For renihan:
Steve Cartwright wrote:
[excerpted]
> First, be very careful about things such as "religious control over society."
> Certainly in the MA, religious institutions exercised great control, but the
> Catholic Church in the MA was hardly monolithic, nor did it control every
> aspect of religious, social, political, or economic life, much as some popes
> may have wanted to--but then, there were some Holy Roman emperors who fought
> the popes over these same things, wanting to control them themselves.
>
I suspect I could be shot for this, but I will make a mundane suggestion
since you say you are an 11th grader working on such an admirable
project. Yes, I think any high schooler interested in the Middle Ages
deserves credit. Also, I am merely an archaeologist who works on early
medieval material.
I suggest that you look into a work called "The Name of the Rose" by
Umberto Eco. You could read the book, or you could check out the video
of the movie version. This story will impress upon you that the medieval
church was hardly monolithic--there were disserters of opinion. However,
it may enforce your opinion that the Church did control society. To
counter that, I would suggest that you watch an Icelandic film called
(in translation) "The Raven," which depicts the serious power struggle
between a witch and a bishop in early medieval Iceland. Unfortunately,
that film only shows up rarely in this country. (Can anyone help me
here? I've seen it, but who is the director and what is the Icelandic
title? The same director did a wonderful version of the Gisli saga.)
My own feelings are: yes, the Church did exercise some significant
control over the upper classes. The Church legitimized kingship, for
example, and made it a divine form of authority. Before that, "kings"
were elected by the leading men. However, on the other hand, pagan
beliefs persisted among the common, rural folk, and were not dispelled
completely for centuries (or ever, let me argue, based on my personal
Finno-Ugric heritage). That's why Christians were so fearful of witches
even in the 17th century, even in North America (at Salem). There were
other strong beliefs, and the Church did not *fully* control anything.
Deborah Shepherd
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