Not Everybody Was Religious in the Medieval Era
Examples of extreme religiousness abound in the Middle Ages, and range from mass pilgrimages, to flagellants, to mystics and saints. However, that does not mean that medieval people were fixated on religion. Nor does it mean that they did not engage in skeptical reflection. Many ordinary people were not that sold on a variety of beliefs. They doubted whether saints actually performed miracles, whether the miracle of the Eucharist was real, or whether there really was a resurrection and life after death.
Others did not even believe that God had anything 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 staying away from church. For example, a Spanish priest wrote his bishop in the early 1300s, to complain that hardly anybody bothered to show up for church on Sunday. Instead, most of his flock preferred to sleep or lark about on their day of rest.
