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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Richard Landes <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >At 11:31 AM 10/22/2001 -0700, you wrote: >>....These public readings, pilgrimages & celebrations must certainly have included peasants among their participants. >yes, they surely did. mmmmmmm..... *perhaps* a poor, overworked rustic might take a day off to visit the local ( = less than half a day's walk) shrine or pilgrimage site, i suppose. but i'd really like to hear the evidence for extensive (or even significant) participation by the peasantry --*in this period*-- in long-range pilgrimage. growing enough food for oneself and everybody else was just too much of a full-time occupation when crop yields were, what?, 3-5 to one. not to speak of the legal questions surrounding their freedom to go walk-about. >the point about their participation, hv, is that it seems primarily concerned with thaumaturgy -- healing miracles etc... good point. and, presumably, the only reason for their inclusion in the hagiographic literature was that they were useful for purposes of demonstrating the thaumaturgical efficacy of a particular saint's ju-ju. >-- and therefore doesn't make much of a case for a "christian" commitment on the part of these "peasants"/rustici. now, i thought --and was quite happy with the thought-- that this string had nicely disposed of that troubling question by defining "Christian" in such a fashion as to include most *any* sort of hybred belief/practice. the Idea of Progress demands that we not descend back into those dank depths. >if you've read some of the sermons, it's hard to imagine the rustici getting very excited about their contents --sort of like lots of lectures we've heard (and given). good point. of course, one might suggest that the only sermons which were deemed worthy of being recorded (and, Merovingian mss. survivals being rather rare, re-recorded) by the *tiny* minority of folks who were *solely* possessed of the means and abilities to do so would perhaps have been those sermons which were of interest to *themselves.* obviously, the tens of thousands of sermons which were preached to the peripatetic rustic masses simply haven't survived, along with all the records of their gifts of valuable property to ecclesiastical institutions. now i'm all confused again. best from here, christopher ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html