I write historical romance set in the 830s, and I’m going to share
some information about religion during the Middle Ages.
My newest release is book three in my Evolution Series. The
word “evolution” is meant to describe the changes my characters go through as
they grow to love each other, and each of the titles describes the hero. The
new book is called Vain, so now you
have an idea of what Theophilus is like! He cares very much about his looks,
but he is also bored and lonely.
I strive to present the time period realistically. Living
conditions were rustic compared to ours, and most people still lived on a
subsistence basis. One segment of society that was already strongly separated
and amassing a great deal of wealth was the Catholic Church.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, Catholicism was the only
organized Christian religion. The Pope ruled the Catholic Church from Rome, and
often exerted influence over the secular rulers of the day, as well. Cardinals
were the senior priests of important churches.
Bishops were extremely powerful in their respective nations
and local communities. They were sometimes members of the nobility. A bishop
managed the churches within his diocese. He could tax the peasants and collect
a great deal of wealth on behalf of the Catholic Church. In the early Middle
Ages, a bishop might even have led his own army. Some bishoprics owned vast
tracts of land, making these religious organizations quite powerful in secular
society.
Local priests filled a large role in the community. In
addition to collecting tithes (in money or goods) to be shared with the bishop
and performing mass and the other religious rites most of us are familiar with,
priests educated children and often acted as clerks for the government or local
nobility since few people could read and write. Priests were allowed to be
married during part of the Middle Ages, and when they weren’t supposed to marry,
some maintained mistresses or paid fines to the church to be allowed to do so
anyway.
It is hard to know what the uneducated lay people thought of
their priests and bishops. Mass was given in formal Latin which parishioners
may have understood due to the repetition over their lifetimes. People in the
Middle Ages were firmly segregated in class, and the religious class was
considered to be even higher than the nobility because they were closer to God.
Much like organized religion today, the quality of the religious experience for
a community probably depended a great deal on the personality of the priest
assigned to it.
Here are two links for buildings I used in my new book, Vain. The first is Murbach Abbey, which
Theophilus passes during a journey. Also, I based the church in the town of
Ribeauville on St.
Justinus. Most surviving medieval churches have been expanded and altered,
but it is still really wonderful to see the buildings that worshipers visited
1,200 years ago.
I’ve mentioned Theophilus a few times, so here is an excerpt
featuring Lily, my heroine, so you can learn a little about her as she attends
mass.
BEGINNING OF EXCERPT
Lily stared up at the clerestory windows, enjoying the flood
of bright sunlight in Ribeauville’s magnificent stone church. The light spoke
to her of happiness. The two rows of pillars supporting the roof spoke of
permanence. The townspeople surrounding her spoke of kinship. The priest spoke
of humility, reminding in his thin voice how we must be content with our
position in life and not look higher until the day of our eternal reward. Lily
thought that was probably good advice for a woman in her predicament.
She no longer looked farther than her next embroidery
stitch. Isolated and alone in her dark shop, she imagined she could just push
and pull her needle right into that promised eternity. When she slept, she
dreamt of gold thread flowing around her like water. The yellow current carried
her and while her mind yelled, Fight!
the strands were too strong. They continued to move her, bobbing her like a bit
of flotsam among their glistening richness, though she felt nothing. No
wetness. No coldness. No fear. In her sleep, she was simply resigned that the
river of gold thread was all there was and all that there would ever be. World
without end. In saecula saeculorum.
The priest ended with a Latin benediction most of the
congregation did not understand. Lily had purposely chosen to stand in the back
corner where she would be least noticed. She waited, watching Arn’s and
Belinda’s families work their way toward the exit as one unit. Belinda wore a
passable blue tunic and veil that set off her creamy skin. Her rosy lips parted
in a giddy smile before she disappeared through the rear door. As Lily
approached the same door, the normal noise of post-service fellowship increased
with feminine squeals of excitement and masculine laughter. A knot of grinning
people surrounded Arn and Belinda.
Lily saw Cerise lift a clay-stained hand, a silent request
for her to wait. Lily pretended not to see, trying to escape, swimming against
the stagnant crowd. Cerise caught her elbow gently. “In case you have not
heard,” she whispered, “they became betrothed last night. I can say nothing
against Belinda. I am sorry for your sake, Lily. I never dreamed you would be
left so alone.”
For as long as Lily could remember, Arn had been the loom
she would weave her life upon. Arn had been her choice for her future. That choice
had been acknowledged and approved by Cluny and Cerise, Willis and Ramona. The
finality of losing him hit her like frigid water, closing on her until she
could not breathe. She had been cast
adrift from everything solid in her life. She could not form the words to
describe Arn’s desertion, nor did she trust her voice to speak them. She
studied Cerise’s pained expression and let her own anguish show, grateful to
the soles of her feet for the sheen of tears that grew in the older woman’s
eyes. At least someone understood,
even if that someone was powerless to help her.
Lily clenched her jaw and nodded curtly. Cerise nodded back.
They separated with a final squeeze of one another’s fingers.
Lily blanked her face, mouth in a half smile, gaze on the
dead grass that surrounded the church. She pretended to feel no more than those
dead, dry blades as she wound her way through the crowd that, for the most
part, ignored her.
A man’s voice called her name. The Lord of Ribeauville. He
appeared to be inconvenienced. She could not begin to imagine why. She stared
at him, almost daring him to say the wrong thing in front of his population.
One ill-advised word would have her raving like a lunatic.
“How is my tunic?” he inquired briskly. “You had made such
good progress the last time I saw it, I expected to have the thing worn out by
now.”
He said the right
thing. He brought her back to a place she understood while reminding his
citizens that a tailor lived among them whom he entrusted with his garment. She
rubbed her sore fingertips together, longing for fine wool cloth and the
meticulous embroidering work. The Blood of Christ, now her only tether to her
pride and her old self. “I am very pleased with it, my lord,” she replied. “Do
you wish me to bring it to your house this week for your inspection?”
“If you are out on other business,” he answered. “Do not
make a special trip.”
“Very well, sir. Thank you.” She hurried away, and later had
no memory of her walk down the hill and through the town and into her house.
She only knew that another hand’s length of the complex design threaded along
the left cuff of her lord’s fine tunic before she slept that night, pressed up
tight against the wall and, blessedly, dreamless.
END OF EXCERPT
I hope this has intrigued you enough to want to read more of
Vain and the Evolution Series
available on Amazon, Barnes
and Noble, Apple, Kobo,
and other vendors. My books are also in print from Amazon and CreateSpace. I have a sweet romance (no cussin’ or hanky panky) called
Sass Meets Class set in 1880s Arizona
Territory.
If you’d like to keep up with me and my writing pursuits, I
write a blog, I am on Facebook, and I tweet
@jillhughey.
