ABSTRACT
The picture of the churches transformed 'from settings for ritual into preaching houses' captures the outline shape of the change. But the underlying psychological shift ran broad and deep and was reflected in many other aspects of life. The disappearance of the working Saints, the ecclesiastical houses, and the shrines, relics and images that were their stock in trade marked the passing of a world in which the faith was manifested primarily in terms of physical effect. In the terms of the introductory chapter, it shows how change might come via the 'trace' of one phenomenon within another. The arrival of farming literature in the sixteenth century signalled a new approach in the agricultural context, whereby practices were assessed in terms of rational improvement and increased profit, essentially divorced from moral and spiritual considerations and looking to employ the conditions of the market rather than the good offices of the Saints.
