One facet of farming that has changed only slightly since the middle ages
is the profound dependence of the farmer's and his family's welfare on the
weather. Then as now, drought, flood, and hail could spell disaster in
terms we find difficult to understand.
As a pastor, I stood next to a farmer looking out over a field of mush
that had been, only minutes earlier, a crop worth thousands of dollars.
That was before the hail storm. He was shaking and wringing his cap into
an unrecognizable rag. And he had something which I have never heard
medieval farmers having -- crop insurance.
As farmers make up an ever decreasing percentage of the population, it
will become ever more difficult for the rest of us to understand how a
mere five minutes of very bad weather could ruin the livelihood of an
entire family. And we shall also increasingly lose touch with the strong
link there is between the uncertainty that has always been the farmer's
lot and the religious faith with which very many farmers have met that
uncertainty.
Thus, perhaps our difficulty in dealing with the religious beliefs and
practices of medieval farmers stems not only from our lack of knowledge of
medieval parish life but also from our lack of knowledge of medieval farm
life.
A (sometime) farm boy,
Frank
Frank Morgret
15 Towering Hts -- #1206
St Catharines, Ontario
CANADA
L2T 3G7
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