Emma J . Wells
I am an ecclesiastical and architectural historian/archaeologist as well as public historian, specialising in the late medieval/early modern English parish church/cathedral, pilgrimage, the cult of saints, and the ‘senses’, public and private devotional practices and applying cross-disciplinary and comparative approaches to the past, as well as built heritage more generally.
From 2009-13 I was a graduate tutor/visiting lecturer for Durham University’s Archaeology and Combined Honours departments and, following this, was a Visiting Lecturer in Theology at York St John University. Simultaneously, I set up my own heritage consultancy which I saw go from strength to strength. In 2014, I was appointed as Programme Leader of the distance learning PGDip in Parish Church Studies within the Department of History at the University of York. In January 2016, I was also made Associate Lecturer and Programme Leader for the Centre for Lifelong Learning and, in 2017, was appointed as Programme Leader for the new collaborative MA in English Building History run via distance learning between the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Department of Archaeology, which I created, designed and developed. In 2018, I was also appointed a Research Associate by the department of Archaeology at York and that year I secured a partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust for the PGDip. In 2019 I was then appointed to Lecturer in Ecclesiastical and Architectural History (late medieval/reformation era).
In the past I have worked extensively throughout the heritage, archaeological and academic sectors. I consulted on the international Treasures of Heaven exhibition for the British Museum; advised, researched and undertook investigation and surveys for one of the UK’s largest community archaeology projects; consulted for the Lindisfarne Gospels Leverhulme Trust project; as well as act as an advisor, and on-screen expert for various establishments including the BBC, Yesterday, Curiosity Stream and Channel 4.
A published author, copywriter, and editor, my publication repertoire includes general readership books, edited volumes, renowned academic journals, handbooks, magazine editorials, and websites, for which I am represented by Peters Fraser Dunlop (and for broadcasting). I am in the process of writing my next book (entitled Heaven On Earth, to be published by Head of Zeus), and in the final stages of transforming my PhD thesis into a monograph.
I am Series editor (alongside Dr Claire Kennan, University of Reading) for Brepols’ Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo, Secretary and Assistant Editor for the Society and Journal for Church Archaeology, sit on the Newcastle Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC), was a a SPAB Guardian, sat on Durham University’s Castle Society executive committee, sit on the Academic Advisory Board of the Centre for Parish Church Studies (CPCS), and the editorial board of Royal Studies Journal. In 2017, I was elected as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and, in 2018, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). I am also an historical tour guides for Andante Travels and Promenades Travels—and an expert in the pedagogy of distance learning.
Supervisors: Dr C. Pamela Graves and Dr Robin Skeates
From 2009-13 I was a graduate tutor/visiting lecturer for Durham University’s Archaeology and Combined Honours departments and, following this, was a Visiting Lecturer in Theology at York St John University. Simultaneously, I set up my own heritage consultancy which I saw go from strength to strength. In 2014, I was appointed as Programme Leader of the distance learning PGDip in Parish Church Studies within the Department of History at the University of York. In January 2016, I was also made Associate Lecturer and Programme Leader for the Centre for Lifelong Learning and, in 2017, was appointed as Programme Leader for the new collaborative MA in English Building History run via distance learning between the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Department of Archaeology, which I created, designed and developed. In 2018, I was also appointed a Research Associate by the department of Archaeology at York and that year I secured a partnership with the Churches Conservation Trust for the PGDip. In 2019 I was then appointed to Lecturer in Ecclesiastical and Architectural History (late medieval/reformation era).
In the past I have worked extensively throughout the heritage, archaeological and academic sectors. I consulted on the international Treasures of Heaven exhibition for the British Museum; advised, researched and undertook investigation and surveys for one of the UK’s largest community archaeology projects; consulted for the Lindisfarne Gospels Leverhulme Trust project; as well as act as an advisor, and on-screen expert for various establishments including the BBC, Yesterday, Curiosity Stream and Channel 4.
A published author, copywriter, and editor, my publication repertoire includes general readership books, edited volumes, renowned academic journals, handbooks, magazine editorials, and websites, for which I am represented by Peters Fraser Dunlop (and for broadcasting). I am in the process of writing my next book (entitled Heaven On Earth, to be published by Head of Zeus), and in the final stages of transforming my PhD thesis into a monograph.
