nothing but a seemingly
uncomplicated and untwisted faith. The Plowman has the faith of a poor
farmer, uncomplicated by the
bureaucracy of the church. The Pardoner is probably on this journey because
he is being required to go
by the church or he sees some sort of economic gain from this voyage, most
likely from selling
forgiveness to the other pilgrims. The Plowman on the other hand is probably
on this voyage because of
his sincerity and faith in its purpose.
While this was the story of religion at ‘grass-roots’ level, at the
organisational and hierarchical level,
the church developed along a different line. It became more organized, more
bureaucratic, more legal,
more centralized and basically more powerful on a European scale. This
process was spearheaded
by the papacy and reached its pinnacle under Pope Innocent III in the early
13th Century. He embodied
what became known as the ‘papal monarchy’ – a situation where the popes
literally were kings in their
own world. The relative importance of spiritual and secular power in the
world was a constant question in
the middle ages with both secular emperors and kings, and the popes
asserting their claims to rule by
divine authority with God’s commands for God’s people proceeding out of
their mouths. The power of the
church is hard to exaggerate: its economic and political influence was huge,
as its wealth, movements
like the crusades, and even the number of churches that exist from this
period truly show its greatness.
By the early 10th century, a strange malaise seems to have entered the
English church. There are
comments from this time of a decline in learning among churchmen and an
increase in a love for
things of this earthly world. Even more of these lax standards had begun a
decline in the power structure
of the church which included a decrease in acceptable behavior amongst
churchmen and a growing use
of church institutions by lay people as a means of evading taxes.
Christianity affected all men in Europe at every level and in every way.
Such distances however, led
to much diversity and the shaping of Medieval religion into a land of
contrasts. One can also see how
man’s feelings of extreme sinfulness and desire for God are quite evident
in these tales.
Still, we are told that history repeats itself because nobody listens to it,
but more realistically
history repeats itself because man is essentially the same from one
generation to the next. He has
the same aspirations, fears and flaws; yet the way that these are expressed
differs from age to age.
This is why each period of history is different. The fact that man is the
same yet different is what
makes the study of the people who formed the medieval church directly
applicable to Christians’ lives and experiences today.
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