medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I agree with Nicole Schulman that the opinions of medieval people
both changed throughout their long history and were always very
varied in their suppositions or beliefs. Also that this wide
variation not only inhabited the murky depths of the mass of the
population, but also the lettered elite as well. The interminable
debates among the scholastics on almost every major article of belief
is proof of that proposition as is their instructional literature.
Take, for example, the extraordinary variety of opinions on life
after death, the doctrine of the real presence, and generally
profound disbelief voiced as examples of what-not-to-think used in
Caesarius of Heisterbach's manual for Cistercian novices. Besides,
those determined by the powers to be "heretics" always influenced the
opinions of both the clergy and the people, and were anything but a
meaningless minority. It would be pleasant to believe that this
expression of a kind of "principle of uncertainty" was not found
among medieval folk, but I think the evidence that it was is
overwhelming. John Mundy
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