Medieval Europe is often imagined as a time of unwavering religious devotion, where everyone from kings to peasants accepted their faith without question. However, beneath the surface of this widely-held belief lies a more complex reality. Evidence from the late Middle Ages reveals that even in an era dominated by the Church, there were those who doubted, questioned, and sometimes openly rejected religious teachings. This article delves into the surprising instances of skepticism and disbelief that existed in medieval Europe, challenging the notion of a universally pious society.
The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478, was a powerful institution aimed at enforcing Catholic orthodoxy in Spain. It became notorious for its harsh methods of investigating and punishing those suspected of heresy, particularly conversos—Jewish converts to Christianity. The records from this period offer a rare glimpse into the private beliefs and doubts that circulated among people who lived under constant religious scrutiny.
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One of the most important studies in this area was published in 1988: “Religious Faith and Doubt in Late Medieval Spain: Soria, Circa 1450–1500,” by John Edwards. Edwards used records from the Spanish Inquisition to better understand some of the popular views on Christianity during this time.
Church of Saint Dominic, Soria – photo by Francis Raher / Wikimedia Commons
Edwards examined a “Book of Declarations,” recorded by Inquisitors in and around the Castilian town of Soria, which contains 444 statements made by individuals between the years 1486 and 1502. They detail how 247 men and 71 women were accused of various religious offences. Edwards notes that “the accused cover a wide social range, the largest representation being of craftsmen, artisans, clerics (including both parish priests and friars), notaries, doctors and surgeons, and university graduates.” There were also members of noble households, merchants, traders, and a small number of tenant farmers (labradores). While the Inquisitors were usually looking for problems related to conversos—Jewish people who had converted to Christianity—many of the accused had come from families that had long been practicing Catholics.
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Blasphemy and Public Doubts
Among the most vivid descriptions recorded by the Inquisitors are accounts of blasphemy, many of which took place in taverns or during games of chance. For example, in 1494, while playing a game of bowls, Bernaldino Pajarillo angrily cried out, “I reject the whore of a God!” Six years later, a surgeon, Master Bernal, urged on his slowing bowl with the cry, “Get there! Get there! May Jesus Christ never flourish!” Meanwhile, in 1487, a draper named Rodrigo was said to have shouted while playing pelota, “I don’t believe in God, buggering St. John!” Another gambler, Lope de Vallejera, who was once a page to the Countess of Denia, was said to have cried out, “I reject the fucking Jewish whore of a God!”
While shouting blasphemy in anger might be taken for granted, the Inquisitors were also told about people who made specific statements attacking their own Christian faith. Edwards writes:
A cleric, Diego Mexias, said in Aranda about 1485 ‘that there is nothing except being born and dying, and having a nice girlfriend (gentil amiga) and plenty to eat,’ and that there were no such things as heaven and hell. The late Pedro Gomez el Chamorro, of Coruna del Conde, expressed similar ‘materialistic’ views in 1500, ‘warming himself by the fire, annoyed and fed up with the weather there was and the cold.’ His complaints about the weather led him to conclude, ‘I vow to God, there is no soul.’
… Pedro Moreno, a chaplain, seems to have tired of the conversation of a group who were talking, in conventional terms, about the activities and attributes of the saints. It was said that, ‘St. Michael held the balance, and St. Bartholomew held the devils in chains, and St. Peter had the keys of heaven,’ to which the cleric replied, ‘Yes, in his jock-strap,’ and, as the female witness solemnly recounts, ‘some of those who were there reproached him.’
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One of the most interesting comments comes from Diego de Barrionuevo, who was accused of saying in 1494, “I swear to God that this hell and paradise is nothing more than a way of frightening us, like people saying to children, ‘Avati coco‘ (‘The bogeyman will get you’).”
A priest giving communion to two men behind an altar table – British Library MS Royal 6 E. VI fol.337v
Comparing Religions: Challenges to Christian Supremacy
The records included accusations against eight men and one woman over their beliefs that Christianity was not the only path to salvation. The woman, for example, was a peasant farmer called Juana Perez, who said in about 1488 that “the good Jew would be saved, and the good Moor, in his law, and why else had God made them?”
