Page 275 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

A Group of Nuns. Although still viewed by the medieval church as inferior to men, women were as susceptible to the spiritual fervor of the twelfth century as men, and female monasticism grew accordingly. This manuscript illustration shows at the left a group of nuns welcoming a novice (dressed in white) to their order. At the right, a nun receives a sick person on a stretcher for the order’s hospital care.
Benedict noted, “All who arrive as guests are to be wel- comed like Christ.” Monks and nuns also took care of the sick, planting herb gardens so that they could pre- pare the plant remedies used in medieval medicine and also running hospitals, especially for poor people who could not receive care elsewhere. Unlike modern-day hospitals, medieval hospitals were primarily residences for the elderly, the terminally ill, or the blind. Separate quarters were provided for lepers. There were about two thousand leper houses in France in the thirteenth century, a good indication of the widespread nature of the disease.
Popular Religion in the High Middle
Ages
We have witnessed the actions of popes, bishops, and monks. But what of ordinary clergy and laypeople? What were their religious hopes and fears? What were their spiritual aspirations?
The sacraments of the Catholic Church ensured that the church was an integral part of people’s lives, from birth to death. There were (and still are) seven sacra- ments, administered only by the clergy. Sacraments— such as baptism and the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper)—were viewed as outward symbols of an inward grace (grace was God’s freely given gift that enabled humans to be saved) and were considered imperative for a Christian’s salvation. Therefore, the clergy were seen to have a key role in the attainment of salvation.
Other church practices were also important to ordi- nary people. Saints, it was believed, were men and women who, through their holiness, had achieved a special position in heaven, enabling them to act as intercessors before God. The saints’ ability to protect poor souls enabled them to take on great importance at the popular level. Jesus’s apostles were recognized throughout Europe as saints, but there were also numerous local saints who had special significance. New cults developed rapidly, particularly in the intense religious atmosphere of the eleventh and twelfth centu- ries. The English introduced Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, who remains instantly recognizable today through his identification with Santa Claus.
Of all the saints, the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, occupied the foremost position in the High Mid- dle Ages. Mary was viewed as the most important me- diator with her son Jesus, the judge of all sinners. Moreover, from the eleventh century on, a fascination with Mary as Jesus’s human mother became more evi- dent. A sign of Mary’s importance was the growing number of churches all over Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that were dedicated to her, includ- ing the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.
Emphasis on the role of the saints was closely tied to the use of relics, which also increased noticeably in the High Middle Ages. Relics were usually the bones of saints or objects intimately connected to saints that were considered worthy of veneration by the faithful. A twelfth-century English monk began his description
Christianity and Medieval Civilization 237
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