The Reformation, the Nobility, and the Parish Church: Parish Church Burials of the Danish Higher Nobility, c. 1536–1559

This article explores the relationship between Danish nobles and their rural parish churches through the lens of their choice of burial church in the first decades after the Reformation, c. 1536–1559. Focusing on the choices made by members of the Council of the Realm and their relatives as representatives of the higher nobility, this study examines how common it was for a parish church to be used in the display of status that was part of elite funerary culture, and what this might tell us about nobles’ perceptions of the local public sphere constituted by the space in and around the parish church. Drawing on the evidence of textual sources as well as extant funerary monuments, the article finds that the parish church, while not the only option, was an acceptable choice of burial even for the top aristocratic layer of the Danish nobility. Building on studies of funeral rituals and monuments of elite groups in the late Middle Ages and the early
modern period from recent decades, the article concludes that the public character of noble burial and funerary practices means that we must consider the local community, with the parish church at its centre, an important arena for the public representation of Danish nobles, even in the decades immediately following the Reformation of 1536, during which the character of connections between manor and parish church can otherwise be more difficult to determine