In the medieval world, what you taught your children was not just your business.
Katherine French is a professor of history at S.U.N.Y. in New Paltz, New York. She is co-editor of the forthcoming "The Parish in English Life: 1400–1600" (University of Manchester). | posted 1/01/1996 12:00AM
As opposed to our own era, in the Middle Ages, religious nurture was a public concern. Many felt orthodox Christianity was properly learned and celebrated in the parish church, in full view of one’s neighbors—not in the privacy of one’s home. A faith nurtured solely in the home could produce heresy, for the home was shielded from the eyes of the church.
Therefore much of Christian nurture involved participation in public ceremonies. Still, the family had a role to play, and the church tried, with mixed success, to guide parents as they nurtured their children in the faith.
In the Beginning
Starting at birth, parents and church worked together to protect children’s souls. Parents had their child baptized in the church to wash away original sin.
Many babies died at birth, so the church allowed anyone to perform this sacrament, even the midwife. One manual for parish priests tells them to instruct midwives to have clean water ready should they have to baptize a dying infant: “And though the child ...
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