The Church and the laity

Abstract

There was an enormous effort to make the religious beliefs and practices of the faithful conform more to the demands of Christianity, as Christianity was defined by the Catholic Church. The Church first made an effort to reinforce the prestige of the ordinary priests, who, especially in the countryside, were barely distinguishable from the ordinary faithful, either because of their way of life or even because of their religious knowledge. In the twelfth century, it was accepted that, under certain conditions, the laity and even women could speak in public about religious questions or matters related to the life of the Church. In the thirteenth century, the Church made a great effort to educate the faithful in their religion. It is commonly accepted that towards 1270, they had a better knowledge of the fundamental beliefs of Christianity than they did a hundred years earlier.

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