Patrick J. Geary - Peasant Religion in Medieval Europe

8/10/2019 Patrick J. Geary - Peasant Religion in Medieval Europe

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Patrick J. Geary

Peasant Religion in Medieval EuropeIn: Cahiers d'Extrme-Asie, Vol. 12, 2001. pp. 185-209.

RsumLe christianisme a commenc comme un phnomne urbain et s'est lentement diffus dans le monde rural, absorbant sansrupture srieuse les pratiques pr-chrtiennes centres autour des offrandes faites aux divinits locales dans les forts et lescours d'eau afin d'assurer la fertilit des rcoltes et du btail ainsi que la sant et la protection des communauts locales. A partir

du douzime sicle, le lieu de la pratique religieuse devint la paroisse. Dans cet espace, les paysans taient inclus en tant quespectateurs dans les crmonies liturgiques officielles, mais ils taient impliqus plus activement dans les groupes pnitentiels,dans la vnration des saints, dans les plerinages, et dans la formulation et l' accomplissement de vux faits en change d'uneassistance divine. L'valuation savante de telles pratiques a t rendue plus complexe par la polmique chrtienne et par lesdfinitions de la religion en gnral et du christianisme en particulier. Certains chercheurs identifient le christianisme mdival l'orthodoxie officielle tandis que d'autres affirment que la religion paysanne est un systme culturel complexe en tensiondynamique avec la religion savante. D'autres chercheurs encore prfrent parler de religion locale, plutt que de recourir auxtermes d'lite et de populaire.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

J. Geary Patrick. Peasant Religion in Medieval Europe. In: Cahiers d'Extrme-Asie, Vol. 12, 2001. pp. 185-209.

doi : 10.3406/asie.2001.1170

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/asie_0766-1177_2001_num_12_1_1170
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_asie_183http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/asie.2001.1170http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/asie_0766-1177_2001_num_12_1_1170http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/asie_0766-1177_2001_num_12_1_1170http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/asie.2001.1170http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_asie_183


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PEASANT RELIGION IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE*

PatrickJ. Geary

Lechristianismea commenc comme unphnomneurbainet s'estlentementdiffusdanslemonde rural,absorbantsansrupturesrieuse lespratiquespr-chrtiennescentresautourdesoffrandesfaitesauxdivinitslocalesdanslesfortset lescoursd'eauafind'assurerlafertilitdesrcolteset du btailainsi quela santet laprotectiondescommunautslocales.A partir du douzimesicle, lelieude la pratiquereligieusedevint laparoisse.Danscet espace,lespaysanstaientinclusen tantquespectateursdanslescrmoniesliturgiquesofficielles,mais ils taientimpliqus plusactivementdans lesgroupespnitentiels,dans lavnrationdessaints,danslesplerinages,et danslaformulationetl' ccomplissementde vuxfaits en changed'une assistancedivine.L'valuationsavantedetellespratiquesa trenduepluscomplexepar lapolmiquechrtienneetpar lesdfinitionsde la religionengnralet duchristianismeen particulier. Certainschercheurs identifient lechristianismemdival l'orthodoxieofficielletandisque d'autresaffirmentquela religionpaysanneest un systmeculturel complexeen

tensiondynamiqueavecla religionsavante.D'autreschercheurs encoreprfrentparler de religionlocale,pluttquede recouriraux termesd'liteet depopulaire.

Providinga synthesis of the studies ofEuropean peasantreligionin theMiddle Agesdemandsfirst that one placethe European peasantrywithin itsspatial,social,and historicaldimensions.Second,it requires a reviewof thecomplexand hotly debatedquestionof medievalreligion or religiousculture.Bothare fraught with difficulties,but withoutthese steps, there is no possibilityof dealingwith the complexissuesof peasantreligionin Europe.The followingessayis dividedinto three parts. The first presents a chronologyof religiousconversionand peasanthistory to roughly the year thousand.The secondreflects on the methodologicaland conceptualissuesraised by the evidencepresentedin the first part. The third then looksat peasantreligionin Europetothe endof the MiddleAges.

I amgratefulto RichardMowerforadvicein preparingtherevisionsof thispaper.

Cahiersd'Extrme-Asie12 (2001): 185-209.


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186 PatrickJ. Geary

The Making of the Medieval PeasantryThe western European peasantry derivedfrom the amalgamation of

traditionalEuropeanpopulationsin the conqueredRoman Empireandmigrantsfrom the Germanicregionson the empire'sborders acrossthe third throughtenth centuries.Althoughoncethe Germanicmigrationswere termed invasionsand seen as momentsof majorrupture, increasingly theseeventsare seen asmore gradual andcertainlyless disruptivethan often imagined.1Nevertheless,importantchangestookplacein the nature of ruralsocietyin this period.

Romanagriculturereliedto a great extent on slavelabor on largeestatesownedby magnatesor by the emperorand the state. In addition,an unknownpercentageof agriculturalworkerswere tenantfarmers who, whilefree before

the law, workedthe lands of the aristocracy.Smalllandowners,whilenotunknownin westernEurope,apparentlymadeup a verysmallproportionof theagriculturalpopulationand in the courseof the third through sixth centuriesseemto havebeen pressedinto economicand politicaldependenceon magnateswhoownedvast estatesand whodominatedpubliclife. In northern andwesternEurope,late Romanagriculture was seriously disruptedin borderareas duringthe third century by internal as well as external problems and a fallingpopulationdue in large part to plague.The traditionalvilla or estatesystemwasunder stress if not disappearing.Evenin other areas that experienced lessphysicaldisruption,late Romanagrarian societysuffered under the increasingburden of taxationto supporta large and inefficient military. An increasinglyoppressiveand differentiallyenforcedtax systemdrovepeasantsto abandontheestates on which they workedand to flee to areas where powerful aristocratscouldprovidethem protection from state demands.By the fourth century,imperial laws sought to ensure tax revenuesby makingtrades, includingfarming, hereditaryobligationsand by bindingagricultural workersto the landson whichthey lived.Thesecoloni,whileremainingfree personsbefore the law,lost the independenceto sell their labor to other landlordsor to migrate totownsor to other lessburdensomeregions.In regionsof Gauland Spain,rural

populationsincludingboth

peasantsand

landlordsrevolted againstcentral

government agents.These uprisingsof bacaudaewere ruthlessly repressed,butthe result was the disruptionof normalagriculturalproduction.2As a result

In general onthe Europeanpeasantrysee Werner Rsener,ThePeasantry ofEurope(Oxford,1994).Theliteratureon peasantryis enormousand theargumentsaboutthe definitionof peasantare numerous.In general see EricR. Wolf, Peasants(EngelwoodCliffs,1966);TeodorShanin,d., PeasantsandPeasantSocieties:SelectedReadings(NewYork,1971).

