Supernatural In Middle Ages Essays - Religion, Christianity

Supernatural In Middle Ages Supernatural events and miracles are very common in medieval literature. Many of these miracles were used for common purposes, which were to provide examples of an ideal Christian way of life and promote conversion to Christianity. They do this by writing about miracles that punished people who acted improperly, miracles that took place to reward Christians for doing good deeds, showing extreme and persistent faith, or for those who were leading moral lives. Some examples of medieval literature that contain miracles which serve this purpose are Saint Augustine's Confessions, MacMullen's Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries, HillGarth's Christianity and Paganism, 350-750, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks, and in the works of Saint Boniface. Saint Augustine's work includes a miracle that took place because a man begged his admission to god. This man was blind and had heard of people who were "...vexed by impure spirits and were healed..." (165). He immediately asked his guide to being him to the place were this was happening, which was where the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius lay. He rubbed a sacred cloth over his eyes and immediately regained his lost eyesight. This miracle was included to show the benefits of showing one's allegiance to god and by doing so, Augustine would be able to get others to convert to Christianity. Augustine describes the roles of miracles himself when he wrote that they "...symbolize the sacraments of initiation and miraculous wonders necessary to initiate and convert ?uninstructed and unbelieving people' (I Cor. 14:23)" (299). MacMullen's book also contains accounts of miracles that were used for conversion. One such miracle (from Augustine's catalog) took place when a youth was said to have been entered by a water demon. He was brought to the same shrine I mentioned earlier which contained relics of Protasius and Gervasius. The demon then leaves the child's body and writhes in pain and the boy is cured. Other such miracles that were said to have taken place in front of large crowds were done by Gregory the Great. He was known for "...exorcisms, restoration of sight to the blind, even restoration of sight to the dead..." (96). It is his belief that "The converts had cared little for sect or theology, only for relief of what ailed them" (125). In other words, people would often convert for selfish reasons, in order to heal themselves of a physical problem rather than converting due to true belief in Christianity. MacMullen also wrote of supernaural beliefs whose existence began sometime around midway through the fourth century. This book touches on these beliefs more so than the others. The beliefs in the healing power of relics is ironic in that it almost seems Pagan. For instance, object that saints touched while living were believed to hold special powers that the saints used during their lives. There were even arguements in Palestine as to who would own the remnants of martyrs bodies. This superstition got to the point where even monks were ween fighting over Saint Martin's cloak because of the belief that it was full of healing power. MacMullen writes of how martrys may have been a creation of the bishops of the time in an effort to put an end to paganism. Another example of a supernatural superstition takes place when Severinus went on a mission to Noricum and attempted to "...banish blight from the wheat fields...by marking boundary posts with the cross, to ward off floods" (97). Yet another case of superstition existed in the belief that plants that were found only at the foot of a statue of Jesus contained immense healing powers. While these plants may have contained healing power, MacMullen takes note of the fact that many of the plants taken from around saint's relics were already known for their value as healing agents. The reason I stated earlier that these beliefs were Pagan-like is the fact that they are based purely on superstition. MacMullen's Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries offers many more examples of both miraculous events and superstitions that existed in late antiquity and the early middle ages. Through MacMullen's work, it becomes clear that many of these superstitions may have been fabricated in an attempt to gain conversions to Christianity. In Christianity and Paganism, 350-750, HilGarth justifies some of these practices by writing "Today we know that neither an unscientific view of the world nor the exaltation of asceticism were the creatures of Christianity but were the