9. Misreported Fact: Everybody Was Religious in the Middle Ages
There plenty of examples of extreme religiosity in the medieval era, that range from mass pilgrimages, to flagellants, to mystics and saints. However, that does not mean that people back then were fixated on religion. Nor does it mean that they did not engage in skeptical reflection. Many were not sold on a variety of beliefs. They doubted whether the miracle of the Eucharist was real, whether saints actually performed miracles, or whether there really was a resurrection and life after death.
Many doubted that God had much to do with nature and the growth of crops and plants. Instead, they attributed such matters to the simple mechanics of toil on and upkeep of the soil. Many people – sometimes most – expressed their skepticism by simply avoiding church. For example, a Spanish priest wrote his bishop in the early 1300s, to complain that hardly anybody showed up for church on Sundays. Instead, most of his flock preferred to sleep or lark about on their day of rest.
