Religion In Middle Ages
"People long to go on pilgrimages, and
pious wanderers to visit strange lands
and far-off shrines in different
countries." The Later Middle Ages were a time
with many conflicting issues
and positions. On one hand there was the church
officials who were constantly
fighting in their own ranks. The Great Schism is a
great example of church
quarreling. France and its satellite nations all
recognized Clement VII while
the rest of Europe agreed that Urban VI was the one
true pope. On the other
hand, religious reformers Eckhart who believed that if
you renounced all
sense of selfhood one could go back into your innermost
recesses and God
would be there. John Wyclif believed that there were a
predetermined number
of humans who would be saved while the rest had no hope of
salvation. He
believed that those would were predetermined would naturally lead
simple
lives but he found that many of the church officials were indulging in
riches
and leading extravagant lives. So Wyclif concluded that these
church
officials were damned. Lay people were torn between the church and the
sound
advice that contradicted the church. People were trying to embark on
a
pilgrimage of the heart and soul. Christians were lost in a vast sea of
lies
from church officials and new and unorthodox ways to worship God. The
most
common route traveled for the divine was performing repeated acts of
external
devotion like Hail Mary’s and religious processions. The politically
torn
church and the realization of reformers like Eckhart and Wyclif caused
all the"hunger for the divine." People were easily led and swayed due to
the
economic depression and the deadly plague that had ravaged the
continent.
Christians were looking for answers to their prayers and
assurances from the
church that never came. The reformers and radicals gave
them hope and a road to
travel that would lead them to God.