2 On the BacaudaeseeE.A.Thompson, PeasantRevoltsin LateRomanGaulandpain, PastandPresent2 (1952):11-23; ChrisWickham,TheOtherTransition:From

theAncientWorldto Feudalism,PastandPresent 103(1984),pp. 3-36, esp.pp. 16-17.


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PeasantReligionin MedievalEurope 187

large areas of the empirewere termed agrideserti or abandoned areas,althoughthey maynot havebeen so thoroughlyabandonedby a populationas

no longeraccessibleto the Romanfiscalauthorities.3The settlementof barbarianpeopleswithin the Empire, beginningin thethird century, was in part a responseto this depopulation. Defeatedenemiesweresettled in abandonedareasand usedboth to return the landsto productionand to providesoldiersfor the army. Later, beginningin the late fourthcentury, wholebarbarianarmies,togetherwith their wivesand childrensuchasthe Goths,were allowedto settle in Romanprovinces.These warriorstendedtosettle initiallyinto towns andstrategicgarrisons,drawingtheir incomefrom taxrevenueassignedthem from rural estates and thus havinglittle effect on theindigenouspeasantry.In regionssuchas BurgundyandGaulnorth of the Loire,barbarianwarriors didmerge into the peasantry, but generallythis took placewithout major dislocationof existingpopulationsor cultural traditions.Largeestatesremainedthe rule, workedby slaves andcoloni.4

In the EarlyMiddleAges (roughlysixth through tenth centuries),slaverygraduallydisappeared.Largeestatesmovedfrom productionbasedon gangsofslaveworkers toa system of sharecropping.Slavesand colons alike wereassignedindividualplots of land and wereexpectedto providea fixed annualpaymentin kind as well as a specifiednumberof days' laboron that portionofthe estate still worked for the direct benefit of the owner. As the distinctionbetweenforms of labor and economicstatus blurred, the legal status of slaveand free likewisebecameless significantwith the result that by the eleventhcentury chattelslaverywas largelyunknownoutsideof border areas(the Slaviceast and the SpanishMuslimfrontier). During this sametime, the nuclearfamily becamethe basic unit of peasant society, a change that probablycontributed, from the late ninth century, to the first significantpopulationgrowth sinceAntiquity.5

3 On agriculturaleconomyin LateAntiquitysee AndrewWatson, agriculture inG. W. Bowersock,Peter Brown,and OlegGrabar,eds., LateAntiquity:A Guideto the

PostclassicalWorld(Cambridge,MA,1999),pp. 279-282;andTamaraLewit,AgriculturalProductionin the RomanEconomy200-400(Oxford,1991).On the transitionto medievalformsof agriculturalproductionseeChrisWickham, TheOtherTransition:FromtheAncientWorldto Feudalism.

4 The questionof how barbarianswere settledinto the Empirehas been a muchdebatedissue in recent historiography.Seeespecially WalterGoffart,Barbarians andRomansAD 418-584:The TechniquesofAccommodation(Princeton,1980);HerwigWolframandAndreas Schwarcz,eds.,Anerkennung undIntegration,ZudenwirtschaftlichenGrundlagender Vlkerwanderungszeit400-600(Vienna,1988);andHerwigWolfram,TheRoman Empireandits GermanicPeoples(Berkeley,1997),esp.pp. 112-116.

5 SeegenerallyAdriaanVerhulst, La gensedomanialeclassiqueen FranceauhautMoyenge, in Agricolturae mondoruralein OccidenteneWaltomedioevo.Settimanedi studiodelCentroItalianodi studisull'alto medioevo,no. 13 (Spoleto,1966),pp. 135-


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Although assigned to parcels of land, most peasants lived in looselyorganizedvillages. Recentlysome scholarshavearguedthat the small,nucleatedvillagethat is familiarsincethe high middleagesis a relativelylate creationofthe tenth and eleventhcenturies.Howeverabundant evidenceexists ofvillaeand vici, ruralpopulation centers that were also centers of economic andpoliticalauthority, to suggestthat villages,if not in the sameform as today,were the locusof populationresidencein the earlymiddleages.6

The natureof peasantreligionin LateAntiquityandthe EarlyMiddleAgesis extremelydifficult to assess.Althoughrecentlythe Christian natureof LateRomanGaulhas beenemphasized,it is generallyassumedthat Christianityintothe sixth century waslargely anurban phenomenon.7 Elsewhere,traditionalreligions,incorporatedinto Romanpolytheism withoutseriousdisruption,

continuedto dominatecultic activities.These focused onofferings to localdivinitiesin forests and streamsin order to ensurefertility of cropsand animalsand on the health and protectionof localcommunities.Certainlythe centralinstitutionsof Christianity wereurban centered andthe episcopalorganizationof the Churchwas basedon Romantowns andtheir administrativedistricts.Monasterieswerenot unknownin Gauland Italy from the early fifth century,but these tended to be aristocraticinstitutions and their connectionto thereligiouslife of the rural populationwas apparentlyminimal.8Christianityspread to the countrysidein Gaulin a seriousmanner only from the seventhcentury, when bishops beganto makea seriousattempt to Christianizeruralpopulations.Althoughthey did not establishanythingapproachinga system ofrural churches,they did encouragethe appearanceof rural cult centers in viciand villaeserved by a localclergy. Suchefforts intensified in the eighth andninth centuries,when smallprivate churches establishedon estatesas well as

160;DavidHerlihy,MedievalHouseholds(Cambridge,MA,1985);Werner Rosener,Peasantsin the MiddleAges(Urbana,1992);and the essaysin WernerRosener,d.,StrukturenderGrundherrschaftimfruhen Mittelalter(Gottingen,1989).

6 J. Chapelotand R.Fossier, in The Villageand the Housein the MiddleAges(London,1985),argued that villagesdid not exist in the early MiddleAges.Thisargumenthasbeenlargelydismissed.SeeChris Wickham,RuralSocietyin CarolingianEurope, in RosamondMcKitterick,d., The New CambridgeMedievalHistory(Cambridge,1995),p. 529.

7 Seein particularYitzhakHen, CultureandReligionin MerovingianGaul,AD 481-151(Leiden, 1995).

8 J. N. Hillgarth, d., Christianityand Paganism,350-750,(Philadelphia,1986),providesan excellent selectionof sourceson the Christianizationof Europeintranslationwithan intelligentcommentary.Asmuch as possiblethe translationsthatfollow aretaken fromHillgarth's collection.In generalon early monasticismseeFriedrichPrinz,Friihes Monchtumim Frankenreich: Kultur undGesellschafiin Gallien,denRheinlndenundBayernam Beispielder monastischenEntwicklung(4.bis 8. Jahrhunderi)

(Munich,2ndeditionDarmstadt,1988).