I am Series editor (alongside Dr Claire Kennan, University of Reading) for Brepols’ Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo, Secretary and Assistant Editor for the Society and Journal for Church Archaeology, sit on the Newcastle Diocesan Advisory Committee (DAC), was a a SPAB Guardian, sat on Durham University’s Castle Society executive committee, sit on the Academic Advisory Board of the Centre for Parish Church Studies (CPCS), and the editorial board of Royal Studies Journal. In 2017, I was elected as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and, in 2018, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). I am also an historical tour guides for Andante Travels and Promenades Travels—and an expert in the pedagogy of distance learning.
Supervisors: Dr C. Pamela Graves and Dr Robin Skeates
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Chapters & Books by Emma J . Wells
This paper will illustrate what may be more aptly termed a ‘reorientation’ of the senses or sensory experience through a transformation of the devotional material habitus (in the broadest sense). It goes further to suggest that Reformation religion was shaped by far more than language alone and that, for churchgoers, as in pre-modern life, the senses and associated paraphernalia, fabric and materiality were the conduits through which they related to and understood the sacred.
Taking the revised view that the Reformation was not one single, catastrophic event but a series of smaller waves of change, this paper will analyse the impact of the continual revision and adaptation of the ‘puritanisation’ enforced on traditional religion within the parish church, primarily during what I argue to be the key sensorial turning points of the English Reformation: the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Edward VI (1547–1553), and how the devotional infrastructure was radically changed as a result. It will explore the ways in which local faith communities responded to profound reorganization within their churches (the form and fabric of belief) and highlight them as active agents in shaping and re-shaping their own religious experience. Most crucial to the debate will be the effect on the mentalité, as iconoclasm was more than just the smashing of images; it was a profound mental revolution towards the role of the sensory in religious perception. As such, the sacred space of the sixteenth-century parish church will be shown not as a static institution but one that transformed repeatedly in response to a push/pull between what was suitable for the senses of congregants and a reconsideration of traditional religious material culture.
Articles & Book Reviews by Emma J . Wells
medieval clergy spent just as much time drinking, gambling
and fornicating with prostitutes as attending to their flocks’
spiritual needs. Emma J Wells reveals why some men of
the cloth simply couldn’t resist the pleasures of the flesh.
This paper will explore the importance of sensory experience throughout the late twelfth to the early fifteenth-century, with a particular focus on the act of bodily participation with the divine, and how this was reflected in the architectural and visual structure of a saintly site. To illustrate the importance of sensory means of veneration towards the cults of saints, several stained glass images from the decorative frameworks of two of the most popular English shrines of the medieval period will be analysed; one of whom was a very locally venerated saint, and the other who was perhaps the most popular saint in the country for the majority of the Middle Ages.
This paper will illustrate what may be more aptly termed a ‘reorientation’ of the senses or sensory experience through a transformation of the devotional material habitus (in the broadest sense). It goes further to suggest that Reformation religion was shaped by far more than language alone and that, for churchgoers, as in pre-modern life, the senses and associated paraphernalia, fabric and materiality were the conduits through which they related to and understood the sacred.
Taking the revised view that the Reformation was not one single, catastrophic event but a series of smaller waves of change, this paper will analyse the impact of the continual revision and adaptation of the ‘puritanisation’ enforced on traditional religion within the parish church, primarily during what I argue to be the key sensorial turning points of the English Reformation: the reigns of Henry VIII (1509–1547) and Edward VI (1547–1553), and how the devotional infrastructure was radically changed as a result. It will explore the ways in which local faith communities responded to profound reorganization within their churches (the form and fabric of belief) and highlight them as active agents in shaping and re-shaping their own religious experience. Most crucial to the debate will be the effect on the mentalité, as iconoclasm was more than just the smashing of images; it was a profound mental revolution towards the role of the sensory in religious perception. As such, the sacred space of the sixteenth-century parish church will be shown not as a static institution but one that transformed repeatedly in response to a push/pull between what was suitable for the senses of congregants and a reconsideration of traditional religious material culture.
medieval clergy spent just as much time drinking, gambling
and fornicating with prostitutes as attending to their flocks’
spiritual needs. Emma J Wells reveals why some men of
the cloth simply couldn’t resist the pleasures of the flesh.
This paper will explore the importance of sensory experience throughout the late twelfth to the early fifteenth-century, with a particular focus on the act of bodily participation with the divine, and how this was reflected in the architectural and visual structure of a saintly site. To illustrate the importance of sensory means of veneration towards the cults of saints, several stained glass images from the decorative frameworks of two of the most popular English shrines of the medieval period will be analysed; one of whom was a very locally venerated saint, and the other who was perhaps the most popular saint in the country for the majority of the Middle Ages.
