Dear listmembers, I am interested in the problem of medieval religious
mentality. I mean the problem of pre-christian traditions in the medieval
christian thought, expecially at the popular level. What can we say about
that? Sure, the medieval man or woman lives their life without the
consciousness to be in a mental atmosphere which derives a lot of its
elements directly from the most remote ages. The “Benandanti”, in Friuli,
didn’t think that their rites were deeply far from the christian reality. We
do know that the christianization of western Europe wasn’t so simple as
someone should think. Still, it is not so simple to penetrate in the
religious mentality of a medieval farmer, for instance, to know his deep
instincts and thoughts. Do you think the only sources we have for this,
should be the penitential books (see the Burcard’s Corrector) and the works
of the cultured medieval autors?
Fabrizio Conti
Medieval History student at
University of Rome “La Sapienza”
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