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private churches establishedby monasteriesincreasinglyassumed arole in theliturgicalandpastorallife of the rural population.9

Archaeologicalevidencepoints to diffused cult sites in rural areas but theprocess of the replacementof traditionalagrarian cults by Christianity isdifficult to trace.Written sourcesdescribingthe religiousbeliefsand practicesof the peasantpopulationof Europein this periodare extremelyrare and eitheranecdotalor prescriptive.Those narrative texts that do exist are intendedforelite audiences and presentimagesof the rural population that are deeplycoloredby ideologyand rhetoric. Neverthelessit appearsfairly certain thatlocalreligiouscenters which had preexistedRomansettlementand that hadbeenassimilatedinto Romancults through the processof interprtatif)romana,that is, identifying Gallic or Germanic deities with those of the Romanpantheon,continuedto be frequentedwell into the sixth century. These cultsites includedboth templesand sacredgroves.10Peasants looked to ritesassociatedwith these divinitiesfor blessingsof their fields and the assuranceoftheir fertility. As late as 397 in the Alpineregion of Trent in northern Italy,Christianmissionaries who attempted to prohibit recent converts fromparticipatingin such rites were murdered.11Howeversuch dramaticactionswererare. Moregenerally,peasantresistanceto religiouschange continuedin amorepassivebut highlyeffectivemanner.

Christian bishopsattempted to eliminatesuch practicesby appealingtolandownersto eliminatecult siteson their estatesand to take responsibilityforthe actionsof their peasants. Ina sermonof Maximusof Turin (died415),thebishopwarns landownersthat by keepingsilenceand permitting sacrificestoidols,they are consentingto these practices.You therefore brother,whenyouobserveyour peasantsacrificing anddo not forbid the offering, sin, becauseevenif youdid not assistthe sacrificeyourself yougave permissionfor it. 12

Maximusdescribedrustic cult sites asfollows:And if you went into the fields you wouldsee woodenaltars and stoneimages,suitableto a rite in which insensiblegodsare servedat moldering

9 In generalon conversionof the countrysidesee PeterBrown,TheRiseofWesternChristendom(Oxford,1996),pp. 95-111;Arnold Angenendt,DasFriihmittelalter.DieabendlndischeChristenheitvon400bis900(Stuttgart,1990);C. E. Stancliffe,Fromtownto country:the Christianisationof the Touraine370-600,Studiesin ChurchHistory16(1979),pp. 43-59;and PaulFouracre, TheWorkof Audoenusof Rouenand EligiusofNoyonin ExtendingEpiscopalInfluencefrom theTownto the Countryin Seventh-CenturyNeustria, Studiesin ChurchHistory16(1979),pp. 77-91.On the conversionofEnglandsee Henry Mayr-Harting,TheComingof Christianityto Anglo-SaxonEngland.Thirdedition, (UniversityPark,1991).

10 Hillgarth,ChristianityandPaganism,p. 54,citingCaesariusof Aries,Sermon53.11 Hillgarth,p. 53.

Maximusof Turin, Sermon107,Hillgard,p. 56.


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altars. If you woke upearlier[than youusuallydo]youwouldseea rusticreelingwith wine.Youought to know that he is what they call either a

devoteeof Diana [that is, an epilepticor onewho is moon-mad]or asoothsayer...13ForMaximusand other Christian bishops,the godsto whompeasantsofferedsacrifice werenot figments of the imaginationbut demons,dark powersopposed to the ChristianGod. Thus the continuationof pagan rituals wasunderstoodas the venerationof the Devil and his agents. In the words ofMartinof Braga,a sixth centurySpanishbishop, The demons tooktheir namesso that [the rustics]might worshipthem as godsand offer them sacrificesandimitate the deeds of those whose names they invoke.The demons alsopersuadedmen to build them temples, to placethere imagesof statues ofwicked menand to set up altars to them, to which they might pour out thebloodnot only of animalsbut even of men. Besides,many demons,expelledfrom heaven,alsopresideeither in the seaor in riversor springs orforests;menignorantof God alsoworshipthem as godsandsacrificeto them. 14

Suchbishopsencouragedthe use of force againstpeasantsto end sacrificesto localdeities,and thus they concentratedtheir efforts on inspiringthe elite topolicethe masses.At the sametime, they willingly redirectedlocal fertilityrituals toward the ChristianGod. An exampleof this is the establishmentinRomeof the MajorLitanies,a processionheld in Romeon April 25, which was

the date of the Robigalia,a processionto propitiate the godRobigusand thusprevent rust-blightfrom attackingthe youngwheat. In time these litaniesspreadthroughoutwestern Europe.15

This approach of suppression,enlistmentof secular authorities, andaccommodationto traditionalrituals when possiblecontinuedin subsequentcenturies andis evident in religious andsecularlegislationthrough the tenthcentury. Thus,for example,in the sixth centuryKingChilderbertI (ca.533-558)decreedthat any men who,onceadmonished,shallnot at oncecast out imagesand idols,dedicatedto the devil,madeby men, from their fields, or shallpreventbishopsfrom destroyingthem, shallnot be free, oncethey havegiven sureties,until they appearin Our Presence. 16Equallycondemnedwere individualswhoclaimedability to control the weatheror who presidedat sacrifices.Suchcondemnationsin Spain,Gaul, and Italy suggestthat these practices werewidespreadand continuedwellinto the ninth centuryandevenbeyond.

3 Ibid.4 Martinof Braga,OntheCastigationof Rustics,Hillgarth, pp.58-59.5 SeePaulde Clerck, Litanie, in AndrVauchez,d., Dictionnaireencyclopdique

duMoyenAge(Paris,1997),I, p. 898.6 MGH CapitulariaI, no. 2.P. 2.Translation,Hillgarth,p. 108.


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At the sametime that venerationof idols,auguries,and the like werebeingcondemned and suppressed, the rulers of the barbarian kingdoms thatdeveloped within the boundariesof the Roman Empirewere supportingChristianchurchesby granting them and their clergy important rolesin thecontrol of ordinary life. Churches becameplacesof exile to which individualsfleeingpublicjusticeor privateretribution couldfind temporaryhaven.Bishopswere given control over marriageand the authority to punish those whosemarriagesweredeemedincestuous. Clergywereaccordedparticularprotectionfrom violenceor the powersof publicjustice.