Dr Emma Wells, Lecturer in Ecclesiastical and Architectural History at the University of York, will deliver our 2020 Candida Lycett Green Memorial Lecture - Holy Inappropriate? “Secular” uses of the medieval church.
In this unusually-titled lecture, Dr Wells will explore the sometimes surprising secular uses of churches in the medieval period, which included dances, dogs, football, bartering, trading, courting and gossiping- not how one would typically describe the everyday happenings of the medieval church.
Dances, dogs, football, bartering, trading, courting and gossiping: not how one would typically describe the everyday happenings of the medieval church—but this is no incorrect picture. Throughout the past, our ecclesiastical buildings and lands have been used for a multitude of what we may term “secular” activities or, at least, non-specifically devotional purposes. While the church was of course the holiest of places, ecclesiastical property was not often considered an entirely separate and sacred world—but rather a domain where the secular and sacred crossed paths.
This lecture will consider an array of these fascinating and sometimes shocking examples. It hopes to be a captivating adventure into the intersecting world of the cultural and religious history of medieval Christendom—one you may not have been privy to before!
The visits made by sovereigns to the major pilgrimage churches of England are better documented than most of the common lay visitors. The pomp and ceremony of royal pilgrimage emphasised the separation between monarchs and their subjects; there was nothing egalitarian or unmediated between regal displays and the on-looking lay spectators. Monarchs also tended to make more substantial offerings ranging from elaborately gilded riches and jewels, to commissions of entire buildings – a stark contrast to the ephemeral wax votives in shapes of infected or broken limbs proffered by the masses of lay pilgrims. As such, the ritualistic practices inevitably set the royal apart from a humble visitor to a shrine. A literal example was expressed in the forced humility of Henry II’s penitential visit to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in 1174; yet, an event so significant to Canterbury Cathedral, that it was commemorated in a panel of stained glass within the Trinity Chapel – the sacred locale in which the saint’s shrine was housed.
Studies have generally given insufficient emphasis to the potential effects on pilgrims of the architectural, decorative and material aspects of a cult site. This paper will provide an innovative interdisciplinary approach to understanding how the visual infrastructure of a cult church was received from one under-examined perspective: the male monarch; a study which has, as yet, escaped scholarly attention. The main premise is to consider the interaction between the visual and tangible campaigns of saints – including the relationship between artefacts and structures – and their patrons, and moreover, how royal visitors understood their experience by means of live encounters with these devotional schemes.
It is surprising that little consideration has been given to this expression of monarchical piety – particularly acts of male devotion, with pilgrimage in particular, an extremely understudied aspect of medieval kingship. This paper will counteract this shortcoming by illustrating that the experience of royal pilgrimage is a far more significant phenomenon than has been ascribed in past scholarship, and that an understanding may dissuade us from drawing a too rigid distinction between how and why monarchs and the rest of medieval society visited saints to receive salvation from their sins.
Using an innovative interdisciplinary approach, this paper will chart the progression of change enforced by the Articles/Injunctions primarily of the years 1536, 1538 and 1543 by analysing the affect on the relationship between devotional practice towards the cults of saints and the inherency of sensoriality. A major consequence of the Reforms was the sudden loss of ‘interactive’ worship and thus an ultimate censoring of the sensory. The consequential sense of loss will be explored by assessing the impact of the continual revision and adaptation of the saintly infrastructure of the English cathedral-church. Analysis of a thematic manner will centre upon the culture of materiality by taking each element of the pilgrimage church – including documentary, material, and archaeological evidence – to explore how the continual reduction in the role of the senses affected the ability to interact with and fully experience what had been the main pillar of late-medieval religion: the cults of the saints. Throughout, emphasis will be placed on understanding how experience was created in the milieu of the new ‘censored’ church and, accordingly, how communities adopted the ‘reorientation of the senses’, transforming their religious habitus and mentalités in order to continue venerating the saints in an extremely less munificent aesthetic surrounding devoid of tangential sensory stimulants.
Stained glass is so precious, it is beautiful and difficult to make. What can it tell us about the buildings it is found in and the people who built them?
(1536 Book of Homilies 1844, 311).
