The Canterbury Tales: a View of the Medieval Christian Church
In discussing Chaucer's collection of stories called The Canterbury
Tales, an interesting picture
or illustration of the Medieval Christian Church is presented. However,
while people demanded more
voice in the affairs of government, the church became corrupt -- this
corruption also led to a more
crooked society. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as just church
history; This is because the
church can never be studied in isolation, simply because it has always
related to the social, economic
and political context of the day. In history then, there is a two way
process where the church has an
influence on the rest of society and of course, society influences the
church. This is naturally because
it is the people from a society who make up the church....and those same
people became the
personalities that created these tales of a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
The Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England was to take place in a
relatively short period of time,
but this was not because of the success of the Augustinian effort. Indeed,
the early years of this
mission had an ambivalence which shows in the number of people who hedged
their bets by
practicing both Christian and Pagan rites at the same time, and in the
number of people who
promptly apostatized when a Christian king died. There is certainly no
evidence for a large-scale
conversion of the common people to Christianity at this time. Augustine was
not the most diplomatic
of men, and managed to antagonize many people of power and influence in
Britain, not least among
them the native British churchmen, who had never been particularly eager to
save the souls of the
Anglo-Saxons who had brought such bitter times to their people. In their
isolation, the British Church
had maintained older ways of celebrated the major festivals of Christianity,
and Augustine's effort to
compel them to conform to modern Roman usage only angered them. When
Augustine died (some
time between
Tales, an interesting picture
or illustration of the Medieval Christian Church is presented. However,
while people demanded more
voice in the affairs of government, the church became corrupt -- this
corruption also led to a more
crooked society. Nevertheless, there is no such thing as just church
history; This is because the
church can never be studied in isolation, simply because it has always
related to the social, economic
and political context of the day. In history then, there is a two way
process where the church has an
influence on the rest of society and of course, society influences the
church. This is naturally because
it is the people from a society who make up the church....and those same
people became the
personalities that created these tales of a pilgrimage to Canterbury.
The Christianization of Anglo-Saxon England was to take place in a
relatively short period of time,
but this was not because of the success of the Augustinian effort. Indeed,
the early years of this
mission had an ambivalence which shows in the number of people who hedged
their bets by
practicing both Christian and Pagan rites at the same time, and in the
number of people who
promptly apostatized when a Christian king died. There is certainly no
evidence for a large-scale
conversion of the common people to Christianity at this time. Augustine was
not the most diplomatic
of men, and managed to antagonize many people of power and influence in
Britain, not least among
them the native British churchmen, who had never been particularly eager to
save the souls of the
Anglo-Saxons who had brought such bitter times to their people. In their
isolation, the British Church
had maintained older ways of celebrated the major festivals of Christianity,
and Augustine's effort to
compel them to conform to modern Roman usage only angered them. When
Augustine died (some
time between