1 Why was attending church so important?
In the Middle Ages, going to church offered a lot more than merely a way of connecting with God. Christianity was not only a religion, but an entire worldview that sought to explain a great deal more than people's relationship with God. Church-going encompassed ethics, telling you how you should behave, and entire areas of study that we would now separate off as science, sociology or politics. Even history was a part of it; medieval histories of the world took a lot from the Bible.
The importance of the church in the lives of medieval people went far beyond theology. In fact, the church fulfilled a lot of functions which we would now look to the government to carry out. This comprised a huge infrastructure to deal with things like education, morality and charity in the parish.
It also played a valuable social role. Nowadays, there are plenty of other things you could be doing on a Sunday morning, but imagine living in a scattered rural hamlet in the Middle Ages. You might not encounter many people, and so the church offered a wonderful opportunity to meet others. It was a place where you could organise your own social group. Hence you saw the emergence of groups formed from, for example, the young men, wives or "maidens" of the local parish.
2 Were people forced to attend?
In theory, everybody was meant to be in church on Sundays and festival days, of which there were about 40-50 annually. That meant that on at least 90 days of the year, you would be expected to be present for at least the morning service.
この記事は BBC History Magazine の November 2021 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は BBC History Magazine の November 2021 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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