Medieval Piety Essays - 1629 Words

Religion in the Middle Ages takes on a character all of its own as it is lived out differently in the lives of medieval men and women spanning from ordinary laity to vehement devotees. Though it is difficult to identify what the average faith consists of in the Middle Ages, the life told of a radical devotee in The Book of Margery Kempe provides insight to the highly intense version of medieval paths of approaching Christ. Another medieval religious text, The Cloud of Unknowing, provides a record of approaching the same Christ. I will explore the consistencies and inconsistencies of both ways to approach Christ and religious fulfillment during the Middle Ages combined with the motivations to do so on the basis of both texts. A central†¦show more content†¦Pursuing such spiritual fulfillment is a responsibility not to be taken lightly. Often, literal commands of Jesus such as pilgrimages have two and three fold benefits. Besides the very physical connections with the sacred that they offer arriving at places of sacred history, pilgrimages are also a form of penance for sins. Because of the sacrifice of time, money, and risk to make these pilgrimages, best seen by Kempes outrageous devotion in leaving behind her life and family for long periods of time, pilgrimages assist in erasing sins in ones life. Another reason that Margery and medieval Christians would embark on these pilgrimages is for the reverence of saints and their relics that they would visit. The Middle Ages emphasized an important connection to the lives of past saints believing that the saints still had power to intercede blessings into the lives of religious people on Earth. Where Margery is set a part from common laity, during her pilgrimage to Jerusalem she receives a special spiritual gift of â€Å"cryings† that she can not control when rel igious emotion comes over her. Describing these outbursts, the author of her autobiography says, â€Å"The crying was so loud and so amazing that it astounded people†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Windeatt, 104). It is assumable that emotional experiences upon pilgrimages of either laity or monastics to such places as the Holy Land would be common, however that people wereShow MoreRelatedMedieval Woman Book Owners : Arbiters Of Lay Piety And Ambassadors Of Culture By Susan Groag Bell850 Words   |  4 Pages In the journal article Medieval Woman Book Owners: Arbiters of Lay Piety and Ambassadors of Culture, written by Susan Groag Bell, explains the cultural changes in the Middle Ages. She give details on how the increase in lay piety and vernacular literature were both connected with one another. In addition to this, these two topics played key roles in the changes taking place. The increase in lay piety is said to be a response to the political conflicts, religious demographic, and climatologica l factorsRead MoreA Critical Analysis Of Merciles Beautee1792 Words   |  8 Pageswith the representation of woman as an empowered â€Å"feudal lord† due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, toRead MoreThe Rise and Fall of Feudalism Essay868 Words   |  4 Pagesin Europe (136). Partially because of its success in providing security and stability, and also its huge promotion by the Catholic Church (136). The economics of Feudalism were based on Christianity and on politics that reflected the justice and piety of the Church (Pluta 1). The power of the church to gre at wealth overlapped with the expansion of Feudalism (International 136). Feudalism began to decline in parts of Western Europe by the fourteenth century as a result of pressure from a numberRead MoreMedieval Poetry3509 Words   |  15 PagesMedieval literature is a very diverse subject. The term covers the literature of Europe during the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the beginnings of the Renaissance in the 15th century, spanning a period of roughly 1,000 years. As a result, it is difficult to make generalizations about medieval literature. It is, nonetheless, possible to identify a few general trends. Allegory and symbolism are common in medieval literature, perhaps more so than in modern writing. Religious and philosophicalRead More The Greatest Literary Emblem of the Middle Ages Essay2067 Words   |  9 Pagesthey flourished and developed, which was the Medieval Era. The Middle Ages is the period of European history that goes from the collapse of the Roman civilization to the beginning of the Renaissance, and it extends from about 500 to 1500 ca. (â€Å"Middle Ages†). This period is called the â€Å"Dark Ages† since it is regarded by the Renaissance scholars as a long interval of superstition, ignorance, barbarism, and social oppression due to the fact that the Medieval era was a fight to establish a new societyRead More Transcendentalism in Beowulf and Antigone2110 Words   |  9 Pagestheism, where the god or gods are treated as father figures; the gods controlled the lives of all their people just as parents control their children, even, as Martin Luther stat ed, with an attitude of fear. Through the periods of Ancient Greece, to Medieval Europe, to Renaissance Europe, a cycle forms from a completely transcendentalist attitude to a completely theistic attitude, and back. Some of the first literature scholars have recovered through the years has come from the Ancient period, particularlyRead MoreTrue Womanhood, By The Virgin Mary, Eve, And Noah s Wife1470 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout our classes and discussions we have discussed the topic of true womanhood, along with women in medieval drama. Thinking of these two concepts, the question arises are they any true women in medieval plays? The multiple plays that we have read, there are many different types of women that have been discussed. These plays covered drastic differences with the way the women acted, and their actions towards the men in their lives and certain circumstances. Through four plays, there are fourRead MoreThe Use Of Gunpowder And Firearms Triggered The Decline Of Chivalry1224 Words   |  5 Pagesespecially England and Germany, â€Å"were obsessed with strategies of offensive warfare that derived their historic precedents from the system of knighthood.†4 In fact, medieval knigthood did not solely consist of direct attack, but the important thing is that the nations involved in World War I considered themselves as revival of medieval chivalry. Therefore, European nations used the image of the brave knight, fighting for his country and suffering as Christ on the cross to encourage their own soldiersRead MoreMartin Luther Argumentative Essay1370 Words   |  6 Pagescongregation. The clergy’s use of indulgences as a way to salvation lacked the piety that disciples desired. Criticism of Catholicism did not cause sweeping changes in the sixteenth century; instead, the Protestant Reformation occurred due to the confluence of events triggered by one priest, Martin Luther. (Schilling) Although some historians allege that Martin Luther’s theology was reactionary due to its roots in medieval Christianity, his beliefs that the hierarchy of the church was unnecessary andRead MoreWomen And Spiritual Equality : New York : Saint Martin s Press, 1998 1358 Words   |  6 Pageswrites that there was controversy surrounding this practice, she avoids this debate and instead focuses on the content of the devotion. The era of the middle ages is the subject of chapters six through eleven. In chapter six, she presents early medieval saints. Though she had used Syriac sources in the earlier chapter, she relies heavily on them in the chapter and does not provide sources that reflect the rest of Eastern Christendom. She also begins to focus on specifically western saints at this