This is Communio Sanctorum, the history of the Christian Church, season two.

The title of this episode, which is part six in our series 500 years,

the series being a commemoration of the

half-millennial anniversary of the Reformation, is the way it was, and it's a brief look

at popular religion in the middle and late Middle Ages in Europe. We've spent most of our time

in this series on the reformers, many of whom were professional

clergy before they made the break with Rome.

A fair question to ask is, what was religion like for commoners, for the peasantry,

the vast majority of the population of Europe?

Since it was only the clergy and a handful of the nobility who could read, people didn't attend Bible studies.

Their religion was something designed and promulgated by the Church.

It centered on such things as the veneration of saints, especially Mary, relics, pilgrimages, and the quest to capture the Holy Land.

As the faith spread, the church made use of Europe's pagan heritage. The old shrines and

festivals were co-opted to Christian use. While theologians understood the difference

between the Trinity and saints, the distinction was lost on the peasantry.

The old gods were subsumed under saint names and holidays commemorating their martyrdom.

Pagan temples became churches.

The 12th century saw a surge in the importance of the Virgin Mary as central to the religious

devotion of the common people.

Both God the Father and God the Son as males were cast as angry deities worked up about sin and

ready to swat down the wicket. Mary was a mother whose tender mercy stood between these

angry guys and helpless humans. She interceded with her son

...