The greatest sufferer, or perhaps survivor, of the impact of the ‘puritanisation’ enforced on traditional religion by the 16th-century Reformation was the English church building, particularly the major cult sites, whose devotional infrastructure was radically changed as a result. The sensorially stimulating delights of late-medieval Catholic religion were replaced; the olfactory, kinaesthetic, audible and even visuality of faith was dramatically scaled down, and emphasis was placed on the supremacy of the Word proffered only through sight and sound. The eye of faith lateral was replaced by the eye of faith literal. The fabric of the church was a manifestation of change-complete yet simultaneously, stood as an instrumental vessel for potential additional modification (Aston 2003, 12). As such, it could be argued that the inherent synaesthetic experience, or focus on the corporeal interaction for late-medieval devotion determined its demise and was, in fact, a primary catalyst in the iconoclastic reforms.
This paper will chart the progression of change enforced primarily in the years 1536, 1538 and 1543 by analysing the affect on the relationship between devotional practice towards the cults of saints and the inherency of sensoriality. A major consequence of the Reforms was the sudden loss of ‘interactive’ worship and thus an ultimate censoring of the sensory. The consequential sense of loss will be explored by analysing the impact of the continual revision and adaptation of the saintly infrastructure of the English cathedral-church. Analysis of a thematic manner will centre on the archaeology of materiality by taking each element of the pilgrimage church – including material, decorative and archaeological evidence – and analysing how the continual reduction in the role of the senses affected the ability to interact with and fully experience what had been the main pillar of medieval religion: the cults of the saints. Throughout, emphasis will be placed on understanding how experience was created in the milieu of the new ‘censored’ church and, accordingly, how pilgrims adopted the ‘reorientation of the senses’, transforming their religious habitus in order to continue venerating the saints in an extremely less munificent aesthetic surrounding devoid of tangential sensory stimulants.
Surprisingly the influence of the abolition of major pilgrimage sites and shrines on the practice of devotion has received little scholarly attention with attempts to understand the collective mentalité or phenomenological practice of veneration post-Reformation, relatively few in number. Thus far, the majority of scholarship has consisted of empirical analyses of the transformation of parish churches and the how the congregation faired during the successive reigns of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I. Although this paper does not pretend to provide an in-depth analysis of the senses in Protestant religion, it seeks to analyse just how saintly worship changed as a result of the reforms and whether for the better or worse. As such, the changing nature of the cathedral-church fabric will be put forth as evidence for systems of belief in addition to the mentalités of social groups. Thus, the building itself is presented as a literal expression of a changing habitus, and pilgrimage, an illustrative example of the process of such change.
In light of the current interest on visuality and spatiality across various disciplines, it is surprising that little consideration has been given to the interaction between saintly practice and sensory encounter analysis, particularly at a time when hagiography was often represented by visual and architectural means, and thereby pilgrimage was described as ‘seeing with the senses’. Subsequently, in order to understand how and therefore why pilgrims participated in such sensory actions, an examination of the development and construction of the sites in which they worshipped is crucial.
Through an analysis of the material, archaeological and documentary evidence, the data will be used to challenge how broader social, religious, doctrinal, economic and even architectural effects, influenced by the veneration of saints, created the total sensory experience of the pilgrim. Furthermore, the framework for the analysis will provide an innovative approach to built structures of any age, and will champion an experiential methodology built upon the concept of the sensory encounter of the human agent.
Through an analysis of how the senses were stimulated and interplayed at the most significant cult stations within the east end of Durham Priory throughout the late twelfth to the early sixteenth-century, I will attempt to reconstruct the sensory experience of the medieval lay pilgrim in response to the architectural and decorative schemes of the church. As such, the progression in the visual and tangible campaigns will provide evidence for how the building was developed in order to influence and contribute to the pilgrim’s sensory experience of the cult. The main premise of this study is to understand the relationship between the material/physical world and the collective ‘lived’ experience (incorporating objectives and perceptions) of a specific social group, by championing an experiential methodology built upon the concept of the sensory encounter of the human agent. As such, my research envelops around the question of whether the settings of shrines were built for pilgrims and to accommodate the cults. Evidence was obtained from the two- and three-dimensional archaeology that comprised and adorned the church itself, as well as from contemporary documentary accounts. I must note that an examination of this focus on the sensory in the design of medieval pilgrimage sites is by no means exclusive to the period, but can also resonate with scholars dealing with cognate issues in different cultures and periods.
