In early Christianity it was established that every church should
have a light burning on the altar at all times. In this unique
study, Eternal light and earthly concerns, looks at the material
and social consequences of maintaining these 'eternal' lights. It
investigates how the cost of lighting was met across western Europe
throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, revealing the social
organisation that was built up around maintaining the lights in the
belief that burning them reduced the time spent in Purgatory. When
that belief collapsed in the Reformation the eternal lights were
summarily extinguished. The history of the lights thus offers not
only a new account of change in medieval Europe, but also a
sustained examination of the relationship between materiality and
belief. -- .
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