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How effectively did the late medieval church satisfy the aspirations of its members?
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How effectively did the late medieval church satisfy the aspirations of its members? The Church had been absorbed into European culture as part of a large corpus of local beliefs. Ranging from the powers of seventh born sons, to the role of bleeding horses on St. John the Baptist's day, local beliefs permeated the everyday lives of the peasantry as an integral part of their spiritual lives. The power of shrines was held not to be in their devotion to an interceding saint, but their location and magical power. The copying, parodying or adaptation of Church ceremonies was an oft-cited ritualism and clergymen often complained about the sacrilege of such activities, but the original successes of Christianity had been due to their absorption of rural beliefs. These beliefs "bond people to the rituals, and implicitly to the institutions, of the old Church." The elites of Europe viewed religion in a wholly...
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