The assumptionof the Frankishkingshipby the Carolingianfamily in themid-eighthcenturymarkeda majorincreasein publicsupportgiven the church.Under the Carolingian rulers, particularlyCharlemagne (768-814), the

monarchyactivelysupportedthe implantationof orthodoxChristianitywithinthe kingdom.Churcheswere accordeda tithe or one-tenth of agriculturalproductionfor their support; royal authoritiessoughtto ensure that the clergyserving in rural churches,whether under the authority of bishopsor private,proprietarychurches,had a minimumcompetencyin liturgyand livedaccordingto church laws.Bishopswere requiredto visit the churchesin their diocesesandto ensure that the populationdid not practice paganrites includingsacrificesfor the dead,auguries,divinations,sacrifices, or incantations.17Sacredgroves,stones and fountainswhere rituals were performed wereto be destroyed.18Bishopsand their clergywere to teach the basicsof Christianbeliefin their

dioceses,so that the peoplewouldbelievethat:Fatherand son and holy spirit wereone God,eternal, invisible,who

created heavenand earth, the sea and allthat are in it, and that there isone deity, substance andmajestyin three persons ofthe Father, Son,and Holy Spirit. And let them teach that the son of God is incarnateofthe holy spirit and born of Mary ever virgin for the salvationandredemptionof the humanrace, he died, wasburied and rose againonthe third dayand ascendedinto heaven,and howhe is to comein divinemajestyto judgeall men accordingto their individualmerits and how

the impiouswill be sent into eternal fire with the devil for their sins,and the just to life eternal with Christ andhis angels.Likewiseit is to bepreachedto them concerningthe resurrectionof the dead, that theymight know and believethat that they will receivethe rewardof thesamebody. 19

In terms of practice,Carolingianrulers orderedthat Sundaysbe kept free fromwork andthat allattend churchon Sundaysand feast days.

Capit.IV, p. 45c. 6.Capit..I, p. 59c. 65.Capit.I, p. 612c. 82.


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In areasin whichChristianityhadneverbeen established,or in areassuchasEnglandand parts of Germanyin which Christianityhad largelydisappearedduring the Barbarianmigrations,the process of Christianization of thecountrysideoperatedsomewhatsimilarly.Pope GregoryI (590-604)instructedAugustineof Canterbury,a bishophe sent to convert the AngloSaxons,not todestroypagantemplesbut rather to removethe idols,blessthe edificewith holywater, and put relics of the saints in the placeof the pagancult objects.Ingeneralthis becamea pattern for Christianaccommodationto traditionalreligioususage.Saintswere substitutedfor localdivinitiesand populationswereurged to venerate the physicalremainsof these saints. Inregionssuch asSaxony,in whichChristianizationwasan integralpart of conquest,conversionwas much more violent.For over thirty years, the Frankishkingdomfought to

subduethe Saxons,for whomreligiouscult was an integral part of theirindependence.The central cult site of the Saxonswas plunderedand destroyedby Charlemagne,and thousandsof Saxonswere slaughteredwhileothers wereoffered death or baptism.Here, practicessuch as cremationof the dead,consortingwith witches sacrificesto the gods,werepunishableby death, aswerefailure tokeepthe Christianfast of Lentor refusingbaptism.At the sametime, the Christian church wasprivileged in Saxony both by materialconcessions,protection extendedto the clergy, and alsoconsiderablelatitudegranted clergy to mitigate the otherwisedraconianpunishmentsspecifiedagainstthe newlysubjectedSaxons.20

In regionssuch as Bavaria, whereChristianityhad survivedthe withdrawalof Romaninstitutionsin the fifth century and popularFrankish andespeciallyAnglo-Saxonmissionariescomplainedof indigenousclergy, poorly educatedand subjectto no bishopbut celebratingtheir liturgies in the opencountry inthe huts of farmers. The Anglo-Saxon missionaryBoniface particularlycomplainedthat these priests did not teachdoctrine or demandconfessionaladherencefrom the people that they baptized,and whenhe attempted toeliminatethis clergythey wereprotectedby the people.BonifacecomplainedtoPope Zachariasthat these localclergy liveaccordingto their own caprice,protectedby the peopleagainst the bishops,so that thesehaveno check upontheir scandalousconduct.Theygather aboutthem a like-mindedfollowing andcarry on in their falseministry, not in a catholicchurch, butin the opencountryin the huts of farm laborers,where their ignoranceand stupid folly can behiddenfrom the bishops. 21

At the same time that Carolingianbishops,supportedby royal authority,

20 In general onthe conquestand conversionof the Saxons seeAngenendt,DasFrubmittlealter,pp.296-299.

21 Letter64, EphraimEmerton, ed.and transi.,TheLettersofSaintBoniface,(NewYork, 1940),p. 144.


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Interpretation

How all of this legislativeand anecdotalevidenceis to be interpreted inorder to understandpeasantreligion is extremelycontroversial.An essentialproblemis that without exception scholarsattempting to study religion areeither themselveseither Christians whosee themselvesa part of the traditionthey are studying, orat least they are usingthe languageand assumptionsofChristian values as though they were analyticcategories and tools forinterpreting the past. Religionitself is hardlyan analyticalcategorybut rathera product of westernhistorical andpolemicaldevelopment.Religiois aRomanterm derivedfrom the word to bind and since earlyRomantimes refers tothoseactivitiesthat bind humansand deities,both in the passivesenseof beingconstrainedand in the activesenseof a senseof obligation.Rhetoricallytheterm has contrasted,sinceRomantimes, withsuperstitio, but the use of theseterms is alwayspolemical and changesthrough history. Thus essentialistdefinitionsof religionandtheir contrastwith magicor superstitionare of littleuse historically, justas attempts to define a religioussphere from a secularsphereimplyanachronistic assumptions abouthumanbehaviorthat destroytheintegrity of socialthought and practice. Generally,such essentialistdefinitionsimply a post-Reformationand in particular a nineteenthcentury notion ofreligion characterizedprimarilyby a set of personalbeliefsand secondarilyappropriateritual practices.For many scholars,then, the types of peasantbehavior describedabovewere consideredsuperstitionor pagansurvivalsif notoutright paganism.Christianityconsistedin orthodox belief suchas thatdemandedby the Carolingianrulers and participationin the sacramentalsystem ofthe Church.

Thus until recently manyscholars arguedthat peasantreligion did notbecomeChristianuntil after the reformationof the sixteenthcentury. Prior tothat time, peasantsand indeed muchof Europe'spopulationwas seen to beengagedin magicalor superstitiouspracticesthat weresurvivalsof paganfolktradition. Keith Thomas, writing about the later middle ages goesstill

further, arguing that the magicof the medievalchurch includednot onlythe myriad practicesby whichsacredobjectssuch as relics,crosses,and holywater were used to ensuremiraculous outcomes in healing,protection,divination, andthe like, but eventhe central ritualsof the Christianchurch,especiallybaptismand the Eucharistietransformationof breadand wineintothe bodyand bloodof Christ.24

A less extreme position is that taken by scholars who will see theChristianizationof Europeas completeby the year thousand,althoughthe

24 KeithThomas,ReligionandtheDeclineofMagic(NewYork,1

971).


