The Influence Of Supernatural Elements In Medieval Times

Throughout this chaos in Western Europe, there were stabilizing factors. One of the most important factors was religion. In the superstitious society of Western Europe in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, people often looked to nature to interpret divine signs. Relics were becoming increasingly popular. Sin was a constant concern to these people. A popular way of ridding oneself of all sin was the pilgrimage. In this type of society, it is not very hard to see how the idea of crusading appealed to people from all different social ranks and classes.

As the tenth century rolled about, the power of the Roman Catholic Church grew steadily stronger, the church had an argument with the normal Kingdom over who should rule supreme out of the Pope or the King, the church believed that the Pope who is the voice of God on Earth should be the ruler of the world while the peasants thought that the King should, the power struggle eventually ended with the Church coming out as the dominant force in the West. The Church passed a law that stated that everyone (mostly peasants) is forced to pay 10% of their income to the Church. The church had the ability to stop any laws that they did not like or make some new laws that benefited them, they were a very powerful group that could manipulate the peasants and knights in any way they liked, in Church there were photos of people being tortured in hell, this intensified the peoples longing for heaven and therefore extended the power and influence of the church. All Christians were expected to attend the mass and, by the 13th century, were expected to take the Eucharist at least once a year.

Since warfare and disease made life unbearable, everyone from the common serfs to the prosperous king looked to Church for direction on the key to a happy afterlife (Document 9). People paid heavy taxes/gifts and devotion to guaranteed themselves in themselves a place in the Church since their births (Document 9). This showed how they had much power over all the other classes in medieval society, especially when the Truce of God was proclaimed to control knights from committing felonies on holy days (Document 4 and

In the 16th century, different societies with distinctive social and common religious views have assisted in the harsh treatment towards witchcraft. The accounts in Salem provided its reasoning on the unexplainable acts and questions being associated with the devil producing an execution of hanging. Whereas in Europe implemented its action of persecution and torture on the influential publication of Nicole's Remy and Jean Boldin. Depending on the social and religious components in a particular community, contributes to how one perceives a witch and how they will communicate and administer the participant of witchcraft.

To begin with, religion and the church was an extremely important factor in people's lives in the middle ages. For example, the text states, “...he

We learn that the saints are gluttonous meaning that they eat more than they need and are not as generous as the public believes them to be. Saints impress the crowds with Latin and “Holy work”, which are all done in vain, for themselves. Finally, Saints are materialistic, they love money, and the best product that is on the market at this time, for instance “wine form the best vine”. These material things were to be given to the poor and the widows but instead the money was used for their own

iii) On biblical grounds the Church is a community of both saints & sinners. Separation only comes at final judgement. Therefore ‘two’ churches: the essential/invisible church contained within the outward empirical church. (To what extent did this distinction allow for the development of corruption within the empirical church?)

Witchcraft in the 1400s going on to the 1700s gained massive popularity due to several factors. Some of these factors included hallucinogens contained in the “oyl” women used to anoint themselves, manipulating the hysteria and using it as a form of social control to make people conform to the norms of the society and lastly, using it to explain misfortunes that afflicted the people of the community and the neighboring ones.

In the introduction of the book Magic in the Middle Ages chapter, one emphasizes the definition of magic. During the medieval era, Europeans believed that there were two types of magic, which were called natural and demonic. As natural magic was considered to have a correlation with science as the Wolfsthurn handbook illustrated the usage of a combination of herbs and magic in conjunction. For example, using herbs to treat an illness with the addition of reciting specific words was deemed as natural magic. On the other hand, demonic magic was not thought to be a form of science but was a perverted depiction of religion. That demonic magic’s power source was from demons and that words that could not be interpreted were thought to be demon names. In addition, treatments that involved animal skin from the Wolfsthurn book would be considered demonic magic as it was suggested that it was a ceremonial sacrifice to demons.

At the time of the middle ages the Catholic Church was at the top of the feudal system as God was involved in mostly everything at the time. Many people who had been infected consulted a priest and asked to be cured as people believed that god was punishing them by infecting the society with the plague. When the priests were trying to cure a person of the infection they would also be infected as the disease would be passed in the air from coughing. What also weakened the power of the church was that many people prayed for friends and family or themselves to be cured to God, but as no one was ever cured they stopped believing God was real. Which made people stop listening to the people of the church and to stop going to church which weakened the power of the Catholic Church very

The Contribution of the Supernatural to Richard III During the Renaissance period people were very superstitious and England on a whole was an extremely religious country; people believed in both God and the Devil and Heaven and Hell. They also believed in prophecies, supernatural and curses. A modern audience would have reacted very differently to the play than a Shakespearean audience. The events contained within Richard III must have seemed very real to a Shakespearean audience as it depicts the historical events of the rise and fall of Richard III. For a Shakespearean audience these events happened only a century earlier.

In the 1400s, Europe had been left in devastation from the aftermath of the black plague. This had left Europe in major religious, social and economic upheavals. Orphans, theft, intoxication, prostitution, brutality and misuse of powerful by important figures were very common. Education was unavailable to anyone without enough money to pay for it, creating an extremely large gap and social division between the classes. Church services and the bible were spoken and written in Latin, resulting in the majority of the common people being unable to understand the true meaning behind the words. As People were unable to read the bible, the only way to connect with God was through church services. Priests and Monks had several different jobs and often refused to help peasants when they asked for it, generating mistrust between the clergy and lay people.

People in the middle ages were very religious. People believed that Roman Catholic Church represent God. The church had a big influence on the content spread in the Middle Ages, and they were content with religious or moralistic. The only religion recognized in Middle Ages Europe was Christianity and specifically Catholicism. Christianity in the middle ages dominated the lives. The life of the medieval people was dominated entirely by the church and many religious institutions gained power and wealth. It was single the larges institution in west of Europe. It touched everyone’s life no matter what rank in social class they lived in. Everyone in western Europe was Rome Catholic Christian at that time. From the reaches king all the way down.

The purpose of the supernatural in Literary Works The purpose of the supernatural in literature can vary in function from story to story. The supernatural can be used to create a certain mood in writing or to enhance the dramatic effect of a story. The supernatural can also be used as the reasoning behind a story and act as the theme it centers on, creating a paranormal effect and a mystical experience for the reader.

There is irrefutable evidence that over the period of the Middle Ages, both Christianity and Islam have been anchors in both shaping and influencing governance of kingdoms and empires comprising Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and territories ruled by Islam. Religion during this period was widely used to set laws, influence culture, justify armed conflicts, and pronounce punishment on citizens domiciled within the geographies depicted within this essay. I will attempt to illuminate the geopolitical climate, territorial demarcation, and religious influences that depicted life circa 500 – 1517 CE. From the background material submitted, I will directly answer the following questions: