ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the nature of commemoration changed profoundly over the course of the Reformation and that the cyclical and performative nature of Catholic commemoration was replaced by one based on the construction of personal narratives expressed primarily through the monumental form. The community of the dead enjoyed a special place within the medieval church: whilst suffering in Purgatory they kept up a reciprocal dialogue between the living on earth and the saints in heaven. The parish church was probably the single most important arena in which the Reformation was acted out, in terms of the theological debate, in terms of direct intervention, and in terms of establishing a new religious ideology. The profile of commemoration suggests that monuments were indeed sensitive to changes in religious attitudes. The basic change in the content of post-Reformation monuments was recognized as long ago as 1964 by the art historian Erwin Panofsky.