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nature of this Christianityis much disputed.A recentvariationon this themeisa study of ValerieFlint entitledThe RiseofMagicin Early MedievalEurope,in

whichshe argues that practicescondemnedas magicalin late AntiquitybyChristianscamein the courseof the earlymiddleagesto be incorporatedintoChristianpracticeitself.25These includedastrology,demonology,onirology,aswellas the use of crosses andrelicsas talismansand prayers as charms.Forher,the compromise between Christianity andmagic was a significantand,ultimately, positivestep in the accommodationof medievalChristianityto therealitiesof preexistingbelief andpractice.

Amongscholarsless willing to see medievalChristianityas a magicalsystem, there has been a strong tendencyto distinguishbetweenpopularreligion andofficial orelite religion, although suchdistinctionscontinueto

generateenormousdisagreement.At one extremeare thosewhoargue that theonly religioussystem operativein the Middle Ageswas Christianity,whichreachedthe entire population.The most articulateproponentof this approachis John van Engen,who has arguedthat medievalChristendom,graduallycreated in the course of the early Middle Ages, includedall of societyin acommonsystemof beliefand practicedirectedby the clergyandsummarizedinChurchteachings.Takingthe Carolingianprogramof expanding accessto thesacramentalsystem of Christianityas well as the determinationto inculcatedoctrinalconformity, he argues in medievalChristianityreligiousculturerested ultimately on'faith' or 'belief,' meaningprofessedassentto certainpropositionsas well as inner conviction. 26This unity of beliefunited peasant,priest and king, and was diffused downwardin societythrough the work ofbishops,priests, and monksin the exerciseof their pastoral care.Texts of thesort cited above hinting at practices labeled by bishops and clerics assuperstitionor magic, heseesas evidenceof increasinglymarginalizedsurvivalsor mere commonplaces repeatedfrom the fifth century to the eleventhinconciliar decrees,polemicaltexts, and royal edictsbut not reflecting actualpractice. In this model, then, peasant religion is identical with officialChristianity,diffused downwardthrough the entire society.Peasantreligion

differs in no essential wayfrom the Christianityof the clergy orthe elites.A variationon suchan approachis that of the late ItalianhistorianRaoulManselli,whodistinguishedbetweenpopularreligionand folklore. 27Popularreligionhe saw as a diffused versionof officiai Christianitytaught to themasses. Folklore, in which he included pagansurvivals hintedat in textssuchas the penitentialsandCarolingianlegislation,he sawas not religionat all

25 ValerieI. J. Flint,TheRiseofMagicin EarlyMedievalEurope(Princeton,1991).26John van Engen, The ChristianMiddleAgesas anHistoriographical Problem,

mAmericanHistoricalReview91(1986),pp. 519-552.Quoteis frompage545.27 Raoul Manselli,LareligionepopolarenelMedioevo(secc.VJ-XII)(Turin, 1974).


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but rather populartraditions,acts, magicformulae, or stories that have noreligioussignificance.

For scholarswhowish, on the other hand, to grant a religiousmeaningtothe culturalpracticesof Europe's peasantrythat fall outsideof the officiallysanctionedChristianity, difficulties arise in defining the relationshipbetweenthe culture of these people and that of others. The most simplisticmodel,elaboratedrhetoricallybut not defendedin any sustainedmanner andin factrepudiatedby scholarssuchas Jean-ClaudeSchmitt,to whomit is most oftenattributed, wouldposit two medievalcultures.28The first, elite culture, isdominatedby the written word,belongsto the clergy, and is expressedin Latin.The other, popularculture, is oral, vernacular, andbelongsto the masses.Sourcessuch as the penitentialsare the primary evidencefor the existenceofthe second,sinceit is by its verynature incapableof leavingtestimonyitself.

The problemswith such a formulationare numerous.First, such a visionsuggeststhat Europe's population belonged to separate,distinct culturalspheres,an impossibilityif oneunderstandsculturein an anthropologicalsense.Moreover,the socialcategoriesof elite and populardo not coincidewith theother elementsof the definition, clerical, lay, vernacular,Latin, oral andwritten. Layaristocratshad considerableaccess,directly or through secretaries,to written culture, both in Latinand increasingly,in the vernacular.Theecclesiasticalproletariat consistedof poorlyeducatedpriestswhoweredrawn

from, and shared the culturalhorizons,of the communitiesthey served.Moreover,in both ritual and belief, peasantand priest, serf and king, sharedmuchin common.

For all of these reasons, scholarssuch as Schmitt prefer to talk aboutmedievalculture as ... multipolar (andnot dual), interactional(and notsubordinateto univocal currents), and attentive to other mediationsandmediators. 29 Ratherthan suggestinga simpleoppositionbetweenChurchandpopulace,onemust considerthe specificpositionswithin the religiousfield ofurban and rural clergy,monks,parishpriests, and the varioussocialclassesthatcomprisedthe laity. Relationsacrossthis complexmatrix are not simply the

result of vulgarizationof an elite culturalmodeldown the socioculturalladder, but a complicatedprocessSchmitt refers to as the folklorization oflearnedculture whereby elementsmost characteristicof peasanttradition areabsorbedby learned,Latinclericaltradition.

28 At leastsomehaveso interpretedJean-ClaudeSchmitt, 'Religionpopulaire'etculturefolklorique,Annales3 1 (1976),pp.941-953.

29Jean-ClaudeSchmitt,Religione,folkloree societnelPOccidente mdivale(Rome,1988),especiallyhis introduction, pp.1-27,which was translatedas Religion,Folklore,and Societyin the MedievalWest, in LesterK. Little and BarbaraRosenwein, eds.,DebatingtheMiddleAges:IssuesandReadings(Oxford,1998),pp. 376-387.


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For similarreasons,somescholarshavelargelyavoidedthe term popularreligion,popularculture, or folkloricculture altogether, preferring to talkinsteadof local religion. WilliamChristian, in two extremelyimportantstudiesof religionin sixteenth centurySpain, arguesthat the only defensibledistinctioninvolvedbetweenpopularreligionand whateverelse it is beingcompared with is that between religion as practiced and religion asprescribed. 30He prefers insteadto talk about localreligion, by whichhemeansto underscorethat all practicetakes placein a specificcommunity, andover time religious practicebecomespractices as forms of prescribedreligionare carried on in a particularplacewith an inherent conservatismthat in timeproduces localvariation.Of course,somepeople,a minority, did not think inlocalterms, and yet theseare with rare exceptions those who controlledliterary

traditions and thus are our primary accessto the recordsof culture.One mustthen use these sourceswith greatcareand pay particularattentionto whatJean-Claude Schmitt, followingAron Gurevich,terms the bearersof a middleculture, those personswho serve intentionallyor not as intermediariesbetweenlocaland universaltraditions.31In the secondhalf of the MiddleAges,roughly the eleventhto the sixteenth century, such intermediariesbecomesomewhatmore common,and throughthem we are able to trace out more ofwhat can be termed the outlinesof local religionof Europe's peasantry.However,we must understandthat these traditions are not the exclusivedomainof the peasantryand ought not to be assumedto be either a separatereligiousculture ormere superstitionin oppositionto real Christianity.

