Working with a corpus of 206 (73 women and 133 men) funeral sermons comprised of approximately 3.2 million words, would prove nearly impossible to get through by simply reading each sermon in a traditional sense. By using a digital text reading and analysis environment such as Voyant, a scholar may detect broader and deeper points of analysis that would take years of study for individual scholars who might never be able to detect such points with traditional methods. Significant associations and relationships between word and concept usage at the macro level may be made visible through the use of computer-aided technologies. Some of the associations and topics that become evident using Voyant might escape a close reading. As Geoffrey Rockwell and Stéfan Sinclair state in their book, Hermeneutica: Computer-Assisted Interpretation in the Humanities, "Analytical tools allow you to gather a large corpus so as to be able to search it when writing. We can think of it as gathering on a large scale for searching…After investing time in developing a computer-searchable corpus, you get in return something that helps your memory even better than just writing" (Rockwell & Sinclair, 198). This process allows a different kind of reading of the texts by using a digital tool to create visualizations that can then be examined and contextualized through both close and distant readings. Early English Books Online (EEBO) hosts a collection of not only thousands of funeral sermons but more than 130,000 printed titles.

Throughout this process certain conclusions became apparent. The seventeenth century saw a rise in the number of funeral sermons printed between 1600-1699. Political, cultural, and religious changes impacted the way English people approached death. Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Protestant Reformation created a new way of thinking about one's religion that was much more personal. It rejected the Church hierarchy that Catholicism sustained and focused more on individual faithfulness (Bucholz & Key, 94). Along with these changes in ideology came changes to the actual practice of ritual and tradition. The way in which masses were given and received was altered and it had a large impact on the average English citizen. This period also saw the English Civil War, a time in which drastic events took place, for example the public execution of their king, Charles I in 1649 (Bucholz & Key, 262). This was a complete upset of the social and political hierarchy and gave rise to grave concerns regarding order and the fear of chaos. While the monarchy was restored in 1660 with Charles II, all of these events created both apparent and underlying tensions throughout England, and the funeral sermons published reflect those changes. As the scholars, Bruce Gordon and Peter Marshall point out, "That most reflective and past-minded of activities, the remembrance and commemoration of the dead, is in every age a remarkably contemporary testimony" (Gordon and Marshall, 16). This makes the study of funeral sermons particularly appropriate for attempting to understand such changes.

The time period saw significant changes in gender expectations and this project focuses on how funeral sermons reflect those changes. Funeral sermons offer an intriguing means for exploring lived experience and gender expectations. The funeral sermons, filtered through the worldview of the preacher who authored it, provided glimpses of daily life in the examples used by the preacher to highlight the deceased's virtues and godliness. Scholars of early modern England have illustrated in detail the concern with hierarchies and social order. Women, their bodies, and actions acted as a focus for concerns with disorder and social stability. The funeral sermons for both women and men offer compelling insights into public discourse about these concerns. For example, preachers will often mention how godly a woman was by referring to how she kept to the home and provided a stable environment for her husband and children. An example of this can be seen in the preacher Charles Anne Fitz-Geffry's sermon for Lady Philippe, Deaths Sermon unto the Living. In his sermon he notes, "A comfortable helper to her loving Husband; and no small support so great an House for more then thiritie years continuance. An especiall ornament unto Hospitalitie" (Fitz-Geffry, 27). These traits were what were expected of women at the time and can be found throughout their sermons.

The study of early modern England boasts a wealth of scholarship on the practices surrounding death and dying, as well as the hierarchical gender relationships. Significant work in the field includes the work of Patricia Crawford, Susan Amussen, Retha Warnicke, Lawrence Stone, and Merry Wiesner. Notable scholars who have studied the culture and practices surrounding death include Peter Marshall, Ralph Houlbrooke, Raymond Anselment, and Lucinda Becker. All of these scholars' work informs this present study.

One qualifying factor about this study must be noted. The sermons used in this analysis represent only those that made it into print and which survive to this day. Early English Books Online contains thousands upon thousands of sermons of all kinds, beyond just funeral sermons. However, what EEBO contains is likely far less than what may have been printed. Certainly, this is the case for funeral sermons. The printed funeral sermons themselves represent only a fraction of funeral sermons that, no doubt, were preached, but never printed. Therefore, what remains, what has been used in this study, must be seen as somewhat exceptional-though still useful for study. Unfortunately, not everything makes it from the past to the present and therefore researchers must be able to work with what they can access.

The background images used throughout this website are examples of embroidery work that was done by women during the seventeenth century. "Stuart women actively participated in a Protestant culture that celebrated the female role of virtuous homemaker" (V&A Online Journal, No. 7 Summer 2015). Participating in activities that constituted "appropriate" work for women was an important requirement for most daughters, wives, and mothers. While not the focus of this study, such women's work seemed appropriate as a reflection of life as women lived it during the seventeenth century.

As you explore "A True Guide to Glory" please keep this in mind; sometimes the different digital analysis tools take a minute to load properly and therefore patience is recommended (though still images of the tools can be found on the sources page for reference). The project was developed using Google Chrome and tested in Firefox but all features may not appear as designed in Safari and Internet Explorer.