In another case from the 1480s, during the Granada war, an argument broke out between a miller, Diego de San Martin, and a farmer called Gil Recio. The miller said to Gil, “Gil Recio, let the water [that is, in an irrigation channel] through to the mill. The people are dying of hunger. O, Saint Mary! What a great drought there is because there’s no rain.” Gil replied, “How do you expect it to rain when the king is going to take the Moors’ home away when they haven’t done him any harm?” Diego replied that the wars by the Christians against the Muslims in Granada were a good thing, but the farmer responded, “How does anyone know which of the three laws God loves best?”
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The Inquisition at Soria also found many instances where conversos were comparing their former Jewish faith with Christianity and finding the latter wanting. For example, a shoemaker named Anton Tapiazo was said to have mused, “In the synagogue they used to sit on benches and wear their hoods, and how in the church they knelt on their knees and got up again lots of times, and it seemed as though they were playing ‘bobbing up and down’.”
The work by John Edwards is not the only example uncovered by historians showing that medieval Christians could exhibit skepticism and even disbelief regarding the views and practices promoted by the Catholic Church and its officials. After noting studies from other parts of Europe, he concludes:
Medieval evidence thus seems to support the general principle that religious doubt is an intrinsic part of faith. Therefore, even if Febvre was right to argue that ‘atheism,’ in any modern sense, was not an option in the sixteenth century or earlier, it does appear nonetheless that there was indeed genuine religious skepticism in late medieval and early modern Europe. The question which remains, though, is where and how such an attitude originated. The striking similarity of material from such widely differing regions and periods raises important issues concerning the interpretation of ‘popular’ religion and its relationship to the religion of ‘elites’.
These accounts remind us that medieval society, much like our own, was not monolithic. The existence of doubt, skepticism, and even atheism in the Middle Ages challenges the simplified narrative of a uniformly religious past and invites us to consider the diverse ways people throughout history have engaged with faith.
Advertisement
The article, “Religious Faith and Doubt in Late Medieval Spain: Soria, Circa 1450–1500,” by John Edwards, appeared in the journal Past & Present, No. 120, which was published in 1988. You can read it through JSTOR.
Top Image: British Library Yates Thompson 12, fol. 46
Medieval Europe is often imagined as a time of unwavering religious devotion, where everyone from kings to peasants accepted their faith without question. However, beneath the surface of this widely-held belief lies a more complex reality. Evidence from the late Middle Ages reveals that even in an era dominated by the Church, there were those who doubted, questioned, and sometimes openly rejected religious teachings. This article delves into the surprising instances of skepticism and disbelief that existed in medieval Europe, challenging the notion of a universally pious society.
The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478, was a powerful institution aimed at enforcing Catholic orthodoxy in Spain. It became notorious for its harsh methods of investigating and punishing those suspected of heresy, particularly conversos—Jewish converts to Christianity. The records from this period offer a rare glimpse into the private beliefs and doubts that circulated among people who lived under constant religious scrutiny.
One of the most important studies in this area was published in 1988: “Religious Faith and Doubt in Late Medieval Spain: Soria, Circa 1450–1500,” by John Edwards. Edwards used records from the Spanish Inquisition to better understand some of the popular views on Christianity during this time.
Edwards examined a “Book of Declarations,” recorded by Inquisitors in and around the Castilian town of Soria, which contains 444 statements made by individuals between the years 1486 and 1502. They detail how 247 men and 71 women were accused of various religious offences. Edwards notes that “the accused cover a wide social range, the largest representation being of craftsmen, artisans, clerics (including both parish priests and friars), notaries, doctors and surgeons, and university graduates.” There were also members of noble households, merchants, traders, and a small number of tenant farmers (labradores). While the Inquisitors were usually looking for problems related to conversos—Jewish people who had converted to Christianity—many of the accused had come from families that had long been practicing Catholics.