Religious Practice1000-1500Carolingian churchmen,like reformation theologians, placed great

emphasis onbelief.There is little evidenceto suggestthat this emphasiswasuniversallysharedeither by the clergy orthe laity of Europe. Evenamongeliteclerics,concernsabout orthodoxy(that is, right confessing) werematchedbyconcerns aboutorthopraxis,right behavior.Thus, for example,the uniform

performanceof rituals, theacceptanceof the right date for the celebrationofEaster, the propermeansof tonsuringclergy, wereall centralissuesof concern.In examiningpeasantreligion,it is all the more proper to concentrateonpractice,rather than to be seducedinto anachronisticconcernsabout rightbelief.Beliefgrew in importancewithin the educatedclergy from the eleventh

30 WilliamA. Christian,Jr., Apparitionsin LateMedievaland RenaissanceSpain(Princeton,1981);ibid.,LocalReligionin Sixteenth-CenturySpain(Princeton, 1981).Citationp. 178.

3 Seein particularAron Gurevich,MedievalPopularCulture:ProblemsofBeliefandPerception,transi.JnosM.BaleandPaulA.Holllingsworth(Cambridge, 1988).


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century, and by the thirteenth centuryconcernsaboutdeviantbeliefas wellaspractice gaverise to the Inquisition,a system ofchurch courtsresponsibleforinquiring into the orthodoxyof individuals.32In time, as we shall see, thisinquisitorialapparatusitself generated heterodoxbeliefamongordinarypeopleby forcing them to explainmotivationsbehindtheir actionsand thus toprivilegebelief systems over practice.For most people,however,systems ofpractice focused onthe localcommunity,saints, the liturgy, and formulaicprayer wereat the heart of their religion.33

Social andgeographical organization: Parishesand GuildsIn the two centuriesfollowingthe millennium,the gradualexpansionand

systematizationof localchurcheswas completedwith the establishmentof aparish system. Parishes,subdivisionsof dioceses, eachwith its own churchand, at least in theory, its own priest, becamethe basicunit of Christiangeography.The parish often coincided with a village or lordship, thusreinforcing the formation of European villagesystems that remain largelyintact until today.IndividualChristianswere expectedto be baptizedin theirlocal church, to attend Mass and receivethe sacramentsthere, and to beburiedin the parishchurchyard.34

Within the communitythat madeup the parish, smaller groupscalledconfraternitiesor guilds,which in rural parishestended to be organizationswithin the parishwhosefunction was to maintainthe church and pay for itslighting. In addition, guildsoften had individualaltars in the church at whichmasseswere sung for the soulsof their members.In the later MiddleAgesinEngland,smallergroups maintainedthe church'slighting and providedfor itsupkeep.The namesof some of these, the maiden'slight, the ploughlight, theyeoman'slight, for example,suggestthat these wereoften groupsof peoplethatmay havebeenorganizedby ageand occupationand may havehad socialaswell

32 JohnShinners,hascollectedan excellentrangeof sourcesilluminating medievalpopularreligionin his PopularReligion1000-1500(Peterborough,Ontario,1997).Foreaseof access,I havequotedfromhistranslationswheneverpossible.

33 See HervMartin,MentalitsmdivalesXT-XVesicles,2nd edition (Paris, 1998),esp.pp. 370-376,for abrief summary ofpeasant religiousculturein the laterMiddleAges.

34 In generalon the developmentof parishstructuresseeLeIstituzioniecclesiastichedeHa SocietasChristiana deisecoliXI-XII.Diocese,pievi,e parrochie.Atti dellasestaSettimaneinternazionaledi studio.Milano1-1 settembre1974(Milan,1977);MichelAubrun,Laparoisserurale en Francedesoriginesau XVesicle(Paris, 1986).Theimportanceof the rural Englishparish at the end of the MiddleAges has beenilluminatedby KamonDuffy, The Strippingof the Altars.TraditionalReligionin England1400-1580(NewHaven,1992).


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as religiousfunctions.35Parish, guild,and light providedreligiousstructures inwhichordinaryChristians participated.

Parish churchesthen were the centerof ordinary religiousactivityandwerethe crucial point at which local tradition and universalnorms intersectedandinteracted.Therewere performedthe rituals of baptism, marriage,and burialthat markedone'sprogressthroughlife. Therepeasantsreceivedwhatreligiousinstructionwasavailableto them, although repeated complaintsby ecclesiasticalreformers suggest that the levelof educationof the localclergy wasoften sominimalthat onemust assumethat little wasconveyedto the laity.

Preaching seemsto have centered to a great extent on the threat ofdamnationand the needfor repentance.From the twelfth century, the doctrineof purgatory, a placeof punishmentthat awaitssinnerswhohave repentedbut

not donesufficient satisfactionfor their sins, gainedan increasinglyprominentplacein religious devotionand popularpractice.Progressively, ordinarypeoplewere encouragedto prepare themselvesfor death with a variety of prayers,penitential practicesand the acquisitionof indulgences,that is, remissionsofthe punishmentdue them, through good works such as pilgrimages,prayers,and charity, and especiallythe purchaseof indulgencesauthorizedby theChurch.These indulgencesweresoldby pardoners,often membersof religiousorderswho traveledthrough the countrysidewith a papalor episcopallicensetopreachand sell these indulgencesto ordinary people, with the hierarchyreceivinga percentageof the revenues.36

In fact, the ignorance,sexualpromiscuity,venalityand corruptionof theclergy, combinedwith their frequentabsenteeism,were major andlongstanding complaintswithin the laity. Anti-clericalismwas endemicto medievalsocietyand in no way detractedfrom religious devotion.Alongwith devotionalprayers, charms,and religious expressions,the commonplace bookof a fifteenthcenturyvillageoverseercontainsthe verse:

Carmelitefriars sailedin a boatnearEly.Theywerenot in heavensincethey fuckedthe wivesof hell.Theyall gotdrenchedbecausethey hadno helmsman.

35 On Guildsand confraternitiessee CatherineVincent,LesConfrriesmdivalesdansle royaumedeFrance(XIIP-XVsicle)(Paris,1994);BarbaraHanawalt,Keepersofthe Lights:Late MedievalEnglishParishGuilds, Journal ofMedievalandRenaissanceStudies14(1984),pp. 21-37; Duffy,The StrippingoftheAltars:147-150.

