5 - The minster and its parishioners: the dead

Summary

No matter their station in life, all Ripon's parishioners and clergy knew that death was inevitable. This was a theme graphically represented in medieval paintings of the dance of death, showing men, women, knights, ladies, kings and bishops clasping hands with leering skeletons. Ripon's parishioners knew also that it was unlikely that they would pass straight from earth to heaven. Instead, they were bound to spend a period of time in purgatory. Fortunately, the sufferings of the dead in purgatory could be reduced by the living. Masses, prayers and alms all helped the dead, and people could arrange during their own lifetimes for these works to be performed for them once they had died. Heraldry, merchants’ marks and inscriptions could be used to identify objects like chalices, plate, vestments, windows and tombs in order to remind the living of particular dead people who needed their prayers. Monuments in particular, if they were installed near altars and saints’ images, had the potential to generate huge numbers of prayers by becoming inescapable parts of the liturgical round of a church. While there were many ways to be remembered, there were also a number of limiting factors. One problem was that all these arrangements cost money. Another major difficulty was that with the passage of time any given deceased person was ever more likely to be forgotten. The most effective methods of being remembered for the longest time were naturally the most expensive. Only the elite could aspire to be remembered forever, though whether or not these aspirations could truly be realised was another matter. The most durable and visible type of object was a tomb, and the most enduring institution was the chantry. Yet as the number of the dead endlessly increased, old tombs might be replaced by new ones and the rents and properties donated to pay for chantry masses might eventually fail due to reductions in their value.

The memory of the dead could also benefit the living, especially when it affirmed the status of their descendants. Ripon's gentry families were very concerned with the commemoration of their ancestors. Some of them transformed chapels in the minster into their own mausolea, making the altars and surrounding spaces into family monuments. During much of the year the tombs of the gentry represented them in the minster while living family members heard mass in their own domestic chapels.