The creation of the Gothic style in twelfth-century France proclaimed the dawning of a new era which swept across Europe during the later middle ages. An enterprise of ‘cathedral makers’, sustained by kings, chapters, abbots and nobles of European high society, mobilised an expansive programme of building in a quest to literally build Heaven on Earth. Throughout Christendom, these magnificent skyscrapers of glass and stone began to dominate the landscape of many cities, towns and even the smallest of villages.
The stories behind these majestic architectural marvels – the great cathedrals – are some of the most epic sagas in history, teeming with an extraordinary cast of characters. While many books have chronicled their builders, style and construction, this is the first to bring together, under one roof, all aspects of their living histories, chipping away at previously unexamined details to reveal a fresh interpretation of these feats of imagination, engineering and mystery that we think we know so well. From towering infernos to comical mistakes, corrections and bodge-jobs which sit proudly alongside blatant acts of vandalism, hidden messages, self-portraits and tongue-in-cheek depictions – the fabric is both a roster and relic of the stories and characters responsible for their creation.
Heaven On Earth – an illuminating narrative of the conception and legacies of twenty of the world’s greatest cathedrals – is interwoven with an exploration of the lives, legends and scandals of the people who built them – both up on the pinnacles and down in the crypts. Much more than a series of individual biographies of the buildings, it is a human story set against the backdrop of the most astonishing achievements of Western culture, bringing to life those who have too often been reduced to abstractions of ‘mason’ or ‘bishop’ to provide the reader with a sense of walking through this glorious Age of Faith. The central focus of the book is, however, the zenith of cathedral building, spanning the millennium 500 to 1500 AD, sweeping from Byzantine grandeur to the more modern interpretations found in Milan and Moscow, when the architect – as we understand the profession today – began to emerge. An epilogue will then explore the evolution of the role and influence of the cathedral across art, culture, and society from Coventry to California, and the changing styles in our midst.
Transporting the reader from the chaotic atmosphere of the masons’ yard to the cloisters of power, each chapter is a journey of exploration through a different cathedral. It takes in their cultural landscapes, the physical settings, as well as the personal stories, relationships and tragedies that marked each architectural revolution, from the largest gothic cathedral in Northern Europe, York Minster of England, where countless disasters (deliberate, accidental and foolish) wreaked havoc on its fabric, to the Hagia Sophia of modern-day Turkey in the south, an iconic landmark in which are entwined the legacies of medieval Christianity, the Ottoman Empire, resurgent Islam and secular societies. Together, the stories reveal how these physical embodiments of Heaven helped shape modern Europe and changed the world – each a story more riveting than the next. Welcome to the real Pillars of the Earth.
The research considers a church building not only as a complete sensory structure, but also how its construction was intended to impact/encourage devotion towards the resident cults as a continuation of ritualised practices: for example, how specific materials were chosen for their tactile qualities, shrines for their ability to allow bodily engagement with the holy, or galleries added for amplification. Significant research questions include: Were experiences created to suit different social groups and, if so, how did they impact on the archaeological record of the church building? Did the common layman have some influence on how cult churches were built and embellished? What imprint did these transient and ephemeral visitors leave? And, most importantly, how did pilgrims experience the cult churches and associated infrastructures them differently?
How has the ‘medieval’ in the ‘neo’ become so captivating and alluring—and why? Most recently, the concept was meted out at the Met Gala where stars donned attire inspired by the Catholic Church’s ‘Long Renaissance’ (commonly periodised between 500 and 1550). It was hard to miss the pointed irreverence of popstar Rihanna’s glittering papal mitre and chasuble assuming (and sexing up) the supreme mantle of an institution in which women could not/still cannot hold office. So, too, a similar case can be found when James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, uttered the infamous antiquarian form of Henry II’s words in reference to Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, suggesting a powerful leader is tantamount to an order. The use of medieval in this way has been widely discussed and is not dissimilar to previous assertions towards ‘Orientalism’. That is, the creating of an ‘other’ to contrast with one’s own identity (the modern versus the medieval, or ‘West’ versus ‘East’) and, through that contrast, in a way that is often also exoticizing. This volume seeks interdisciplinary contributions on conceptions of ‘otherness’ in creating popular and/or seemingly ‘relatable’ approaches to the Middle Ages and their launch into the popular ‘neo’ sphere. It is by reconciling these seemingly disparate forms that we can better understand the continual, interconnected, and often politicised, reinvention of the Middle Ages throughout cultures and study.