36 For a generalorientationto medievalpreaching seeRobertoRusconi,Predicazionee vita religiosanellasocietitalianada CaroloMagnoalia Controriforma,(Turin, 1981);Jean Longre,La Prdication mdivale(Turnhout, 1983); VolkerMertensand Hans-JochenSchiewer,eds., DieDeutschePredigt im Mittelalter :InternationalesSymposiumam FachbereichGermanistikder Freien UniversitatBerlin,vom3.-6.Oktober1989(Tubingen,1992).


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200 PatrickJ. Geary

The friars with knivesgo aboutand [screw]men'swives.37

Suchexpressionsshouldnot be seen as any evidenceof lack of committedreligiousdevotionbut rather a deepdistrust of the clergywhowere expectedtoprovideneededreligiousdirection andwhoall too often appeared,in the eyesof manypeasants,lessthan worthy.

LiturgyThe central religiousritual of the Christianchurchwasthe Mass.Individual

Christianswereexpectedto attend Massweekly,althoughsincethe ritual itselfwasentirely in Latin and, on Sundaysand holy days celebratedat a high altar

well-removedfrom the congregation,ordinaryChristianshad little knowledgeof what wasbeing done or said.Populardevotionin the Masscenteredon theeucharistiewafer, the host, transformedinto the bodyof Christ in the Mass.Inthe thirteenth century, all Christianswere enjoinedto receivecommunionatleastoncea year. Moregenerally, however,the laity was satisfied withlookingat the host, a kind of visualcommunionseen as powerfuland evenpotentiallydangerousin itself.38

Access to Christ was, after all, a dangerous and rare thing. In thehierarchical world of the Middle Ages,ordinary Christians were morecomfortablewith accessto the saints,seen as the particularfriends ofGodandparticularlyappropriateintercessorson behalfof the living.The cult of saintswas an integral part of Christianityfrom its earliestcenturies,and wasas wehaveseena fundamental elementin earlyChristianization.Every churchhad tocontainthe physicalremainsof a recognizedsaint, be it the bodyof the saint oronly a small portion of the saint's remains.These remains,enshrinedinornamentedcontainersor reliquaries,becamethe focus of local religiousdevotion.From them the communitytook its corporateidentity and to themthe localcommunitylookedfor protection andsupport.39

37 TranslatedJohn Shinners,Medieval PopularReligion,p. 371, from CameronLouis,Thecommonplacebookof RobertReynes ofAcle:an editionof TannerMS401311(NewYork, 1980).

38 On the cult of the eucharistseeMiriRubin, CorpusChristi:the Eucharistin LateMedievalCulture(Cambridge,1991).

39 Verygenerallyon saintsandrelicssee StephenWilson,d., SaintsandtheirCults:Studiesin ReligiousSociology,FolkloreandHistory(Cambridge,1983);ArnoldAngenendt,HeiligeundReliquien.DieGeschichteihresKultesvonfriihen Christendumbiszur Gegenwart(Munich, 1994); SandroSticca,d., Saints:Studiesin Hagiography(Binghamton,NY,1996);and EdinaBozkyand Anne-MarieHelvtius,eds., LesReliques,Objets,cultes,symboles.ActesducolloqueinternationaldeVUniversitduLittoral-Cted'Opale(Boulogne-sur-mer)4-6septembre1991(Turnhout,1999).


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202 PatrickJ. Geary

commandmentsand the sevendeadlysins. o clericalelites, the ability ofindividualsto recite these prayers, alongwith their receptionof the eucharistand annualconfession,was a strong indicationof the qualityof their religioustraining and orthodoxy.Thus, for example,in the early sixteenthcentury aSpanishpeasant,Juan de Rabe,who explainedthat he maintainedhimself byworking, by digging,plowing, and herdingsheep, wasable to recite the AveMariaand the Pater Noster,but not the Credoor the Ten Commandments.43However these prayers were often recited in order to ward off evil or toaccomplishmiracleswith no concernfor their content. Other prayers, too,wereindistinguishablefrom charmsexceptfor their invocationof apostles,prophets,and saints.A fifteenth century rural artisan in England,Robert Reynes,whowas somewhatliterate, has left forexample,a commonplacebookthat contains

a prayer to St. Apolloniaagainstthe toothacheand other prayer-charms againstmalariaand fever.44Knowledgeof Christian beliefdid not meanthat individualsusedthis knowledgein waysthat coincidedwith officiallysanctionedpractice.

Spiritsand DemonsReynes'commonplacebook alsocontainsa formula for conjuringangels

into a child'sthumbnailfor purposesof divination.45Suchconjuringwascommon,and was part of a much widerconcern, that of the spirit world.OfficialChristianitytaught that there was aheaven,earth, and hell, with anintermediateplace of temporarypunishment, Purgatory,developing anincreasinglyelaboratetopographyin the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.46Theseplaceswereinhabitedby the living, by the dead,and by angelsand devils,all of whom one might encounteron earth, the battle-groundfor humandestiny. However,in widespread popularbelief there were other powersandbeingsthat fit with great difficulty into these neat categories.Therewere thegood people,spirits who had best be called good becausethey coulddo

such evil; fairy kings and ghosts;witchesand evil beings that lay in wait formortals. Thesebeingslived in their worlds that did not quiteconformto the

topographyof heavenor hell, and peoplemight visit these realmsat their ownperil.47All of these powershad to be dealtwith, fended off, or propitiated,

43 Christian,Apparitions,p. 153.44 Duffy,StrippingoftheAltars,p. 73.45 Duffy,Strippingof theAltars, p. 73; translation, Shinners,Medieval Popular

Religion,p. 337.46 SeeJacquesLeGoff, Thebirthof urgatory(London, 1984).47Jean-ClaudeSchmitt, Temps,folkloreet politiqueau XIIesicle. proposde

deuxrcitsdeWalterMap( DeNugisCurialium1,9 etIV,13), in Letempschrtiendela

fin de l'Antiquitau Moyen geIII' XIII'sicles[Colloquesinternationauxdu Centre


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enlistedor at least constrainedinto neutrality, and for this the powersofChristianityoffered somehelp.Thus prayerscouldbind spirits, sacredsymbolsand rituals such as the sign of the crosscouldbe used to protect peopleandlivestock,and ritual objects, suchas the Eucharist,couldbe employedto bindsupernaturalpowersto the needsof mortals.