Blasphemy and Public Doubts
Among the most vivid descriptions recorded by the Inquisitors are accounts of blasphemy, many of which took place in taverns or during games of chance. For example, in 1494, while playing a game of bowls, Bernaldino Pajarillo angrily cried out, “I reject the whore of a God!” Six years later, a surgeon, Master Bernal, urged on his slowing bowl with the cry, “Get there! Get there! May Jesus Christ never flourish!” Meanwhile, in 1487, a draper named Rodrigo was said to have shouted while playing pelota, “I don’t believe in God, buggering St. John!” Another gambler, Lope de Vallejera, who was once a page to the Countess of Denia, was said to have cried out, “I reject the fucking Jewish whore of a God!”
While shouting blasphemy in anger might be taken for granted, the Inquisitors were also told about people who made specific statements attacking their own Christian faith. Edwards writes:
A cleric, Diego Mexias, said in Aranda about 1485 ‘that there is nothing except being born and dying, and having a nice girlfriend (gentil amiga) and plenty to eat,’ and that there were no such things as heaven and hell. The late Pedro Gomez el Chamorro, of Coruna del Conde, expressed similar ‘materialistic’ views in 1500, ‘warming himself by the fire, annoyed and fed up with the weather there was and the cold.’ His complaints about the weather led him to conclude, ‘I vow to God, there is no soul.’
… Pedro Moreno, a chaplain, seems to have tired of the conversation of a group who were talking, in conventional terms, about the activities and attributes of the saints. It was said that, ‘St. Michael held the balance, and St. Bartholomew held the devils in chains, and St. Peter had the keys of heaven,’ to which the cleric replied, ‘Yes, in his jock-strap,’ and, as the female witness solemnly recounts, ‘some of those who were there reproached him.’
One of the most interesting comments comes from Diego de Barrionuevo, who was accused of saying in 1494, “I swear to God that this hell and paradise is nothing more than a way of frightening us, like people saying to children, ‘Avati coco‘ (‘The bogeyman will get you’).”
Comparing Religions: Challenges to Christian Supremacy
The records included accusations against eight men and one woman over their beliefs that Christianity was not the only path to salvation. The woman, for example, was a peasant farmer called Juana Perez, who said in about 1488 that “the good Jew would be saved, and the good Moor, in his law, and why else had God made them?”
In another case from the 1480s, during the Granada war, an argument broke out between a miller, Diego de San Martin, and a farmer called Gil Recio. The miller said to Gil, “Gil Recio, let the water [that is, in an irrigation channel] through to the mill. The people are dying of hunger. O, Saint Mary! What a great drought there is because there’s no rain.” Gil replied, “How do you expect it to rain when the king is going to take the Moors’ home away when they haven’t done him any harm?” Diego replied that the wars by the Christians against the Muslims in Granada were a good thing, but the farmer responded, “How does anyone know which of the three laws God loves best?”
The Inquisition at Soria also found many instances where conversos were comparing their former Jewish faith with Christianity and finding the latter wanting. For example, a shoemaker named Anton Tapiazo was said to have mused, “In the synagogue they used to sit on benches and wear their hoods, and how in the church they knelt on their knees and got up again lots of times, and it seemed as though they were playing ‘bobbing up and down’.”
The work by John Edwards is not the only example uncovered by historians showing that medieval Christians could exhibit skepticism and even disbelief regarding the views and practices promoted by the Catholic Church and its officials. After noting studies from other parts of Europe, he concludes:
Medieval evidence thus seems to support the general principle that religious doubt is an intrinsic part of faith. Therefore, even if Febvre was right to argue that ‘atheism,’ in any modern sense, was not an option in the sixteenth century or earlier, it does appear nonetheless that there was indeed genuine religious skepticism in late medieval and early modern Europe. The question which remains, though, is where and how such an attitude originated. The striking similarity of material from such widely differing regions and periods raises important issues concerning the interpretation of ‘popular’ religion and its relationship to the religion of ‘elites’.
These accounts remind us that medieval society, much like our own, was not monolithic. The existence of doubt, skepticism, and even atheism in the Middle Ages challenges the simplified narrative of a uniformly religious past and invites us to consider the diverse ways people throughout history have engaged with faith.
The article, “Religious Faith and Doubt in Late Medieval Spain: Soria, Circa 1450–1500,” by John Edwards, appeared in the journal Past & Present, No. 120, which was published in 1988. You can read it through JSTOR.
Top Image: British Library Yates Thompson 12, fol. 46
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