Church & Religion

The Romans worshipped many gods, clearly shown by the finds from Broadgate, but personal devotion to one god was common (A soldier's ring from Pennsylvania). Burial customs and ideas about the afterlife are evident in the burials in Holloway Street.

In the Anglo-Saxon, Norman and later Medieval periods, importance of the church as a patron of the arts all over Europe is apparent locally in works in many different media: architecture, metalwork, textiles and glass for example. Specific aspects of medieval Christian belief reflected in the collection include the central role of the Crucifixion, the angels of heaven, and the protection of saints.

The impact of the Reformation in the 16th century is to be seen in a number of important objects in the collections. Aspects of the character of Anglican worship in the late 16th, 17th and 18th centuries which are represented here include artefacts relating to the Elizabethan church settlement, the revival of high church ideals under Archbishop Laud in the time of Charles I, the triumph of the Puritan movement in the mid 17th century and the practices of the late Stuart and Georgian church.

The growth of dissent in the 17th and 18th centuries, the presence of the Jewish community and the subsequent revival of the Roman Catholic church are reflected in several significant items in the collections. Finally, the modern diversity of faiths in the city now has its own representation in the Museum.