Question de l'Église » et gouvernement des corps dans l'Angleterre du premier dix-septième siècle

• Published in: Cahiers d'études du religieux Vol. 14
• Main Author: Pierre Lurbe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: Centre interdisciplinaire d’Études du Religieux (CIER) 01.10.2015
• Subjects: altar; Anglican; archbishop of Cantorbery; body; Church of England; communion table
• ISSN: 1760-5776
• DOI: 10.4000/cerri.1414

In the early 17th century, the Church of England was riven by internal conflicts over its nature and identity, a situation the historian J. P. Kenyon has called « The Church Question ». These conflicts acquired added intensity when William Laud became archbishop of Canterbury (1633), bringing about a confrontation between two radically divergent views of the Church as an institution, but also of the church as a place of worship : while for the Laudians the church was a quintessentially sacred place, the puritans viewed it as a secular auditorium that was put to godly use at the time of the divine service. Although this contrast was by no means new, it acquired an increased polemical edge, hardening the opposition between conformist and puritan clergy, between pastor and preacher. In such a fraught context, governing and controlling the bodies of the faithful became of paramount importance : crucial in this respect were gestures and bodily attitudes regarding the altar or communion table, a telltale sign of the believer’s spiritual alignment.