Popular Religion in the Middle Ages

Book excerpt: Here is the first general account of the religious and irreligious ideas entertained by the populace at large in the Middle Ages. Between 1000 and 1300, vital changes took place in thought and art and religious inspiration, and the renewal of urban life in a world still centered on the feudal knight and peasant. How can we enter the minds of the mass of the people during those centuries? How did laymen look upon bishops and popes, the Bible, the saints; how did they regard judgment, heaven and hell? The answers to such questions lie in what remains of the churches in which people worshipped, in the images of stone and glass they valued, in contemporary poems and songs, and in other scattered sources. But the evidence requires careful and imaginative interpretation, and this the authors have provided, bringing each theme to life in text and pictures and expertly supplying the framework of a historical context.--From publisher description.