Going to church in the Middle Ages
From social interaction to confessing your sins, Nicholas Orme reveals why the church played such a central role in medieval life ON THE
1 Why was attending church so important?
In the Middle Ages, going to church oʘered a lot more than merely a way of connecting with )od. Christianity was not only a religion, Dut an entire worldview that sought to eZplain a great deal more than people’s relationship with )od. Church going encompassed ethics, telling you how you should Dehave, and entire areas of study that we would now separate oʘ as science, sociology or politics. 'ven history was a part of it medieval histories of the world tooM a lot from the $iDle.
6he importance of the church in the lives of medieval people went far Deyond theology. +n fact, the church fulfilled a lot of functions which we would now looM to the government to carry out. 6his comprised a huge infrastruc ture to deal with things liMe education, morality and charity in the parish.
+t also played a valuaDle social role. 0owadays, there are plenty of other things you could De doing on a 5unday morning, Dut imagine living in a scattered rural hamlet in the Middle #ges. ;ou might not encounter many people, and so the church oʘered a wonderful opportunity to meet others. +t was a place where you could organise your own social group. Hence you saw the emergence of groups formed from, for eZample, the young men, wives or pmaidensq of the local parish.
2 Were people forced to attend?
+n theory, everyDody was meant to De in church on 5undays and festival days, of which there were aDout 40s 0 annually. 6hat meant that on at least 0 days of the year, you would De eZpected to De present for at least the morning service.
6he actual levels of attendance tell a more complicated story, though. 6here was a recognition that certain people could acceptaDly De aDsent. 6hese included children, as well as shepherds or fishermen, who were not eZpected to De in church if their worM demanded otherwise. 0or were servants reSuired to attend. 6he rich wanted to return home after church and find their dinner ready, and someDody had to maMe that dinner.
6here were certainly inducements to go to church, Dut who was going to make you go! 9hile pious people, of course, needed no encouragement, there were others who would rather stay at home, lying in Ded or getting on with some worM. 6he church couldn’t impose 100 per cent attend ance, Decause maMing someDody go to church was a tricMy Dusiness.
6he priest could reprimand them, or refuse to hear their confession and decline to give them communion. +f this failed, they could report them to the church court. $ut it was a cumDersome process and it was difficult to enforce. 6he people who ended up in the church courts were generally those who were already unpopular in the community or antisocial in other ways.
#nd so there was always a propor tion of people in the parish who didn’t often go to church. ;ou’d struggle to get away with never going, Dut you could get away with poor attendance to a certain eZtent.
3 What actually happened during the service?
Services were conducted in Latin, apart from three or four points when the vernacular was used. They were spoken and sung in the chancel, which was separated from the nave by a screen, meaning that the services were conducted quite a long way away from the congregation.
Unlike in most modern services, people were not expected to follow the service or respond to anything. That was done by the parish clerk. Instead, it was like watching a modern concert – you were part of the experience spiritually, not performing in it. During the service, the congregation might hold a prayer book or a rosary, and say prayers to themselves, meaning there was a subdued murmur of voices running throughout.
Before the introduction of pews in the 14th and 15th centuries, there weren’t many seats except those for the nobility and gentry. A person might bring a stool to sit on, but most of the congregation would stand.
'ach family in the parish donated a loaf of bread in turn, which was then blessed by the priest. At the end of the service, chunks would be broken off and given out. That was, in effect, communion.
4 What did churches smell and sound like?
You’d be hit with a heady waft of damp, candle smoke and incense, mixed, of course, with the smells emanating from the congregation. Added to that was the smell of decaying bodies, due to burials being allowed inside churches.
As for sound, church builders understood acoustics principles and some churches were designed with sound projection in mind. But the ability to hear a service was entirely dependent on the carrying power of the human voice, and a person at the back of a large church wouldn’t be able to hear so well. The most solemn part of Mass – the prayer of consecration or canon – would be whispered by the priest in an intentionally low voice because it was so holy. At that point, the church would suddenly fall silent. Worship was not always about sound; it was also about the silence.
Just as there was a huge difference in the size and decoration of churches, music would vary enormously. Wealthy churches with a choir might have lots of elaborate music such as the Litany – generally sung in different parts – which began to appear in top rate cathedrals and royal chapels in the 15th century. Parish churches would have more basic plainsong, sung in unison. There may have been only one priest singing his plainsong unaccompanied, and so the congregation would be in his hands entirely.
5 How did confession work?
From 1215 onwards, the Catholic church required everyone to go to confession at least once a year, usually during Lent.
The person confessing would kneel, not looking directly at the priest. The priest sat in a chair with his hood pulled over his head to conceal his face.
Although the clergy were supposed to be celibate, medieval people were worried about untoward things going on between priests and women. As a result the confession had to take place in a public space, such as the nave – and confession booths weren’t invented until the
16th century.
The process of taking everyone’s confession would have placed a considerable extra burden on most churches. They already had morning and afternoon services, so there was only a small window of time available. An average parish had around 250 adults, which was quite a lot of people to spend time speaking to. As such, it seems likely that the average annual confession was a quick trot through the material, lasting 15–20 minutes.
Nicholas Orme is the author of Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale, 2021). You can listen to a longer version of this interview at historyextra. com/medieval-churches