Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Cauldron of God's Wrath
- Chapter 2 Bishops of Rome
- Chapter 3 Conversion of the Wild Men
- Chapter 4 Feudalism emerges
- Chapter 5 Land and Folk
- Chapter 6 The Village (1)
- Chapter 7 The Village (2)
- Chapter 8 Village Dance and Song
- Chapter 9 Nature and Superstition
- Chapter 10 Popes and Prelates
- Chapter 11 Rector and Vicar
- Chapter 12 The Making of a Priest
- Chapter 13 Church statistics
- Chapter 14 The Shepherd
- Chapter 15 The Flock (1)
- Chapter 16 The Flock (2)
- Chapter 17 The Silver Lining
- Chapter 18 Dante's Commedia
- Chapter 19 The Royal Court
- Chapter 20 Chivalry
- Chapter 21 Chaucer and Malory
- Chapter 22 The Monastery
- Chapter 23 Cloister Life
- Chapter 24 The Town
- Chapter 25 Home Life
- Chapter 26 Trade and Travel
- Chapter 27 Just Price and Usury
- Chapter 28 The Ghetto (1)
- Chapter 29 The Ghetto (2)
- Chapter 30 Justice and Police
- Chapter 31 From School to University
- Chapter 32 Scholastics and Bible
- Chapter 33 Science
- Chapter 34 Medicine
- Chapter 35 Freethought and Inquisition
- Chapter 36 The Papal Schism
- Chapter 37 The Lollards
- Chapter 38 The Black Death
- Chapter 39 The Hundred Years' War
- Chapter 40 The Mystics
- Chapter 41 The Peasant Saint
- Chapter 42 Artist Life
- Chapter 43 Literary Life
- Chapter 44 Sports and Theatre
- Chapter 45 Women's Life
- Chapter 46 Marriage and Divorce
- Chapter 47 The Old and the New
- Chapter 48 More and Utopia
- Chapter 49 The Fight for the Bible
- Chapter 50 The Open Bible
- Chapter 51 Peasant and Highbrow
- Chapter 52 The Bursting of the Dykes
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
Chapter 9 - Nature and Superstition
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Cauldron of God's Wrath
- Chapter 2 Bishops of Rome
- Chapter 3 Conversion of the Wild Men
- Chapter 4 Feudalism emerges
- Chapter 5 Land and Folk
- Chapter 6 The Village (1)
- Chapter 7 The Village (2)
- Chapter 8 Village Dance and Song
- Chapter 9 Nature and Superstition
- Chapter 10 Popes and Prelates
- Chapter 11 Rector and Vicar
- Chapter 12 The Making of a Priest
- Chapter 13 Church statistics
- Chapter 14 The Shepherd
- Chapter 15 The Flock (1)
- Chapter 16 The Flock (2)
- Chapter 17 The Silver Lining
- Chapter 18 Dante's Commedia
- Chapter 19 The Royal Court
- Chapter 20 Chivalry
- Chapter 21 Chaucer and Malory
- Chapter 22 The Monastery
- Chapter 23 Cloister Life
- Chapter 24 The Town
- Chapter 25 Home Life
- Chapter 26 Trade and Travel
- Chapter 27 Just Price and Usury
- Chapter 28 The Ghetto (1)
- Chapter 29 The Ghetto (2)
- Chapter 30 Justice and Police
- Chapter 31 From School to University
- Chapter 32 Scholastics and Bible
- Chapter 33 Science
- Chapter 34 Medicine
- Chapter 35 Freethought and Inquisition
- Chapter 36 The Papal Schism
- Chapter 37 The Lollards
- Chapter 38 The Black Death
- Chapter 39 The Hundred Years' War
- Chapter 40 The Mystics
- Chapter 41 The Peasant Saint
- Chapter 42 Artist Life
- Chapter 43 Literary Life
- Chapter 44 Sports and Theatre
- Chapter 45 Women's Life
- Chapter 46 Marriage and Divorce
- Chapter 47 The Old and the New
- Chapter 48 More and Utopia
- Chapter 49 The Fight for the Bible
- Chapter 50 The Open Bible
- Chapter 51 Peasant and Highbrow
- Chapter 52 The Bursting of the Dykes
- Notes
- Index
- Plate section
Summary
Nearly all superstitions—perhaps we may briefly say, all —are different forms of nature worship. When the Hebrew teacher warned his people not to look up at the stars and worship them he was dealing with a strong temptation of his age; for indeed, of all inanimate creatures, none could be more worthy of man's worship, and none, in fact, did attract it more. Let us look upon Old England now from this point of view—man and nature. The surface of the country, as we have seen, was far wilder than it is now. There was far more forest and fen; and, although a great deal had been done by pioneers in the past, plenty of clearing still remained to be done. We see this, for instance, in some of the enormous parishes in the North or in the Fenland. On the Yorkshire moors, at first, there were villages only at the very edge. Then, as in the cases of Blackburn and Whalley, the hinterland of moor was gradually exploited, and the priest found himself parson no longer of a handful of parishioners, but of several hamlets also, with their attendant chapels. So again at Doddington, on the edge of the Cambridgeshire Fens. That parish, by gradual draining, became so large and so rich that within the last century the tithes of the rectory were worth £10,000 a year. Everywhere, then, the population was thinly scattered in the Middle Ages, and yet in one way less scattered than it is now.
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- Medieval PanoramaThe English Scene from Conquest to Reformation, pp. 103 - 118Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1938