ABSTRACT
Early modern Europeans erected monuments to preserve the memory of the dead. Situated in churches or churchyards, they range from humble paving stones bearing a name and a date to sumptuous edifices bearing exquisite effigies. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, monuments presented fresh interpretations of the
emotional relationship of the living and the dead. Protestant reformers challenged the idea that the fate of the dead in the afterlife depended on the prayers of the living and placed renewed emphasis on the resurrection of the dead to eternal life. Renaissance humanists – both Catholic and Protestant – revived the ancient concept of fame, promoting the dead as virtuous, heroic examples for the living, deserving of monumental magnificence.
