Medieval religion: beliefs, practices, and institutions

Medieval Religion

The issue of religion and of the spiritual comfort it brings to the peoples around the world represents an interesting yet controversial topic for analysis. There have been claims made over the actual quality of the individual in ancient times, as he struggled to find his own religious beliefs and conscience. In most situations, common people through whom religion is spread around the world are considered to be mentally reduced or at least have little intellectual consideration of the truth of their beliefs. However, this is not entirely the case. There are several arguments to consider.

On the one hand, people in ancient times, especially in the Mediterranean zone were viewed as being similar to individuals without proper judgment who took for granted most of religious precepts. The argument lied in the fact that the homo religious beliefs rely on age old practices and beliefs that cannot be completely explicable. However, despite the fact that, indeed, in the popular tradition religious aspects are not completely researched or the extent of the research is limited to facts which can actually proven scientifically, the popular belief is in general based on the way in which its public, the people, tends to perceive it, from one generation to the next. Moreover, the fact that some religious beliefs such as the trust in the Resurrection or the lives of saints represent basics of the Christian or Judaic religion does not necessarily imply that the early adherents of these religions were intellectually limited. It is more possible that such beliefs were transmitted from one generation to another, through the word of mouth, a method which does allow the entire information to be transmitted, thus some ancient or medieval beliefs are scarce in details and can be considered as unworthy for an intellectual endeavor.

On the other hand, there are certain practices which are common to most religion and are a matter of humanity, therefore, even though they are considered a religious custom, they are not the representation of a commoner's or mediocre religious individual. For instance, the process of the burial, according to some considerations, is labeled as yet another sign of popular religion. However, this is not entirely the case. The actual practice of burial is also consistent with the human nature and the intrinsic need of offering the dead person a place for eternity. Therefore, it is not necessarily an issue of religion but rather an issue of humanity and the basic principles that stand at the basis of the burial process are related to the nature of the human being and not popular misconceptions or superstitious ideas.

In this context, of popular religion, there are other additional aspects that are worthy of consideration. The issue of popular religion is not necessarily a negative aspect; it is more a matter of offering a different perspective on the process of worship. Although there is a general consideration that a certain religion is based on the common beliefs of the people, there are issues whose representation point out a certain individuality of the worshiping process and of the idea of religion in general.

The motif of sanctification is a common element in the Christian religion in particular. The idea of worshiping saints represents a unifying common belief and practice; therefore it can be accounted for a characteristic of popular religion. At the same time however, there have been studies made which consider that although the practice is widely spread, there are particular trends in major areas of Europe which offer a sense of individuality and particularity. In this sense, there are specific particularities concerning for instance shrines in the eastern part of Europe, in the Roman times, as well as in the west, during the medieval times. However, there are particularities in these regions.

In the eastern parts of the European civilization, there were certain tombs being made and particular saints being worshiped. In the other part of Europe for instance the visual representation of saints is different from its eastern comparison. From this point-of-view, it can be said that religion can be viewed more as a general framework of principles and that there are regional individual representations which make it original according to the region. More precisely, the role of the saints in western iconography is more important and has a better detailed description than in the Eastern parts. This comes to point out that even though there are certain common elements in the religious practice, these are doubled by specific elements and characteristics.

A similar example is the issue of saint worshiping. There are different means through which saints are venerated or through which the popular belief had built an image culturally attached to the territory under discussion. In this sense, there are common stories about different saints such as Martin, a representative figure of Western Christianity. However, his actions and the facts surrounding his existence are strictly related to this space and have little connection to the general view of religion.

Finally, another aspect which must be taken into account when discussing the issue of popular religion is the extent in which it is important that beliefs and ideas be reduced to concepts which can be understood by most of the common people. From a general perspective, it is fair to say that religion usually unites a people because it offers them a common sense of identity. This is the case with the Chinese set of beliefs for instance that was used as a unifying element for the Chinese tribes. Similarly, different personalities and particular elements are used and developed throughout the literature in order to offer a certain people a general sense of belonging to a set of religious values and norms. In this sense, the books written on the lives of saints do have the potential of creating a framework for encouraging the belief.