HeterodoxyIt is wrong to exclude such practices as charms, incantations, and

manipulationsof the sacredfrom an understandingof peasantreligion, eitherdismissingthem as magic or as a perversionof true Christianity.Thesepracticeswere essentialaspectsof what peasantsneededfor security andprotection in a world dominatedby unseenforces, human,diabolical,anddivine.In the particularcommunitiesof parishesacrossEurope,localtraditionscombinedwith the broadertraditionsof Christianityto producemeaningfulifparticular customs.In somechurches in the South of France,young mendressedin horsecostumesand dancedin churchon the vigil ofthe localsaint'sfeast.48In Friuli in Northern Italy, faithful Christiansbelievedthat at nighttheir spirits left their bodiesto do battle with evil spirits that wouldotherwisedestroy the fertility of the region'scrops.49Everywhere,old womengatheredherbs at certain times of the moonwhile reciting eitherChristianprayers orother formulasto use as medicinesor love potions.Through most of theMiddle Ages,such practicesseldom drew the attention of ecclesiasticalauthorities.However,other sorts of practices andbeliefsdid drawthe attentionof authorities and ledto an increasingfocus on the beliefsof ordinarypeopleand their relationshipto churchdisciplineandpractice.

In the Southof France,an alternativeform of religion,Catharism,spreadapparentlyfrom the Balkansand took root in the regionalaristocracy andinvillages.This dualistictradition, propagatedby perfecti, emphasizedtherealityof a force ofevilas wellas one of goodand the needto purify one'slife.In peasantcommunitiesfrom Italy to the Pyrenees,this Catharismcombined

with an anticlericalismand a peasantmaterialism togain adherents.Cathars

nationalde la recherchescientifique604](Paris,1984),pp. 489-515.SeealsohisLesrevenants: Lesvivantset lesmortsdansla socitmdivale(Paris,1994), EnglishtranslationGhostsin theMiddleAges:TheLivingandtheDeadn MedievalSociety(Chicago,1998).

48Jean^ClaudeSchmitt, Jenes et danse des chevauxde bois. Le folkloremridionaldansla littraturedes 'exempla'(XF-XiV6sicles), in Lareligionpopulaireen Languedocdu XHIesicle la moitiduXIV sicle,Cahiersde Fanjeaux1 1 (Toulouse,1976),pp. 127-158.

49 CarloGinzburg,TheNightBattles:Witchcraft&AgrarianCultsin theSixteenthandSeventeenthCenturies(Baltimore,1983).


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204 PatrickJ. Geary

rejectedthe sacramentalsystem oforthodoxChristianityas wellas the authorityof the hierarchy. Ordinaryvillagerswereparticularlyimpressedwith the purityof life of the perfecti and the contrast with their own local clergy.50InEnglandand, later, in Bohemia, peasantsweredrawn to a lessradical heterodoxtradition, that of Lollardy,which also opposed sacramentsperformedbyunworthyand venialpriests.51Elsewhere,particularlyin Italy, variousgroupsespousing radical poverty attracted popular followingsthat combinedoppositionto clerical control andvenialitywith a rejectionof various aspectsoforthodoxsacramentality.52

None of thesemovementswere primarilypeasantin origin.Theyall beganamongthe educatedelites andspreadonly later into the peasantry.Likewise,none of these movements (exceptperhapsCatharismin limited areasin the

south of France)were ever majoritymovements,but they presenteda clearthreat to the monopolyof the institutionalchurch. In order to combatthesemovements,the Churchestablished inquisitionsin various regionsof Europetouncoverheterodoxbelief, to correct it through preachingand instruction and,where necessary, throughimprisonmentor even,with the assistanceof secularauthorities, through physicalpunishmentand execution.Certainreligiousorders, particularlythe Dominicans,were at the forefront of preachingagainstheresy, and it is through the collectionsof exemplaor short, moral storiesuseful for preaching compiledby Dominicansand others that we learn muchabout heterodoxbeliefand practicein medievalsociety.53Inquisitionrecords,suchas those compiledbyJacquesFournier,providedetailedtestimoniesof thebeliefsand practicesof ordinarypeople accusedof adheringto hereticalsects,althoughthe conditionsof these interrogationsleaveroom for questioningtowhat extent peasants actually presentedtheir beliefs andto what extentinquisitorsforced the accusedto confessto beliefsthat they wouldnever havepreviouslyheld.54

50 AnneBrenon,LesCathares,vieet mortd'uneglisechrtienne(Paris,1996).5 K. B. McFarlane,John Wycliffeand the Beginningsof EnglishNonconformity

(London,1952);Ann Hudson,ThePrematureReformation:WycliffiteTextsand LollardHistory(Oxford,1998).

52 Theclassicaccountof thebeginningsof such movementsis HerbertGrundmann,ReligioseBewegungenim Mittelalterpublishedin 1935and translatedby StephenRowanas ReligiousMovementsin theMiddleAges(NotreDame,1995).

53 Generallyon the medievalinquisition:H. Maisonneuve,tudessur lesoriginesdel'inquisition(Paris, 1960); GradoG. Merlo,Controgli eretici(Bologna,1996).Onexempla:ClaudeBrmond, JacquesLe Goff, Jean-ClaudeSchmitt, L'Exemplum(Turnhout,1982).

54 The classicstudy that usesFournier'sregisters to reconstructthe socialandmental world ofFrenchpeasantsis EmmanuelLeRoyLadurie,Montaillou,Villageoccitande1294 1324(Paris,1975).


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Manyof the practicesand beliefsuncoveredby inquisitorialcourts werenot relatedto any hereticalmovement,but neverthelessstruck learnedjudges

as deviant.These includedvariousfertility rituals, incantations,and localpracticesthey deemedsuperstitiousor diabolical.SinceAntiquity, deviationhad been seenas the workof the devil,and popularattempts to bind spiritualpowers withoutthe interventionof the Churchwere increasinglyseen aswitchcraft, that it, workingin a pact with the devilto gainsupernaturalpower.Acrossthe continent, inquisitions uncoveredwitches,generallymarginalwomenin small villages,and convictedthem of an increasinglydetailedseriesof crimesinvolvingpactswith the devil.By the end of the MiddleAges,witchhunts wereincreasinglypopular, althoughthe greatwitch craze wouldcomeinthe sixteenthcentury.

Conclusions

Europeanpeasantreligion wasfully integrated into Christianityfrom atleast the eighth century. However in its myriad local manifestationsitemphasizedthe need to bind supernatural powersin the serviceof agrariancommunities.Peasantworshipfocusedon the parishchurch in whichrituals oflife and deathwereperformedand on the localsaints to whomone lookedforprotection.Peasantsunderstoodthe basicsof Christianteachingand knew

some of the formal prayers and rituals of the wider church, but incorporatedthese into their dailylives.Suchpractices wereneither heterodoxnor weretheypagansurvivals or superstition. They were the essentialbondsthat tied

rural communitiesto the powersthat controlledthem and that they, with thehelp of religion,couldcontrol.


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206 PatrickJ. Geary

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