medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
puts me in mind of a recent discussion on Mediev-L concerning the extent to
which Christianity had permeated "down" to the peasantry during the early
middle ages --esp. in Merovingian gaul.
from my own very limited reading, with very rare exceptions, the peasantry
*only* appears in 11th-12th c. documents
Peasants, beggars, common people of various sorts are reasonably abundant in
hagiography and witnesses or recipients of miracles. I don't know how one
can reasonably interpret this material as a gage of peasant piety because
the stories themselves are part of the conversion process. When, for
example, St. Hunegund of Homblieres is said to have punished the
neighboring peasants with the transformation of their grain into bleeding
stalks because they were harvesting on her feast day instead of attending
services, do we conclude that the peasants were practising Christians who
has neglected a feast because of their economic concerns? I think it would
be fairly safe to say that peasants were pragmatic in their religious
concerns and, if they heard these stories and believed that saints could
influence the weather, heal sicknesses, multiply food supplies, rescue
prisoners from dungeons, etc., they were probably inclined to embrace
Christianity when it occurred to them to turn to divine sources of
assistance.
Jo Ann
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