The Middle Ages: Chapter 3

Emperor Constantine (c.272–337) made the religion licit, and its tenets were publicly discussed in councils led by him.

Emperor Constantine (c.272–337) made the religion licit, and its tenets were publicly discussed in councils led by him.

He used his exquisite literary and rhetorical training—as befitted a Roman trained in the law—to Christian ends: composing poetry in praise of martyrs, ethical debates about the psychology of sin, and polemics against those who still espoused pagan sympathies.

These Christian leaders used their education and social clout to celebrate and enhance their religion as it reached new peoples.

At the heart of the monastic experience was personal striving in a collective setting. The communal aspect meant that no individual could own personal wealth or belongings, nor sustain ascetic devotions unchecked.

These tasks were usually allocated to experienced obedientiaries, office holders in discrete areas of responsibility, while laymen were employed to execute legal and commercial tasks.

These tasks were usually allocated to experienced obedientiaries, office holders in discrete areas of responsibility, while laymen were employed to execute legal and commercial tasks.

He captured the ardour of early Cistercian life, when he lambasted the artworks of other monastic orders.

Her sisters managed to secure her return for burial in the cloister grounds, as had been her wish.

Ultimately, kings and prelates developed an accommodation, for rulers depended on the ritual support and the training only churchmen could provide, while Church institutions depended on the protection and privileges which kings alone could assure.

In these a vast array of business was transacted: probate, trials for blasphemy and heresy, as well as the all-important business of marriage that touched the lives of all.

Every adult was obliged to confess annually and perform the penance enjoined by the priest, all in preparation for deserving reception of the bread consecrated at the altar during the mass—the bread which was thus transformed into Christ’s flesh and blood, in a process which came to be named transubstantiation.

They did not initially receive ordination, or serve a parish, but were free agents whose lives offered an example and their preaching, exhortation.

In turn, satirical treatment lampooned friars and their ways, as did Geoffrey Chaucer in his pilgrim Friar, described as ‘wanton and merry’, full of gossip and ‘fair language’.

Savonarola was hanged and burned as a heretic in 1498, a sign of the volatility and diversity of these styles of religious devotion and their political resonances.