the Reformation, and the abolition of purgatory in particular, as a convenient boundary for study. The evidence of the Cave family of Stanford-on-Avon suggests that, although disorientating, the doctrinal change of the mid-sixteenth century was not necessarily a moment of breach in the community of the living and the dead. In studying the range of commemorative practices within one family, the retention and renegotiation of traditional practices becomes clear. Alongside the lingering significance of the temporal framework of intercession, the Caves relied upon domestic goods, with reformed households continuing to honor mementos associated with traditional religion. Throughout the Reformation period, funeral monuments emphasized the significance of the corpse in remembrance, while testators sought to fashion select communities of remembrance that would ensure the survival of their memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]