21. Not Everybody Was Religious in the Middle Ages
Extremely religious people were common in the Middle Ages, and ranged from those engaged in mass pilgrimages, to flagellants, to mystics and saints. However, that does not mean that everybody back then was obsessed with religion. Nor does it mean that people back then did not engage in skeptical reflection. There were plenty of ordinary people who did not buy into a variety of common beliefs. They doubted whether saints actually performed miracles, were unsure if the miracle of the Eucharist was real, and questioned whether there really was a resurrection and life after death.
Others did not even believe that God had anything to do with nature and the growth of crops and plants. Instead, they attributed such things to simply working and taking care of the soil. Many people – sometimes most – expressed their skepticism by simply staying away from church. For example, a Spanish priest wrote his bishop in the early 1300s to complain that hardly anybody bothered to show up for church on Sunday. Instead, people preferred to sleep or lark about on their day of rest.