The structure of religious life in the Latin West prior to and in many cases after the Reformation looked different from what we now expect in several respects. The modern view of the cleric - someone who dispenses grace via the sacraments, teaches the laity through preaching, leads the administration of the parish, and acts as a spiritual counselor to troubled souls - was a later development. Through much of the early medieval period in particular, the priest's dominant role was leading/reciting the liturgy for the faithful, and the proper dispensation of the sacraments. Bear in mind that especially in rural peasant communities, priests themselves did not know very much Latin. Rural priests came from basically the same backgrounds as their parishioners, and many appear to have continued performing agricultural labor even after their ordination. Thus, the priest frequently knew enough Latin to consecrate the elements and say the mass, and that was about it. Even in areas where preaching was common, it was frequently conducted in Latin for other clerics, and the laity were not really the intended audience. For much of the medieval period, the laity played the role of passive spectators in the liturgical life of the parish.

So what did laypeople know about their faith and how did they learn it? The answers to these questions are not always straightforward, as many of the people we would most want to hear from left no written evidence, and material culture evidence we have lends itself to multiple interpretations. Generally, though, laypeople learned their faith through the structures and rhythms the calendar of the church and their parish community, and from the religious iconography available. Access to Bibles was difficult prior to printing, and the church hierarchy did not unambiguously smile on lay access to the scriptures. Medieval and Counterreformation religion was very much a religion of practice and discipline. You may not have learned about the life of Jesus or the Prophets from the Bible, but you learned about them through the annual observances of fasting during Lent, and the celebration of Easter, the Ascension, Pentecost, Christmas, and the other major feasts. Many laypeople also learned about their faith through dramatic representations of events in the scriptures or in pious legends. Some of these pious exercises, including nativity and passion plays, the Imposition of Ashes in Lent, and the procession of Palms in Holy Week, continue today. Local saint cults also helped create a sense of connectedness between the local faithful and the church. It does also seem that religious artwork, such as statues and icons of saints as well as stained glass windows could have played some role in faith formation, but again the evidence on this is not as clear as desirable. In the later middle ages and into the early modern period, literate laypeople had access to Books of Hours, which helped the laity maintain discipline in their prayer lives. Getting access to your own Bible was difficult before printing technology became widely available.

Even prior to vernacular liturgies and sermons, lay people still got some access to religious teaching through the different elements of religious practice that existed over and around the formal liturgy. The creation of preaching and teaching orders later in the church's history helped, but religious instruction took a variety of forms.

Readings

Kevin Madigan, Medieval Christianity: A New History

Francis Oakley, The Western Church in the Later Middle Ages

Eamon Duffy, The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village

Eamon Duffy, Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes

Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400 - 1850

Robert Bartlett, Why Can the Dead do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation